Catholic News 2

http://www.myspiritfm.com/News?blogid=8267&view=post&articleid=163018&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0

IMAGE: CNS photo/Bilawal Arbab, EPA

By Cindy Wooden

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Christians and Muslims, believers in one God, have an obligation to safeguard the world God created, said the Vatican's annual message to Muslims for the end of Ramadan.

"Our vocation to be guardians of God's handiwork is not optional, nor is it tangential to our religious commitment as Christians and Muslims: It is an essential part of it," said Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran and Bishop Miguel Angel Ayuso Guixot, respectively president and secretary of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue.

Dated May 19, the message was released at the Vatican June 2, the day after U.S. President Donald Trump announced he was withdrawing the United States from the international Paris accords, which are designed to lessen the human impact on climate change.

Each year, the council for interreligious dialogue publishes a message to the world's Muslims in preparation for the celebration of the end of Ramadan, a month of fasting. This year Ramadan ends June 24.

The pontifical council chooses a theme annually to promote dialogue by "offering insights on current and pressing issues." The theme chosen for 2017 was "Caring for Our Common Home," which echoes Pope Francis' encyclical on the environment, "Laudato Si'."

"As believers, our relationship with God should be increasingly shown in the way we relate to the world around us," Cardinal Tauran and Bishop Ayuso wrote.

Pope Francis' encyclical, they noted, was addressed "to the whole of humanity" and drew attention "to the harm our lifestyles and decisions are causing to the environment, to ourselves and to our fellow human beings."

"What is needed," they said, "is education, spiritual openness and a 'global ecological conversion' to adequately address this challenge."

The encyclical's reference to the earth as a "'common home,' a dwelling for all the members of the human family," they said, means that "no one person, nation or people can impose exclusively their understanding of our planet."

Without getting specific, the message spoke of "certain philosophical, religious and cultural perspectives that present obstacles which threaten humanity's relationship with nature."

The message repeated Pope Francis' call for "a new dialogue about how we are shaping the future of our planet ', since the environmental challenge we are undergoing, and its human roots, concern and affects us all."

- - -

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.

Full Article

http://www.myspiritfm.com/News?blogid=8267&view=post&articleid=163017&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0

IMAGE: CNS photo/Max Rossi, Reuters

By Carol Glatz

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Life is a long series of hellos and goodbyes, so don't be afraid to let go of the past; remember old friends, but keep moving and be open to the new, Pope Francis told students as the school year was coming to an end.

"We have to learn to see life by seeing the horizons," not the walls that can make people afraid because they don't know what is on the other side, he told thousands of adolescents during a 45-minute encounter at the Vatican June 2. The middle-schoolers were part of Communion and Liberation's "The Knights of the Grail" educational initiative.

In the informal Q-and-A, a teen named Marta told the pope how scared she was to be leaving middle school and most of her best friends as they head on to high school next year. "Why do I have to change everything? Why does growing up make me so afraid?" she asked him.

"Life is a constant 'Good morning' and 'Farewell,'" he said, with the goodbyes sometimes being for forever.

"You grow by encountering and by taking your leave," he said. "If you don't learn to say goodbye well, you will never learn how to encounter new people."

This moment of change in life is "a challenge," he said, but "in life we have to get used to this journey of leaving something behind and encountering something new."

Noting that Marta had used the word "afraid" a number of times in her question, the pope said the risk that comes with the challenge is that fear will render a person immobile, "too serene" and unable to grow.

Those who give up, settle down and say, "Enough," close off the horizons that are out there waiting for them and do not grow.

"Look at that wall? What's behind it?" he asked the girl. "I don't know," she said.

"But if you go outside, to the countryside, what do you see?" he asked. "I see everything," she replied.

"Everything! You see the horizon," the pope said. "We have to learn to see life by looking at the horizons" that are always open, always lying ahead, by meeting new people and having new experiences.

Instead of framing the future with terms like "fear" or "afraid," he added, try "using the word 'a challenge' more" and remembering, "I will win this challenge or I will let this challenge defeat me."

"Look at the wall and think about the horizon that lies in the countryside," he said. The more a person journeys toward the horizon, the farther, longer and wider that horizon becomes.

Remember to call and visit old friends, he said, "but live and journey with the new ones."

When asked how kids their age could change the world when it has so many problems, the pope told them they have to begin with the people and situations in their daily lives.

Think of what happens to a person's hand when sharing a piece of candy, for example: It's open and moves toward the other person, the pope said. Now think of what happens when a person wants to keep that candy for himself or herself: The hand closes up tight and moves away from the other.

One's heart has to be like the hand that is responding in a positive, generous way, not the negative, self-centered approach, he said.

"You can begin to change the world with an open heart," the pope said, and by listening to others, welcoming others and sharing things.

Pray for everyone, including one's enemies and "those who make you suffer," he said, "Never return evil with evil."

Don't bad-mouth, insult or wish bad things would happen to others, he said. "That's how you can change the world. There is no magic wand, but there are little things we can learn to do every day."

Pope Francis suggested that the kids meet up to openly discuss the right and the wrong ways to respond to the many difficulties or choices that have to make each day.

- - -

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.

Full Article

http://www.myspiritfm.com/News?blogid=8267&view=post&articleid=163016&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0

WASHINGTON (AP) -- U.S. employers pulled back on hiring in May by adding only 138,000 jobs, though the gains were enough to help nudge the unemployment rate down to a 16 year-low....

Full Article

http://www.myspiritfm.com/News?blogid=8267&view=post&articleid=163015&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0

MANILA, Philippines (AP) -- The Latest on the Philippine casino attack (all times local):...

Full Article

http://www.myspiritfm.com/News?blogid=8267&view=post&articleid=163014&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Backlash against Kathy Griffin continues to grow with at least four theaters announcing Thursday that they had canceled her performances after the comedian posed with a likeness of President Donald Trump's severed head....

Full Article

http://www.myspiritfm.com/News?blogid=8267&view=post&articleid=163013&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (AP) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin insisted Friday that the Syrian leader didn't use chemical weapons against his people, saying the recent attack that killed scores of civilians was a "provocation" against President Bashar Assad....

Full Article

http://www.myspiritfm.com/News?blogid=8267&view=post&articleid=163012&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Secretary of State Rex Tillerson downplayed the significance of the U.S. pullout from the Paris climate pact, arguing Friday that America still will continue taking steps to cut heat-trapping pollution....

Full Article

http://www.myspiritfm.com/News?blogid=8267&view=post&articleid=163011&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Donald Trump's supporters on Friday cast his decision to abandon the world's climate change pact as a "refreshing" stance for the U.S. that would save jobs and unburden industry....

Full Article

http://www.myspiritfm.com/News?blogid=8267&view=post&articleid=163010&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0

BRUSSELS (AP) -- Environmental campaigners protested Friday against President Donald Trump's decision to pull the United States out of the Paris climate accord, while nations around the world pledged to double down on their efforts to curb global warming in response to the U.S. move....

Full Article

http://www.myspiritfm.com/News?blogid=8267&view=post&articleid=163009&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- The Latest on developments in Afghanistan (all times local):...

Full Article