Catholic News 2

Maher is the name of a project that Indian Sister Lucy Kurien of the Order of the Sisters of the Cross of Chavanod (SCC) began in 1997 to shelter exploited and destitute women and children, in Pune, in western India’s Maharashtra state.   In the local Marathi language ‘maher’ means ‘mother’s home’ – a name that Sr. Lucy chose for her centre as a haven of hope, belonging and understanding. 

Sr. Lucy has received several honours and recognition for her works or mercy.  Recently, on the occasion of this year’s International Women's Day, March 8, she was conferred the Nari Shakti Award for 2015 by Indian president Pranab Mukherjee, for her outstanding contribution to women’s empowerment.

Last week, in the first part of a telephone interview with her, Sr. Lucy briefly spoke about the Nari Shakti Award, and went on to explain her work and how it began over 19 years ago.  It so happened that a battered woman fearing her abusive husband sought help at Sr. Lucy’s convent, a help the community was unable provide.  That very night the woman’s husband set her on fire and the woman along with her unborn baby later died of burns.  Shattered by the tragedy, Sr. Lucy wanted to do something concrete for these women, and so with due permission from her congregation and Church authorities, she came out of her community life to live among and work for the suffering people.   While she continued to be a sister of the Cross of Chavanod‎, her work was not part of the congregation.  She stepped out into the unknown, wholly trusting in God who provided her and still continues to provide her.  Today, Maher runs 25 projects simultaneously for women, children and also men, not just in Maharashtra, but also in Kerala and Jharkhand states.  In her work, Sr. Lucy was particularly inspired by Mother Teresa.  Sr. Lucy told us the entire Maher project is run by a board of trustees whose members belong to various religions and her centres are open to anyone in need, regardless of caste or creed.

Well today, Sr. Lucy Kurien begins the final part of this interview explaining the various projects of Maher.

Listen: 

Full Article

(Vatican Radio) The new Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations in Geneva, Archbishop Ivan Jurkovic, has urged the International Labour Organisation to do more to tackle the “pressing issue of youth unemployment”.

In a speech on Thursday to the 105th session of the International Labour Conference, the nuncio stressed that it is a moral obligation to create dignified and well-paying jobs for young people in particular. To do so, he said, requires coming up with “new, more inclusive and equitable economic models, aimed not at serving the few, but at benefiting ordinary people and society as a whole”.

Warning of the ways in which advancing technology can reduce the value and dignity of workers, Archbishop Jurkovic reiterated that it is no longer sufficient to measure human progress in terms of economic growth and the accumulation of material wealth. Work, he said, “acquires its true character when it is decent and sustainable for workers, employers, governments, communities, and the environment”.

Globalisation, the archbishop said, has provided new opportunities for employment in developing and emerging economies, but it has also left workers more vulnerable to competitive pressures for lower wages and longer working hours.

Finally Archbishop Jurkovic spoke about the negative effects of climate change on economic and social development. Quoting from Pope Francis’ encyclical ‘Laudato Si’, he said “We are faced not with two separate crises, one environmental and the other social, but rather with one complex crisis, which is both social and environmental. Strategies for a solution demand an integrated approach to combating poverty, restoring dignity to the excluded, and at the same time protecting nature”.

Please find below the full text of Archbishop Jurkovic’s address

Intervention of H.E. Archbishop Ivan Jurkovic, Apostolic Nuncio, Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations Office and other International Organizations in Geneva at the 105th Session of the International Labour Conference in Geneva.

Mr President,

1. The Delegation of the Holy See congratulates the ILO for its committed service to social development through the collaborative action of workers, employers and governments, as it prepares to celebrate its 100th Anniversary. The preamble of its Constitution, which states that there shall be no lasting peace without social justice, continues to provide a strong warning and a welcome encouragement to guide our reflection on the “future of work”1.

2. We feel today a sense of urgency as much as we feel a sense of responsibility. The information contained in the reports and analyses of this Organization regarding the inability to create a sufficient number of dignified and stable jobs is a cause of serious concern.

3. We would like to stress, as done in the previous session, the pressing issue of youth unemployment. Despite a mild recovery in the 2012-2014 period, the youth unemployment rate remains well above its pre-crisis level. For millions of young people around the world finding a decent job is still a lengthy hard struggle. As Pope Francis reminds us, “we cannot resign ourselves to losing a whole generation of young people who don't have the strong dignity of work”2. The final goal of the International Community has to be a recovery based on substantial job creation with reference to the principle of subsidiarity that allows each individual and each business to be the protagonist of the development of society as a whole. It is a moral obligation. “If we want to rethink our society, we need to create dignified and well-paying jobs, especially for our young people”3.

4. To do so requires coming up with new, more inclusive and equitable economic models, aimed not at serving the few, but at benefiting ordinary people and society as a whole. It would involve passing from a revenue-directed economy, profiting from speculation and lending at interest, to a social economy that invests in persons by creating jobs and providing training. At the same time, a wave of technological innovation is altering the capacity of modern manufacturing and service activities to generate jobs.

5. Pope Francis has repeatedly warned against the temptation to reduce costs by replacing workers with advanced technology. The worldwide financial and economic crisis has highlighted the gravely deficient human perspective, which reduces man to just one of his needs, namely, consumption. Worse yet, human beings themselves are nowadays considered as consumer goods, which can be used and thrown away. The replacement of workers by technology raises grave ethical challenges because it elevates economic efficiency and productivity over human dignity. The Holy See argues that in taking this path, we end up working against ourselves. “To stop investing in people, in order to gain greater short-term financial gain, is bad business for society.” 4

6. Human dignity and economic, social and political factors demand that we continue, “To prioritize the goal of access to steady employment for everyone”5. We need, in particular, to look for innovative solutions so that economic growth and well-being are not disconnected from employment. “It will be ‘better business’ to put technology at the service of the common good, and the common good includes decent work for everyone in our single common home”6. Guided and directed by the Sustainable Developments Goals, we should continue to promote the idea “that it is no longer sufficient to measure human progress in terms of economic growth and the accumulation of material wealth. Work acquires its true character when it is decent and sustainable for workers, employers, governments, communities, and the environment”7. “It implies exertion and fatigue to produce and achieve good results, but also the ability to transform reality and fulfil a personal vocation”8. Thus, work expresses and increases man’s dignity9. “There is a practical advantage as well in this approach. The subjective, personal dimension in work affects the actual objective result in all activities, but especially in services, in research and technological innovation, that is, in those economic activities that promote knowledge and true wealth creation, human and social development”10.

7. Globalization has generated the continuing internationalization of the world’s production system, with increasingly prevalent global supply chains frequently making it impossible to identify a single national origin of finished products. The proliferation of global supply chains has profoundly transformed the nature of cross-border production, investment, trade and employment. The global supply chains have played an important role in the significant growth in international trade in recent decades.

8. Global supply chains have provided new opportunities for employment in developing and emerging economies, including for workers who had difficulty accessing wage employment or formal jobs. However, wages and working time are also affected by the terms of purchasing between the buyer and its suppliers, which often reflect the asymmetrical bargaining position of the two partners and the power of the buyers to switch suppliers. In these conditions, wages become the adjustment variable at the end of the supply chain, with competitive pressures leading to lower wages and longer working hours. In the first social encyclical, Rerum novarum (1891), Pope Leo XIII stressed the centrality of human dignity, stating that “to misuse [people] as though they were things in the pursuit of gain, or to value them solely for their physical powers - that is truly shameful and inhuman.”11 The Holy Father argued vigorously that workers were owed a just or living wage. This was not to be equated with the wage determined by the law of the marketplace. “Wages cannot be left solely to the whim of the market, but must be influenced by justice and equity - a wage that allows people to live a truly human life and to fulfill family obligations” 12. In the words of Pope Francis, it is one of the ways people “find meaning, a destiny, and to live with dignity, to ‘live well’.”13

9. Climate change, and the increase in both sudden onset and slow onset disasters, pose massive challenges to governments both in developed and developing countries. Some of these challenges relate to the sustainable provision of a climate-resilient infrastructure. The effects of climate change are having negative impacts on economic and social development in general and on enterprises and workers in particular, by disrupting businesses, destroying workplaces and undermining income opportunities. As stressed by Pope Francis, in Laudato si’, “it is essential to seek comprehensive solutions which consider the interactions within natural systems themselves and with social systems. We are faced not with two separate crises, one environmental and the other social, but rather with one complex crisis, which is both social and environmental. Strategies for a solution demand an integrated approach to combating poverty, restoring dignity to the excluded, and at the same time protecting nature”14.

10. In conclusion, Mr President,

The Holy See wishes to reaffirm its interest in contributing to the dialogues on the future of work in the context of the 100th Anniversary of the Organization. We look towards the continuation of this process with the hope that people, workers, their families and their communities be placed at the centre of future sustainable development and decent work policies, as recommended by the Philadelphia Declaration (1944).

1 Cfr. http://www.ilo.org/public/english/bureau/leg/download/constitution.pdf

2 Pope Francis, Meeting with the Young People of the Dioceses of Abruzzo and Molise, Castelpetroso, 5 July 2014.

3 Pope Francis, Address at the Conferral of the Charlemagne Prize, 6 May 2016.

4 Pope Francis, Encyclical Letter Laudato si’, 128.

5 Pope Benedict XVI, Encyclical Letter Caritas in Veritate, 32.

6 Cardinal Peter Turkson, Welcome speech at the International Seminar “Sustainable development and the future of work in the context of the Jubilee of Mercy”, Rome, 2 May 2016.

7 Idem.

8 Statement by H.E. Archbishop Silvano M. Tomasi, Permanent Observer of the Holy See to United Nations and Other International Organizations in Geneva at the 101st Session of the International Labour Conference, Geneva, 7 June 2012.

9 Cfr. Pope John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Laborem exercens, 27.

10 Statement Tomasi, op. cit.

11 Rerum novarum, 20.

12 Cardinal Turkson, op. cit.

13 Pope Francis, Address at the Second World Meeting of Popular Movements, Santa Cruz de la Sierra (Bolivia), 9 July 2015.

14 Pope Francis, Encyclical Letter Laudato si’, 139.

Full Article

The Scalabrini Institute for Human Mobility in Africa (SIHMA) reports that a roundtable meeting on Policy and legislative changes to the Refugee Act was recently held in Johannesburg, South Africa.  The discussion brought together SACBC’s Pastoral Care for Migrants and Refugees office; the Bienvenu Shelter; Jesuit Refugee Service; Scalabrini Centre of Cape Town, and the Justice and Peace Department in the Archdiocese of Johannesburg. Also participating in the meeting were officials of the South African Government.

According to the Institute, the Archbishop of Johannesburg, Bhuti Tlhagale in his capacity as the Liaison Bishop of migrants and refugees at the Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference (SACBC) gave the opening address.

In his opening remarks, the Archbishop gave a historical perspective on refugees in South Africa. He pointed out, for example, that the beginning of the Archdiocese of Johannesburg is closely linked to its first migrants from Ireland. He reminded the meeting that Saint Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, was himself a refugee, a slave and a person who was trafficked for profit. The City of Johannesburg grew out of an influx of people from elsewhere, who came to the city in search of peace, safety and a better life, the Archbishop said.

The Johannesburg prelate stated that migrants and refugees “are our brothers and sisters in search of a better life, far away from hunger, poverty, exploitation and the unjust distribution of the planet`s resources, which are meant to be equitably shared by all.”

The Archbishop further said the 2016 Refugee Day would be celebrated at St Patrick Catholic Church in La Rochelle in the Southern Deanery of Johannesburg.

“On June 19, all are invited to join and celebrate the beauty of each culture, and to pray for all who are experiencing suffering, abandonment and persecution”, Archbishop Bhuti said.

He closed his presentation by quoting from Matthew 25 when Jesus says, ”I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me water to drink. As you have done this to the least of my brothers and sisters, you have done it unto me.”

In her presentation at the same event, Ms Nompumelelo Tyobeka, the government’s Deputy Director of Refugee Affairs at the Department of Home Affairs stated that her department is currently working on amendments to the state’s refugee policy. Tyobeka told the gathering that a Green Paper would soon be made available for open discussion with various stakeholders. She added that her department was ready to put in place policy interventions that target refugees “who are most in need of assistance.”

(Source: Scalabrini Institute for Human Mobility in Africa)

Email: engafrica@vatiradio.va

Full Article

(Vatican Radio) The European Union has issued a formal warning to Poland saying it is threatening the rule of law, a move that could lead to sanctions, prompting the Polish right-wing government to say it wants urgent talks with the EU and the opposition.

Listen to the report by Stefan Bos:

The European Commission, the EU's executive arm, says Poland's government is not following the rule of law as required the 28-nation European Union. That official warning could lead to member state Poland being stripped of its EU voting rights.Yet, Commissioner Frans Timmermans has defended that decision. "As you know the European Union is build upon a common set of values, enshrined in the treaty. These values include respect of the rule of law," he said.

That's how this organization functions, that's how our member states ensure the equal application of EU law across the European Union. Making sure that the rule of law is preserved is a collective responsibility of the EU institutions and of all member states."        

He explained that the EU has been having inconclusive talks with the Polish government since it announced a preliminary assessment of Poland's new laws in January.

Critics of the right-wing Polish government have been angry at changes it made to the country's top court, leaving it, they say, in effect unable to review and veto legislation.

"SURPISED AND SADDENED"

Poland's Justice Minister and Prosecutor General Zbigniew Ziobro said he was "surprised and saddened" by the European Commission's position.

However the Polish government also said it wants to have a dialogue with the EU and the opposition to end the dispute, and Commissioner Timmermans suggested that fresh talks were underway. "Just last night I spoke with Prime Minister  and I am please that she confirmed that she she wants our dialogue to continue. However despite our best efforts until now we have not been able yet to find solutions to the main issues at stake," he said.

"To briefly refresh your memory, the issues that concern us are the composition of the Constitutional Tribunal, Poland's highest court, the publication of its judgements and the respect for them, and the reform of the court's functioning under a law known as the Constitutional Tribunal Act," Timmermans  added during a news conference.  

Poland's right-wing Law and Justice party government came to power in October last year. Since it made changes to the way the country's constitutional operates, it soon ignored the court's rulings, including one that found that the changes themselves were unconstitutional.

MEDIA CRACKDOWN

The government has also come under pressure over a perceived crackdown on media, after effectively increasing control over public media, prompting massive protests.

Opposition supporters claim Poland follows the example of Hungary, where Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has come under international pressure over his perceived autocratic style.

Last month, former president Bill Clinton condemned the government of both former Communist countries. “Poland and Hungary, two countries that would not be free but for the United States and the long Cold War, have now decided this democracy is too much trouble,” Clinton said during a campaign stop in New Jersey on behalf of his wife, Hillary, the front-runner for
the Democratic presidential nomination. “They want Putin-like leadership: Just give me an authoritarian dictatorship and keep the foreigners out. Sounds familiar?”

Yet the governments of both EU nations have strongly condemned his remarks and the ruling Polish party leader even suggested that Clinton should see a doctor.

Full Article

(Vatican Radio) The theme of the Pope’s third meditation at a spiritual retreat held on Thursday at the Papal Basilica of St. Paul's Outside the Walls was “the good odour of Christ and the light of his mercy.”

Listen to the report by Lydia O'Kane:

At the heart of his reflection were the Works of Mercy saying as priests, “being merciful is not only “a way of life”, but “the way of life”, adding,  “there is no other way of being a priest.”

Drawing from the passage of the Lord’s encounter with the woman caught in adultery, the Pope explained that when Jesus says “Go and sin no more”, “his command has to do with the future, to help her to make a new start and to “walk in love”.  Such is the sensitivity of mercy, the Holy Father continued. “ it looks with compassion on the past and offers encouragement for the future.” 

Focusing his attention of the Sacrament of Confession Pope Francis noted that “people come to confession  because they are penitent. They come to confession because they want to change.”

During his meditation, the Pope also invited priests to let themselves “be moved by people’s situation, which at times is a mixture of their own doing, human weakness, sin and insuperable conditionings.  He went on to say, “we have to be like Jesus, who was deeply moved by the sight of people and their problems…”

The Jubilee for priests concludes on Friday with Holy Mass presided over by Pope Francis in St Peter’s Square.

Please find below the English language of Pope Francis' meditation preached at St Paul's Outside the Walls

THIRD MEDITATION:

THE GOOD ODOUR OF CHRIST AND THE LIGHT OF HIS MERCY

In this, our third meeting, I propose that we meditate on the works of mercy, by taking whichever one we feel is most closely linked to our charism, and by looking at them as a whole.  We can contemplate them through the merciful eyes of Our Lady, who helps us to find “the wine that is lacking” and encourages us to “do whatever Jesus tells us” (cf. Jn 2:1-12), so that his mercy can work the miracles that our people need.

The works of mercy are closely linked to the “spiritual senses”.  In our prayer we ask for the grace so to “feel and savour” the Gospel that it can make us more “sensitive” in our lives.  Moved by the Spirit and led by Jesus, we can see from afar, with the eyes of mercy, those who have fallen along the wayside.  We can hear the cries of Bartimaeus and feel with Jesus the timid yet determined touch of the woman suffering from haemorrhage, as she grasps his robe.  We can ask for the grace to taste with the crucified Jesus the bitter gall of all those who share in his cross, and smell the stench of misery - in field hospitals, in trains and in boats crammed with people.  The balm of mercy does not disguise this stench.  Rather, by anointing it, it awakens new hope.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church, in discussing the works of mercy, tells us that “when her mother reproached her for care for the poor and the sick at home, Saint Rose of Lima said to her: ‘When we serve the poor and the sick, we are the good odour of Christ’” (No. 2449, Latin).  That good odour of Christ – the care of the poor – is, and always has been, the hallmark of the Church.  Paul made it the focus of his meeting with Peter, James and John, the “columns” of the Church.  He tells us that they “asked only one thing, that we remember the poor” (Gal 2:10).  The Catechism goes on to say, significantly, that “those who are oppressed by poverty are the object of a preferential love on the part of the Church, which from her origins, and in spite of the failings of many of her members, has not ceased to work for their relief, defence and liberation” (No. 2448).

In the Church we have, and have always had, our sins and failings.  But when it comes to serving the poor by the works of mercy, as a Church we have always followed the promptings of the Spirit.  Our saints did this in quite creative and effective ways.  Love for the poor has been the sign, the light that draws people to give glory to the Father.  Our people value this in a priest who cares for the poor and the sick, for those whose sins he forgives and for those whom he patiently teaches and corrects…  Our people forgive us priests many failings, except for that of attachment to money.  This does not have so much to do with money itself, but the fact that money makes us lose the treasure of mercy.  Our people can sniff out which sins are truly grave for a priest, the sins that kill his ministry because they turn him into a bureaucrat or, even worse, a mercenary.  They can also recognize which sins are, I won’t say secondary, but that have to be put up with, borne like a cross, until the Lord at last burns them away like the chaff.  But the failure of a priest to be merciful is a glaring contradiction.  It strikes at the heart of salvation, against Christ, who “became poor so that by his poverty we might become rich” (cf. 2 Cor 8:9).  Because mercy heals “by losing something of itself”.  We feel a pang of regret and we lose a part of our life, because rather than do what we wanted to do, we reached out to someone else.

So it is not about God showing me mercy for this or that sin, as if I were otherwise self-sufficient, or about us performing some act of mercy towards this or that person in need.  The grace we seek in this prayer is that of letting ourselves be shown mercy by God in every aspect of our lives and in turn to show mercy to others in all that we do.  As priests and bishops, we work with the sacraments, baptizing, hearing confessions, celebrating the Eucharist…  Mercy is our way of making the entire life of God’s people a sacrament.  Being merciful is not only “a way of life”, but “the way of life”.  There is no other way of being a priest.  Father Brochero, soon to be canonized, put it this way: “The priest who has scarce pity for sinners is only half a priest.  These vestments I wear are not what make me a priest; if I don’t have charity in my heart, I am not even a Christian.”

To see needs and to bring immediate relief, and even more, to anticipate those needs: this is the mark of a father’s gaze.  This priestly gaze – which takes the place of the father in the heart of Mother Church – makes us see people with the eyes of mercy.  It has to be learned from seminary on, and it must enrich all our pastoral plans and projects.  We desire, and we ask the Lord to give us, a gaze capable of discerning the signs of the times, to know “what works of mercy our people need today” in order to feel and savour the God of history who walks among them.  For, as Aparecida says, quoting Saint Alberto Hurtado: “In our works, our people know that we understand their suffering” (No. 386).  In our works...

The proof that we understand is that our works of mercy are blessed by God and meet with help and cooperation from our people.  Some plans and projects do not work out well, without people ever realizing why.  They rack their brains trying to come up with yet another pastoral plan, when all somebody has to say is: “It’s not working because it lacks mercy”, with no further ado.  If it is not blessed, it is because it lacks mercy.  It lacks the mercy found in a field hospital, not in expensive clinics; it lacks the mercy that values goodness and opens the door to an encounter with God, rather than turning someone away with sharp criticism…

I am going to propose a prayer about the woman whose sins were forgiven (Jn 8:3-11), to ask for the grace to be merciful in the confessional, and another prayer about the social dimension of the works of mercy.

I have always been struck by the passage of the Lord’s encounter with the woman caught in adultery, and how, by refusing to condemn her, he “fell short of” the Law.  In response to the question they asked to test him – “should she be stoned or not?” – he did not rule, he did not apply the law.  He played dumb, and then turned to something else.  He thus initiated a process in the heart of the woman who needed to hear those words: “Neither do I condemn you”.  He stretched out his hand and helped her to her feet, letting her see a gentle gaze that changed her heart.

Sometimes I feel a little saddened and annoyed when people go straight to the last words Jesus speaks to her: “Go and sin no more”.  They use these words to “defend” Jesus from bypassing the law.  I believe that Christ’s words are of a piece with his actions.  He bends down to write on the ground as a prelude to what he is about to say to those who want to stone the woman, and he does so again before talking to her.  This tells us something about the “time” that the Lord takes in judging and forgiving.  The time he gives each person to look into his or her own heart and then to walk away.  In talking to the woman, the Lord opens other spaces: one is that of non-condemnation.   The Gospel clearly mentions this open space.  It makes us see things through the eyes of Jesus, who tells us: “I see no one else but this woman”. 

Then Jesus makes the woman herself look around.  He asks her: “Where are those who condemned you?”  (The word “condemn” is itself important, since it is about what we find unacceptable about those who judge or caricature us…).  Once he has opened before her eyes this space freed of other people’s judgements, he tells her that neither will he throw a stone there: “Nor do I condemn you”.  Then he opens up another free space before her: “Go and sin no more”.  His command has to do with the future, to help her to make a new start and to “walk in love”.  Such is the sensitivity of mercy: it looks with compassion on the past and offers encouragement for the future. 

Those words, “Go and sin no more” are not easy.  The Lord says them “with her”.  He helps her put into words what she herself feels, a free “no” to sin that is like Mary’s “yes” to grace.  That “no” has to be said to the deeply-rooted sin present in everyone.  In that woman, it was a social sin; people approached her either to sleep with her or to throw stones at her.  That is why the Lord does not only clear the path before her, but sets her on her way, so that she can stop being the “object” of other people's gaze and instead take control of her life.  Those words, “sin no more” refer not only to morality, but, I believe, to a kind of sin that keeps her from living her life.  Jesus also told the paralytic at Bethzatha to sin no more (Jn 5:14).  But that man had justified himself with all the sad things that had “happened to him”; he suffered from a victim complex.  So Jesus challenged him ever so slightly by saying: “…lest something worse happen to you”.  The Lord took advantage of his way of thinking, his fears, to draw him out of his paralysis.  He gave him a little scare, we might say.  The point is that each of us has to hear the words “sin no more” in his own deeply personal way.

This image of the Lord who sets people on their way is very typical.  He is the God who walks at his people’s side, who leads them forward, who accompanies our history.  Hence, the object of his mercy is quite clear: it is everything that keeps a man or a woman from walking on the right path, with their own people, at their own pace, to where God is asking them to go.  What troubles him is that people get lost, or fall behind, or try to go it on their own.  That they end up nowhere.  That they are not there for the Lord, ready to go wherever he wants to send them.  That they do not walk humbly before him (cf. Mic 6:8), that they do not walk in love (cf. Eph 5:2).

THE SPACE OF THE CONFESSIONAL, WHERE THE TRUTH MAKES US FREE

Speaking of space, let us go to the confessional.  The Catechism of the Catholic Church presents the confessional as the place where the truth makes us free for an encounter.  “When he celebrates the sacrament of penance, the priest is fulfilling the ministry of the Good Shepherd who seeks the lost sheep, of the Good Samaritan who binds up wounds, of the Father who awaits the prodigal son and welcomes him on his return, and of the just and impartial Judge whose judgement is both just and merciful.  The priest is the sign and the instrument of God’s merciful love for the sinner” (No. 1465).  The Catechism also reminds us that “the confessor is not the master of God's forgiveness but its servant.  The minister of this sacrament should unite himself to the intention and charity of Christ” (No. 1466).

Signs and instruments of an encounter.  That is what we are.  An attractive invitation to an encounter.  As signs, we must be welcoming, sending a message that attracts people’s attention.  Signs need to be consistent and clear, but above all understandable.  Some signs are only clear to specialists.  Signs and instruments.  Instruments have to be effective, readily available, precise and suitable for the job.  We are instruments if people have a genuine encounter with the God of mercy.  Our task is “to make that encounter possible”, face-to-face.  What people do afterwards is their business.  There is a prodigal son among the pigs and a father who goes out every afternoon to see if he is returning.  There is a lost sheep and a shepherd who goes out to seek him.  There is a wounded person left at the roadside and a good-hearted Samaritan.  What is our ministry?  It is to be signs and instruments enabling this encounter.  Let us always remember that we are not the father, the shepherd or the Samaritan.  Rather, inasmuch as we are sinners, we are on the side of the other three.  Our ministry has to be a sign and instrument of that encounter.  We are part of the mystery of the Holy Spirit, who creates the Church, builds unity, and constantly invites to encounter.

The other mark of a sign and instrument is that it is not self-referential.  Put more simply, it is not an end in itself.  Nobody sticks with the sign once they understand the reality.  Nobody keeps looking at the screwdriver or the hammer, but at the well-hung picture.  We are useless servants.  Instruments and signs that help two people to join in an embrace, like the father and his son.

The third mark of a sign and instrument is its availability.  An instrument has to be readily accessible; a sign must be visible.  Being a sign and instrument is about being a mediator.  Perhaps this is the real key to our own mission in this merciful encounter of God and man.  We could even put it in negative terms.  Saint Ignatius talked about “not getting in the way”.  A good mediator makes things easy, rather than setting up obstacles.  In my country, there was a great confessor, Father Cullen.  He would sit in the confessional and do one of two things: he would repair worn soccer balls for the local kids, or he would thumb through a big Chinese dictionary.  He used to say that when people saw him doing such completely useless things like fixing old soccer balls or trying to master Chinese, they would think: “I’m going to go up and talk to his priest, since he obviously doesn’t have much to do!”  He was available for what was essential.  He got rid of the obstacle of always looking busy and serious.

Everybody has known good confessors. We have to learn from our good confessors, the ones whom people seek out, who do not make them afraid but help them to speak frankly, as Jesus did with Nicodemus.  If people come to confession it is because they are penitent; repentance is already present.  They come to confession because they want to change.  Or at least they want to want to change, if they think their situation is impossible.  Ad impossibilia nemo tenetur, as the old maxim goes: no one is obliged to do the impossible.

We have to learn from good confessors, those who are gentle with sinners, who after a couple of words understand everything, as Jesus did with the woman suffering from a haemorrhage, and straightaway the power of forgiveness goes forth from them.  The integrity of confession is not a mathematics problem.  Sometimes people feel less shame in confessing a sin than in stating the number of times they committed it.  We have to let ourselves be moved by people’s situation, which at times is a mixture of their own doing, human weakness, sin and insuperable conditionings.  We have to be like Jesus, who was deeply moved by the sight of people and their problems, and kept healing them, even when they “didn’t ask properly”, like that leper, or seemed to beat around the bush, like the Samaritan woman.  She was like a bird we have in South America: she squawked in one place but had her nest in another.

We have to learn from confessors who can enable penitents to feel amendment in taking a small step forwards, like Jesus, who gave a suitable penance and could appreciate the one leper who returned to thank him, on whom he bestowed yet more.  Jesus had his mat taken away from the paralytic, and he made the blind man and the Syro-Phoenician woman have to ask.  It didn’t matter to him if they paid no attention to him, like the paralytic at the pool of Bethzatha, or told others what he ordered them not to tell, with the result that he himself became the leper, since he could not go into the towns or his enemies found reasons to condemn him.  He healed people, forgave their sins, eased their suffering, gave them rest and made them feel the consoling breath of the Spirit.

In Buenos Aires I knew a Capuchin Friar.  He is a little younger than myself and a great confessor.  There is always a line before his confessional, lots of people confessing all day long.  He is really good at forgiving.  He forgives, but every once in a while he has scruples about being so forgiving.  Once in conversation he told me: “Sometimes I have scruples”.  So I asked him: “What do you do when you have these scruples?”  He replied: “I go before the tabernacle, I look at our Lord and I tell him, ‘Lord, forgive me, today I was very forgiving.  But let’s be clear, it is all your fault, because you gave me bad example!”  He added mercy to mercy.

Lastly, as far as confession is concerned, I have two bits of advice.  First, never look like a bureaucrat or a judge, somebody who just sees “cases” to be dealt with.  Mercy sets us free from being this kind of priest, who is so used to judging “cases” that he is no longer sensitive to persons, to faces.  The rule of Jesus is to “judge as we would be judged”.  This is the key to our judgement: that we treat others with dignity, that we don’t demean or mistreat them, that we help raise them up, and that we never forget that the Lord is using us, weak as we are, as his instruments.  Not necessarily because our judgement is “the best”, but because it is sincere and can build a good relationship.

My other bit of advice is not to be curious in the confessional.  Saint Therese tells us that when her novices would confide in her, she was very careful not to ask how things turned out.  She did not pry into people’s souls (cf. History of a Soul, Ms C, to Mother Gonzaga, c. XII, 32r.).  It is characteristic of mercy to cover sin with its cloak, so as not to wound people’s dignity.  Like the two sons of Noah, who covered with a cloak the nakedness of their father in his drunkenness (cf. Gen 9:23).

THE SOCIAL DIMENSION OF THE WORKS OF MERCY

At the end of the Exercises, Saint Ignatius puts “contemplation to attain love”, which connects what is experienced in prayer to daily life.  He makes us reflect on how love has to be put more into works than into words.  Those works are the works of mercy which the Father “prepared beforehand to be our way of life” (Eph 2:10), those which the Spirit inspires in each for the common good (cf. 1 Cor 12:7).  In thanking the Lord for all the gifts we have received from his bounty, we ask for the grace to bring to all mankind that mercy which has been our own salvation.

I propose that we meditate on one of the final paragraphs of the Gospels.  There, the Lord himself makes that connection between what we have received and what we are called to give.  We can read these conclusions in the key of “works of mercy” which bring about the time of the Church, the time in which the risen Jesus lives, guides, sends forth and appeals to our freedom, which finds in him its concrete daily realization.

Matthew tells us that the Lord sends his Apostles to make disciples of all nations, “teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded” (28:20).  This “instructing the ignorant” is itself one of the works of mercy.  It spreads like light to the other works: to those listed in Matthew 25, which deal more with the so-called “corporal works of mercy”, and to all the commandments and evangelical counsels, such as “forgiving”, “fraternally correcting”, consoling the sorrowing, and enduring persecution...

Mark’s Gospel ends with the image of the Lord who “collaborates” with the Apostles and “confirms the word by the signs that accompany it”.  Those “signs” greatly resemble the works of mercy.  Mark speaks, among other things, of healing the sick and casting out demons (cf. 16:17-18).

Luke continues his Gospel with the “Acts” – praxeis -- of the Apostles, relating the history of how they acted and the works they did, led by the Spirit.

John’s Gospel ends by referring to the “many other things” (21:25) or “signs” (20:30) which Jesus performed.  The Lord’s actions, his works, are not mere deeds but signs by which, in a completely personal way, he shows his love and his mercy for each person.

We can contemplate the Lord who sends us on this mission, by using the image of the merciful Jesus as revealed to Sister Faustina.  In that image we can see mercy as a single ray of light that comes from deep within God, passes through the heart of Christ, and emerges in a diversity of colours, each representing a work of mercy.

The works of mercy are endless, but each bears the stamp of a particular face, a personal history.  They are much more than the lists of the seven corporal and seven spiritual works of mercy.  Those lists are like the raw material – the material of life itself – that, worked and shaped by the hands of mercy, turns into an individual artistic creation.  Each work multiplies like the bread in the baskets; each gives abundant growth like the mustard seed.  For mercy is fruitful and inclusive. 

We usually think of the works of mercy individually and in relation to a specific initiative: hospitals for the sick, soup kitchens for the hungry, shelters for the homeless, schools for those to be educated, the confessional and spiritual direction for those needing counsel and forgiveness… But if we look at the works of mercy as a whole, we see that the object of mercy is human life itself and everything it embraces.  Life itself, as “flesh”, hungers and thirsts; it needs to be clothed, given shelter and visited, to say nothing of receiving a proper burial, something none of us, however rich, can do for ourselves.  Even the wealthiest person, in death, becomes a pauper; there are no moving vans in a funeral cortege.  Life itself, as “spirit”, needs to be educated, corrected, encouraged and consoled.  We need others to counsel us, to forgive us, to put up with us and to pray for us.  The family is where these works of mercy are practised in so normal and unpretentious a way that we don’t even realize it.  Yet once a family with small children loses its mother, everything begins to fall apart.  The cruellest and most relentless form of poverty is that of street children, without parents and prey to the vultures.

We have asked for the grace to be signs and instruments.  Now we have to “act”, not only with gestures, but by projects and structures, by creating a culture of mercy.  Once we begin, we sense immediately that the Spirit energizes and sustains these works.  He does this by using the signs and instruments he wants, even if at times they do not appear to be the most suitable ones.  It could even be said that, in order to carry out the works of mercy, the Spirit tends to choose the poorest, humblest and most insignificant instruments, those who themselves most need that first ray of divine mercy.  They are the ones who can best be shaped and readied to serve most effectively and well.  The joy of realizing that we are “useless servants” whom the Lord blesses with the fruitfulness of his grace, seats at his table and serves us the Eucharist, is a confirmation that we are engaged in his works of mercy.

Our faithful people are happy to congregate around works of mercy.  In penitential and festive celebrations, and in educational and charitable activities, our people willingly come together and let themselves be shepherded in ways that are not always recognized or appreciated, whereas so many of our more abstract and academic pastoral plans fail to work.  The massive presence of our faithful people in our shrines and on our pilgrimages is an anonymous presence, but anonymous simply because it is made up of so many faces and so great a desire simply to be gazed upon with mercy by Jesus and Mary.  The same can be said about the countless ways in which our people take part in countless initiatives of solidarity; this too needs to be recognized, appreciated and promoted on our part.

As priests, we ask two graces of the Good Shepherd, that of letting ourselves be guided by the sensus fidei of our faithful people, and to be guided by their “sense of the poor”.  Both these “senses” have to do with the sensus Christi, with our people’s love for, and faith in, Jesus.

Let us conclude by reciting the Anima Christi, that beautiful prayer which implores mercy from the Lord who came among us in the flesh and graciously feeds us with his body and blood.  We ask him to show mercy to us and to his people.  We ask his soul to “sanctify us”, his body to “save us”, his blood to “inebriate us” and to remove from us all other thirsts that are not of him.  We ask the water flowing from his side “to wash us”, his passion “to strengthen us”.  Comfort your people, crucified Lord!  May your wounds “shelter us”…  Grant that your people, Lord, may never be parted from you.  Let nothing and no one separate us from your mercy, which defends us from the snares of the wicked enemy.  Thus, we will sing your mercies, Lord, with all your saints when you bid us come to you.

Full Article

Washington D.C., Jun 2, 2016 / 06:15 am (CNA/EWTN News).- For two years, the ChurchPOP website has sought to craft faithful, fun content for the social media age. It hopes to do even more now that it has been acquired by the EWTN Global Catholic Network.

“ChurchPOP seeks to evangelize by spreading Catholic culture in a way tailored to the online social media world,” said Brantly Millegan, the editor-in-chief of ChurchPOP.com. “We've developed a certain flavor that's faithful, accessible, and interesting that seems to have resonated with lots of people.”

“Thanks to the backing of EWTN, we have big plans for the future of ChurchPOP,” he added. He credited the website’s success to “the great writers who contribute to ChurchPOP and to our readers, who help spread the word about the website.”

Millegan said he launched ChurchPOP in August 2014, envisioning it as a Christian culture website in the style of BuzzFeed.

He said that while BuzzFeed has created and perfected a popular new genre of online content, it uses it to promote a harmful secular worldview.

“I thought we could use their methods, as well as creatively develop our own, to spread Christian culture,” he reflected.

Michael Warsaw, EWTN Chairman and CEO, said the acquisition would expand EWTN’s mission and reach.

“The content available on the ChurchPOP platforms provides a terrific vehicle to engage millennials and others who might not be reached by more traditional religious media,” Warsaw said in a June 2 announcement.

“Throughout our 35-year history, EWTN has always been at the forefront of the new evangelization, using every possible form of media to carry out our mission. The addition of ChurchPOP to the EWTN family will enable us to continue to expand our audiences around the globe.”

The ChurchPOP site has one main goal, Millegan said: “Ultimately, we want to win souls for Christ.”

The site hopes to expand the kinds of content it can offer and to grow into more languages.

In addition to English, ChurchPOP currently has a Spanish-language edition, edited by Yhonatan Luque of Lima, Peru, and a Portuguese-language edition, edited by Cleiton Ramos of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

EWTN Global Catholic Network is the largest religious media network in the world. Its television broadcasts reach over 265 million homes in over 145 countries and territories. Its radio broadcasts include SIRIUS/XM, iHeart Radio, over 500 AM and FM radio affiliates and a worldwide shortwave radio service.

It also has a publishing arm and news outlets including the National Catholic Register and Catholic News Agency.

 

Full Article

By Carol Glatz

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Mercy recognizes that life is short and that so much good needs to be done that there is no time to waste in making amends, Pope Francis told priests.

"That is why it is so important to forgive completely" and let go of paralyzing self-pity so mercy can get "its hands dirty" and make reparation for the wrongs committed, he said in a retreat for clergy.

Mercy does not overlook the harm caused by sin, "rather it takes away evil's power over the future. It takes away its power over life."

To help priests and seminarians better understand the proper role mercy must play in their lives and ministry, Pope Francis led thousands of men on a spiritual retreat in Rome. The aim, he said, was for priests to be ready to receive mercy in order to show it even more.

Over the course of the day June 2, the pope led three separate meditations -- each nearly an hour long -- in three of Rome's four basilicas: St. John Lateran, St. Mary Major and St. Paul Outside the Walls. Live video links let clergy follow the readings and reflections from different locations.

Introducing how his Ignatian-inspired spiritual exercises would work, the Jesuit pope apologized for "the family endorsement." He said guiding personal prayer with Ignatian spirituality allows people "to feel and savor the things of God" deep within themselves. Action and conversion are spurred, he said, by first feeling and being moved by what God is saying or showing.

Sitting behind a simple wooden desk, supplied with a small bottle of water and a glass, the pope presented his first meditation in St. John Lateran, which hosted Rome diocesan and religious priests and seminarians and those working in the Roman Curia.

Through the use of many vivid examples and personal, colorful anecdotes, Pope Francis said because God's love and mercy are limitless, priests must ask what barren and parched places are most in need of this life-giving water. "What are the wounds that need this precious balm? What is the sense of abandonment that cries out for loving attention?"

He explained that moving from estrangement to embrace starts with a clear recognition of one's own sins and the feeling of shame and embarrassment, which lead to a heartsick sense of "nostalgia," which compels the straying child to return back to the house of the father.

Referring to the parable of the prodigal son, the pope said when the son returned home, the father restored the young man's dignity, despite his sinful nature.

The contradictory feeling of shame and embarrassment can hit priests "when the people kiss our hands and we look at our own most intimate miseries and we are honored by the people of God," he said.

"That is how we have to see ourselves: poised between our utter shame and our sublime dignity;" sinful and selfish, yet cleansed and chosen to feed God's sheep and multiply his graces.

"Only mercy makes this situation bearable" in keeping the two extremes in balance, he said, and it triggers the desire to make amends.

Speaking off-the-cuff, the pope said priests have to be careful with how they speak and never refer to individual people as "a case."

"Without realizing it, we might say: 'I have a case ...' I'm sorry, (but you mean) 'I have a person ...' And this is very clerical," he said, admitting "it has even happened to me often."

Such language separates the pastor from the person so "they don't touch me and I don't dirty my hands. And then I do a 'clean,' 'elegant' pastoral ministry where I don't risk anything."

At noon, the pope went to St. Mary Major, where he laid red roses and prayed before the basilica's famous Marian icon "Salus Populi Romani" (health of the Roman people).

There, Italian priests and seminarians from outside of Rome reflected on turning to Mary for the courage to imitate her. Mary shows people "the only power capable of winning human hearts is the tenderness of God," Pope Francis said. Mary creates a place that is "inviting, not at all like a tribunal or an office."

"Unless we can see into people's suffering and recognize their needs, we will have nothing to offer them," the pope said.

The pope told the priests that "almost all the great saints were great sinners" or they had the humility to see "it was by sheer grace" that they avoided the worst of sins.

- - -

Contributing to this story was Junno Arocho.

- - -

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.

Full Article

Full Article

Full Article

Full Article