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(Vatican Radio) In this week's edition of There's More in the Sunday Gospel Than Meets the Eye, Jill Bevilacqua and Seàn-Patrick Lovett bring us readings and reflections for the Twentysixth Sunday in Ordinary Time. Listen:

Gospel     LK 16:19-31

Jesus said to the Pharisees:
“There was a rich man who dressed in purple garments and fine linen
and dined sumptuously each day.
And lying at his door was a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores,
who would gladly have eaten his fill of the scraps
that fell from the rich man's table.
Dogs even used to come and lick his sores.
When the poor man died,
he was carried away by angels to the bosom of Abraham.
The rich man also died and was buried,
and from the netherworld, where he was in torment,
he raised his eyes and saw Abraham far off
and Lazarus at his side.
And he cried out, 'Father Abraham, have pity on me.
Send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue,
for I am suffering torment in these flames.'
Abraham replied,
‘My child, remember that you received
what was good during your lifetime
while Lazarus likewise received what was bad;
but now he is comforted here, whereas you are tormented.
Moreover, between us and you a great chasm is established
to prevent anyone from crossing who might wish to go
from our side to yours or from your side to ours.’
He said, ‘Then I beg you, father,
send him to my father’s house, for I have five brothers,
so that he may warn them,
lest they too come to this place of torment.'
But Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the prophets.
Let them listen to them.’
He said, ‘Oh no, father Abraham,
but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’
Then Abraham said, ‘If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets,
neither will they be persuaded if someone should rise from the dead.’”

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(Vatican Radio)  Austria is urging the European Union to tighten its external borders and an aid package for countries in need amid concerns of a new massive influx of migrants fleeing war and poverty into Europe. In statements Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern and Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz made the appeal after some 1.5 million refugees entered the EU last year alone.

Listen to Stefan Bos' report:

They said it was crucial to improve security of Europe's outer borders and proposed what they called a "Marshall Plan", a massive aid package for countries from where most migrants fleeing war and poverty arrive to the continent to reduce incentives to leave.

Their comments reflected attempts to appeal to voters amid international concerns that Austria's anti-migration far right Freedom Party will win delayed presidential elections scheduled for December.

At a time of tensions between the two ruling parties, Chancellor Kern and Foreign Minister Kurz also wanted to explain political positions that would appeal to their voter base.

Kern, a Social Democrat, focused on the need to reduce the migrant influx by improving the lives of those most likely to leave in their home countries. Kurz, of the People's Party, hit hard on the need to secure border controls.

UN Assembly

They spoke on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly meeting where U.S. President Barack Obama urged wealthy nations to do more to help refugees. 

“We have to imagine what it would be like for our family and our children if the unspeakable happened to us. And we should all understand that ultimately our world would be more secure if we are prepared to help those in need,” he said in his final speech at the annual UN event.

The comments come ahead of a regional refugee summit in Vienna, Austria, on Saturday, convened by Chancellor Kern to harmonize policies. That seems difficult as those attending will include German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán , who lead opposing camps on the issue.

At a summit of EU leaders on Friday in Slovakia,  Orbán again criticized Germany for refusing to set limits on migrant arrivals.

Flood continues?

Unless Berlin caps arrivals, he said, the flood would continue as "everyone sees ... that there is a place in Europe where the good life can be achieved, where they are welcomed and where their needs are taken care of."

He said Hungary's controversial razor-wire barrier was meant "to stop at the Hungarian border the negative consequences of the suction effect of German domestic politics."

Hungarian media however have published pictures showing that Austria too has begun building a fence along Hungary's border.

If confirmed and finalized that fence would come some 27-years after it was taken away, in a symbolic gesture to remove the Iron Curtain and end Communist rule and Soviet domination in Europe.

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(Vatican Radio) Many people will have heard of the Vatican Secret Archives which houses priceless documents going back centuries, but the Jesuits have their own archive here in Rome which contains records from the 1530’s until the present day.

The material takes up two kilometers of shelving and is the archive of the central governance of the Jesuit order, conserving all the major correspondence from Father General to the different Jesuit groupings throughout the world and the correspondence arriving from the different Jesuit leaders back to the house of the Superior General.

Lydia O’Kane spoke to the Director of the Jesuit Archives, Fr Brian MacCuarta SJ to find out more about this treasure trove.

Listen: 

Fr MacCurata says, that “it (the archives) contains materials from all the five continents where Jesuits have been active and continue to be active. He explains that it is very much a working archive and is accessible to the scholarly public. “We have about 400 researchers come to the archive every year, on average every day between 10 and 12 students”, and he adds that materials are available up until the year 1939.”

So what kind of material can be found in the archives? Fr MacCurata says that documents contained there are in a huge rang of languages including a collection in Chinese which he describes as most interesting.

What can also be found are first-hand accounts of Jesuits who witnessed, conflicts, natural disasters, and military operations in the countries they were based in.

Pope Francis

Just down the road from the archives is the home of one of the Society's most famous members; Pope Francis. Asked what his contribution is to the archives, Fr MacCurata replies, “the Holy Father joined the society at a certain time and as a result he leaves his imprint in our archives…as for all Jesuits the record of various activities becomes part of the body of materials that we have in the archive.”

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(Vatican Radio)  A press conference was held on Wednesday at Vatican Radio to launch the 2016 UNCTAD Trade and Development Report, lead by Fr. Michael Czerny, S.J., spokesman for the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.

Listen to Devin Watkins' report:

In a speech prepared by Cardinal Peter Turkson, who heads the Council but was unable to be present at the launch, Fr. Michael Czerny launched the UNCTAD report entitled ‘Structural Transformation for Inclusive and Sustained Growth’.

In the speech, Cardinal Turkson said there was a ‘significant resonance between the Council’s mission and the work of UNCTAD’.

The Holy See is a member of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, which helps developing countries diversify their economy to benefit from the globalized economy more fairly and effectively.

During the launch, Cardinal Turkson said economic developments ‘should help to overcome the immense hardships of humankind; and that such development should promote progress, which today must be integral human development.’

He said the Holy See was present at the founding meeting of the UNCTAD in 1964 in the person of Blessed Pope Paul VI, who ‘identified the ultimate horizon towards which UNCTAD at its best would always be working, when he declared: “Development [is] the new name of peace.”’

Cardinal Turkson noted the advances in technology since that time, but said the fundamental question remains: ‘What kind of trade, growth and development are going to meet the pervasive challenges of poverty, of inequality and lack of progress? Pope Paul VI defined true development with perfect clarity: true development must foster the development of every person and of the whole person. This means each individual person (man, woman and child), each human group, and humanity as a whole.’

In conclusion, Cardinal Turkson said fair trade among nations promotes the sharing of the riches given by God.

‘Our world is abundant with riches, thanks to the generous Creator. Human survival and prosperity are also thanks to the coordinated human efforts to produce and to trade throughout history and around the globe. Trade is certainly a key driver of development, and fair trade will do much to promote authentic human development.’

Below is the full text of Cardinal Turkson’s press conference:

Press Conference to launch the 2016 UNCTAD Report

Sala Marconi, Vatican Radio

Rome, 21 September 2016

Cardinal Peter K.A. Turkson, President

The UNCTAD 2016 Trade and Development Report is entitled “Structural Transformation for Inclusive and Sustained Growth”. Its launch is a meaningful and hopeful occasion. I am happy, as President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, to host this event as an expression of the significant resonance between the Council’s mission and the work of UNCTAD.

Ours is the younger of the two bodies, founded in 1967 at the request of the II Vatican Council. The Council was deeply concerned with “the immensity of the hardships which still afflict the greater part of mankind today.” Therefore Vatican II wanted a Church body “to stimulate the Catholic community to promote progress in needy regions and international social justice.” [1] Everyone would surely agree, that such development should help to overcome the immense hardships of humankind; and that such development should promote progress, which today must be integral human development.

Three years earlier, in 1964, the United Nations established its Conference on Trade and Development to deal with development issues, particularly international trade. The Holy See was present at the founding meeting, and Blessed Pope Paul VI identified the ultimate horizon towards which UNCTAD at its best would always be working, when he declared: “Development [is] the new name of peace.” [2]

Over the subsequent 52 years, new technologies have broken down traditional borders between nations and opened up new areas of economic opportunity. Moreover, a less polarized political landscape has provided new possibilities for worldwide trade. In addition, economic power has become more dispersed, mostly due to globalization and to industrialization and rapid growth in East Asia, with corresponding changes in the workings of the international trading system.

But the basic question remains: what kind of trade, growth and development are going to meet the pervasive challenges of poverty, of inequality and lack of progress?

Pope Paul VI defined true development with perfect clarity: true development must foster the development of every person and of the whole person. This means each individual person (man, woman and child), each human group, and humanity as a whole. [3]

Given the increasing environmental challenges, Pope Francis has extended this fundamental definition to include future generations.  “The global economic crises have made painfully obvious the detrimental effects of disregarding our common destiny, which cannot exclude those who come after us.  We can no longer speak of sustainable development apart from intergenerational solidarity. Once we start to think about the kind of world we are leaving to future generations, we look at things differently.” [4]

Human leadership or governance still seems to have a lot to learn about how to order economic affairs for the welfare of everyone and for the safeguarding of the environment. In the words of Pope Francis: “With due respect for the autonomy and culture of every nation, we must never forget that the planet belongs to all mankind and is meant for all mankind; the mere fact that some people are born in places with fewer resources or less development does not justify the fact that they are living with less dignity.” [5]

And world governance, including institutions of the U.N. family, need to appreciate the poor, as St John Paul II put it, “not as a problem, but as people who can become the principal builders of a new and more human future for everyone.” [6]

The launching of the 2016 Trade and Development Report takes place under the long shadow of the financial and monetary crisis dragging on since 2008. It results from a combination of ethical and technical breakdowns. Have the right lessons been learned yet? It is not evident that the organizations, institutions and decision-makers responsible for ethical and technical breakdowns have acknowledged their role, much less made the necessary repairs. We must do better. Our societies need to find ways of exercising greater corporate, financial and governmental responsibility for the economy and the environment. [7] The world economy has been marooned in growth doldrums for the past six years, and this state of affairs is in growing danger of becoming accepted as the ‘new normal’.

Dialogue and cooperation are not easy. But the ‘old normal’ of isolated sectors and competing institutions will not meet the challenges.

“A fair globalization will not come about only through disjointed decisions on trade, or finance, or labour, or education or health policies, conceived and applied independently. It is an integrated phenomenon: it takes integrated solutions and, obviously, integrated policies.” [8]

Integrated policies will require persistence and generosity, with quite different voices being heard: banking, finance, commerce, business, politics … as well as workers, the unemployed and migrants, youth and the old, and indeed the natural environment.

Nearly 50 years ago, Pope Paul VI enshrined the link between development and peace. Peace is not the mere absence of violence. It bespeaks human fulfilment, integral in all its aspects – material, social, spiritual. Trade and development must aim at the fullest human flourishing if we are ever to have real peace.

Our world is abundant with riches, thanks to the generous Creator. Human survival and prosperity are also thanks to the coordinated human efforts to produce and to trade throughout history and around the globe. Trade is certainly a key driver of development, and fair trade will do much to promote authentic human development.

Let us join in encouraging UNCTAD to fulfil its mission, in taking the 2016 Trade and Development Report on board. May the report assist UNCTAD and other institutions of international governance to face the great challenges of the coming decades.

[1] Vatican II, Gaudium et Spes, § 90. This “body” was to be the future Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.

[2] Paul VI, Populorum Progressio, § 76.

[3] Paul VI, Populorum Progressio, § 14 quoted by Pope Francis in Evangelii Gaudium, § 181.

[4] Pope Francis, Laudato si’, § 159.

[5] Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium, § 190.

[6] World Day of Peace, 2000, § 14.

[7] Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, Towards reforming the international financial and monetary systems in the context of global public authority, 2011.

[8] Juan Somavía and Renato Martino, The challenge of a fair globalization, International Labour Organization, 2005, p. 41.

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The Miao diocese in Arunachal Pradesh organized an inter-religious peace rally in Neotan village, in response to Pope Francis' call to pray for peace on September 20.  

Of late, the world has witnessed  an unprecedented violence and mindless killings by religious fundamentalists, said Father Felix Anthony inaugurating the candle-lit peace rally in Neotan village, in which around three hundred people participated. The world is in need of peace now more than ever. We see pain and blood shed all around in the name of religion, he added.

The Head Monk at Buddhist Monastery in Miao, Venerable Narinda Bhikkhu Mahathero, attending the event highlighted the need of peace in the world at the moment. “Amidst growing religious intolerance in India and all around, this inter-religious peace rally is a great step to promote mutual respect and peace among the people of all faiths”, said the Monk.

Mr. Thiksal Morang, former Deputy Director of School Education (DDSE) Changlang District, representing the Tangsa Baptist Church Association in Arunachal Pradesh, invited all to be messengers of peace. “A peaceful society is a responsibility of all. All of us must strive to establish a harmonious society”, said the former DDSE.

 “Our peace initiative does not end with this rally. It only begins now. We should work to promote peace in our society,  in our own little way,  to make the world a peaceful place to live in”, said Fr. Felix at the conclusion of the rally.

During prayer  the people also remembered and prayed for the Army Jawans who lost their lives this week,  in the terrorist attack at Uri in Jammu and Kashmir.

The world is wounded  and needs healing.  Peace is the balm that the world needs, Mrs. Dangnai Mossang, a local public leader from Miao, said while closing the peace rally.

Responding to the Pope’s invitation Bishop George Pallipparambil, the Bishop of Miao in Eastern Arunachal Pradesh had called on all Parishes, schools and institutions in the Diocese to observe this day of prayer with inter-religious meetings, peace rally and special prayer for peace.

The theme of the 3 day international meeting this year was ‘Thirst for Peace, Religions and Cultures in Dialogue’.  Pope Francis was present for the closing of the interreligious World Day of Prayer for Peace and conveyed his message and prayed for peace with the leaders of other religions.

This year marked the 30th anniversary of the First World Day of Prayer for Peace that St. John Paul II convened back in 1986.  It was a historic event which saw world leaders of different religions come together for the very first time to pray for peace. 

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(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis urged the faithful to be as merciful as the Lord, because – he said – that is the best way to be “a sign, a channel, a witness of His love”.

He was speaking on Wednesday morning during the weekly General Audience in St. Peter’s Square.

Reflecting on the reading from the Gospel of Luke on being merciful, “just as your Father is merciful”, Pope Francis said that is not a mere slogan, but a commitment for life.

That reading he also said, is where the motto of the Holy Year of Mercy comes from.
 
And pointing out that Jesus’ call to humanity to be as merciful as the Father can appear daunting, he said Jesus is not referring to “quantity” because of course it would be impossible for us to tend towards God’s absolute perfection, he is just asking us to try and be like Him: full of love, compassion and mercy.

Pope Francis also quoted from the passage which says “Stop judging and you will not be judged. Stop condemning and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven”.

“All Christians – he said – must forgive! Why? Because all of us, each one of us here in the Square, has been forgiven. During our lives we have all been in need of the Lord’s forgiveness – and if God can forgive me – Francis continued – why should I not forgive the other? Am I greater than God?”

He also explained that by forgiving one another we express the free gift of God’s love and respond to Jesus’s invitation to give freely of our own love, because – he said: “we have has been freely given to us by God, and we will receive only in the measure that we freely give to others”. 

So don’t forget  - the Pope concluded – mercy and gift, forgiveness and gift – that’s how to make your hearts bigger and full of love.
 
And after the catechesis and greetings in various languages, the Pope recalled the XXII World Alzheimer Day marked today on the theme “Remember me”. 

He invited all those present to ‘remember’ those who are affected by the disease and their families with the care of Mary care and with the tenderness of Jesus making them feel we are close to them.

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Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, Sep 21, 2016 / 03:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- After 40 years, the first Catholic Church-operated university opened in Vietnam since the advent of communism in the country.

"The institute aims to enhance theological knowledge and competence among all priests, religious and laypeople," Bishop Joseph Dinh Duc Dao, rector of the institute, said at the opening ceremony according to UCA News.

There have not been Church-run schools in the country since 1975, when communist rule took over the country.

In 1954-1955, Vietnam was split between the North, which was ruled by communists, and the South, which had a Catholic president. For a 300-day period during that time, called Operation Passage to Freedom by the United States Navy, free movement was allowed between the (then) two countries. During that period, hundreds of thousands of people fled North Vietnam to South Vietnam, including many Catholics who feared persecution under the communist rule of the north, and felt safe under the Catholic president in the south.

However, after the fall of Saigon in the South at the end of the Vietnam War in 1975, the country was reunited under communist rule, and Catholics lost many of the freedoms they had sought, including control of or involvement in education.

In the 1990s, the government began to relax some of the restrictions. Some orders of nuns started running kindergartens and some wealthy individuals set up private, Catholic schools, but there were no upper level schools being run by the Church.

The bishops of Vietnam have officially been pushing for a church-operated university since 2011, when they wrote a letter to government officials asking them to allow for Catholic schools.

"It is recommended that the government opens the door to the religious people of good will who aspire to be involved in school education, which is considered the key to open the path for a bright future in the country," the bishops said in their letter.

Then, in December 2015, Archbishop Paul Bui Van Doc of Ho Chi Minh City announced that he had received permission from the government to open the first Catholic University by the fall of 2016.

"The relationship between the Vatican and the Vietnam government is becoming better and better, so we asked and they accepted," the archbishop said at the time.

While the first class size is fairly small - 23 students, mostly priests, all studying theology - the school is hoping to grow and diversify in the near future.

"After that, in the future, maybe a lot," Archbishop Doc said.

"It's possible a thousand or more than a thousand" students will eventually join the university.  

There are currently over 5 million Catholics in Vietnam, which makes up between 6-7 percent of the population.

Vatican Insider reported that the school will offer bachelor's degrees, licenses and doctorates and will eventually offer courses in psychology, sciences, canon law, among others, and that the university's structure and statutes had also received approval from both the government and Vatican.

Bishop Dao told Vatican Insider in December that he considered it a work of mercy that the school would open during the Jubilee year.

“It is a work of God, with our strengths we helped make it happen,” he said.

“It is a work of mercy that we will carry out in the Holy Year with renewed gratitude towards God and with compassion: the service of education implies a deep attention to others.” 

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