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The newly-elected president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) has said he will promote "active dialogue" during his term as head of the collegial body over the next two years. Archbishop Romulo Valles of Davao, who was elected president at the CBCP plenary assembly on July 8, said it is the vision of the country's Church leaders to pursue dialogue.   He takes over from Archbishop Socrates Villegas of Lingayen-Dagupan when he finishes his 2-term presidency in December.

Arch. Valles regarded his election as "God's will".  “I look at it with faith that even with all my limitations God must have allowed it, me to be elected as president," the 66-year old prelate told the church-run Radio Veritas. Archbishop Valles said that even through his "smallness" he would be able "to do my job and do the affairs of the conference in a way that could put the glory of God in his church."

Arch. Valles said it is important to pursue dialogue, especially amid the conflict in the southern part of the country where government security forces continue to battle terrorist gunmen.  He said the statement released by the bishops at the end of their meeting on July 10 was "encouraging us to engage and put out efforts in promoting dialogue." 

The Philippine bishops followed the past tradition of electing the CBCP vice-president as the president.   Arch. Valles, a close friend of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, has served as vice president of the conference since December 2013.  In a 2016 interview, Archbishop Valles said, "a friendly sharing of ideas would be good" to engage the then newly-elected Duterte. The prelate said he was "always hopeful" that the president, who has condemned the Catholic Church as "the most hypocritical institution," will change.  Pope Benedict XVI named the prelate Archbishop of Davao in 2012.

Archbishop Valles will be the 20th head of the 72-year-old collegial body of 83 active bishops, five diocesan administrators, and 43 honorary members of the conference.  Conference officials have a two-year term in office, or a total of four to include a second term. If tradition is to be followed, incumbent officials are re-elected for their second and final term.   (Source: UCAN)

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(Vatican Radio)  The Vatican’s Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life has a new way to interact with the world: a new website launched this week.

Online at www.laityfamilylife.va, the new site offers news about the Dicastery’s activities, as well as social updates and videos.

Explaining its mission, the Dicastery says, “The new website, in addition to telling about the Dicastery’s activities, wants to become a familiar place for lay people and families, where everyone will feel at ease and have [a] chance to be heard.”

The portal also presents the Dicastery’s new logo, which represents “a hug that welcomes all the laity and all the families of the world.”

Designed by Anna Formaggio, the logo represents the colonnade around St. Peter’s Square made up of lay people who embrace a group of families.

“From the colonnade and the families within it life is born,” life which is represented by a flower sprouting from the columns. 

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(Vatican Radio) Respect, responsibility and relationship are the three  themes highlighted by Pope Francis in a message addressed to the “Laudato Sì & Big Cities” conference taking place in Rio de Janeiro.

The 3-day event is organized by the “Antoni Gaudí Foundation for Big Cities” that aims to contribute to the humanization of large urban centers in a world in which a growing 52% of the global population lives in highly populated urban centres.

Pope Francis’ encyclical “Laudato Sì” is being used as a focal point of discussion and reference regarding environmental, ethical and management issues pertaining to big cities.

Respecting Creation is one of our "core tasks” Pope Francis writes in his strongly worded message to conference participants, and he reaffirms, as he did in his encyclical – to which the Rio conference is dedicated - that we “cannot just remain on the sidelines when we notice a serious degeneration in the quality of the air or an increase in the production of waste that is not adequately disposed of ".

Situations such as these, the Pope warns, "are the result of an irresponsible form of exploitation of creation and demand that we act responsibly for the good of all”.

Unfortunately, Francis continues, what we continue to see can only be described as “indifference towards the safekeeping of our common home”.

The Pope goes on to say that “this passivity proves that man has lost his sense of responsibility” and thus it is ever more urgent that governments adopt policies that encourage responsible behavior for the respect of the environment in which we all live.

Focusing his message on three points: “respect, responsibility and relationship", Francis points out that respect for Creation is a duty we also have towards future generations and says that “We must teach and pass on the need to care” for the planet. 

In his message he also emphasizes the importance of access to clean water that, he recalls, is a “fundamental right” that must be guaranteed to all. 

The Pope finally shines the light on the importance of human relationships that, in big cities – he says - appear to be getting more and more difficult. 

“Sometimes people become closed-in and live not trusting their neighbor”. This mistrust, Francis says, produces isolation that in turn generates poverty. That is why, he concludes, a joint political, educational and religious effort is needed to “create human relationships” that “break down the walls” that marginalize people.

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The archbishop of the Sri Lankan capital has called on his Catholics to observe a week of prayer and fasting, beginning on Saturday, to obtain God’s graces to help deal with deadly mosquito-borne dengue fever that has killed more than 230 in Sri Lanka this year.  "Let's pray to the Blessed Mother and all the saints, that they may intercede for us at this time of need," said Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, Archbishop of Colombo, asking his faithful to join a week of prayer and fasting, 15-23 July. 

Dengue fever is a mosquito-borne infectious disease. Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Health reported this week that more than 87,600 suspected cases of the infection have been reported in 2017.  Dengue is endemic in Sri Lanka, but the number of infections this year is already about 38 per cent higher than 2016, when 55,150 people were diagnosed with dengue and 97 died.  Experts say the virus is a particularly virulent strain that is new to Sri Lanka, and therefore immunity is low.  Hospitals across the country are seeing patients suffering from high fever, severe pain, vomiting, skin rashes and other symptoms of the disease, with the largest caseloads in the western provinces of Colombo, Gampaha, Kalutara and Trincomalee.

Card Ranjith, who is also the president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Sri Lanka (CBCSL), called on Catholics to hold a novena dedicated to Saint Sebastian, protector against the plague.  "I recommend special prayers at the Holy Mass during the week,” he said, “and the possible celebration of a triduum on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, 21-23 July, in al parishes, including an eventual procession and blessing of the statue with our Blessed Mother, Saint Sebastian, and all the other saints known for their powerful intercession in our illnesses."

The Cardinal also called for “actions of special charity towards the needy, a campaign to eradicate possible mosquito breeding grounds, a clean-up of the surroundings, and acts of fasting and penance in expiation for our weaknesses and sins."  "Let us storm Heaven with our prayers and acts of renunciation, so that the Good Lord may bless our country, save it from this epidemic and grant our people blessings and good health," he urged.

Colombo and its surrounding areas are the worst affected.  Humid monsoon weather, stagnant water from recent flooding, as well as mounting piles of rotting ‎garbage accumulating in the capital, have combined to create abundant grounds for mosquitoes to breed. 

The authorities are trying to find a solution. Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena urged the public to co-operate with officials trying to fight the disease.  In Colombo alone, about 25 teams of soldiers, police officers and public health inspectors were deployed in searching dengue mosquito-breeding places and clearing process door to door and advising people to clear clogged drains and empty outdoor pots that might have filled with rainwater.  In total, the government has deployed 400 soldiers and police officers to clear away rotting garbage, stagnant water pools and other possible mosquito-breeding grounds.

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Vatican City, Jul 14, 2017 / 07:06 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis Friday sent a message to an international congress on care for our common home in the context of large cities, reminding participants that caring for the environment ultimately means having responsibility for our fellow man.

“We see an indifference to our common home and, unfortunately, to so many tragedies and needs that hit our brothers and sisters. This passivity demonstrates the ‘loss of that sense of responsibility for our fellow-men on which all civil society is founded’ (‘Laudato Si’ 25).”

“Each territory and government should encourage responsible ways of acting in its citizens so that, with inventiveness, they can interact and favor the creation of a more habitable and healthier house,” the Pope said.

“Placing on each one the little that corresponds to him in his responsibility, much will be achieved.”

Pope Francis sent his letter, dated June 12, to participants in an international congress about his 2015 environmental encyclical “Laudato Si” and the challenges of those dwelling in large cities.

The July 13-15 congress, held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, was organized by the foundation "Antoni Gaudi for Great Cities" of Barcelona in collaboration with the Archdiocese of Rio de Janeiro.

In the message, Pope Francis pointed to references made in “Laudato Si” about the particular needs of people who live in large cities. These needs, he explained, need to be met with “three 'Rs:’” respect, responsibility and relationship.

“Respect is the fundamental attitude that man must have with creation. We have received it as a precious gift and we must strive for future generations to continue to admire and enjoy it,” he said.

Moreover, we must teach the next generation to have this care and respect for creation as well.

In St. Francis of Assisi's "Canticle of the Creatures" the saint wrote: "Praised be my Lord, for the sister of water, which is very useful and humble and precious and chaste."

“These adjectives,” the Pope explained, “express the beauty and importance of this element, which is indispensable for life.”

Just like other elements of our earth, clean and drinkable points to God’s love of his creatures, he continued, and societies have an obligation to guarantee safe water for everyone, because when water is not given the respect and attention it requires, it becomes a source of disease and a danger to society.

“It is a duty of all to create in society an awareness of respect for our environment; this benefits us and future generations,” Francis said.

“We cannot sit idly by when we notice a serious decrease in air quality or an increase in the production of waste that is not properly treated. These realities are the result of an irresponsible way of manipulating creation and call us to exercise an active responsibility for the good of all.”
 
The Pope noted that in both rural areas and large cities there is a growing lack of relationship. You see this in cities especially, he said, where you have a busy flow of people in and out.

Regardless of the causes, this can help to create a more multicultural society, fostering wealth and social and personal growth. But it can also make the society more closed and suspicious of each other.

“The lack of roots and the isolation of some people are forms of poverty, which can degenerate into ghettos and lead to violence and injustice. Instead, man is called to love and to be loved, establishing bonds of belonging and bonds of unity among all his fellow men,” he urged.

Some practical ways to do this is through the formation of groups in schools or parishes – communities that help build communion, a sense of belonging, and a network of support.

“It is important for society to work together in a political, educational and religious context to create warmer human relationships, to break the walls that isolate and marginalize,” he concluded.

“Please, I ask you to pray for me; and I beg the Lord to bless you.”

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London, England, Jul 14, 2017 / 09:25 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The American doctor whose experimental treatment has been sought by the parents of Charlie Gard will travel to London on Monday, after a judge ruled that he could examine the baby and confer with the UK doctors.

On Friday, the specialist in mitochondrial diseases and genetic myopathies agreed to travel to examine Charlie in-person at the Great Ormand Street Hospital in London.

The neurologist testified via video July 13 that he believes the 11-month-old has at least a 10 percent chance of improving under his treatment, and possibly as high as a 56 percent chance.

The doctor, Michio Hirano, whose name was revealed after a court order was lifted Friday, is a professor of neurology at the Columbia University Medical Center in New York. He is the doctor overseeing the therapy trial Charlie's parents had sought to join before being denied by the hospital and courts.

Friday’s development comes one week after Great Ormond Street Hospital applied for a new hearing with the high court, citing new evidence suggesting the critically ill baby could benefit from an experimental treatment.  

A team of seven international medical experts had alerted the hospital that fresh, unpublished data suggested that an experimental drug could improve Charlie’s brain condition.

“Two international hospitals and their researchers have communicated to us as late as the last 24 hours that they have fresh evidence about their proposed experimental treatment,” a hospital spokesman said, according to the BBC.

“We believe, in common with Charlie's parents, it is right to explore this evidence,” they continued.

“Great Ormond Street Hospital is giving the High Court the opportunity to objectively assess the claims of fresh evidence...It will be for the High Court to make its judgment on the facts.”

Charlie has been diagnosed with mitochondrial depletion syndrome, a rare genetic disease believed to affect just 16 children in the world. The disease causes progressive muscle weakness and can cause death in the first year of life.

In recent weeks, Charlie’s case has drawn international attention due to the various legal battles that his parents, Chris Gard and Connie Yates, have fought in an attempt to save their son’s life.

Charlie’s parents had initially sought to take their son to the United States for the experimental treatment. They had raised more than $1 million to cover the costs of travel and medical expenses.

However, the hospital sought to block their request, citing his poor quality of life. Britain’s High Court agreed, saying that the experimental therapy could cause suffering and would only prolong the process of dying. It would be in Charlie’s best interest to be removed from life support, the court said.

His parents responded that even a small chance of success was worth pursuing, and said that even if their son could not live, they hoped that taking part in the experimental trial could provide the research that would help other children with his condition live in the future.

The European Court of Human Rights rejected an appeal from Charlie’s parents, who were also denied their request to take their son home from the hospital to die.

Both the Vatican pediatric hospital and Pope Francis have expressed their support for Charlie.

“The Holy Father follows with affection and emotion the story of Charlie Gard and expresses his own closeness to his parents,” read a July 2 statement issued by Vatican spokesman Greg Burke.

“He prays for them, wishing that their desire to accompany and care for their own child to the end will be respected.”

On June 30, the day the Charlie’s life support was initially scheduled to be disconnected, the Pope also used his Twitter account to send a clear pro-life message in the infant's favor:

“To defend human life, above all when it is wounded by illness, is a duty of love that God entrusts to all.”

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IMAGE: CNS photo/Liam Burke courtesy Pr

By Sarah Mac Donald

LIMERICK, Ireland (CNS) -- The Catholic Church is doing whatever it can to strengthen the family, including families often considered nontraditional, said Cardinal Christoph Schonborn of Vienna, the theologian who reviewed Pope Francis' apostolic exhortation on the family.

"Favoring the family does not mean disfavoring other forms of life -- even those living in a same-sex partnership need their families," the cardinal said during a visit to Ireland, which next year hosts the World Meeting of Families.

The family is "the survival network of the future" and "will remain forever the basis of every society," Cardinal Schonborn told journalists July 13 ahead of addressing a conference, "Let's Talk Family: Let's Be Family."

The cardinal told the conference at Mary Immaculate College that people should not be discouraged about the future of the family, despite the many social and economic threats and policies that disregard it.

"Today, everybody can get married," he said, but acknowledged "so many choose not to get married." He suggested that the number of so-called irregular situations has increased enormously because the "framework of society has changed so much."

"But let us not forget that marriage, as we have it today, is a privilege that was fairly rare in previous centuries, (when at most) a third of the population were able to get married."

He said his great-grandmother, a wealthy widow who lived in what today is the Czech Republic but then was part of the Austrian empire, had six servants who remained unmarried because of laws against marriage for people of their status. "Marriage was a privilege," he said.

The cardinal, a former student of retired Pope Benedict XVI, also noted that his German professor's grandmother was the "illegitimate daughter of a maiden, who was not permitted to marry."

He said if he had to sum it up for Twitter, he would say, "'Amoris Laetitia' tells you marriage and family are possible today." "Amoris Laetitia" is Pope Francis' 2016 apostolic exhortation after two synods of bishops on the family.

Asked about the reception of "Amoris Laetitia" within the church and the "dubia" -- a series of questions raised by four cardinals to clear up confusion -- Cardinal Schonborn said the "process of reception is a long process" and needs negotiation and discussion.

But he also criticized the cardinals over the manner in which they raised their concerns. "That cardinals, who should be the closest collaborators of the pope, try to force him and put pressure on him to give a public response to their publicized letter is absolutely inconvenient behavior," he said.

He told journalists, "I fear those who have rapid, clear answers in politics and economy and also in religion. Rigorists and laxists have clear and rapid answers, but they fail to look at life. The rigorist avoids the effort of discernment, of looking closely at reality. The laxist lets everything possible go, and there is no discernment. They are the same but opposite."

"St. Gregory the Great said the art of the pastoral accompaniment is the art of discernment. It is an art and it needs training," he added.

During the conference, Cardinal Schonborn, whose own parents divorced, described Chapter 8 of "Amoris Laetitia" as the section that has been "most hotly debated."

"Most often the topic is reduced to one question -- 'May they (remarried divorcees who did not receive an annulment) receive Communion? Yes or no!' Pope Francis has said, 'This is a trap!' By narrowing this to one question the main purpose of 'Amoris Laetitia' is forgotten: Look closely and discern," the cardinal said.

Commending the importance of pastoral discernment, the cardinal said that, in view of the immense variety of situations that can arise for couples encountering difficulties, "It is understandable that neither the synod nor this exhortation could be expected to provide a new set of general rules, canonical in nature and applicable to all cases."

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