The Valley Catholic
IN THE CHURCH
Pope, in Sardinia, denounces
globalization, unemployment
Pope Francis
embraces young
woman during
encounter with
youth in Cagliari,
Sardinia, Sept. 22.
(CNS photo/Paul
Haring)
October 8, 2013
11
Pope Francis greets a woman
while meeting disabled people
during his general audience in
St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican
Oct. 2. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)
Respect Life Program theme 2013-14:
‘Open your hearts to life!’
By Francis X. Rocca
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Visiting an
Italian region especially hard hit by
the European economic crisis, Pope
Francis blamed high unemployment
on globalization driven by greed and
said those who give charitable aid to
the poor must treat their beneficiaries
with dignity.
“We want a just system, a system
that lets all of us get ahead,” the pope
said Sept. 22, in his first address during a full day on the Italian island of
Sardinia. “We don’t want this globalized economic system that does us so
much harm.”
Sardinia has an overall unemployment rate of nearly 20 percent, rising
to nearly 50 percent among young
adults. Before speaking to a crowd of
about 20,000 near the Cagliari city port,
Pope Francis heard a series of speeches
including one from an unemployed
father of three, who spoke of how joblessness “wears you out to the depths
of your soul.”
In response, the pope discarded
his prepared remarks and told his
audience what he said “comes to me in
my heart seeing you in this moment.”
Pope Francis recalled the struggles of
his immigrant Italian father in 1930s
Argentina.
“They lost everything. There was no
work,” he said. “I was not born yet, but
I heard them speak about this suffering. I know this well. I must te ll you:
courage.”
The pope said that the current economic crisis was the “consequence of
a global choice, of an economic system
that led to this tragedy, an economic
system centered on an idol, which is
called money.”
Cover of 2013-2014 Respect Life Month
brochure of the U.S. Bishops Conference.
Pope condemns abortion as product of ‘throwaway culture’
By Francis X. Rocca
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- In his strongest
public words to date on the subject of
abortion, Pope Francis affirmed the
sacredness of unborn human life and
linked its defense to the pursuit of
social justice.
“In all its phases and at every age,
human life is always sacred and always
of quality, not as a matter of faith, but
of reason and science!” the pope said
Sept. 20 to a gathering of Catholic
gynecologists.
Pope Francis characterized abortion
as a product of a “widespread mentality of profit, the ‘throwaway culture,’
which has today enslaved the hearts
and minds of so many.”
That mentality, he said, “calls for the
elimination of human beings, above all
if they are physically or socially weaker. Our response to that mentality is a
decisive and unhesitating ‘yes’ to life.”
The pope grouped together unborn
children, the aged and the poor as
among the most vulnerable people
whom Christians are called especially
to love. “In the fragile human being
each one of us is invited to recognize
the face of the Lord, who in his human
flesh experienced the indifference and
solitude to which we often condemn
the poorest, whether in developing
countries or in wealthy societies,” he
said.
“Every unborn child, though unjustly condemned to be aborted, has the
face of the Lord, who even before his
birth, and then as soon as he was born,
experienced the rejection of the world,”
he said. “Every old person, even if infirm and at the end of his days, carries
with him the face of Christ. They must
not be thrown away!”
Quoting “Caritas in Veritate” the
social encyclical by Pope Benedict XVI,
Pope Francis connected the protection
of unborn life with the promotion of
social justice.
“Openness to life is at the center
of true development,” he said. “If
personal and social sensitivity in welcoming a new life is lost, other forms
of welcome useful to social life will
dry up. Welcoming life tempers moral
energies and makes people capable of
helping each other.”
Pope Francis told the physicians that
they faced a “paradoxical situation” in
their professional lives, because even
as medical science discovers new cures
for disease, the “health care professions
are sometimes induced not to respect
life itself.”
The pope characterized this paradox
as part of a more widespread “cultural
disorientation” in which rising individualism parallels a growing disrespect for life.
Pope Francis’ remarks came one day
after the publication of an interview in
which he warned that focusing on certain moral teachings, including abortion, could undermine the Church’s
efforts to preach the Gospel.
WASHINGTON -- In a statement
marking Respect Life Month, October
2013, Cardinal Seán O’Malley of Boston
exhorted Catholics to “engage others
and share the truth about human life.”
Cardinal O’Malley, chairman of the
Committee on Pro-Life Activities of
the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops
(USCCB), addressed various threats to
human life and the need to entrust prolife efforts to prayer. He stressed the link
between a lack of faith and threats to
those who are most vulnerable.
He said, “We live in a society of
unbelief, where the unborn, the sick,
and the elderly are often unwanted
and endangered by acts of violence or
neglect.” He noted especially the loss of
“over 55 million unborn children’s lives”
from 40 years of legalized abortion after
Roe v. Wade, and the spread of legalized
physician-assisted suicide in three states
“allowing doctors to…end patients’
lives rather than provide much-needed
comfort in times of pain and distress.”
In the face of these challenges, Cardinal O’Malley stressed hope in the love
of God. “We must personally engage
others and share the truth about human life,” he said. “All members of the
Church can bring healing to the world
by upholding the beauty of human life
and God’s unfailing mercy” especially
to “those who have been involved in
abortion.”
Inspired by Pope Francis’ call to all
people of good will, the Respect Life
Program’s theme for 2013-14 is: “Open
your hearts to life!” Cardinal O’Malley
said, “We must respond to Pope Francis’ call with great urgency. Opening
our hearts to life in Christ empowers
us for loving, merciful action toward
others.”
Begun in 1972, the Respect Life
Program stresses the value and dignity
of human life. It is observed in the 195
Catholic dioceses in the United States.
The cardinal’s full statement in English
and Spanish and other Respect Life
Program resources for 2013-14 may be
found at www.usccb.org/respectlife.
www.dsj.org