Congo -Brazzaville's Bishops issue their New Year message
http://www.myspiritfm.com/apps/articles/default.asp?blogid=0&view=post&articleid=150168&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0
The Bishops of the Republic of the Congo also known as Congo -Brazzaville have used their Christmas and New Year message to call for the protection and respect of the environment. In a pastoral statement addressed to the faithful and made available to the media, the Bishops decry the fast-disappearing forests.“At the beginning of the Christmas season and for this New Year, we invite you to respect the environment, the magnificent nature that God has given us. ‘Save our common home,' as Pope Francis reminds us. Indeed, we are blessed by God. He gave us a beautiful country, with incredible riches: A fertile land that is rich and endowed with raw material, forests and savannahs, the sea and rivers that crisscross our country. All these are an expression of God’s goodness to us,” the Bishops write.They add, “In general, we can see the misuse of the benefits of nature and the degradation of it: Forests are disappearing little by little because of ...
The Bishops of the Republic of the Congo also known as Congo -Brazzaville have used their Christmas and New Year message to call for the protection and respect of the environment.
In a pastoral statement addressed to the faithful and made available to the media, the Bishops decry the fast-disappearing forests.
“At the beginning of the Christmas season and for this New Year, we invite you to respect the environment, the magnificent nature that God has given us. ‘Save our common home,' as Pope Francis reminds us. Indeed, we are blessed by God. He gave us a beautiful country, with incredible riches: A fertile land that is rich and endowed with raw material, forests and savannahs, the sea and rivers that crisscross our country. All these are an expression of God’s goodness to us,” the Bishops write.
They add, “In general, we can see the misuse of the benefits of nature and the degradation of it: Forests are disappearing little by little because of excessive exploitation for wood and the lack of a policy for Reforestation in the country,” The Bishops assert.
According to the Bishops, sometimes whole forests are burned down by malicious people. The Bishops also draw attention to the management of waste in Congo’s towns and cities.
“In most of our cities, lanes are full of garbage; grand avenues are losing their shine more and more; gutters are blocked, or nonexistent; rivers flowing through cities have become makeshift dumping sites for waste,” the Bishops observe.
The Bishops are alarmed by the increasing contamination of the sources of drinking water; pollution by industrial smoke; the poisoning of the soil and environment by pesticides and fungicides, weedkillers and other toxic agrochemicals.
The prelates invite people to internalise the message of Pope Francis’ encyclical, Laudato sí.
“Beloved sons and daughters, we invite you to a true "ecological conversion", a conversion (metanoia) that involves respect for nature and education, “ the Bishops say.
The call on the Congolese government to inculcate a sense of civic education in citizens and for the government to do its part in caring for the environment.
“The State also has the mission, the responsibility to educate the people to a national and ecological consciousness to help citizens respect the environment and (embrace) a culture of cleanliness. Perhaps we should return to the notions of civic education in schools (as in the past). We need to teach and inculcate these concepts in the minds of the Congolese to end bad habits and gradually take on healthy habits of no longer throwing what has been used on the streets or the floor but in garbage cans or appropriate places. It is a whole school (of life),” the Bishops pastoral statement reads, in part.
(Email: engafrica@vatiradio.va)
Full Article
http://www.myspiritfm.com/apps/articles/default.asp?blogid=0&url=10&view=post&articleid=275467&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0
Pope Francis waves while traveling by boat in Venice, Italy, for a meeting with young people at the Basilica della Madonna della Salute on April 28, 2024. Earlier in the day he met with inmates at a women's prison. / Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNARome Newsroom, Apr 28, 2024 / 08:00 am (CNA).Pope Francis opened his one-day visit to Venice on Sunday morning with a meeting with female inmates where he reaffirmed the importance of fraternity and human dignity, noting that prison can be a place of new beginnings. "A stay in prison can mark the beginning of something new, through the rediscovery of the unsuspected beauty in us and in others, as symbolized by the artistic event you are hosting and the project to which you actively contribute," the pope said to the female inmates gathered in the intimate courtyard of the Women's Prison on the Island of Giudecca. Pope Francis left the Vatican by helicopter at approximately 6:30 in the mo...
http://www.myspiritfm.com/apps/articles/default.asp?blogid=0&url=10&view=post&articleid=275466&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0
Pope Francis prays in front of the tomb of St. Mark the Evangelist inside St. Mark's Basilica in Venice on April 28, 2024. / Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNARome Newsroom, Apr 28, 2024 / 09:35 am (CNA).Pope Francis had a full slate of events Sunday during his day trip to Venice, a trip that tied together a message of unity and fraternity with the artistic patrimony of a city that has been a privileged place of encounter across the centuries. "Faith in Jesus, the bond with him, does not imprison our freedom. On the contrary, it opens us to receive the sap of God's love, which multiplies our joy, takes care of us like a skilled vintner, and brings forth shoots even when the soil of our life becomes arid," the pope said to over 10,000 pilgrims gathered in St. Mark's Square. Framing his homily during the Mass on the theme of unity, one of the central points articulated throughout several audiences spread across the morning, Pope Francis reminded Christians: "Remaining ...
http://www.myspiritfm.com/apps/articles/default.asp?blogid=0&url=10&view=post&articleid=275461&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0
Prayer house at San Simeone, Italy, September 2012. / Credit: Courtesy of Ricostruttori nella preghieraRome, Italy, Apr 28, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).Across Italy there are houses of prayer run by the Ricostruttori (Reconstructors) community, a Catholic movement dedicated to people who are far from the Church but attracted to spirituality, particularly Eastern meditation and Buddhist practices. The Reconstructors was founded in 1978 by Jesuit Father Gian Vittorio Cappelletto. "During the postconciliar period, the Church was faced with the need for new forms of evangelization and apostolate, to reach out to people who were drifting away," Don Roberto Rondanina, priest and superior of the Ricostruttori, explained to CNA. "It was a time when Eastern meditation, Hinduism, Buddhism, the New Age ... were beginning to spread in Europe." "Father Cappelletto, who lived in Turin, sought to understand the meaning of this 'flight to the East' and felt the need to find new forms of sp...