Pope Francis speaks up for Italy's unemployed youth
Vatican City, Jun 20, 2015 / 12:25 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Youth unemployment is “a true social plague” that leaves young people feeling useless, Pope Francis told an Italian labor group on Saturday.
“The human being is the center of development, and as long as men and women remain passive or marginalized, the common good cannot be considered fully met,” the Pope told members of the Italian National Federation of the Knights of Labor at the Apostolic Palace in a June 20 audience.
The pontiff said the world of work should be ready and waiting for young people and the fresh strengths they bring. However, in recent years young people have received the message that “there is no need of them.”
“This is a symptom of a grave dysfunction, which cannot be attributed only to global and international causes,” he said.
Italy’s official overall unemployment rate is above 12 percent. Its youth unemployment is about 40 percent, according to European Union figures.
Pope Francis reflected on the social significance of work, noting its ability to engage people and give them responsibility in a way that simulates enterprise, creativity and diligence
“This has positive effects on new generations and ensures that a society begins again to look ahead, offering prospects and opportunities, and thus hope for the future,” he said.
The Pope said that the common good cannot be achieved merely through increasing earnings and productivity. Rather, it requires “the active involvement of all the parties that make up the body of society.”
The economy contributes to authentic development only when “rooted in justice and respect for the law,” when it does not marginalize individuals and peoples, when it avoids corruption, and when it does not neglect to preserve the natural environment.
Justice requires not only abstaining from wickedness and observing the laws, the Pope said, though he granted that doing this is “already a lot.”
Rather, the just man acts with “conscience and concern for the good of all, not only for their own.” A just person “takes to heart the fate of the less advantaged and of the poor” and “never tires of work” while being ready to discover new paths. Pope Francis particularly praised this kind of creativity.
The Pope also praised the Knights of Labor’s work to help create jobs and increase the value of Italian products. He said their work is “more valuable than ever” given Italy’s economic stagnation and recession and a social situation “already marked by inequality and unemployment.”
In Middle East martyrdoms, Pope Francis sees seeds of Christian unity
Vatican City, Jun 20, 2015 / 06:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Meeting with Syriac Orthodox leaders on Friday, Pope Francis decried the continuing martyrdom of Middle East Christians, and gave special mention to two Christian bishops kidnapped in Syria two years ago.
“The blood of the martyrs is the seed of unity in the Church and the instrument of the building up of the kingdom of God, which is a kingdom of peace and of justice,” the Pope said June 19.
“Let us ask the Lord, too, for the grace of always being ready to forgive and of being workers of reconciliation and peace. This is what animates the witness of the martyrs.”
The Roman Pontiff encouraged prayers for the victims of violence in the Middle East. He particularly mentioned Syriac Orthodox Metropolitan Gregorios Ibrahim and Greek Orthodox Metropolitan Paul Yazigi, two archbishops of Aleppo, Syria who were kidnapped together in 2013.
The Pope’s comments came during a meeting with Syriac Orthodox Patriarch Ignatius Aphrem II of Antioch, who was accompanied by a delegation of his Church.
The Syriac Orthodox Church is one of the Oriental Orthodox Churches, which rejected the Council of Chalcedon held in 451. The Church has about 1.2 million members around the world, and its patriarchate is now based in Damascus.
The Roman Pontiff told Patriarch Ignatius Aphrem that the Syrian Church has been “a Church of martyrs from the beginning.” He lamented that the Syriac Orthodox Church, with other Christian communities and other minorities, continues to endure “the terrible sufferings caused by war, violence, and persecutions.”
“So much suffering! So many innocent victims. In the face of all this, it seems that the powers of this world are incapable of finding solutions,” the Pope said.
He added: “in this moment of harsh trial and of sorrow, let us strengthen ever more the bonds of friendship and fraternity between the Catholic Church and the Syriac Orthodox Church. Let us hasten our steps along the common path, keeping our gaze fixed on the day when we will be able to celebrate our belonging to the one Church of Christ around the same altar of Sacrifice and of praise.”
“Let us exchange the treasures of our traditions as spiritual gifts, because that which unites us is much greater than that which divides us.”
The tradition of papal meetings with Syriac Orthodox leaders dates back to 1971 when Blessed Paul VI met with then-Patriarch Ignatius Jacob III. Pope Francis said that at that encounter, both leaders “consciously began what we can call a ‘holy pilgrimage’ toward full communion between our Churches.”
Bl. Paul VI and the Syriac Orthodox Patriarch signed a common declaration of faith that laid a “dynamic foundation” for the journey to unity, Pope Francis said.
He cited Saint Ignatius of Antioch’s Letter to the Magnesians, in which the Church Father prayed for unity among Christians. He also prayed a Syrian prayer that asks for God’s sanctification and prays that Mary’s prayers be “strength for our souls.”
Love life, have fun – a Pope Francis pep talk to Special Olympians
Vatican City, Jun 19, 2015 / 03:38 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis met with Italy's top Special Olympics athletes on Friday, encouraging them and all athletes to make sports a place for loyalty, human dignity and joy.
“It is my hope that you all might live the upcoming games in a joyful, passionate, serene manner: have fun,” he said.
The Pope held a June 19 audience for Italy's 150 delegates to the Special Olympics 2015 World Games. The event will be held in Los Angeles, Calif. July 25 to August 2.
During his remarks, Pope Francis reflected on the promise of sports. “It is beautiful and meaningful that young people and adults find in sport and participation in competitions, including at an international level, an incentive to live their life fully,” he said. “It is a challenge, and you have accepted it and ‘taken the field’.”
“I encourage you to continue in your efforts to help each other to discover your potential and to love life, to appreciate it in all its limits and above all, its beautiful sides.”
The Pope also encouraged the Special Olympians to make friends from around the world.
The Special Olympics were founded in the U.S. in 1968 by Eunice Kennedy Shriver to provide sports and athletic opportunities for the mentally disabled. Over 4.4 million athletes in 177 countries take part in over 81,000 games and competitions each year, according to the website of the Special Olympics’ 2015 world games.
Pope Francis said the athletes had chosen sports as “an experience of development and growth, in the presence of a condition of fragility and limitation.”
He told them that sports is a way to learn “to participate, to outdo oneself, to strive together.”
“All this helps you to become active members of society and also of the Church; and it helps society itself and the Church to overcome all forms of discrimination and exclusion.”
He encouraged the athletes to be faithful to this ideal of sports.
“Do not let yourself be contaminated by a false sporting culture, that of economic success, victory at any cost, and individualism,” he continued. He praised amateur sports’ culture of “gratuity” and of “sport for sport’s sake.”
“We must protect and defend sport as an experience of human values: competition yes, but in loyalty and solidarity. Dignity for every person: always! No one must feel excluded from sport,” said Pope Francis.
He said the world of sports and the Church can work together to restore the “true meaning” of sports in its “educational, playful and recreational” aspects and to restore its cultural and social dignity.
Will Pope Francis change the date of Easter?
Vatican City, Jun 19, 2015 / 03:53 am (CNA).- Speaking to a global gathering of priests, Pope Francis signaled an openness to changing the date of Easter in the West so that all Christians around the world could celebrate the feast on the same day.
The Pope on June 12 said “we have to come to an agreement” for a common date on Easter.
His comments came in remarks to the World Retreat of Priests at the Basilica of Saint John Lateran in Rome. The event drew priests from five continents.
The Pope joked that Christians could say to one another: “When did Christ rise from the dead? My Christ rose today, and yours next week,” adding that this disunity is a scandal.
The Orthodox churches normally celebrate Easter a week after the Catholics. Some Orthodox leaders have also reflected on the dating of the Christian holy day. In May, Coptic Orthodox Pope Tawadros II wrote to the papal nuncio in Egypt suggesting a common date for Easter.
Historian Lucetta Scaraffia, writing in the Vatican daily newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, said the Pope is offering this initiative to change the date of Easter “as a gift of unity with the other Christian churches.”
A common date for Easter, she said, would encourage “reconciliation between the Christian churches and …a sort of making sense out of the calendar.”
She noted that the proposal could help reinforce the identity of persecuted Christians, particularly those in the Eastern churches that are at risk of disappearing.
Scaraffia wrote that the simultaneous celebration of the Resurrection by all Christians “would increase the importance of the central feast of the faith in a moment when changes seem to be suddenly coming throughout the world.”
“The Pope’s remarks implicitly underscore an important fact: in the countries where Christian identity is being overshadowed, the marking of time continues to be tied to the life of Jesus,” she added. “We also know also that the calendar is not only a convention but also something profound and symbolically relevant.”
Scaraffia said Easter and related feasts “constitute a distinct aspect of the liturgical year because they are connected with a cycle of time that repeats every year and marks the returns of the seasons.”
She also pointed out that the date of Easter is established based on the cycle of the moon, just as the Muslims and Jews establish their important feasts with the lunar calendar.
The first encyclical wholly from Francis overturns expectations
Vatican City, Jun 19, 2015 / 12:04 am (CNA/EWTN News).- 'Laudato si' is not only an example of the Magisterium's social teaching: it also represents the birth of a new literary genre among papal documents.
Normally in the modern epoch, Popes have included in encyclicals doctrinal themes. But 'Laudato si' is not a doctrinal text -- it is rather a pastoral letter based on the classical Latin American method: see, judge, act.
Pope Francis begins his encyclical by inviting readers to marvel, like St. Francis of Assisi, before creation, which he says is the only path toward an integrated ecology. He then explains what his encyclical will do.
“I will begin,” the Pope writes, “by briefly reviewing several aspects of the present ecological crisis, with the aim of drawing on the results of the best scientific research available today, letting them touch us deeply and provide a concrete foundation for the ethical and spiritual itinerary that follows. I will then consider some principles drawn from the Judaeo-Christian tradition which can render our commitment to the environment more coherent. I will then attempt to get to the roots of the present situation, so as to consider not only its symptoms but also its deepest causes.”
“In light of this reflection, I will advance some broader proposals for dialogue and action which would involve each of us as individuals, and also affect international policy. Finally … I will offer some inspired guidelines for human development to be found in the treasure of Christian spiritual experience.”
There is no better synthesis. The Pope's aim is to give people information that they might become conscious of the necessity of an “ecological conversion,” an expression borrowed from St. John Paul II.
Thus the Pope chose to cite not only Church Fathers and Scripture, but bishops conferences and some modern thinkers. He made room also for the thought of the Eastern Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch, Bartholomew, and even cited, though merely in a footnote, a Sufi thinker, Ali al-Khawas.
It is the same method as in 'Evangelii gaudium', though an apostolic exhortation certainly has a different magisterial value than does an encyclical. In 'Evangelii gaudium' the Pope had suggested that bishops conferences could be given a doctrinal power they do not have at the moment. The last papal document on the subject was St. John Paul II's 1998 motu proprio 'Apostolos Suos', and his post-synodal apostolic exhortation 'Pastores gregis'.
But Pope Francis seems to want to go farther. In this sense, the “green” encyclical of the Pope seems to be a manual, a text to use in catechesis, and in international policy forums to combat lobbies and powers.
The practical directives which dot the text of the encyclical are a radical change in style.
Public transportation, air conditioning, and recycled paper seem, a first glance, of little importance in a magisterial text. But for Francis, they are the very purpose of the text – a purpose principally pastoral, as pastoral as the directives to pray at meals, or to “adopt” city monuments and to care for them, for the benefit of all.
And pastoral care is the central idea of integral ecology, which is the care of both the earth and of mankind.
It is not only directives, however. The Pope inserts in the text all the classic themes of “human ecology,” while adding in such directions.
Moreover, the encyclical, as are all encyclicals of recent decades, is aimed at all men of good will. Thus the choice of the two prayers at the encyclical's closing: one shared “with all who believe in a God who is the all-powerful Creator,” and the other a uniquely Christian prayer.
Bergoglio's method, with many dramatic descriptions of reality which leave one to think in the end that the Christian faith is an invitation to joy: “Let us sing as we go. May our struggles and our concern for this planet never take away the joy of our hope.”
Saint Francis and his star role in the Pope's new encyclical
Vatican City, Jun 18, 2015 / 03:03 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis' new encyclical is filled with references to his namesake, whom the Pope says is a model of how an integral ecology goes beyond matters of science and leads humanity to find God in creation.
“I believe that Saint Francis is the example par excellence of care for the vulnerable and of an integral ecology lived out joyfully and authentically,” the Pope wrote.
The saint, he said, “helps us to see that an integral ecology calls for openness to categories which transcend the language of mathematics and biology, and take us to the heart of what it is to be human.”
St. Francis of Assisi is an Italian friar and preacher who founded the Order of Friars Minor, known more commonly as the Franciscans, in the early 1200s. He is the patron saint of all who study and work in the area of ecology, and is much loved by the faithful and non-Christians.
Pope Francis' new encyclical was published June 18. It's title “Laudato Si,” meaning “Praise be to You,” is taken from St. Francis of Assisi's medieval Italian prayer “Canticle of the Sun,” which praises God through elements of creation like Brother Sun, Sister Moon, and “our sister Mother Earth.”
Pope Francis revealed shortly after his 2013 election as Bishop of Rome that he had chosen his papal name in honor of the saint due to his emphasis on the poor. In the encyclical, the Pope says that we are called to embrace the same sense of wonder that St. Francis did when we encounter creation.
“Just as happens when we fall in love with someone, whenever (St. Francis) would gaze at the sun, the moon or the smallest of animals, he burst into song, drawing all other creatures into his praise,” the Pope wrote.
Without this openness to “awe and wonder” when approaching nature and the environment, “our attitude will be that of masters, consumers, ruthless exploiters, unable to set limits on their immediate needs,” he said.
“By contrast, if we feel intimately united with all that exists, then sobriety and care will well up spontaneously,” he added, explaining that St. Francis' poverty and austerity were “no mere veneer of asceticism,” but rather “something much more radical: a refusal to turn reality into an object simply to be used and controlled.”
The Pope reflected that, with scripture as a basis, St. Francis extends a universal invitation “to see nature as a magnificent book in which God speaks to us and grants us a glimpse of his infinite beauty and goodness.”
Rather than a problem to be solved, the world is a “joyful mystery” which ought to be contemplated with gladness and praise to God as the saint shows us, he said.
In the encyclical Pope Francis also pointed to the human person as being unique from the rest of creation since man is a being created in the image and likeness of God.
Human beings, he said, “possess a uniqueness which cannot be fully explained by the evolution of other open systems.”
The unique personal identity of each person as well as man's ability to reason, develop arguments, interpret reality and create art as well as other “yet undiscovered capacities” are all signs that humanity possesses a uniqueness “which transcends the spheres of physics and biology.”
Although humanity is unique within creation, it doesn’t mean that others beings are “superfluous,” he said, explaining that the whole material universe is an expression of God’s love.
Everything from the soil, water and the mountains are like “a caress” from God and they show us the “boundless affection” God has for his creatures.
However, Francis cautioned that this doesn’t “put all living beings on the same level,” and nor does it “deprive human beings of their unique worth and the tremendous responsibility it entails.”
Neither is it “a divinization of the earth,” which the Pope said “would prevent us from working on it and protecting it in its fragility.”
Pope Francis also speaks of the personal conversion needed on the part of each individual if we are to care for creation and the environment in an effective way.
Christians in particular, he said, must realize “that their responsibility within creation, and their duty towards nature and the Creator, are an essential part of their faith.”
Again turning to the figure of St. Francis of Assisi, the Pope says that in looking to him we realize that “a healthy relationship with creation is one dimension of overall personal conversion, which entails the recognition of our errors, sins, faults and failures, and leads to heartfelt repentance and desire to change.”
This conversion calls for attitudes which foster a spirit of generous and tender care, he notes, saying that this first of all requires both “gratitude and gratuitousness.”
Christian spirituality, he said, “proposes an alternative understanding of the quality of life, and encourages a prophetic and contemplative lifestyle, one capable of deep enjoyment free of the obsession with consumption.”
Such sobriety is “liberating” when lived both freely and consciously, the Pope says, observing that to live soberly doesn’t mean one has a “lesser life” or that their life is lived with less intensity.
“On the contrary, it is a way of living life to the full. In reality, those who enjoy more and live better each moment are those who have given up dipping here and there, always on the look-out for what they do not have.”
The Pope also noted that having inner peace is closely tied to care for the environment and the common good.
When lived with authenticity, this peace is reflected in a balanced lifestyle, which together with “a capacity for wonder,” leads to a greater understanding of life, Francis said.
“An integral ecology includes taking time to recover a serene harmony with creation, reflecting on our lifestyle and our ideals, and contemplating the Creator who lives among us and surrounds us, whose presence must not be contrived but found, uncovered.”
Because the universe reaches full fruition in God, a “mystical meaning” can be found in simple objects of nature, such as a leaf, a trail in the mountains, a dewdrop or even in “a poor person's face,” Francis observed.
“The ideal is not only to pass from the exterior to the interior to discover the action of God in the soul, but also to discover God in all things.”
At the end of the document, Pope Francis pointed to the sacraments as a concrete way in which God uses nature as a means of leading us to the supernatural life.
He noted how water, oil and fire are used in the sacraments as symbols of a spiritual reality.
“The hand that blesses is an instrument of God’s love and a reflection of the closeness of Jesus Christ, who came to accompany us on the journey of life. Water poured over the body of a child in Baptism is a sign of new life,” he said. He added that to encounter God doesn’t mean running away from the world or “turning our back” on nature.
He noted how in the Eucharist God gives himself as food for the creatures he has saved, and has chosen to reach “our intimate depths” through a “fragment of matter,” which is the bread and wine.
God, the Pope said, “comes not from above, but from within, he comes that we might find him in this world of ours.”
Francis also drew attention to the role of Mary, who having cared for Jesus, now watches over “this wounded world” with pain and motherly affection.
“Just as her pierced heart mourned the death of Jesus, so now she grieves for the sufferings of the crucified poor and for the creatures of this world laid waste by human power,” he said.
The Pope concluded his encyclical with an encouragement to imitate St. Francis and to “sing as we go,” never letting our struggle and concern for the planet overshadow “the joy of our hope.”
“God, who calls us to generous commitment and to give him our all, offers us the light and the strength needed to continue on our way.”
Vatican: Encyclical aims to promote common good, not take sides
Vatican City, Jun 18, 2015 / 03:01 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The Vatican's presentation of Pope Francis' new encyclical said the intent behind the document goes beyond political debates, aiming for something more essential: the well-being of all creation.
At the June 18 launch of the highly-anticipated encyclical “Laudato Si,” Cardinal Peter Turkson acknowledged a critique that the Church is taking sides on scientifically still-debatable topics such as global warming, pollution, species extinction and global inequality’s impact on natural resources.
“The aim of the Encyclical is not to intervene in this debate, which is the responsibility of scientists, and even less to establish exactly in which ways the climate changes are a consequence of human action” he said.
Instead, the goal of the document is to promote the well-being of all creation and “to develop an integral ecology, which in its diverse dimensions comprehends ‘our unique place as human beings in this world and our relationship to our surroundings,” the cardinal said, quoting the encyclical.
“Science is the best tool by which we can listen to the cry of the earth,” Cardinal Turkson said, noting that regardless of the various positions, studies tells us that “today the earth, our sister, mistreated and abused.”
A true integral ecology seeks to address all of the various aspects of our lives, including the human person itself, the environment in which we live, in the economy and politics and in various cultures of the world, particularly those most at risk.
Cardinal Turkson is the president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. He was joined in presenting the encyclical by a wide variety of voices, including Orthodox Bishop John Zizioulas of Pergamon, who was there as a representative of the Ecumenical Patriarchate Constantinople, headed by Bartholomew I, whom Francis' frequently quotes in the encyclical.
Also present was Prof. John Schellnhuber, founding director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and a new appointee to the Pontifical Academy for the Sciences. Dr. Carolyn Woo, CEO and President of Catholic Relief Services, was also present.
The Vatican announced the Pope’s plans to write “Laudato Si” in early 2014, and at Pope Francis' request, Cardinal Turkson was involved in the drafting process.
In comments to CNA, the cardinal stressed the importance of an integral approach to the topic of ecology which links caring for the environment and caring for the human person.
“You cannot believe in and love God without respecting or caring for what he has created, without caring for the work of his hands,” he said.
He noted that “work of God's hands” includes two things: the human person and the world in which they live.
“The two things we're talking about are so closely related, the one doesn't have sense without the other. The garden doesn’t have sense without the man to be brought into the garden, and man doesn't make sense if he wasn't the one to till and keep the land,” the cardinal said.
What the encyclical's concern is has been “just that: to promote the well-being not of one over the other, but to promote the well-being of the two jointly. That's the point of the encyclical.”
Pope Francis' concern for the common good – a term he uses 30 times in the encyclical – is what leads him to find answers to the question “what kind of world do we want to leave to those who come after us?”
In response to a question regarding American Catholic presidential candidates who have said that they are willing to listen to the Pope’s advice on matters of theology in the encyclical but not those of science, Cardinal Turkson said the attitude is “strange” since science is a broad domain.
“We all talk about subject matters not because we’re experts in those matters. We talk about them because we’re concerned and they impact our lives,” he said.
“The Pope is not a scientist but he can consult scientists” and draw conclusions based from their research and advice, the cardinal observed, and warned against a growing temptation to “de-emphasize the artificial split that has been introduced between religion and public life.”
In his speech, Cardinal Turkson pointed to the Pope’s concern for finding effective proposals on international, national and local politics, as well as the decision-making processes in the public and business sectors, highlighting that are not “ideological.”
Laudato Si, he said, “can and must have an impact on important and urgent decisions to be made in this area.”
Prof. John Schellnhuber also spoke to attendees at the presentation, saying that in front of the “great challenge” of global warming, the encyclical's urgency to act on the issue “mirrors the scientific findings which have accumulated into an overwhelming body of evidence.”
He spoke along the same lines that Pope Francis takes in his encyclical and warned against the harmful affects of the over-use of fossil fuels and greenhouse gas emissions.
“If we fail to strongly reduce these emissions and to bend the warming curve, we, our neighbors and children will be exposed to intolerable risks,” he said.
He noted that the large-scale production of fossil-fuels has led to many important human developments, but only “for a minority,” and that although vast amounts of wealth have also been generated, on the other side of the cash “stand the poor and the poorest of the poor.”
Schellnhuber said he wanted to break the myth that 85 of the world’s richest people own the same amount of wealth as 3.5 billion of global poor population. “It's actually 60” people, he said.
His speech culminated by noting that a stable climate, which is “our common good,” is being destroyed not by the many, but by the few.
“The Encyclical confirms this assessment which scientists and moral philosophers have claimed in the context of climate policy: 'The climate is a global commons of all and for all.'”
He said that technologically speaking, all the resources necessary for developing clean energy are abundantly available. “All we have to do is develop the means to properly harvest it and responsibly manage our consumption.”
Bishop John Zizioulas also addressed the gathering on behalf of the Patriarchate of Constantinople and the Orthodox Church.
He thanked the Pope and Cardinal Turkson for the invitation to be there, and said that the encyclical “comes at a critical moment in human history and will undoubtedly have a worldwide effect on people’s consciousness.”
“There is in its pages food for thought for all: the scientist, the economist, the sociologist and above all the faithful of the Church.”
Zizioulas said the publication of the document is only a call to evaluate the effect our actions will have on future generations, but is also a call for ecumenical communion.
“I believe that the significance of the Papal Encyclical Laudato Si' is not limited to the subject of ecology as such,” he said.
Rather, for him it is also “an important ecumenical dimension in that it brings the divided Christians before a common task which they must face together,” the bishop noted, explaining that Christian unity today, particularly in the Middle East, “is de facto realized by persecution and blood – an ecumenism of martyrdom.”
He noted how Sept. 1 is a day dedicated to the environment in the Orthodox Church, and suggested it become a date that all Christians share in common.
Carolyn Woo spoke from the business perspective of the “one complex crisis” the world is facing, which in her opinion can’t be divided into two separate categories, but is rather one overall problem with both social and environmental consequences.
At the end of the day, “business is a human enterprise and must strive for true human development and the common good,” she noted.
If businesses invest in sustainability, then it is “another win-win” opportunity, Woo said.
Quoting the Pope's encyclical, she explained that “efforts to promote a sustainable use of natural resources are not a waste of money, but rather an investment capable of providing other economic benefits in the medium term.”
Magisterium – not secret authors – had final say on encyclical
Vatican City, Jun 18, 2015 / 11:09 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Despite many claiming they helped to draft Pope Francis' new encyclical, the final text cannot be attributed to any 'hidden' advisors, says a former Vatican official.
The proof, he says, is shown by the fact that the encyclical stands on the shoulders of previous magisterial teachings.
The encyclical, “Laudato Si,” meaning “Praise be to You,” was published June 18. Its name is taken from St. Francis of Assisi's “The Canticle of the Sun.”
In early 2014, the Vatican announced the Pope's plans to write on the theme of “human ecology” – a phrase that was originally coined by Benedict XVI.
While the encyclical wades into controversial topics such as climate change, it also aggressively argues that it isn't possible to effectively care for the environment without first working to defend human life.
Bishop Mario Toso of Faenza-Modigliana previously served as secretary of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, from 2009 until this January, when he was transferred to the small diocese in Italy's Emilia-Romagna region.
While at the pontifical council, Bishop Toso was able to examine the encyclical's first draft.
“There is no doubt that many contributions, many suggestions, have been forwarded for the drafting of the encyclical,” Bishop Toso noted to CNA June 17.
On the other hand, he added, “any single contribution, if accepted, has been used in a framework that could not be provided by these single contributions – while it is provided from the continuity with the foregoing Magisterium.”
Following the first rumors about the contents of the encyclical, the controversial Brazilian theologian Leonardo Boff – one of the fathers of Liberation Theology, who has recently refocused his reflections onto the environment – said he had contributed to drafting the encyclical.
Even the Brazilian theologians Frei Betto and Fr. Pedro Casaldiga allegedly gave their contribution in drafting the encyclical.
Among the other alleged contributions to the encyclical, that of the former governor of Colorado, Bill Ritter. A member of the board of the Energy Foundation, he told “The Colorado Statesman” June 12 that he “did spend time in Rome meeting with the Vatican’s policy team drafting the Papal Encyclical.”
The ‘team’ Bill Ritter referred to is probably one of the informal meetings set up by the Pontifical Academy for Sciences. These meetings provided suggestions for the much awaited encyclical, while many companies also sent to the Vatican materials on the way they protected environment, hoping for a papal endorsement.
Despite there having been so many contributions, Bishop Toso maintained that the “ground framework of the encyclical is given by the continuity of the tradition of Catholic social teaching and by the work of the perhaps more invisible and less outspoken hands of people who work within the Vatican and who know quite well the social teaching of the Church.”
“Only these people can talk about ecological issues standing on a theological, anthropological, and ethical point of view,” Bishop Toso maintained.
Click here for the full text of the Pope's new encyclical, Laudato Si
Vatican City, Jun 18, 2015 / 10:39 am (CNA).- Pope Francis' new encyclical, Laudato Si, was published today. The full text can be accessed at the Vatican website:
http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html
The Pope's take on transgender issues? Accept the body God gave you
Vatican City, Jun 18, 2015 / 04:14 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis' new encyclical on the environment calls for men and women to acknowledge their bodies as a gift from God which should not be manipulated.
“The acceptance of our bodies as God's gift is vital for welcoming and accepting the entire world as a gift from the Father and our common home,” the Pope wrote, “whereas thinking that we enjoy absolute power over our own bodies turns, often subtly, into thinking that we enjoy absolute power over creation.”
The Pope's encyclical “Laudato Si,” meaning “Praise be to You,” was published Thursday, June 18. Its name is taken from St. Francis of Assisi's medieval Italian prayer “Canticle of the Sun,” which praises God through elements of creation like Brother Sun, Sister Moon, and “our sister Mother Earth.”
In early 2014, the Vatican announced the Pope's plans to write on the theme of “human ecology” – a phrase that was previously used by Pope emeritus Benedict XVI.
While the 184-page encyclical wades into controversial topics such as climate change, it also aggressively argues that it is not possible to effectively care for the environment without first working to defend human life and dignity.
The Pope wrote that human ecology implies the profound reality of “the relationship between human life and the moral law, which is inscribed in our nature and is necessary for the creation of a more dignified environment.”
Pope Francis quoted from his predecessor, Benedict XVI, saying that there is an “ecology of man” because “man too has a nature that he must respect and that he cannot manipulate at will.”
Benedict's words came from his Sept. 22, 2011 address to the German parliament on the foundations of law. He had discussed the importance of the ecological movement for its realization that “the earth has a dignity of its own and that we must follow its directives.” Man, he added, “does not create himself. He is intellect and will, but he is also nature, and his will is rightly ordered if he respects his nature, listens to it and accepts himself for who he is, as one who did not create himself.”
After quoting Benedict, Pope Francis said that “our body itself establishes us in a direct relationship with the environment and with other living beings,” and that the acceptance of one's body helps one to accept and honor the entire world as a gift.
“Learning to accept our body, to care for it and to respect its fullest meaning, is an essential element of any genuine human ecology.”
He then turned to the importance of sexual complementarity, adding that “valuing one’s own body in its femininity or masculinity is necessary if I am going to be able to recognize myself in an encounter with someone who is different. In this way we can joyfully accept the specific gifts of another man or woman, the work of God the Creator, and find mutual enrichment.”
Pope Francis referred to his own General Audience address of April 15, saying that “It is not a healthy attitude which would seek 'to cancel out sexual difference because it no longer knows how to confront it.'”
In that address, on the complementarity of man and woman, he had touched on the importance of the two sexes and their reciprocal needs.
He lamented that contemporary culture has introduced doubt and skepticism over sexual complementarity: “For example, I ask myself, if the so-called gender theory is not, at the same time, an expression of frustration and resignation, which seeks to cancel out sexual difference because it no longer knows how to confront it … the removal of difference in fact creates a problem, not a solution.”
Pope Francis' jab at gender theory – which gives a basis for transgender identification – in his encyclical came in the context of a discussion on the “ecology of daily life,” during which he also discussed integral improvement in the quality of human life; creativity in responding to one's environment; the brutality arising from poverty; urban planning; lack of housing; public transportation; and rural life.
The larger context of the Pope's words on the ecology of daily life came in his chapter on integral ecology, during which he also mentioned environmental, economic, and social ecology; cultural ecology; the common good; and inter-generational justice.
Pope Francis blasts abortion, population control in new encyclical
Vatican City, Jun 18, 2015 / 04:05 am (CNA/EWTN News).- In his new encyclical on the environment, Pope Francis slams attacks against human life such as abortion, embryonic experimentation and population control – saying that respect for creation and human dignity go hand in hand.
The Pope explained that “a sense of deep communion with the rest of nature cannot be real if our hearts lack tenderness, compassion and concern for our fellow human beings.”
“At times we see an obsession with denying any pre-eminence to the human person; more zeal is shown in protecting other species than in defending the dignity which all human beings share in equal measure,” he said.
The Pope's encyclical “Laudato Si,” meaning “Praise be to You,” was published Thursday, June 18. Its name is taken from St. Francis of Assisi's medieval Italian prayer “Canticle of the Sun,” which praises God through elements of creation like Brother Sun, Sister Moon, and “our sister Mother Earth.”
In early 2014, the Vatican announced the Pope's plans to write on the theme of “human ecology” – a phrase that was previously used by retired pontiff Benedict XVI.
While the 184-page encyclical wades into controversial topics such as climate change, it also aggressively argues that it is not possible to effectively care for the environment without first working to defend human life.
It is “clearly inconsistent” to combat the trafficking of endangered species while remaining indifferent toward the trafficking of persons, to the poor and to the decision of many “to destroy another human being deemed unwanted,” the Pope stated.
To have this attitude, he said, “compromises the very meaning of our struggle for the sake of the environment.”
Francis also highlighted that concern for the protection of nature is “incompatible with the justification of abortion.”
“How can we genuinely teach the importance of concern for other vulnerable beings, however troublesome or inconvenient they may be, if we fail to protect a human embryo, even when its presence is uncomfortable and creates difficulties?” he asked.
Once the ability to welcome a new life is lost on the part of individuals and society, other forms of acceptance also “wither away,” he said, warning against a “culture of relativism” that sees an absence of any objective truth outside of our own immediate wants and needs.
The Pope also addressed the highly-debated topic of population control, a proposed solution to problems stemming from poverty and maintaining a sustainable consumption of the earth’s resources.
“Instead of resolving the problems of the poor and thinking of how the world can be different, some can only propose a reduction in the birth rate,” Francis lamented.
He denounced the fact that developing countries often receive pressure from international organizations who make economic assistance “contingent on certain policies of 'reproductive health.'”
Even though an unequal distribution of population and available resources presents obstacles to development and environmental sustainability, “it must nonetheless be recognized that demographic growth is fully compatible with an integral and shared development,” he stressed.
To blame a growing population for these problems rather than the “extreme and selective consumerism on the part of some, is one way of refusing to face the issues.”
Such scapegoating “is an attempt to legitimize the present model of distribution, where a minority believes that it has the right to consume in a way which can never be universalized, since the planet could not even contain the waste products of such consumption,” the Pope said, calling for an end to food waste.
Francis also rejected some ecological movements’ discontinuity in calling for limitations to be placed on environmental scientific research, while at the same time failing to apply the same principals to human life.
As an example, he noted that within science, there is “a tendency to justify transgressing all boundaries when experimentation is carried out on living human embryos.”
“We forget that the inalienable worth of a human being transcends his or her degree of development,” he said, adding that once technology disregards ethical principles, “it ends up considering any practice whatsoever as licit.”
“When we fail to acknowledge as part of reality the worth of a poor person, a human embryo, a person with disabilities – to offer just a few examples – it becomes difficult to hear the cry of nature itself; everything is connected.”
Once the human being seeks absolute dominion, the foundations of our life “begin to crumble,” the Pope said, so that instead of cooperating with God, man puts himself in God’s place “and thus ends up provoking a rebellion on the part of nature.”
In the encyclical, Pope Francis also spoke of the importance of accepting and caring for one’s body, since it is through the body that man relates to the environment and to other living things.
He cautioned against seeking to exercise “absolute power” over our bodies as if they were something that we own, saying that “man too has a nature that he must respect and that he cannot manipulate at will.”
Accepting and caring for our bodies in their truest nature is essential for human ecology, he said, and stressed that this acceptance includes “valuing one’s own body in its femininity or masculinity.”
In acknowledging differences, “we can joyfully accept the specific gifts of another man or woman, the work of God the Creator, and find mutual enrichment,” the Pope observed.
An attitude which seeks “to cancel out sexual difference because it no longer knows how to confront it” is unhealthy, he said.
The pontiff also pointed to the important role families play in educating on a true integral human and environmental ecology since they are the place where life is welcomed and protected, and where human growth is developed.
“In the face of the so-called culture of death, the family is the heart of the culture of life,” he said.
Family life is where children first learn how “to show love and respect for life; we are taught the proper use of things, order and cleanliness, respect for the local ecosystem and care for all creatures,” as well as how to be grateful for what they’ve been given and to ask for forgiveness when they’ve caused harm, he explained.
“These simple gestures of heartfelt courtesy help to create a culture of shared life and respect for our surroundings.”
Environment encyclical takes bold stance on controversial issues
Vatican City, Jun 18, 2015 / 04:00 am (CNA/EWTN News).- In his newly released encyclical on the environment, Pope Francis did not hesitate to wade into controversial topics, making statements on global warming, pollution, species extinction and global inequality’s impact on natural resources.
“A very solid scientific consensus indicates that we are presently witnessing a disturbing warming of the climatic system,” the Pope said in his new encyclical “Laudato Si.”
He cited “a constant rise in the sea level” and an apparent increase in extreme weather events.
“Humanity is called to recognize the need for changes of lifestyle, production and consumption, in order to combat this warming or at least the human causes which produce or aggravate it.”
While acknowledging other factors behind global warming, the encyclical said that a number of scientific studies indicate that “most global warming in recent decades is due to the great concentration of greenhouse gases…released mainly as a result of human activity.”
Pope Francis’ second encyclical was released June 18. Its title is taken from Saint Francis of Assisi’s “Canticle of the Sun,” which reflects on the Earth as a sister and mother.
“This sister now cries out to us because of the harm we have inflicted on her by our irresponsible use and abuse of the goods with which God has endowed her. We have come to see ourselves as her lords and masters, entitled to plunder her at will,” he said. “The violence present in our hearts, wounded by sin, is also reflected in the symptoms of sickness evident in the soil, in the water, in the air and in all forms of life.”
In his typical fashion, the Pope did not shy away from controversial issues. He cited studies supporting the theory of global warming and stated that human activity is the primary driving force behind the phenomenon, as well as the main cause of species extinction. He also spoke of developed nations’ obligations involving renewable resources and the development of poorer countries.
Saying that the earth “is beginning to look more and more like an immense pile of filth,” the encyclical states, “Never have we so hurt and mistreated our common home as we have in the last two hundred years.”
The Pope lamented that “(f)requently no measures are taken (to address industrial waste and chemical byproducts) until after people’s health has been irreversibly affected.”
He connected the problem of waste to a “throwaway culture,” saying that the industrial cycle of production and consumption “has not developed the capacity to absorb and reuse waste and byproducts.”
In contrast to the “exemplary” workings of natural ecosystems, he said, “(w)e have not yet managed to adopt a circular model of production capable of preserving resources for present and future generations, while limiting as much as possible the use of non-renewable resources, moderating their consumption, maximizing their efficient use, reusing and recycling them.”
Pope Francis said it is urgent to develop policies and programs so that emissions of carbon dioxide and other polluting gases can be “drastically reduced,” such as by substituting sources of renewable energy for fossil fuel use.
The Pope’s encyclical reflected on the depletion of natural resources in the context of local and global inequality.
“We all know that it is not possible to sustain the present level of consumption in developed countries and wealthier sectors of society, where the habit of wasting and discarding has reached unprecedented levels. The exploitation of the planet has already exceeded acceptable limits and we still have not solved the problem of poverty,” he said.
The resources of the earth are “being plundered because of short-sighted approaches to the economy, commerce and production.”
The encyclical said that developing countries fuel richer countries’ development “at the cost of their own present and future.”
“The land of the southern poor is rich and mostly unpolluted, yet access to ownership of goods and resources for meeting vital needs is inhibited by a system of commercial relations and ownership which is structurally perverse.”
Developed countries ought to significantly limit their consumption of non-renewable energy and assist poorer countries’ support for sustainable development policies and programs, the document said.
“It is remarkable how weak international political responses have been,” the Pope remarked, attributing the failure of global environmental summits to the subjection of politics to “technology and finance.”
“There are too many special interests, and economic interests easily end up trumping the common good and manipulating information so that their own plans will not be affected,” he said.
The Pope also spoke on behalf of the world’s animal and plant life. Habitat loss, he said, “entails the loss of species which may constitute extremely important resources in the future.”
“Each year sees the disappearance of thousands of plant and animal species which we will never know, which our children will never see, because they have been lost forever.”
The encyclical attributed the “great majority” of these extinctions to human activity.
“Because of us, thousands of species will no longer give glory to God by their very existence, nor convey their message to us. We have no such right,” it said.
The Pope’s encyclical acknowledged that there are some environmental issues “where it is not easy to achieve a broad consensus.”
“Here I would state once more that the Church does not presume to settle scientific questions or to replace politics,” Pope Francis said. “But I am concerned to encourage an honest and open debate so that particular interests or ideologies will not prejudice the common good.”
A meeting to remember: seminarians chat with Benedict XVI
Vatican City, Jun 17, 2015 / 07:03 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Several enthusiastic seminarians met with Benedict XVI at the Vatican Gardens on Tuesday – even though it is their exam time, they did not want to miss the chance to meet the Pope emeritus.
“It lasted two minutes, but I will always remember it,” one seminarian told CNA about the meeting. He added: “the Pope emeritus was so kind, and asked me some personal information about my life.”
The seminarian has an ontology exam on June 18.
The seminarians come from the Diocese of Faenza-Modigliana, headed by Bishop Mario Toso. The diocese has 12 seminarians.
“The seminarians really wished to meet with the Pope emeritus, whom they really esteem and love,” Bishop Toso told CNA.
The bishop had forwarded the seminarians’ request to meet Benedict XVI, who jumped at the chance for a short meeting.
Each day, Benedict XVI walks through the Vatican Gardens praying the rosary with Archbishop Georg Gaenswein, his personal secretary who is also Prefect of the Papal Household.
After his prayers Tuesday, the seminarians and Bishop Toso met with Benedict XVI for about 15 minutes. The Pope emeritus then returned to his residence at Mater Ecclesiae monastery, driven in an electric car of the Vatican Gendarmes Corps.
Bishop Toso recounted the meeting.
“After a welcome and a general address, the Pope wanted to meet the seminarians one by one, and asked each of them about their course of studies, as well as some personal information,” the bishop said.
The Pope emeritus also chatted with Bishop Toso, who served a five-year term as Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace before becoming bishop of his diocese in January.
Benedict asked the bishop if he was still collaborating with the pontifical council, and then emphasized: “You worked a lot at the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.”
Though the Pope emeritus does not live a public life, this summer is expected to be quite busy for him. On July 1, the Pope emeritus is scheduled to accompany Pope Francis to Castel Gandolfo. Pope Francis will go back and forth from the Vatican that same day to prepare for his trip to South America.
As for Benedict XVI, he will spent his time at Castel Gandolfo until July 14.
During his stay, Benedict XVI will receive honorary degrees from the Pontifical University of John Paul II and from the Academy of Music of Krakow, Archbishop of Krakow Stanislaw Dziwisz has said. The Pope emeritus will take part in the public ceremony of the bestowal of the degrees at Castel Gandolfo July 3.
Benedict XVI has yet another summer appointment. A special section of the library named after him and sponsored by the Pontifical Foundation Joseph Ratzinger will open Aug. 30 in the German College, within the Vatican Walls. Benedict XVI has confirmed he will be at the opening.
The same day, it is likely he will celebrate the Mass for the Ratzinger Schulerkreis, a group of his former students. They will gather for their annual meeting in Castel Gandolfo during the last week of August.
When staying at Castel Gandolfo, Benedict XVI always took part in the meeting of his former students. He also made his own contributions to the discussions. Since his resignation, the members of the student circle gather as usual. On their gathering’s final day they move to the Vatican, where Benedict XVI celebrates Mass for them.
The chairman of the Ratzinger Schulerkreis, Fr. Stephan Otto Horn, is a Salvatorian who served as an assistant to Ratzinger in the 1970s.
Fr. Horn confirmed in an email to CNA June 17 that “even this time, we would be pleased to have a Mass with Benedict XVI Sunday morning – if his health conditions are normal and stable – and we hope to be able to have a personal meeting with him after the Mass as we did over the last two years.”
The Schulerkreis theme this year is “How to speak about God today.” The gathering’s special guest will be Monsignor Tomas Halik, a Czech priest and theologian who was awarded the prestigious Templeton Prize in 2014 for his interreligious work.
Don't blame God when someone dies – trust in the resurrection, Pope says
Vatican City, Jun 17, 2015 / 11:50 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Instead of blaming God when a parent loses a child – or vice versa – families should remember that because of Christ's resurrection death does not have the final say, Pope Francis said.
“For parents, outliving their own children is especially devastating, (as it) goes against the basic nature of the relationship which gives meaning to the family itself,” the Pope said during his Wednesday general audience.
Losing one's child is like “stopping time,” he said, since it “opens a chasm which swallows the past as well as the future.”
The Pope's June 17 reflection was the latest in a series of catecheses on the family delivered each week at the Wednesday general audience in the Vatican. Since last Fall, the Pope has been focusing on this theme as part of the lead up to the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia in September, and the Synod on the Family in October.
The death of a son or daughter, is an “insult” to all the promises, gifts, and sacrifices “of joyful love” which a parent gives their child. Similarly, children who have lost one or both parents likewise suffer, he said.
“The emptiness of abandonment which opens within him is all the more distressing because he lacks the the experience necessary to 'give a name' to what has happened.”
Because of this “black hole” brought about by a death in the family, the reasons for which are not known, we sometimes “blame God,” he said.
Pope Francis based his address on the Gospel reading delivered during the audience, in which Saint Luke gives an account of Jesus raising the widow's son from the dead. This scene demonstrates both Jesus' compassion for those who suffer, and His power over death, he said.
All families, “without exception,” experience death, the pontiff said. Nonetheless, when it strikes a beloved family member, death never seems natural.
However, the Pope said to be aware of other “accomplices” to physical death – “hate, envy, pride, greed” – which add to the agony and sense of injustice.
“We think of the absurd 'normality' with which, in certain times and places, events which add to the horror of death are caused by hatred and indifference for other human beings,” he said.
In contrast, many families who are counted among God's people have demonstrated that death does not have the final word. “This is a true act of faith,” Pope Francis said.
Whenever a family who is in mourning “finds the strength to protect the faith and the love which unites as to all those we love,” he added, “this prevents death from taking everything. The darkness of death is confronted with a more intense work of love.”
Citing the words of Saint Paul, the Pope reminded the faithful that Christ's Resurrection has removed from death its “sting.”
“In this faith, we can comfort one another, knowing that the Lord has defeated death once and for all,” he said.
“Our loved ones are not lost in the darkness of oblivion: hope assures us that they are in the benevolent and powerful hands of God. Love is stronger than death.”
The Pope added that, in maintaining this faith, the experience of mourning acts to strengthen solidarity within ones own family, and promotes an awareness of the suffering of other families.
“This faith, this hope, protects us from a nihilistic vision of death, as well as the false consolations of the world,” he said.
Pope Francis concluded his address by stressing it is important for pastors and Christians to communicate more concretely “the meaning of the faith with regard to the experience of mourning in the family.”
He drew attention to the “simple and strong” witness of many families who grasp, through their faith in the Lord's crucifixion and death, the “irrevocable promise of the resurrection of the dead.”
“God's work of love is stronger than the work of death.”
Pope Francis: Receive new encyclical with 'open heart'
Vatican City, Jun 17, 2015 / 10:18 am (Aid to the Church in Need).- Speaking one day before its official release to the public, Pope Francis is asking for people to have an “open heart” when they read his latest encyclical dedicated to the environment.
“Our 'home' is being ruined, and this hurts everyone, especially the poorest among us,” the pontiff said at the conclusion of his weekly general audience on June 17.
The Pope’s second encyclical will be released June 18. It will deal with creation and the human ecology, examining man's responsibility in caring for the earth.
The document is entitled “Laudato Si” – meaning “Praised be You.” It is taken from St. Francis of Assisi’s medieval Italian prayer “Canticle of the Sun,” which praises God through elements of creation like Brother Sun, Sister Moon, and “our sister Mother Earth.”
“My appeal, therefore, is for responsibility,” he said, which is “based on the task which God gave to man in creation: 'to till and protect' the 'garden' in which he has been placed.”
“I invite everyone to receive this new document with an open heart, which places itself along the lines of the Church's social doctrine.”