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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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A Pakistani parliamentary body has agreed to a constitutional amendment to increase the number of reserved seats for the country's religious minorities.

The move, which came the day before the fifth anniversary of the slaying of former minority affairs minister Shahbaz Bhatti on March 2, 2011, was welcomed by minority leaders, who called it a positive step.

The National Assembly Standing Committee on Law and Justice made the decision on March 1 to back the move laid out in a constitution amendment bill put forward in 2014 by Asiya Nasir, a Christian member of parliament.

"The committee reached a consensus to increase the number of reserved seats in National Assembly by five, two each in the Punjab and Sindh assemblies, and one each in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Baluchistan," an official statement said.

When adopted, the number of reserved seats for minorities in the national assembly will rise to 15. Minorities are currently allowed 10 reserved seats in the national parliament.

Tahir Naveed Chaudhry, head of Pakistan Minority Alliance, welcomed the committee's decision to accept a "long-standing demand of minorities." He said the former alliance chief and slain former minister Shahbaz Bhatti, a Catholic, had tabled the motion some years ago, but it was deferred at the time.

He said it is only right that the number of reserved seats be increased since there are now more seats in parliament than there used to be. "There were 10 reserved seats when the house consisted of only 210 members. Now the assembly has 342 seats in total, and the reserved seats have remained the same," he said.

Ramesh Kumar Vankwani, head of Pakistan Hindu Council, gave a cautious welcome to the decision. "We have been demanding an increase in minority seats as well as the direct election [of minority Members of Parliament] through secret ballots," he said. "Minorities have been deprived of their constitutional right to elect their own representatives," he said.

Muslim political parties currently select minority Members of Parliament through a proportional representation system. The Supreme Court of Pakistan last year ruled that this method does not conform to any of the principles of democracy and that minorities should be allowed to choose their own representatives. The Supreme Court has directed parliament to review the election system for minorities.

"It is unfortunate that the Supreme Court's ruling hasn't yet been implemented," Kumar said.

(Source: UCANews)

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IMAGE: CNS/Paul Haring

By Carol Glatz

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Speaking out against exploitation and unfair wages for workers, Pope Francis told benefactors to forget about donating money to the church if their earnings came from mistreating others.

"Please, take your check back and burn it," he said to applause.

"The people of God -- that is, the church -- don't need dirty money. They need hearts that are open to God's mercy," the pope said March 2 during his general audience in St. Peter's Square.

God wants people to turn away from evil and do what is just, not cover up their sins with gestures of sacrifice, he said.

Just as God derives no pleasure from "the blood of bulls and lambs" slaughtered in his name, he is especially averse to offerings from hands dirty with the blood of another human being.

"I think of some church benefactors who come with an offering," he said, and sometimes that offering is "fruit of the blood of many people, who are exploited, mistreated, enslaved by poorly paid work."

The pope said he would tell these donors to go away because God wants sinners "with purified hands" who have changed course, avoid evil and work for what is good and just, like aiding the oppressed and defending the weak.

"I am thinking of many, many refugees who are landing in Europe and don't know where to go," he said.

At his general audience, the pope continued a series of talks dedicated to the Year of Mercy by focusing on how God is able to unconditionally love, beseech and correct his sinning children.

Just like the father of a family, God cares for his people by teaching them, guiding them to freely choose the good and help others, and correcting them when they make a mistake.

The prophet Isaiah presents God as an "affectionate, but also an alert and strict father," the pope said.

God points out the infidelity and corruption of his people, and shows his bitterness and disappointment in order to help them recognize their sin and "bring them back to the path of justice," he said.

"Even though he is hurt, God lets love do the talking and he appeals to the conscience of these degenerate children so they mend their ways and let themselves be loved again," the pope said.

One role parents have is to help their children use their freedom responsibly, but it is human sin which causes people to see freedom as a "pretense for autonomy, for pride," and pride leads to conflict and "the illusion of self-sufficiency."

People belong to God as his children, and as such, should live in loving, trusting obedience, recognizing that "everything is a gift that comes from the father's love," he said.

Pope Francis said refusing God and his paternity renders life rootless, bare and unlivable.

"The consequence of sin, he said, is a state of suffering," which also serves to help people become accountable and face "the desolate emptiness" of choosing death over life.

"Suffering -- the inevitable consequence of a self-destructive decision -- must make the sinner reflect in order to open him or her up to conversion and forgiveness," Pope Francis said.

For the God of mercy and love, "punishment becomes an instrument to stimulate reflection," he said. God "always leaves the door of hope open," patiently waiting for the moment the sinner is ready to listen and convert.

The road to salvation, therefore, isn't ritual sacrifice, it is doing what is right and just in the eyes of God, he said.

Ritual sacrifice is condemned because, "instead of showing conversion, it claims to replace it," he said, "creating the deceptive belief that sacrifices are what save, not the divine mercy that forgives sins."

Just as people go see the doctor when they are ill, people who are afflicted with the debilitating effects of sin should turn to God -- not a "witch doctor" or other false and mistaken paths. Only God offers true healing.

No matter what people have done, God never disowns or turns anyone away, he said. Even "the evilest person" in the world will always be one of his children, the pope said.

"He will always say, 'Child, come.' And this is our father's love and this is God's mercy. Having a father like this gives us hope and faith," he said.

Freely and forever, God will always turn the gravest of sins, "white as snow," the pope said. "This is the miracle of God's love."

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SYDNEY (CNS) -- For a third consecutive day, a top Vatican official gave testimony to an Australian commission about what he knew of the church's reassignment of abusive priests.

The focus of Cardinal George Pell's testimony to Australia's Royal Commission Into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse March 2 was on Cardinal Pell's time as auxiliary bishop of Melbourne between 1987 and 1996 and the case of Father Peter Searson, the parish priest of Holy Family School in Doveton.

In its three years of investigations, the Royal Commission has heard stories about Searson ranging from sexual harassment to rape of young boys. Australian police have voiced frustration that parents were unwilling to press charges.

Cardinal Pell, prefect of the Vatican's Secretariat for the Economy, testified overnight via video link from a Rome hotel for about five hours. He described Searson as a "disconcerting man" who, at his worst moments, could be one of the most unpleasant priests he had ever met.

Even prior to Cardinal Pell's arrival in Melbourne, there had been a litany of complaints made to then-Archbishop Frank Little about Searson's conduct. These included pointing a handgun at students and taking a tape recorder into the confessional, as well as requiring female students to either sit on his lap or kneel between his knees during confession.

There was also at least one complaint of a sexual advance toward a female student, and the school principal had resigned in order to raise attention to the conduct.

In earlier sessions, the commission heard that after Cardinal Pell's appointment as auxiliary bishop with responsibility for the region, including Doveton, a delegation of concerned teachers from the school went to see him. They gave him a "list of grievances," which included Searson's unnecessary presence in the school bathrooms; harassment of staff, parents and students; incidents of animal cruelty; and showing the children a dead body in a coffin, all matters which Cardinal Pell reported back to the archbishop.

Cardinal Pell told the commission that he did not know of the earlier complaints about Searson or the suggestion of sexual misconduct and was not told about them by Catholic Education Office staff in a briefing prior to meeting with the teachers' delegation. He agreed that this amounted to a deception.

As they had done the previous day, Gail Furness, senior counsel assisting the commission, and Justice Peter McClellan, commission chair, challenged the cardinal on this evidence, arguing that staff would have no reason to keep the information from him if it had already been presented to the archbishop.

Cardinal Pell responded by saying that he differed greatly with Archbishop Little on his approach to matters, so education staff could have been protecting Archbishop Little from interference from his auxiliary bishop. Cardinal Pell said he also been publicly critical of the archdiocesan approach to religious education, which he surmised might have increased the education staff's reluctance to deal with him.

Furness called Cardinal Pell's testimony "completely implausible" and challenged testimony he had given in previous days that the bishop of Ballarat had kept information about offending priest Gerald Ridsdale from him.

"It's an extraordinary position, Cardinal," she said.

"Counsel, it was an extraordinary world," the cardinal replied, "a world of crimes and cover-ups, and people did not want the status quo to be disturbed."

Asked if he had put himself in that world to disturb the status quo, Cardinal Pell replied that his record as archbishop of Melbourne showed that he not only disturbed the status quo but turned it around.

The redress procedure he introduced, he said, was light years ahead of others. Its 1996 introduction predated by some years even reporting of the child sexual abuse scandal by outlets such as The Boston Globe, whose 2002 expose of the abuse in that diocese was the subject of the Oscar-winning film "Spotlight."

Toward the end of the questioning, McClellan noted that the commission could recommend changes to church structure in its final report. He said the failures in management of abuse were indicative of the need to implement a significant "middle management" structure, such as those seen in corporations with hundreds of branch offices.

Cardinal Pell said a model that attempted to place an intermediary between a priest and his bishop was not a Catholic one, and that other changes could be made without having to abandon the traditional structures of the church.

McClellan told the cardinal that the issue would be revisited at a subsequent hearing later in the year.

The cardinal's March 3 testimony, expected to be the final day, was to begin at 9 p.m. in Rome March 2 and last six hours.

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