SUMMARY:
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General audience: fatherly responsibility and the sense of orphanhood
in children
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Other Pontifical Acts
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General
audience: fatherly responsibility and the sense of orphanhood in
children
Vatican
City, 28 January 2015 (VIS) – Pope Francis, returning to the theme
of the family, dedicated the catechesis of today's Wednesday general
audience to the figure of the father: “a word dear to us as
Christians, more than any other, as it is the name with which Jesus
taught us to call God”, he said to the thousands of faithful
gathered in the Vatican's Paul VI Hall.
“Father
is a universal word, known to all. It indicates a fundamental
relationship that is real and ancient as the history of mankind.
Today, however, we have reached the point of affirming that ours
would be a 'society without fathers'. In other words, in particular
in western culture, the figure of the father would be symbolically
absent, to have vanished. … At first, this was perceived as a form
of liberation: freedom from the father-master, from the father as the
representative of a law imposed from the outside, from the father as
the censor of the happiness of his children and an obstacle to the
emancipation of the autonomy of the young. Indeed, in the past in
some cases authoritarianism, indeed even oppression reigned in some
homes: parents who treated their children like servants, who did not
respect the personal needs of their growth, fathers who did not help
them to embark on their path in freedom, to assume their own
responsibilities for building their future and that of society”.
“And,
as often happens, we have passed from one extreme to the other. The
problem of our times no longer seems to be the invasive presence of
fathers, but rather their absence. … Fathers are so focused on
themselves, on their work and at times their personal fulfilment,
that they even forget their families, leaving children and the young
to their own devices. … Now, on this shared path of reflection on
the family, I would like to say to all Christian communities that we
must be more careful: the absence of the paternal figure in the life
of children and the young produces lacunae and wounds that can be
very serious. And in effect the deviances of children and adolescents
may to a considerable extent be due to this lack of examples and
authoritative guidance in their everyday life, to this lack of
closeness and love from their fathers”.
“The
feeling of orphanhood experienced by many young people is more
profound than we might think. They are orphans in their families
because their fathers are often absent, also physically, from the
home, but above all because when they are present, they do not act
like fathers: they do not speak with their children, they do not give
their children, by their example accompanied by words, those
principles, those values, those rules for life that the young need in
the same way as they need bread. … At times it seems as if fathers
are not sure what position they should occupy in the family, or how
to educate their children. And so, in doubt, they abstain, they
withdraw and neglect their responsibilities, possibly seeking refuge
in an improbable relationship of parity with their children”.
The
civil community with its institutions too has “a certain
responsibility towards the young, that might be described as
paternal”, the Pope added: “a responsibility that at times it
neglects or exercises poorly. This too leaves them as orphans, and
does not offer them true prospects. The young are therefore orphaned
of sure paths to follow, orphaned of teachers in whom they can trust,
orphaned of ideals to warm their hearts, orphaned of values and hopes
that support them day by day. They are filled with idols but robbed
of their hearts; they are driven to dream of enjoyment and pleasure,
but they are not given work; they are deluded by the god of money and
denied true richness”.
“Therefore,
it is good for all of us, fathers and children, to listen once again
to the promise that Jesus made to His disciples: 'I will not leave
you orphans'. Indeed, He is the path to follow, the master to listen
to, the hope that the world can change, that love will conquer hate,
that there can be a future of brotherhood and peace for all”,
Francis concluded. He added that next Wednesday he will further
pursue this theme, focusing on “the beauty of paternity”. “For
this reason I have chosen to begin with the darkness in order to
reach the light. May the Lord help us to understand these things
well”.
Other
Pontifical Acts
Vatican
City, 28 January 2015 (VIS) – The Holy Father has:
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appointed Fr. Cesar Alcides Balbin Tamayo as bishop of Caldas (area
1,395, population 260,000, Catholics 250,000, priests 61, religious
76), Colombia. The bishop-elect was born in Santa Rosa de Osos,
Colombia in 1958 and was ordained a priest in 1985. He holds a
licentiate in moral theology from the Pontifical University of the
Holy Cross, Rome, a licentiate in philosophy and science of religious
education from the Universidad Catolica de Oriente, Colombia, and a
master's degree in business administration from the Escuela de
Administracion de Empresas in Barcelona, Spain. He has served in a
number of pastoral and administrative roles, including rector of the
“Miguel Angel Builes” minor seminary and of the “Santo Tomas de
Aquino” major seminary in the diocese of Santa Rosa de Osos,
director of the “Cooperativa Fraternidad Sacerdotal”,
administrator of the “Mutuo Auxilio Sacerdotal Colombiano” of the
Episcopal Conference of Colombia, and financial director of the
Episcopal Conference of Colombia. He is currently parish priest of
the “Santa Barbara” parish in Bellavista. He succeeds Bishop
Soleibe Arbelaez, whose resignation from the pastoral care of the
same diocese upon reaching the age limit was accepted by the Holy
Father.
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accepted the resignation from the pastoral care of the diocese of
Graz-Seckau, Austria presented by Bishop Egon Kapellari, upon
reaching the age limit.
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