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 WASHINGTON-Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York called on everyone "concerned about the tragedy of abortion" to recommit to a "vision of life and love, a vision that excludes no one" on January 14. His statement marks the 43rd anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion. Cardinal Dolan chairs the Committee on Pro-Life Activities of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

"Most Americans oppose a policy allowing legal abortion for virtually any reason - though many still do not realize that this is what the Supreme Court gave us," wrote Cardinal Dolan. "Most want to protect unborn children at later stages of pregnancy, to regulate or limit the practice of abortion, and to stop the use of taxpayer dollars for the destruction of unborn children. Yet many who support important goals of the pro-life movement do not identify as 'pro-life,' a fact which should lead us to examine how we present our pro-life vision to others."

"Even as Americans remain troubled by abortion," wrote Cardinal Dolan, a powerful and well-funded lobby holds "that abortion must be celebrated as a positive good for women and society, and those who cannot in conscience provide it are to be condemned for practicing substandard medicine and waging a 'war on women'." He said this trend was seen recently when President Obama and other Democratic leaders prevented passage of the Abortion Non-Discrimination Act, "a modest measure to provide for effective enforcement" of conscience laws.

"While this is disturbing," said Cardinal Dolan, "it is also an opportunity." Pro-life Americans should reach out to "the great majority of Americans" who are "open to hearing a message of reverence for life." He added that "we who present the pro-life message must always strive to be better messengers. A cause that teaches the inexpressibly great value of each and every human being cannot show disdain or disrespect for any fellow human being." He encouraged Catholics to take part, through prayer and action, in the upcoming "9 Days for Life" campaign, January 16-24. More information on the campaign is available online: www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxJwfcefUiU

He also cited the Year of Mercy called by Pope Francis as a time for women and men to find healing through the Church's Project Rachel post-abortion ministry.

The full text of Cardinal Dolan's message is available online.
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Keywords: Roe v. Wade, anniversary, Pro-Life, Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan, 9 Days for Life, USCCB, U.S. bishops, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Year of Mercy, Project Rachel, Pope Francis
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(Vatican Radio) The President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, Cardinal Peter Turkson, delivered an address to the Global Responsibility 2030 conference meeting in Bad Honnef, Germany on Saturday.

Below, please find the full text of Cardinal Turkson's prepared remarks...

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Conference: "Global Responsibility 2030:

The MDGs and the Post-2015-Process as a challenge for the Universal Church"

Katholisch-Sozialen Institut, Bad Honnef, Germany, 5 March 2016

Catholic social teaching, integral ecology and sustainable development[1]

In the name of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, I am very happy to participate in this year’s conference “Global Responsibility 2030” co-sponsored by the academic association Ordo Socialis[2] and the Katholisch-Sociales Institut of the Archdiocese of Cologne.[3] Also in the name of the whole Council, let me wholeheartedly congratulate Cardinal Oscar Rodríguez Maradiaga for so deservedly receiving the Ordo Socialis prize for his faith-filled Christian commitment and for the many valuable ways in which he has addressed problems of exclusion, poverty and governance.

In addition, please join me in looking ahead for a moment to next year. It will be an auspicious double anniversary. The Katholisch-Sociales Institut was founded in 1947. Then in 1967, Blessed Pope Paul VI founded the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. As we celebrate such special birthdays in the same year, the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace is happy to honour the Katholisch-Sociales Institut as twenty years our senior!

At this point, I call on Pope Francis himself to introduce Laudato si’ briefly in a short video. Let us watch it now.[4]

Here are some key take-aways from the video and from Laudato si’ itself:

• Our nature is created by God and surrounded by the gifts of creation
• Our failures are that we over-consume and that we do not share the gifts of creation. We have tilled too much and kept too little – with dire consequences for the poor and the planet.
• And so it is urgent that we change our sense of progress, our management of the economy, and our style of life. This coherent and sustainable approach to life is what we call integral ecology.

My contribution to today’s reflections is entitled Catholic social teaching, integral ecology and sustainable development, and what I hope to show is how the three elements of the title all converge in the ample proposals made by Pope Francis, especially in Laudato si’.

Sustainable development

Sustainable development is one of the greatest challenges facing the human family. The main idea recognizes that it is no longer sufficient to measure human progress only in terms of a growing Gross Domestic Product (GDP). GDP was always an inadequate measure of well-being. As a gross measure, it ignored significant variations of outcomes among sub-populations – and we now have disastrous gaps between the super-rich and the utterly destitute. As a single measure, it always ignored other essential foundations of well-being. This is especially so in the current global reality. So today, we slowly but surely acknowledge that social inclusion and environmental sustainability are intrinsic to true development. True development must be sustainable development. It must rest on three legs—economic, social, and environmental. And if one leg is neglected, then the entire structure collapses.

In many respects, sustainable development is a response to a problem of scale. Since the industrial revolution, which began in the 18^th century, the global population has increased ninefold, and the global economy is now more than 200 times larger. And the trend shows no sign of slowing down. By mid-century, global population is expected to surpass 9 billion, and—on best estimates—the size of the global economy could increase threefold. This is a staggering change in such a short period of time, and it is bound to create economic, social, and environmental challenges.

From the very beginning of these “new things” or res novae, the Church sought to grapple with all this dizzying change. This is how modern Catholic social teaching was born—in Pope Leo XIII’s effort to align timeless Christian principles with the res novae of the modern industrial economy. And yet, when the great encyclical Rerum Novarum was written in 1891, the technological revolution was still in its infancy. The age of steam and railways was well underway, but the age of electricity had just begun, and the great advances in automobiles and petrochemicals—to say nothing of information technology—still lay in the future. Since 1950, the economic potential from the technological revolution has increasingly but unevenly benefited the various corners of the world. The process began with inequalities including colonialism and even slavery; and the process remains very unequal, unfinished and, in some places, much retarded if not blocked.

While Rerum Novarum focussed on the conditions and rights of workers, it also contained some seeds of current ideas about our natural environment. For example, it stated that those who receive God’s bounty in the form of natural resources or property should exercise their responsibility “as the steward of God’s providence, for the benefit of others”.[5] Moreover, Rerum Novarum—and all subsequent papal social encyclicals—warned about the tendency of modern capitalism to create stark divisions between rich and poor within countries, and between rich countries and poor ones. When the economic impulse is propelled primarily by self-interest, by greed, by zeal for material accumulation and unfettered consumption, the result is dysfunction and imbalance, and it leads to large numbers of human beings ignored, excluded, and discarded. With its relatively narrow focus on growth, it leaves economies prone to damaging booms and busts.

In 2007, Pope Benedict XVI spoke of “eliminating the structural causes of the dysfunctions of the world economy and correcting models of growth which have proved incapable of ensuring respect for the environment”.[6] This becomes the strong message of Pope Francis in Laudato si’. As the global economy expands in size and reach, so do its “short-sighted approaches to the economy, commerce and production” (§32). This gives rise, says Pope Francis, to a “throwaway culture”, which is the driving force behind the economy of exclusion. The excluded are not even considered part of society, the Holy Father decries, they are the outcasts, the ‘leftovers’.

But there’s more to it. When Rerum Novarum was written, the scale of the global economy was much smaller, as was its impact on the earth and its natural systems and cycles. This is no longer the case today. In writing Laudato si’, Pope Francis consulted with some of the world’s top scientists—including from here in Germany. The message is loud and clear—human beings are interfering with earth’s natural cycles in an unprecedented and highly dangerous manner. The scale of human activity means that we are brushing against some vital planetary boundaries—including climate change; ocean acidification; deforestation; depletion of precious water resources; pollution from extensive use of fertilizers, and from the massive burning of fossil fuels; and the undermining of delicate ecosystems and the tragic loss of biodiversity.

Unique for a papal encyclical, Pope Francis references these dangers, especially in the first chapter, “What is happening to our common home”. The reason is simple. If we do not slow down and re-assess our behaviour, we will destroy the bountiful earth given by God to all of us. In doing so, we undermine the conditions for human flourishing—especially for the poor and for future generations.[7]

This is why sustainable development is such a great challenge of our age. We must restore a proper sense of balance, and put the social and environmental pillars on the same level as the economic pillar. Sustainable development calls for a world in which economic progress is widespread, poverty is eliminated, the resources of the earth are shared fairly, the environment is protected from human-induced degradation, and all people can flourish.

In this spirit, the leaders of the world gathered in New York last September to endorse the 17 Sustainable Development Goals; and again at COP21 in Paris in December, to commit themselves to phasing out the use of dangerous fossil fuels. These goals are the right priorities for the world at this moment. They aim to make the economy work for everyone; to end the scandal of poverty and hunger in a world of plenty; to ensure clean water, accessible energy, health care and education for all; to protect the world’s ecosystems and shift to a sustainable use of the earth’s resources; and to build more inclusive, just and peaceful societies.

In this, the Sustainable Development Goals build on the momentum of the Millennium Development Goals. The earlier goals applied only to developing countries, and focused on a shorter list of priority areas including poverty, hunger, health, education, and gender equality. Yet they show what can be done when the world unites around a set of urgent moral priorities. Thanks to these goals, poverty fell precipitously, and health outcomes improved dramatically.[8] The new goals are for everyone in every part of the world, and they encompass the full range of challenges facing our human family. So yes, the SDGs are more ambitious. Nevertheless, we have learned that, when people and especially their leaders focus on a concrete framework for action, success is possible.

The market system is certainly capable of generating wealth and delivering economic growth. We can see that. But it cannot really go beyond this. We can see that too. The market does not guarantee social inclusion, and it certainly does not seek to sustain our limited natural resources. So the market alone will not be able to bring about sustainable development.

The problem, says Pope Francis, is not so much the market economy itself, but the ideology that too often lies behind it—the “deified market” or the “magical conception of the market” which resist the necessary political oversight and regulation. “Politics must not be subject to the economy, nor should the economy be subject to the dictates of an efficiency-driven paradigm of technocracy” (§189). The solution, according to Catholic social teaching, is to choose solidarity over self-interest, the common good over profit maximization, integral human development over materialism, and sustainability over short-termism. That does not mean rejecting the market; it does mean recognizing its clear limits, and keeping it under human and ethical control.

Speaking of solidarity, let me note the wonderful stance of contemporary Germany in this regard. This country’s reception of refugees is a dramatic, concrete exercise of compassion towards those who are excluded and marginalized. Here too, sustainability is vital. As Pope Francis spells out:

With regard to migration, there is a need for mid-term and long-term planning which is not limited to emergency responses. Such planning should include effective assistance for integrating migrants in their receiving countries, while also promoting the development of their countries of origin through policies inspired by solidarity, yet not linking assistance to ideological strategies and practices alien or contrary to the cultures of the peoples being assisted.^[9]

The plight of migrants and refugees has been an impassioned element of the current papacy; your response in Germany is truly an exercise of Misericordia within this great Year of Mercy.

Integral human development, integral ecology and Catholic Social Teaching

So far, I have focused my remarks on sustainable development. In Laudato si’, however, Pope Francis is calling for something broader and more encompassing than what the world means by sustainable development. He is calling for “integral and sustainable human development”. This might seem like merely adding the extra word “integral”, but that extra word makes all the difference! In Catholic social teaching, integral human development refers to the development of the whole person and every person. Such multi-faceted development goes well beyond an ever-expanding GDP, even a better-distributed one, and merely economic or material progress. It encompasses the cultural, social, emotional, intellectual, aesthetic, and religious dimensions. It is an invitation for each person on the planet to flourish, to use the gifts given to them by God to become who they were meant to be.

This more encompassing and holistic approach to development goes well beyond narrower reductionist ones. Development should not be conceived of in purely technocratic terms that set aside moral considerations. Laudato si’ strongly condemns the dominance of the “technocratic paradigm”. By this Pope Francis means the tendency to take efficiency and productivity as the benchmarks of success, and to see nature as something to be manipulated, mastered and controlled, with no concern for its inherent value or limits. In turn, this leads to a temptation to seek “infinite or unlimited growth” and an inclination to put individual benefit ahead of the common good. It leads to the tendency to define economic success based on profit and material calculation, which reflects a disordered desire for instant gratification. According to Pope Francis, it is precisely such a short-sighted and self-serving attitude that lies behind the social and environmental crisis. “The alliance between the economy and technology ends up side-lining anything unrelated to its immediate interests” (§54).

In practice, this calls for a re-assessment of our obsession with GDP growth and consumerism. Laudato si’ notes that some countries will indeed need higher economic growth—namely, the developing countries who justifiably hope to improve their living standards. This is a matter of justice. But just as important, the richer countries might need to reconsider their own lifestyle and the role of merely economic growth. They (we!) must re-assess the whirlwind of consumerism that drives their growth.

Pope Francis is calling on all people to pursue a kind of progress that is more integral, more sustainable, and ultimately more worthwhile. This is one facet of the Pope’s integral ecology: the value of integration and harmony of our lives with the natural world (§225). It comprehends “our unique place as human beings in this world and our relationship to our surroundings” (§15), in the varied aspects of our life, in economy and politics, in various cultures, in particular those which are most threatened, and in every moment of our daily lives.

In particular, we must not forget the poor of today “whose life on this earth is brief and who cannot keep on waiting” (§162). In the contemporary world, where “injustices abound and growing numbers of people are deprived of basic human rights and considered expendable”, working for the common good means to make choices in solidarity based on “a preferential option for the poorest” (§158).

The common good also regards future generations: “We can no longer speak of sustainable development apart from intergenerational solidarity” (§159). Here, in the context of integral ecology, Pope Francis invokes care for our children to formulate his pivotal question about the environment: “What kind of world do we want to leave to those who come after us, to children who are now growing up?”(§160).

Conclusion

I have spoken about supplanting traditional market thinking that distorts the full notion of integral and sustainable human development. But this is not a call for pre-industrial romanticism. Rather, I would wish to see the tools of the market and the skills of its experts applied to achieving full human flourishing and sustainable development. Rapacious profits are not intrinsic to well-functioning markets; corruption, bribery, and cruelty are not intrinsic to well-functioning markets. Indeed, the opposite is true. Better governance means greater genuine prosperity. Both classical and contemporary theorists point to the basis of well-functioning markets in certain virtues such as trust, honesty, solidarity, reciprocity, and cooperation. If anything is intrinsic to markets, it is not vice but virtue. So there is nothing strange about challenging the markets to produce virtuous outcomes such as common good, sustainability and solidarity. This is the best of what the former MDGs and the new SDGs hope for and strive for.

Such hope echoes the magisterium of Pope Francis. Overcoming the interrelated social and environmental crises will require a wholly different attitude—a cultural revolution, he says. By this, the Holy Father does not mean a naïve rejection of technology and the benefits of modern society. No, he means putting human ingenuity in the service of a better kind of progress—one that is healthier, more human, more social, and more integral. In turn, this calls for us to overturn what he calls the myths of modernity—individualism, unlimited progress, competition, consumerism, a market without rules. Pope Francis is calling for sustainable development, yes, but ultimately for a deeper vision of what is to be served by that development: the Earth returned to its health and beauty, home for all our future generations. For this we must pray to work with each other, guided by God, in order to make the Earth worthy once again of comparison with Heaven. Dein Wille geschehe, wie im Himmel, so auf Erden. – Thy Will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven!

Cardinal Peter K.A. Turkson

President

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(Vatican Radio)  Two female students and a Salesian priest are among the speakers at this year’s 'Voices of Faith' female storytelling event taking place in the Vatican (on International Women's Day March 8^th) and have been speaking about the importance of education, particularly for girls, to help prevent them becoming child brides or child labourers.

Each year around 15 million girls across the world are married off while still children but education is seen as a fundamental key in improving the social and economic situation for females and their families. Caroline and Judy, both from Kenya, told us how they were able to avoid being married off whilst still in their teens and spoke about their ongoing studies and their ambitions. For his part, Father Menamparampil has spearheaded an initiative to support the education of girls in tribal areas of India by providing partial scholarships to them. Caroline, Judy and Father Menamparampil shared with Susy Hodges their life stories and personal goals and all stressed the vital importance of obtaining a good education.  

Listen to the round-table conversation between Caroline Kimeu Nduku, Judy Onyango, Father George Menamparampil and Susy Hodges: 

Now 21 and about to enter university, Caroline Nduku from Kenya described how she was initially forced to stop her education at the age of 14 and found herself with two options – either to get married or become a child labourer. Having seen the suffering and “miserable life” of her older sisters who were both the victims of early marriages, Caroline decided she was not going to follow that path and moved to Nairobi where she eventually was able to continue her schooling thanks partly to her “passion” for education.    

Judy Onyango is also from Kenya and is studying for an MBA. Like Caroline, she came under pressure to marry early when her father’s death plunged her family into dire poverty. She resisted that pressure and received financial help from the church and friends to continue her education. Judy told us she wants “to be a role model to empower as many other girls as possible” to follow her path and described how education has given her “so many positive things” as well as self-respect and influence.  

Born in Kerala, India, Father George Menamparampil is a Salesian priest has served the disavantaged peoples (mostly indigenous tribes) of North East India and Bhutan for the past 48 years. He also heads the fundraising arm of Don Bosco India which runs over 300 schools and nearly 50 collages across the country. When asked why he feels so passionately about the cause of education for girls, Father Menamparampil explained that in many parts of India girls are “looked down upon, exploited and abused” and often “don’t have an identity of their own” but instead are viewed as the daughter, or wife or mother of a man and because of this discrimination are unable to fulfil their “full potential.”  

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(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis says that the four nuns who were killed in Yemen are modern-day martyrs and victims of indifference.

During his address to the faithful gathered in St. Peter’s Square after the Angelus prayer, the Pope prayed for the slain nuns who belonged to Mother Teresa’s “Missionaries of Charity” and who were serving in a home for the elderly which was attacked on Friday by gunmen in the city of Aden.

Expressing his closeness to the religious Order, he said the nuns “gave their blood for the Church”' and that they were not only victims of the attackers but also of “this indifference of globalization.”

The nuns were among 16 people killed during an attack by terrorists who stormed the retirement home.

Pope Francis also praised an ecumenical project to fly refugees to Europe as “a concrete sign of commitment for peace and life.”

He described the “pilot” project as a reality that unites solidarity with security allowing the safe transfer of people who are fleeing war and violence, such as the “one hundred refugees who have already arrived in Italy and amongst whom there are minors, sick people, disabled people, war widows with children and elderly people”.

The group that arrived in Rome last month represents the first wave of the planned transfer of 1,000 particularly vulnerable refugees from camps in Lebanon, Morocco and Ethiopia.

Pope Francis said he is particularly happy the initiative is an ecumenical one that sees the support of the Community of Saint Egidio, the Federation of Italian Evangelical Churches, the Waldensian and the Methodist Churches. 

Meanwhile, during his catechesis Pope Francis reflected on the parable of the prodigal son saying that God gives us the freedom to make mistakes, but he always welcomes us back to the fold with open arms.

Jesus, he said, teaches us to be merciful just as the Father is, and he warned against pride and arrogance that can derive from feelings of righteousness. That kind of attitude, he said, is evil. The Lord welcomes those who recognize their sinfulness.

The Pope concluded his catechesis saying that God loves us immeasurably and comes towards us with tenderness when we approach Him after having wandered.

“He welcomes us, Pope Francis concluded, and restores our dignity as God’s children.”

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Vatican City, Mar 6, 2016 / 05:36 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On Sunday Pope Francis lamented the world’s indifference to the recent killing of four Missionaries of Charity, calling them the ‘martyrs of today’ and asking that Bl. Mother Teresa intercede in bringing peace.

 “I express my closeness to the Missionaries of Charity for the great loss that affected them two days ago with the killing of four religious in Aden, Yemen, where they assisted the elderly,” the Pope said March 6.

The sisters who were killed “are the martyrs of today…they gave their blood for the Church, (yet) they are not in the papers, they are not news,” he said.

Francis lamented that the sisters are not only the victims of their killers, but “also of the indifference of this globalization of indifference, which doesn't care.”

He prayed for the sisters and the other 12 people killed in the attack, as well as their families, asking that Mother Teresa would accompany her “martyr daughters of charity” in paradise, and intercede in obtaining peace “and the sacred respect of human life.”

Pope Francis’ spoke to pilgrims present in St. Peter’s Square for his March 6 Angelus address, just two days after a March 4 attack at a Missionaries of Charity convent and nursing home for the elderly and disabled persons in Aden, the provisional capital of Yemen, left 16 dead.

Four of the victims were sisters of the Missionaries of Charity, the community founded by Blessed Mother Teresa. Other victims of the attack included volunteers at the home, at least five of whom were Ethiopian. Many were Yemenis. The nursing home had around 80 residents, who were unharmed.

Fr. Tom Uzhunnalil, a Salesian priest from India who had been staying with the sisters since his church was attacked and burned last September, has been missing since the attack, Agenzia Fides reports. Sources close to CNA say the priest was abducted from the convent chapel.

In his address, Pope Francis pointed to the Parable of the Prodigal Son, which was recounted in the day’s Gospel from Luke. A better name for the parable could be that of “the merciful Father,” the Pope said, noting how the father in the passage is “a man always ready to forgive and who hopes against all hope.”

In tolerating the younger son’s decision to leave home when he could have easily opposed, the father is respecting his son’s freedom, as God does with us, Francis explained.

“God lets us be free, even to make mistakes, because in creating us he gave us the great gift of freedom,” he said.

However, the father continues to carry the younger son in his heart, “faithfully awaiting his return,” Francis said, explaining that the father has the same attitude of tenderness toward his older son.

He reminds the older son not only of how they have been together and what they have in common, but he also expresses the need for the older son to welcome his brother with joy.

Francis then pointed to a third, “hidden son” in the parable, describing him as the one who “did not deem equality with God something to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave.”

This “Servant-Son,” Jesus, is the extension of God’s hand and heart, the Pope said, explaining that he is the one who welcomed the prodigal son, prepared his “banquet of forgiveness” and taught us to be merciful like the father.

Turning to the image of the father in the parable, Pope Francis said that he reveals the heart of God, and shows us “the merciful Father who in Jesus loves us beyond all measure, always waiting for our conversion each time we err.”

Just like the father in the parable, God continues to consider us his children even when we are lost, the Pope said, explaining that even the most serious mistakes we make “don't scratch the fidelity of his love.”

The Sacrament of Confession, he said, is our opportunity to start again, and is the place where God welcomes us and “restores to us the dignity of his children.”

Pope Francis closed his address with an appeal to intensify their path of interior conversion throughout the rest of Lent.

“Let us allow ourselves to be reached by the gaze of our father, full of love, and return to him with our whole heart, rejecting any compromise with sin,” he said.

 After leading pilgrims in the traditional Marian prayer, Francis gave a shoutout to the new pilot program “Humanitarian Corridors,” aimed at helping refugees.

An joint-ecumenical initiative of the Sant'Egidio Community, the Federation of Protestant Churches in Italy, the Italian government and the Waldensian and Methodist churches, the projects provides aid and safe passage to those fleeing war and violence.

The first 100 out of the 1,000 refugees who will come from camps in Lebanon, Morocco and Ethiopia, have already transferred to Italy. Among them are sick children, disabled persons, elderly and widows of war with children.

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