Catholic News 2

IMAGE: CNS photo/L'Osservatore Romano

By Cindy Wooden

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Access to clean drinking water is a basic human right and a key component in protecting human life, Pope Francis said.

"The right to water is essential for the survival of persons and decisive for the future of humanity," the pope said Feb. 24 during a meeting with 90 international experts participating in a "Dialogue on Water" at the Pontifical Academy of Sciences.

Looking at all the conflicts around the globe, Pope Francis said, "I ask myself if we are not moving toward a great world war over water."

Access to water is a basic and urgent matter, he said. "Basic, because where there is water there is life, making it possible for societies to arise and advance. Urgent, because our common home needs to be protected."

Citing "troubling" statistics from the United Nations, the pope said, "each day -- each day! -- a thousand children die from water-related illnesses and millions of persons consume polluted water."

While the situation is urgent, it is not insurmountable, he said. "Our commitment to giving water its proper place calls for developing a culture of care -- that may sound poetic, but that is fine because creation is a poem."

Scientists, business leaders, religious believers and politicians must work together to educate people on the need to protect water resources and to find more ways to ensure greater access to clean water "so that others can live," he said.

A lack of clean and safe drinking water "is a source of great suffering in our common home," the pope said. "It also cries out for practical solutions capable of surmounting the selfish concerns that prevent everyone from exercising this fundamental right."

"We need to unite our voices in a single cause; then it will no longer be a case of hearing individual or isolated voices, but rather the plea of our brothers and sisters echoed in our own, and the cry of the earth for respect and responsible sharing in a treasure belonging to all," he said.

If each person contributes, he said, "we will be helping to make our common home a more livable and fraternal place, where none are rejected or excluded, but all enjoy the goods needed to live and to grow in dignity."

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IMAGE: CNS photo/NASA handout via Reuters

By Carol Glatz

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The quest to find life on other planets got a boost when astronomers confirmed the existence of at least seven Earth-sized planets orbiting a red dwarf star just 40 light years away.

Three of the planets are located in the so-called "habitable" zone, a kind of "Goldilocks" sweet spot in that their distance from the sun makes them not too hot, not too cold, but just right for having liquid water -- an essential ingredient for life.

The pope's own astronomers applauded the new discovery around the dwarf star, TRAPPIST-1, named after one of the many telescopes that detected the planets. The study's results were published in Nature magazine Feb. 22.

"The discovery is important because, to date, it has revealed the highest number of Earth-sized planets revolving around a single parent star," U.S. Jesuit Father David Brown told Catholic News Service.

"Depending on different factors, all of the planets could potentially harbor conditions for the possible existence of life on them," he said in an email response to questions Feb. 24.

"It is also significant because it shows the existence of such exoplanets -- planets outside of our solar system -- around low-mass -- smaller than the Sun -- cool, red, dim stars, which are the most common types of stars in galaxies and which have long lifetimes," said the astrophysicist, who studies stellar evolution at the Vatican Observatory.

He said scientists and astronomers will now want to use newer and more powerful telescopes to learn more about the TRAPPIST-1 solar system, such as the planets' atmospheres.

"The aim is to look for signs of the presence of chemicals like water, methane, oxygen and others by looking at the spectra of the light observed from those atmospheres, and as well to try to examine other atmospheric properties," Father Brown said.

The name TRAPPIST is an acronym for the "Transiting Planets and Planetesimals Small Telescope," which is located in Chile, but the name also reflects the exploration project's Belgian roots by honoring Belgium's famous Trappist beers, made by Trappist monks.

"The use of religious names in space discoveries is not rare," the astrophysicist priest said, because religious men have been among the many scientists contributing to human knowledge of the world and universe throughout history.

For example, he said, several craters on the moon are named after Jesuit priests and brothers and the SECCHI (Sun Earth Connection Coronal and Heliospheric Investigation) instruments being used for solar research are named after Jesuit Father Angelo Secchi, one of the founding fathers of modern astrophysics.

Father Brown said the human fascination with the possibility of life on other planets "speaks to one of the most basic questions that confronts humanity as it contemplates its place in this cosmos: 'Are we alone, or are there others in the universe?'"

"An answer to that question would have a profound impact on humanity in this world as well as confronting us with the question of how we would interact with our cosmic neighbors," said the Louisiana native.

Jesuit Brother Guy Consolmagno, director of the Vatican Observatory, said the question of life beyond Earth is "a question of faith."

While there is no definitive proof yet that extraterrestrial life exists, "our faith in the fact that life exists is strong enough to make us willing to make an effort in looking for it," he said in an article in the Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, Feb. 24.

Brother Consolmagno, a planetary scientist, told the Italian bishops' news agency, SIR, that when it comes to discoveries about the universe, he always expects them to be surprising.

"God speaks to us through what he has created," he said, and creation has been created "by a God of love, joy and surprises."

God made the universe, and "it is up to us scientists and faithful to learn more about what he has created and how he created it."

"Every new surprise is a tiny burst of joy before his creative greatness," he said.

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Follow Glatz on Twitter @CarolGlatz.

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IMAGE: CNS/L'Osservatore Romano

By Junno Arocho Esteves

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- For decades, the visits bishops are required to make to the Vatican were known for their formality and routine style, but Pope Francis launched "a whole new style of 'ad limina' visits," a Chilean bishop said.

The bishops were expecting "to have a long meeting with a speech and then individual meetings," as in the past, Auxiliary Bishop Fernando Ramos of Santiago, secretary of the Chilean bishops' conference, told Catholic News Service Feb. 24.

Instead, the Vatican informed the prelates before their departure from Chile that they were going to have a group meeting with the pope and the prefects of several Vatican congregations and offices.

"We were told that this was going to be a new way of doing things that was beginning with us, that looks for a more fruitful, more incisive dialogue between the representatives of the local churches and the pope with his main collaborators," Bishop Ramos said.

After spending three hours with the pope Feb. 20, the Chilean bishops met again with Pope Francis Feb. 23. At the second meeting, the pope and Chilean bishops were joined by several top officials, including: Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state; Cardinal Marc Ouellet, prefect of the Vatican Congregation for Bishops and president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America; and Cardinal Gerhard Muller, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Also present at the meeting were: Cardinal Kevin Farrell, prefect for the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life; Cardinal Giuseppe Versaldi, prefect of the Congregation for Catholic Education; Cardinal Beniamino Stella, prefect of the Congregation for Clergy; and Cardinal Joao Braz de Aviz, prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.

Bishop Ramos told CNS that Cardinal Ouellet began the discussions, which focused on four principal themes: communion and collegiality within the church; the mission of the church in Chile; how to help clergy, religious men and women as well as the laity "in their Christian lives and in their pastoral service"; and pastoral guidelines for the future.

"It wasn't about speaking about little things or a little problem over here," he said. "This was more of a way of looking at everything together, for them to listen to our opinions and (we to listen to theirs) on these principal themes."

"It was something completely different," Bishop Juan Ignacio Gonzalez of San Bernardo, member of the permanent committee of the Chilean bishops' conference, told CNS.

"It was truly something wonderful from the perspective of collegiality, of synodality, of the church walking together. This doesn't just respond to the realities in Chile, it's a whole new (approach) that begins now."

Bishop Ramos told CNS that although the bishops knew about the meeting with the pope and Vatican officials before they left Chile, they found out only when they arrived in Rome that Pope Francis wanted to meet with them privately as well.

After celebrating Mass at the tomb of St. Peter Feb. 20, the bishops were welcomed to the library in the Apostolic Palace by the pope.

"As we were seated around him," Bishop Gonzalez said, "the pope -- in his Argentine manner of speaking -- told us: 'Well, the soccer ball is in the center. Whoever wants to and is brave enough, give it a kick." (The Argentine phrase is: "El que quiera y que tiene la cara mas dura, que le pegue una patada.")

Bishop Ramos added that several bishops would speak and the pope would respond. "It was like talking after dinner while drinking some Bacardi, in a manner of speaking," he said.

Bishop Gonzalez said at a certain point, a bishop said, "'Holy Father, it's a little bit hot in here, can we open a window?' The pope said, 'Yes, of course' and stood up. The bishop said, 'No, no don't worry, Holy Father, I'll open it."

Bishop Ramos and Bishop Gonzalez said that the sincere discussion was "a turning point" that led to a more open dialogue at their second meeting with the pope and Vatican officials.

"It's like that Scripture reading. Paul, after preaching, went to Jerusalem to speak with Peter and tell him what he had done. This is the same. We come to Jerusalem to tell Peter this is what happened and he guides us to see what else we can do," Bishop Gonzalez said.

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Follow Arocho on Twitter: @arochoju.

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IMAGE: CNS photo/Tyler Orsburn

By Tyler Orsburn

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Mario Gamboa is on the move. There are too many words to read, and too few Latinos who can read them.

His first stop, the Guatemala consulate in Silver Spring, Maryland. His second visit, a Spanish AM radio station across town in Wheaton, Maryland. Last stop, another consulate, but this time in Washington with El Salvador's diplomat.

The conversation of the day: A Spanish literacy center colloquially known in Spanish as CENAES, or El Centro de Alfabetizacion en Espanol.

"I first got the idea to help migrants read and write Spanish in 2003," the Peruvian said from his office at Our Lady Queen of the Americas Catholic Church in Washington.

"I own a small lawn and house painting business. One day I left written instructions in the morning for two men to complete, and when I returned later that evening, nothing had been done. They told me they were very sorry but that they couldn't read or write."

From there it was full-steam ahead -- letters, syllables, words and basic math. Gamboa offered to teach the men, and their friends, basic Spanish literacy from his basement apartment.

"I started with eight students, but after I made a class announcement during Mass at Our Lady Queen of the Americas, enrollment jumped to 35 in 2004," the self-taught language instructor told Catholic News Service. "In 2005, I had 70 students. And in 2006, I had around 80."

Today, the nonprofit Spanish literacy program has 130 students, 20 volunteer teachers and instruction six days a week in Washington, Maryland and Virginia. Instruction is free.

Since 2003, Gamboa said, more than 600 adults have graduated from the three-year curriculum and many have moved on to learn English and computers and even obtained their GED. "They can help their children with homework now," he said.

Flor Umanzor, a volunteer teacher for more than 10 years at the Shrine of the Sacred Heart in Washington, said she can see the satisfaction on her students' faces when they read and understand a passage from the Bible.

"The (literacy program) helps them to develop their self-esteem," the Salvadoran native said. "And cultivates their relationship with their children, and helps them with their livelihood."

Gamboa reports 70 percent of his students come from El Salvador. The 12-year civil war devoured the 1980s, and left many children hiding from school, he said.

"We must try and forget a little bit of the past and grab the present," Gamboa said. "(Today) life isn't just about work, but education."

For Maria Carpio, a civil war might have been easier.

The Salvadoran native and Washington resident told CNS that her mother died when she was a baby, and that her father dropped her off at her godparents' house when she was just 4 years old, never to be seen or heard of again.

"My godmother beat me with whatever she could find, and by the grace of God, I ran away (within the year)," she said as a tear rolled down her left cheek.

For a year and a half, the 4-year-old orphan lived in and off the streets, hopping buses and eating out of garbage cans, making her way from the Honduran border to San Salvador, her country's capital.

Four years later, Carpio said she made it to San Bernardino, California, as an 8-year-old, by herself and with only $50 in her pocket.

By the grace of God and survival of the fittest, the now-retired office cleaner and legal U.S. resident since 1987, lives to see and share another day.

"When one doesn't know how to read, one feels scared of everything," Carpio said from her basement apartment near Howard University. "That (the police) might send you back to your country, or many other things. Now I try to help people. When I meet people at the bus stop, I ask them if they know of anyone who can't read. It's the least I can do to contribute and give thanks to God."

"I love the literacy program (at our church)," said Capuchin Franciscan Father Moises Villalta, pastor of the Shrine of the Sacred Heart in Washington. "I'm 100 percent with it. We must clothe the naked; feed the hungry, visit the sick and welcome the stranger. Matthew 25:42 -- there's no way to get lost or confused."

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Editor's Note: More information about the Washington metropolitan Spanish-learning center can be found at http://spanishliteracycenter.org.

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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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