Catholic News 2

(Vatican Radio) Spanish tenor Placido Domingo was at Pope Francis’ general audience on Wednesday. The famed opera star carried a flag from his native Spain, and was accompanied by his wife of 50 years, as well as his children and grandchildren.

“I would love to one day sing for Pope Francis, who speaks my native language, as I did for Paul VI, John Paul II, and Benedict XVI,” Domingo said.

He said it was a please to “just to live the experience, as a family, of being in the presence of the Pope,” calling it a moment of “great emotion and a privilege.”

Later in the the day, Domingo sent out two messages on Twitter: The first reading “Thank you Holy Father ! Gracias a Santo Padre. Grazie Santo Padre!”; and the second reading “What an emotional experience ! Thank you Holy Father !”

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(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Wednesday blessed the Torch of St. Benedict “Pro Pace et Europa Una”, before it was taken to the city of Amsterdam, since the Netherlands currently holds the rotating Presidency of the Council of the European Union.

The blessing took place in St. Peter's Square during the general audience.

The tradition of the pilgrimage of the Torch of Saint Benedict began in 1964, when Pope Paul VI proclaimed St. Benedict of Nursia the patron of Europe.  The torch travels to different cities each year, before returning to the great Benedictine monastery in Cassino, Italy, via a procession by foot from Norcia.

It is an honor and exciting to be here today,” said Giuseppe Golini Petrarcone, the mayor of Cassino.

The delegation also gave Pope Francis a newly published edition of the first rule of Saint Benedict.

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The 150 Bishops’ gathering issued the challenge when they met recently at a regional plenary assembly held in Accra, Ghana from 22 to 29 February 2016.

Meeting under the umbrella of RECOWA the Bishops dedicated their final statement mostly to issues of family life.

RECOWA  is an amalgamation of CERAO and AECAWA which stand for Conference Episcopale Regionale de l’Afrique de l’Ouest (CERAO) and the Anglophone Catholic Bishops Region in West Africa (AECAWA), respectively.  The two regional bodies merged to form one union (RECOWA) in 2007.

In their pastoral statement, the Bishops urge the faithful in West Africa to rise to the defense and protection of the family.

“When in the society, marriage, family and family life, that basic nucleus of humanity is not guaranteed its proper development in peace, that society is condemned to socio-political, cultural and moral instability. We are therefore very convinced that in the face of the current socio-cultural developments, the Church-Family of God must rise and defend the truth about marriage and family life as God the Creator has given it (see Gen. 1 & 2; Mt. 19:1-6, etc.). We defend the inalienable dignity and rights of all persons, as children of God, created in his image and likeness; we must safeguard the rights of all, especially the most vulnerable in society such as those conceived (the unborn), the aged and infirm throughout earthly life to natural death,” the Bishops’ final statement reads.

The Bishops further pledge to uphold and defend the institution of marriage.

“Marriage is a gift of God created for man and woman, nothing more and nothing less, and that all human life is sacred and must be respected, accompanied and supported, protected and defended from the womb to the tomb.   We stand up for the culture of life, and we are ready to defend it in the public spaces of our countries against the incipient culture of death being offered as development,” the West African Bishops assert.

Concerning the Church, the Bishops recommitted themselves to the model of Church as a family.

“Since the First Special Assembly for Africa of the Synod of Bishops which took place in the Vatican City, from 10 April  to 08 May, 1994, we accepted with the blessing of Pope St. John Paul II to work hard to make our Church become truly Church: family of God (see Ecclesia in Africa 63). We are still committed to working hard to make this model of Church a reality in our countries and beyond,” the pastoral statement signed by the new president of the regional body, Archbishop Kaigama says.

(Email: engafrica@vatiradio.va)

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(Vatican Radio) Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore led an ecumenical and inter-religious group of leaders from his city on pilgrimage to Rome this week. The city of Baltimore is still reeling from the shock of civic unrest in the wake of the highly publicized death of a young black citizen named Freddie Gray last spring, after Gray had been taken into police custody. Leaders from Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, and several Protestant churches and communities decided to make a visit to Rome together in order to strengthen the bonds of friendship that already unite them,  and obtain the blessing of Pope Francis on their commitment to work together to address key areas of importance in the city.

Imam Earl El-Amin of the Muslim Community Cultural Center of Baltimore, Rabbi Steven Fink of Temple Oheb Shalom, the Rev. Dr. Al Hathaway of Union Baptist Church, the Rev. Wolfgang D. Herz-Lane of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Auxiliary Bishop Denis Madden of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, Mr. William McCarthy of Catholic Charities, the Rev. Dr. Frank Reid of Bethel AME Church, and the Rev. Donald Sterling of New All Saints Catholic Church, have been in dialogue with one another over the past year, discussing issues that came to the forefront of the local and national consciousness in the aftermath of the death of Freddie Gray.

Click below to hear the extended conversation between Vatican Radio's Chris Altieri and pilgrimage members Imam Earl El-Amin, Rabbi Steven Fink, Lutheran Bishop Wolfgang D. Herz-Lane, and Archbishop William Lori

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“There’s a lot going on in the wake of what has happened,” said Imam Earl El-Amin to Vatican Radio. “A lot of good and positive things have taken place,” he continued. “You see relationships: as you see with us, with what we are doing – which started many years ago,” he said. “We’ve been involved in other initiatives and activities that have benefited the quality of life in the city of Baltimore, but this – we’ve come together because we’ve seen, over time, that there has to be some input from the faith community in building relationships – not just for the faith communities, but for the citizenry of Baltimore.”

Imam El-Amin’s sentiments were echoed by Rabbi Steven Fink, who said, “Our religious life is based upon common values, and it would be irresponsible of us not to bring those values into the public domain,” especially at a time in which there is a broad national conversation and re-thinking of the role of religion in public life. He went on to say, “Once you do that, you inevitably get involved in working on political causes.”

Asked what he would say in response to those, who express the view that religious leaders and believers ought to stay out of politics, Archbishop Lori said, “Politics can mean a lot of things: it can mean partisan politics,” and short-sighted pursuit of narrow interest. “Really,” Archbishop Lori added, “what ‘politics’ means is looking at the body politic and the common good: and our faith communities exist to serve the common good.” Archbishop Lori, who is the Chairman of the US Catholic Bishops’ ad hoc Committee on Religious Liberty, went on to explain, “To say, ‘stay out of politics!’ means to say, ‘disengage from the culture, stay within your four walls,’ and that is not who we are.”

“Building bridges, rather than walls,” is how ELCA Delaware-Maryland Synod Bishop Wolfgang D. Herz-Lane described their common task. “[It] is really a profoundly counter-cultural thing,” he continued. “You know, if Jesus hadn’t done political things, He wouldn’t have been crucified,” he said, “and so our very heritage, from that perspective, is to be very much involved: not in partisan politics – you know – ‘which candidate is the best?’, but in calling people to their best behavior and to their best instincts.”

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(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Thursday received Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste (East Timor), His Excellency Rui Maria de  Araújo, who subsequently met with the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin,  who was accompanied by the under-secretary for Relations with States, Msgr. Antoine Camilleri.

A press statement from the Holy See Press Office called the discussions cordial, and said “the good relations between the Holy See and Timor-Leste  were evoked, as well as the historical contribution of the Church to building up the nation and collaboration with the civil Authorities in various social areas, such as education, health and the fight against poverty.” 

At the end of the meeting with the Secretary of State, in the Hall of Treaties in the Vatican  Apostolic Palace, there took place the exchange of instruments for the ratification of the Accord  between the Holy See and the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, signed in Dili on 14 August  2015.

The exchange signifies ratification of the agreement which contains 26 articles that recognizes the Church as having juridical rights.

Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin addressed those gathered. He noted that the agreement is the result of many years of negotiations backed by a common spirit of dialogue and cooperation, recognizing the important role the Catholic Church plays in the life of the Timorese people. Commitments have been made in the area of education, health and the fight against poverty.

The legal framework, the Cardinal noted, does not mean special privileges for the Church but simply allows the Church to contribute freely to building a more harmonious society, animated by justice and peace.

The Cardinal concluded by entrusting the people of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste to the maternal protection of the Mary, Mother of God.

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(Vatican Radio)  Only if our hearts are open and we recognize ourselves as sinners can we receive God’s mercy. That’s the message Pope Francis imparted to the faithful gathered for the morning Mass Thursday at the Santa Marta guesthouse.  

Commenting on the First Reading from the Book of Jeremiah, the Pope stresses in his Homily that "God is always faithful, for he cannot deny himself" while the people do not listen to His word. Jeremiah therefore tells us the "many things that God has done to attract the hearts of the people," but, the Pope adds, the people remain unfaithful.

If the heart is hardened and closed, God’s mercy does not enter

"This unfaithfulness of God's people,”  warns the Pope,  is  “also ours.” It is “our own infidelity [which] hardens the heart, closes the heart!"

"It does not allow [us to hear] the voice of the Lord who, as a loving father, always asks us to open ourselves to His mercy and His love. In the Psalms, the Pope adds, we all pray  together: 'Hear now the voice of God. Do not harden your hearts! ' The Lord always speaks with us in this way, also with the tenderness of a father who says: 'Return to me with all your heart, for I am compassionate and merciful.’  But when the heart is hardened, you don’t understand this. God’s mercy can only be understood when you are able to open your heart to let it enter. "

Referring to the passage from Luke’s Gospel where Jesus is confronted by learned men who had studied the Scriptures, Pope Francis says they were "teachers of the law who knew theology, but they were very, very closed" . The crowd, however, "was amazed," and "had faith in Jesus!  Their hearts were open:  imperfect, sinful, but open hearts."

Ask forgiveness, do not judge others

But these theologians, adds the Pope, "had a closed attitude! They always sought an explanation so as not to understand the message of Jesus."  "They asked him for a sign from heaven.  Always closed!  It was Jesus who had to justify his actions."

"This is the story, the story of this failed fidelity. The story of closed hearts, of hearts that do not let in the mercy of God, which have forgotten the word forgiveness:  'Forgive me Lord!' - simply because they do not [see themselves as] sinners [but see themselves as] judges of others. A story lasting centuries.”  And Jesus, the Pope continues, explains this failed fidelity very clearly - to combat the discourse of such hypocrites:  ‘He who is not with me is against me.' “It’s clear! Or are you faithful, with your heart open to God who is faithful to you, or you are against Him: 'He who is not with me is against me!'"

Faithfulness to God begins with recognizing our sinfulness

But is there room here for middle ground, for "negotiations?"  asks the Pope.  The answer, he says, lies in confessing to being a sinner!  If you acknowledge that you are a sinner, “the heart opens and God’s mercy is allowed to enter and you begin to be faithful."

"We ask the Lord for the grace of fidelity.  And the first step on this path towards fidelity is to admit you are a sinner,” adds Pope Francis. “If you do not feel sinful, you have begun badly. We ask for grace so that our hearts do not harden - that they are open to God's mercy - and for the grace of faithfulness. And when we find ourselves unfaithful, for the grace to ask for forgiveness."

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Pope Francis has told participants of the Pontifical Academy for Life that Virtue is the best that the heart of man offers. 

“Virtue is not just a habit, but it is the constantly renewable ability to choose good. Virtue is not an emotion, is not a skill that is acquired through a refresher course, let alone a biochemical mechanism, it is the highest expression of human freedom. Virtue is the best that the heart of man offers,” the Holy Father speaking in Italian told participants who went to see him at the Sala Clementina (Clementine Hall) of the Apostolic Palace.

In Africa, Burkina Faso, Egypt and the Democratic Republic of Congo are members of the Pontifical Academy for Life. 

The Academy is holding its general assembly in the Vatican from 3 to 5 March under the theme, "Virtues in the Ethics of Life." 

Established in 1994, the Pontifical Academy studies issues connected with the promotion and the defense of human life from an interdisciplinary perspective.  Among other activities, the Academy aims at fostering a culture of life. 

The academy categories Pro-life as applying to those members whose principal activity is pastoral or social assistance, or who are active in Pro-life organisations nationally or internationally.

In general, members of the academy have expertise in different fields of biomedical sciences and related disciplines.

(Email: engafrica@vatiradio.va)

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Washington D.C., Mar 3, 2016 / 03:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The FDA announced Monday that it will add its strictest warning to the label of Essure, a sterilization device in the form of flexible metal coils inserted into the fallopian tubes.

But the decision still comes as a blow to  thousands of “E-sisters” – women who have experienced the often debilitating side effects of the device and who have been pushing to get Essure completely removed from the market.

“We are outraged that it appears as if the FDA is going to leave Essure on the market while it implements a draft guidance and labeling recommendations within a black boxed warning as well as ordering new clinical studies,” the group said in a statement on their website.

“Clearly Essure's PMA (pre-market approval) should be revoked and the device should be pulled from the market. These studies could take several years, and leaving the device on the market will only put more women's lives at risk.”

A so-called “black box” warning has been recommended for the device, which is “designed to call attention to serious or life-threatening risks” of the device including “persistent pain, perforation of the uterus or fallopian tubes from device migration, abnormal bleeding and allergy or hypersensitivity reactions,” according to an FDA statement.

Touted as the only form on non-surgical permanent birth control, implanted Essure coils are supposed to stay in the fallopian tubes, where they create a chronic infection causing scar tissue to form, effectively closing the tubes and rendering the woman sterile. The device was first manufactured by the group Conceptus and pre-approved by the FDA before hitting the markets in 2002. In June 2014, Conceptus was bought by Bayer, which has continued to manufacture and distribute Essure.

In addition to the “black box” warning, the FDA asked Bayer to include a “patient decision checklist” in Essure's packaging, “to ensure women receive and understand information regarding the benefits and risks of this type of device,” and is accepting the public’s input on the device for 60 days.  

The FDA has also ordered Bayer to conduct a three-year clinical study in which they will follow 2,000 women who have been implanted with Essure, and compare them to women who’ve had different sterilization procedures. The FDA expects Bayer to submit a study protocol within 30 days and the company is required by law to begin the study within 15 months, CNN reports. If Bayer does not comply, the FDA can declare the device misbranded.

The Facebook page “Essure Problems” is over 27,000 members strong (up from 14,000 just last year) and serves as a place where the “E-sisters” women band together for support and protest the device. They tell their stories to women considering the device and provide the names and locations of doctors who won’t dismiss women’s Essure complaints.

“We have provided the FDA with enough relevant data to prove that Essure is unsafe,” the group said in a statement following the FDA’s latest announcement.

“Take the device off the market and revoke PMA. Do not continue to allow more women to be harmed. Unless the FDA takes those steps, we intend to push for Congress to force the hand of the FDA.  We will not be stopped or silenced.”

Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick, a Republican from Pennsylvania, introduced the “E-free” act to Congress in November, a bill calling for the device to be pulled from the market. He said the latest move from the FDA is unacceptable in the face of all the women who have already suffered because of Essure.

“It's unbelievable that it took the FDA since September to make just two recommendations with no enforcement measures and ask the manufacturer to perform another study while leaving Essure on the market,” he said in a statement following the announcement.

“It's been done. The evidence is all there: Tens of thousands of injured women and hundreds of fetal deaths.”

On the “Essure Problems” Facebook page, women log complaints about chronic pain, allergic reactions, perforated organs, migrating coils, and fetal disfigurement caused by the device.

Dr. William Maisel, deputy director for science and chief scientist at the FDA's Center for Devices and Radiological Health, said in a news briefing Monday that the agency has received 631 reports of women becoming pregnant while using the product, and 294 reports of pregnancy losses.

“Like all forms of birth control, Essure is not perfect and women may become pregnant despite use of the device. The lack of an Essure confirmation test is the most common factor contributing to unintended pregnancies in women with Essure,” Maisel said.

The FDA has received about 10,000 complaints of adverse effects since the device’s approval in 2002. Instructions for how to file a complaint about Essure can be found on the Essure Problems website.

For 60 days, patients and doctors can submit their feedback to the FDA on the device, which will be taken into consideration before the addition of the new warning labels.

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IMAGE: CNS photo/Renee Webb, Catholic Globe

By Renee Webb

HAVANA (CNS) -- At long last, Pope Francis and Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill of Moscow embraced, kissing each other three times.

"Finally," the pope told the patriarch Feb. 12 as they met in a lounge at Havana's Jose Marti International Airport. "We are brothers," he told the patriarch.

Amid the clicking of cameras and multiple flashes, Patriarch Kirill was overheard telling the pope, "Things are easier now."

"It is clearer that this is God's will," Pope Francis told him.

A flight of almost 12 hours capped months of intense negotiations and more than two decades of Vatican overtures to bring a pope and a Russian patriarch together for the first time.

Cuban President Raul Castro played host to the pope and patriarch, who was on a visit to Russian Orthodox communities on the island-nation. Pope Francis had a pastoral visit to Mexico planned for months; the stop in Havana was announced only a week before the meeting.

Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill signed a joint declaration that emphasized the things the two churches have in common.

Addressing the situation in the Middle East and North Africa, they said that "whole families, villages and cities of our brothers and sisters in Christ are being completely exterminated." They called on the international community "to act urgently in order to prevent the further expulsion" of Christians, to end violence and terrorism and to ensure that large amounts of humanitarian aid reach the victims of violence.

"In raising our voice in defense of persecuted Christians, we wish to express our compassion for the suffering experienced by the faithful of other religious traditions who have also become victims of civil war, chaos and terrorist violence," they said.

"Attempts to justify criminal acts with religious slogans are altogether unacceptable," they said. "No crime may be committed in God's name."

They called those who have died "martyrs of our times" and said they helped unite various churches "by their shared suffering."

They spoke of the need to be vigilant against European integration that is "devoid of respect for religious identities." They also spoke of extreme poverty, the "millions of migrants and refugees knocking on the doors of wealthy nations" and consumerism.

They spoke of life issues: abortion, euthanasia, new reproductive technologies and threats against the churches' view of marriage.

After they signed the document, the two leaders embraced, and each spoke briefly.

Patriarch Kirill said they had a two-hour, "open discussion with full awareness of the responsibility we have for our people, for the future of Christianity, and for the future of human civilization itself. It was a conversation filled with content that gave us the opportunity to understand and hear the position of the other. And the results of the conversation allow me to assure that currently both churches can cooperate together to defend Christians around the world; with full responsibility to work together so that there may be no war; so that human life can be respected in the entire world; so that the foundations of human, family and social morality may be strengthened through the participation of the church in the life of human modern society."

Pope Francis said: "We spoke as brothers, we share the same baptism, we are bishops, we spoke about our churches. We agreed that unity is done walking (together). We spoke clearly without mincing words. I confess that I felt the consolation of the Spirit in this dialogue. I am grateful for the humility of His Holiness, his fraternal humility and his good wishes for unity. We left with a series of initiatives that I believe are viable and can be done. "

He thanked Patriarch Kirill and others involved in arranging the meeting and also thanked Cuba, "the great Cuban people and their president here present. I am grateful for his active availability; if it continues this way, Cuba will be the 'capital of unity.'"

Patriarch Kirill gave Pope Francis a small copy of an icon of Our Lady of Kazan, which itself is a symbol of Vatican-Russian Orthodox detente, but also of failed hopes. The oldest known copy of the icon, an ornate 18th-century piece had been hanging in St. John Paul II's study for a decade as he hoped to return it to Russia personally. Instead, in 2004, he had Cardinal Walter Kasper take it back to its country of origin as a gesture of goodwill.

The icon is one of the most revered and replicated icons in Russian Orthodoxy.

Pope Francis gave Patriarch Kirill a reliquary with a relic of St. Cyril, the patriarch's patron saint, and a chalice, which not only is a sign of hopes for full communion between the two churches, but also a sign that the Catholic Church recognizes the validity of the Orthodox sacraments.

The addition of a stopover in Cuba was widely seen as a sign of Pope Francis' willingness to go the extra mile to reach out a hand in friendship. At the same time, observers said, it gave those Russian Orthodox opposed to ecumenism a sense that their church is special and that it bowed to no one in agreeing to the meeting.

In a commentary distributed Feb. 11, Ukrainian Catholic Bishop Borys Gudziak of Paris said: "The pope is demonstrating humility; he is going to the territory of the other. In the eyes of nostalgic Russians, Cuba is almost home territory, a last outpost of a lost Soviet Empire."

For decades, the Russian Orthodox told the Vatican that a meeting between the patriarch and pope was impossible because of the activities of Latin-rite Catholics in Russia and, especially, the Eastern-rite Catholics in Ukraine.

The Moscow Patriarchate had said that while those problems still exist with the Catholic communities, they take a backseat to the urgency of defending together the rights and very existence of persecuted Christians in the Middle East.

The harsh persecution of Christians and other minorities in Syria, Iraq and other parts of the region has been a cause Pope Francis has pleaded before world leaders and for which he has rallied the prayers of Christians across the globe.

He speaks often of the "ecumenism of blood," the fact that Christians are killed for believing in Christ with the persecutors not knowing or caring what denomination or church they belong to. Christians are fully united in that suffering and, the pope has said, those who die for their faith are in full communion with each other and with centuries of martyrs now in the presence of God.

But the fate of persecuted Christians was not the pope's primary motive for meeting Patriarch Kirill. Simply meeting him was the point.

Metropolitan Hilarion Volokolamsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate's external affairs department, told reporters a week earlier that Patriarch Kirill chose Havana in the "New World" because Europe, the "Old World," was the birthplace of Christian division.

Ukrainians, Catholic or not, have expressed concerns about Pope Francis' meeting with Patriarch Kirill given the patriarch's apparently close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin at a time of ongoing fighting in Eastern Ukraine.

"The topics of discussion will not be explicitly political ones," Bishop Gudziak wrote. "The gist of the rendezvous will be the encounter of church leaders representing very different experiences, agendas, styles and spiritualities of ecclesial leadership. One can hardly expect revolutionary results. Yet, it is through encounter that spiritual change occurs. Let us pray for good spiritual fruit."

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Contributing to this story was Junno Arocho Esteves in Mexico City.

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Follow Wooden on Twitter: @Cindy_Wooden.

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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.

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MEXICO CITY (CNS) -- Pope Francis told Mexico's president and government officials that the country's future can be bright only if government and business leaders put an end to a culture of "favors" for the influential and scraps for the poor.

"Experience teaches us that each time we seek the path of privileges or benefits for a few to the detriment of the good of all, sooner or later the life of society becomes a fertile soil for corruption, drug trade, exclusion of different cultures, violence and also human trafficking, kidnapping and death, bringing suffering and slowing down development," the pope said Feb. 13 during a meeting with the leaders at the National Palace.

The pope had landed in Mexico the evening before for a six-day visit. Because of the late hour and the long flight from Rome via Cuba, the official welcoming ceremony was scheduled for the next morning. But that did not stop thousands of Mexicans from packing stadium-type stands at the airport to welcome the pope with singing, dancing and a mariachi band.

Thousands of people also lined the streets from the airport to the Vatican nunciature, where the pope was staying, and a large crowd was gathered there to greet him.

Pope Francis, stopping outside for a while, told them, "Tonight, do not forget to look at Mary and think of the people we love and those who do not love us." He said good night after leading them in the recitation of the Hail Mary.

Before the trip, the pope repeatedly spoke of his devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe and his desire to spend time in prayer before the tilma or cloak imprinted with the image of Mary.

Pope Francis gave President Enrique Pena Nieto a mosaic of Our Lady of Guadalupe made by the Vatican Mosaic Studio; it includes tiny glass tiles that encase gold leaf.

Although protocol dictated the pope's time at the palace be treated as a state visit, Pena Nieto told the pope, "Your visit transcends an encounter between two states; it is the encounter of a people with its faith."

"You will find a generous and hospitable people," the president told him, "a people who are Guadalupan."

Speaking to the president and government officials, the pope insisted that, like Mary, who took on the traits of Mexico's indigenous peoples in a sign of respect, Mexico's leaders must value the multicultural makeup of its people.

Mexico's "ancestral culture" combined with the youth of its population "should be a stimulus to find new forms of dialogue, negotiation and bridges that can lead us on the way of committed solidarity," the pope said.

Those who identify themselves as Christian must be exemplars of dialogue and solidarity, he said, and those who truly value politics as public service must as well. There is no other way, the pope said, to build "a society in which no one feels like a victim of the culture of waste" and, therefore, disposable.

Mexico's population is about 120 million; 28 percent of them are 14 years old or younger and another 18 percent are 15-24 years old. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development ranks Mexico as one of the countries with the greatest income inequality and reports 21 percent of its population lives in poverty.

Pope Francis told government leaders that those young people are a treasure, a bundle of energy and hope for the future. But the country cannot realize that future hope if the current generation of adults and leaders do not teach values and, especially, if they do not live them.

"A hope-filled future is forged in a present made up of men and women who are upright, honest and capable of working for the common good," the pope said, adding that, unfortunately, today the common good "is not in such great demand."

With dialogue and respect, he said, all Mexicans can be helped to contribute to building a better society where there is "real access" to necessary material and spiritual goods: "adequate housing, dignified employment, food, true justice, effective security, a healthy and peaceful environment."

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Contributing to this story was Junno Arocho Esteves in Mexico City.

Follow Wooden on Twitter: @Cindy_Wooden

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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.

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