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(Vatican Radio) Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher is wrapping up a week-long visit to Japan during which he met with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and celebrated Mass in the city of Hiroshima.

The Vatican Secretary for Relations with States confirmed the Holy See's cooperation with Japan regarding the elimination of nuclear weapons.

On Wednesday Archbishop Gallagher held a ‘Lectio Magistralis’ at the Jesuit-run University of Sophia in Tokyo, dedicated to the promotion of a culture of peace.

During his lesson, Gallagher spoke of the important contribution made by a Catholic University which takes into account a global and not merely intellectual formation of the whole person.

Quoting Pope Francis he said that “if the university becomes no more than an academy of ideas or an assembly line of professionals, or its structure is determined by a business mentality, then it has truly lost its way”.

He said that one must never tire of  looking at the world, with its events and actors, critically but also constructively, asking us not to  “exclude” and appealing  for “necessary dialogue” as a method proper to cultural and educational processes.
Referring to the core message of his lesson, Gallagher said “the question of peace involves more than politics or diplomatic activity; it is directly linked to culture and to the sphere of ethics and moral conscience that can generate much apprehension, yet is so greatly needed in international relations”.

He pointed out  that the “vision of peace proposed by the magisterium of the Catholic Church does not necessarily coincide with that current in the community of the nations, as summarized, for example, by the contents of the UN Charter.  The difference does not simply have to do with issues involving the use of force or the obligations incumbent upon states, but with the conviction that peace calls first and foremost for preventing the causes that lead to war.  “To bring about true peace, it is necessary to bring people together concretely so as to reconcile peoples and groups with opposing ideological positions.  It is also necessary to work together for what persons, families, peoples and nations feel is their right, namely to participate on a social, political and economic level in the goods of the modern world”.

Thus, Gallagher said, peace on earth is thus the result of any number of factors, of which a culture of peace is the vehicle. 
He said Pope speaks of  “a war being fought piecemeal” as a way of perceiving, among the many possible causes of conflict (selfish interests, poverty, lack of development, territorial dominion, spheres of influence...), the one that is essential.  
Working for peace, he said, demands returning to the bases of human relationships and thus recovering the bases of the internal order of nations and the international order.  

“As Pope Francis sees it, this means that true peace cannot come about “without the recognition of certain incontestable natural ethical limits and without the immediate implementation of those pillars of integral human development”.  A true culture of peace, then, calls for concrete commitments requiring solid and structured foundations: exactly the opposite of the frequently heard idea that “a single theoretical and aprioristic solution will provide an answer to all the challenges”.
Archbishop Gallagher’s long lesson goes on to illustrate tools that are at the disposal of world leaders, he talks about the culture of peace and the threat to peace which today “comes not only from traditional wars and hostilities, whether domestic or international, but also from other problems”.

He talks of a return to the vision of just peace which includes religious freedom in its varied forms, among which is conscientious objection and points out that a culture of peace can also make a huge contribution to anti-terrorism strategies.

Archbishop Gallagher talked about the goals to be achieved, the use of dialogue, discussion and negotiation as well as “the language of the magisterium, this involves a correct and consistent application of the principle of subsidiarity”.
He reflected on the areas of development and international cooperation, on the more general fight against poverty which “presupposes a common agreement that can only be the result of an effective solidarity between states”. 
 
“This would involve a greater appreciation of the role of intellectual property, an area in which a consistent culture of peace is called to recognize the right of researchers and producers to just compensation, so that new developments can truly be at the service of the common good of the human family” he said.

Gallagher concluded calling for a “prophetic vision that can bring together the human, cultural and religious aspects and thus offer our contemporary world a firm common witness to the service of goodness, the service of dialogue and the service of peace.  In this context, the university has a fundamental task as a place of encounter between faith and reason, between memory of the past and scientific development towards the future, and as a place of encounter and discussion between different visions of life, technology, politics and religious convictions.  That task is to prepare the way for a future of peace, an attainable future, a future for all”.

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(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis’ prayer intention for February is to Comfort for the Afflicted: That all those who are afflicted, especially the poor, refugees, and marginalized, may find welcome and comfort in our communities.

The Apostleship of Prayer has produced the Pope’s Video on this prayer intention.

The full text of the Pope’s Video is below:

Welcome the Needy

We live in cities that throw up skyscrapers and shopping centers and strike big real estate deals … but they abandon a part of themselves to marginal settlements on the periphery.1

The result of this situation is that great sections of the population are excluded and marginalized: without a job, without options, without a way out. 2

Don’t abandon them. Pray with me for all those who are afflicted, especially the poor, refugees, and marginalized, may find welcome and comfort in our communities.3

[1]Address of Pope Francis to the participants in the World Meeting of Popular Movements. Old Synod Hall, Tuesday, 28 October 2014.

[1] Evangelii Gaudium: Apostolic Exhortation "The Joy of the Gospel", Art. 53.

[1] Universal Prayer Intention of the Holy Father entrusted to the Pope's Worldwide Prayer Network (Apostleship of Prayer). February 2017.

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Washington D.C., Feb 2, 2017 / 03:24 am (CNA).- Planned Parenthood is the nation’s largest abortion chain – but rather than dismissing it, pregnancy help centers may be able to learn from its strengths as a brand, said one research analyst.

“The brand of Planned Parenthood is, unfortunately, pretty solid in the minds of these women,” said Dr. Jeff Pauls of the Vitae Foundation. Yet many women admitted that they “still weren’t totally comfortable with the experience of having to go there.”

Planned Parenthood may have a “solid” reputation in the minds of its customers, yet pro-life pregnancy centers could serve more of these women if they emulated its strengths, he told CNA.

The Vitae Foundation partnered with Dr. Charles Kenny, an industry leader in “right-brain research” on customers’ loyalty to brands like Coca-Cola and American Express, to investigate what Planned Parenthood’s clients thought of the organization and discover what pro-life pregnancy centers could learn from the abortion giant.

They conducted in-depth interviews of over 70 women, many of them from metropolitan areas like New York, Chicago, Miami, and Los Angeles and who “had no idea who did the interview,” Pauls noted.

Questions asked included when and how women had first heard about Planned Parenthood, why they decided to go there, what they thought about the organization’s brand and health care, and if they had ever heard of a “pregnancy help center.”

The questions were meant to “have them go into their mind’s eye and really relive their experience at Planned Parenthood,” Pauls said. There were two types of customers they found, “active” women who were currently customers of Planned Parenthood, and “legacy customers,” or women who used to go to Planned Parenthood and had stopped going, but had referred someone else there in the last year.

They found that Planned Parenthood has a “solid” reputation with these women, but along their brand’s strengths there were significant weaknesses, as the women interviewed acknowledged negative experiences at clinics.

The “strengths” of the Planned Parenthood brand are a “non-judgmental” appearance of staff workers who help women think they are in “control,” providing them feelings of “acceptance” and “freedom,” Pauls explained.

They also promote an atmosphere of “confidentiality” which is really “secrecy,” Pauls said, “the way that Planned Parenthood helps them engage in risky sexual activity without their parents knowing.”

However, women also complained of “long waits” at clinics as well as an “unpleasant gauntlet of fear, anxiety, nervousness, and anger that they had to deal with in the waiting room,” he continued.

“Try as they might to develop this kind of warm, comfortable waiting room experience, it’s nearly impossible, according to the women, because of what’s going on there,” he explained, noting that women recalled thinking, “I just don’t feel like I belong here with these people.”

And there were violations of HIPAA – of the privacy of one’s confidential medical information – at clinics.

“We did hear some women talking about Planned Parenthood staff talking about procedures out in the waiting room, in front of everybody,” Pauls noted. These public conversations included “what their health history was.”

While such instances were not frequent, “we did hear that from enough women that that’s not rare,” he said.

Another brand “weakness” was that women who frequented Planned Parenthood clinics when they were younger had moved on to other health care providers as they grew older, even though they still referred younger clients to clinics.

There might be several reasons for this, Pauls explained. Older women may have stopped the “risky sexual activity” of their former years, or they might have better health insurance and be “in a position to afford and get good health care at a doctor or an OBGYN,” he said.

“They say that they still believe that Planned Parenthood is as good or better than” other providers, Pauls said. Women appreciated what Planned Parenthood did for them – providing them with birth control and performing abortions – but they “still weren’t totally comfortable with the experience of having to go there.”

Planned Parenthood has recently insisted that it is an important provider of women’s health care. Yet it is not holistic health care, Pauls insisted.

“It’s a place to get, in their words, to ‘fix a mistake’” and “solve a problem.”

For instance, clinics did not offer “real counseling” for women considering abortion, “because if they did, it would be an admission that abortion harms women,” Pauls said.

Rather, clinics focused on “helping women feel alright about abortion, and giving them these defense and coping mechanisms for the inevitable pain and difficulty they go through,” he said.

For instance, clinic workers told women of their abortion “you won’t even think about it later on” and “it’s no big deal, women do this all the time.”

They would encourage them that “it’s actually a good thing that you’re doing for your family or your future family or your education or your career.”

“A lot of times they’ll even refer to abortion and their need to go to Planned Parenthood as a necessary evil,” Pauls said.

“She feels like she really has no real choice, so Planned Parenthood is the only way really to move forward without kind of experiencing this death of her current self or her future self.”

In contrast, pregnancy centers can step in and offer “holistic” health care that Planned Parenthood doesn’t, Pauls insisted.

One significant “surprise” from his research was that “none” of the women “knew what a pregnancy help center was” or had “much knowledge or interest in it.” This was despite the fact that 2,400 pregnancy help centers outnumber Planned Parenthood clinics almost four to one.

These pregnancy clinics don’t perform abortions but instead provide women financial, material and emotional support to have their baby and can even offer medical care and psychological counseling.

“Women are interested in this holistic approach to health,” of “being healthy in mind, body, spirit, soul, vocation,” Pauls said.

The care in pregnancy help centers is “not just physical, which is what Planned Parenthood does. Make them unpregnant and send them back out into a risky lifestyle, to have them come back and do it all over again.”

Many pregnancy centers are “connected with a medical model or a medical referral system where they can address the physical, psychological, emotional, social, intellectual, and vocational health needs of the woman,” he said.

 

 

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