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(Vatican Radio) At the Regina Coeli on Sunday, Pope Francis spoke about the day’s Gospel, where Jesus describes Himself as the Good Shepherd.

In his reflection, Pope Francis said the words of Jesus – My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me – “help us to understand that no one can call himself a follower of Jesus if he does not listen to his voice.

Listening to Jesus, the Pope continued, does not mean hearing in a superficial way, but engaging with the Lord’s words in order to come to a “generous following,” expressed in the words “and they follow Me.” This listening, he continued, means listening with our hearts, not just with our ears.

The image of the shepherd and the sheep, the Pope said, “indicates the close relationship that Jesus wants to establish with each one of us. He is our guide, our teacher, our friend, our model, but above all He is our Saviour.” When Jesus goes on to say, “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish, and no one can take them out of My hand,” the Pope said these words “communicate to us a sense of absolute security and of immense tenderness. Our life is fully secure in the hands of Jesus and the Father, which are one single thing: one unique love, a unique mercy, revealed once for all in the sacrifice of the Cross.”

It is at the Eucharistic table, Pope Francis said, that this mystery is renewed: “It is there that the sheep are gathered to nourish themselves; it is there that they become one thing, between themselves and with the Good Shepherd.”

The Holy Father reminded us that nothing and no one can take us out of the hands of Jesus, “because no one can overcome His love – the love of Jesus is invincible!” Although the devil – the evil one, as the Pope called him – attempts to take eternal life from us, he can do nothing if we do not “open to him the doors of our hearts, following his deceitful enticements.”

As usual, the Pope concluded his reflection by turning to Mary, the Mother of God, “who listened to and docilely followed the voice of the Good Shepherd.” He prayed, “May she help us to welcome with joy the invitation of Jesus to become His disciples, and to live always in the certainty of being in the paternal hands of the Father.”

You can find the full text of the Pope's address here.

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Toronto, Canada, Apr 17, 2016 / 06:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The coming legalization of assisted suicide in Canada will threaten the vulnerable, hide killing with euphemisms, and threaten the consciences of those who oppose it, Cardinal Timothy Collins of Toronto has said.

On Thursday the Canadian government introduced legislation to legalize assisted suicide and euthanasia under the federal criminal code.

“We’re all deeply concerned that this is a sad day for Canada,” the cardinal told CNA April 14.

While people see assisted suicide as a “simple solution,” he said, once people begin to consider what the practices really means to society, and its threats to the vulnerable, “they begin to realize that this is not the way to go.”

Catholics, Evangelical Protestants, Jews, Muslims and the Salvation Army, all opponents of legalization, will hold an April 19 press conference on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, the Canadian capital.

“The very people who are most involved in helping people by the bedside while they are dying or while they are suffering are the ones most opposed to killing those entrusted in their care,” Cardinal Collins said.

The gathering would say to Parliament: “thus far and no further. This is just not right. It’s not right.” He characterized the effort as “the ecumenism of practical love.”

The new legislation was required by a February 2015 Canadian Supreme Court decision. The ruling said that doctors may help patients who have severe and incurable suffering to kill themselves, and ordered Parliament to create a legislative response.

“That is the root of the problem,” Cardinal Collins said. He described that court decision as “sadly unanimous.”

“The fundamental move towards implementing euthanasia or assisted suicide is itself troubling,” he added.

Previously, under Canadian law those who counseled, aided, or abetted a suicide faced up to 14 years in prison.

The cardinal said the law previously barred the provision of “noxious substances” to people.

“Now, it’s possible that giving a substance like that is now going to be considered a form of health care. What have we come to?”

He criticized using the phrase “medical assistance in dying” to describe “taking a substance and injecting it into a person, and that makes them die.”

“That’s not called dying. The word for that is ‘killing’. To not know the difference between dying and killing is astonishing.”

He warned against euphemisms that are “comfortable and pleasant and sweet, but which do not describe what is happening.”

“When we are ashamed, troubled, by what we are doing, I think we always leave the light of clear language. We don’t want the light to shine upon what we are doing.”

The cardinal said Catholics should strongly encourage palliative care for those in severe pain and for the terminally ill. This, not suicide, is true medical assistance, he maintained.

He said the government also has an obligation to support palliative care if it is going to set up a legal euthanasia regime.

“That’s the positive way to deal with this very real issue,” he said.

He also stressed the need for conscience safeguards to protect individuals who are “committed to healing, and not to killing.”

“They say that there’s nothing in the law that somebody must do this. Well, there’s nothing in the law. Yet. But this has to be taken care of.”

He said individuals and institutions will certainly face pressure to take part in assisted suicide or euthanasia.

“What protections are being offered? There are no protections offered in this bill at all,” he said.
 
Backers of the bill say that Canada’s 10 provinces and three territories will provide these protections.

The cardinal questioned this.

“For all of Canada, they’re making it acceptable to provide a noxious substance to somebody. But they’re not providing the same nationwide protections for people’s consciences and for 'havens of refuge'.”

He said that in this “cold world of euthanasia,” there must be “places where you know where you will be safe.”

He worried of the pressures on the elderly to “hurry up” and die.

“At a time when our priority should be fostering a culture of love, and enhancing resources for those suffering and facing death, assisted suicide leads us down a dark path,” he said in an April 14 statement.

He noted that the Hail Mary prayer focuses on “now, and at the hour of our death.”

“In these days ahead, may that reflection guide us as in a spirit of love, mercy and compassion, we journey with all those who are suffering.”

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Vatican City, Apr 17, 2016 / 06:42 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis on Sunday reflected on the great suffering he had witnessed at the refugee camp in Lesbos. He remembered especially the children he encountered, as well as the husband of a Christian woman who was martyred by terrorists.

“I saw much suffering,” the Pope said during his April 17 Regina Caeli address from the Apostolic palace, one day after his visit to the Greek island.

“To the refugees and the Greek people, I brought the solidarity of the Church,” he said. The Pope added that he was joined by Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew, and Archbishop Ieronymos II of Athens, to signify “unity in the charity of all the disciples of the Lord.”

Lesbos, along with its neighboring island Kos, is one of the major entry points for African and Middle Eastern refugees attempting to enter Europe. Many of the refugees, including those coming from Syria, have made the perilous journey across the Mediterranean to the island in order to escape violent conflict and persecution in their homelands.

The International Organization for Migration has said that over 1 million migrants arrived to Europe by sea in 2015 alone, according to the BBC.  

In his address, Pope Francis thanked “all who have supported us in prayer” for his April 16 visit to Lesbos.

Speaking about his journey to the Greek island, the Pope recounted his visit to one center housing refugees from Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, and the African continent.

“We greeted around 300 of these refugees, one at a time, all three (of us): Patriarch Bartholomew, Archbishop Ieronymos, and myself.”

“Many of them were children. Some of them, these children, have witnessed the deaths of parents and companions,” while many others drowned at sea.

The Pope also cited an encounter with a Muslim man and father of two children, who “wept a lot.”

“He told me he was married to a Christian girl. He loved her,” he said. “But, sadly, this girl was slaughtered by terrorists because she did not wish to deny Christ and abandon her faith. She is a martyr.”

Continuing his address, Pope Francis offered his prayers for the people of Ecuador, who have been affected by Saturday's deadly earthquake, the country's largest since 1979.

At least 77 people were killed and more than 500 injured in the 7.8 earthquake outside northern town of Muisne, the BBC reports.

“We pray for those inhabitants, as well as for those of Japan, where there have been some earthquakes in recent days,” the Pope said.

“May the help of God and their neighbors give them strength and support.”  

Before leading the crowds in the Regina Caeli prayer, Pope Francis gave his reflection on the day's Gospel reading, centering his address on what it means to listen to God's voice.

The Pope cited the day's Gospel account in which Jesus refers to his “sheep” who hear his voice and follow him.

“No one can be said to be a follower of Jesus, if he is not ready to listen to his voice,” he said. What is being referred to here is not a “superficial” listening, the Pope explained. Rather, it is a listening which comes not only comes from the ear, but also from “the heart.”

“The image of the shepherd and the sheep shows the close relationship that Jesus wants to establish with each of us,” the Pope said. “He is our guide, our teacher, our friend, our model, but above all he is our Savior.”

“Our life is completely safe in the hands of Jesus and the Father, who are one: one love, one mercy, revealed once and for all in the sacrifice of the cross,” he said

In order to save all of us, “the shepherd became a lamb and let himself be sacrificed in order to take upon himself and take away the sin of the world,” he said. “This mystery is renewed, in an always surprising humility, on the Eucharistic table.”

“For this reason, we no longer fear: our lives are now saved from perdition.”

After the Regina Caeli, Pope Francis recalled that this Sunday is the World Day of Prayer for Vocations, during which the faithful are invited to “pray for vocations to the priesthood and the consecrated life.”

In his address, the Pope greeted in particular eleven newly-ordained priests – nine of whom are from the diocese of Rome – along with their families and friends.

Pope Francis had presided over the priestly ordinations of the eleven men that morning in St. Peter's Basilica.

During the ordination Mass, he delivered the standard homily from the Italian edition of the Pontificale Romanum for the ordination of priests, but digressed from the text several times to offer advice to the men about to be ordained.

“Carry the death of Christ in yourselves, and walk with Christ in newness of life,” he said during the homily in unscripted remarks before the rite of ordination. “Without the cross, you will never find the true Jesus. A cross without Christ makes no sense.”

Pope Francis went on to remind the men to be aware that they have been “chosen among men.”

“Chosen, do not forget this. Chosen! And the Lord who has called you, one by one.”

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