Brian R Corbin's Reflections on Religion and Life

Living Your Faith as Citizens and Leaders in Politics, Culture, Society and Business

March 14, 2008 • 12:32 am 0

FIGHTING POVERTY IN ALL ITS DIMENSIONS

FIGHTING POVERTY IN ALL ITS DIMENSIONS VATICAN CITY,
8 MAR 2008 (VIS) –
Made public today was a statement given by Msgr. Renato Volante, Holy See permanent observer to the United Nations Organisation for Food and Agriculture (FAO), during the 29th FAO Regional Conference for the Near East held in Cairo, Egypt from 1 to 5 March. In his English-language address, which was entitled “Promoting food security with particular attention for the situation of smallholders”, Msgr. Volante indicated that t he Holy See “pays a particular attention to those initiatives that are carried out at international level trying to solve situations of hunger, food deficiencies, malnutrition, especially when in some areas of the earth an increase of needs occur”.

” The situation of food security in the Near East is not without preoccupation even in presence of a general development also on account of food availability destined to people nutrition. Water shortage, besides conditioning the agricultural production, involves the standards of living, with an evident opposition between the real potentialities and the will to take those measures that grant not only nutritional standard and food consumptions but, in a broad sense, social conditions, people health, especially in those areas which are naturally risking desertification. “This could mean to give better attention to the small farmers, often neglected by the institutions and by the co-operation activities. In the same way, some environmental conditions, human-induced factors and animal disease compel nomadic populations to eradicate themselves from their habitat thus forcing them to food production and livelihoods different from their traditions”.

“That of the Holy See delegation is an invitation to focus the results obtained during this conference in a perspective that involves the human being as a whole, recalling those fundamental values of history, different cultures, religious experiences and social life in the Near East Region. These aspects easily express concepts of justice and solidarity to be put into practice in politics, rules and actions to fight poverty in all its material and spiritual dimensions”.
DELSS/NEAR EAST/FAO:VOLANTE VIS 080310 (340)

Filed under: Social Justice

March 4, 2008 • 2:54 pm 0

Vatican Aide: Death a Reality, Despite Technology

Vatican Aide: Death a Reality, Despite Technology
Affirms That Palliative Care Headed in Good Direction

VATICAN CITY, MARCH 3, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Even in societies marked by great scientific and technological progress, Christians still face the challenge of death and dying well, says Father Federico Lombardi.

The director of the Vatican press office affirmed this on Vatican Television’s latest edition of “Octava Dies.” The spokesman was commenting on Benedict XVI’s Feb. 25 address to the participants in the Pontifical Academy for Life conference on the theme “Close By the Incurable Sick Person and the Dying: Scientific and Ethical Aspects.”

Father Lombardi noted how the Pope asked for “the sincere participation of the Church and society in this ancient but always relevant problem.”

“The passage of death, toward which we are all drawing near, is an important moment in our life,” he said. “It has a meaning such that every human person should prepare for it and be accompanied in it. Or is this not so?”

Father Lombardi noted, “It is not said that the greater capacity of modern medical science should be employed to help life that is slipping away, inasmuch as this can seem unimportant, above all when it is a matter of people who are poor and alone, people who, from a utilitarian perspective, may appear only to be a burden.”

Yet Benedict XVI recalled Mother Teresa of Calcutta, who wanted the poorest of the poor to experience “in the embrace of brothers and sisters the warmth of the Father” who welcomes them.

Nevertheless, Father Lombardi affirmed that the “commitment of palliative medicine to alleviate the suffering of the incurably ill is going in the right direction.” And he recalled the Pope’s emphasis on the rights of families to assist the terminally ill.

He said: “There is a whole culture of solidarity that must be developed, because,” as the Pontiff concluded, “it is a cruel and inhuman society that is unable to accept those who are suffering and is incapable of contributing through compassion so that this suffering can be shared and even born interiorly.”

“In this perspective, the Church re-emphasizes its opposition to every form of direct euthanasia,” Father Lombardi affirmed. “This is because [the Church] cannot renounce believing in love and hope, in the meaning of suffering and in the transcendent destiny that we all have.”

Filed under: Medical Ethics

March 1, 2008 • 12:59 am 0

CHARITY WORK AS AN EXPRESSION OF EVANGELICAL LOVE VATICAN CITY,
29 FEB 2008 (VIS)
– The Holy Father today received participants in the plenary assembly of the Pontifical Council “Cor Unum”, who are meeting to reflect on the theme: “Human and spiritual qualities of people who work in Catholic charity institutions”.

“Charitable activity occupies a central position in the Church’s evangelising mission”, said the Pope. We must not forget that works of charity are an important area in which to meet people who do not yet know Christ, or who know Him only partially. It is right, then, that pastors and those responsible for pastoral charity work … should concern themselves with the human, professional and theological-spiritual formation” of people who operate in this field.

“Those who work in the many forms of charitable activity of the Church cannot, then, content themselves just with offering technical services or resolving practical problems and difficulties. The assistance they provide must never be reduced to mere philanthropy but must be a tangible expression of evangelical love”.

Charity workers, the Pope explained, must be, “above all, witnesses of evangelical love”. They achieve this “if the ultimate aim of their mission is not that of being social service operatives, but of announcing the Gospel of charity. Following Christ’s footsteps, they are called to be witnesses of the value of life in all its expressions, especially defending the life of the weak and the sick, following the example of Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta who loved and looked after the dying, because life is not measured in terms of efficiency, but has value always and for everyone”.

Ecclesial charity workers, Benedict XVI continued, are also “called to be witnesses of love, of the fact that we fully become men and women when we live for others, that no-one must die and live for themselves alone”.

And, he concluded, charity workers “must be witnesses of God, Who is fullness of love and invites us to love”.

AC/CHURCH CHARITABLE ACTIVITY/… VIS 080229 (340)

Filed under: Caritas, Cor Unum

February 29, 2008 • 4:06 pm 0

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.

Filed under: Migration

February 28, 2008 • 4:48 pm 0

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)

Filed under: Caritas, Cor Unum

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