Catholic News 2

(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has sent a video-message to the participants of the “Manos Abiertas” [Open Hands] Encounter taking place in Santa Fe, Argentina.

The voluntary association was founded in 1992 by Father Ángel Rossi, SJ, with the motto “To love and to serve.” The theme of this year’s meeting is “Mercy: A journey from the heart to the hands.”

In his video-message, Pope Francis brought up two stories from the New Testament: The parable of the Good Samaritan, and the story of the raising of the son of the Widow of Nain.

“The heart, which in the Good Samaritan is like that of Jesus, was touched by misery: The misery he saw there, the misery of that widowed mother whom Jesus saw, that misery of pain and the misery of the beaten man who was seen by the Samaritan,” – Pope Francis said – “The heart is united with the misery of another and that's mercy.”

The Pope said mercy is not the same thing as having pity.

“When the misery of the other comes into my heart, I feel mercy; which is not the same as to have pity, pity is another feeling,” – the Holy Father said – “I can feel pity when I see a  wounded animal or such a situation, but mercy is another feeling:  It is when the misery of another, or a situation of pain or misery, gets into my heart, and I permit the situation to touch my heart.  I say this: It is an outward journey, the journey of misery to the heart. And this is the path: It is not mercy if it is not of the heart, a heart wounded by the misery of another.”

He also said mercy is not mere philanthropy.

“It is distinct from having good feelings; this is not mercy, it is having good feelings,” – Pope Francis explained – “It is distinct from hands-on philanthropy, which is not mercy: It is good, it is good, philanthropy is not a bad thing, but it is not mercy, which is another thing. Mercy is the journey of misery to my heart, taken up by my heart, that moves my heart; and sometimes it moves so much that the heart becomes like a compass at the North Pole, and does not know where to stop, because of what it feels.”

The Pope then explained how to tell the difference between mercy and pity.

“First you must ask for the grace to have mercy; it is a grace, and we must ask it of the Lord,” he said.

“The only way to have mercy is to yourself recognize your own sin, and be forgiven by the Lord;  through recognizing sin and forgiveness,” – Pope Francis continued. – “You can be merciful only if you truly feel that you have received the mercy of the Lord, otherwise you cannot be merciful … and having received mercy, you will be merciful.”

The Holy Father said this is the return journey, “from the heart to the hands.”

“Stop torturing yourself over what wounded your heart, both by others and yourself,” Pope Francis said. “Let yourself receive mercy and begin the return trip, and with your hands give mercy to others, spreading mercy and love.”

Full Article

(Vatican Radio) The Vatican on Thursday reaffirmed its opposition to legalizing drug use as a means to fight drug addiction.

Archbishop Bernardito Auza, the Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations, spoke during a United Nations General Assembly committee meeting on international drug control.

“The Holy See believes that the fight against the drug problem must be guided by the  fundamental principles of respect for human dignity, of the primacy of prevention, and of the role of the family as a bulwark for both drug prevention and addiction treatment,” Archbishop Auza said.

The full statement is below

Statement by H.E. Archbishop Bernardito Auza

Apostolic Nuncio, Permanent Observer of the Holy See

71st Session of the United Nations General Assembly, Third Committee

Agenda Item 106: Crime prevention and criminal justice, and

Item 107: International drug control

New York, 6 October 2016

Madam Chair,

I am pleased to join previous speakers in congratulating you and the other members of the bureau of this Committee on your election.

The Holy See strongly shares the determination of the international community to tackle the world drug problem and to promote actively a society free of drug abuse, one in which all people can lead healthy lives, enjoy peace and live in social harmony. National and international authorities must resolutely fight the narcotics trade. In his Address to the General Assembly in September 2015, Pope Francis described the narcotics trade as a new kind of war against society, a war that is "taken for granted and poorly fought", in part because of corruption on multiple levels. The evils of drug trade are amplified because, as the Pope pointed out, “drug trafficking is, by its very nature, accompanied by trafficking in persons, money laundering, the arms trade, child exploitation and other forms of corruption."

The production and trafficking of illicit drugs obeys the law of supply and demand: drug trafficking exists because there is a lucrative market created by individuals addicted to illicit drugs. Thus, preventing and fighting the consumption of such drugs is key to preventing and fighting their production and trafficking.

In this regard, my delegation wishes to reaffirm the Holy See’s opposition to legalizing drug use as a means to fight drug addiction. As Pope Francis stated in his June 2014 address to the International Drug Enforcement Conference in Rome, “The fight against drugs cannot be won with drugs. Drugs are an evil, and with evil there can be neither surrender nor compromise.”

Madam Chair,

The Holy See believes that the fight against the drug problem must be guided by the fundamental principles of respect for human dignity, of the primacy of prevention, and of the role of the family as a bulwark for both drug prevention and addiction treatment.

Respect for the  human dignity  of all  must be ultimately at the core of every international drug control and crime prevention strategy. Individuals who have fallen into drug addiction must be treated with compassion and understanding. Numerous Catholic organizations and religious orders are already active both in the fields of prevention and rehabilitation, adopting  preventive measures that start with educating children and young people to reject the temptation of an illusionary bliss provoked by drug consumption, or  the lure of  easy money coming from drug trafficking.

The suffering of a drug addict is not confined to the addicted individual; it also engulfs the family and the whole of society. The family is the first to suffer from substanceabusing members, with consequences such as domestic violence, economic collapse and other dysfunctions that can lead to the breakdown of the family.

For this reason, the Holy See cannot place enough emphasis on the importance of the family as the cornerstone of prevention, treatment, rehabilitation, reintegration and health strategies. Families form the very basis of a society. Illicit drug abuse destroys the fabric of individual families and of entire communities, leading ultimately to the destabilization of society. The Holy See thus supports programs, as recommended by the Secretary General’s Report, “aimed at preventing risk factors from resulting in the commission of crime and drug abuse among young people by strengthening parenting skills.”

Madam Chair,

In order to prevent drug addiction, it is necessary not only to say “no” to drugs. It is also essential to say “yes” to life, to love, to family, to all that is positive and healthy for the full enjoyment of life.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Full Article

Washington D.C., Oct 8, 2016 / 06:01 am (CNA/EWTN News).- China’s “utterly disgraceful” human rights record is not just bad, it’s getting worse every year, a new Congressional report has warned.

“The Chinese government’s human rights record is utterly disgraceful, continuing a downward trend over the past three years,” Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), chair of the bipartisan Congressional-Executive Committee on China, which published the report, stated on Thursday.  

“The Chinese government took extraordinary and unprecedented steps last year to decimate the ranks of human rights lawyers, crush independent civil society and religious groups, and expanded controls over the Internet and the press.”

The Congressional-Executive Commission on China released its 15th annual report on China on Thursday. Created in 2000 by the U.S.-China Relations Act, the commission “is mandated to monitor human rights and rule of law developments in China,” the report stated.

“China – now ranking as the world’s second largest economy – has benefited greatly from the international rules-based system in driving its economic transformation and growth,” the report’s executive summary stated.

However, it added, the ruling Chinese Communist Party has not improved its human rights record and respected the rule of law as it has been expected to by the international community. From suppression of religious freedom to detaining dissidents and human rights activists to forced population control, the Chinese state “has run roughshod over human rights” Rep. Smith stated, and it must be held accountable.

“The stakes could not be higher for the Christian pastor unjustly imprisoned and devastated by the loss of his church, the rights lawyer languishing under house arrest and forced to confess to crimes she did not commit, and the Hong Kong student activists fighting for their city’s future,” said Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.).

“This report is dedicated to these people and their aspirations – it is vital that they know the United States, despite its economic relationship with China, will stand with that country’s reformers and dissidents and press the Chinese Government and Communist Party to respect basic human rights and uphold the rule of law, just as we expect of any responsible country.”

For instance, the party announced in 2015 that its decades-old one-child family planning policy – which resulted in widespread forced abortions and sterilizations and a massive gender gap – would be changed, but only to a two-child-per-family policy.

The old policy was infamous for its human rights abuses. In addition to the forced abortions, non-compliant citizens and their families were detained or beaten by local officials, women died during violent forced abortions, and the extraordinary ratio of males to females led to an underground sex trafficking industry.

Human rights advocates said that same human rights abuses that occurred under the old policy would continue under the new one, with the only difference being one more child allowed per family.

“Families that want a third child will still face the pressure to abort their child or pay exorbitant fines,” Rep. Smith stated. “The sad reality is that policy change will have little effect on China’s shrinking workforce, the social problems of a rapidly aging population, or the human trafficking problems caused by China’s massive sex-ratio imbalance – it is a matter of too little, too late.”

The Chinese government also cracked down on the rise of non-sanctioned religious groups in 2015, the report said, and on Friday it exerted greater control over the practice of religion through its new regulations of religion.

“In both law and practice, the Chinese government continued to violate the rights of its citizens to religious freedom,” the report said, noting the state has “broad discretion over religious practice, internal affairs, and interpretations of faith, which is often exercised based on Party and government policy interests.”

Party officials warned at April’s National Conference on Religious Work that religious groups must be loyal to the state and signaled that they will exercise tighter control on religion in the future to guard against the supposed infiltration of foreign powers through religion.

When the party released its religious regulations on Friday, Rep. Smith called it “stunning, but not surprising.”

“Religious practice is exploding in China, particularly among Christians, and the religious life of Tibetan Buddhist, Uyghur Muslim, and Falun Gong practitioners persist despite decades of the worst abuses,” he said.

However, religious groups must register with the government, and in China there is a state Catholic Church and an “underground” Catholic Church. Local and national officials have harassed or persecuted Catholics who are not part of the state Catholic Church, destroying churches and detaining or harassing bishops and priests.

They have also refused to recognize some bishops appointed by the Vatican because they require that bishops be appointed by state religious groups, a conflict that is in the long process of being resolved.

“After Pope Francis assumed the papacy in 2013, the Holy See and the Chinese government reportedly began a series of discussions regarding the system of bishop appointments in China,” the report noted.

“In April 2016, Chinese and Holy See representatives formed a working group to discuss the selection and ordination of bishops in China; as of July 2016, both sides reportedly acknowledged that talks were continuing,” the report added.

The country also keeps thousands of political or religious prisoners and uses “black jails” to “arbitrarily detain” people outside the justice system.

According to the commission’s Political Prisoner Database, there were over 8,000 “cases of political or religious imprisonment in China” with 1,383 of those current cases of imprisonment; the remaining 7,000 cases involved prisoners who “have been released, or executed, who died while imprisoned or soon after release, or who escaped.”

 

Full Article

Full Article

Full Article

Full Article

Full Article

Full Article

Full Article

Full Article