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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) Following Mass on Sunday, Pope Francis led the people gathered at Ecatepec in the traditional Angelus prayer. 

During his address, the Holy Father invited the people to remember, and be thankful for, God's blessings. 

Below, please find the full text of Pope Francis' prepared remarks for his Angelus address: 

Angelus
Centro de Estudios de Ecatepec

Sunday 14 February 2016

My Dear Brothers and Sisters,

In the first reading of this Sunday, Moses offers a directive to the people. At harvest time, a the time of abundance and first fruits, do not forget your beginnings. Thanksgiving is something which is born and grows among a people capable of remembering. It is rooted in the past, and through good and bad times, it shapes the present. In those moments when we can offer thanks to God for the earth giving us its fruits and thereby helping us make bread, Moses invites his people to remember by enumerating the difficult situations through which it has passed (cf. Deut 26:5-11).

On this festive day we can celebrate how good the Lord has been to us. Let us give thanks for this opportunity to be together, to present to our Good Father the first fruits of our children, our grandchildren, of our dreams and our plans; the first fruits of our cultures, our languages and traditions, the first fruits of our concerns… How much each one of you has suffered to reach this moment, how much you have “walked” to make this day a day of feasting, a time of thanksgiving. How much others have walked, who have not arrived here and yet because of them we have been able to keep going.  Today, at the invitation of Moses, as a people we want to remember, we want to be the people that keeps alive the memory of God who passes among his People, in their midst. We look upon our children knowing that they will inherit not only a land, a culture and a tradition, but also the living fruits of faith which recalls the certainty of God’s passing through this land. It is a certainty of closeness and solidarity, a certainty which helps us lift up our heads and ardently hope for the dawn.

I too join you in this remembrance, in this living memory of God’s passing through your lives. As I look upon your children I cannot but make my own the words which Blessed Pope Paul VI addressed to the Mexican people:

“A Christian cannot but show solidarity… to solve the situation of those who have not yet received the bread of culture or the opportunity of an honourable job… he cannot remain insensitive while the new generations have not found the way to bring into reality their legitimate aspirations”. He continued offering this invitation to “always be on the front line of all efforts… to improve the situation of those who suffer need”, to see in every man a brother and, in every brother Christ” (Radio Message on the 75 Anniversary of the Crowning of Our Lady of Guadalupe, 12 October 1970).

I invite you once again today to be on the front line, to be first in all the initiatives which help make this blessed land of Mexico a land of opportunities, where there will be no need to emigrate in order to dream, no need to be exploited in order to work, no need to make the despair and poverty of many the opportunism of a few, a land that will not have to mourn men and women, young people and children who are destroyed at the hands of the dealers of death.

This land is filled with the perfume of la Guadalupana who has always gone before us in love. Let us say to her:

Blessed Virgin, “help us to bear radiant witness to communion, service, ardent and generous faith, justice and love of the poor, that the joy of the Gospel may reach to the ends of the earth, illuminating even the fringes of our world. (EG 288).

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(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis celebrated Holy Mass on Sunday near the Study Centre of Ecatepec, in the suburbs of Mexico City.

In his homily for the Mass, the Holy Father spoke about three temptations of Christ, which are also temptations for Christians: the temptation to wealth, to vanity, and to pride. The penitential season of Lent, he said, is an invitation to conversion, to turn ourselves to Christ, who is waiting for us and wants to heal our hearts of all that tears us down.

Below, please find the official translation of the prepared text of Pope Francis’ homily for Mass for the First Sunday of Lent:

Homily of Pope Francis

Holy Mass at the Ecatepec Study Centre

Sunday 14 February 2016

Last Wednesday we began the liturgical season of Lent, during which the Church invites us to prepare ourselves to celebrate the great feast of Easter. This is a special time for recalling the gift of our baptism, when we became children of God. The Church invites us to renew the gift she has given us, to not let this gift lie dormant as if it were something from the past or locked away in some “memory chest”. Lent is a good time to recover the joy and hope that make us feel beloved sons and daughters of the Father. The Father who waits for us in order to cast off our garments of exhaustion, of apathy, of mistrust, and so clothe us with the dignity which only a true father or mother knows how to give their children, with the garments born of tenderness and love.

Our Father, he is the Father of a great family; he is our Father. He knows that he has a unique love, but he does not know how to bear or raise an “only child”. He is the God of the home, of brotherhood, of bread broken and shared. He is the God who is “Our Father”, not “my father” or “your stepfather”.

God’s dream makes its home and lives in each one of us so that at every Easter, in every Eucharist we celebrate, we may be the children of God. It is a dream which so many of our brothers and sisters have had through history. A dream witnessed to by the blood of so many martyrs, both from long ago and from now.

Lent is a time of conversion, of daily experiencing in our lives of how this dream is continually threatened by the father of lies, by the one who tries to separate us, making a divided and fractious society. A society of the few, and for the few. How often we experience in our own lives, or in our own families, among our friends or neighbours, the pain which arises when the dignity we carry within is not recognized. How many times have we had to cry and regret on realizing that we have not acknowledged this dignity in others. How often – and it pains me to say it – have we been blind and impervious in failing to recognize our own and others’ dignity.

Lent is a time for reconsidering our feelings, for letting our eyes be opened to the frequent injustices which stand in direct opposition to the dream and the plan of God. It is a time to unmask three great temptations that wear down and fracture the image which God wanted to form in us:

There are three temptations of Christ… three temptations for the Christian, which seek to destroy what we have been called to be; three temptations which try to corrode us and tear us down.

Wealth: seizing hold of goods destined for all, and using them only for “my own people”. That is, taking the “bread” based on the toil of others, or even at the expense of their very lives. That wealth which tastes of pain, bitterness and suffering. This is the bread that a corrupt family or society gives its own children.

Vanity: the pursuit of prestige based on continuous, relentless exclusion of those who “are not like me”. The futile chasing of those five minutes of fame which do not forgive the “reputation” of others. “Making firewood from a felled tree” gives way to the third temptation:

Pride: or rather, putting oneself on a higher level than one truly is on, feeling that one does not share the life of “mere mortals”, and yet being one who prays every day: “I thank you Lord that you have not made me like those others…”.

Three temptations of Christ… Three temptations which the Christian is faced with daily. Three temptations which seek to corrode, destroy and extinguish the joy and freshness of the Gospel. Three temptations which lock us into a cycle of destruction and sin.

And so it is worth asking ourselves:

To what degree are we aware of these temptations in our lives, in our very selves?

How much have we become accustomed to a lifestyle where we think that our source and life force lies only in wealth?

To what point do we feel that caring about others, our concern and work for bread, for the good name and dignity of others, are wellsprings of happiness and hope?

We have chosen Jesus, not the evil one; we want to follow in his footsteps, even though we know that this is not easy. We know what it means to be seduced by money, fame and power. For this reason, the Church gives us the gift of this Lenten season, invites us to conversion, offering but one certainty: he is waiting for us and wants to heal our hearts of all that tears us down. He is the God who has a name: Mercy. His name is our wealth, his name is what makes us famous, his name is our power and in his name we say once more with the Psalm: “You are my God and in you I trust”. Let us repeat these words together: “You are my God and in you I trust”.

In this Eucharist, may the Holy Spirit renew in us the certainty that his name is Mercy, and may he let us experience each day that “the Gospel fills the hearts and lives of all who encounter Jesus...”, knowing that “with Christ and in Christ joy is constantly born anew” (cf. Evangelii Gaudium, 1).

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(Vatican Radio) On Sunday, Pope Francis celebrated Holy Mass for the First Sunday of Lent in the Mexico City suburb of Ecatepec. Veronica Scarisbrick is in Mexico with the Pope, and sends us this report.

Listen:

Stunning, gaudy flowered carpets with bold geometrical Aztec designs and an altar covered by an empty white arch for the Holy Mass of Pope Francis in Ecatepec. All in the middle of nowhere: a field bulldozed down for the occasion, which can hold up to 400,000 people.

And close to the altar the image of the Mother of all Mexicans, Our Lady of Guadalupe decorated with white roses. And when he arrived, Pope Francis incensed the image framed by the rays of the sun.

White roses take on a symbolic meaning here as they are linked to the Apparitions of the ‘Morenita’ – as she’s known here – to Juan Diego in the 16thcentury. That explains by the way, why Saint Juan Diego is the Patron Saint of florists.

And all the while the sun shone over the forgotten people of ‘Ecatepec’.

Not forgotten though by Pope Francis. He elected them as his chosen people on one of his five days in the nation and for his Holy Mass on this first Sunday of Lent.

I say forgotten because they are those who live in the peripheries north east of Mexico City, one of Mexico’s ‘barrio bravos’ -- an expression meaning a lawless neighbourhood where organized crime, pollution and poverty reign...

Significantly the responsorial psalm was sung by a woman here in Ecatepec, a place where women are targeted in a special way, beautifully sung.

And in his homily Pope Francis spoke of a ‘society of the few, for the few’ and highlighted how Lent was a time to unmask three great temptations that wear down and fracture the image God wanted from us. Wealth: so the seizing hold of goods that are for all; vanity: so the relentless exclusion of those ‘who are not like me’; and pride: so putting oneself on a higher level than one truly is.

And to the people of the lawless neighbourhood of Ecatepec, speaking off the cuff Pope Francis said, “You don’t dialogue with the devil.”

The crowds listened in awe, the chill that had got into their bones during the night (many had slept here) seemed to dispel.

Francis had warmed the hearts of these forgotten people here in the middle of nowhere.

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Ecatepec, Mexico, Feb 14, 2016 / 10:00 am (CNA).- Last Wednesday we began the liturgical season of Lent, during which the Church invites us to prepare ourselves to celebrate the great feast of Easter. This is a special time for recalling the gift of our baptism, when we became children of God. The Church invites us to renew the gift she has given us, to not let this gift lie dormant as if it were something from the past or locked away in some “memory chest.” Lent is a good time to recover the joy and hope that make us feel beloved sons and daughters of the Father. The Father who waits for us in order to cast off our garments of exhaustion, of apathy, of mistrust, and so clothe us with the dignity which only a true father or mother knows how to give their children, with the garments born of tenderness and love.

Our Father, he is the Father of a great family; he is our Father. He knows that he has a unique love, but he does not know how to bear or raise an “only child.” He is the God of the home, of brotherhood, of bread broken and shared. He is the God who is “Our Father,” not “my father” or “your stepfather.”

God’s dream makes its home and lives in each one of us so that at every Easter, in every Eucharist we celebrate, we may be the children of God. It is a dream which so many of our brothers and sisters have had through history. A dream witnessed to by the blood of so many martyrs, both from long ago and from now.

Lent is a time of conversion, of daily experiencing in our lives of how this dream is continually threatened by the father of lies, by the one who tries to separate us, making a divided and fractious society. A society of the few, and for the few. How often we experience in our own lives, or in our own families, among our friends or neighbors, the pain which arises when the dignity we carry within is not recognized. How many times have we had to cry and regret on realizing that we have not acknowledged this dignity in others. How often – and it pains me to say it – have we been blind and impervious in failing to recognize our own and others’ dignity.

Lent is a time for reconsidering our feelings, for letting our eyes be opened to the frequent injustices which stand in direct opposition to the dream and the plan of God. It is a time to unmask three great temptations that wear down and fracture the image which God wanted to form in us:

There are three temptations of Christ… three temptations for the Christian, which seek to destroy what we have been called to be; three temptations which try to corrode us and tear us down.

Wealth: seizing hold of goods destined for all, and using them only for “my own people”. That is, taking the “bread” based on the toil of others, or even at the expense of their very lives. That wealth which tastes of pain, bitterness and suffering. This is the bread that a corrupt family or society gives its own children.

Vanity: the pursuit of prestige based on continuous, relentless exclusion of those who “are not like me”. The futile chasing of those five minutes of fame which do not forgive the “reputation” of others.

“Making firewood from a felled tree” gives way to the third temptation:

Pride: or rather, putting oneself on a higher level than one truly is on, feeling that one does not share the life of “mere mortals,” and yet being one who prays every day: “I thank you Lord that you have not made me like those others…”.

Three temptations of Christ… Three temptations which the Christian is faced with daily. Three temptations which seek to corrode, destroy and extinguish the joy and freshness of the Gospel. Three temptations which lock us into a cycle of destruction and sin.

And so it is worth asking ourselves:

To what degree are we aware of these temptations in our lives, in our very selves?
How much have we become accustomed to a lifestyle where we think that our source and life force lies only in wealth?
 
To what point do we feel that caring about others, our concern and work for bread, for the good name and dignity of others, are wellsprings of happiness and hope?

We have chosen Jesus, not the evil one; we want to follow in his footsteps, even though we know that this is not easy. We know what it means to be seduced by money, fame and power. For this reason, the Church gives us the gift of this Lenten season, invites us to conversion, offering but one certainty: he is waiting for us and wants to heal our hearts of all that tears us down. He is the God who has a name: Mercy. His name is our wealth, his name is what makes us famous, his name is our power and in his name we say once more with the Psalm: “You are my God and in you I trust.” Let us repeat these words together: “You are my God and in you I trust.”

In this Eucharist, may the Holy Spirit renew in us the certainty that his name is Mercy, and may he let us experience each day that “the Gospel fills the hearts and lives of all who encounter Jesus,” knowing that “with Christ and in Christ joy is constantly born anew” (cf. Evangelii Gaudium, 1).

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Ecatepec, Mexico, Feb 14, 2016 / 11:44 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Lent is a time of conversion, and a time to guard against the devil, who tries to rob us of God’s dream that we become his sons and daughters. That is what Pope Francis said on Sunday when he visited the violent, crime-ridden Mexican suburb of Ecatepec.

“Lent is a good time to recover the joy and hope that make us feel beloved sons and daughters of the Father,” the Pope said Feb. 14.

God the Father, he continued, “waits for us in order to cast off our garments of exhaustion, of apathy, of mistrust, and so clothe us with the dignity which only a true father or mother knows how to give their children.”

He said that “God’s dream” makes its home and lives within each one of us, “so that at every Easter, in every Eucharist we celebrate, we may be the children of God.”

However, Francis also noted that Lent is “a time of conversion,” and of experiencing daily “how this dream is continually threatened by the father of lies, by the one who tries to separate us, making a divided and fractious society.”

Pope Francis offered his reflections during Mass in the Mexican city of Ecatepec. His Feb. 14 visit to the city is part of his wider, Feb. 12-17 voyage to Mexico that will take him to other Mexican hot zones such as Morelia and Ciudad Juarez.

Ecatepec is one of the most crowded and impoverished parts of Mexico. It is known for its shanty living conditions and violence, particularly toward women. In fact, the city currently has one of highest rates of killings and disappearances of women in the entire country.

Pope Francis has previously mentioned that in coming to Mexico, he wanted to visit places no other Pope had, apart from Mexico City and the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe. And he did just that, choosing to visit the cities most affected by problems of violence, drug trafficking and immigration.

He delivered his homily at the Mass at the Study Center of Ecatepec. There, Pope Francis said that during the season of Lent, the Church invites us to renew the gift of our baptism, and not let it “lie dormant as if it were something from the past or locked away in some memory chest.”



He said that the devil is constant seeking to divide, and cautioned attendees against falling into the temptation of creating “a society of the few, and for the few.”

Francis lamented the many times people have cried with regret after realizing they haven’t acknowledged the dignity of others, as well as how we are frequently “blind and impervious in failing to recognize our own and others’ dignity.”

“Lent is a time for reconsidering our feelings, for letting our eyes be opened to the frequent injustices which stand in direct opposition to the dream and the plan of God,” he said. He added that Lent is also a time to “unmask” three temptations that “wear down and fracture” the image God wanted to form in us.

He said these temptations are the same ones Jesus is faced with in the day’s Gospel, taken from Luke: wealth, vanity and power.

In the life of a Christian, these temptations “seek to destroy what we have been called to be” and “try to corrode us and tear us down,” the Pope said.

He said that the temptation for wealth consists of taking what is meant for all and using it for one’s own purpose. Namely, it means “taking the bread based on the toil of others, or even at the expense of their very lives.”

“That wealth which tastes of pain, bitterness and suffering. This is the bread that a corrupt family or society gives its own children,” Francis said.

Vanity, on the other hand, is “the pursuit of prestige based on continuous, relentless exclusion of those who ‘are not like me’,” he said. Pride means putting oneself on a higher level than one is truly on.

Francis stressed that these temptations are something we face every day. He questioned those present on how aware they are of the temptations in their own lives.

“We cannot dialogue with the devil. Only the strength of God’s word can defeat him,” he said.

The Pope told the faithful not to lose hope, because “we have chosen Jesus, not the evil one; we want to follow in his footsteps, even though we know that this is not easy.”

“We know what it means to be seduced by money, fame and power,” he said. He explained that it’s because of these temptations that the Church gives us the gift of the Lenten season and invites us to conversion.

The Church, he said, offers us one certainty in God: “(that) he is waiting for us and wants to heal our hearts of all that tears us down. He is the God who has a name: Mercy.”

Jesus is our true wealth, Francis said. He noted that “his name is what makes us famous, his name is our power and in his name we say once more with the Psalm: ‘You are my God and in you I trust.’

Pope Francis closed his homily by praying that the Holy Spirit would renew in all “the certainty that his name is Mercy, and may he let us experience each day that the Gospel fills the hearts and lives of all who encounter Jesus.”

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Ecatepec, Mexico, Feb 14, 2016 / 12:39 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Thanksgiving was the focus of Pope Francis’ Sunday Angelus remarks in Mexico. He invited the Mexican faithful to help make their country “a land of opportunities” while not forgetting their origins.

The Pope reflected on the first Mass reading from Deuteronomy, in which Moses gave directions to the people.

“At harvest time, at the time of abundance and first fruits, do not forget your beginnings,” Francis said Feb. 14. “Thanksgiving is something which is born and grows among a people capable of remembering. It is rooted in the past, and through good and bad times, it shapes the present.”

Hundreds of thousands of people had gathered for Mass at the Ecatepec Study Center, where Pope Francis continued his Feb. 12-17 visit to Mexico.

“On this festive day we can celebrate how good the Lord has been to us. Let us give thanks for this opportunity to be together, to present to our Good Father the first fruits of our children, our grandchildren, of our dreams and our plans; the first fruits of our cultures, our languages and traditions, the first fruits of our concerns”

Pope Francis’ remarks included the importance of memory and remembrance in a living faith.

“Today, at the invitation of Moses, as a people we want to remember, we want to be the people that keeps alive the memory of God who passes among his People, in their midst,” the Pope continued. “We look upon our children knowing that they will inherit not only a land, a culture and a tradition, but also the living fruits of faith which recalls the certainty of God’s passing through this land. It is a certainty of closeness and solidarity, a certainty which helps us lift up our heads and ardently hope for the dawn.”

“I too join you in this remembrance, in this living memory of God’s passing through your lives,” he said.



The Pope continued to encourage Mexicans to work together to overcome problems in their country.

“I invite you once again today to be on the front line, to be first in all the initiatives which help make this blessed land of Mexico a land of opportunities, where there will be no need to emigrate in order to dream, no need to be exploited in order to work, no need to make the despair and poverty of many the opportunism of a few, a land that will not have to mourn men and women, young people and children who are destroyed at the hands of the dealers of death.”

Pope Francis cited Blessed Pope Paul VI’s words in Mexico during his October 1970 visit:

“A Christian cannot but show solidarity… to solve the situation of those who have not yet received the bread of culture or the opportunity of an honorable job… he cannot remain insensitive while the new generations have not found the way to bring into reality their legitimate aspirations.”

Francis invoked Our Lady of Guadalupe, saying Mexico is “filled with the perfume of la Guadalupana, a mother who has always gone before us in love.”

He prayed that she will “help us to bear radiant witness to communion, service, ardent and generous faith, justice and love of the poor, that the joy of the Gospel may reach to the ends of the earth, illuminating even the fringes of our world.”

The Pope then led the congregation of hundreds of thousands of people in praying the Angelus.

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