(Vatican Radio) Cardinal Peter Turkson, President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, on Tuesday addressed a seminar in Rome on health and sexuality in sustainable development goals and in Catholic Church teaching. The seminar, held on International Women’s Day, was co-sponsored by the Council for Justice and Peace, the World youth Alliance (WYA) and its sister organization, FEMM, that deals with women’s health issues. In his remarks at the seminar, Cardinal Turkson reaffirmed the Holy See’s commitment to both human life and the dignity of women and warned that technology based on science provides humanity with tremendous “power over itself”, and “we need to work very hard together to make sure that it is used wisely.”
Please see below Cardinal Turkson’s prepared address to the seminar which was read on his behalf by a senior official from the Council for Justice and peace:
Health and Sexuality in the Sustainable Development Goals and Catholic Church Teaching
Istituto Patristico Augustinianum, Rome, 8 March 2016
Opening Remarks
Thank you for coming to this important lecture, which the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace is co-sponsoring with the World Youth Alliance (WYA), FEMM, and the Reproductive Health Research Institute (RHRI). The Council has worked closely with the World Youth Alliance since its founding in 1999, both at the United Nations and in supporting the organization’s work with young people in more than 160 countries around the world. This collaboration has been important and fruitful because of the foundational commitment of both organizations to defend the dignity of each person, and to advocate for person-centered responses in the actions that we take individually and globally.
We are happy, therefore, to continue and to advance our collaboration tonight, particularly in light of the recent encyclical, Laudato si’, in which the Holy Father exhorts humankind to combine the best science available with the Church’s values and teachings to “open up” the “immense possibilities … before us” [§102]. Tonight, we move beyond the advocacy of person-centered proposals to the development of programs that can meet the urgent and basic needs of people around the world. In particular, the World Youth Alliance, through its collaboration with its sister organizations FEMM and the RHRI, has developed cutting-edge educational and medical programs to advance the care for women’s health in response to needs expressed by governments, civil society and the Church. As such, these organizations exemplify the Holy Father’s words: “Science and religion, with their distinctive approaches to understanding reality, can enter into an intense dialogue fruitful for both” [§62].
When adopting the current Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Holy See rejected a one-dimensional interpretation of reproductive health requiring an ideological promotion of contraception and abortion. As Pope Francis notes in Laudato si’, “The more complex problems of today’s world … cannot be dealt with from a single perspective or from a single set of interests. A science which would of¬fer solutions to the great issues would necessarily have to take into account the data generated by other fields of knowledge, including … social ethics” [§110]. The Holy See has always maintained its commitment to both human life and the dignity of women, and has also reaffirmed a commitment to science and ongoing advances that can further defend and support the needs faced by women, families and children in human and effective ways. At the same time, technology based on science provides humanity with tremendous “power over itself”, and we need to work very hard together to make sure that it is used wisely [§104].
Tonight’s lecture demonstrates the impressive advances that can be achieved when a deep commitment to science in the service of the needs of the human person is offered. The work of RHRI, led by Dr. Pilar Vigil, is a testament to a lifetime of careful research and clinical care in order to provide solutions for the suffering of so many women, both in their health and in the management and use of their fertility.
WYA was awarded a Papal Foundation grant last year, highlighting Pope Francis’ recognition of its important work in support of the poor and defenceless and mirroring the gratitude of this Pontifical Council for WYA’s endeavors. This collaboration in the development of new programs that advance the science, research, and clinical ability to care for women and families is an enormous service to the families and to the world, and one which the Pontifical Council is proud to highlight and support. Trusting that this lecture will further expand awareness and understanding of WYA’s important work in the Vatican and throughout the world, we are grateful for the opportunity to contribute to the organization’s vital work.
Cardinal Peter K.A. Turkson
President
Please find below details of a press release describing the work of the WYA and FMM:
The Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace is co-sponsoring a joint lecture with World Youth Alliance (WYA) and its sister organization, FEMM. The Council has worked with WYA since its founding in 1999. WYA also works closely with the Holy See’s Mission to the UN in NY. In 2015, WYA received a Papal Foundation grant, highlighting Pope Francis’ recognition of their important work in support of the poor and defenseless.
In order to provide constructive proposals internationally, WYA has developed a curriculum program that focuses on the understanding of the dignity of the person. This program, for ages 4-18, is a unique and powerful response to Pope Francis’ exhortation to focus on a deeper understanding of our anthropology as the key to engaging moral and sexual ethics. WYA’s sister organization, FEMM, offers a ground-breaking approach to women’s health. FEMM enables medical providers to diagnose and treat ovulatory dysfunction (symptoms of which include acne, pain, weight gain, depression, migraines, PMS), infertility and menopause, rather than manage or suppress symptoms with the pill and IVF.
These programs offer other concrete solutions to many of the needs facing communities and nations. They also offer a sound implementation or pathway for the newly adopted Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s), particularly in the most difficult areas of sexual education and women’s reproductive health. In recognition of this, the Holy See Mission in New York is co-sponsoring a similar event with WYA and FEMM during the upcoming Commission on the Status of Women.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) The priest leading the spiritual exercises for Pope Francis and the Roman Curia says the Church must not shine the spotlight on herself but instead on Christ. Father Ermes Ronchi’s reflections came during his meditations on Tuesday morning that were delivered at the ‘Divin Maestro’ centre in the town of Ariccia, south of Rome, where the Pope and the Roman Curia are spending their Lenten retreat.
The inspiration for Tuesday morning’s reflections by Father Ronchi came from the gospel account of where Peter professes his faith in Christ as the Son of God. Noting that this was preceded by Jesus asking the disciples who they thought He was, Father Ronchi said in this way Christ is not giving lessons or suggesting replies based on what other people say about him but instead is urging his apostles to look inside their own hearts. Jesus wants to know if his disciples have opened their hearts to God who is living inside them. Our hearts, explained Father Ronchi, “can be the cradle or the tomb of God.”
He went on to say that Jesus also warned his apostles that following him means an appointment with a man on the Cross. Christ spills his own blood not that of anybody else and he doesn’t sacrifice other people, just himself.
Turning to the Church’s role, Father Ronchi said we are “the mediators between God and humanity.” Like John the Baptist, we must prepare the path and then step to one side. He said “think of the beauty of a church that does not shine the spotlight on herself” but instead on Christ, and warned that we still have some progress to make on this point.
(from Vatican Radio)…