Respond to the Lord's call, encourages Pope Francis

Vatican City, Aug 4, 2013 / 10:35 am (CNA/EWTN News).- During his Angelus address today, Pope Francis asked the crowds to pray with him that the World Youth Day pilgrims will continue to respond to God’s call in their daily lives.

“I ask you to join me in praying that the youth who have participated in World Youth Day can translate this experience into their daily journey,” the Pope said Aug. 4 at St. Peter's Square.

“Into their daily conduct,” he continued, “and also into their important life choices, responding to the personal call of the Lord.” 

The Pope cautioned, “we must not forget that World Youth Day is not just ‘fireworks,’ moments of enthusiasm for their own sake.” 

Rather, “they are stages of a long journey” to follow Christ.

“Always remember, youth don’t follow the Pope, they follow Jesus Christ, carrying his cross. And the Pope guides and accompanies them in this journey of faith and hope.”

Pope Francis went on to talk about the particular difficulties faced by the youth of today. The “challenging” words from today’s first reading at Mass, he said, are especially applicable to youth. 

“‘Vanity of vanities… all is vanity.’ Young people are particularly sensitive to the emptiness of meaning and values which surrounds them. And unfortunately, they pay the consequences.”

However, “meeting the living Jesus, in his large family that is the Church, fills the heart with joy,” encouraged the Pope. 

He added that God fills the heart with “true life, a profound goodness that does not pass away.”

“I saw this joy on the faces of the youth in Rio. But this experience must confront today’s vanities, the poison of emptiness that creeps into our societies” from a consumerist mentality obsessed with “having.”

“True wealth is the love of God, shared amongst brothers,” said the Pope. “Someone who has experienced this does not fear death, and receives peace of heart.”

After leading the crowd in prayer, Pope Francis went on to greet the various groups assembled. 

“There are many youth in the square,” he noted with a smile. “This seems like Rio de Janeiro!”

Teens pack 100,000 meals for poor in Africa

Atlanta, Ga., Aug 2, 2013 / 12:04 am (CNA).- Participants at a youth conference in Atlanta helped feed the hungry of Burkina Faso, Africa, by volunteering to package more than 100,000 meals.

“Pope Francis has said that he wants the Church to defend the poor,” said Joan Rosenhauer, executive vice president of U.S. Operations for Catholic Relief Services, which partnered with Franciscan University and Steubenville Atlanta to host the event.

“He reminds us that we are part of the universal Church, whose teachings and traditions transcend all boundaries.”

Teenagers at the Atlanta Steubenville Youth Conference on the weekend of July 19 – 21 assembled a total of 100,386 nutritious meals to be sent to West Africa.

More than 2,500 young people participated, working in 30-minute shifts and completing the project in just two hours.

Gathered in Atlanta’s Gwinnett Convention Center, the volunteers sang and cheered each time they reaching a packing milestone. According to a statement by organizers, the “high-energy atmosphere kept the teens excited.”

The meal packaging took place during one of 18 Franciscan University of Steubenville Summer Youth Conferences held each year throughout the U.S. and Canada. The conferences bring together thousands of teenagers for a weekend of talks, music, Mass, Eucharistic adoration and confession.

Brazilian president signs law permitting abortion after papal visit

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Aug 2, 2013 / 03:31 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Four days after Pope Francis left Brazil, President Dilma Rousseff signed into a law a measure that opens the door to the distribution of abortion-causing drugs in the country’s public health care system.

Upon its publication in the government’s official journal, the August 1 law requires health care centers in Brazil to administer the “morning-after pill” to women who say they have been raped up to 72 hours after the crime.

The head of Brazil’s Special Secretariat for Women’s Policies, Eleonora Menicucci, an avid abortion proponent, defended Rousseff saying the decision to sign the law was out of “respect for Congress and for women.”

The new norm, she said, will have “a positive impact in preventing abortion in women who have been the victims of rape,” although she acknowledged that it allows for abortifacient “emergency contraception.” 

The law will also “mitigate the harm caused to the victims of sexual violence,” Menicucci said.

Gilberto Carvalho, an advisor to President Rousseff, said the new law offers women “humanitarian support.”

At the end of July, more than 20 pro-life organizations in Latin America issued a statement calling on the Brazilian people “not to be deceived and to do everything possible” to prevent the new law from being adopted.

“We have studied the measure and we can see in it the same strategy that is being used in all of our countries to promote widespread use of an abortifacient drug without a prescription,” the organizations warned. 

“Pro-abortion organizations have worked hard in recent years and are currently promoting abortion clandestinely with this drug through online or cell phone consultations,” said Carlos Polo, director of the Office for Latin America of the Population Research Institute.

Speaking on July 26, before the passage of the law, Polo charged that “the same hand that will shake the hand of Pope Francis should not sign a law that would end the lives of many unborn children.”

During a World Youth Day catechesis session on July 26, Bishop Celso Antonio Marchiori of Apucarana in Brazil warned the pilgrims gathered there to be on alert for the imminent legalization of abortion in the country.

Bishop Juan Antonio Reig Pla of Alacala de Henares in Spain, who was also present at the catechesis, agreed.

“We need to be on alert against this threat that is part of the culture of death,” he said.