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(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Tuesday urged Christians to be truthful,  warning them against the temptations of hypocrisy and flattery. His words came during the homily at morning Mass at the Casa Santa Marta.

Hypocrisy – Pope Francis said – is not the language of Jesus, nor is it the language of Christians, in fact, he said, “the hypocrite is capable of destroying a community”.

Listen to the report by Linda Bordoni:

The Pope explained that Jesus often uses the adjective “hypocrite” to describe the doctors of the law, because, as the etymology of the word illustrates, they claim to have higher standards or more noble beliefs than is the case, they proffer their opinions and issue judgements but in reality they are false.

And reflecting on the Gospel reading of the day, the Pope said "The hypocrite always uses language to flatter” just as some Pharisees and Herodians who tried to ensnare Jesus in his speech.

“Hypocrites – Francis said – always begin with adulation, “exaggerating the truth, feeding into one’s vanity" and he recalled the case of a priest he met a long time ago whom, he said, “drank-up all the flattery; that, he said, was his weakness”.

Jesus makes us see reality which is the opposite of hypocrisy and ideology

Flattery, the Pope said, is triggered by “bad intentions” as in the case of the doctors of the law in today’s liturgical reading. They put Jesus to the test, flattering him first and then asking him a question with the intention of making him fall into the wrong: “Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not?” 

"The hypocrite, Francis said,  is two-faced, but Jesus knew their hypocrisy and said: ‘Why are you testing me? Bring me a denarius to look at.’  Jesus always responds to hypocrites and ideologists with reality: ‘this is the reality; everything else is either hypocrisy or ideology’. In this case he said: ‘bring me a coin’, and he answered with the wisdom of the Lord: ‘Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar – the reality was that the coin carried the image of Caesar - and to God what belongs to God’.”

The third aspect, the Pope continued “is that the language of hypocrisy is the language of deceit, it is the same language the serpent used with Eve.”

It begins with flattery, he said, and ends up destroying people: “it tears to pieces the personality and the soul of a person. It destroys communities”. 

Hypocrisy destroys communities and hurts the Church

"Hypocrisy is so bad for the Church” the Pope said with a warning to all those Christians who fall into this sinful and destructful attitude.

"The hypocrite is capable of destroying a community. While speaking gently, he ruinously judges a person. He is a killer” he said.

Pope Francis concluded exhorting the faithful to remember that the only way to respond to flattery is with truth; the only way to respond to ideology is with reality. 

“Let us ask the Lord to guard us from this vice, to help us be truthful, and if this is not possible to keep silent – but never to be a hypocrite” he said.

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India has doubled the compensation for the death of power loom workers in its textile industry as part of a benefits scheme to weed out problems plaguing the labour-intensive sector.

India is one of the largest fabric producers in the world  and has traditionally been a cornerstone of the Indian economy in terms of foreign exchange earnings and employment. Power looms contribute around 70 per cent of the total jobs in the textile industry, employing around 6.5 million people.

A single person, working 12 hours or more, often tends to six to nine looms inside cramped spaces, exposing them to loud noise and injuries from the shuttle that moves at a high speed across the loom. Nearly 60 percent of the fabric and garments they produce is exported.

The government's worker protection scheme, called PowerTex India, was launched in April and includes a helpline for workers and subsidies for employers to upgrade their machinery.

“We have to develop the textile value chain and upgrade the technology to be more competitive,” India's textile commissioner Kavita Gupta told Reuters. “All the schemes are aimed at addressing drudgery, to better the working conditions and modernise infrastructure. If the sector has to grow, workers have to grow. Workers often work long hours because of erratic power supply, an issue the government is trying to address by providing solar panels to factories” she said.

The insurance coverage - 200,000 rupees ($3,100) in the case of a natural death and 400,000 rupees for accidental death – was rolled out this month, in addition to disability compensation of 200,000 rupees.

A study by India's National Institute of Occupational Health found that power loom workers are exposed to more than 100 decibels of sound - equivalent to the sound of a jackhammer or lawnmower - putting them at severe risk of hearing loss.

Most workers die after they are no longer able to work and have returned to their villages.

About 20,000 workers have signed up for the scheme so far. Campaigners worry enrolment could be low because employers are worried about incurring more costs per worker and therefore reluctant to disclose their staffing.

“If power loom units (factories) declare them as employees, they will have to extend other social benefits as required by the law,” said Jagdish Patel, labour researcher at Gujarat-based charity People's Training and Research Centre. (Reuters)

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(Vatican Radio)  A leading human rights organization has accused the government of Nepal for failing to crack down on ‎unscrupulous job recruitment agencies and private recruiters that extort poor migrant workers and leave them at the ‎risk of forced labour abroad and crippling debt.  Around 20 percent of the impoverished Himalayan nation's almost 29 million people are migrant ‎workers in the Middle East, as well as countries such as Malaysia and South Korea -generating ‎remittances that make up a quarter of Nepal's GDP.  ‎‎  ‎“Migrant workers contribute nearly a third of Nepal’s GDP in money they send back ‎home, yet the government spends a tiny fraction of its budget on their needs,”  said  Amnesty ‎International in a report published on 6 June.  ‎

“All over Nepal, unscrupulous recruiters are getting away with destroying lives – illegally charging ‎aspiring job-seekers exorbitant fees to get jobs abroad, and then abandoning them overseas when things ‎go wrong,” said James Lynch, Deputy Director of Amnesty International’s Global Issues programme.  ‎‎“It is only when they leave Nepal that migrant workers find out that they have been deceived about ‎everything from salary to working conditions,” Lynch said.  “By then it is far too late and many end up ‎with recruitment debts that may take the rest of their working lives to pay off.”

The report titled, “Turning People into Profits: Abusive Recruitment, Trafficking and Forced ‎Labour of Nepali Migrant Workers,” included interviews with 127 Nepali migrant ‎workers and dozens of government officials in 2016 and 2017, in eight districts of Nepal.  Almost all ‎workers the organization spoke to had been subject to some form of abuse at the hands of private ‎recruiters. ‎   The London-based rights watchdog found many migrants were being forced to borrow money, with interest rates of up to 35 percent, to pay shady recruitment firms who ended up cheating them with false promises.   Amnesty found victims paid on average $1,350 to recruitment firms for jobs‎ abroad - nearly double the limit permitted under Nepali law.‎   Once overseas, the migrants often had their passports confiscated by employers and did not get contracts – leaving them open to exploitation such as long working hours, little freedom of movement, and even forced labour.‎  (Source: Amnesty International/ Reuters Thomson Foundation)

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(Vatican Radio) Managing money, combatting corruption, planning a budget and guaranteeing transparency in all financial transactions. These important skills will be at the heart of a new programme on Church management to be launched next spring at the Pontifical Holy Cross University in Rome.

Designed to give priests, religious and lay people the skills to be better stewards of the Church’s resources, the course has been put together in partnership with a group of American Catholic universities and leadership training institutes.

The programme is the brainchild of Msgr Martin Schlag, professor of Catholic social thought at Holy Cross University, who’ll shortly to be taking up a teaching post at the University of St Thomas in Minnesota. He told Philippa Hitchen more about the course and why it’s such a vital part of the evangelization envisioned by Pope Francis for the Catholic Church today

Listen:

Msgr Schlag says he took part in a Vatican conference 9 years ago, where a former director of Shell told him there should be "never again a social encyclical" because “you don’t understand a word”. As a result of that encounter, he founded a Centre at Santa Croce called Markets, Culture and Ethics to build bridges between the world of business and the world of Catholic social thought.

Using money wisely

Two years ago, he continues, Cardinal George Pell heard about the initiative and asked him to expand it into a training course on Church management, insisting that the faithful have every right to know that the money they donate is being used “without waste, with economic knowledge and skills” and with a sense of service to those most in need.

In collaboration with various Vatican offices and with the Leadership Roundtable in the U.S., he helped to design a year-long course, comprising one afternoon a week, plus 4 intensive weeks, to educate priests, seminarians, religious and lay people on how to be good stewards of the Church’s material means.

More time for priestly ministry

The programme, which will launch in February 2018, is aimed principally at priests “who ‘ve already realized how important these subjects are, Msgr Schlag says. While teaching the basics of accounting, finance and church management, he insists, “we’re not trying to convert priests into managers,” but rather help them to understand  what qualitied lay people are telling them. In this way they can delegate tasks, he says, leaving more time for their pastoral ministry.

Specific Church requirements

Msgr Schlag talks about a “wonderful training session” with the Leadership Roundtable to explain to those teaching management and finance about the specific needs of the Church:  “we don't produce profits, we don't have careers, but we also have to develop as persons, [and] professionally”. Those working for the Church must also understand principles like transparency, disclosure, accountability, planning, budgets, he says, and they have to recognize what corruption or money laundering is, and what is ethically earned money.

Global outreach

Among the first 40 students on the English language course, the organisers hope to have 25 % each from Africa, Asia, and North America, another 15 % from Europe, and 10% from Latin America. Schlag also says he hopes the course may encourage other institutions to take these topics seriously and add them to the main subjects on offer for students.

Team building between clergy and laity

While a global survey among seminarians showed they were not interested in taking these subjects in the seminary, Schlag notes that once they are in ministry and discover the serious financial challenges they face, these same priests are then very keen on learning more.

Until a few decades ago, he says, priests were not held accountable, but today all that has changed and the role of lay people has been re-evaluated. Priests must learn to cooperate with lay women and men in Church management, he says, so this course teaches team building as well. 

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(Vatican Radio)  The Holy See has appealed to the international community to face global challenges with solidarity and cooperation between nations.

Archbishop Ivan Jurkovic, Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the UN in Geneva, made the appeal at the 35th Session of the Human Rights Council.

“For the wellbeing of our human family and the promotion and protection of the common good there is an urgent need to recognise the role of international solidarity as an essential element for the enjoyment of fundamental human rights by all,” he said.

He said international solidarity would help nations face current challenges “such as migration, climate change and natural disasters, armed conflicts and the growing gap between poor and rich”.

Archbishop Jurkovic said, “Solidarity does not oppose sovereignty; instead, it pushes for a deeper understanding of the concept of sovereignty as an expression of the freedom of people.”

Rather than trampling on a person’s rights, he said solidarity includes the recognition of the principle of subsidiarity.

“The two principles are mutually linked. Indeed, subsidiarity means assistance to the human person via the autonomy of intermediate bodies.”

Please find below the full text of the address:

Geneva, 6 June 2017 

Mr. President,

First of all, the Delegation of the Holy See expresses its appreciation to the Independent Expert at the end of her mandate for the work she accomplished throughout the last six years. For the wellbeing of our human family and the promotion and protection of the common good there is an urgent need to recognise the role of international solidarity as an essential element for the enjoyment of fundamental human rights by all. International cooperation represents one of the most valuable ways to realize international solidarity “by virtue of which every human person and all peoples are entitled to equally enjoy the benefit from a harmonious international society with just and fair international, political and economic order.” [1] The International Community is currently facing many challenges such as migration, climate change and natural disasters, armed conflicts and the growing gap between poor and rich. Looking at those issues, the Delegation of the Holy See is convinced that international solidarity represents an effective approach to answer them. Moreover, it is necessary that men and women of our day cultivate a greater awareness that they are debtors of the society of which they are a part. “They are debtors because of those conditions that make human existence livable, and because of the indivisible and indispensable legacy constituted by culture, scientific and technical knowledge, material and immaterial goods and by all that the human condition has produced.” [2] Solidarity is not merely social work, but it should, as Pope Francis stated, “become the default attitude in political, economic and scientific choices, as well as in the relationships among individuals, peoples and countries.(…) Only by educating people to a true solidary will we be able to overcome the “culture of waste.” [3]

Mr. President,

Solidarity does not oppose sovereignty; instead, it pushes for a deeper understanding of the concept of sovereignty as an expression of the freedom of people. It is not only a duty but a moral value which stems from the principle of human fraternity. Solidarity is unconditional care of the other and it requires the engagement of individual, private, national and international actors in order to ensure the full realization of human dignity and the common good. Thus, we call upon the necessity to implement and strengthen the principle of the responsibility to protect, especially towards the most vulnerable ones.  

International solidarity implies the participation of individuals in decision-making processes and, in particular, the recognition of the principle of subsidiarity. The two principles are mutually linked. Indeed, subsidiarity means assistance to the human person via the autonomy of intermediate bodies.  In 2015, world leaders agreed on how to better position the international community to address some of the most pressing global challenges. These agreements and outcomes collectively offer a blueprint for how the global economy, society and environment should look in 2030. “Through the 2030 Agenda, the international community has chosen solidarity over egoism: solidarity with the excluded of today, solidarity with the poor of tomorrow, solidarity with future generations.” [4] In this sense, we welcome the fact that the Independent Expert highlights the importance of preventive solidarity. There is an urgent need to remove the root causes of asymmetries and inequities between and within States and the structural obstacles and factors that generate and perpetuate poverty and inequality worldwide. Such an approach can foster peace, security and development based on the promotion, protection and fulfillment of all human rights and end any kind of discrimination and social injustice.

Mr. President,

Last March, in his address to the European Heads of State and Governments Pope Francis affirmed that: “Solidarity is the most effective antidote to modern forms of populism. Solidarity entails the awareness of being part of a single body, while at the same time involving a capacity on the part of each member to “sympathize” with others and with the whole. When one suffers, all suffer.” [5]

Thank you, Mr. President. 

1 Draft paper on human rights and international solidarity prepared by Chen Shiqiu, Chairperson/Rapporteur on behalf of the drafting group on human rights and international solidarity of the Advisory Committee of the Human Rights Council. Document A/HRC/AC/8/CRP, I, B, par. 2.

2 Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 2004, 195.

3 Pope Francis, “Why the only future worth building includes everyone”, TED Ideas, 25 April 2017. 

4 Cardinal Peter Turkson, Statement delivered at the special event Integral Human Development - Transforming our world: The Holy See and the 2030 Agenda, Geneva, 18th May 2017.

5 Pope Francis, Address to Heads of State and Government of the European Union in Italy for the Celebration of the 60th Anniversary of the Treaty of Rome. 24 March 2017.  At: http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/speeches/2017/march/documents/papa-francesco_20170324_capi-unione-europea.html

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Paris, France, Jun 6, 2017 / 09:57 am (CNA/EWTN News).- A man was shot after an apparent hammer attack on police officers at Paris police headquarters next to the Cathedral of Notre Dame on Tuesday.

The suspect was wounded in the chest during the June 6 attack. He had allegedly attacked officers on duty at the headquarters.

Tourists ran from the attack, BBC News reports. The attack closed the area around the historic cathedral, and people were asked to stay away.

The incident follows a London attack in which Islamic extremists used a van and knives to kill seven and wound dozens of people.

Extremist attacks in Paris in 2015 killed 147.

France has experienced several terrorist attacks in recent years, including a July 2016 attack in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray in which a priest was murdered while saying Mass.

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IMAGE: CNS photo/Antonio Bat, EPA

By Junno Arocho Esteves

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The diabolical language of hypocrisy, which ensnares others through flattery, has the power to destroy Christian communities, Pope Francis said.

Like the Pharisees who spoke to Jesus with soothing words of adulation, Christians who engage in hypocrisy speak gently yet "brutally judge a person," the pope said June 6 at his early morning Mass.

"Hypocrisy is not the language of Jesus. Hypocrisy is not the language of Christians. A Christian cannot be a hypocrite and a hypocrite cannot be a Christian. This is very clear," he said. "Hypocrisy can kill a community."

In his homily during the Mass in the chapel of the Domus Sanctae Marthae, the pope focused on the day's Gospel reading from St. Mark, which recounts the Pharisees' attempts to trick Jesus into answering a question on the legality of paying a census tax.

Their attempt to trap Jesus with flattery, the pope said, is the first sign of their hypocrisy.

"Hypocrites always begin with adulation," he explained. Adulation is "not saying a truth; it is exaggerating, it makes vanity grow."

Jesus' answer that they "repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar," the pope said, reveals that he can see beyond their duplicitous nature, and that he "responds to hypocrites and ideologues with reality."

"Let's remember this: If it begins with adulation, it can only be answered with reality. 'Do not come to me with these stories: This is the reality,'" he said.

In the end, the pope added, hypocrisy is the devil's way of speaking and the devil is the one who puts "forked tongues" into a community in order to destroy it.

Pope Francis asked Christians to pray so that they may "not fall into this vice of hypocrisy," which applies the "makeup" of adulation to mask "bad intentions."

Christians, he said, should pray, "Lord, may I never be a hypocrite, may I know how to say the truth and if I cannot say it, to be quiet. But never, never a hypocrite."

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Follow Arocho on Twitter: @arochoju.

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Copyright © 2017 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. www.catholicnews.com. All rights reserved. Republishing or redistributing of CNS content, including by framing or similar means without prior permission, is prohibited. You may link to stories on our public site. This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. To request permission for republishing or redistributing of CNS content, please contact permissions at cns@catholicnews.com.

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IMAGE: CNS photo/Will Oliver, EPA

By Simon Caldwell

MANCHESTER, England (CNS) -- Archbishop Peter Smith of Southwark, the archdiocese that covers London south of the River Thames, where a terrorist attack June 3 claimed 7 lives and injured 48 people, offered prayers for the victims and survivors.

"Following the tragic attack on innocent people last Saturday evening in the Borough, we pray for those who have been killed and those who were injured, some critically, and I offer our sympathy to their families, friends and colleagues," Archbishop Smith said in a June 6 statement.

The incident unfolded, authorities said, when three men in a van mowed down people on the London Bridge and then left the vehicle to go on a killing spree in Borough Market, a popular restaurant and bar district located south of the river. Some people in the market area attempted to stop the attackers by throwing chairs and bottles at them, police said. The three men were shot and killed by police at the scene.

"I want to thank the police, the other emergency services and members of the public who rushed to help the victims," said the archbishop, who serves as the vice president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales.

Archbishop Smith praised first responders for their courage under difficult circumstances "despite the danger to themselves, and we pay tribute to them and give them our heartfelt thanks for all that they have done."

"We must remember and pray for their families too as they wait anxiously for the return of loved ones involved in these terrible incidents," the statement said. "It has been a reminder to us that at times of adversity over the centuries in this country, the whole community has come together to help and support victims of crime and warfare with extraordinary generosity and selflessness."

In a June 5 statement sent to Catholic News Service, Bishop Mark Davies of Shrewsbury, England, said under current circumstances, "This is a moment when we need to recall the Christian values on which British society is based."

"We have already seen how acts of selfless charity, the recognition of the stranger as our neighbor and gestures of solidarity have been shown to be stronger than the terror of murderous hate and violence," he said.

"We must find our security in these true values which make us stronger than those who seek to terrorize and divide us," he added. "I am sure these Christian foundations of British society can withstand any threat of division between individuals or communities in this land."

Bishop Philip Egan of Portsmouth, England, said in a June 5 telephone interview with CNS that he suspected "aggressive secularism" might be partly to blame for the rise of radical Islam in the United Kingdom.

"There are many factors in why somebody should become radical, but it (Islamic terrorism) is a Satanic and evil way of drawing attention to suffering and to the lack of God in life," Bishop Egan said.

"It is a disruption to draw attention," he continued. "I don't think we understand it properly, I don't think we have a clear view of why people do these horrible things, but I think part of it is a reaction to living in a highly materialistic, highly secularized society where everything is focused on work, on the horizontal, and the critical theological values are somehow blocked out."

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Copyright © 2017 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. www.catholicnews.com. All rights reserved. Republishing or redistributing of CNS content, including by framing or similar means without prior permission, is prohibited. You may link to stories on our public site. This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. To request permission for republishing or redistributing of CNS content, please contact permissions at cns@catholicnews.com.

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