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Catholic News 2

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) -- Top commanders from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia are preparing to gather one final time to ratify a peace accord reached this week with government negotiators and map out its political strategy without weapons....

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) -- Top commanders from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia are preparing to gather one final time to ratify a peace accord reached this week with government negotiators and map out its political strategy without weapons....

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DURANT, Miss. (AP) -- A man suspected in the slayings of two nuns found dead in their Mississippi home has been arrested and charged with capital murder in the shocking killing that rocked the small town communities where the women served, authorities said....

DURANT, Miss. (AP) -- A man suspected in the slayings of two nuns found dead in their Mississippi home has been arrested and charged with capital murder in the shocking killing that rocked the small town communities where the women served, authorities said....

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ASCOLI PICENO, Italy (AP) -- Mourners in Italy prayed, hugged, wept and even applauded as coffins carrying victims of the country's devastating earthquake passed by at a state funeral Saturday, grieving as one nation after three desperate days of trying to save as many people as possible....

ASCOLI PICENO, Italy (AP) -- Mourners in Italy prayed, hugged, wept and even applauded as coffins carrying victims of the country's devastating earthquake passed by at a state funeral Saturday, grieving as one nation after three desperate days of trying to save as many people as possible....

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(Vatican Radio)  Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican Secretary of State, expressed his ‘hopes and expectations for new developments and a new season in relations between the Apostolic See and China’ in a speech on Saturday at the diocesan seminary in Pordenone, Italy.The speech – laden with the history of diplomatic relations between China and the Holy See – focused on the figure of Cardinal Celso Costantini as a bridge builder.Born in Castions di Zoppola in 1876 and an honorary citizen of Pordenone and Aquileia, Cardinal Costantini was named the first Apostolic Delegate to China in 1922 until 1933 by Pope Pius XI.Cardinal Parolin said “Celso Costantini successfully completed a mission of extraordinary importance: he created a ‘bridge’ between Holy See and China, to which Pope Francis pays the utmost attention and, I am sure, also the people and government of China”.A diary written by Cardinal Celso Costantini, entitled The Secrets...

(Vatican Radio)  Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican Secretary of State, expressed his ‘hopes and expectations for new developments and a new season in relations between the Apostolic See and China’ in a speech on Saturday at the diocesan seminary in Pordenone, Italy.

The speech – laden with the history of diplomatic relations between China and the Holy See – focused on the figure of Cardinal Celso Costantini as a bridge builder.

Born in Castions di Zoppola in 1876 and an honorary citizen of Pordenone and Aquileia, Cardinal Costantini was named the first Apostolic Delegate to China in 1922 until 1933 by Pope Pius XI.

Cardinal Parolin said “Celso Costantini successfully completed a mission of extraordinary importance: he created a ‘bridge’ between Holy See and China, to which Pope Francis pays the utmost attention and, I am sure, also the people and government of China”.

A diary written by Cardinal Celso Costantini, entitled The Secrets of a Vatican Cardinal: Celso Costantini's Wartime Diaries, 1938-1947, was kept secret before being published in 2010 and tells some of the story of his assignment in China.

Below is a Vatican Radio English translation of the conclusion portion of Cardinal Parolin’s speech:

In light of these brief reflections on the events surrounding Cardinal Celso Costantini in relation to the vast ‘continent’ that is China, one becomes aware of his singular capacity to ‘build bridges’, that is, his capacities of knowledge, of respect, of encounter, and of dialogue between worlds, very distant, at least in appearance.

Today, as ever, many are the hopes and expectations for new developments and a new season of relations between the Apostolic See and China for the benefit not only of Catholics in the land of Confucius but for the entire country, which boasts of one of the greatest civilizations on Earth. I would dare to say [these relations] would be beneficial even for an ordered, peaceful, and fruitful cohabitation of peoples and nations in a world, like our own, torn by many tensions and conflicts. I consider it important to forcefully underline this idea:  New hopes and good relations with China – including diplomatic ties, if God so wishes! – are neither an end in themselves nor a desire to reach some kind of ‘worldly’ success. They are thought out and pursued – not without fear and trembling because it involves the Church which belongs to God – I repeat, they are pursued only in the measure in which they are ‘ordered’ toward the good of Chinese Catholics, to the good of the entire Chinese people, and to the harmony of the whole society, in favor of world peace.

Pope Francis, as his predecessors John Paul II and Benedict XIV before him, knows well the baggage of suffering, of misunderstandings, often of silent martyrdom which the Catholic community in China carries on its shoulders: it is the weight of history! But he also knows, along with external and internal difficulties, how alive is the yearning for full communion with the Successor of Peter, how many advances have been made, how many efforts are made to witness to the love of God and the love of neighbor, especially to the people weakest and most in need, which is the synthesis of all Christianity. [Pope Francis] also knows and encourages, especially in this Jubilee of Mercy, mutual forgiveness, reconciliation between brothers and sisters who have been divided, and the struggle to grow in understanding, collaboration, and love!

We are all called to accompany with caring closeness, respect, humility, and above all prayer this path of the Church in China. It involves writing a new page of history, looking ahead with trust in Divine Providence and healthy realism to insure a future in which Chinese Catholics can feel profoundly Catholic – ever more visibly anchored on the solid rock, which, by the will of Jesus, is Peter – and fully Chinese, without having to deny or diminish all that is true, noble, pure, lovable, honorable (cf. Phil 4,8) of that which their history and their culture has produced and continues to produce. The Second Vatican Council reminds us that nothing is truly human if it does not find an echo in the heart of the disciples of Christ! (cf. GS n.1).

It should be realistically accepted that there is no shortage of problems to be resolved between the Holy See and China and that they can generate, often by their complexity, differing positions and orientations. However, such problems are not completely unlike those positively dealt with 70 years ago. Cardinal Celso Costantini, therefore, remains a source of inspiration and a model of extreme actuality. In this sense, I thank you also because this conference, prepared for you, gave me the occasion to better study the figure and work [of Cardinal Costantini], just as others in this diocese have done and are doing.

On the path which remains to be walked, we commend ourselves with immense trust to Our Lady, invoked under the title “Help of Christians, Auxilium christianorum”. Cardinal Costantini in 1924 crowned her image in Sheshan, near Shanghai.

On 22 May 2016, in light of the liturgical feast of Our Lady venerated in Sheshan, Pope Francis yearned for, in the current Year of Mercy, “an authentic culture of encounter and harmony of all of society, that harmony which the Chinese spirit loves so much” [1]. This spirit finds full consonance in the Bishops of Rome who have always demonstrated maximum consideration, enormous commitment, and unbounded love for the Chinese people.

[1] All’Angelus il Papa ricorda che ogni uomo è un essere in relazione. Orizzonte trinitario. E invita a pregare per il vertice di Istanbul e per la Cina, in L’Osservatore Romano, 23-24 maggio 2016, 7. 

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(Vatican Radio) A state funeral was held in the town of Ascoli Piceno in Italy for some of the victims of an earthquake that devastated three nearby towns earlier this week, killing at least 290 people.The Requiem Mass was celebrated by Bishop Giovanni D'Ercole in a community gym where 35 caskets were laid out.Weeping relatives hugged each other and reached out to touch the simple wooden coffins at the funeral held on Saturday for some of the 290 people killed in the earthquake.Amongst the 35 coffins laid out in a sports hall were small caskets holding the bodies of an 18-month-old baby and a nine-year-old girl, two of the 21 children who are known to have died when the quake hit central Italy early on Wednesday.“Don’t be afraid to bewail your suffering, we have seen so much suffering. But I ask you not to lose your courage,” Bishop Giovanni D’Ercole said in a homily in the hall, which was packed with grieving families and the nation’s top politic...

(Vatican Radio) A state funeral was held in the town of Ascoli Piceno in Italy for some of the victims of an earthquake that devastated three nearby towns earlier this week, killing at least 290 people.

The Requiem Mass was celebrated by Bishop Giovanni D'Ercole in a community gym where 35 caskets were laid out.

Weeping relatives hugged each other and reached out to touch the simple wooden coffins at the funeral held on Saturday for some of the 290 people killed in the earthquake.

Amongst the 35 coffins laid out in a sports hall were small caskets holding the bodies of an 18-month-old baby and a nine-year-old girl, two of the 21 children who are known to have died when the quake hit central Italy early on Wednesday.

“Don’t be afraid to bewail your suffering, we have seen so much suffering. But I ask you not to lose your courage,” Bishop Giovanni D’Ercole said in a homily in the hall, which was packed with grieving families and the nation’s top politicians. “Only together can we rebuild our houses and churches. Above all, together we can give life back to our communities,” he said, speaking in front of a dusty crucifix salvaged from one of dozens of churches devastated by the quake.

Even as the Requiem Mass was being held, rescuers kept searching through the rubble of the worst hit town, Amatrice, although they acknowledged they had little hope of finding any more survivors from Italy’s worst earthquake in seven years.

Nine more bodies were recovered from the town on Saturday, including three corpses that were pulled overnight from the crumpled Hotel Roma, bringing the death toll in Amatrice alone to 230 residents and tourists.

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Joseph Enkh will be ordained to priesthood by His Exc. Mgr. Wenceslao Padilla, CICM, Apostolic Prefect of Ulaanbaatar on August 28. The new priest has chosen for his ordination the motto: "Deny yourself, take up your cross daily and follow me" (Lk 9, 23). According to Fides, "More than 1,500 people have confirmed that they will participate in the celebration, which will be a very special moment for the Catholic Church in Mongolia and for the whole society", says  Fr. Prosper Mbumba, CICM a Congolese missionary in the Asian country.Don Joseph Enkh was ordained a deacon on 11 December 2014 in Daejeong (South Korea), where he received his initial formation, and returned to Mongolia in January. Since then he has been carrying out his pastoral experience, serving in various parishes of Mongolia. On Monday evening, August 29 Joseph Enkh will celebrate his first Mass in the same Cathedral of St. Peter and Paul in UlaanbaatarThe Church has been growing in Mongolia...

Joseph Enkh will be ordained to priesthood by His Exc. Mgr. Wenceslao Padilla, CICM, Apostolic Prefect of Ulaanbaatar on August 28. The new priest has chosen for his ordination the motto: "Deny yourself, take up your cross daily and follow me" (Lk 9, 23). According to Fides, "More than 1,500 people have confirmed that they will participate in the celebration, which will be a very special moment for the Catholic Church in Mongolia and for the whole society", says  Fr. Prosper Mbumba, CICM a Congolese missionary in the Asian country.

Don Joseph Enkh was ordained a deacon on 11 December 2014 in Daejeong (South Korea), where he received his initial formation, and returned to Mongolia in January. Since then he has been carrying out his pastoral experience, serving in various parishes of Mongolia. On Monday evening, August 29 Joseph Enkh will celebrate his first Mass in the same Cathedral of St. Peter and Paul in Ulaanbaatar

The Church has been growing in Mongolia following decades of Communist rule, during which the free exercise of religious freedom was not permitted, therefore restricting opportunities for the Catholic Church to spread the Faith. But the new democratic government of Mongolia established in 1992 has been welcoming the Church's presence and the work of the Congregation of the Immaculate Heart (CICM) missionaries.

Upon arrival, Bp. Padilla, a native of the Philippines, and other missionary priests found that Mongolia struggled with issues such as alcoholism and domestic abuse and almost no government programs to help them.

The priests started from scratch with zero parishioners in 1992, with the first baptisms taking place three years after their start in 1995. Today, the bishop is the leader of about 1,000 Catholics and three parishes.

There are also 54 missionaries that are part of the Congregation of the Immaculate Heart who are from various countries and are working to build up the Church's influence.

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(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has sent a Video Message to the Church in the Americas, to mark the Jubilee of the Americas, organized by the Bishops’ Conference of Latin America (CELAM) and the Pontifical Commission for Latin America.Scheduled to take place in Bogota, Colombia, from the 27th to the 30th of August, the theme of the continental Jubilee celebration is taken from Pope Francis’ homily at Mass on May 2nd, 2015, at the Pontifical North American College in Rome, where he had gone to visit as part of preparations for the canonization of St. Junipero Serra: “May a powerful gust of holiness sweep through all the Americas during the coming Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy!”Click below to hear our report For the full text of Pope Francis' Mesage, click hereAlong with the bishops, priests, religious men and women, and laity of the 22 Latin American and Caribbean countries, delegates from Canada and the United States and representatives of the Holy S...

(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has sent a Video Message to the Church in the Americas, to mark the Jubilee of the Americas, organized by the Bishops’ Conference of Latin America (CELAM) and the Pontifical Commission for Latin America.

Scheduled to take place in Bogota, Colombia, from the 27th to the 30th of August, the theme of the continental Jubilee celebration is taken from Pope Francis’ homily at Mass on May 2nd, 2015, at the Pontifical North American College in Rome, where he had gone to visit as part of preparations for the canonization of St. Junipero Serra: “May a powerful gust of holiness sweep through all the Americas during the coming Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy!”

Click below to hear our report

For the full text of Pope Francis' Mesage, click here

Along with the bishops, priests, religious men and women, and laity of the 22 Latin American and Caribbean countries, delegates from Canada and the United States and representatives of the Holy See are taking part in the Jubilee celebration, which seeks to turn the “Spirit of mercy” that animates this Jubilee Year into genuine and concrete help especially for all those who, in the words of Pope Francis, live on the “existential peripheries” of life.

In his Message, Pope Francis says, “All of us are aware, all of us know that we live in a society that is hurting: no one doubts this.  We live in a society that is bleeding, and the price of its wounds normally ends up being paid by the most vulnerable. But it is precisely to this society, to this culture, that the Lord sends us. He sends us and urges us to bring the balm of His presence.”

The schedule of events over the three-day celebration includes a penitential liturgy including time for personal confessions, a reflection on the legacy of holiness found in the American saints, a full day dedicated to Works of Mercy on the American continent, and a public conversation on mercy as the soul of a culture of encounter.

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(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has sent a Video Message to the Church in the Americas to mark the American continental Jubilee, opening Saturday, August 27th in Bogota, Colombia, and running through August 30th, under the auspices of the Bishops’ Conference of Latin America (CELAM) and the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, with the close cooperation of the US and Canadian Bishops’ Conferences.The theme of the continental Jubilee celebration is taken from Pope Francis’ homily at Mass on May 2nd, 2015, at the Pontifical North American College in Rome, where he had gone to visit as part of preparations for the canonization of St. Junipero Serra: “May a powerful gust of holiness sweep through all the Americas during the coming Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy!”Below, please find the full text of the Pope’s Message*******************************************I welcome the initiative of CELAM and CAL, in association with the bishops of the United Sta...

(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has sent a Video Message to the Church in the Americas to mark the American continental Jubilee, opening Saturday, August 27th in Bogota, Colombia, and running through August 30th, under the auspices of the Bishops’ Conference of Latin America (CELAM) and the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, with the close cooperation of the US and Canadian Bishops’ Conferences.

The theme of the continental Jubilee celebration is taken from Pope Francis’ homily at Mass on May 2nd, 2015, at the Pontifical North American College in Rome, where he had gone to visit as part of preparations for the canonization of St. Junipero Serra: “May a powerful gust of holiness sweep through all the Americas during the coming Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy!”

Below, please find the full text of the Pope’s Message

*******************************************

I welcome the initiative of CELAM and CAL, in association with the bishops of the United States and Canada – this makes me think of the Synod of America – to make possible this continent-wide opportunity to celebrate the Jubilee of Mercy.  I am pleased to know that all the countries of America have been able to take part.  Given the many attempts to fragment, divide and set our peoples at odds, such events help us to broaden our horizons and to continue our handshake; a great sign that encourages us in hope.

I would like to begin with the words of the apostle Paul to his beloved disciple: “I am grateful to Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because he judged me faithful and appointed me to his service, even though I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a man of violence.  But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.  The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners – of whom I am the foremost.  But for that very reason I received mercy, so that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display the utmost patience” (1 Tim 1:12-16a).

So Paul tells Timothy in his First Letter, chapter 1, verses 12 to 16.  In speaking to him, he wants to speak to each of us.  His words are an invitation, I would even say, a provocation.  Words meant to motivate Timothy and all those who would hear them throughout history.  They are words that cannot leave us indifferent; rather, they profoundly affect our lives.

Paul minces no words: Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, of whom Paul considers himself the worst.  He is clearly aware of who he is, he does not conceal his past or even his present.  But he describes himself in this way neither to excuse or justify himself, much less to boast of his condition.  We are at the very beginning of the letter, and he has already warned Timothy about “myths and endless genealogies” and “meaningless talk”, and warned him that all these end up in “disputes”, arguments.  At first, we might think that he is dwelling on his own sinfulness, but he does this so that Timothy, and each of us with him, can identify with him.  To use football terms we could say: he kicks the ball to the center so that another can head the ball.  He “passes us the ball” to enable us to share his own experience: despite all my sins, “I received mercy”.

We have the opportunity to be here because, with Paul, we can say: “We received mercy”.  For all our sins, our limitations, our failings, for all the many times we have fallen, Jesus has looked upon us and drawn near to us.  He has given us his hand and showed us mercy.  To whom?  To me, to you, to everyone.  All of us can think back and remember the many times the Lord looked upon us, drew near and showed us mercy.  All those times that the Lord kept trusting, kept betting on us (cf. Ez 16).  For my part, I think of the sixteenth chapter of Ezekiel, and the Lord’s constant betting on each one of us.  That is what Paul calls “sound teaching” – think about it! – sound teaching is this: that we received mercy.  That is the heart of Paul’s letter to Timothy.  During this time of the Jubilee, how good it is for us to reflect on this truth, to think back on how throughout our lives the Lord has always been near us and showed us mercy.  To concentrate on remembering our sin and not our alleged merits, to grow in a humble and guilt-free awareness of all those times we turned away from God – we, not someone else, not the person next to us, much less that of our people – and to be once more amazed by God’s mercy.  That is a sure message, sound teaching, and never empty talk.

There is one particular thing about Paul’s letter that I would like to share with you.  Paul does not say: “The Lord spoke and told me” or “The Lord showed me or taught me”.  He says: “He treated me with mercy”.   For Paul, his relationship with Jesus was sealed by the way he treated him.  Far from being an idea, a desire, a theory – much less an ideology –, mercy is a concrete way of “touching” weakness, of bonding with others, of drawing closer to others.  It is a concrete way of meeting people where they are at.  It is a way of acting that makes us give the best of ourselves so that others can feel “treated” in such a way that they feel that in their lives the last word has not yet been spoken.  Treated in such a way that those who feel crushed by the burden of their sins can feel relieved at being given another chance.  Far from a mere beautiful word, mercy is the concrete act by which God seeks to relate to his children.  Paul uses the passive voice – pardon me for being a bit pedantic here – and the past tense.  To put it loosely, he could well have said: “I was ‘shown mercy’”.  The passive makes Paul the receiver of the action of another; he does nothing more than allow himself to be shown mercy.  The past tense of the original reminds us that in him the experience took place at a precise moment in time, one that he remembers, gives thanks for, and celebrates.

Paul’s God starts a movement from heart to hands, the movement of one who is unafraid to draw near, to touch, to caress, without being scandalized, without condemning, without dismissing anyone.  A way of acting that becomes incarnate in people’s lives.

To understand and accept what God does for us – a God who does not think, love or act out of fear, but because he trusts us and expects us to change – must perhaps be our hermeneutical criterion, our mode of operation: “Go and do likewise” (Lk 10:37).  Our way of treating others, in consequence, must never be based on fear but on the hope God has in our ability to change.  Which will it be: hope for change, or fear?  The only thing acting out of fear accomplishes is to separate, to divide, to attempt to distinguish with surgical precision one side from the other, to create false security and thus to build walls.  Acting on the basis of hope for change, for conversion, encourages and incites, it looks to the future, it makes room for opportunity, and it keeps us moving forward.  Acting on the basis of fear bespeaks guilt, punishment, “you were wrong”.  Acting on the basis of hope of transformation bespeaks trusting, learning, getting up, constantly trying to generate new opportunities.  How many times?  Seventy times seven.  For that reason, treating people with mercy always awakens creativity.  It is concerned with the face of the person, with his or her life, history and daily existence. It is not married to one model or recipe, but enjoys a healthy freedom of spirit, and can thus seek what is the best for the other person, in a way they can understand.  This engages all our abilities and gifts; it makes us step out from behind our walls.  It is never empty talk – as Paul tells us – that entangles us in endless disputes.  Acting on the basis of hope for change is a restless way of thinking that sets our heart pounding and readies our hands for action.  The journey from heart to hands.

Seeing how God acts in this way, we might be scandalized, like the older son in the parable of the Merciful Father, by how the father treats his younger son upon seeing him return.  We might be scandalized that he embraced him, treated him with love, called for him to be dressed in the best robes even though he was so filthy.  We might be scandalized that upon seeing him return, he kissed him and threw a party. We might be scandalized that he did not upbraid him but instead treated him for what he was: a son.

We start being scandalized – and this happens to us all, it’s almost automatic, no? – we start being scandalized when spiritual Alzheimer’s sets in: when we forget how the Lord has treated us, when we begin to judge and divide people up.  We take on a separatist mindset that, without our realizing it, leads us to fragment our social and communal reality all the more.  We fragment the present by creating “groups”.  Groups of good and bad, saints and sinners.  This memory loss gradually makes us forget the richest reality we possess and the clearest teaching we have to defend.  The richest reality and the clearest teaching.  Though we are all sinners, the Lord has unfailingly treated us with mercy.  Paul never forgot that he was on the other side, that he was chosen last, as one born out of time.  Mercy is not a “theory to brandish”:  “Ah!  Now it is fashionable to talk about mercy for this Jubilee, so let’s follow the fashion”.  No, it is not a theory to brandish so that our condescension can be applauded, but rather a history of sin to be remembered.  Which sin?  Ours, mine and yours.  And a love to be praised.  Which love?  The love of God, who has shown me mercy.

We are part of a fragmented culture, a throwaway culture.  A culture tainted by the exclusion of everything that might threaten the interests of a few.  A culture that is leaving by the roadside the faces of the elderly, children, ethnic minorities seen as a threat.  A culture that little by little promotes the comfort of a few and increases the suffering of many others.  A culture that is incapable of accompanying the young in their dreams but sedates them with promises of ethereal happiness and hides the living memory of their elders.  A culture that has squandered the wisdom of the indigenous peoples and has shown itself incapable of caring for the richness of their lands.

All of us are aware, all of us know that we live in a society that is hurting; no one doubts this.  We live in a society that is bleeding, and the price of its wounds normally ends up being paid by the most vulnerable.  But it is precisely to this society, to this culture , that the Lord sends us.  He sends us and urges us to bring the balm of “his” presence.  He sends us with one program alone: to treat one another with mercy.  To become neighbors to those thousands of defenseless people who walk in our beloved American land by proposing a different way of treating them.  A renewed way, trying to let our form of bonding be inspired by God’s dream, by what he has done.  A way of treating others based on remembering that all of us came from afar, like Abraham, and all of us were brought out of places of slavery, like the people of Israel.

All of us still vividly recall our experience in Aparecida and its invitation once more to become missionary disciples.  We spoke at length about discipleship, and wondered how best to promote the catechesis of discipleship and mission.  Paul gives us an interesting key to this: showing mercy.  He reminds us that what made him an apostle was how he was treated, how God drew near to his life: “I received mercy”.  What made him a disciple was the trust God showed in him despite his many sins.  And that reminds us that we may have the best plans, projects and theories about what to do, but if we lack that “show of mercy”, our pastoral work will be cut off midway.

All this has to do with our catechesis, our seminaries – do we teach our seminarians this path of showing mercy? – our parish structures and pastoral plans.  All this has to do with our missionary activity, our pastoral plans, our clergy meetings and even our way of doing theology.  It is about learning to show mercy, a form of bonding that we daily have to ask for – because it is a grace – and need to learn.  Showing mercy among ourselves as bishops, priests and laity.  In theory we are “missionaries of mercy”, yet often we are better at “mistreating” than at treating well.  How many times have we failed in our seminaries to inspire, accompany and encourage a pedagogy of mercy, and to teach that the heart of pastoral work is showing mercy.  Being pastors who treat and not mistreat.  Please, I ask you: be pastors who know how to treat and not mistreat.

Today we are asked especially to show mercy to God’s holy and faithful people – they know a lot about being merciful because they have a good memory –, to the people who come to our communities with their sufferings, sorrows and hurts.  But also to the people who do not come to our communities, yet are wounded by the paths of history and hope to receive mercy.  Mercy is learned from experience – in our own lives first – as in the case of Paul, to whom God revealed all his mercy, all his merciful patience.  It is learned from sensing that God continues to trust in us and to call us to be his missionaries, that he constantly sends us forth to treat our brothers and sisters in the same way that he has treated us.  Each of us knows his or her own story and can draw from it.  Mercy is learned, because our Father continues to forgive us.  Our peoples already have enough suffering in their lives; they do not need us to add to it.  To learn to show mercy is to learn from the Master how to become neighbors, unafraid of the outcast and those “tainted” and marked by sin.  To learn to hold out our hand to those who have fallen, without being afraid of what people will say.  Any treatment lacking mercy, however just it may seem, ends up turning into mistreatment.  The challenge will be to empower paths of hope, paths that encourage good treatment and make mercy shine forth.

Dear brothers and sisters, this gathering is not a congress or a meeting, a seminary or a conference.  This gathering is above all a celebration: we have been asked to celebrate the way God has treated each of us and all his people.  For this reason, I believe that it is good time for us to say together: “Lord, I have let myself be deceived; in a thousand ways I have shunned your love, yet here I am once more, to renew my covenant with you.  I need you.  Save me once again, Lord; take me once more into your redeeming embrace” (Evangelii Gaudium, 3).

Let us be grateful, as Paul told Timothy, that God trusts us to repeat with his people the immense acts of mercy he has shown us, and that this encounter will help us to go forth with renewed conviction as we seek to pass on the sweet and comforting joy of the Gospel of mercy.

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Washington D.C., Aug 27, 2016 / 07:09 am (CNA/EWTN News).- For most young people who experience feelings of gender dysphoria, the experience is in fact temporary, and a non-heterosexual orientation is not as fixed as sometimes claimed, a new overview of the relevant research says.“Only a minority of children who experience cross-gender identification will continue to do so into adolescence or adulthood,” said the report, published in The New Atlantis Journal.As many as 80 percent of men who reported same-sex attraction as adolescents no longer do so as adults. There were “similar but less striking” results for women. The idea of innate sexual orientation is “not supported by scientific evidence,” the report said.Titled “Sexuality and Gender: Findings from the Biological, Psychological, and Social Sciences,” the report reviews various research studies to examine claims about sexuality and gender.It was authored by Dr. Lawrence S. Mayer,...

Washington D.C., Aug 27, 2016 / 07:09 am (CNA/EWTN News).- For most young people who experience feelings of gender dysphoria, the experience is in fact temporary, and a non-heterosexual orientation is not as fixed as sometimes claimed, a new overview of the relevant research says.

“Only a minority of children who experience cross-gender identification will continue to do so into adolescence or adulthood,” said the report, published in The New Atlantis Journal.

As many as 80 percent of men who reported same-sex attraction as adolescents no longer do so as adults. There were “similar but less striking” results for women. The idea of innate sexual orientation is “not supported by scientific evidence,” the report said.

Titled “Sexuality and Gender: Findings from the Biological, Psychological, and Social Sciences,” the report reviews various research studies to examine claims about sexuality and gender.

It was authored by Dr. Lawrence S. Mayer, Ph.D., a biostatistician and epidemiologist now a scholar in residence at Johns Hopkins University; and by Dr. Paul R. McHugh, M.D., a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Johns Hopkins University.

The report considers various claims like the basis and permanence of gender identity and sexual orientation.

It found there is a lack of scientific evidence for claims that gender identity is an innate property “independent of biological sex.” Scientific evidence also does not support claims that a person might be “a man trapped in a woman’s body.”

Gender identity problems can arise for someone with Intersex conditions, where a person has ambiguous biological sex due to genetic abnormalities.

However, brain structure comparison of transgender and non-transgender individuals show only “weak correlations” between brain structure and cross-gender identification. These correlations are not evidence that this identity has a basis in the biology of the brain.
 
Similarly, sexual orientation’s neurological basis can be overstated. Against the “born that way” claim, the report authors write: “While there is evidence that biological factors such as genes and hormones are associated with sexual behaviors and attractions, there are no compelling causal biological explanations for human sexual orientation.”
 
The report also considered sexuality, mental health, and social factors.

Non-heterosexuals are two to three times as likely to have experienced childhood sexual abuse.

The authors weighed the evidence that non-heterosexual attractions, desires and behaviors may increase the risk of suffering sex abuse, or that sexual abuse may cause non-heterosexual attractions, desires and behaviors. They said that more research is needed before claiming a link between sex abuse and non-heterosexual attractions.

Non-heterosexuals do face elevated risk of adverse health and mental health outcomes. They are estimated to have a 1.5 times higher risk of anxiety and substance abuse than the heterosexual population. They face double the risk of depression and 2.5 times higher risk of suicide.

The transgender population, recently estimated to make up 0.6 percent of the total population, suffers a lifetime suicide attempt rate of 41 percent, compared to 5 percent of the overall population.

There is “limited, inconsistent and incomplete” evidence that social stressors like discrimination and stigma “contribute to the elevated risk of poor mental health outcomes for non-heterosexual and transgender populations.”

The report said clinicians and policymakers should not assume that models focused on social stressors offer a complete explanation for these health differences.

“Just as it does a disservice to non-heterosexual subpopulations to ignore or downplay the statistically higher risks of negative mental health outcomes they face, so it does them a disservice to misattribute the causes of these elevated risks, or to ignore other potential factors that may be at work.”

Adults who undergo sex reassignment surgeries continue to show a high risk in mental health, being about 5 times more likely to attempt suicide and 19 times more likely to die by suicide compared to a control group.

Regarding therapies for children that delay puberty or modify sex characteristics of adolescents, there is “little scientific evidence” for their therapeutic value, the report said.

At the same time, “some children may have improved psychological well-being if they are encouraged and supported in their cross-gender identification.”

“There is no evidence that all children who express gender-atypical thoughts or behavior should be encouraged to become transgender,” the report added.

 

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The more than 430 fundraisers posted on the GoFundMe website after the mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando have exposed weaknesses inherent in these popular do-it-yourself charity campaigns: waste, questionable intentions and little oversight....

The more than 430 fundraisers posted on the GoFundMe website after the mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando have exposed weaknesses inherent in these popular do-it-yourself charity campaigns: waste, questionable intentions and little oversight....

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