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(Vatican Radio) The Holy Door of the Papal Basilica of St. Paul Outside-the-Walls was opened on Sunday morning by Cardinal James Harvey, the Achpriest of the Basilica. The ceremony took place as Pope Francis was opening the Holy Door at the Papal Basilica of St. John Lateran.

The Holy Door of the Basilica of St. Paul Outside-the-Walls carries a design honouring the Holy Trinity, and bears the Latin inscription “Ad sacram Pauli cunctis venientibus aedem – sit pacis donum perpetuoquoe salus,” which means "Those who come to the holy temple of Paul are given the gift of peace and eternal salvation."

After the Mass for the opening of the Holy Door, A concert was given by The New Chamber Singers, under the direction of Maestro Darren Everhart. 

Pope Francis will pass through the Holy Door at St. Paul Outside-the-Walls during an ecumenical service on the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul on January 25, 2016.

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(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has urged the international community to urgently follow up on the path set by the climate deal reached in Paris.

Speaking in St. Peter’s Square on Sunday after the recitation of the Angelus prayer, the Pope recalled the just concluded Climate Change Conference (COP21) in Paris which saw the signing of an agreement – he said – “described by many as historic”.

The Paris pact aims to curb global warming to less than 2°Celsius by the end of the century; it saw nearly 200 countries taking part in tense negotiations over two weeks to strike the first deal to commit all nations to cut emissions. 

“With the hope that special attention for the most vulnerable populations is guaranteed – Pope Francis said – I exhort the whole international community to proceed on the path undertaken in the name of an ever more effective solidarity”.

And mentioning the fact that next Tuesday, December 15, the 10th World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference will take place in Nairobi, Pope Francis urged participating nations to that Conference to always take into account the needs of the poor when making decisions, and not to neglect the “legitimate aspirations of less developed nations, of common good and of the whole human family”.

The Pope also remarked on the fact that today sees the opening of Holy Doors in Cathedrals throughout the world so that the Jubilee of Mercy can be lived to the full by all. 

He specifically spoke of the fact that “Doors of Mercy” will be opened in places of poverty, need and marginalization and said he specially wanted to send his greetings to prison inmates across the globe.

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Vatican City, Dec 13, 2015 / 03:40 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On Gaudete Sunday Pope Francis opened the Holy Door of Rome’s basilica of St. John Lateran, telling attendees that the joy of Jesus’ birth overcomes the sadness caused by hatred and violence.

As Christmas approaches, “we cannot let ourselves be taken in by fatigue; sadness in any form is not allowed, even though we have reason to be with the many concerns and the many forms of violence which hurt humanity,” the Pope said Dec. 13.

Instead, the coming of the Lord “must fill our hearts with joy,” he said, noting that God is always someone who protects his people.

In the contest of a history filled with great abuse and violence, especially by those in power, “God knows that he will reign over his people, he would never leave them at the mercy of the arrogance of its leaders, and will free them from all anxiety,” the Pope said.

“Today we are asked not to let our hands grow weak because of doubt, impatience or suffering,” but to place our trust in Lord.

Pope Francis celebrated Mass for the third Sunday of Advent at the basilica of St. John Lateran. The day is often referred to by its Latin name, Gaudete Sunday, which indicates that it is a day of ‘rejoicing’ as the birth of the Savior draws near.

Before celebrating the Mass Francis opened the basilica’s Holy Door for the Jubilee of Mercy. He prayed for a brief moment on the threshold, and was followed through by concelebrants of the Mass, religious men and women and lay faithful.

One of the novelties of Francis’ Holy Year of Mercy is that for the first time Holy Doors have been designated in particular dioceses.

Cathedrals around the world will join the Pope in opening their own Holy Door’s on the same day, Gaudete Sunday. Following the Pope's Mass, Cardinal James Harvey celebrated Mass and opened the Holy Door at basilica of St. Paul's Outside the Walls.

Pilgrims who pass through the door – which is only opened during Jubilee years – can receive a plenary indulgence under the usual conditions.

The opening of the door is meant to symbolically illustrate the idea that the Church’s faithful are offered an “extraordinary path” toward salvation during the time of jubilee.

Francis officially inaugurated the Jubilee of Mercy, and Extraordinary Holy Year, on the Dec. 8 Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception by the opening of the Holy Door in St. Peter’s Basilica. It will close Nov. 20, 2016, on the Solemnity of Christ the King.

In his homily, Pope Francis pointed to the prophet Zephaniah’s declaration in the first reading that “the Lord is near.” Because of this, “we should rejoice always, and with our affability give witness of the closeness and care that God has for each person.”

The “simple sign” of opening the Holy Door is itself an invitation to joy, he said, because “it begins a time of the great forgiveness. It is the Jubilee of Mercy.”

The Jubilee is a time to rediscover the presence of God in the world as well as his fatherly tenderness, Francis said, explaining in off-the-cuff remarks that God “doesn't like rigidity. He's a father, he's tender.”

Pope Francis then pointed to the day’s Gospel from Luke, in which the people asked John the Baptist what they must do to prepare for the coming of the Savior.

“The Baptist’s response was immediate,” he said, noting how John’s invitation to act justly and to look after those in need also extends to each of us today.

While John’s demands were a reflection of what the law already prescribed, “we, however, are prompted toward a more radical commitment,” Francis said.

In looking at the Holy Door they will cross, each person is asked to become an instrument of mercy, “knowing that we will be judged on this,” he said.

A person who is baptized “knows he has a greater commitment,” he observed, adding that faith in Christ “leads to a journey that lasts for a lifetime: to be merciful, like the Father.”

“The joy of crossing the Gate of Mercy is accompanied by a commitment to welcome and give witness to a love that goes beyond justice, a love that knows no boundaries. It is from this infinite love that we are responsible, in spite of our contradictions.”

Pope Francis closed his homily by praying that everyone who passes through the Holy Door, the “Gate of Mercy,” would understand and welcome “the infinite love of our Heavenly Father, who transforms and renews life.”

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Vatican City, Dec 13, 2015 / 04:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On his return flight from Africa, as Pope Francis fielded the customary questions from the press, he challenged a journalist on a question about condom use in the fight to prevent HIV.  

“We know that prevention is key. We know that condoms are not the only method of solving the epidemic, but it’s an important part of the answer,” the journalist said. “Is it not time for the Church to change its position on the matter? To allow the use of condoms to prevent more infections?”

The question, Pope Francis said, seemed too narrow to address such a widespread and complex issue. Condom use in and of itself could never solve the HIV crisis or other problems facing many African nations.

“The problem is bigger,” the Pope said.

“This question makes me think of one they once asked Jesus: 'Tell me, teacher, is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath? Is it obligatory to heal?' This question, 'Is doing this lawful,'…but malnutrition, the development of the person, slave labor, the lack of drinking water, these are the problems.”

The Catholic Church has always held that artificial contraception use is immoral. In a 2010 book interview that made waves, Pope Benedict XVI said that while using a condom can represent a step in the right direction as far as showing concern for the other person, it is still an immoral solution to the HIV crisis.

But was Pope Francis right to be so dismissive of condom usage? Do condoms actually play a practical and important role in the fight against HIV?

An increasing amount of evidence says no.

Abstinence and fidelity in Uganda

At the peak of the HIV crisis in the 1980s, the country of Uganda had one of the highest infection rates – almost 25 percent of the population were HIV positive by 1991, according to the Washington Post.
With the help of the country’s religious leaders, Uganda President Yoweri Museveni adopted the simplest and least expensive intervention possible in the poor and war-torn country – a public education program stressing abstinence before marriage and faithfulness afterward, largely de-emphasizing condom use except for those most at risk.

In just eight years, the country saw the most significant decline in HIV infection rates in the world.  
According to a 2004 article in the “Journal of International Development”, it was “the lack of condom promotion during the 1980s and early 1990s (that) contributed to the relative success of behavior change strategies in Uganda.”

But just as Uganda was seeing a significant decline, the United States intervened, restructuring the country's approach and focusing more on condoms and less on abstinence and monogamy. In an op-ed for the Washington Post, Harvard's leading HIV researcher Dr. Edward Green and Wilfred Mlay, then-vice president for World Vision Africa, wrote that while the United States was generous in offering their help, the Western ideologies and approaches may have actually undermined the success previously seen in Uganda.

“The Ugandan turnaround was well underway by the time foreign AIDS experts began to arrive in the early 1990s, bringing with them the Western public health approaches—and values. They began to retool Uganda's AIDS prevention efforts away from abstinence and fidelity—goals that many Westerners felt were unrealistic. As condom use increased, the percentage of young singles having sex rose from 27 percent to 37 percent between 1995 and 2000. Health officials worry that infection rates may increase as well,” they wrote.

The problem with condoms

Regardless of religious belief, condom use to curb HIV infection proves problematic for several reasons.

One of the biggest issues with the promotion of condoms as a solution to HIV is that most people do not consistently or correctly use condoms, even after going through sex education.

A study published by “The Annals of Pharmacotherapy” found that out of 500 couples who were repeatedly told by their doctors to use condoms, only eight percent did so consistently, despite knowledge that one partner had herpes. A different study found that only 50 percent of couples in which one partner had HIV used condoms consistently over time.

Another part of the problem is something called risk compensation. In an interview with the BBC, Dr. Green said that risk compensation happens when people use risk-reducing technology in a way that assumes the technology cancels out all risk.

As an example, in an interview with BBC, Dr. Green compared condom use to sunblock. He said the protection offered by sunblock is cancelled out when the person using sunblock assumes they are completely protected and therefore spends even more time in the sun.

Similarly, people using condoms are more likely to engage in risky sexual behavior because of the assumed protection, when in fact repeated exposure to infected persons decreases the protection that condoms offer.

The phenomenon of risk compensation also means people using condoms are more likely to have a greater number of sexual partners, increasing their risk for certain STDs which in turn increases the likelihood of the transmission of HIV. Many STDs create open sores, which act as portals of entry for HIV infection.

Another reason condoms alone fail at protecting people against HIV is because of the likelihood of disease transmission over time. According to a 2001 article in The Lancet, the more frequently one changes sexual partners, the more likely it is that they will spread HIV.

This is because HIV is highly contagious when it is first contracted, but it is often not detectable until later. Therefore, an infected person could think they are HIV-free and go on to infect more people before they realize they have HIV. The study found that if there were at least six months in between sexual partners, the rate of HIV infections would significantly decrease.

A tale of two countries: Philippines vs. Thailand

Two different countries in Asia help further illustrate the effectiveness of abstinence and fidelity programs over condom promotion.

In 1984, both countries reported their first case of HIV infection. But the two governments had radically different responses.

Thailand’s response was to promote condom use across the board, while the largely Catholic country of the Philippines focused their response on promoting abstinence before marriage and fidelity afterwards.

By 2005, the HIV rate in Thailand was 50 times higher than that of the Philippines.

And while some experts hail Thailand as a success story rather than the Philippines, since Thailand’s rate of infection eventually decreased from previous levels, other experts say it is no coincidence that the Catholicism which permeates Filipino culture has led to a small rate of HIV infection.  

Catholicism and HIV infection rates

Although some experts are hesitant to recognize the effectiveness of abstinence and fidelity programs promoted by the Catholic Church, a 2005 article in British Medical Journal hailed their success.

“The greater the percentage of Catholics in any country, the lower the level of HIV. If the Catholic Church is promoting a message about HIV in those countries, it seems to be working,” the article states.

“On the basis of data from the World Health Organization, in Swaziland, where 42.6 percent have HIV, only 5 percent of the population is Catholic. In Botswana, where 37 percent of the adult population is HIV infected, only 4 percent of the population is Catholic. In South Africa, 22 percent of the population is HIV infected, and only 6 percent is Catholic. In Uganda, with 43 percent of the population Catholic, the proportion of HIV infected adults is 4 percent.”

Dr. Green, too, emphasized in a 2009 article that his support of abstinence and fidelity programs comes not from a conservative worldview but rather from his experiences in Africa and from looking at the results.

“I’m a flaming liberal, don’t go to church, never voted for a Republican in my life,” he said.

In his aforementioned op-ed, he also added that it would be a wrong to place politics and ideologies above the lives of people who are at risk.  

“Billions of dollars and the lives of countless men, women, and children will be wasted if ideology trumps proven health policy.”

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 WASHINGTON- The United States has a moral obligation to protect unaccompanied children and families from persecution in Central America, said Bishop Mark J. Seitz of El Paso, Texas, in testimony before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, October 21. Bishop Seitz is an advisor to the USCCB Committee on Migration and a member of the board of the Catholic Legal Immigration Network (CLINIC).

The humanitarian outflow, driven by organized crime in the northern triangle countries of Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras, continues, with nearly 40,000 unaccompanied children and an equal number of mothers with children having arrived in the United States in Fiscal Year 2015.

"If we do not respond justly and humanely to this challenge in our own backyard, then we will relinquish our moral leadership and moral influence globally," Bishop Seitz said.

Bishop Seitz pointed to the human consequences of U.S. policies which are designed to deter migration from the region, including U.S. support for Mexican interdiction efforts which are intercepting children and families in Mexico and sending them back to danger, in violation of international law.

Bishop Seitz recommended an end to these interdictions and the introduction of a regional system which would screen children and families for asylum in Mexico and other parts of the region. He also called for Congress to approve and increase a $1 billion aid package proposed by the Administration.

"If we export enforcement," Bishop Seitz said, "we also must export protection."

Bishop Seitz recalled the words of Pope Francis before Congress in September, when he invoked the golden rule in guiding our nation's actions toward those seeking safety in our land.

Quoting the Holy Father, Bishop Seitz repeated to the committee, "'The yardstick we use for others will be the yardstick which time will use for us.'"

"Mr. Chairman, I pray that time, and history, will conclude that we honored this rule in meeting this humanitarian challenge," Bishop Seitz concluded.

Bishop Seitz' testimony can be found at http://www.usccb.org//about/migration-policy/congressional-testimony/upload/seitz-ongoing-migration.pdf

Keywords: Bishop Mark J. Seitz, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, USCCB, Congress, Senate, Committee on Migration, migration, unaccompanied children, violence, Pope Francis
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