February 29, 2008
Archbishop/Emigration: El Salvador
ZE08022808 – 2008-02-28Permalink: http://zenit.org/article-21922?l=english
Archbishop: Emigration Threatens Salvadoran Families
Says Country Remains Strong in Vocations and Life Issues
VATICAN CITY, FEB. 28, 2008 (Zenit.org).- The disintegration of the family provoked by emigration is a concern for the bishops of El Salvador, affirmed the president of that nation’s episcopal conference.Archbishop Fernando Sáenz Lacalle of San Salvador explained this and other challenges while in Rome for the five-yearly visit of El Salvador’s bishops, which was just completed. Benedict XVI addressed the bishops today.
Referring to the high number of emigrants — more that 2.5 million Salvadorans live in the United States — the archbishop told Vatican Radio that “the most worrisome situation is that of illegal emigrants who cannot return but only send money, and therefore do not see their own children who are being educated by the grandparents.”"A very concrete action of the Church is trying to maintain contact with the emigrants,” he said, highlighting that “many bishops of El Salvador gladly agree to visit Salvadoran communities outside the country, [and] there are also a lot of priests assigned to these communities.”
Along these lines, Archbishop Sáenz Lacalle said, seminarians are being sent to a seminary in Mexico, founded by Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera, “to prepare priests to carry out their mission among emigrants to North America.”
Despite the strong tendency to emigrate, the prelate affirmed, the Salvadoran population is growing and movement within the country presents the problem of “how to provide adequate pastoral assistance to this part of the population, which implies the need of establishing new parishes.” “Thanks be to God,” he continued, “we have a lot of vocations and young priests and we think we form them well, thus we don’t have the need to seek outside aid.”
Pollution
Archbishop Sáenz Lacalle also spoke about the problem of exploited metal mines, discussed in the most recent meeting of the nation’s episcopal council.”To begin,” he said, “there is a great injustice: Only 3% of the benefits from the mines go to the country, while 97% goes to mining businesses.
“The 75-year-old archbishop warned, though, that the graver question is the contaminating cyanide used to extract the metals: “And El Salvador is densely populated. The water used in the entire country comes from the north and the contamination of the population is very evident. It is logical, then, that we would sound the alarm about this problem.”
The Salvadoran episcopal assembly is also focused on life issues, specifically abortion.”Thanks be to God,” Archbishop Sáenz Lacalle said, “starting a few years ago, thanks to the activity of many Catholic organizations, we have collected a lot of signatures and obtained, with the vote of more than two-thirds of the deputies, an amendment to the first article of the Constitution, which speaks of respect for life, including the specification ‘from the moment of conception.’”
The archbishop added, “It has been a great result that has permitted the defense of life, impeding whatever legislation that facilitates or permits abortion.”Now, he continued, the bishops are “fighting to obtain another Constitutional reform that defines, or redefines, matrimony as a union between one man and one woman, to impede any type of union that is not that of matrimony.” In the same way, they want to “make it so that adoption is conceded only to heterosexual people who are rightly married.”
Some 83% of El Salvador’s near 7 million people are Catholic.
February 28, 2008
COR UNUM CELEBRATES ITS 28TH PLENARY ASSEMBLY
COR UNUM CELEBRATES ITS 28TH PLENARY ASSEMBLY
VATICAN CITY, 28 FEB 2008 (VIS) – The Pontifical Council “Cor Unum” today begins its 28th plenary assembly. The meeting, which will end on 1 March, is dedicated to the theme: “Human and spiritual qualities of people who work in Catholic charity institutions”.
One of the aims of the assembly is to re-examine Benedict XVI’s Encyclical “Deus caritas est” and to verify if and how it has changed the attitude of those who work in the charitable arm of the Church. Attention will also be given to the question of the integral and continuous formation of managers and workers in the various Catholic charity organisations.
The 28th general assembly will begin with an address by Cardinal Paul Josef Cordes, president of “Cor Unum”, followed by a report from Msgr. Karel Kasteel, secretary of that pontifical council. Following this, representatives of the various charitable bodies will discuss their work experiences.
Friday 29 February will be dedicated to examining the principal theme of the meeting, the main contribution coming from the president of the Catholic charities of Alexandria, Virginia, U.S.A. (NOTE: I believe that they mean Fr. Larry Snyder from CCUSA — bc)
Subsequently, Professor Paul Schallenberg of the university of Fulda, Germany, will address the gathering on the subject: “The place of mercy in the welfare State. Theological-ethical observations”. At the end of the second day, participants will visit the “Comunita dell’Agnello”, a group of female religious who operate on the streets and in homes announcing the Gospel and working with the poor.
On Saturday 1 March, working groups will meet to discuss ideas and proposals for formation.
Cardinal Cordes, in the belief that the power of Christian witness among people who suffer derives from the personal conviction of those who work in the sector of charity, has invited leaders of national and diocesan Catholic charity organisations of the American continent to a week of spiritual exercises, to be held in June in Guadalajara, Mexico.
CON-CU/PLENARY ASSEMBLY/CORDES VIS 080228 (320)
February 25, 2008
THE POPE CONDEMNS ALL FORMS OF DIRECT EUTHANASIA
THE POPE CONDEMNS ALL FORMS OF DIRECT EUTHANASIA
VATICAN CITY, 25 FEB 2008 (VIS) – At midday today, the Holy Father received participants in an international congress entitled: “Close by the Incurable Sick Person and the Dying: Scientific and Ethical Aspects”. the even was promoted by the PontificalAcademyfor Life for the occasion of their general assembly which will be held in the Vaticanover coming days.
“Death”, said the Pope, “concludes the experience of earthly life, but through death there opens for each of us, beyond time, the full and definitive life. … For the community of believers, this encounter between the dying person and the Source of Life and Love represents a gift that has a universal value, that enriches the communion of the faithful”. In this context, he highlighted how all the community should participate alongside close relatives in the last moments of a person’s life. “No believer”, he said, “should die alone and abandoned”.
All society “is called to respect the life and dignity of the seriously ill and the dying”, said the Holy Father. “Though aware of the fact that ‘it is not science that redeems man’, all society, and in particular the sectors associated with medical science, are duty bound to express the solidarity of love, and to safeguard and respect human life in every moment of its earthly development, especially when it is ill or in its terminal stages.
“In more concrete terms”, he added, “this means ensuring that every person in need finds the necessary support through appropriate treatments and medical procedures – identified and administered using criteria of therapeutic proportionality – while bearing in mind the moral duty to administer (on the part of doctors) and to accept (on the part of patients) those means for preserving life which, in a particular situation, may be considered as ‘ordinary’”.
As for forms of treatment “with significant levels of risk or that may reasonably be judged to be ‘extraordinary’, recourse thereto may be considered as morally acceptable, but optional. Furthermore, it will always be necessary to ensure that everyone has the treatment they require, and that families tried by the sickness of one of their members receive support, especially if the sickness is serious or prolonged”.
Just as when a child is born family members have specific rights to take time off work, said the Pope, in the same way “similar rights must be recognised” to the relatives of the terminally ill. “A greater respect for individual human life inevitably comes through the concrete solidarity of each and all, and constitutes one of the most pressing challenges of our times”.
After noting how it is becoming ever more common for elderly people in large cities to be alone “even in moments of serious illness and when approaching death”, the Holy Father noted that such situations increase pressures towards euthanasia, “especially when a utilitarian view of people has become established”. In this context, he once again recalled “the firm and constant ethical condemnation of all forms of direct euthanasia, in keeping with the centuries-long teaching of the Church”.
“The synergetic efforts of civil society and of the community of believers must ensure not only that everyone is able to live in a dignified and responsible way, but also that they can face moments of trial and of death in the finest condition of fraternity and solidarity, even where death comes in a poor family or a hospital bed”.
Society, said the Holy Father must “ensure due support to families who undertake to care in the home, sometimes for long periods, sick members who are afflicted with degenerative conditions, … or who need particularly costly assistance. … It is above all in this field that synergy between the Church and the institutions can prove particularly important in ensuring the necessary help for human life in moments of frailty”. AC/…/PONTIFICAL ACADEMY FOR LIFE VIS080225 (650)
February 24, 2008
Vatican Meeting on Care of Homeless
Vatican Meeting on Care of Homeless
VATICAN CITY, FEB. 22, 2008 ( Zenit.org ).- The final document of the International Meeting for the Pastoral Care of the Homeless on the theme “In Christ and With the Church at the Service of the Homeless,” held Nov. 26-27 in the Vatican, can be found on the ZENIT Web page: www.zenit.org .
The meeting was organized by the Pontifical Council for Migrants and Travelers, and the document was released this week by the dicastery.
