News from around the Catholic world for the week ending 7 February.
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• Pope Francis’ Lenten message,
• UN issues report on the Holy See’s protection of children
• U.S. abortion rate on the decline
• Annual Red Mass kicks off the legal term in Sydney
• Australian congregation of priests and brothers to be recognised by the Vatican
TRANSCRIPT
SARAH: Pope Francis has released his message for the upcoming Lenten season, speaking on the poverty of Christ and our duty to be witnesses to the poor.
In the message Pope Francis explores Christ’s Incarnation: that although He became poor in taking flesh, He remains rich because of His love and confidence in the Father. The Holy Father explains that Jesus wants us to be rich also, by sharing in this same love.
“It has been said that the only real regret lies in not being a saint;” the Holy Father said, “we could also say there is only one real kind of poverty: not living as children of God and brothers and sisters of Christ.”
The Holy Father also encourages the faithful to address three kinds of destitution: the material destitution of those who lack basic rights and needs, the moral destitution of those trapped within sin, and the spiritual destitution of those who do not know the Gospel.
The antidote to this destitution is not simply through using “the right kind of human resources” according to the pope, but through living the Gospel message and imitating Christ’s poverty in the practice of self-denial.
“Let us not forget that real poverty hurts: no self-denial is real without this dimension of penance,” Pope Francis said. “I distrust a charity that costs nothing and does not hurt.”
The full message can be found at the Vatican Radio website
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The United Nations Committee on the Convention of the Rights of the Child has sharply criticised the Holy See’s progress in protecting children in a report release earlier this week.
Faults put forward by the UN include a failure to protect children from abuse due to the mobility of offenders, substandard reporting and a lack of transparency.
The Holy See’s permanent observer to the United Nations, Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, stated in an interview with Vatican Radio that while the Holy See intends to “faithfully [carry]out all elements of this Convention for the protection of children”, the observations failed to take in to account what has already been achieved in the area of child protection.
ARCHBISHOP TOMASI: …the report in some ways is not up to date, not taking into account some of the clear and precise explanations that were given to the committee in the encounter that the delegation of the Holy See had with the committee three or four weeks ago.
SARAH: Other recommendations in the report were that the Church reassess its teaching on homosexuality, marriage, contraception and abortion. The recommendations were denounced by Archbishop Tomasi, who said that they were an “an attempt to interfere with Catholic Church teaching on the dignity of the human person and in the exercise of religious freedom.”
ARCHBISHOP TOMASI: I would say that there is a difficulty apparent in understanding the position of the Holy See that cannot certainly give up certain teachings that are part of their deep convictions and also an expression of freedom of religion and these are the values that in the tradition of the Catholic Church sustain the common good of society and therefore cannot be renounced, for example the committee asked for acceptance of abortion and this is a contradiction with the principle of life that the convention itself should support recommending that children be protected before and after birth.
Hear the full interview at Vatican Radio.
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The US abortion rate has dropped to its lowest since the Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court decision in 1973, a national survey has found.
A report issued earlier this week by the Guttmacher Institute in New York has shown the 2011 abortion rate to be at 16.9 in every 1000 women, a large decline from 29.3 in 1980.
The survey also found that the total number of abortions in the United States fell from 1.21 million in 2008 to 1.06 million in 2011.
Varying explanations from commentators have been provided for the decline, with the report attributing it to contraception usage, while others ascribe the new numbers to increased abstinence, abortion laws, abortion education and the U.S. recession.
Stand True President Bryan Kemper spoke to Cradio on how the report reflects a culture change that’s taking place in the U.S.
BRIAN KEMPER: I do believe that it’s more of a culture of life, that we are educating this culture, that the pro-life message is getting out there, that we’re talking about it, [and]we’re forcing it to be talked about, and that more and more young people are realising what abortion is and when life really starts…
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SARAH: Sydney’s Catholic legal professionals gathered in St Mary’s Cathedral this week for the traditional ‘Red Mass’ to signal the beginning of the law term.
The annual Mass, organised by the St Thomas More Society, is a centuries old tradition that gathers judges, solicitors, law professors and students to pray for the Holy Spirit’s guidance for all who seek justice.
The Mass was offered by Cardinal George Pell, patron of the St Thomas More Society, and attended by Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of NSW Justice Tom Bathurst QC and NSW Attorney-General Greg Smith.
In his homily Cardinal Pell asked God to bless all those involved in this work of justice and to continue to endow them with wisdom and insight.
Cardinal Pell said “It is also beneficial to remember that each of us will eventually report to the Highest Judge on our life-time performance, and a sobering thought to remember Christ’s other injunction that from those to whom much has been given much is expected.”
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The Missionaries of God’s Love will be formally inaugurated as a Religious Institute of Diocesan Rite in Canberra this weekend at a Mass celebrated by Archbishop Christopher Prowse.
The community, founded by Fr Ken Barker, is among only a handful of Australian congregations to be recognised by the Vatican.
The priests and brothers began in 1986 and today have over 50 members, with an International mission in the Philippines, and one planned to begin in Indonesia next month.
Cradio caught up with Fr Ken Barker about how the congregation came to be.
FR KEN BARKER: It came about in a surprising way for me because I had always thought that the Lord simply had called me to be a diocesan priest, which I was quite happy as. I loved being a priest, I loved working with the young people and I loved being part of the Renewal and all that God was doing in the renewal and with the community, Disciples of Jesus, I was quite happy with all of that.
But then what happened was that at the beginning of 1985, three young men who belonged to the community came to me independently and said they wanted to be a priest, but they still wanted to stay part of this grace of the Renewal. So we met in a Pizza shop and we talked about it all, I drew them together, you see, and said ‘look each one of you is talking about being a priest, you want to stay under this grace, what do we do?’ And we decided that we’d pray for a year about it because we sensed there could be something God wanted us to do. That’s what we did; we spent a whole year in 1985… And every time we gathered around the Blessed Sacrament and prayed, we just did it once a week for a couple of hours, there’d be a new thing the Lord would say to us.
At the end of that year we sort of sensed that there was enough in this for me to go to the bishop and to ask him whether he would release me to begin this, whatever it was He was doing with us.”
SARAH: The inauguration will take place in St Christopher’s Cathedral Canberra at 11am on Saturday 8 February. All are welcome.
Music Credit: Waking Up Instrumental – Dexter Britain
