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(Vatican Radio) The witness of God’s merciful love which the Church, as mother, is called to give was at the center of Pope Francis’ Wednesday general audience address.

The catechesis 10 Aug audience, which was held this week in the Vatican’s Paul VI hall, is the latest in a series of addresses connected to the Jubilee Year of Mercy.

Below, please find the official English-language summary of the Pope’s catechesis, which was delivered in Italian:

Dear Brothers and Sisters: In our continuing catechesis for this Holy Year of Mercy, we now consider the miracle of Jesus’ raising of the son of the widow of Nain. Jesus, moved by compassion for the grief of a mother, directly confronts the reality of death and restores life to her young son. This encounter before the town gates can inspire our own encounter with the Lord’s life-giving mercy as we pass through the Holy Door on our Jubilee pilgrimage. We approach that Door bringing with us our entire past, its joys and sorrows, trusting that Jesus will grant us a new beginning and revive our hope in his promises. The new life given to the son of the widow of Nain reminds us that we too have been raised from the dead and given new life in Christ through the grace of baptism. The Church has become our mother and we are called to be witnesses of God’s merciful love before the world. During this Jubilee Year, may we turn once more to Jesus, for he is the Door leading to salvation and new life. May the divine mercy which we have received pass from our hearts to our hands, and find expression in our practice of the corporal and spiritual works of mercy.

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(Vatican Radio) On Tuesday, Pope Francis made a private visit to two convents of religious sisters in the Italian regions of Lazio and Abruzzo.

The Pope visited the Benedictine convent of the sisters of the Reparation of the Holy Face in Carsoli, located in the L’Aquila province. He also stopped by the monastery of Saint Filippa Mareri, located in Borgo San Pietro within the Rieti province, where he visited with the community of Franciscan sisters.

The Holy Father was accompanied by the bishop of Rieti, Domenico Pompili.

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(Vatican Radio) Fighting is raging once again in eastern Ukraine with the United Nations saying that civilian casualties have reached the highest level in a year. The ongoing conflict between government forces and Russian-backed separatists has also added to pressure on media, after personal details were released of thousands of journalists.    

Listen to Stefan Bos’ report:

Amid the turmoil, Ukrainian government forces could be seen trying to halt an apparent attack by Russian-backed separatists around the town of Maryinka, near Donetsk in eastern Ukraine.

Ukrainian soldiers were seen responding to the attack with machine-gun fire and grenades. The July 30 violence of which video footage just emerged, is one of several incidents that has worried international observers with the U.N. already warning that the number of civilian casualties in fighting in eastern Ukraine is back to last year's highs.

The UN Human Rights Office said it documented 69 civilian casualties in June, including 12 dead. This is nearly double the figure for May 2016 and the highest figure since August 2015.

The figure rose further to 73 civilian casualties in July, including eight dead. In total fighting between government forces and Russia-backed separatists has killed at least more than 9,550 people since April 2014 when the conflict began.

CASUALTIES HIGHER

However the UN says the real number of casualties may be higher and the International Crisis Group has said that "there is little doubt that the death toll is significantly higher than either side admits."

U.N. officials believe that more than half of all the casualties recorded in the past two months were caused by shelling. For Ukraine's army, July was the deadliest month since August 2015. Authorities say at least 42 servicemen were killed and 181 wounded.

A cease-fire deal signed last year in Minsk, Belarus, was meant to halt the fighting. But observers say many of its key points such as the complete withdrawal of heavy weapons from the front line have not been implemented.

Yet it has become increasingly difficult for reporters to independently cover the conflict: Website Myrotvorets ('Peacekeeper') has been able to publish names and addresses of some 4,500 journalists and media personnel who it claimed had collaborated with Russia-backed separatists in the east of the country.

These and other controversies prompted Deputy Minister of Information Policy Tetyana Popova to announced her resignation. She says the journalists made a formal appeal and I supported them. And after that the attacks began on those journalists who appealed, on investigative journalists, but the attacks are not investigated sufficiently."

PRESIDENT PRESSURED

It has added to pressure on pro-Westen President Petro Poroshenko to prove he is serious about democratic changes and reforms in the war torn nation. 

Poroshenko did voice support for the journalists over the disclosure scandal, and the Ukrainian Security Service promised to look into the matter.

Yet for now journalists claim to have received threatening phone calls.
 
In the most serious incident last month, a car bomb in Kiev killed Pavel Sheremet, a pioneering journalist and outspoken critic of leaders in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia.  Sheremet had won the Committee to Protect Journalists press freedom award and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s (OSCE) prize for journalism and democracy.

Colleagues including the editor of Ukrainian Pravda website where he worked said they believed the July 20 killing was retribution for his work. Poroshenko condemned the murder and even asked the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to help find those behind the attack.

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(Vatican Radio) As the United Nations called for an urgent humanitarian pause to the fighting raging in the divided city of Aleppo where two million people lack access to clean water and electricity, the Chaldean Bishop of Aleppo speaks about his “destroyed country and the destroyed families” in Syria.     

Bishop Antoine Audo described how “everybody is suffering everywhere in Syria” because of the war and bombardments. He said there was now no water and electricity in Aleppo (following the latest round of fighting), even in the areas of the city controlled by the government, and called once again for a political solution to the conflict. Bishop Audo was interviewed by Susy Hodges.

Listen to the interview with Bishop Antoine Audo of Aleppo: 

Once Syria’s commercial centre and its largest city, Aleppo has borne the brunt of the fighting and bombardments during the nation’s 5 year old civil war and large areas of it now lie in ruins. 

Bishop Audo spoke of “a destroyed country and destroyed families” and described how the Syrian conflict has plunged people across all social levels into a growing poverty.

Turning to the plight of Syria’s Christian community, the bishop said a lot of people are leaving Aleppo all the time and more than one half of the Christian community has now left the city compared to before the war began.  Many people, he said, can’t bear the constant “insecurity” of living in a city that is being fought over and bombarded every day. 

Asked about his feelings when he looks around Aleppo and sees so much death and destruction and so many buildings lying in ruin as a result of the fighting, Bishop Audo said he feels “very sad” when he compares life in the city now to what it was like before the war began.  Whilst remaining hopeful that one day “the war will end” the Bishop  says he would like to ask the international community this question and demand a response to it:  “Why are you destroying Syria?”

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Krakow, Poland, Aug 10, 2016 / 04:03 am (CNA).- Clarence Gilyard is the seasoned Hollywood actor who kicked major bad-guy posterior as Chuck Norris' gun-slinging, karate-kicking deputy James Trivette on the hit 1993-2001 CBS series.

The man is legitimate – especially after working alongside Chuck Norris and his impressive slow-mo high kicks for an entire eight seasons on Walker, among other roles. But what many fans may not know is how Gilyard's high-octane life led to a breaking point and eventual conversion to Catholicism, or how his faith profoundly shapes his life today.

In a sit-down interview with CNA July 29 during World Youth Day in Krakow, Gilyard in a nutshell recounted his former wild lifestyle and his decision to convert, which eventually led him to get involved in the global youth event. He also gave his advice to parents on how to help their kids authentically live the faith.

“I hit bottom, I hit bottom…I was pretty much sex, drugs and rock and roll, ya know what I mean?” Gilyard said. He said that while he was going through his process of recovery, which included “therapists (and) 12-step programs,” he met a man who invited him to go to Mass.

Gilyard agreed, and joined the man for Mass the following Sunday. It was during the consecration of the Eucharist “when everybody hit their knees,” he said, that he felt something that changed his life.

“Man, it rocked my world, it rocked me. So I went to the priest on the way out and I said hey, can I come see you this week? And the rest is history,” he said.

After speaking to the priest, he joined RCIA and entered the Church. That was 21 years ago.

Several years after his conversion, while working as a consultant for his local bishops’ conference, Gilyard went on vacation to Martha’s Vineyard with his wife and five kids. It was there that he met a priest who, given Gilyard’s background in film, told him to visit the production house of Holy Cross Family Ministries when he got back to Hollywood.

Holy Cross Ministries is a nonprofit organization affiliated with the Sisters of the Holy Cross. It was founded by “the Rosary priest” Fr. Patrick Peyton, who coined the phrase “the family that prays together, stays together.”

Through various projects the organization serves low-income and at-risk families by providing critical health, education and legal immigration representation.

After meeting the organization’s president Fr. Willy Raymond, Gilyard was eventually asked to be on the board, and one of the services this role includes is to help organize and facilitate the English speaking venues for the global WYD encounters every 3-4 years.

Gilyard, who attends every WYD, said while he’s at the event “I wear my cowboy hat and I say, hey, there is a Catholic who’s a Hollywood actor that you’ll recognize and he’s got a family, he’s open to life, he’s striving just like everybody else.”

The actor admitted that he has his own issues to work on “just like everybody else,” but stressed that there is a big-name star who “loves Jesus, he loves Mother Church and prays the rosary.”

On the topic of mercy, which was the heart of WYD Krakow’s theme, Gilyard said that the concept isn’t necessarily well-understood by the secular world, but is something he felt during his first Mass “when we were at the consecration where we hit our knees.”

“I don’t get those people standing up – because the geography is God is God, and I need you so much God that I can’t even articulate,” he said, explaining that every day “we’re on our knees not necessarily physically but metaphorically,” begging God for his intercession in our lives.

Gilyard got teary-eyed as he spoke about the day he came into the Church, explaining that his birthday is Dec. 24, and he entered the Church on Christmas Day, Dec. 25.

“I asked to come in on my birthday, and Mother Church accepted me on Christ’s birthday. That’s mercy,” he said. “How do you explain mercy? Five kids, gorgeous wife, fantastic faith community, opportunities to serve all over the world. I say ‘thank-you’ daily.”

He said when it comes to living mercy concretely, Pope Francis is a key example. “This cat’s walking the walk, isn’t he?” Gilyard said, adding that while the Pope has “a lot of energy,” he can’t do it by himself, so “you better get off your butt and help him.”

The actor, who currently teaches film as an associate professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, offered some tips for parents in terms of helping their kids live their faith, based on personal experience.

First of all, he said, adults “need to stop being youth…the youth are being authentic. It’s those people who have gone through those years and are trying to hang out in the space where the youth are supposed to be” that need advice.

The role of a parent is to “to support and mentor and pray” for their kids and the youth, which includes supporting them spiritually.

“We need to be available to youth when they need an answer, when they need a resource, when they need an example,” he said, suggesting that too much time on the cell phone, TV or computer are unnecessary distractions which diminish the role of parents.

Speaking of his own children, Gilyard said he has a 13-year-old who is “rebelling and questioning (and) shooting hormones.”

“He’s only got two hands, but he’s shooting 12 guns, it’s crazy,” Gilyard said, but stressed that his son is “being appropriate.”

The actor said the questions he should be asking himself as a father, then, are: “Am I there for him? Am I being steadfast for him? Am I praying for him? Am I going to daily Mass for him? Am I acknowledging that I need to work on myself because he’s watching me, he’s listening to me, he’s checking me out?”

Pope Francis, he said, is a strong example for him in this area. While he hears many people who say they like what Francis is doing, Gilyard said the Pope “scares me. He scares me because he’s calling me by his example to be a Christian, to be a Catholic, not to say I am.”

Gilyard also emphasized the importance of prayer, noting that while it’s not easy “to be the man of the house, and say okay, let’s pray,” saying a rosary after dinner is a good way his family has been able to incorporate prayer into their daily lives.

Events like WYD, he said, are needed for youth, who often experience a sort of “anxiety” in their search for God. What WYD does, then, is offer them fellowship and the opportunity to join their peers in waving flags, screaming, “blowing horns and beating drums” because they’re excited to see the Pope.

Youth, he said, “want to pray with the Pope, they want to hear what the Pope has to say, they’re not alone. What’s happening inside of you is human, it’s real, and it’s happening to all the youth around the world.”

The amount of resources the Catholic Church provides in order to help persevere in the faith is “ridiculous,” Gilyard said, and pointed to the sacraments and the lives of the Saints as an example of how to imitate Jesus.

The saints, he said, were all “just trying to articulate what Jesus is doing in their lives at the time.” When we turn to them, grace “just keeps pouring out, it just keeps coming,” he said, adding that when it comes to the perfect example of living the Christian life, Jesus is the “one person” we can look to.

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