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Vatican City, May 9, 2016 / 11:43 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The Holy Spirit seems to be a “luxury prisoner” in many Christians’ hearts: someone who is welcomed to stay, but not allowed to act or move us forward, the Pope said during his homily at Mass on Monday.

“We keep the Holy Spirit as a ‘luxury prisoner’ in our hearts: we do not allow the Spirit to push us forward, to move us. The Spirit does everything, knows everything, reminds us what Jesus said, can explain all about Jesus,” the Holy Father said May 9 during his Mass at the chapel of Casa Santa Marta  in the Vatican.

In the day's reading, when St. Paul speaks with the disciples in Ephesus (Acts 19: 1-8), Pope Francis pointed out that they had “not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.”

Likewise, while Christians today have a knowledge of the Holy Spirit as part of the Holy Trinity, they do not know what the Spirit’s role is in the Church.

“The Holy Spirit is the one who moves the Church, the one who works in the Church and in our hearts,” the Roman Pontiff said.

The Third Person of the Trinity is “the protagonist of the Living Church,” he said, while cautioning against simply reducing the Christian life to a code of “morals and ethics.”

The faith, the Pope said, is something more. It “is not just an ethical life: it is an encounter with Jesus Christ.”

The Holy Spirit “frees us from the ‘orphan-like’ condition which the spirit of the world wants to put us in.”

“The Holy Spirit is the one who “moves us to praise God, to pray to the Lord” and who “teaches us to see the Father and call him ‘Father.’”

There is one thing the Holy Spirit “can’t do” the Pope said: “The Holy Spirit cannot make us ‘virtual’ Christians who are not virtuous.” Instead, “The Holy Spirit makes real Christians. The Spirit takes life and prophetically reads the signs of the times pushing us forward.”

Ahead of Pentecost Sunday the Holy Father invited Christians to prepare by opening up our hearts to the Holy Spirit.

“This is what we must do this week: think of the Spirit and talk to him.”

Pope Francis also greeted the Vincentian Sisters of Charity who work in Casa Santa Marta. Today they are celebrating the feast of St. Louise de Marillac who, along with St. Vincent de Paul, founded their order.

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Rome, Italy, May 9, 2016 / 12:40 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The greatest challenge in the fight to value and protect human life worldwide is indifference, says one pro-life leader. However, as demonstrated by the internationally-attended March for Life in Rome which on Sunday marked its fourth year, that attitude is beginning to change.

“The March for Life is growing,” said Fr. Shenan Boquet, president of Human Life International (HLI). I’ve been participating now for a number of years. It’s great to see the numbers, and to see especially young people, young families, people getting more involved. It’s an exciting time.”

As in past years, there was a strong international presence at Sunday's march, with some 26 countries represented among the thousands of participants.

First held in Rome on Mother's Day in 2012 (having previously been held in other parts of the country on two other occasions), the annual event was modeled from the U.S. March for Life held each year in Washington D.C. Over the past four years, thousands of people of traveled around from around the world to take part.

The inspiration for the March for Life also came from a challenge made by Pope Benedict XVI, Fr. Boquet told CNA. “That’s how the March actually began,” he said: It “was out of a beautiful fruit of Pope Benedict XVI’s call: get into the public conversation. Get into the public square.”

While the international presence at the March for Life in Rome demonstrates the global concern for the unborn, there are still challenges, said Fr. Boquet – who as HLI president is involved with pro-life initiatives worldwide. One of the greatest challenges in the world today, he said, is “a sense of indifference.”



“Because abortion has become legal in so many parts of the world, and that we see even where it’s not legal groups pushing abortion, and pushing the agenda,” he said, “people have just kind of accepted the fact that: well, this is just the way it is. What can we do about it? How can we change the conversation?”

In the United States, for instance, “there has been a whole generation of people “formed inside that environment. To them it’s common, it’s normality, it’s like having a book on your coffee table. It’s just part of the natural conversation.”

“The challenge, really, is to re-teach the language of life. That is the biggest challenge I see globally.”

This year's March for Life began its peaceful demonstration at the Church of Santa Maria in Cosmedin – best known as the location of the Bocca della Verita, or the Mouth of Truth. The marchers then made their way to St. Peter's Square, just in time to hear Pope Francis “greet the participants in the March for Life” at his weekly Regina Caeli address.

Thousands of people attended the March, Fr. Boquet said, “and it was great to have the Holy Father acknowledge that, and extend his blessing, not only to all the people, but also upon us.”

“That was a confirmation: keep up the good work! Keep marching, keep making that message known.”
Fr. Boquet also spoke of the witness that was made by the March for Life itself to non-participating passersby on the streets of Rome.

“It’s wonderful to watch people on the side,” he said, “which is part of the intention of the March: to kind of interrupt people’s normality, while they’re having their gelato, or their cappuccino, and say: hey, what is all this about?”

“It’s an opportunity to engage without engaging. It’s really exciting to see.”

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IMAGE: CNS photo/Khalil Al Anei, EPA

By Dale Gavlak

HARISSA, Lebanon (CNS) -- Despite predictions that Christianity could be wiped out of his war-torn homeland within five years, an Iraqi Catholic cleric said he believes in God's ultimate preservation.

"This prognosis may be of thinkers or politicians, but not of the believers," Chaldean Archishop Yousif Mirkis of Kirkuk told Catholic News Service at an April trauma counseling training in this Lebanese mountain retreat town.

"When our faith reaches the edge, even to the point of death, there is always an intervention of God, something amazing happens," said the archbishop. "This is the faith of the Old Testament witnessed in Exodus and (the) parting of the Red Sea, and in the New Testament with the resurrection of Jesus Christ. So, I don't believe those who say that there won't be Christians in Iraq."

Iraq's Christian population numbered about 1.4 million during the rule of Saddam Hussein, but figures now hover between 260,000 and 300,000 as political instability and persecution by Islamic State militants have drastically reduced their numbers. Other religious minorities, such as the Yezidis, also have been targets of vicious persecution by the extremists.

Half of the remaining Christians in Iraq struggle to remain true to their faith or flee to other countries due to dangers the Islamic State poses, including forced conversion to Islam. Every year, the Christian population decreases by 60,000-100,000, according to the international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need, in a report issued late last year.

Archishop Mirkis has argued otherwise from his experience of helping those who have fled extremist persecution and are displaced within their homeland. He said healing in his diocese to those traumatized has taken a number of forms, whether using puppets, theatrical scenes, art, song and poetry as well as group "talk."

"We try to use all the possibilities in our community and especially spiritual services such as masses, Bible study groups. The best thing is not to give up. We shall overcome," he said of the 130,000 who fled from the 2014 Islamic State militant takeover of Mosul and the Ninevah Plain. "There are too many questions for us about Daesh and what is to follow," he said, using the militants' name in Arabic.

"But this is not the first time we experienced this kind of persecution," he said, noting past times of Christian persecution.

The Aid to the Church in Need report references an exodus from Iraq of Christians fearing ethnic cleansing and potential genocide at an unprecedented pace while the world has stood by. It warned that "Christianity is on course to disappear from Iraq within possibly five years -- unless emergency help is provided on a massively increased scale at an international level."

In late April, Islamic State militants blew up Mosul's iconic clock tower church, known as al-Latin or al-Sa'ah Church. Chaldean Catholic Patriarch Louis Sako denounced the destruction.

"We have received news that the ISIS elements blew up the archaeological Latin church belonging to the Dominican fathers, located in the center of Mosul. We strongly condemn the targeting of the Christian Church and also condemn the targeting of mosques and other houses of worship," he said.

The patriarch urged Iraqi politicians to speed up the national reconciliation process, while imploring the international community and religious authorities to do more to end ongoing sectarian conflict in order to protect the country and its citizens.

But the storming of Iraq's parliament building by Shiite protesters in late April underscored the extreme fragility of the government and plunged Iraq into a deeper political crisis as divisions spread not just among Sunni Muslims, Shiites and Kurds, but splinter each grouping from within.

Archbishop Mirkis said: "Those who decide to emigrate are making a very hard decision. Those who stay, we try to help them."

He said his diocese has taken in 800 families and 400 university students who want to continue their studies in Iraq, even though their parents have emigrated.

"Christians who are stable in Iraq discovered that they can do more than be Christian only. By welcoming the displaced and helping them, many have overcome the trauma they have experienced," he said. "I spend all my time, not only with material needs of the traumatized, but also addressing their psychological and spiritual healing.

"Our faith is very rich. It dies, if you don't use it," he said. "Please use the faith you have. Don't let it die inside you."

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