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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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Don Clemmer
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(Vatican Radio) The 51st International Eucharistic Congress has ended in Cebu, Philippines.

As Vatican Radio's Seàn-Patrick Lovett reports from Cebu, the week long event that saw the participation of faithful and clergy from across the globe concluded in style with a personal video-message from Pope Francis himself who also announced that the next such Congress will take place in 2010 in Budapest, Hungary:

So what exactly do you have to do to get front page news coverage of your international Catholic spiritual festival that brings together over 15,000 delegates from over 70 countries in an exotic location and a context of impeccable organization and style in order to listen to some of the most inspired and inspiring speakers in the world today addressing some of the most pressing issues of our time and that includes a celebration during which 5,000 children receive their First Holy Communion as well as an evening torch-light procession stretching over 5 kilometres and witnessing  the participation of nearly 2 million people representing all ages and social groups and that culminates in an open-air Mass attended by approximately the same number of devout and devoted faithful and that concludes with a video message by no one less than the Pope himself?

Apart from using shorter sentences, you could start by avoiding any reference to the word “Eucharist”. In fact, if you were listening, you might have noticed my reference to the event as a “Catholic spiritual festival”, rather than an “International Eucharistic Congress” – which it was. But then, I’m only trying to help.

The fact is that, with numbers like those, any other political, sporting or entertainment event anywhere else in the world, would have attracted the kind of attention that it deserved. Evidently, the Eucharist doesn’t deserve it. At least as far as mainstream media is concerned. Fortunately, every single person who was here in Cebu (man, woman, child, secular or religious, Catholic and non) – would disagree.

To put it bluntly (and with no disrespect): we had a blast. And to be honest (with the utmost respect): it was more fun because it was in the Philippines. In the words of their own Pastors (and I quote): Filipinos do three things really well: sing, eat and enjoy celebrating their Faith. Of course they do so much more than that. Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York publicly expressed his gratitude to the many Filipino priests who have taken over parishes in Europe and America that were in crisis due to a lack of local vocations. And what about the Filipino care-givers and computer programmers and artists and engineers who have brought the joyfully exuberant expression of their faith tradition to worn-out and lack-lustre Catholic communities on five continents?

So, by way of conclusion, and since I know you didn’t read or hear about it anywhere else, you need to know that for the past week here in Cebu we have been singing, eating, and celebrating the Catholic Faith the Filipino way: joyfully.

Here in Cebu, singing, eating, and covering the 51st Eucharistic Congress I'm Seàn-Patrick Lovett

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Vatican City, Jan 31, 2016 / 05:50 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On Sunday Pope Francis said that it’s the weak and vulnerable who are most valuable in God’s eyes, and stressed that it’s always him who takes the initiative in meeting us where we are.

“God meets the men and women of every time and place in the concrete situation in which they find themselves. He also comes to encounter us,” the Pope said Jan. 31, adding that “it's always he who makes the first step.”

Francis explained that it is God who “comes to visit us with his mercy, to lift us from the dust of our sins; he lends us a hand in rising from the abyss into which our pride has made us fall.”

He also invites us to welcome “the consoling truth of the Gospel” into our hearts and to walk along the path of goodness, the Pope said, noting that this done through our own initiative, but God’s, because “it's always he who comes to look for us.”

Pope Francis directed his address to pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square for his Angelus address. Among them were a group of youth from Catholic Action in Rome, an organization dedicated to promoting and defending faith and family values inspired by the teachings of the Catholic Church.

After passing through the Holy Door in St. Peter’s Square as part of their annual “Caravan of Peace,” the children prayed the Angelus with the Pope before releasing balloons as a sign of their desire for a more peaceful, less indifferent world.

In his reflections, Pope Francis focused on the day’s Gospel passage from Luke, in which Jesus, after first amazing the inhabitants of his native town of Nazareth with his insightful preaching, is thrown out of the temple and threatened with death.

Once Jesus read the passage of Scripture from the prophet Isaiah speaking of the future Messiah, he tells his listeners that “today this scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.”

The Pope recalled that as soon as Jesus said this the people were amazed by his authority, but then begin to murmur, asking themselves “is this not the son of Joseph?” Jesus respond, he noted, by saying that “no prophet is accepted in his own native land.”

After recounting the passage, Francis said that it’s not simply the story of “a dispute among companions, as sometimes happens, caused by envy and jealousy.” Instead, the passage points to a temptation that “every religious person is exposed to” and which frequently creates distance.

This temptation consists of “considering religion as a human investment and, as a consequence, seeking to bargain with God pursuing one's own interests,” Francis said, emphasizing that “all of us are exposed” to it.

Instead, religion means welcoming the revelation of God, “who is Father and who takes care of each one of his creatures, even the smallest and most insignificant in the eyes of man,” he said.

“This is precisely what the prophetic ministry of Jesus consists of: announcing that no human condition can constitute grounds for exclusion from the heart of the Father, and that the only privilege in the eyes of God is that of not being privileged, of being abandoned into his hands.”

Francis noted that when Jesus says “today this scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing,” his reference to “today” is something that applies to every person in every age.

“It also resounds for us in this square, reminding us of the relevance and the necessity of the salvation Jesus brings to humanity,” he said, adding that God is always the one to act first.

Pope Francis concluded his address by explaining that Mary was likely present in the temple on the day Jesus read the passage from Isaiah.

By seeing Jesus admired by the people, then challenged by them and finally threatened with death, she had “a small anticipation of what she would suffer beneath the Cross,” he said, noting that she kept all these things in her heart, which was “full of faith.”

He asked for her intercession in converting from adherence to “a god of miracles to the miracle of God, which is Jesus Christ,” and led pilgrims in reciting the traditional Marian prayer.

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Madrid, Spain, Jan 31, 2016 / 06:13 am (CNA/Europa Press).- In the Catholic Church, the spoken language is central to the liturgy: we recite the Nicene Creed as one, we praise the Lord with the Gloria that we sing, and we bow our heads to hear the blessing we receive at the end of Mass.

But there’s a different reality for hearing impaired and deaf Catholics around the world.

Father Sergio Buiza, the national director of the Spanish Conference of Catholic Bishops Deaf Ministry, said their goal is to “bring the Gospel to the maximum number of people,” including, of course, the deaf and hearing impaired, Europa news reported.

Fr. Buiza is just one of several priests who celebrates Mass in sign language at one of many Catholic churches in Spain. He celebrates a sign language Mass at the Santiago Cathedral in Bilboa, Spain each week.

There are around a million people in Spain affected by different levels of hearing loss. Some 1,250 of them attend Mass in sign language every week at one of the 24 churches where they are held.

In the parishes where this pastoral care is provided, all types of services are offered: from Mass to catechesis, Bible study groups, wedding celebrations, and confessions.

However, Fr. Buiza explained, the biggest issue is that there is just one parish for the deaf per diocese, forcing those with hearing impairments to travel long distances each week.

“There are elderly people that come from a long way. In my diocese we celebrate the Eucharist in the cathedral every Saturday afternoon and they come from different towns by train and bus,” the priest from Bilbao said.

Last December, the Spanish Catholic Bishops Conference announced a new initiative in collaboration with the ONCE Foundation to help the hearing impaired by installing magnetic induction loops, or hearing loops, in at least 12 churches across Spain.

Hearing loops are sound systems that transform the audio in a magnetic field that is picked up by hearing aids and Cochlear Implant processors. This will allow at least those with such devices to participate more fully in the Mass, but would not be of use to those who are fully deaf.

The Church in Spain has been working with the deaf for more than 50 years and has been doing so in a more coordinated fashion since the 1990s, when Deaf Ministry became part of the Bishops Conference.

In Spain, some 173 people are dedicated to the pastoral care of the deaf, many of whom are deaf or hearing impaired themselves. This includes 140 laypeople and 21 priests.
 

Photo credit: Champion studio via www.shutterstock.com

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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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MEDIA CONTACT
Don Clemmer
O: 202-541-3206

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