(Vatican Radio) The theme of transparency regarding the Church‘s assets and the question regarding the fight against hunger and food waste were two key points during the Sixth meditation of the Pope’s Lenten Retreat.
Led by Father Ermes Ronchi who is preaching to Pope Francis and to members of the Roman Curia at their retreat in the town of Ariccia, the exercises focus on ten questions from the Gospels.
The question at the heart of Wednesday morning’s reflection was “How many loaves do you have?” (Mark 6:38, Matthew 15:34).
“The thing that most hurts Christians – Father Ronchi said – is the clergy’s attachment to money,” whilst what makes them happy is “the sharing of the bread”.
Father Ronchi began his meditation saying “Some people are so hungry that for them God cannot but have the form of a loaf of bread”.
“Life – he said – begins with hunger; to be alive is to be hungry”. And if you take that a step further one must consider the hunger of millions of people in the world: “the siege of the poor”, millions of outstretched hands asking for something to eat does not – he said – ask for a religious definition. “How does the Church respond?”
No to smoke screens
Quoting from the Gospel reading which tells of the multiplication of the loaves and the fish, Ronchi points out that Jesus has a very practical approach when he tells the disciples to sum up what they have in hand.
He said that all disciples, including the ones today, are called to quantify their assets.
“How much money do you have? How many houses? What standard of living? You must check! How many cars and how much jewelry in the form of crucifixes or rings?” he said.
The Church – Father Ronchi concluded – must not be afraid of transparency.
To share is to multiply
“If you are transparent you are truthful. When you are true you are free.” Father Ronchi observed that Jesus did not allow anyone to ‘buy’ him, and “he never entered the palaces of the powerful if not as a prisoner.”
He explained that Jesus’ logic is that of giving – not of hoarding. He said that the verb ‘to love’ in the Gospel translates into ‘to give’. The miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and the fish shows us that Jesus is not concerned with the quantity of the bread; what he desires is that the bread be shared.
“According to a mysterious divine rule: when my bread becomes our bread, then little becomes enough. Hunger begins when I keep my bread to myself, when the satiated West holds on to its bread, its fish, its assets… It is possible to feed the earth, there is enough bread. There is no need to multiply it, it would be sufficient to just distribute it, starting with ourselves. We do not need prodigious multiplications: we need to beat the Goliath of selfishness, of food waste and the hoarding of few”.
“The hunger of others has rights over me”
Quoting from the Gospel of Luke Father Ronchi said: “Give and gifts will be given to you; a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing, will be poured into your lap…” In this promise of Jesus – Father Ronchi said – is the mysterious, immense economy of giving and its hundredfold return which turns every budget upside down.
And the last question will be – he continued: “Have you given little or a lot to life?” – Life depends on this, not on assets.
“A gift of five loaves of bread is sufficient to change the world” he said.
Father Ronchi concluded saying that the miracle of the five loaves and the two fish that the nascent Church put in the hands of Christ who did no calculations and held nothing back for his own supper or that of his disciples, shows us that a drop in the ocean can give meaning and hope to life”.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) The Vatican celebrated “International Women’s Day” on Tuesday with a conference dedicated to giving a platform to women working for the Church around the world. Listen to our report:
Held at the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, this week’s gathering was the third consecutive “Voices of Faith” conference, which is an initiative of Fidel Götz Foundation, with the partnership of Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS). The afternoon session of the 8 March event had a four-women panel discussion which centered on the role of women in the Church The panel was moderated by Fr. Thomas Smolich SJ, International Director of JRS in Rome. He shared his impressions with Tracey McClure about the conference, which often touched on mercy throughout. “The theme of VoF this year was that ‘Mercy requires Courage’,” Fr. Smolich said. “It’s very fitting with the Holy Year of Mercy, but also fitting in the stories that we heard from the people who spoke, both the women and men who, in a sense, share God’s mercy and also those who experience God’s mercy. It requires courage on both sides.” “What we also heard was a desire for the Church to recognize this courage, especially the courage of the voices of women, women who make up most of the Church, women who participate in many ways in the Church,” the Jesuit priest said. He added: “They are courageous to be here; they are courageous to do what they do. [They ask us:] ‘How can we, as Church, really be family and welcome all people? That’s what I took away from VoF this year.” One of the Panelists at the VoF conference was Dr. Carolyn Woo, President and CEO of Catholic Relief Services in the US. “We are here to celebrate the gifts and contributions of women but, at the same time, to also remember the challenges which they deal with every day,” she told Tracey McClure in an interview. “Women have actually come a long way. Eighty-five percent of the work in the Church, which is not done by clerics, is done by women. At least in the United States, there are many key positions held by women.” Asked about the question of women’s ordination, Woo said, “I think the pope has spoken very clearly that there will be no women’s ordination. I think where the tragedy is, is that the conversation sometimes gets stopped right at that point. “Women don’t talk about other things because of that particular issue, and sometimes the Church may be skeptical about women’s voices out of the concern that every conversation may lead to a conversation about women’s ordination.” “I think we should actually let that rest, so that we could proceed on the other dimensions.” (from Vatican Radio)…
(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)…
Pope Francis will hold an ordinary public consistory of cardinals in the Vatican March 15, during which he will sign the decree for the canonization of Blessed Mother Teresa of Kolkata and four others. The dates and venue of their sainthood ceremony are expected to be declared at the consistory. Pope Francis had officially cleared Blessed Mother Teresa for sainthood on Dec. 17, 2015, recognizing the miraculous healing through her intercession of a Brazilian man with multiple brain abscesses. Mother Teresa was conferred the title Blessed in Rome, Italy, on October 19, 2003, after Pope St. John Paul II recognized the miraculous healing of an Indian woman with a tumour in her abdomen.
Born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu of Albanian parents on August 26, 1910, in Skopje, in what is Macedonia today, Mother Teresa died in Kolkata, formerly Calcutta, on September 5, 1997. Affectionately known as the “saint of the gutter” for her unconditional love for the poor, abandoned and the marginalized, she earned several international honours, including the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979.
(from Vatican Radio)…