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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) Pope Francis on Thursday evening authorized the promulgation of several decrees from the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.

Three Blesseds have had the way opened to canonization after miracles attributed to their intercession have been approved, while 5 decrees (2 miracles, 3 of martyrdom) have opened to way to beatification for 7 people.

In addition, two decrees of heroic virtue were approved.

Here is a full list of the decrees promulgated

- a miracle, attributed to the intercession of Blessed Stanislaus of Jesus and Mary Papczynski, O.I.C., Founder of the Congregation of Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary; born 18 May 1631 in Podegrodzie, Poland, and died 17 September 1701 in Góra Kalwaria;

- a miracle, attributed to the intercession of Blessed Jose Gabriel del Rosario Brochero, Diocesan priest; born  16 March 1840 in Córdoba, Argentina, and died 26 January 1914 in Córdoba, Argentina;

- a miracle, attributed to the intercession of Blessed Blessed José Luis Sánchez del Río, layperson, martyr; born 28 March 1913 in Sahuayo, Mexico, and died 10 February 1928 in Sahuayo, Mexico;

- a miracle, attributed to the intercession of the Venerable Servant of God Francesco Maria Greco, diocesan priest, founder of the Congregation of the Little Sisters of the Sacred Hearts; born 27 July 1857 in Acri, Italy, and died 13 January 1931 in Acri, Italy;

- a miracle, attributed to the intercession of the Venerable Servant of God Elisabetta Sanna, laywoman, widow, professed member of the Third Order of St Francis and member of the Union of Catholic Apostolate founded by St Vincent Pallotti; ; born 23 April 1788 in Codrongianos, Sardinia,  and died 17 February 1857 in Rome;

- the martyrdom of the Venerable Servant of God Fr. Engelmar Unzeitig CMM (born Hubert), professed preist of the Congregation of the Mariannhill Mission Society, born 1 March 1911 in Greifendorf, Czech Republic (formerly Austria-Hungary), killed in hatred of the Faith on 2 March 1945;

- the martyrdom of the Servant of God Genaro Fueyo Castañón, diocesan priest, and three lay companions, killed in hatred of the Faith in 1936 in Spain;

- the martyrdom of the Servant of God Justo Takayama Ukon, layperson; born between 1552 and 1553 in Japan, and died from the hatred of the Faith on 3 February 1615 in Manila, Philippines;

- The heroic virtues of the Servant of God Arsenio da Trigolo (born Giuseppe Migliavacca), professed priest of the Order of Friar Minors Capuchin, Founder of the Congregation of the Sisters of Mary the Consoler; born 13 June 1849 in Trigolo, Italy, and died 10 December 1909 in Bergamo, Italy;

- The heroic virtues of the Servant of God Maria Luisa del Santissimo Sacramento (al secolo: Maria Velotti), of the Third Order of Saint Francis, foundress of the Institue of the Adoration Sisters of the Holy Cross; born 16 November 1826 in Naples, Italy, and died 3 September 1886 in Casoria, Italy.

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(Vatican Radio)  The bishop's task is to pray and to proclaim the Resurrection of Jesus; if a bishop does not pray and does not announce the Gospel but is concerned with other things, God's people suffer.  That’s the message Pope Francis  imparted to the faithful gathered Friday for the daily morning Mass at the Casa Santa Marta.

Listen to our report: 

The day's Gospel (Mk 3: 13-19) indicates why Jesus chose the Twelve Apostles "to be with him and to be sent out to preach and have authority to cast out demons." The Twelve, said Pope Francis, "are the first bishops."  After the death of Judas,  Matthias is elected in "the first episcopal ordination of the Church." And, the Pope pointed out, "the bishops are pillars of the Church,” called to be witnesses of the Resurrection of Jesus:

"We bishops have this responsibility to be witnesses: witnesses to the fact that the Lord Jesus is alive, that the Lord Jesus is risen, that the Lord Jesus walks with us, that the Lord Jesus saves us, that the Lord Jesus gave his life for us, that the Lord Jesus is our hope, that the Lord Jesus always welcomes us and forgives us. Giving witness. Our life must be this: a testimony. True witness to the Resurrection of Christ. "

Bishops have two jobs: to pray and to preach

"The first task of a bishop is to be with Jesus in prayer. The first job of a bishop is not to prepare pastoral plans ... no, no!   Prayer: this is the first task. The second task is to be a witness, that is, to preach.  To preach the salvation that the Lord Jesus has brought. Two tasks that are not easy, but it is precisely these two tasks that are the strong pillars of the Church. If these columns are weakened because the bishop does not pray or prays little, forgets to pray; or because the bishop does not announce the Gospel and instead takes care of other things, the Church also weakens; it suffers. God's people suffer. Because the columns are weak. "

"The Church without the bishop doesn’t work," said the Pope.  Therefore, we must all pray for our bishops, he concluded, as an “obligation of love, an obligation of children in reverence to the Father, an obligation of brothers so that the family remains united in its witness to Jesus Christ, living and risen:"

"Pray for us bishops: we too have weaknesses"

The Pope invited the faithful to pray for “us bishops, because we too are sinners;  we too have weaknesses.   We also have the danger of Judas: because he too had been elected as a column. We also run the risk of not praying, of doing something else instead of proclaiming the Gospel and casting out demons ... Pray, so that the bishops are what Jesus desired, so that we all give witness to Jesus’ Resurrection. The people of God pray for the bishops. In every Mass we pray for the bishops.  We pray for Peter, the head of the college of bishops, and we pray for our local bishop. But this is not enough:  we say the name, and many times we say it out of habit, and then we go on. Pray for the bishop with your heart!  Ask the Lord: Lord, take care of my bishop; take care of all the bishops, and send us bishops who are true witnesses - bishops who pray and bishops who help us through their preaching to understand the Gospel, so that we may trust that you, Lord, are alive and that you're with us ".

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(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis’ message for the 50th World Day of Social Communications was released on Friday, entitled  ‘Communication and Mercy: A Fruitful Encounter’

Quoting from Shakespeare, the Gospels and the Old Testament, the Pope reminds each one of us that our “every word and gesture, ought to express God’s compassion, tenderness and forgiveness for all”.

Communication, the Pope says, has the power to build bridges, to enable encounter and inclusion, to heal wounded memories and thus to enrich society. In both the material and the digital world, he says, our words and actions should help us all “escape the vicious circles of condemnation and vengeance which continue to ensnare individuals and nations, encouraging expressions of hatred”.

The Pope appeals to political and institutional leaders, as well as the media and opinion makers to remain especially attentive to the way they speak of those who think or act differently. He concludes by encouraging everyone “to see society not as a forum where strangers compete and try to come out on top, but above all as a home or a family, where the door is always open and where everyone feels welcome”.

Please see below the full text of the Pope’s message for the 50th World Communications Day

Communication and Mercy: A Fruitful Encounter

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

The Holy Year of Mercy invites all of us to reflect on the relationship between communication and mercy.  The Church, in union with Christ, the living incarnation of the Father of Mercies, is called to practice mercy as the distinctive trait of all that she is and does.  What we say and how we say it, our every word and gesture, ought to express God’s compassion, tenderness and forgiveness for all.  Love, by its nature, is communication; it leads to openness and sharing.  If our hearts and actions are inspired by charity, by divine love, then our communication will be touched by God’s own power

As sons and daughters of God, we are called to communicate with everyone, without exception.  In a particular way, the Church’s words and actions are all meant to convey mercy, to touch people’s hearts and to sustain them on their journey to that fullness of life which Jesus Christ was sent by the Father to bring to all.  This means that we ourselves must be willing to accept the warmth of Mother Church and to share that warmth with others, so that Jesus may be known and loved.  That warmth is what gives substance to the word of faith; by our preaching and witness, it ignites the “spark” which gives them life.

Communication has the power to build bridges, to enable encounter and inclusion, and thus to enrich society.  How beautiful it is when people select their words and actions with care, in the effort to avoid misunderstandings, to heal wounded memories and to build peace and harmony.  Words can build bridges between individuals and within families, social groups and peoples. This is possible both in the material world and the digital world.  Our words and actions should be such as to help us all escape the vicious circles of condemnation and vengeance which continue to ensnare individuals and nations, encouraging expressions of hatred.  The words of Christians ought to be a constant encouragement to communion and, even in those cases where they must firmly condemn evil, they should never try to rupture relationships and communication.

For this reason, I would like to invite all people of good will to rediscover the power of mercy to heal wounded relationships and to restore peace and harmony to families and communities.  All of us know how many ways ancient wounds and lingering resentments can entrap individuals and stand in the way of communication and reconciliation.  The same holds true for relationships between peoples.  In every case, mercy is able to create a new kind of speech and dialogue.  Shakespeare put it eloquently when he said: “The quality of mercy is not strained.  It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven upon the place beneath.  It is twice blessed: it blesseth him that gives and him that takes” (The Merchant of Venice, Act IV, Scene I).

Our political and diplomatic language would do well to be inspired by mercy, which never loses hope.  I ask those with institutional and political responsibility, and those charged with forming public opinion, to remain especially attentive to the way they speak of those who think or act differently or those who may have made mistakes.  It is easy to yield to the temptation to exploit such situations to stoke the flames of mistrust, fear and hatred.  Instead, courage is needed to guide people towards processes of reconciliation.  It is precisely such positive and creative boldness which offers real solutions to ancient conflicts and the opportunity to build lasting peace.  “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God” (Mt 5:7-9)

How I wish that our own way of communicating, as well as our service as pastors of the Church, may never suggest a prideful and triumphant superiority over an enemy, or demean those whom the world considers lost and easily discarded.  Mercy can help mitigate life’s troubles and offer warmth to those who have known only the coldness of judgment.  May our way of communicating help to overcome the mindset that neatly separates sinners from the righteous.  We can and we must judge situations of sin – such as violence, corruption and exploitation – but we may not judge individuals, since only God can see into the depths of their hearts.  It is our task to admonish those who err and to denounce the evil and injustice of certain ways of acting, for the sake of setting victims free and raising up those who have fallen.  The Gospel of John tells us that “the truth will make you free” (Jn 8:32).  The truth is ultimately Christ himself, whose gentle mercy is the yardstick for measuring the way we proclaim the truth and condemn injustice.  Our primary task is to uphold the truth with love (cf. Eph 4:15).  Only words spoken with love and accompanied by meekness and mercy can touch our sinful hearts.  Harsh and moralistic words and actions risk further alienating those whom we wish to lead to conversion and freedom, reinforcing their sense of rejection and defensiveness.

Some feel that a vision of society rooted in mercy is hopelessly idealistic or excessively indulgent.  But let us try and recall our first experience of relationships, within our families.  Our parents loved us and valued us for who we are more than for our abilities and achievements.  Parents naturally want the best for their children, but that love is never dependent on their meeting certain conditions.  The family home is one place where we are always welcome (cf. Lk 15:11-32).  I would like to encourage everyone to see society not as a forum where strangers compete and try to come out on top, but above all as a home or a family, where the door is always open and where everyone feels welcome.

For this to happen, we must first listen.  Communicating means sharing, and sharing demands listening and acceptance.  Listening is much more than simply hearing.  Hearing is about receiving information, while listening is about communication, and calls for closeness.  Listening allows us to get things right, and not simply to be passive onlookers, users or consumers.  Listening also means being able to share questions and doubts, to journey side by side, to banish all claims to absolute power and to put our abilities and gifts at the service of the common good.

Listening is never easy.  Many times it is easier to play deaf.  Listening means paying attention, wanting to understand, to value, to respect and to ponder what the other person says.  It involves a sort of martyrdom or self-sacrifice, as we try to imitate Moses before the burning bush: we have to remove our sandals when standing on the “holy ground” of our encounter with the one who speaks to me (cf. Ex 3:5).  Knowing how to listen is an immense grace, it is a gift which we need to ask for and then make every effort to practice.   

Emails, text messages, social networks and chats can also be fully human forms of communication.  It is not technology which determines whether or not communication is authentic, but rather the human heart and our capacity to use wisely the means at our disposal.  Social networks can facilitate relationships and promote the good of society, but they can also lead to further polarization and division between individuals and groups.  The digital world is a public square, a meeting-place where we can either encourage or demean one another, engage in a meaningful discussion or unfair attacks.  I pray that this Jubilee Year, lived in mercy, “may open us to even more fervent dialogue so that we might know and understand one another better; and that it may eliminate every form of closed-mindedness and disrespect, and drive out every form of violence and discrimination” (Misericordiae Vultus, 23).  The internet can help us to be better citizens.  Access to digital networks entails a responsibility for our neighbour whom we do not see but who is nonetheless real and has a dignity which must be respected.  The internet can be used wisely to build a society which is healthy and open to sharing.

Communication, wherever and however it takes place, has opened up broader horizons for many people.  This is a gift of God which involves a great responsibility.  I like to refer to this power of communication as “closeness”.  The encounter between communication and mercy will be fruitful to the degree that it generates a closeness which cares, comforts, heals, accompanies and celebrates.  In a broken, fragmented and polarized world, to communicate with mercy means to help create a healthy, free and fraternal closeness between the children of God and all our brothers and sisters in the one human family.

From the Vatican, 24 January 2016

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(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Friday said the Church’s teaching on marriage is not an “ideal for the few,” but “a reality that, in the grace of Christ, can be experienced by all the baptized.”

He Holy Father was speaking the Tribunal of the Roman Rota, the Vatican court which mainly deals with marriage annulment cases.

In his address inaugurating the judicial year, Pope Francis said the court’s role as Tribunal of the Family, and its role as Tribunal of the Truth of the Sacred Bond are complementary.

“The Church… can show the unfailing merciful love of God to families - especially those wounded by sin and the trials of life – and, at the same time, proclaim the essential truth of marriage according to God's design,” Pope Francis said.

“When the Church, through your service, sets about to declare the truth about marriage in a concrete case, for the good of the faithful, at the same time you must always remember that those who, by choice or unhappy circumstances of life, are living in an objective state of error, continue to be the object of the merciful love of Christ and thus the Church herself,” he continued.

The Holy Father pointed out the recent two-year Synod process on the family said to the world that “there can be no confusion” between the family as willed by God, and every other type of union.

Reaffirming the doctrine of the Church, the Holy Father said the “quality of faith” is not an essential condition of marital consent, and pointed out the faith infused at baptism continues to have influence on the soul even “when it has not been developed and even seems to be psychologically absent.”

He added it is not uncommon for couples to discover “the fullness of God’s plan” for marriage after their wedding, when they have begun to experience family life.

“Therefore, the Church, with a renewed sense of responsibility, continues to propose marriage in its essentials - offspring, good of the couple, unity, indissolubility, sacramentality - not as ideal only for a few - notwithstanding modern models centered on the ephemeral and the transient - but as a reality that, in the grace of Christ, can be experienced by all the baptized faithful,” said Pope Francis.

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(Vatican Radio) Cardinal Peter Turkson, the President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, spoke to the bishops of Portugal on Friday about Pope Francis’ Encyclical Laudato si’.

Cardinal Turkson said bishops hold a “privileged position” in promoting the message of the Encyclical.

“No facet of our world is too great or too small, too lofty or too plain, for us to take it on, to pray over it, and to bring it into constructive dialogue with others,” he said.

The full text of Cardinal Turkson’s intervention is below

International conference for Catholic Bishops

Penha Longa Resort Hotel, Lisbon

Friday 22 January 2016

Catholicism and the Environment:

Reflections on Laudato si’

Thank you for the invitation to appreciate Laudato si’ in the company of so many confrères in the episcopacy, shepherds in communion with the Bishop of Rome. May I therefore invite you as my brother Bishops to listen in several complementary ways:

·         First, an encyclical is a circular letter addressed by the Bishop of Rome, initially to his fellow Bishops and then more widely. Having received it, we should make it our own and share it effectively with all our people.

·         Secondly, as the head of several corporations in your respective diocese, you are also a CEO. So please listen as an employer and investor.

·         Thirdly, may I suggest that you prepare to enter into dialogue with the public and private sectors in order to help bring about the huge action needed to address the world’s environmental issues. Your dialogue should be with business-men and -women, bankers, policy-makers and politicians in your regions; and not only with the elite but also with popular leaders, entrepreneurs and innovators amongst the poor, to all of whom Laudato si’ is addressed.

·         Fourthly, Pope Francis fashioned his text in dialogue with Conferences of Bishops around the world, and so now is an opportunity for Bishops to enter into dialogue with Laudato si’.

With the same four attitudes, I invite you to read the Message of the Holy Father to the World Economic Forum (Davos, 20-23 January 2016) which I had the honour of delivering to a plenary session on Wednesday.^[1]

My remarks will begin with an overview of Laudato si’. I will then turn to some particular issues that I recommend for your special attention as Bishops. These are Contemplation; Conversion; Conversation and Dialogue; and Care. In the last of these, I will make explicit connections to the magisterium of Catholic social teaching.

1. The Message of Laudato si’

The path of Laudato si’ is detailed and rich. The following six points convey its essential message:

• All human beings are affected, and everything in nature too, by the crises of climate change, misuse of natural resources, waste and pollution, and attendant poverty and dislocation.
• Everything is interconnected; we cannot understand the social or natural world or their parts in isolation.
• Everyone must act responsibly to save our world—from individuals who recycle and use energy sparingly, to enterprises reducing their ecological footprints, to world leaders setting and enforcing ambitious targets to reduce the use of carbon.
• We must be truthful; let no one hide or distort facts in order to gain selfish advantage.
• We must engage in constructive dialogue; genuine, trusting and trustworthy engagement of all parties is required to succeed where all is at risk.
• Beyond the industrial age’s short-sighted confidence in technology and finance,^[2] we must transcend ourselves in prayer, simplicity and solidarity.

Moreover, the way we interact with the natural world is deeply related to how we interact with our fellow human beings. In fact, there is no valid way to separate these two aspects. Therefore all decisions about the natural environment are ethical decisions, just as social options have environmental consequences. This is inescapable, and it has important implications. It means that technology and business must be held to transcendent anthropological and moral norms. They must be oriented toward the common good, in full human solidarity—both with everyone alive today and with people not yet born. “We are faced not with two separate crises, one environmental and the other social, but rather with one complex crisis which is both social and environmental. Strategies for a solution demand an integrated approach to combating poverty, restoring dignity to the excluded, and at the same time protecting nature” (§139). So Pope Francis asks us to hear the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor, and to respond to both in an integrated manner.

As you read the encyclical and discuss it with others, it is fruitful to emphasize these further points:

• Laudato si’ takes full cognizance of contemporary science—this has not typified Church discourse in the past.
• The Encyclical speaks extensively of the natural world —until now this has been a modest theme in the Church.
• It speaks resoundingly and most urgently about the human condition, from children and families, to the marginalized and desperately poor and imminently endangered, to those lost in consumerism and self-indulgent diversions—it does this with almost brutal realism because “Realities are more important than ideas.”^[3]
• And of course, it deals extensively with economics and business, politics and global governance.

By bringing these perspectives together with their impact on concrete human experience, Laudato si’ wishes to persuade the world that the moral dimension must be omnipresent. As I suggested above, there is no morally neutral decision about business and market policies or about the use of technologies in resource extraction. All decisions affect both the natural world which is our common home, and all of us inhabitants of that common home.

All this signals a fresh, novel and challenging engagement within the Church and of the Church with the world. I think the most important thing to do is read the encyclical oneself and give leadership and support to applying it in one’s own regions.

Each of you must have ideas about this. Where you exercise responsibility, which charism is most needed? Is it to promote the realization that we are one human family, and each and every person has full human dignity? Is it to fight against slavery, forced migration, violence against children and women? Is it to ensure that business activity contributes to good living for all—to integral human development?

2. Contemplation

It may surprise you that I begin with contemplation. The Encyclical covers so much historical, scientific, economic and socio-cultural ground, that it might give the impression that the Church wishes to lead the world in expertise in those areas. But that is not the Holy Father’s intention. While acknowledging the importance of those pursuits and the relevance of the most advanced thinking in our current times of crisis, what the Church offers are its great spiritual resources to lead the People of God and to inspire all people of the world in attitudes of wonder, awe, gratitude, compassion and solidarity.

This is essential. As Pope Benedict XVI says, “In nature, the believer recognises the wonderful result of God's creative activity… The environment is God’s gift to everyone, and in our use of it we have a responsibility…” The contemplation of nature and God’s goodness ought to draw people to respect “the intrinsic balance of creation” and abhor the “reckless exploitation” of the air, water or land or needless disruption of the natural world.^[4] “Nature is filled with words of love,” says Pope Francis. He reminds us that Jesus “invited us to contemplate the lilies of the field and the birds of the air.” The contemplative attitude can fine as simple an expression as the habit of grace before and after meals. (§225-7)

3. Conversion

Pope Francis is most emphatic on the need for inner conversion and personal transformation. Consumerism and frantic pursuit of economic success reinforce the conditions for environmental and social degadation. Human beings need to take a new path. The Holy Father’s words echo a beautiful passage in the earlier Common Declaration on Environmental Ethics of St John Paul II and the Ecumenical Patriarch His Holiness Bartholomew:

What is required is an act of repentance on our part and a renewed attempt to view ourselves, one another, and the world around us within the perspective of the divine design for creation. The problem is not simply economic and technological; it is moral and spiritual. A solution at the economic and technological level can be found only if we undergo, in the most radical way, an inner change of heart, which can lead to a change in lifestyle and of unsustainable patterns of consumption and production. A genuine conversion in Christ will enable us to change the way we think and act.^[5]

4. Conversation and Dialogue

Pope Francis insists on dialogue “as the only way to confront the problems of our world and to seek solutions that are truly effective”.^[6] Authentic dialogue is honest and transparent. It insists on open negotiation based on the principles which the social teachings of the Church vigorously promote: solidarity, subsidiarity, working for the common good, universal destination of goods, and preferential option for the poor and for the earth. Real dialogue would not allow particular interests of individual countries or specific groups to hijack the negotiations.

Accordingly, in chapter 5 of Laudato si’ laying out lines of approach and action, every one of the five sections has the word “dialogue” in its title.

5. Care

A great innovation in Laudato si’ is that Pope Francis advocates something more than stewardship. The word “steward” is used only twice in Laudato si’, “administrador” only once. Instead, Pope Francis talks about care, cuidar and custodiar. It is in the title, “Care for our Common Home, el Cuidado de la casa común,” and is repeated dozens of times.

Care goes further than “stewardship”. Good stewards take responsibility and fulfil their obligations to manage and to render an account. But one can be a good steward without feeling connected. If one cares, however, one is connected. To care is to allow oneself to be affected by another, so much so that one’s path and priorities change. Good parents know this. They care about their children; they care for their children, so much so that parents will sacrifice enormously—even their lives—to ensure the safety and flourishing of their children. With caring, the hard line between self and other softens, blurs, even disappears.

Pope Francis proposes that we think of our relationship with the world and with all people in terms of caring. Jesus guides us in this vocation with images from the world of work. He says:

I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away—and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep. (John 10:11-15)

Caring for our common home requires, as Pope Francis says, not just an economic and technological revolution, but also a cultural and spiritual revolution—a profoundly different way of approaching the relationship between people and the environment, a new way of ordering the global economy.

6. Laudato si’ and Catholic Social Teaching

To speak so holistically locates Laudato si’ in the great tradition of the social encyclicals. Pope Leo XIII responded to the res novae or “new things” of his time, when the industrial economy was only a century old and posed many dilemmas, especially for workers and families. So too, Pope Francis is responding to the “new things” of our day, when a post-industrial, globalized economy is posing many new dilemmas for humanity and for the planet. Laudato si’ is in continuity with Rerum Novarum and the whole tradition of Catholic Social Teaching.

Consider these examples of how the riches of our social teaching underpin the messages of Laudato si’:

·         The world’s economy must meet the true needs of people for their survival and integral human flourishing. This is a matter of human dignity and of the common good. We must make objective moral judgments in this regard: “Since the market tends to promote extreme consumerism in an effort to sell its products,” he says, “people can easily get caught up in a whirlwind of needless buying and spending… When people become self-centred and self-enclosed, their greed increases. The emptier a person’s heart is, the more he or she needs things to buy, own and consume.” (§203,204)

·         Technologies need to be assessed for their contribution to the common good. The Encyclical gratefully acknowledges the tremendous contribution of technologies to the improvement of living conditions. Yet it also issues a warning about the misuse of technology, especially when it gives “those with the knowledge, and especially the economic resources to use them, an impressive dominance over the whole of humanity and the entire world” (§104). Moreover, markets alone “cannot guarantee integral human development and social inclusion” (§109).

·         Solidarity with all, especially the marginalized and the poor, is a hallmark of our Holy Father’s papacy from the earliest moments, and it marks the Encyclical as well. The text speaks with great compassion of dispossession and devastation suffered disproportionately by the poor, because of where they live and due to the lack of power to escape or to protect themselves. Pope Francis embraces all people. “Let us not only keep the poor of the future in mind, but also today’s poor, whose life on this earth is brief and who cannot keep on waiting” (§162).

·         Solidarity must also apply between generations: “we can no longer speak of sustainable development apart from intergenerational solidarity” (§159). The Pope’s key question for humanity is put in those very terms: “What kind of world do we want to leave to those who come after us, to children who are now growing up?” (§160).

·         Human dignity underpins the extensive treatment of “The need to protect employment” (§124-29). Work is a noble and necessary vocation: “Work is a necessity, part of the meaning of life on this earth, a path to growth, human development and personal fulfilment” (§128). Work is how human dignity unfolds while earning one’s daily bread, feeding one’s family, and accessing the basic material conditions needed for flourishing every day. Further, it should be the setting for rich personal growth, where many aspects of life enter into play: creativity, planning for the future, developing our talents, living out our values, relating to others, giving glory to God. It follows that, in the reality of today’s global society, it is essential that “we con­tinue to prioritize the goal of access to steady employment for everyone,”^[7] no matter the limited interests of business and economic reasoning that excludes the human and social costs. (§127) It is wrong when some businesses simply replace workers with machines on the basis of efficiency and utility, viewing human beings as interchangeable with machines as mere factors of production. Clearly, the obsession is to gain still more profit, but at the cost of less and less decent work. Do individuals thrive from being unemployed or precariously hired? Of course not. Does society benefit from unemployment? Of course not. In fact, we everywhere witnesses far too many people who cannot find worthwhile and fulfilling work. We should not be surprised when unscrupulous people with demented fantasies recruit such idle individuals into criminality and violence.

·         God has exercised subsidiarity by entrusting the earth to humans to keep, till and care for it; this makes human beings co-creators with God. Work should be inspired by the same attitude. If work is organized properly and if workers are given proper resources and training, their activity can contribute to their fulfilments as human beings, not just meet their material needs. It can uphold the full human dignity, the integral human development, of workers. The principle of subsidiarity, a mirror of God’s relationship to humanity, requires restraint and an acceptance of the humble role of a servant leader.

·         Proper practices of stewardship result in sustainability of the natural environment and of human systems. The problem, Pope Francis notes clearly, is that the logic of competition promotes short-termism, which leads to financial failure and devastation of the environment. “We need to reject a magical conception of the market, which would suggest that problems can be solved simply by an increase in the profits of companies or individuals” (§190).

The Holy Father is not anti-business, as his messages to the World Economic Forum clearly attest. But what he decries is an obsession with profit and the deification of the market. Profit has its role in sustaining an enterprise and allowing it to improve and innovate; but we need sustainability, and Pope Francis calls upon business to lead by harnessing its creativity to solve pressing human needs. “More diversified and innovative forms of production which impact less on the environment can prove very profitable” (§191).

·         God is the Creator of all—we can think of the entirety of creation, we can think of all people, we can think of the gift of all goods to all of humanity. Justice requires that the goods of creation be distributed fairly to all of humanity. This has the status of a moral obligation, even a commandment, for Pope Francis. “Working for a just distribution of the fruits of the earth and human labour is not mere philanthropy,” he said last July in Bolivia. “It is a moral obligation. For Christians, the responsibility is even greater: it is a commandment. It is about giving to the poor and to peoples what is theirs by right. The universal destination of goods is not a figure of speech found in the Church’s social teaching. It is a reality prior to private property. Property, especially when it affects natural resources, must always serve the needs of peoples.”^[8]

·         Justice must also reign over the distribution of the burden of environmental rehabilitation. Those who have contributed most to greenhouse gas emissions and have benefitted most from the industrial period, should now take the lead and contribute more to the solution than those whose standard of living is just beginning to rise. As a first step, they must be ever more honest about so-called externalities or spillover effects, since finally nothing falls outside of the accounts of our one shared common household.

Conclusion

I have provided you with an overview of Laudato si’, some key perspectives on its contents, and a demonstration of its relationship to important principles of Catholic social teaching—the common good, human dignity, justice, solidarity, subsidiarity and sustainability. All these come together in an integral ecology “which clearly respects its human and social dimensions”. This is necessary because “everything is closely interrelated, and today’s problems call for a vision capable of taking into account every aspect of the global crisis” (§137).

In this regard, as Bishops, we occupy a privileged position. No facet of our world is too great or too small, too lofty or too plain, for us to take it on, to pray over it, and to bring it into constructive dialogue with others. We can promote this integration and encourage “profound interior conversion” (§217) in every aspect of our mission. For the challenge is of a new order. Humanity did not descend into the crises of today by doing our worst (crime, violence, war) but – with great enthusiasm for science, technology, progress and prosperity – while doing our very best.

In the spirit of our Holy Father who so effectively embraces everyone, we Bishops must open our arms to all. Let his prayers that close the encyclical guide us and all whom we touch—let us join him in offering the Christian prayer in union with creation, “Father, we praise you with all your creatures … Praise be to you! Laudato si’! Amen.”

Cardinal Peter K.A. Turkson

     President

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(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Friday received the President of the Commonwealth of Dominica, Charles Angelo Savarin, who subsequently met with the Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, who was accompanied by Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, the Secretary for Relations with States.

Dominica is a Caribbean island nation, with a population a little over 72,000, of whom about 80% of its population of  

A communique issued by the Holy See Press Office called the talks “cordial.”

The parties spoke about the good bilateral relations between the Holy See and Dominica, and noted the opportunity for a fruitful and mutual cooperation between the State and the Catholic Church, an institution which offers a significant contribution to the promotion of the dignity of the human person, as well as in fields such as the education of young people and offering assistance to those most in need.

In addition, they spoke about regional and global issues, in particular the protection of the environment and the issue of climate change and natural disasters, which have caused severe damage and several casualties among the population of the island.

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Vatican City, Jan 22, 2016 / 05:53 am (CNA/EWTN News).- For Pope Francis, the ability to listen is the first requirement for good communication, which is something he said should never exclude, but must provide an encounter rooted in mercy and welcome.

“We must first listen. Communicating means sharing, and sharing demands listening and acceptance,” the Pope has said, adding that to listen “is much more than simply hearing.”

Hearing, he said, is about “receiving information, while listening is about communication, and calls for closeness. Listening allows us to get things right, and not simply to be passive onlookers, users or consumers.”

Francis noted that really listening to someone “is never easy,” and that many times “it is easier to play deaf.”

To listen requires “a sort of martyrdom or self-sacrifice,” because it means “paying attention, wanting to understand, to value, to respect and to ponder what the other person says,” he continued.

“Knowing how to listen is an immense grace, it is a gift which we need to ask for and then make every effort to practice.”

Francis’ words were part of his message for the 50th World Day of Social Communications. Announced Sept. 29, 2015, the theme of the message is “Communication and Mercy: A Fruitful Encounter.”

World Communications Day takes place each year on the Sunday before Pentecost, and is the only worldwide celebration called for by the Second Vatican Council in the 1963 document “Inter Mirifica.”

This year the day will be celebrated May 8. The Pope traditionally releases a message for the day on the feast of St. Francis de Sales, patron saint of writers, journalists and the Catholic press.

In his message, Pope Francis stressed that both what we say and how we say it “ought to express God’s compassion, tenderness and forgiveness for all. Love, by its nature, is communication; it leads to openness and sharing.”

He said we are called to communicate with everyone “without exception,” adding that the Church has a special task, in her words and actions, of conveying mercy and touching people’s hearts.

Communication also has the power to build bridges between both individuals and groups, as well as foster an environment of inclusion in society, he said, explaining that this is possible in both the material and the digital world.

“Our words and actions should be such as to help us all escape the vicious circles of condemnation and vengeance which continue to ensnare individuals and nations, encouraging expressions of hatred.”

Words spoken by Christians, even in the cases when “they must firmly condemn evil,” must always encourage communion, and “should never try to rupture relationships and communication.”

Francis also offered his thoughts the language used in political and diplomatic discourse, saying it would “do well to be inspired by mercy, which never loses hope.”

He urged those with institutional and political power, as well as those responsible for forming public opinion, to be always be attentive to the way they speak to others who think and act differently, and to those who have made mistakes.

“It is easy to yield to the temptation to exploit such situations to stoke the flames of mistrust, fear and hatred,” the Pope said, explaining that courage is needed “to guide people towards processes of reconciliation.”

He also expressed his hope that the language of the Church’s pastors would never suggest an attitude of “prideful and triumphant superiority over an enemy, or demean those whom the world considers lost and easily discarded.”

“I would like to invite all people of good will to rediscover the power of mercy to heal wounded relationships and to restore peace and harmony to families and communities,” Pope Francis said.

The Pope expressed his hope that modes of communicating would help overcome the rigid mindset that segregates sinners from the righteous.

While “we can and we must judge situations of sin – such as violence, corruption and exploitation,” we must never “judge individuals, since only God can see into the depths of their hearts,” he said.

“It is our task to admonish those who err and to denounce the evil and injustice of certain ways of acting, for the sake of setting victims free and raising up those who have fallen,” Francis observed, but stressed that only words “spoken with love and accompanied by meekness and mercy can touch our sinful hearts.”

Turning to the digital world, Francis said that emails, text messages, social networks and chats can all be very human ways of communicating.

“It is not technology which determines whether or not communication is authentic, but rather the human heart and our capacity to use wisely the means at our disposal,” he said, noting that digital communication is a meeting place where we can either encourage or demean each other.

He said that the internet “can help us to be better citizens,” and that access to digital networks is coupled by a responsibility for our neighbor, “whom we do not see but who is nonetheless real and has a dignity which must be respected.”

Pope Francis closed his message by emphasizing that the encounter between communication and mercy will only be fruitful if it generates a sense of closeness that cares, comforts, accompanies and celebrates the other.

“In a broken, fragmented and polarized world, to communicate with mercy means to help create a healthy, free and fraternal closeness between the children of God and all our brothers and sisters in the one human family.”

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