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An 11-person delegation from Pakistan is participating in next week’s World Youth Day in Krakow, Poland, July 25 to 31.   The group headed by Archbishop Sebastian Shaw of Lahore is leaving on Sunday.  The delegation includes Pervez Roderick, secretary of the National Association of Catholic Youth, four ‎priests and five youth leaders.‎  Roderick told AsiaNews that one of the boys will be holding the Pakistani flag at opening ceremony, another will share the experience of ‎being a youth in Pakistan during a session, while a priest from Faisalabad diocese will be one of those ‎concelebrating at the Pope’s concluding mass.  The Pope is joining the World Youth Day July 27-31.

“I am ready for a new experience of life and excited to meet pilgrims and new friends from all over the world,”  said Viviana Natalie Rodrigues, a leader of a youth group at Karachi’s St Lawrence Church, who is participating in a World Youth Day celebration for the first time.  The 26-year-old free-lance journalist is gathering material for a report on her pilgrimage to Krakow.   Another youth leader, 25-year old Zeeshan Bais from St John Church in Larkhana, Hyderabad Diocese, said he is excited to meet the Pope.  Both Bais and Rodriguez will be waiting for the Pope at one of the Stations of the Cross on July 29.

Meanwhile, Archbishop Joseph Arshad of Faisalabad is planning to launch a year-long pilgrimage of the cross for youth to mark WYD in each of his 23 parishes.   “Today’s youth must become irresistible bearer of the Cross in order to uphold the Catholic teachings in the world against the current problems of materialism, extreme ideologies, militant tendencies, faithlessness, pornography and negative broadcasts by electronic-print media and social media,” the archbishop said.  (Source: AsiaNews)

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Vatican City, Jul 22, 2016 / 06:53 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Amid modern challenges emerging from a culture which provides increasingly easier access to outside distractions, Pope Francis has issued new norms for women’s cloistered communities, which place a special emphasis on prayer and the centralization of communities.
 
“Dear contemplative sisters, without you what would the Church be like, or those living on the fringes of humanity and ministering in the outposts of evangelization?” the Pope said in a new Apostolic Constitution, published July 22.
 
The Church, he said, “greatly esteems your life of complete self-giving. The Church counts on your prayers and on your self-sacrifice to bring today’s men and women to the good news of the Gospel. The Church needs you!”
 
However, he also cautioned that the “silent and recollected peace of mind and heart” lived in contemplative live “can meet with subtle temptations.”
 
The most serious of these, he said, is what the Desert Fathers called “the midday devil,” referring to “the temptation to listlessness, mere routine, lack of enthusiasm and paralyzing lethargy.”
 
He also cautioned against the temptations presented by the current digital culture, which “has a decisive influence in shaping our thoughts and the way we relate to the world and, in particular, to other people.”
 
“Contemplative communities are not immune from this cultural climate,” he said, and while recognizing the benefits of media and communications, particularly in the process of formation, urged a “prudent discernment” aimed at ensuring these means are truly put at the service of the community, “and do not become occasions for wasting time or escaping from the demands of fraternal life in community.”
 
The new norms also encourage communities of the same spirituality, such as Franciscans, Benedictines, Carmelites, etc., to centralize into one federation, however, the specifics of these federations haven’t yet been defined.
 
Pope Francis’ Apostolic Constitution “Vultum Dei Quaerere,” or “Seek the Face of God” on cloistered women religious was signed June 29, on the feast of Saints Peter and Paul, and was released July 22, the feast of St. Mary Magdalene.
 
An apostolic constitution is the highest level of decree to be issued by a Pope, and is addressed to the public. They typically focus on solemn matters of the Church such as the promulgation of laws or definitive teachings.
 
In Vultum Dei Quaerere, the Pope said that contemplative monastic life, which is mainly composed of women, is a “signpost” and reminder of life’s ultimate meaning. Contemplative life, he said, is “a priceless and indispensable gift which the Holy Spirit continues to raise up in the Church.”
 
However, as a means of assisting contemplative women to “attain the goal of their specific vocation” amid the rapid changes in modern society and the temptations that come with them, he issued new norms on 12 areas of discernment and renewal for consecrated life, particularly the monastic tradition.
 
These areas are: formation, prayer, the Word of God, the sacraments of the Eucharist and Reconciliation, fraternal life in community, autonomy, federations, the cloister, work, silence, communications media and asceticism.
 
In the 21-page document, consisting of 37 articles, Pope Francis offered a reflection on each of the points, explaining the nature of each and why they are essential for the life and vocation of contemplative women religious.
 
In light of these reflections, Pope Francis established that, in reference to canon 20 of the Code of Canon Law and with the publication and promulgation of the constitution, any canons in the Code of Canon law which directly contradict the articles of the new constitution “are derogated,” meaning canceled.
 
More specifically, he said the articles containing norms and dispositions found in Pius XII’s 1950 Apostolic Constitution “Sponsa Christi,” the Statuta Generalia Monialium, the Congregation for Religious’ 1950 “Instruction Inter Praeclara,”  the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life’s 1999 Instruction “Verbi Sponsa” on the contemplative life and enclosure of nuns, are also derogated.
 
The new norms will be drafted by the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, which will eventually result in amendments made to Canon Law which reflect the wishes the Pope voiced in the constitution.
 
In order to help in the drafting of the norms, Francis provided a series of points based on his reflections on each of the 12 themes, which serve as a guideline for what the new norms will consist of.
 
In these guidelines, he established that individual monasteries “are to give special attention to ongoing formation,” which he said “is the foundation for every stage of formation, beginning with initial formation.”
 
He said that to ensure this ongoing formation, federations of religious communities will promote a greater cooperation between monasteries “through the exchange of formational materials and the use of digital means of communication,” though he urged the “due discretion” in using these means.
 
Monasteries, he said, “are to pay special attention to vocational and spiritual discernment, ensuring that candidates receive personalized guidance,” and must ensure that “ample time” is set aside for the initial formation process.
 
While establishing international and multicultural communities is good and a sign of the universality of the community’s charism, Francis stressed that “the recruitment of candidates from other countries solely for the sake of ensuring the survival of a monastery is to be absolutely avoided.”
 
In order to ensure this doesn’t happen, “certain criteria are to be determined,” he said. He also stipulated that to ensure “a high quality of formation,” monasteries should promote common houses for initial formation.
 
Since prayer “is the heart of contemplative life,” Pope Francis also established that “each monastery is to review its daily horarium (schedule) to see if it is centered on the Lord.”
 
Community celebrations, he said, should also be reviewed “to see if they constitute an authentic and vital encounter with the Lord.”
 
He placed special emphasis on the use of “lectio divina,” traditional form of Benedictine prayer that focuses on the prayerful and contemplative reading of scripture.
 
Each community, he said, “is to establish fitting times and means for respecting this requirement of reading and listening, ruminatio (pondering), prayer, contemplation and sharing of the sacred Scriptures.”
 
Francis also stressed the importance of sharing the “transforming experience” of God’s Word with priests, deacons, other consecrated and laity, and insisted that each monastery determine how this “spiritual outreach” can be achieved.
 
The guidelines offered by the Pope also stressed that in addition to “carefully preparing its Eucharistic celebrations,” each monastery must “set aside appropriate times for Eucharistic adoration, also inviting the faithful of the local Church to take part.”
 
He noted that particular attention must also be given to the selection of chaplains, confessors and spiritual directors.
 
The daily schedule for each community must also include “suitable moments of silence, in order to foster a climate of prayer and contemplation.”
 
In terms of autonomy, Francis stressed that juridical autonomy must be matched with “a genuine autonomy of life” entailing a certain number of sisters with “the vitality needed to practice and spread the charism, a real capacity to provide for formation and governance, dignity and quality of liturgical, fraternal and spiritual life, sign value and participation in life of the local Church, self-sufficiency and a suitably appointed monastery building.”
 
Pope Francis also stipulated that at least initially, “all monasteries are to be part of a federation.” These federation, he said, can be established not only on a geographical basis, but also on “an affinity of spirit and traditions.”

If “for some special reason” a monastery can’t join a federation, permission to remain outside of it will be sought from the Holy See.
 
The specifics, he added, will be in the norms drafted by the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, who will determine the responsibilities of the federation’s president and council.
 
Francis also specified that even if some monasteries receive a small income, it doesn’t mean they are “exempted from the obligation of labor.”
 
He also required that each monastery, in its plan for community life, find a “fitting means” of expressing the ascetic discipline of monastic life in order to make it “more prophetic and credible.”
 
Once each individual institute has adapted the articles of their constitutions or rules to the new regulations laid out in Vultum Dei Quaerere, they must be submitted to the Holy See for approval.
 
During the July 22 presentation of the constitution, Archbishop Jose Rodriguez Carballo O.F.M., secretary for the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, told journalists that the constitution was “a gift” from Pope Francis to the Church.
 
The process started two years ago with a questionnaire the congregation sent to cloistered communities around the world, he said, explaining that the answers they got back were “rich” and useful, so a synthesis was compiled and given to the competent authorities so that the constitution could eventually be written.
 
He said there are no plans to issue a similar constitution for cloistered male religious, given the fact that the majority of contemplative communities are composed of women.
 
Although there is a vocational crisis throughout across the globe, the archbishop noted that there are 4,000 contemplative communities in the world, with the highest numbers being “in Italy and Spain.” where there are more are in Spain and in Italy.
 
Carmelites “singularly possess…the most numerous” contemplative community in the Church, he said, noting that others such as Benedictines, Dominicans, and Augustinians are also high in number.

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By Carol Glatz

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- When Pope Francis goes to Poland to meet with an expected 2 million young people from around the world, he's going with a firm idea of the dreams, fears and challenges so many of them face.

He knows what lies inside the hearts and minds of today's youth, not because of any third-party polling or sophisticated survey, but because Pope Francis practices what he's called an "apostolate of the ear."

It takes patience and grace, he told disadvantaged university students in Rome in June, to truly listen to what others have to say -- a call he repeated during his Angelus address this month, warning that people's hectic lives were threatening an already hobbled ability to listen.

As pope, a busy ministry that could easily lead to isolation or overscheduling, he has worked hard to make the time to listen to people of all backgrounds in public and private settings. And he has often broken with papal protocol to get an unfiltered look at what today's youth think and feel.

He will scrap pre-written speeches and ask his sometimes very young audiences what questions they have. He also does interviews with young people, including those who aren't Catholic or even religious, like when he welcomed six young students and reporters from Belgium in 2014.

When they asked why he agreed to do the video interview with them, the pope said because he sensed they had a feeling of "apprehension" or unease about life and "I think it is my duty to serve young people," to listen to and help guide their anxiety, which is "like a seed that grows and in time bears fruit."

His latest sit-down with a group of young people came in May when he met with YouTube personalities from different parts of the world. The popular vloggers have a huge following of millions of young people themselves, and so they know beyond their own personal experiences what many kids today are thinking and feeling.

The full 50-minute video of that closed-door Q&A was uploaded recently with little fanfare by one of the 11 young people and posted on the YouTube channel, Anna RF.

The questions they ask and advice the pope gives offer a good indication of what he's been hearing these past years and what he may hope to convey when he meets with participants at World Youth Day events.

Here's a brief look at their biggest concerns and how the pope responded:

-- Bullying, exclusion, intolerance: The pope said dial down aggression by showing tenderness and humility.

"Aggression is always a sign of insecurity," so try to neutralize the attack by showing good manners, listening, softly asking questions about what the person is trying to say and letting them vent their anger.

"You should never react to provocation. It's better to look stupid than respond when you are provoked," he said.

Favor encounters and dialogue that look for a sense of belonging that goes beyond racial, religious, ethnic or group identities. "There is something far greater" to which everyone belongs -- the human family, he said.

-- Identity and belonging: The pope said people have to feel they belong to something, and if their family or community is broken, then a virtual belonging online can help. Supportive peers online can create a circle of friendship and belonging, and from there "craft a path of hope" for those who feel lost or alone.

-- Helping those who feel hopeless or lost: The best thing to do is not to speak, but hold their hand, he said.

"We have forgotten the language of gestures and actions" and have gotten too used to words, which sometimes, especially when someone is in pain, "are of no use."

-- Immigration and integration: Newcomers need to be able to hold onto their own culture, he said.

Europe has such a negative experience of migration because they did not develop healthy policies that fostered integration while allowing people to keep their own culture without being judged or rejected, he said.

-- Fostering empathy, understanding among religions in the face of negative media messaging: The relationship between people of different religious beliefs needs to be based on brotherly love because "we all have the same father," he said.

People have to listen to each other and look at the positive things each religion proposes in order to build that positive relationship, he said. Solely underlining what divides one religion from another amounts to "putting up a wall" and attacking each other, he added.

"What makes us attack, what divides us are fundamentalists," he said, in which individuals think they themselves hold the truth and everyone else is wrong. Starting with the awareness "we are all brothers and sisters," he said, "leads to dialogue."

-- Taking a stand on controversial topics, how to fight for what is right: The pope said he is not always successful in quelling the anger his position or words may cause "so if I fail, I always say it is my fault."

He said he looks at what went wrong -- not to invent an excuse, but to see where dialogue can be built.

"What helps me is to listen," he said. Sit down and hear what others have to say and talk according to the art of persuasion, not aggressive debate, he said. "Persuasion can be peaceful. This is my way."

The pope repeatedly shows through his gestures and words that "the root of peace lies in our capacity to listen," as he said at his Angelus address July 17.

Listening for the pope ends up being not just a method for gathering information for helping people; the gesture of listening is itself an act of peace.

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Follow Glatz on Twitter: @CarolGlatz.

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By Carol Glatz

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- In an effort to help contemplative women religious renew their life and mission in the church and the world, Pope Francis issued a series of new rulings dealing with formation, assets, prayer life, authority and autonomy.

The new rulings include a mandate that "initially, all monasteries are to be part of a federation" based on "an affinity of spirit and traditions" with the aim of facilitating formation and meeting needs through sharing assets and exchanging members. Monasteries voting for an exception from joining a federation will need Vatican approval.

All institutes of contemplative women religious will need to revise or update their constitutions or rules so as to implement the new norms and have those changes approved by the Holy See.

Titled "Vultum Dei Quaerere" (Seeking the face of God), the document focuses on the life of contemplative women religious. Dated June 29, the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, it was released by the Vatican July 22, the feast of St. Mary Magdalene.

The 38-page document contains 14 new articles ruling on various aspects of life within monasteries and their jurisdiction, including a regulation outlining the criteria needed for a monastery to retain juridical autonomy or else be absorbed by another entity or face closure.

The Vatican Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life is now charged with creating a new instruction to replace what had been the current -- but now no longer in effect -- "Verbi Sponsa" -- the congregation's 1999 instruction on contemplative life and cloistered nuns.

Archbishop Jose Rodriguez Carballo, secretary of the congregation, told reporters July 22 that the new apostolic constitution is meant to fill the legislative gaps that have become apparent since Pope Pius XII's apostolic constitution "Sponsa Christi," issued 66 years ago.

The bulk of the new document outlines 12 aspects of consecrated life that call for "discernment and renewed norms" in an effort to help contemplative women fulfill their specific vocation and "essential elements of contemplative life," the pope wrote.

The document also notes today's pervasive "digital culture" and praises the potential of internet for formation and communication. However, the pope calls for "prudent discernment" in the use of new media so that they don't lead women to "wasting time or escaping from the demands of fraternal life in community" or become harmful to one's vocation or an obstacle to contemplative life.

The pope praised contemplative women and expressed the church's long-held esteem for men and women who chose to follow Christ "more closely" by dedicating their lives to him "with an undivided heart" and in a prophetic way.

Underlining how much the church and humanity need their prayers, self-sacrifice and evangelizing witness, the pope said it was not easy for today's world to understand their "particular vocation and your hidden mission; and yet it needs them immensely."

Like beacons of light, contemplative women are "torches to guide men and women along their journey through the dark night of time," pointing the way to the new dawn and the truth and life of Christ, the pope said. They are "like Mary Magdalene on Easter morning, announce to us: 'I have seen the Lord!'" and Mary, the Mother of God, who contemplates the mystery of God in order to see the world "with spiritual eyes."

However, contemplative life can "meet with subtle temptations" -- the most dangerous being: listlessness, falling into mere routine, lack of enthusiasm and hope, and "paralyzing lethargy," he said.

To that end, the pope highlighted 12 aspects of contemplative and monastic life that needed particular attention and renewed norms for women: formation; prayer; the word of God; the sacraments of the Eucharist and reconciliation; fraternal life in community; autonomy; federations; the cloister; work; silence; media; and asceticism.

The document includes clearer regulations saying that maintaining juridical autonomy will entail having "a certain, even minimal, number of sisters, provided that the majority are not elderly, the vitality needed to practice and spread the charism, a real capacity to provide for formation and governance, dignity and quality of liturgical, fraternal and spiritual life, sign value and participation in life of the local church, self-sufficiency and a suitably appointed monastery building."

If a monastery falls short of the criteria, then the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life "will study the possibility of establishing an ad hoc commission made up of the ordinary, the president of the federation, a representative of the federation and the abbess or prioress of the monastery." The commission's aim will be to find ways to revitalize the monastery "or to effect its closure."

Pope Francis repeats warnings he has made before in speeches to consecrated men and women, against "the recruitment of candidates from other countries solely for the sake of ensuring the survival of a monastery."

Archbishop Rodriguez explained the church is "not closing its doors" to its universal makeup, but that more thorough and careful discernment must be made by superiors and candidates in reflecting upon their reasons for entering monastic life.

The document, the archbishop said, also clearly states that nuns charged with formation can receive continued formation for themselves even outside the monastery, in a way that is consistent with their charism. The importance of their own formation cannot be sacrificed, he said, just because they have been called to live a cloistered life.

The other major change, the archbishop said is contained in article 10, in which each monastery is to ask the Holy See "what form of cloister it wishes to embrace, whenever a different form of cloister from the present one is called for."

"Once one of the possible forms of cloister is chosen and approved, each monastery will take care to comply with, and live in accordance with, its demands," the document said.

Other mandatory norms each monastery will have to adhere to: verify the centrality and place of prayer in daily life; provide for "lectio divina" and eucharistic adoration; find ways to involve the local church more; and provide "suitable moments of silence."

The archbishop said no document on the life of contemplative men's orders was in the works or being considered.

He said work on the constitution began two-and-a-half years ago when the congregation sent out a questionnaire to every monastery, about 4,000 around the world. The responses were compiled and considered in the drafting process of the new constitution, he said, and contemplative women were "greatly listened to."

Like the number of religious men and women, the number of contemplative women religious has declined the past decade going from more than 48,000 women in 2000 to less than 39,000 in 2014, he said.

Europe remains the continent with the highest numbers of contemplative women -- more than 23,000, followed by the Americas with more than 8,000.

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Follow Glatz on Twitter: @CarolGlatz.

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Copyright © 2016 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. www.catholicnews.com. All rights reserved. Republishing or redistributing of CNS content, including by framing or similar means without prior permission, is prohibited. You may link to stories on our public site. This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. To request permission for republishing or redistributing of CNS content, please contact permissions at cns@catholicnews.com.

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