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Vatican City, Mar 30, 2017 / 05:30 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis issued a message ahead of the 2018 World Meeting of Families (WMOF), saying couples and families should root their relationships in the love of God, which then propels them to joyfully share it with others.

“I wish to underline how important it is for families to ask themselves often if they live based on love, for love and in love,” the Pope said in his message.

In practice, “this means giving oneself, forgiving, not losing patience, anticipating the other, respecting,” as well as living and repeating daily the phrases “please,” “thank you” and “I’m sorry.”

Because of the daily experience we have of weakness and fragility, both families and pastors need a “renewed humility” that will allow them to learn and educate, to help, accompany, discern and educate people from all backgrounds and situations.

“I dream of an outbound Church, not a self-referential one, a Church that does not pass by far from man’s wounds, a merciful Church that proclaims the heart of the revelation of God as Love, which is mercy,” he said, adding that “it is this very mercy that makes us new in love.”

“We know how much Christian families are a place of mercy and witnesses of mercy, and even more so after the extraordinary Jubilee,” he said, adding that “the Dublin meeting will be able to offer concrete signs of this.”

Published March 30 and dated March 25, the Pope’s letter was addressed to Cardinal Kevin Farrell, Prefect of the mega-dicastery for Laity, Family and Life.

The cardinal was present alongside Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, Archbishop of Dublin, the diocese hosting the event, for the March 30 presentation of the letter at the Vatican’s Press Office.

The World Meeting of Families will take place Aug. 22-26, 2018, in Dublin and will follow the theme “The Gospel of family, joy for the world.” Given the theme, catechesis for the event will focus specifically on the content of the Pope’s 2016 post-synodal apostolic exhortation “Amoris Laetita.”

In his letter, the Pope said organizers have “the task of translating in a special way the teaching of Amoris Laetitia, with which the Church wishes families always to be in step, in that inner pilgrimage that is the manifestation of authentic life.”

While discussion on the document is often reduced to footnote 351 of Chapter 8 on communion for divorced and remarried couples, both Cardinal Farrell and Archbishop Martin said there’s much more to the document, which they hope to convey to the families that come.  

In comments to CNA, Cardinal Farrell said “we seem to focus on just one small aspect of the apostolic exhortation, however I think many times we overlook the great teaching that exists in Chapters 2, 3, 4, and 5 of this document.”

“Naturally most of our emphasis in this gathering of families will deal with family life as it is,” he said, explaining that the bulk of the conversation will deal with Chapters 2, 3, and 4, which focus on the vocation of marriage and family life, and their challenges.

“It is so important when we live in a world where family comes under attack from many different sources and many different ideologies, that we explain what we believe as Catholics, as Christians, in married life,” Cardinal Farrell said, explaining that many times the Church fails to teach what marriage is about.

“We fail to do that many times in the Church in our programs of preparation for married life, we fail to do that in continuing to help young couples after they’ve been married,” he said, stressing the need to accompany couples in the path of marriage, which is dealt with in Chapters 1-7 of Amoris Laetitia.

Similarly, Archbishop Martin told CNA that while the family “is under attack from ideologies” pushed by modern secular society, if they were to ask families how they are being “attacked,” the answers would overwhelmingly center on the day-to-day struggles of how to make ends meet and troubles they might be facing in raising their children.

“These are the challenges that parents need to be supported in so they can carry out their essential role in society and that people really give them the support and confidence to do that,” he said, explaining that Chapter 4 of Amoris Laetitia will likely be a key focal point for the event’s catechesis.

So while the ideologies are certainly present, “it’s the day-to-day realities that parents have to face with their children (and) this is where the Church has to be accompanying, not just accompanying them in problems.”

Speaking to journalists, Cardinal Farrell stressed the importance of the role of the laity and local parishes in preparing for the World Meeting of Families, specifically when it comes to reaching out to those who might have abandoned the Church or no longer attend for a variety of reasons.

“We need to be a Church that goes out to the peripheries of society, to those people who don’t listen to us at the present moment, to those families many times that have lost their way or don't go to church anymore,” he said.

The catechesis done by individual dioceses in the lead-up to the international gathering will be especially important, he said, adding that “it’s imperative” that this preparation take place in parishes since they are the ones who can better reach families that are far off.

“It’s very important that this take place. It’s not just a gathering of three days, this is an effort of the whole Church,” he said, noting that media also play a crucial role.

Laity must also embrace this task, he said, noting that the Church is currently celebrating 50 years since the the Second Vatican Council and 30 years since the publication of St. John Paul II’s 1988 apostolic exhortation “Christifideles laici” on the vocation of laity.

Both of these “spoke to the mission of lay people and the co-responsibility of laity in the Church,” the cardinal said. “Its not just a question of a few priests or a few sisters or a few people engaged in the pastoral life of (their parish), but we need to reach out, we are the communicators.”

And it’s married couples themselves who, in their different parishes and communities, “should be the ones who are responsible for communicating this love that we would hope to re-instill in the lives of so many people, that they would go and communicate it to other couples.”

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Alcalá de Henares, Spain, Mar 30, 2017 / 01:58 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- A Spanish bishop last week published criteria for the accompaniment of the divorced-and-remarried, inviting them to a “catechumenal itinerary” by which they come to live according to Christ's words.

“The Church has only one goal to propose to man: the way of life that Jesus taught us and to which he introduces us in the sacraments,” Bishop Juan Antonio Reig Pla of Alcalá de Henares wrote March 20 in Accompanying the baptized who have divorced and live in another union, a set of provisions for his diocese.

The bishop began by noting the interest in and debate over pastoral care for the divorced-and-remarried  which has increased since the publication of Pope Francis' 2016 apostolic exhortation Amoris laetitia.

He first recommended the indications found in a vademecum produced by Fr. José Granados, Dr. Stephan Kampowski, and Fr. Juan José Pérez-Soba, of the John Paul II Pontifical Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family. The guide had been presented at a family congress in Alcalá de Henares March 10-12.

“The Church in her beginnings, when she saw that many asked for the sacrament of baptism while living a life far removed from Christian demands, proposed a catechumenal itinerary which included an important change in their mode of living which had to be verified in order to access the sacraments,” Bishop Reig then said.

“She did so with the conviction that the approach to the Christian community and to her way of life was the necessary support so that the person could respond to the grace of God and convert to the live proper to a Christian.”

He also explained that “penitential itineraries” were also developed “which permitted to be received again fully into the Christian community the baptized who, having moved away from life according to the Gospel, repented of their sins.”

The bishop stated that “in this sense and as a principle to avoid any gradualness of the law which the Synod of Bishops rejected and which Pope Francis disqualified in his apostolic exhortation, I encourage all our divorced brethren in irregular situations to draw near to the Christian community in order to participate in her life and accompaniment.”

By doing so they can “thus set out on a path which, step by step, brings them closer to Christ, going deeper into the Gospel of marriage, instituted by God in the beginning as an indissoluble union of man and woman and transformed by Christ into a living and efficacious sign of his love for the Church.”

“The goal of this path will be for these baptized persons to be able to live in accord with the words of Jesus,” Bishop Reig wrote. “Only when they are disposed to take this step will they be able to receive sacramental absolution and the Holy Eucharist.”

He emphasized that “the objective conditions required by the Magisterium of the Church in order to be able to be admitted to the reception of the sacraments remain in force. These objective conditions were expressed by Pope St. John Paul II in the exhortation Familiaris consortio 84, ratified by Benedict XVI (Sacramentum caritatis 29) and contained in the Catechism of the Catholic Church 1650. Moreover, in 2000 the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts published its Declaration Concerning the Admission to Holy Communion of Faithful Who are Divorced and Remarried.”

“It is by following these principles that we are to receive the magisterium of Pope Francis expressed in chapter eight of the exortation Amoris laetitia. That is, in continuity with the preceding magisterium (cf. Amoris laetitia chapter 3).”

Bishop Reig said that Pope Francis' proposal “consists in promoting a greater outreach” to the divorced-and-remarried and “in promoting an itinerary that permits those who are in irregular situations to return to a life in conformity with the words of Jesus.”

“The discernment which the Pope asks of us refers to the path which we are called to travel, and not to the goal we must reach.”

He added, quoting from Familiaris consortio, that it is necessary to remember particularly that on the basis of Sacred Scripture and Tradition, the Church does not admit the divorced-and-remarried to Communion, because “their state and condition of life objectively contradict that union of love between Christ and the Church which is signified and effected by the Eucharist ... Reconciliation in the sacrament of Penance which would open the way to the Eucharist, can only be granted to those who, repenting of having broken the sign of the Covenant and of fidelity to Christ, are sincerely ready to undertake a way of life that is no longer in contradiction to the indissolubility of marriage. This means, in practice, that when, for serious reasons, such as for example the children's upbringing, a man and a woman cannot satisfy the obligation to separate, they 'take on themselves the duty to live in complete continence, that is, by abstinence from the acts proper to married couples.'”

“That is an objective requirement which does not admit of exception and whose fulfillment must be the object of careful discernment in the internal forum; no priest may be considered to have the authority to dispense with this requirement,” Bishop Reig taught.

He noted that the diocesan office for family counseling and its tribunal are both available as an aid to priests and families dealing with irregular situations.

Amoris laetitia “encourages us, as was already affirmed in Familiaris consortio 84, to open paths of accompaniment which will help these persons to take steps to have the capacity to live the sacramental truth of their situation,” the bishop concluded.

“This is the concrete way to live mercy toward these brethren, offering them a Love which heals their wounds and permits them to live the plenitude of Communion with God and with the Church.”

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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- President Donald Trump's executive order calling for a review of the Clean Power Plan jeopardizes environmental protections and moves the country away from a national carbon standard to help meet domestic and international goals to ease greenhouse gas emissions, said the chairman of a U.S. bishops' committee.

The executive order, signed March 28 at the Environmental Protection Agency, fails to offer a "sufficient plan for ensuring proper care for people and creation," Bishop Frank J. Dewane of Venice Florida, chairman of the bishop's Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, said in a statement March 29.

Trump, flanked by coal miners, said during the signing ceremony that his goal was to drive energy independence, bring back coal-mining and manufacturing jobs, and reduce the cost of electricity.

Explaining that the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has joined Pope Francis in supporting environmental stewardship and has long called for the U.S. to curtail carbon emissions, Bishop Dewane said the order "means that, sadly, the United States is unlikely to meet its domestic and international mitigation goals."

The USCCB has called for a national climate standard in recent years without supporting any particular economic, technical or political approach.

Archbishop Thomas G. Wenski of Miami, who preceded Bishop Dewane as committee chairman, welcomed the Clean Power Plan when it was introduced in August 2015. He called it "an important step forward to protect the health of all people, especially children, the elderly and poor and vulnerable communities, from harmful pollution and the impacts of climate change."

The plan called for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from power plants by 2030 by about 32 percent from 2005 levels. It set targets for each state to reach. Coal-fired power plants are the nation's largest source of greenhouse gas emissions.

Bishop Dewane suggested that an integral approach involving various components of U.S. society can reduce power plant emissions and still encourage economic growth and protect the environment.

"Many states have already made great progress toward carbon mitigation goals under the CPP, and this momentum ought to be encouraged and not hindered," he said.

In his statement, the bishop cited Pope Francis' encyclical "Laudato Si', on Care for Our Common Home," which focuses attention on "the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor."

"With this recent order," Bishop Dewane continued, "the administration risks damage to our air, our waters and, most importantly, our people, particularly the poor and vulnerable, without proposing a concrete and adequate approach to meet our stewardship obligations as a nation."

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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The Vatican hopes that U.S. bishops and others will continue to raise their voices in defense of the obligation to fight climate change and, in time, can persuade U.S. President Donald Trump to change his position, a top Vatican official said.

Cardinal Peter Turkson, prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, told a group of reporters March 30 that there is concern at the Vatican over Trump's policies, including on the environment.

Trump's position on immigration and his efforts to roll back U.S. commitments on environmental regulations are "a challenge for us," said the cardinal, whose office works on both questions and is charged with assisting bishops around the world as they promote Catholic social teaching.

Still, he said, "we are full of hope that things can change."

The first sign of hope, he said, is the growing number of "dissenting voices," who are calling attention to the scientific facts surrounding climate change and the ethical obligation to act to protect the environment for current and future generations.

"This, for us, is a sign that little by little, other positions and political voices will emerge, and so we hope that Trump himself will reconsider some of his decisions," the cardinal said.

"Various American bishops have already spoken about the president's position, and this could have an influence," he said. Perhaps, Trump will come to see that not all the promises he made in the campaign would be good for the country, he added.

A change in position is not impossible, Cardinal Turkson said. "There is another superpower -- China -- that is rethinking its position" and has allocated funds for programs to reduce dangerous emissions. "One hopes it is not only because it is a country with ever more smog and pollution."

The cardinal's remarks came a day after the chairman of the U.S. bishops' Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development said Trump's executive order calling for a review of the Clean Power Plan jeopardizes environmental protections and moves the country away from a national carbon standard to help meet domestic and international goals to ease greenhouse gas emissions.

Bishop Frank J. Dewane of Venice, Florida, chairman of the committee, said in a statement March 29 the order fails to offer a "sufficient plan for ensuring proper care for people and creation."

Bishop Dewane suggested that an integral approach involving various components of U.S. society can reduce power plant emissions and still encourage economic growth and protect the environment.

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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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