SUMMARY:
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FRANCIS: DO NOT GET USED TO BEHAVIOUR THAT ANAESTHETISES THE HEART
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THE POPE URGES ACTION AGAINST HUMAN TRAFFICKING
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OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS
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FRANCIS:
DO NOT GET USED TO BEHAVIOUR THAT ANAESTHETISES THE HEART
Vatican
City, 5 March 2014 (VIS) – This morning the Holy Father celebrated
the general audience with 30,000 faithful gathered in St. Peter's
Square. Pope Francis dedicated this Ash Wednesday's catechesis to the
Lenten journey of forty days that leads us to the Easter Triduum, and
recalled the two suggestions offered to us by the Church in this
period: to be more aware of the redemptive work of Christ, and to
live our Baptism in a more committed way.
“The
awareness of the wonders that the Lord carried out for our salvation
should lead our minds and hearts to gratitude to God”, he said, and
added, “Fully living out our Baptism – and this is the second
invitation – means not becoming inured to the situations of
degradation and poverty that we encounter when walking the streets of
our cities and towns. There is the risk of passively accepting
certain types of behaviour and of not marvelling at the sad realities
that surround us. We grow accustomed to violence, as if it were a
normal part of our daily news; we get used to seeing our brothers and
sisters sleeping in the streets, as they have no roof to shelter
them. We are used to refugees who search of freedom and dignity, but
are not received as they should be. We get used to living in a
society that claims to be able to do without God, in which parents do
not teach their children how to pray or how to make the sign of the
Cross. This inurement to forms of behaviour that are not Christian,
that are the easy way, anaesthetise the heart!” He asked the
faithful present, “Do your children know how to make the sign of
the Cross? Do they know how to pray the Our Father or the Hail
Mary?”.
Francis
explained that Lent comes to us “as a Providential moment for
changing our route, for recovering our capacity to react when faced
with the realities of evil that always challenge us. Lent should be
lived as a time of conversion, of renewal at personal and community
levels by drawing closer to God and through trusting adhesion to the
Gospel. In this way, we are able to look upon our brothers and their
needs with new eyes”.
The
Pope remarked that this moment is “favourable for converting to
love for one's neighbour; a love that assumes the gratitude and mercy
of the Lord Who made himself poor so that by his poverty we might
become rich, and invited all to “invoke with particular trust the
protection and help of the Virgin Mary, so that she, the first
believer in Christ, might accompany us in days of intense and
penitential prayer, to allow us to celebrate, purified and renewed in
spirit, the great Paschal mystery of her Son”.
THE
POPE URGES ACTION AGAINST HUMAN TRAFFICKING
Vatican
City, 5 March 2014 (VIS) – Pope Francis has sent a message to the
faithful in Brazil on the occasion of the annual Lenten “Fraternity
Campaign”, which this year takes on the theme of “Brotherhood and
human trafficking”, and whose slogan will be “For freedom Christ
has set us free”.
“During
the next forty days, we will seek to be more aware of the infinite
mercy God has given to us and asks us to give to others, especially
those most in need: 'You are free! Go and help your brothers to be
free!'. In this sense, and wishing to mobilise Christians and persons
of good will in Brazilian society against the social ill of human
trafficking, our Brazilian brother bishops propose this year the
theme 'Fraternity and human trafficking'”.
“It
is not possible to remain indifferent before the knowledge that human
beings are bought and sold like goods! I think of the adoption of
children for the extraction of their organs, of woman deceived and
obliged to prostitute themselves, of workers exploited and denied
rights or a voice, and so on. And this is human trafficking. 'It is
precisely on this level that we need to make a good examination of
conscience: how many times have we permitted a human being to be seen
as an object, to be put on show in order to sell a product or to
satisfy an immoral desire? The human person ought never to be sold or
bought as if he or she were a commodity. Whoever uses human persons
in this way and exploits them, even if indirectly, becomes an
accomplice of this injustice'. Moving on to the family level,
entering into the home, how often do we see that even there, often
there is abuse. Parents who enslave their children, children who
enslave their parents; married couples who, forgetting their duty in
receiving this gift, exploit one another as if they were products for
consumption, disposable products; the elderly ,without a place in
society and children and adolescents without a voice. How many
attacks to the basic values of the fabric of family life and social
coexistence. Yes, there is a need to profoundly examine our
consciences. How can one proclaim the joy of Easter, without lending
support to those who are denied their freedom on this earth?”.
He
continues, “Be sure: if I offend the human dignity of others, it is
because I have previously divested myself of my own. And why have I
done this? For power, fame, material goods … in exchange for my
dignity as a a son or daughter of God, whose salvation comes at the
price of Christ's blood on the Cross and is guaranteed by the Holy
Spirit who calls inside us, 'Abba, father!'. Human dignity is the
same for all human beings; if I trample that of another, I also
trample my own. Christ freed us so that we might live free in
freedom! … I hope that Christians and persons of good faith may
make efforts to ensure that men, women, young people or children may
never more be victims of human trafficking. It is the most effective
foundation for re-establishing human dignity and proclaiming Christ's
Gospel in towns and country, because Jesus wishes to sow life in
abundance everywhere”, concludes the Holy Father.
OTHER
PONTIFICAL ACTS
Vatican
City, 5 March 2014 (VIS) – The Holy Father has appointed Fr.
Ernesto Giobando, S.J., as auxiliary of the diocese of Buenos Aires
(area 203, population 2,917,000, Catholics 2,671,000, priests 791,
permanent deacons 11, religious 1,871), Argentina. The bishop-elect
was born in Santa Fe de la Vera Cruz and was ordained a priest in
1990. He holds a licentiate from the faculty of philosophy and
theology of San Miguel, in the Colegio of San Jose. He gave his vows
to the Society of Jesus in 2000. He has served in a number of
pastoral roles, including minister of CIAS (Centro de Investigacion y
Accion Social), superior of the “Regina Martyrum” residence in
Buenos Aires, national secretary of the Apostolate of Prayer in
Argentina, national director of the Youth Eucharistic Movement;
member of the presbyteral council and chief of pastoral for adults in
the archdiocese of Buenos Aires. He is currently rector of the
Sagrada Familia residence in Montevideo, Uruguay.
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