By Carol Glatz
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – In his new encyclical, “Fratelli Tutti, on Fraternity and Social Friendship,” Pope Francis reminds the faithful that “God’s plan for humanity has implications for every aspect of our lives,” said the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
These aspects range “from how we treat one another in our personal relationships, to how we organize and operate our societies and economies,” said edArchbishop José H. Gomez of Los Angeles in a statement Oct. 4, the day the encyclical was released by the Vatican.
He called the pope’s teaching “profound and beautiful,” and said that “like ‘Laudato Si’’ before it, ‘Fratelli Tutti’ is an important contribution to the church’s rich tradition of social doctrine.”
“In analyzing conditions in the world today, the Holy Father provides us with a powerful and urgent vision for the moral renewal of politics and political and economic institutions from the local level to the global level, calling us to build a common future that truly serves the good of the human person,” Archbishop Gomez said.
“For the church, the pope is challenging us to overcome the individualism in our culture and to serve our neighbors in love,” he said, “seeing Jesus Christ in every person, and seeking a society of justice and mercy, compassion and mutual concern.”
The archbishop prayed Catholics and all people of goodwill “will reflect on our Holy Father’s words here and enter into a new commitment to seek the unity of the human family.”
Chicago Cardinal Blase J. Cupich said “Fratelli Tutti” is “destined to be a defining document and body of teaching for the pontificate of Pope Francis.” He called it a powerful document in which the pope “again reminds us why he is considered a preeminent moral teacher – and in an extraordinarily critical and fraught moment in human history.”
“The pope begins by identifying the challenges that result from the fragmentation and division afflicting humanity on personal, national and international levels,” the cardinal said.
“These include violence and the prospect of war and civil unrest, racism, the degradation of the environment, the ‘discarding’ of the poor and vulnerable, the crises prompted by the migration of desperate peoples, economies that benefit privileged groups,” Cardinal Cupich said, “and a stridency and coarseness that mark our public discourse and private communications and disable possibilities for real human connection.”
He noted that Pope Francis also offers “a penetrating reflection” on the parable of the good Samaritan, “which engages every one of us and the global community in a self-examination of conscience: ‘Each day we have to decide whether to be good Samaritans or indifferent bystanders.’”
The pontiff “occupies the remainder of the encyclical by reimagining a new and hopeful way of living together, one that is ultimately rooted in love and respect for the dignity of all people,” Cardinal Cupich said.
“This new and hopeful vision involves an openness to and interest in those who are different, leading to the enrichment that comes in the exchange of gifts …, a better kind of politics …, and a culture of dialogue and friendship,” the cardinal added.
“The vision he describes is in sharp contrast to a prevalent way of doing political business: revenge for past losses, the use of force, and a view of economic profit as paramount,” the cardinal said.
Washington Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory said he believes the pope’s new encyclical “has come to us at precisely the right time.”
“COVID-19 obviously has not yet ended. Many have spoken about ‘a new normal’ when the virus will have abated,” he said in a statement. “Rather I think that we should make this tragic pandemic an opportunity to think about ‘a new different’ in terms of what we value, who we value and that we are all in this together.

“Pope Francis repeatedly speaks to the renewal of ‘common good’ language and ‘common good’ actions,” Archbishop Gregory said.
The pope provokes us to pursue a shared life and to seeing ‘the other’ as brother and sister, both as human beings and all as fellow creatures in ‘our common home,’” he added. “He invites us to build a ‘culture of encounter’ with pride in expressing how we are Catholics and also how we are enriched by dialogue with all people of goodwill.”
In the Diocese of Kalamazoo, Michigan, Bishop Paul J. Bradley Oct. 6 applauded the pope for his new encyclical, saying: “In these tumultuous and challenging times of great social unrest, we very much need to embrace Pope Francis’ beautiful teachings detailed in ‘Fratelli Tutti.’”
“The Holy Father points to fraternity, dialogue and social friendship as the way to build a better, more just and peaceful world, with a resounding ‘no’ to war and global indifference,” he said.
While the pope “details many of the world’s downfalls” – including war, economic uncertainty, climate change, immigration, violent conflict, nuclear weapons and inequality – “his message of hope is one that resonates with me and hopefully inspires all of us,” Bishop Bradley added.
He encouraged all Catholics to read the encyclical and prayed “we may all take these teachings to heart, allowing, with renewed hope, God’s grace to strengthen us to put these teachings to practice in our lives.”
The leadership of the four branches of the Maryknoll family – the Maryknoll Sisters, Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers, Maryknoll Lay Missioners and Maryknoll Affiliates – issued a statement Oct. 6 welcoming this “historic encyclical on peace and dialogue that offers a vision for healing the world from deep social and economic divisions in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
“As missioners dedicated to sharing the Gospel through love and hope by serving those most in need around the world, we can attest to the pressing challenges facing the world,” they said. “These are challenges that the Holy Father says can only be met when we come together in love as sisters and brothers, with care like that shown by the good Samaritan.”
They added, “Our lived experience as Maryknoll missioners affirms the pope’s teaching of the parable as a lesson not solely about charity, but also a transformative encounter of mercy.”

Editor’s Note: Printed copies of the encyclical “Fratelli Tutti” in English can be ordered from: https://store.usccb.org/fratelli-tutti-p/7-678.htm. Printed copies in Spanish can be ordered from: https://store.usccb.org/fratelli-tutti-spanish-p/7-926.htm.

By Cindy Wooden
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Pope Francis asked members of the United Nations how they think they can respond to the COVID-19 pandemic and build a more peaceful, more just world when many of their countries spend billions on military weapons and when their treatment of the unborn, of refugees and of women shows so little respect for human life.
“We must ask ourselves if the principal threats to peace and security – poverty, epidemics, terrorism and so many others – can be effectively countered when the arms race, including nuclear weapons, continues to squander precious resources that could better be used to benefit the integral development of peoples and protect the natural environment,” the pope said in his video address, which was broadcast Sept. 25.
On the fifth anniversary of his visit to the U.N. in New York, Pope Francis returned to themes he has repeated since the COVID-19 pandemic began: Humanity faces a choice between trying to go back to an often unjust “normal” or taking the opportunity to rethink economic and political policies, putting the good of all people and the environment ahead of concern for maintaining the lifestyles of wealthy individuals and nations.
He drew particular attention to the pandemic’s impact on children, “including unaccompanied young migrants and refugees,” as well as to reports that “violence against children, including the horrible scourge of child abuse and pornography, has also dramatically increased.”
With millions of children still out of school, he said, there is a risk of “an increase in child labor, exploitation, abuse and malnutrition.”

“Sad to say, some countries and international institutions are also promoting abortion as one of the so-called ‘essential services’ provided in the humanitarian response to the pandemic,” he said. “It is troubling to see how simple and convenient it has become for some to deny the existence of a human life as a solution to problems that can and must be solved for both the mother and her unborn child.”
Pope Francis insisted that addressing the pandemic and building a more just and equitable world involves looking at every aspect of national and international life.
The pandemic “can represent a concrete opportunity for conversion, for transformation, for rethinking our way of life and our economic and social systems, which are widening the gap between rich and poor based on an unjust distribution of resources,” he said. Or “the pandemic can be the occasion for a ‘defensive retreat’ into greater individualism and elitism.”
The latter path, he said, “emphasizes self-sufficiency, nationalism, protectionism, individualism and isolation; it excludes the poor, the vulnerable and those dwelling on the peripheries of life. That path would certainly be detrimental to the whole community, causing self-inflicted wounds on everyone. It must not prevail.”
When companies, including those being assisted by government handouts during the pandemic, focus more on profits than on job creation, they contribute to the “throwaway culture,” which treats people as less important than wealth, he said.
“At the origin of this throwaway culture is a gross lack of respect for human dignity, the promotion of ideologies with reductive understandings of the human person, a denial of the universality of fundamental human rights, and a craving for absolute power and control that is widespread in today’s society,” he said. “Let us name this for what it is: an attack against humanity itself.”
The pope called on countries to work together to fulfill the ideals upon which the U.N. was founded 75 years ago, particular in peacemaking, defending human rights and caring for the world’s poorest and most disadvantaged.
“It is in fact painful to see the number of fundamental human rights that in our day continue to be violated with impunity,” he said, speaking of a “frightening picture of a humanity abused, wounded, deprived of dignity, freedom and hope for the future.”
“Religious believers continue to endure every kind of persecution, including genocide, because of their beliefs,” he said. “We Christians, too, are victims of this: how many of our brothers and sisters throughout the world are suffering, forced at times to flee from their ancestral lands, cut off from their rich history and culture.”
But the pope also drew special attention to situation of refugees, migrants and the internally displaced fleeing conflict, persecution and extreme poverty.
In an apparent reference to the situation in the Mediterranean, he denounced how “thousands are intercepted at sea and forcibly returned to detention camps, where they meet with torture and abuse. Many of these become victims of human trafficking, sexual slavery or forced labor, exploited in degrading jobs and denied a just wage. This is intolerable, yet intentionally ignored by many!”
Nations have entered into regional and international agreements to assist migrants and refugees, but often are lacking the political support at home to make them a reality or the countries just “shirk their responsibilities and commitments,” he said.
“The pandemic has shown us that we cannot live without one another, or worse still, (be) pitted against one another,” Pope Francis insisted. “The United Nations was established to bring nations together, to be a bridge between peoples. Let us make good use of this institution in order to transform the challenge that lies before us into an opportunity to build together, once more, the future we all desire.”

By Cindy Wooden
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Teaching the faith is a work of evangelization meant to lead people to a deeper relationship with Jesus and not just impart information, said the updated “Directory for Catechesis.”
The directory, released by the Vatican June 25, lists the goals and essential elements of catechesis and is meant to guide the drafting of national catechisms and catechetical directories that take into account specifics of the local culture and the needs of Catholics at different ages and stages of life.
Previous versions of the directory were approved in 1971 by St. Paul VI and in 1997 by St. John Paul II.
The directory was released in Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and French; the English and other translations were still being prepared as of June 25.
The updated content, according to the foreword, responds specifically to Pope Francis’ 2013 exhortation, “Evangelii Gaudium” (“The Joy of the Gospel”), and to the 2012 meeting of the Synod of Bishops on the new evangelization.

Like the previous versions, the directory insists on catechetical programs that teach the basics of Christian faith: God’s love for each person; salvation in Jesus Christ; belief in the Trinity; and “the definitive call to gather scattered humanity into the church,” bringing people into communion with God and fostering unity among them.
While the 1997 directory insisted parishes provide suitable catechesis for members with physical or developmental disabilities, the updated directory expands the discussion to preparation for the sacraments.
“Persons with disabilities are called to the fullness of sacramental life, even in the presence of serious ailments,” it said. “The sacraments are the gifts of God and the liturgy, before being understood rationally, is meant to be lived. Therefore, no one can refuse the sacraments to persons with disabilities.”
The revised directory also includes expanded sections on catechesis tailored for migrants and refugees, for immigrants and for people who are incarcerated.
Because the faith is lived in human communities, it said, catechesis must take into account the challenges and problems of the societies in which Catholics live and should draw on Catholic social teaching, which applies Gospel values to social, political and economic questions.
“Catechesis participates in the church’s challenge to oppose processes centered on injustice, exclusion of the poor and the primacy of money in order to be a prophetic sign” of promoting a full and dignified life for all people, it said.
The new directory also significantly expands the 1997 directory’s entries on ecumenism, relations with Judaism and relations with other religions.
“Especially in contexts where the divisions among Christians are more visible,” it said, catechesis should “take care to affirm that the divisions are a serious wound that contradict the will of the Lord and that Catholics are called to participate actively in the ecumenical movement, especially with their prayers.”
Technology, social media, online learning and biomedical questions – referenced only in passing in the 1997 directory – are treated in more depth, but always recalling that simply because something is technically possible does not mean it is ethically acceptable.
In other modern issues, the directory said that “a widespread position about what today is presented under the title ‘gender’ calls into question the revealed fact: ‘Male and female he created them.'”
The position, it said, holds that a person’s gender “is no longer an originating fact which the person must accept and fill with meaning, but rather a social construct which one determines autonomously, totally unconnected to biological sex. The person denies his or her nature and decides to create it for him- or herself.”
“The church is well aware of the complexity” some people face regarding their sexual identity, the directory said. “It does not judge people but calls for them to be accompanied always and in every situation. However, it is aware that, from the perspective of faith, sexuality is not only a physical fact, but a personal reality, a value entrusted to the responsibility of the person.”
“Sexual identity and lived experience must be a response to the original call of God,” it said.
The 1997 directory had a paragraph on “environmental catechesis,” which referred to the fact that people living in a rural or urban environment may have different experiences of nature, of poverty and of faith.
The new directory has a section on “catechesis and ecological commitment,” emphasizing how faith in God the creator implies a responsibility to care for all that God created.
“A catechesis sensitive to safeguarding creation will promote a culture of attention both to the environment and to the people who inhabit it,” the directory said.
In 2013, now-retired Pope Benedict XVI shifted responsibility for catechesis from the Congregation for Clergy to the Pontifical Council for Promoting New Evangelization.
In the updated directory, the link between catechesis and the new evangelization is clear and it calls for a “missionary transformation” of catechism programs.
“Evangelization occupies the primary place in the life of the church and in the everyday teaching of Pope Francis. It could not be otherwise,” Archbishop Rino Fisichella, president of the pontifical council told reporters June 25.
“Evangelization is the task that the Risen Lord has entrusted his church,” he said. “To ignore this premise would be tantamount to making the Christian community one of just many meritorious associations, strong in its 2,000 years of history, but not the church of Christ.”
Among its guiding principles, the directory listed the church’s “firm trust in the Holy Spirit, who is present and acts in the church, in the world and in the hearts of men and women.” That affirmation, it said, should bring joy, serenity and a sense of responsibility to all who are called to teach the faith.
The directory also insists that while faith is born of a personal encounter with Jesus, that encounter takes place through and grows within the community of the church, that every baptized Catholic is responsible for sharing the faith and that belief always must give rise to witness through acts of charity.
And while church teaching does not change from continent to continent, the way it is proposed and explained will be most effective only if it considers the language, culture, age and experience of those listening, it said.
“The Gospel is not addressed to an abstract person, but to each real, concrete, historic person who is living in a particular situation and marked by psychological, social, cultural and religious dynamics,” the directory said.
Effective catechesis also must be adapted to each person’s age and state of life, it said. “Faith is not a linear process” and each stage of growth can bring new and different challenges and raise new questions about how best to live one’s Christian vocation.
And, it said, if faith is a gift that is passed on through and grows in a community, it is especially true of the family, which deserves the assistance and support of the church in carrying out its role as the first and primary teacher of faith.

By Junno Arocho Esteves
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Pope Francis advanced the sainthood causes of two women and 11 men, including a miracle attributed to Blessed Charles de Foucauld.
In a meeting May 27 with Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu, prefect of the Congregation for Saints’ Causes, the pope also authorized decrees recognizing miracles attributed to Blessed Cesar de Bus, founder of the Fathers of Christian Doctrine, and Blessed Maria Domenica Mantovani, co-founder and superior general of the Little Sisters of the Holy Family.
The pope’s recognition of the miracles ascribed to Blesseds de Foucauld, de Bus and Mantovani clear the way for their canonization.
Born in Strasbourg, France, in 1858, Blessed de Foucauld lost his faith during his adolescence. However, during a trip to Morocco, he saw how Muslims expressed their faith, so he returned to the church.
His rediscovery of his Christian faith prompted him to join Trappist monasteries for seven years in France and Syria, before choosing to live a life of prayer and adoration alone.
After his ordination to the priesthood in 1901, he chose to live among the poor and finally settled in Tamanrasset, Algeria, until 1916, when he was killed by a band of marauders.
Although he lived several centuries before Blessed de Foucauld, Blessed de Bus was born in France and, like his compatriot, also lived his early adulthood away from his faith.
After returning to the church, he entered the priesthood and was ordained in 1582. Ten years later, he founded the Fathers of Christian Doctrine, a religious congregation dedicated to education, pastoral ministry and catechesis. He died in Avignon, France, in 1607.
From the age of 15, Blessed Mantovani, born in 1862 in Castelletto di Brenzone, Italy, played an active role in her parish. Her spiritual director, Father Giuseppe Nascimbeni, encouraged her to teach catechism and visit the sick.
In 1892, Blessed Mantovani co-founded the Little Sisters of the Holy Family with Father Nascimbeni and became the congregation’s first superior general. During her time leading the congregation, she dedicated her life to serving the poor and needy as well as assisting the sick and the elderly.
After her death in 1934, the Little Sisters of the Holy Family spread throughout Europe, Africa and South America.
The other decrees approved by Pope Francis May 27 recognized:
– The miracle needed for the beatification of Father Michael McGivney, founder of the Knights of Columbus. He was born in 1852 and died in 1890.
– The miracle needed for the beatification of Venerable Pauline-Marie Jaricot, foundress of the Society of the Propagation of the Faith and of the Association of the Living Rosary. She was born in 1799 and died in 1862.
– The martyrdom of Cistercian Friar Simon Cardon and five companions, who were killed in 1799 by French soldiers during the Napoleonic Wars.
– The martyrdom of Franciscan Father Cosma Spessotto, who was killed by assassins in San Juan Nonualco, El Salvador, in 1980, several months after St. Oscar Romero was killed.
– The heroic virtues of French Bishop Melchior-Marie-Joseph de Marion-Bresillac, founder of the Society of African Missions. He was born in 1813 in Castelnaudary, France, and died in 1859 in Freetown, Sierra Leone.

Follow Arocho on Twitter: @arochoju

By Carol Glatz
ROME (CNS) – In asking to be baptized, Jesus exemplifies the Christian calling to follow along the path of humility and meekness rather than strutting about and being a showoff, Pope Francis said.
Addressing pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square Jan. 12, the feast of the Baptism of the Lord, the pope said that Christ’s humble act shows “the attitude of simplicity, respect, moderation and concealment required of the Lord’s disciples today.”
“How many – it’s sad to say – of the Lord’s disciples show off about being disciples of the Lord. A person who shows off isn’t a good disciple. A good disciple is humble, meek, one who does good without letting himself or herself be seen,” Pope Francis said during his midday Angelus address.
The pope began the day celebrating Mass and baptizing 32 babies –17 boys and 15 girls – in the Sistine Chapel. In his brief homily before baptizing the infants, the pope told parents that the sacrament is a treasure that gives children “the strength of the Spirit.”

“That is why it’s so important to baptize children, so that they grow with the strength of the Holy Spirit,” he said.
“This is the message that I would like to give you today. You have brought your children here today so that they may have the Holy Spirit within them. Take care that they grow with the light, with the strength of the Holy Spirit, through catechesis, through helping them, through teaching them, through the examples that you will give them at home,” he said.
As the sounds of fussy children filled the frescoed chapel, the pope repeated his usual advice to mothers of infants, encouraging them to make their children comfortable, and to not worry if they start to cry in the chapel.
“Don’t get upset; let the children cry and scream. But, if your child cries and complains, perhaps it’s because they feel too hot,” he said. “Take something off them, or if they are hungry, breastfeed them; here, yes, always in peace.”
Later, before praying the Angelus with pilgrims, Pope Francis said that the feast of the Lord’s baptism “reminds us of our own baptism,” and he asked the pilgrims to find out the date they were baptized.
“Celebrate the date of your baptism every year in your heart. Do it. It is also a duty of justice to the Lord who has been so good to us,” the pope said.

(Follow Arocho on Twitter: @arochoju)