Catholic News 2

Full Article

The Asian Youth Day (AYD), a major event of Asia’s Catholic Church, is taking centre stage in less ‎than 4 months in Yogyakarta, ‎Indonesia‎.  ‎Some ‏‎3000 ‎young people from ‏‎29 ‎Asian countries are ‏expected to gather in the central Javanese city‎, ‎ July ‏‎30‎th - August ‏‎9‎th‎, ‎‏2017‏‎, ‎for the ‏‎7th edition ‎of the AYD on the theme, “Joyful Asian Youth: Living the Gospel ‎in Multicultural Asia‎!”‎

The Youth Desk under the Office of Laity and Family (OLF) of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ ‎Conferences (FABC) and the host country are organizing the meet.  AYD is an outcome of ‎the World Youth Day that was instituted by Pope St. John Paul II in 1985.   The first AYD was  held ‎in Hua Hin, Thailand in 1999.  Since then the continent-level event has been held in intervals of 2, 3 ‎and 5 years.  The last AYD was held in Daejeon, South Korea, in 2014, which was attended by Pope ‎Francis.  The 7th AYD in Yogyakarta is the first time that Indonesia is hosting the continental event.    ‎

Organizers have planned the 11-day event into 3 stages, with July 30 – August 6 the actual AYD event.  ‎It will start with “Days in the Dioceses” (DID), July 30 - August 2,  during which participants will ‎be ‎hosted by 11 of the Indonesia’s 37 dioceses.   “In these dioceses, participants will learn and share their faith experiences with people ‎from ‎different countries,”  explained Fr. Antonius Haryanto, chairman of ‎AYD ‎‎2017.  Various activities such as the ‎Eucharist‎, ‎prayers‎, ‎games‎, ‎sharing of ‎testimonies and ‎‏other such sessions will be held “to unite the participants as a ‎Catholic people,” Fr. ‎Haryanto, also executive secretary of the Youth Commission of the Indonesian Bishops’ ‎Conference ‎‎(KWI), told Vatican Radio. ‎

After the Days in the Dioceses, all the participants will converge on Yogyakarta, Aug. 2-6,  for ‎the ‎main events of the AYD.  This will include events and activities such as group sharing sessions, ‎games, cultural presentations by participating countries, group prayers, ‎adoration, confession and ‎the ‎final Mass on the last day, Aug. 6.  ‎

With the main AYD event over, bishops, priests and lay people serving as guides, advisors and coordinators to youth in ‎their countries will stay back for the Asian Youth Ministers’ Meeting (AYMM)‎‏‎, Aug‏‎. 6‎‏-‏‎9.  ‎‏They will be ‎provided material to help them coach ‎and encourage their young people to be able to be able to grow and ‎contribute to their respective society ‎and Church. ‎ ‎

With some 17,000 islands dotting its vast expanse of some 1,9 million sq kms, Indonesia is the ‎largest archipelagic nation in the world.  It is home to roughly 12% of the world’s mammals, 16% of the ‎world’s reptiles and amphibians, 17% of the world’s birds and 25% of global fish populations, making ‎it the world’s top biodiversity rich region after the Amazon.   ‎

It is also interesting to note that Indonesia is the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation, although ‎officially it is a secular state.  With an estimated population of 258 million, Indonesia is also the fourth ‎most populous country in the world.  More than 85% of its population  is Muslim, with Christians ‎forming nearly 13%.  Catholics make up some 3.5%.   Even though the government recognizes only six ‎official religions (Islam, Protestantism, Catholicism, Hinduism, Buddhism and Confucianism), the ‎Indonesian Constitution guarantees freedom of religion. The state is based on the Pancasila or 5 ‎principles namely, belief in one God, a just and civilized society, unity of the country, democracy and ‎social ‎justice.   ‎

The vast majority of Indonesian Muslims are moderates, but recent incidents indicate that the nation is ‎no exception to the growing threat of Islamic radicalism among its people.  The nation’s authorities are ‎worried and are taking action.  “Our events promote tolerance and respect in living in a multicultural ‎country,”  Fr. Haryanto noted.  “This is why the ‎Indonesian Government welcomes and supports this ‎event, as this is also in line with ‎the ‎mission to fight the current issue of radicalism and extremism,” he ‎told Vatican Radio, referring to the AYD 2017.  “Indonesia is living the Pancasila ideology, ‎with the ‎slogan of “Bhinneka Tunggal Ika” – which translated simply means “unity in diversity”.  He pointed ‎out that “the nation has existed for more than 72 years, with 1128 ethnic ‎group with different traditions, ‎‎746 ethnic languages, and thousands of islands united by ‎common goals of prosperity, humanity and ‎world peace.”   ‎Bishop Pius Riana Prapdi of Ketapang, Chairman of the Youth Commission noted that ‎the diversity of the AYD “is an asset that should be able to benefit us.”  “Diversity within ‎Asian ‎countries should in fact become the main asset for Catholic Youth to face challenges,” Bishop ‎Prapdi said. ‎

During the Days in the Dioceses, the Asian youth will be accommodated in families of “different ‎cultural backgrounds, ethnic ‎groups and languages,” Fr. Haryanto said.  In Yogyakarta, the participants ‎will stay in ‎seminaries and convents, and will also have the chance to taste “many different ‎kind of ‎Indonesian food.”  “Each participant will contribute to the expenses, including meals ‎and travel ‎expenses,” he said. ‎

‎“We have engaged heavily on digital and social ‎media,” given the fact that young people are media-savvy, Fr. ‎Haryanto explained. Besides, he said, organizers “have asked some famous Catholic athletes, ‎actors/actress, ‎public figures” to encourage participation in the events in the run-up to the July 30-‎August 6 AYD 2017. ‎

Please visit the AYD 2017 media sites: Web: www.asianyouthday.org; Facebook: Asian Yout Day 2017; Instagram: @asianyouthday2017; Twiter: @ayd2017; YouTube: Asian Your Day 2017.

Full Article

(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis’ prayer intention for April is dedicated to Youth: 'For young people, that they might know how to respond generously to the vocation God has given them, and immerse themselves in the great causes of the world.'

The Apostleship of Prayer has produced the Pope’s Video on this prayer intention.

The full text of the Pope’s Video is below:

I know that you, young people, don’t want to be duped by a false freedom, always at the beck and call of momentary fashions and fads. I know that you aim high. Is that true, or am I wrong?
Don’t leave it to others to be the protagonists of change.
You, young people, are the ones who hold the future!  I ask you to be builders of the world, to work for a better world.  It is a challenge, yes it is a challenge. Do you accept it?
Pray with me that young people may respond generously to their own vocation and mobilize for the great causes of the world.

Full Article

(Vatican Radio)  Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican Secretary of State, celebrated Mass at the Altar of the Chair in St. Peter’s Basilica for the 50th anniversary of the encyclical ‘Populorum Progressio’.

During his homily for the Mass on Monday, Cardinal Parolin thanked the members and consultors of the Pontifical Councils for Justice and Peace, for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People, for Health Pastoral Care, and Cor Unum for their collaboration and service as the Councils were merged into the new Dicastery for Integral Human Development.

“The celebration of this Eucharist, with you and for you, is a fitting occasion to give thanks to the Lord for the establishment of this Office that serves the Holy Father in the exercise of his Petrine ministry. The particular characteristic of this service is a commitment to the integral development of every person.”

Cardinal Parolin said the new Dicastery “will carry out its mandate only to the extent that it walks the way of the Gospel in its efforts to support the fullest possible growth of every person and of every country. This will entail a constant concern for the dignity of the person – in the trilogy of body and soul, man and woman, individual and society – but also for the common good, to be pursued in truth and in justice.”

Please find below the original English version of the homily:

Your Eminences,

Your Excellencies,

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I offer a warm greeting to all of you, representatives of the offices of the Roman Curia and of the rich variety of ecclesial realties from various continents.  A special greeting goes to the Members and Consultors who have served the universal Church by collaborating with the Pontifical Councils for Justice and Peace, for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People, for Health Pastoral Care and Cor Unum, which, on 1 January 2017, merged to form the new Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development.

The celebration of this Eucharist, with you and for you, is a fitting occasion to give thanks to the Lord for the establishment of this Office that serves the Holy Father in the exercise of his Petrine ministry.  The particular characteristic of this service is a commitment to the integral development of every person.

It is significant – even providential – that the creation of the new Dicastery coincides with the fiftieth anniversary of the Encyclical Letter Populorum Progressio of Blessed Paul VI, which the Conference that we inaugurate today is meant to commemorate.

I readily recall that this Encyclical, the preparation of which began in 1963, was published on 26 March 1967, Easter Day, causing some to speak of the “Encyclical of the Resurrection”, aimed at shedding the light of the Gospel and the Resurrection on the social problems of the time.

In the Encyclical, Paul VI outlined the principles of a new “universal humanism”.  These were taken up twenty years later by Saint John Paul II in Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, and once again, forty years later, by Pope Benedict XVI, in Caritas in Veritate.  They have also been tirelessly reiterated by Pope Francis, who, often without it being recognized, draws inspiration from the vision of his predecessor.  Pope Paul’s vision continues to be completely timely in its dramatic and radical diagnosis: “Human society is sorely ill.  The cause is not so much the depletion of natural resources, nor their monopolistic control by a privileged few; it is rather the weakening of brotherly ties between individuals and nations” (No. 66).

The treatment proposed by the Holy Father also remains valid and timely: namely, a human development that is both “integral” and “fraternal”.  The Encyclical sets out the coordinates of an integral development of the human person and a fraternal development of humanity, two themes which can be considered as the axes around which the text is structured.  Development consists in the passage from less humane living conditions to more humane living conditions: “What are less than human conditions?  The material poverty of those who lack the bare necessities of life, and the moral poverty of those who are crushed under the weight of their own self-love; oppressive political structures resulting from the abuse of ownership or the improper exercise of power, from the exploitation of the worker or unjust transactions.

What are truly human conditions?  The rise from poverty to the acquisition of life’s necessities; the elimination of social ills; broadening the horizons of knowledge; acquiring refinement and culture.  From there one can go on to acquire a growing awareness of other people’s dignity, a taste for the spirit of poverty, an active interest in the common good, and a desire for peace.  Then man can acknowledge the highest values and God Himself, their author and end.  Finally and above all, there is faith – God’s gift to men of good will – and our loving unity in Christ, who calls all men to share God's life as sons of the living God, the Father of all men” (No. 21).

But how do we arrive at this development?  It is significant that Pope Benedict XVI, in the Encyclical Caritas in Veritate, which was intended “to pay tribute and to honour the memory of the great Pope Paul VI,” wished to emphasize the extent to which “development needs Christians with their arms raised towards God in prayer, Christians moved by the knowledge that truth-filled love, caritas in veritate, from which authentic development proceeds, is not produced by us, but given to us.  For this reason, even in the most difficult and complex times, besides recognizing what is happening, we must above all else turn to God’s love” (No. 79)

God is Alpha and Omega.  God is the origin and goal of human development, which is always his gift.  For our part, we need to receive from on high the gifts of truth and love in order to become bearers, stewards and multipliers of those same gifts, especially for the benefit of those in greatest need.  This means promoting, in the light of the Christian message, a world where none are marginalized or prey to persistent violence and extreme poverty, a world without globalized indifference to the needs of others.

Today’s readings offer an invitation and an encouragement to lift up our eyes to God, in whose name is our help.  The first reading admonishes us: “Little children, let us not love in word or speech but in deed and in truth” (1 Jn 3:18).  There is no lack of debates and strategies for eliminating conditions that violate human dignity, for overcoming the manifold injustices, both individual and structural, encountered on a daily basis, and for proposing a future of general well-being.  Yet solutions are often proposed that contradict those good intentions, favouring economic and military power in relations with others, choosing power, in whatever form it is expressed.  Loving in deed and in truth means substituting “the love of power” with “the power of love”.  For what is the power of Jesus Christ, if not the power of an ultimately unsettling love (cf. Jn 13:1), a love that, the more we reflect on it, the more our self-regard diminishes and God’s dominion in our life increases?

The Gospel passage we have just heard speaks clearly and dramatically of the importance of concrete actions.  It is charity that leads to salvation and entrance into the Kingdom.  “Come, O blessed of my Father… I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me” (Mt 25:34-36).  It matters not to which race, religion, ethnic or social group people belong, in order to receive charity from the disciples of Jesus.  This universality is truly radical.  Every act of solidarity is shown to the Lord, present in the person who is suffering.  “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me” (Mt 25:40).

This is the horizon against which the new Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development must operate.  It will carry out its mandate only to the extent that it walks the way of the Gospel in its efforts to support the fullest possible growth of every person and of every country.  This will entail a constant concern for the dignity of the person – in the trilogy of body and soul, man and woman, individual and society – but also for the common good, to be pursued in truth and in justice.

As the Encyclical Populorum Progressio reminds us: “The development we speak of here cannot be restricted to economic growth alone.  To be authentic, it must be well rounded; it must foster the development of each man and of the whole man… What counts for us is man – each individual man, each human group, and humanity as a whole.” (No. 14).

In the Motu Proprio Humanam Progressionem (31 August 2016), Pope Francis stated his reasons for establishing the new Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development: “so that the Holy See may be solicitous in [the] areas [of “attending to the inestimable goods of justice, peace, and the care of creation”], as well as in those regarding health and charitable works...  This Dicastery will be competent particularly in issues regarding migrants, those in need, the sick, the excluded and marginalized, the imprisoned and the unemployed, as well as victims of armed conflict, natural disasters, and all forms of slavery and torture.”

These are the forms of marginalization, suffering, injustice and hurt to which we must bring the oil of mercy and justice, hope and new life.

Do not be frightened by the immensity of the challenges that lie ahead of you, or by the limited nature of the means at your disposal.  Do not reject or undervalue any contribution that may be suggested.  For such contributions will be the result of cooperation between the Superiors and Officials of the new Dicastery, drawing on the competence and experience of each of the bodies that have merged into it, together with the authoritative assistance of the Members and Consultors.  And, as Blessed Paul VI wished, your work will be carried out in harmonious cooperation with the other Dicasteries of the Roman Curia, with other Christians and believers, with all people of good will, and with political and cultural leaders (Populorum Progressio, Nos. 81-86)

No one is too small to play a part in helping development to serve all humanity and the whole human person.  We think of the account of the multiplication of the loaves: it was a young person who enabled Jesus to feed the crowd (cf. Jn 6:9).  We think too of today’s Gospel and the parable of the Last Judgment.

With the merging of the former Dicasteries, you have now become a single body with different functions, each at the service of the other, like the Church herself, which is the body of Christ (cf. 1 Cor 12:12-30).  “We must travel this road together,” Paul VI urged, “united in minds and hearts.” No. 80).  United and concerned for one another, you will be all the stronger in your efforts to attain the goals set for you.

So do not be afraid of swimming against the tide in proclaiming the Gospel of our salvation, in centres and on the peripheries.  The dialogue between cultures and religions, peace, disarmament and the reconciliation between individuals and peoples, a correct anthropology of the person and of the family, migration: all these and many more questions call for generous commitment on the part of all.  Do not be afraid to get your hands dirty.  Like Jesus, bend down to embrace every human situation with generosity and dedication, to save lives and to instil hope, peace and justice in the world.

May the Lord bless the mission of the new Dicastery and your tireless labour in his vineyard.  Amen.

Full Article

Vatican City, Apr 4, 2017 / 05:53 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On Tuesday Pope Francis approved a way for priests of the Society of St. Pius X to witness marriages validly, which had not been the case previously because they lacked the faculties to do so.

Through a letter dated March 27 and published April 4, the Pope has given diocesan bishops or other local ordinaries the authorization to grant priests of the SSPX the ability to celebrate licitly and validly the marriages of the faithful who follow the Society's pastoral activity.

The letter, signed by Cardinal Gerhard Müller, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith  and president of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, indicates that "insofar as possible" a diocesan or other fully regular priest is to "receive the consent of the parties during the marriage rite, followed, in keeping with the liturgy of the Vetus ordo, by the celebration of Mass, which may be celebrated by a priest of the Society."

But where that "is not possible, or if there are no priests in the Diocese able to receive the consent of the parties, the Ordinary may grant the necessary faculties to the priest of the Society who is also to celebrate the Holy Mass."

In that case, the priest of the SSPX is "to forward the relevant documents to the Diocesan Curia as soon as possible."

Francis approved this authorization out of a “pastoral outlook”, following a proposal by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei.

It was done “to reassure the conscience of the faithful, despite the objective persistence of the canonical irregularity in which for the time being the Society of St. Pius X finds itself.”

The decision is placed in the context of the Church’s ongoing initiatives “to bring the Society of St. Pius X into full communion.”

The most recent of these initiatives was the September 2015 announcement by Pope Francis that the faithful would be able to validly and licitly receive absolution from priests of the SSPX during the Jubilee Year of Mercy. This ability was later extended indefinitely by Francis in his apostolic letter Misericordia et misera, published Nov. 20, 2016.

The letter, which is addressed to ordinaries, concludes by reminding them that the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith "relies on Your cooperation" in the process, which will alleviate "any uneasiness of conscience on the part of the faithful who adhere to the Society of St. Pius X as well as any uncertainty regarding the validity of the sacrament of marriage may be alleviated" as well as facilitate "the process towards full institutional regularization" of the Society.

The SSPX was founded by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre in 1970 to form priests, as a response to what he described as errors that had crept into the Church after the Second Vatican Council. Its relations with the Holy See became particularly strained in 1988 when Archbishop Lefebvre and Bishop Antonio de Castro Mayer consecrated four bishops without the permission of St. John Paul II.

The illicit consecrations resulted in the excommunication of the bishops involved. The excommunications of the surviving bishops were lifted in 2009 by Benedict XVI, and since then negotiations “to rediscover full communion with the Church” have continued between the Society and the Vatican.

The biggest obstacles for the Society's reconciliation have been the statements on religious liberty in Vatican II's declaration Dignitatis humanae as well as the declaration Nostra aetate, which it claims contradict previous Catholic teaching.

Full Article

Washington D.C., Apr 4, 2017 / 06:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Jaime Maldonado-Aviles thought that he would be spending his life behind microscopes at Yale as a neuroscientist. But his life has taken a dramatic turn, and he is now discerning the priesthood at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.

“I have to seriously explore these questions,” Maldonado-Aviles said of a constant nagging he felt towards the priesthood.

“At different times, the question would come back: If I see myself at 90 years old, close to death, would I say to myself, ‘I should have entered seminary?’” he told the Washington Post.

Maldonado-Aviles was 34 and working at Yale as a neuroscientist in a post-doctoral position when he seriously began to explore the pull towards priesthood that he had felt his whole life.

He grew up in Puerto Rico and attended the National Institutes of Health, earning his doctorate at the University of Pittsburgh. He has studied everything from eating disorders to mice brains throughout his research career, and was offered a dream job in his home country of Puerto Rico working at a pharmaceutical university with tenure.

He turned the job down, and instead decided to enter six years of seminary.

While Maldonado-Aviles is a seasoned science scholar, he will spend the next couple of years learning another spectrum of education in seminary: Catholic theology and philosophy.

As for the argument that science and faith cannot coexist, Maldonado-Aviles doesn’t buy it, saying that he is excited to connect the dots between his passion for science and his exploration of Catholicism.

“The complexity and yet the order in which things work in our body and in our brain, it makes you think there’s more than just randomness,” he told the Washington Post.

“Theology has to learn from scientific advice. We are informed as to how life works. But science also has to learn from theology.”

 

 

Full Article

Sacramento, Calif., Apr 4, 2017 / 09:47 am (CNA/EWTN News).- A proposed California law has targeted faith-based employers’ codes of conduct in the name of reproductive health, the California Catholic Conference has said.

“The bill impacts all employers, but seems to attack and diminish the conscience and religious liberty rights of faith-based organizations,” Sandra Palacios, associate director for governmental relations at the California Catholic Conference, told CNA April 3.

“The bill targets and seeks to eliminate the ability of religious employers to enforce faith-based code of conduct standards,” she said. “As one of the most family-friendly religious employers in our state and across the nation, we welcome an opportunity for further dialogue on the bill with the author and her staff.”

Assembly Bill 569 would bar requiring an employee to sign a waiver or other document that “purports to deny any employee the right to make his or her own reproductive health care decisions,” its summary says.

It would also bar an employer from taking any adverse action against an employee based on the employee’s or employee dependent’s use of any drug, device or medical service related to “reproductive health” – which would include abortion, contraception and sterilization.

If an employer has an employee handbook, the bill would require it to notify employees of these legal rights in the handbook.

The office of bill sponsor Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher said the legislation would make it clear that employees cannot be required to signs codes of conduct that “restrict their reproductive choices.”

Assemblywoman Gonzalez Fletcher said women face repercussions for becoming pregnant and having children.

“A woman should never face repercussions in the workplace for her reproductive choices,” she said in a March 28 statement.

Palacios agreed that pregnancy should never be punished, but noted that pregnant women are already protected under employment law.

She said the bill in question would conflict with religious exemptions for faith-based employers, including the First Amendment protections of the U.S. Constitution. She cited the unanimous U.S. Supreme Court decision Hosanna-Tabor v. EEOC, which upheld a Lutheran church and school’s employment policy against an employee’s unlawful dismissal claim.

“As a religious employer, our ability to infuse our policies with tenets of our Catholic faith is currently protected by the First Amendment,” Palacios said. “It’s not unusual for private or religious employers to want to have policies that incorporate their tenets of faith. Religious employers currently operate under fundamental constitutional protections of free exercise and association.”

Current exemptions, for instance, allow a church to limit employment in most positions to those who share its faith.

“The employer should not or cannot infringe on the ‘privacy right’ of an employee to take the actions described, as long as they keep it private, but the employer has a right to expect those acts to not be publicly embarrassing or disrespectful to the employer,” Palacios continued. “This bill seems to pit the rights of religious employers to affirm public behavior against the rights of an employee to do whatever they want publicly without regard to the employer.”

The Catholic conference also warned against any possible amendments to change current definition of a religious employer.

Furthermore, the bill’s inclusion of dependents of employees was “unprecedented and questionable,” Palacios said.

In 2015, the Archdiocese of San Francisco attempted to revise employee handbooks to clarify expectations for teachers and staff at its Catholic high schools, prompting several large protests.

Last year, the California state government started to require health care plans to cover abortions, including the health care plans of churches and religious universities.

 

Full Article

IMAGE: CNS/Paul Haring

By Junno Arocho Esteves

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Continuing initiatives aimed at a reconciliation with the Priestly Society of St. Pius X, Pope Francis has made it possible for bishops to ensure the validity of marriages celebrated in the traditionalist communities.

A letter published by the Vatican April 4 said the pope will allow Catholic bishops to appoint priests to assist at SSPX marriages and formally receive the consent of the couples. The nuptial Mass then would be celebrated by the SSPX priest.

In addition, Pope Francis gave bishops the option of granting an SSPX priest the necessary faculties to officiate validly over the marriage rite "if there are no priests in the diocese" available to do so.

The provisions are meant to ensure the validity of the sacrament and "allay any concerns on the part of the faithful," said the letter published by the Pontifical Commission "Ecclesia Dei," which is responsible for the Vatican's ongoing talks with the Society of St. Pius X.

The commission is led by German Cardinal Gerhard Muller, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, who signed the letter March 27.

For decades, the Vatican and leaders of the traditionalist society, founded by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, have been seeking a way to fully reintegrate the members of the society back into the life of the Catholic Church.

During the Year of Mercy, Pope Francis made special provisions to recognize as valid the absolution offered by SSPX priests through the sacrament of confession. After the Holy Year ended, the pope extended that provision "lest anyone ever be deprived of the sacramental sign of reconciliation through the church's pardon."

Pope Francis met in April 2016 with Bishop Bernard Fellay, superior general of the society. The meeting seemed to signal progress in reconciling the group with the church.

"Despite the objective persistence of the canonical irregularity in which, for the time being, the Society of St. Pius X finds itself," the commission said in its new letter, the provisions approved by the pope on marriages should alleviate "any uneasiness of conscience on the part of the faithful regarding the validity of the sacrament of marriage."

The commission also said it relied on the cooperation of the church's bishops to ensure that "the process toward full institutional regularization may be facilitated" between the church and the traditionalist society.

Vatican talks with the society began under St. John Paul II and continued throughout the papacy of now-retired Pope Benedict XVI.

St. John Paul had excommunicated Bishop Fellay and other leaders of the society in 1988 when they were ordained without papal permission by Archbishop Lefebvre, who died in 1991. Pope Benedict lifted the excommunications in 2009, opening the way for more regular talks.

The talks have focused particularly on the teaching of the Second Vatican Council and especially its documents on religious liberty, ecumenism, liturgy and relations with other religions.

- - -

Follow Arocho on Twitter: @arochoju.

- - -

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

IMAGE: CNS photo/L'Osservatore Romano, handout

By Cindy Wooden

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- A Catholic approach to development aims at helping people achieve both physical and spiritual well-being and promotes both individual responsibility and community ties, Pope Francis said.

A development that is "fully human" recognizes that being a person means being in relationship; it affirms "inclusion and not exclusion," upholds the dignity of the person against any form of exploitation, and struggles for freedom, the pope said April 4 at a Vatican conference marking the 50th anniversary of Blessed Paul VI's encyclical on integral human development, "Populorum Progressio."

Holistic or integral development, Pope Francis said, involves "integrating" all people into one human family, integrating individuals into communities, integrating the individual and communal dimensions of life and integrating body and soul.

"The duty of solidarity obliges us to seek proper ways of sharing so that there is no longer that dramatic inequality between those who have too much and those who have nothing, between those who discard and those who are discarded," he said.

Social integration recognizes that each individual has "a right and an obligation" to participate in the life of the community, bringing his or her gifts and talents to share for the good of all, the pope said. But it also recognizes that well-being is not something that can be improved or measured only with economic indicators; it includes "work, culture, family life and religion."

"None of these can be absolutized and none can be excluded from the concept of integral human development," he said, because "human life is like an orchestra that plays well if all the different instruments are in tune with each other and follow a score shared by all."

One of the major challenges to integral development today, he said, is the tendency to focus either exclusively on the value of the individual or to ignore that value completely.

In the West, he said, culture "has exulted the individual to the point of making him an island, as if one could be happy alone."

"On the other hand," the pope said, "there is no lack of ideological visions and political powers who have squashed the person," or treat people as a mass without individual dignity. The modern global economic system tends to do the same, he said.

Because human beings are both body and soul, working for their well-being must include respecting their faith and helping it grow.

The Catholic Church's approach to development is modeled on Jesus' approach to human flourishing, an approach that included spiritual and physical healing, liberating and reconciling people, the pope said.

- - -

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

Full Article