Catholic News 2
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Donald Trump will learn this week whether he gets a second chance to make a first impression as he returns to Europe and has his first encounter with Russia's Vladimir Putin....
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) -- There's Gov. Chris Christie, lounging in a beach chair in the Oval Office. There he is again, sitting in the sand as the lovers from the movie "From Here to Eternity" roll around in the surf. And there he is, relaxing outside the meat store from "The Sopranos."...
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Pentagon has thrown a cloak of secrecy over assessments of the safety and security of its nuclear weapons operations, a part of the military with a history of periodic inspection failures and bouts of low morale....
A Philippine bishop raised his voice on Sunday against the government’s war on drugs, asking why the only the poor or small-time drug suspects are targeted while big drug lords and cartels go scot free. “But has our government identified even just one of the cartels here in our country?” asked Bishop Pablo Virgilio David of Kalookan which covers the cities of Kaloocan, Malabon and Navotas. “If this is a war, who is the enemy? Why is it that only the poor or ordinary people end up being the victims?” he asked at Mass after leading a “Walk for Life” march to denounce the growing number of extrajudicial killings in the diocese. Around 1,000 people including students, parishioners, lay people and religious leaders walked together for more than a kilometer from San Ildefonso Parish Church to San Jose Parish Church, culminating in Holy Mass.In his homily, Bishop David lashed out against those who sow violence the same way some su...
A Philippine bishop raised his voice on Sunday against the government’s war on drugs, asking why the only the poor or small-time drug suspects are targeted while big drug lords and cartels go scot free. “But has our government identified even just one of the cartels here in our country?” asked Bishop Pablo Virgilio David of Kalookan which covers the cities of Kaloocan, Malabon and Navotas. “If this is a war, who is the enemy? Why is it that only the poor or ordinary people end up being the victims?” he asked at Mass after leading a “Walk for Life” march to denounce the growing number of extrajudicial killings in the diocese.
Around 1,000 people including students, parishioners, lay people and religious leaders walked together for more than a kilometer from San Ildefonso Parish Church to San Jose Parish Church, culminating in Holy Mass.
In his homily, Bishop David lashed out against those who sow violence the same way some supporters of Judas did against Jesus. He described those behind the violence are “Judases” who are in league with the killers. He said if some people consider the suspected drug users and pushers as “termites of society,” so are those behind the extrajudicial killings.
Bishop David who has been heading the diocese since January, 2016, questioned why crimes like theft and bag snatching are caught on closed circuit television cameras, while murders, people who abduct and kill the helpless don’t appear on surveillance cameras. “They kill daily. In Navotas alone, they killed about 30 people in a span of three weeks,” the bishop said. “Sometimes they kill in groups. They move from one place to another and yet the police fail to arrest them.”
Saying that the country “cannot suppress crime by committing another crime”, the 56-year-old prelate said that summary executions will just worsen the drug problem. At a time of increasing drug-related violence, he lamented that majority of these murder cases remain unsolved and the killers are still on the loose. Bishop David called on the government to solve all incidents of extrajudicial killings, dubbed recently by policemen as death under investigation cases.
President Rodrigo Duterte came to power promising a brutal, bloody war on drugs. His first year in office, which he marked Friday, has been marked by that promise. More than 7,000 alleged drug suspects have died in extrajudicial killings in the Philippines, in encounters with police or gunned down in so-called vigilante killings. Most of those deaths have been classified by police as "deaths under investigation." The killings have drawn widespread international condemnation, with Human Rights Watch describing Duterte's first year in power as a "human rights calamity."
In a pastoral letter in February, read out in the churches of Asia’s largest Catholic nation, the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines agreed that the traffic in illegal drugs needs to be stopped, but "the solution does not lie in the killing of suspected drug users and pushers." The bishops expressed their concern for those killed, their families and the reign of terror in many places of the poor. “Many are killed not because of drugs. Those who kill them are not brought to account,” the bishops lamented.
Sri Lanka in on a warpath against the dengue virus, deploying hundreds of its soldiers to destroy breeding grounds of mosquitos with the deadly dengue fever already claiming 215 people this year, officials said Sunday. Humid monsoon weather, stagnant water from recent flooding, as well as mounting piles of rotting garbage accumulating in the capital, have combined to create abundant areas for mosquitoes to breed. This has caused rates of dengue, a tropical disease that is spread by mosquitoes, to surge to over 71,000 people infected in the first six months of this year, a record figure that far surpasses last year's total of 55,000.Troops, backed by police and health officials, have launched an intensive campaign to identify dengue hotspots to be sprayed with insecticides, the military said in a statement. "Twenty five teams will separately move into the worst-affected areas in and around Colombo and search for dengue breeding spots and other vulnerable ...
Sri Lanka in on a warpath against the dengue virus, deploying hundreds of its soldiers to destroy breeding grounds of mosquitos with the deadly dengue fever already claiming 215 people this year, officials said Sunday. Humid monsoon weather, stagnant water from recent flooding, as well as mounting piles of rotting garbage accumulating in the capital, have combined to create abundant areas for mosquitoes to breed. This has caused rates of dengue, a tropical disease that is spread by mosquitoes, to surge to over 71,000 people infected in the first six months of this year, a record figure that far surpasses last year's total of 55,000.
Troops, backed by police and health officials, have launched an intensive campaign to identify dengue hotspots to be sprayed with insecticides, the military said in a statement. "Twenty five teams will separately move into the worst-affected areas in and around Colombo and search for dengue breeding spots and other vulnerable areas," the statement said.
The scale of the spread of the disease has been unprecedented and caught Sri Lankan authorities off guard. Health ministry officials said the 215 deaths in the first six months of this year compared with 78 reported during the whole of 2016.
Authorities have blamed a garbage disposal crisis in Colombo for the spread of dengue. The country's main garbage dump near the capital collapsed in April, crushing dozens of homes and killing 32 people. With nowhere to take the trash, municipal collection has drastically slowed and led to huge piles on the streets which authorities say help mosquito-breeding. Stagnant water left behind after last month's flooding was also seen as contributing to the spread of dengue. (Source: AFP)
"Women and families in Asia witness to the Gospel despite many challenges and difficulties they face," says Bangladesh’s cardinal. "In Asian countries such as Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Malaysia, South Korea, Singapore, there are families and women who, in their daily lives, undergo threats and abuse but give a heroic witness to the Gospel,” Cardinal Patrick D'Rozario told the Vatican’s Fides news agency. “And there are young people who are looking for the meaning of life and who tell their joy, having found it in Christ", said the cardinal, who is Archbishop of Dhaka as well as the President of the Office for the Laity and Family of the Federation of the Asian Bishops’ Conferences (FABC). He said that “small Christian lay communities give valuable help at a pastoral level. We are confident to see the inspiration and the action of the Holy Spirit that allow Christian communities in Asia to prospe...
"Women and families in Asia witness to the Gospel despite many challenges and difficulties they face," says Bangladesh’s cardinal. "In Asian countries such as Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Malaysia, South Korea, Singapore, there are families and women who, in their daily lives, undergo threats and abuse but give a heroic witness to the Gospel,” Cardinal Patrick D'Rozario told the Vatican’s Fides news agency. “And there are young people who are looking for the meaning of life and who tell their joy, having found it in Christ", said the cardinal, who is Archbishop of Dhaka as well as the President of the Office for the Laity and Family of the Federation of the Asian Bishops’ Conferences (FABC). He said that “small Christian lay communities give valuable help at a pastoral level. We are confident to see the inspiration and the action of the Holy Spirit that allow Christian communities in Asia to prosper."
In the backdrop of Pope Francis’ exhortation "Amoris Laetitia" on the family, FABCs’ East Asian Regional Conference on Family organized a workshop in Taiwan in May discussing the family’s mission of love as hope for society. Another meeting in October in Bangkok, Thailand will discuss the theology of the family based on “Amoris Laetitia”.
Card. D’Rozario said his office is “trying to promote a kind of work carried out in close collaboration among experts in different Asian nations, in order to be more effective.” He said the first workshop, held in Vietnam, sought to explore new opportunities for the faithful and to think about the preparation for the next general assembly. “Particular focus was placed on the forthcoming Synod on Youth, to be held in autumn 2018, and will be an opportunity to create bridges between young Asians and the institutional Church, so that we can listen and learn", he said.
Card. D’Rozario whose Youth Desk within FABC’s Office for the Laity and Family coordinates the Asian Youth Day, said that the specific goal is to accompany young Asians to reflect and share their experiences of faith, lived in local churches, culturally diverse. The Bangladeshi cardinal said the Church also aims to “promote the involvement of young people in the work of evangelization of the Church, so that they can share the values of the Kingdom of God and be joyful witnesses of the gospel, working for social justice and peace in their respective nations." Indonesia’s Semarang Archdiocese is hosting the 7th Asian Youth Day in Yogyakarta, from July 30 to August 9, on the theme, "Joyful Asian Youth! Living the Gospel in Multicultural Asia." "What we want to share,” Card. D’Rozario explained, “is the belief that living the gospel in the Asian context means having your heart open to everyone, communicating messages of faith, hope and love to every young Asian.” “With the help of the Holy Spirit, and according to God's will, we are called to build a fraternal world, which is home to every creature", he added. (Source: Fides)
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Monday said that the Food and Agriculture Organization – FAO - must always be in a position to intervene when people do not have enough to eat.The Pope was addressing staff and employees of the Rome-based United Nations food agency gathered for their 40th General Conference. FAO’s mission is to help eliminate hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition across the globe.Listen to the report by Linda Bordoni: In a message delivered by the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin on behalf of the Pope, Francis said that "When a country is incapable of offering adequate responses because its degree of development, conditions of poverty, climate changes or situations of insecurity do not permit this, FAO and the other intergovernmental institutions need to be able to intervene specifically and undertake an adequate solidary action."The urgency of his words echo FAO Director General José Graziano Da Silva’s ...
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Monday said that the Food and Agriculture Organization – FAO - must always be in a position to intervene when people do not have enough to eat.
The Pope was addressing staff and employees of the Rome-based United Nations food agency gathered for their 40th General Conference.
FAO’s mission is to help eliminate hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition across the globe.
Listen to the report by Linda Bordoni:
In a message delivered by the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin on behalf of the Pope, Francis said that "When a country is incapable of offering adequate responses because its degree of development, conditions of poverty, climate changes or situations of insecurity do not permit this, FAO and the other intergovernmental institutions need to be able to intervene specifically and undertake an adequate solidary action."
The urgency of his words echo FAO Director General José Graziano Da Silva’s dire revelation at the opening of the conference on Monday that the number of hungry people in the world has increased since 2015, reversing years of progress.
Da Silva noted that FAO has identified 19 countries in a protracted crisis situation and said that almost 60 percent of the people suffering from hunger in the world live in countries affected by conflict and climate change.
Thus, highlighting the right of every person to be free of poverty and hunger, the Pope said it depends on the duty of the entire human family to provide practical assistance to those in need and said there is an urgent need for solidarity to be the criterion inspiring all forms of cooperation in international relations.
Pointing out that the difficulties posed by a world scenario in which wars, terrorism and forced displacements increasingly hinder efforts of cooperation, the Pope decried the fact that hunger and malnutrition are not only the result of natural or structural phenomena, but the result of a more complex condition of underdevelopment caused by the indifference of many or the selfishness of a few.
Promising to be present in person at FAO headquarters this coming October 16th to mark World Food Day, Pope Francis made a symbolic contribution to the FAO programme that provides seeds to rural families in areas affected by the combined effects of conflicts and drought.
This gesture, he said, is offered in addition to the work that the Church continues to carry out, in accordance with her vocation to stand at the side of the earth’s poor and to accompany the effective commitment of all on their behalf.
IMAGE: CNS/family handout, courtesy FeatureworldBy Carol GlatzVATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Francis called for respectingthe wishes of a terminally ill child's parents to accompany and care for theirchild "until the end."Greg Burke, Vatican spokesman, said the pope wasfollowing "with affection and emotion" the events concerning CharlieGard, a 10-month-old infant born in England with mitochondrial DNA depletionsyndrome, which causes progressive muscle weakness, brain damage andrespiratory or liver failure; it is typically fatal.Expressing his closeness to the parents, Pope Francis saidhe was "praying for them, hoping that their desire to accompany and takecare of their own baby until the end is not disregarded," Burke's written statementsaid in Italian July 2.In London, Charlie's parents, Chris Gard and Connie Yates,crowdfunded nearly $1.7 million in four months to finance having the babytreated in the United States. However, when hospital officials wanted to stopproviding life support...
IMAGE: CNS/family handout, courtesy Featureworld
By Carol Glatz
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Francis called for respecting the wishes of a terminally ill child's parents to accompany and care for their child "until the end."
Greg Burke, Vatican spokesman, said the pope was following "with affection and emotion" the events concerning Charlie Gard, a 10-month-old infant born in England with mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome, which causes progressive muscle weakness, brain damage and respiratory or liver failure; it is typically fatal.
Expressing his closeness to the parents, Pope Francis said he was "praying for them, hoping that their desire to accompany and take care of their own baby until the end is not disregarded," Burke's written statement said in Italian July 2.
In London, Charlie's parents, Chris Gard and Connie Yates, crowdfunded nearly $1.7 million in four months to finance having the baby treated in the United States. However, when hospital officials wanted to stop providing life support for the baby, the parents went to a London court with their case, but the court ruled the baby should be allowed to "die with dignity" and doctors could stop providing life support. Further court actions, including a decision by the European Court of Human Rights June 27, upheld the ruling.
The parents' continued request to the hospital was to allow them to take Charlie home to die. That request has been denied, and the hospital had said it would be suspending life support June 30 -- a date that has since been extended.
The official Twitter account of Pope Francis, @Pontifex, posted a tweet June 30, "To defend human life, above all when it is wounded by illness, is a duty of love that God entrusts to all."
The Pontifical Academy for Life and the Bishops' Conference of England and Wales extended prayers for Charlie, the medical staff caring for him and the parents.
Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, said the situation of Charlie and his parents "has meant both pain and hope for all of us," and he assured them of his prayers.
"We feel close to him, to his mother, his father, and all those who have cared for him and struggled together with him until now," he said in a written statement, dated June 28 and posted online by Vatican Radio June 29.
The important question to ask in this and other unfortunately similar cases, he said, is, "What are the best interests of the patient?"
"We must do what advances the health of the patient, but we must also accept the limits of medicine," he said, and, according to Catholic teaching, "avoid aggressive medical procedures that are disproportionate to any expected results or excessively burdensome to the patient or the family."
However, the wishes of the parents also must be heard and respected, he said, "but they, too, must be helped to understand the unique difficulty of their situation and not be left to face their painful decisions alone."
If the relationship between patient, guardians and doctors is "interfered with, everything becomes more difficult, and legal action becomes a last resort," the archbishop said.
There is also the "risk of ideological or political manipulation, which is always to be avoided, or of media sensationalism, which can be sadly superficial," he added.
Reacting to the European court ruling, a spokesperson for the Catholic bishops' conference said the definitive ruling that "baby Charlie Gard cannot undergo any further treatment is heartrending, most particularly for his parents and family."
"In this difficult case, all sides have sought to act with integrity and for Charlie's good as they see it. Understandably, Charlie's parents wish to do everything to save and improve Charlie's life. We hope and pray that in the wake of this decision, they are able as a family to find peace over the coming days and weeks. We also encourage the Catholic community to pray for Charlie, his parents and all those that have been caring for him."
"Sadly, prolonged terminal illness is part of the human condition," the written statement said. "We should never act with the deliberate intention to end a human life, including the removal of nutrition and hydration so that death might be achieved. We do, sometimes, however, have to recognize the limitations of what can be done, while always acting humanely in the service of the sick person until the time of natural death occurs."
- - -
Follow Glatz on Twitter: @CarolGlatz.
- - -
Copyright © 2017 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.
IMAGE: CNS photo/Alonso Cupul, EPABy Junno Arocho EstevesVATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Theinternational community must not remain resigned to the plight of thosesuffering hunger and malnutrition, which is often caused by indifference and selfishness,Pope Francis said.In a message to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization conference July 3, the pope saidwars, terrorism and forced displacements are not "inevitable butrather the consequence of concrete decisions" that have led to the lack of food andadequate nutrition to the helpless."We are dealing with acomplex mechanism that mainly burdens the most vulnerable, who are not onlyexcluded from the processes of production, but frequently obliged to leavetheir lands in search of refuge and hope," the pope said in the messageread to the conference by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state.The Vatican published themessage July 3. Cardinal Parolin also toldparticipants that Pope Francis would visit the FAO headquarters in Rome Oct....
IMAGE: CNS photo/Alonso Cupul, EPA
By Junno Arocho Esteves
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The international community must not remain resigned to the plight of those suffering hunger and malnutrition, which is often caused by indifference and selfishness, Pope Francis said.
In a message to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization conference July 3, the pope said wars, terrorism and forced displacements are not "inevitable but rather the consequence of concrete decisions" that have led to the lack of food and adequate nutrition to the helpless.
"We are dealing with a complex mechanism that mainly burdens the most vulnerable, who are not only excluded from the processes of production, but frequently obliged to leave their lands in search of refuge and hope," the pope said in the message read to the conference by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state.
The Vatican published the message July 3.
Cardinal Parolin also told participants that Pope Francis would visit the FAO headquarters in Rome Oct. 16 to attend a conference on World Food Day on the theme "Changing the future of migration."
In his message, the pope expressed the Holy See's desire to help the international community "promote not mere progress or development goals in theory, but rather the actual elimination of hunger and malnutrition."
"All of us realize that the intention to provide everyone with his or her daily bread is not enough. Rather, there is a need to recognize that all have a right to it and they must, therefore, benefit from it," he said.
He also said that unfulfilled proposals to combat malnutrition were "largely dependent on the lack of a culture of solidarity."
The international community's development goals, he added, must acknowledge "that the right of every person to be free of poverty and hunger depends on the duty of the entire human family to provide practical assistance to those in need."
"Since the goods that God the creator has entrusted to us are meant for all, there is an urgent need for solidarity to be the criterion inspiring all forms of cooperation in international relations," he said.
Highlighting the need for countries and institutions to make good on their commitments, Pope Francis said he would make a "symbolic contribution" to the FAO program that provides seeds to families living in areas affected by conflicts and drought.
"This gesture is offered in addition to the work that the church continues to carry out, in accordance with her vocation to stand at the side of the earth's poor and to accompany the effective commitment of all on their behalf," the pope said.
Pope Francis said that the goal of ensuring food security "can no longer be put off" and that only an effort "inspired by authentic solidarity will be capable of eliminating the great number of persons who are undernourished and deprived of the necessities of life."
"This is a very great challenge for FAO and for all the institutions of the international community. It is also a challenge that the church is committed to on the front lines," he said.
- - -
Follow Arocho on Twitter: @arochoju.
- - -
Copyright © 2017 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.
