Catholic News 2
VATICAN CITY (AP) -- In a sweeping document on family life that opened a door to divorced and civilly remarried Catholics, Pope Francis insisted Friday that church doctrine cannot be the final word in answering tricky moral questions and that Catholics must be guided by their own informed consciences....
WASHINGTON (AP) -- In any other election year, more than half the country holding an unfavorable impression of a candidate for president would be cause for alarm....
(Vatican Radio) Greek authorities are encountering mounting problems in their drive to clear the migrant-clogged port of Piraeus by busing migrants to more secure accommodation. The great majority still refuse to board the buses, believing they have a better chance of reaching northern Europe by staying where they are.Listen to John Carr's report: Yesterday one Afghan man tried to throw his three-month-old infant at the police when they tried to restore order after a demonstration. Only a small fraction of the 4,600 people living in tents in Piraeus have agreed to be relocated so far, while more arrived from the islands this morning.The situation is just as bad at Idomeni on the Greece-Macedonia border, where yesterday hundreds of migrants tried to storm the barrier at the closed border and were driven back by Greek police. Officials in Athens believe activists from unnamed NGOs could be inciting the migrants to stay put and defy the authorities.But with the tourist seaso...
(Vatican Radio) Greek authorities are encountering mounting problems in their drive to clear the migrant-clogged port of Piraeus by busing migrants to more secure accommodation. The great majority still refuse to board the buses, believing they have a better chance of reaching northern Europe by staying where they are.
Listen to John Carr's report:
Yesterday one Afghan man tried to throw his three-month-old infant at the police when they tried to restore order after a demonstration. Only a small fraction of the 4,600 people living in tents in Piraeus have agreed to be relocated so far, while more arrived from the islands this morning.
The situation is just as bad at Idomeni on the Greece-Macedonia border, where yesterday hundreds of migrants tried to storm the barrier at the closed border and were driven back by Greek police. Officials in Athens believe activists from unnamed NGOs could be inciting the migrants to stay put and defy the authorities.
But with the tourist season almost here, many observers believe the Greeks will eventually have to bite the bullet and use force to clear both Piraeus and Idomeni.
(Vatican Radio) Vatican Weekend for April 9, 2016 features our report on the weekly general audience of Pope Francis with pilgrims from across the world. This will be followed by an interview with Cardinal Christoph Schönborn on Pope Francis’ post synodal Exhortation 'Amoris Laetitia” or “The Joy of Love” as well as Philippa Hitchen's report on this document focusing on the family. The programme ends on a Shakespearean note to mark the fourth centenary of the death of this great literary figure with a feature which links Blessed Paul VI to Hamlet. And in the final segment you can join our popular ‘Latin Lover’ and hear how Shakespeare drew inspiration from the ancient Romans.A programme presented and produced by Veronica Scarisbrick:
(Vatican Radio) Vatican Weekend for April 9, 2016 features our report on the weekly general audience of Pope Francis with pilgrims from across the world. This will be followed by an interview with Cardinal Christoph Schönborn on Pope Francis’ post synodal Exhortation 'Amoris Laetitia” or “The Joy of Love” as well as Philippa Hitchen's report on this document focusing on the family. The programme ends on a Shakespearean note to mark the fourth centenary of the death of this great literary figure with a feature which links Blessed Paul VI to Hamlet. And in the final segment you can join our popular ‘Latin Lover’ and hear how Shakespeare drew inspiration from the ancient Romans.
A programme presented and produced by Veronica Scarisbrick:
(Vatican Radio) Vatican Weekend for April 10, 2016 features a selection of readings and reflections relating to this Sunday's gospel. This is followed by a programme in which we shine the spotlight on Julian of Norwich, an English mystic recently mentioned by Pope Francis. A programme presented and produced by Veronica Scarisbrick:
(Vatican Radio) Vatican Weekend for April 10, 2016 features a selection of readings and reflections relating to this Sunday's gospel. This is followed by a programme in which we shine the spotlight on Julian of Norwich, an English mystic recently mentioned by Pope Francis.
A programme presented and produced by Veronica Scarisbrick:
The western Indian state of Maharashtra has traced the largest number of missing children in the country as part of a national campaign to find them, kindling hopes that new measures put in place willalso help check trafficking in the state. The state is one of the largest destinations for trafficked children in the country. State Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said this week it has traced more than 12,000 children as part of the national Operation Smile and Muskaan (smile), launched first in January last year to find and reunite children with their families.A child goes missing every eight minutes in India, according to the National Crime Records Bureau. Almost 40 percent of them remain untraced. While some are kidnapped or trafficked and forced to work, some are abandoned by families who cannot afford to care for them. Older boys may be runaways seeking better opportunities. "Maharashtra has shown good results in bringing back the children and connecting...
The western Indian state of Maharashtra has traced the largest number of missing children in the country as part of a national campaign to find them, kindling hopes that new measures put in place will
also help check trafficking in the state. The state is one of the largest destinations for trafficked children in the country. State Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said this week it has traced more than 12,000 children as part of the national Operation Smile and Muskaan (smile), launched first in January last year to find and reunite children with their families.
A child goes missing every eight minutes in India, according to the National Crime Records Bureau. Almost 40 percent of them remain untraced. While some are kidnapped or trafficked and forced to work, some are abandoned by families who cannot afford to care for them. Older boys may be runaways seeking better opportunities. "Maharashtra has shown good results in bringing back the children and connecting to their families," Fadnavis told the state assembly. The state's efforts have also boosted the conviction rate for perpetrators to 52 percent from 9 percent before the campaign, he said.
Few cases of missing children in the country were even filed with the police until the Supreme Court, in response to a petition by Nobel Laureate Kailash Satyarthi's Bachpan Bachao Andolan (Save the Childhood Movement), made it mandatory in 2013 to register all cases of missing children. Nationwide, almost 29,000 children were rescued in two month-long operations last year, according to the home ministry. National data for this year's January campaign are not yet available.
Maharashtra’s Inspector General of Police Brijesh Singh said 4,244 children were rescued in January in the state, of whom only 665 had been recorded as missing. Last July, 4,296 children were traced in the state, of whom about 1,400 were girls, he said. A similar number were rescued in January 2015. Some children were found begging on the streets, and others had been forced to work. Some had been trafficked from the eastern states of Bihar and Orissa, Singh said. As part of the campaign, police stations in the state appointed child welfare officers, and the state's 12 anti-human trafficking units worked closely with child welfare centres. Police also tapped NGOs for help with rehabilitation. (Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation)
(Vatican Radio) Minutes after its publication on Friday, Pope Francis’ Apostolic Exhortation on the family was being scrutinized and commented on in countries across the globe. The lengthy document, entitled ‘Amoris Laetitia’, or The Joy of Love, draws together the work of the last two Synods of Bishops, affirming the Church’s teaching that stable families are the building blocks of a healthy society and a place where children learn to love, respect and interact with others.But at the same time, the text warns against idealizing the many challenges facing family life, urging Catholics to care for, rather than condemning, those whose lives do not reflect the teaching of the Church.Philippa Hitchen went along to the press conference where the document was presented by Cardinals Christoph Schonborn and Lorenzo Baldisseri, together with an Italian married couple who took part in the 2014 and 2015 Synods of Bishops on the family…Listen:&...
(Vatican Radio) Minutes after its publication on Friday, Pope Francis’ Apostolic Exhortation on the family was being scrutinized and commented on in countries across the globe.
The lengthy document, entitled ‘Amoris Laetitia’, or The Joy of Love, draws together the work of the last two Synods of Bishops, affirming the Church’s teaching that stable families are the building blocks of a healthy society and a place where children learn to love, respect and interact with others.
But at the same time, the text warns against idealizing the many challenges facing family life, urging Catholics to care for, rather than condemning, those whose lives do not reflect the teaching of the Church.
Philippa Hitchen went along to the press conference where the document was presented by Cardinals Christoph Schonborn and Lorenzo Baldisseri, together with an Italian married couple who took part in the 2014 and 2015 Synods of Bishops on the family…
Listen:
It was significant that Cardinal Schonborn of Vienna, son of divorced parents, was selected to present the key concepts at the heart of this new document. Important too, that he suggested bishops should read the text with the help of married men and women, who are grappling with all the daily frustrations and “mixtures of enjoyment and struggles” that family life presents. Because in its nine chapters, he says, Pope Francis speaks about families with a clarity that’s hard to find in any other teaching documents of the Church.
Having said that, be warned this is not a text that can be read in a hurry, or summarized in a few sentences. It ranges from biblical and spiritual reflections on the family, through very practical discussions on love, sexuality and the education of children, to the many contemporary challenges of unemployment, inadequate housing, migration and violence that have an especially damaging effect on families.
But throughout its 250 pages, as the Austrian cardinal made clear, “something has changed” in the way the Church speaks about people’s personal lives. Judgmental expressions like ‘living in sin’ or ‘irregular situations’, he says, have been replaced by a language of welcome, inclusion and accompanying every person, at whatever stage of life’s journey they find themselves. It’s clear, the document says, that “we need a healthy dose of self-criticism” to see how “the way we present our Christian beliefs and treat other people” has contributed to the crisis of family life today.
It’s not just a linguistic change either. At the core of Pope Francis’ vision in this text is the concept of “personal and pastoral discernment of particular cases”, recognizing that the Church cannot simply judge all marital breakdowns or non-conventional relationships in the same way. Instead, pastors must learn to listen to each person’s story and “make room for the consciences of the faithful….who are capable of carrying out their own discernment” in very complex situations.
But what does this mean in practice, I hear you ask? Well, the definitive answers, the cardinal said, are found in paragraph 300 where the Pope says “neither the Synod nor this Exhortation could be expected to provide a new set of general rules, canonical in nature and applicable to all cases”. One size just doesn’t fit all, as every parent knows perfectly well. Furthermore the Pope says, it’s not he, but the bishops in different countries who are best placed to “seek solutions” that are culturally sensitive to local traditions and practice.
Pope Francis trusts in the joy of love, though he does say he understands “those who prefer a more rigorous pastoral care which leaves no room for confusion”. If we see everything as black and white, he warns, we close off God’s way of grace and growth. Instead we must respond to people with generous love to help them overcome barriers and be fully welcomed into the life of the Church. Including, if you read the footnotes carefully, with the help of the sacraments which are not “a prize for the perfect but a powerful medicine and nourishment for the weak”.
So is this document overturning traditional Church teaching on marriage and the family? Absolutely not. The text is full of quotes from previous popes and is a passionate endorsement of the joy that family life can bring to mums and dads, kids and grandparents, aunts and uncles and the whole extended network of family life which still exists in many countries of the world today. And while it doesn’t provide cut and dried answers to all the challenges, it really does try to raise the questions and ensure that the Church keeps the door open to the ongoing conversation.
IMAGE: CNS photo/Sid HastingsBy Cindy WoodenVATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Francis' hymn to love and familylife is more like a country song than a Disney tune.In "Amoris Laetitia" ("The Joy of Love"),Pope Francis' postsynodal apostolic exhortation on the family, there is passionand devotion, but also heartache and sweat. The "magic" he wroteabout is not momentarily sparkly, but the result of prayer, grace, hard workand a willingness to apologize -- time and time again."Committing oneself exclusively and definitively toanother person always involves a risk and a bold gamble," he wrote. Butthe payoff is huge.The papal reflection on love, family life and the importanceof marriage and child-rearing has sections that are deeply theological,pristinely poetic or even homiletic, like his reflection on the meaning of eachline of the passage from the First Letter to the Corinthians, Chapter 13, used at millions of weddings eachyear: "Love is patient, love is kind ...."But it also got into the ni...
IMAGE: CNS photo/Sid Hastings
By Cindy Wooden
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Francis' hymn to love and family life is more like a country song than a Disney tune.
In "Amoris Laetitia" ("The Joy of Love"), Pope Francis' postsynodal apostolic exhortation on the family, there is passion and devotion, but also heartache and sweat. The "magic" he wrote about is not momentarily sparkly, but the result of prayer, grace, hard work and a willingness to apologize -- time and time again.
"Committing oneself exclusively and definitively to another person always involves a risk and a bold gamble," he wrote. But the payoff is huge.
The papal reflection on love, family life and the importance of marriage and child-rearing has sections that are deeply theological, pristinely poetic or even homiletic, like his reflection on the meaning of each line of the passage from the First Letter to the Corinthians, Chapter 13, used at millions of weddings each year: "Love is patient, love is kind ...."
But it also got into the nitty-gritty business of life when a man and a woman leave their parents' home and try to make one of their own. However, while it quoted from some of his past speeches on family life, it did not include references to "plates flying" during arguments and refrained from making mother-in-law jokes, as he has been known to do.
Pope Francis reviewed the whole arc of married life from new and exciting young love to old age, sitting on the porch watching the grandkids play.
"Young love needs to keep dancing toward the future with immense hope," he wrote. "Hope is the leaven that, in those first years of engagement and marriage, makes it possible to look beyond arguments, conflicts and problems and to see things in a broader perspective."
While realistic about late nights and colic, the papal document is lyrical in its reflections on the blessings and challenges of welcoming children into families. He invited readers to join him standing in awe of God's gift of children, marveling that "God allows parents to choose the name by which he himself will call their child for all eternity."
Running after toddlers, supervising homework, trying to figure out how to be close to adolescents without smothering them and, finally, negotiating the "empty nest" syndrome all feature in the papal text.
Reaching together the later stage of family life, he insisted, is possible and beautiful.
"Although the body ages," he said, "it still expresses that personal identity that first won our heart. Even if others can no longer see the beauty of that identity, a spouse continues to see it with the eyes of love and so his or her affection does not diminish."
The path to the porch won't be easy, the pope wrote. But "each crisis has a lesson to teach us; we need to learn how to listen for it with the ear of the heart."
The pope's hymn includes the twang of yearning for that perfect, forever love. That yearning, present in most people from every culture and religion, shows that a stable, faithful union is what responds to human nature and to God's plan for humanity.
"Lovers do not see their relationship as merely temporary," he wrote. "Those who marry do not expect their excitement to fade. Those who witness the celebration of a loving union, however fragile, trust that it will pass the test of time."
To turn that dream into reality, try a little tenderness, the pope advised. Tenderness is a virtue "often overlooked in our world of frenetic and superficial relationships."
A loving gaze also is essential, he wrote. "How many things do spouses and children sometimes do in order to be noticed! Much hurt and many problems result when we stop looking at one another. This lies behind the complaints and grievances we often hear in families: 'My husband does not look at me; he acts as if I were invisible.' 'Please look at me when I am talking to you!' 'My wife no longer looks at me, she only has eyes for our children.'"
Pope Francis' ballad on family love, life and loss urges Catholics to be patient and merciful with themselves as well as with their spouses and children. "No family drops down from heaven perfectly formed," so all must learn to grow together, including by making frequent use of the words, "Thank you," "please" and "sorry."
"The right words, spoken at the right time, daily protect and nurture love," the pope wrote.
Finding the right words also is Pope Francis' exhortation to the church as a whole. While standing up tall for the family, the church needs to stop whining about how often its teaching on love and marriage is attacked, he said. "We should not be trapped into wasting our energy in doleful laments, but rather seek new forms of missionary creativity."
Family life always has been challenging, the pope wrote. Just read the Bible, which "is full of families, births, love stories and family crises."
But the Bible, he said, also holds out the promise of "the goal of their journey, when God 'will wipe away every tear from their eyes and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore.'"
- - -
Follow Wooden on Twitter @Cindy_Wooden.
- - -
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.
LONDON (AP) -- The text message from a young boy, writing in broken English on a no-frills cellphone, was frightening enough to set off a frantic, trans-Atlantic search that saved the lives of 15 migrants trapped in a locked truck in England....
BRUSSELS (AP) -- Belgian authorities say several arrests have been made in relation to the Brussels attacks, one day after they called on the public to help look for a key suspect who was involved in the March 22 bloodshed that killed 32 people....
