By Cindy Wooden
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — While not specifically mentioning the controversial proposal of a path toward full reconciliation and Communion for the divorced and civilly remarried, members of the Synod of Bishops on the family handed Pope Francis a report emphasizing an obligation to recognize that not all Catholics in such a situation bear the same amount of blame.
The 94-paragraph report approved Oct. 24, the last working day of the three-week synod, highlighted the role of pastors in helping couples understand church teaching, grow in faith and take responsibility for sharing the Gospel. It also emphasized how “pastoral accompaniment” involves discerning, on a case-by-case basis, the moral culpability of people not fully living up to the Catholic ideal.
Austrian Cardinal Christoph Schonborn of Vienna told reporters Oct. 24 that the key word in the document’s discussion of ministry to divorced and civilly remarried people is ‘discernment.’ I invite you all to remember there is no black or white, no simple yes or no.” The situation of each couple “must be discerned,” which is what was called for by St. John Paul II in his 1981 exhortation on the family, he said.
The cardinal told Vatican Insider, a news site, that although St. John Paul called for discernment in those cases, “he didn’t mention all that comes after discernment.” The synod’s final report, he said, proposes priests help divorced and remarried couples undergoing conversion and repentance so that they recognize whether or not they are worthy to receive the Eucharist. Such an examination of conscience, he said, is required of every Catholic each time they prepare to approach the altar.
As Pope Francis said at the beginning of the synod, church doctrine on the meaning of marriage as a lifelong bond between one man and one woman open to having children was not up for debate. The final report strongly affirmed that teaching as God’s plan for humanity, as a blessing for the church and a benefit to society.
While insisting on God’s love for homosexual persons and the obligation to respect their dignity, the report also insisted same-sex unions could not be recognized as marriages and denounced as “totally unacceptable” governments or international organizations making recognition of “’marriage’ between persons of the same sex” a condition for financial assistance.
The report also spoke specifically of: the changing role of women in families, the church and society; single people and their contributions to the family and the church; the heroic witness of parents who love and care for children with disabilities; the family as a sanctuary protecting the sacredness of human life from conception to natural death; and the particular strain on family life caused by poverty and by migration.
The Catholic Church recognizes a “natural” value in marriage corresponding to the good of the husband and wife, their unity, fidelity and desire for children. But the sacrament of marriage adds another dimension, the report said. “The irrevocable fidelity of God to his covenant is the foundation of the indissolubility of marriage. The complete and profound love of the spouses is not based only on their human capabilities: God sustains this covenant with the strength of his Spirit.”
Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, told reporters that several bishops mentioned specifically a need to improve the text’s references to “the relationship between conscience and the moral law.”
The text refers to conscience in sections dealing with procreation and with marital situations the church considers irregular, particularly the situation of divorced and civilly remarried Catholics.
First, though, synod members promised greater efforts to be with couples in crisis and praised divorced Catholics who, “even in difficult situations, do not undertake a new union, remaining faithful to the sacramental bond.” Such Catholics, they noted, can and should “find in the Eucharist the nourishment that sustains them.”
Those who have remarried without an annulment of their sacramental marriage must be welcomed and included in the parish community in every way possible, the report said. “They are baptized, they are brothers and sisters, the Holy Spirit gives them gifts and charisms for the good of all.”
Quoting from St. John Paul’s exhortation on the family, the report insists that pastors, “for the sake of truth,” are called to careful discernment when assisting and counseling people who divorced and remarried. They must distinguish, for instance, between those who “have been unjustly abandoned, and those who through their own grave fault have destroyed a canonically valid marriage,” in the words of St. John Paul.
Priests must “accompany interested people on the path of discernment in accordance with the teaching of the church and the guidance of the bishop,” the report said.
While the report makes no explicit mention of absolution and the return to Communion, it seems to leave some possibility for such a solution by quoting the Catechism of the Catholic Church’s affirmation that “imputability and responsibility for an action can be diminished or even nullified” because of different conditions. Just as the degree of guilt will differ, the report said, “also the consequences of the acts are not necessarily the same in all cases.”
In several places the text praises the teaching of “Humanae Vitae,” the document of Blessed Paul VI on married love and the transmission of life. “Conjugal love between a man and a woman and the transmission of life are ordered one to the other,” the report said.
“Responsible parenthood presupposes the formation of the conscience, which is ‘the most secret core and sanctuary of a man. There he is alone with God, whose voice echoes in his depths,’” said the report, quoting from the Second Vatican Council’s Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World. “The more spouses try to listen to God and his commandments in their consciences, the freer their decision will be” from external pressures, the report said.
(Copyright © 2015 Catholic News Service/United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. The CNS news services may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to, such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method in whole or in part, without prior written authority of Catholic News Service.)

WASHINGTON (CNS) – Pope Francis made a previously unannounced 15-minute stop Sept. 23 at a Washington residence operated by the Little Sisters of the Poor, where he met with about 45 sisters.
Sister Constance Veit, communications director for the Little Sisters, said the pope talked individually with each sister, ranging in age from novices to 102-year-old Sister Marie Mathilde, who is Colombian and spoke to the pope in Spanish.
Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, told reporters in Washington that evening that the papal visit was intended as a sign of support for the Little Sisters’ lawsuit against the Obama administration’s mandate that all employers offer contraceptive coverage in their health plans or participate in a religious “accommodation” that the sisters have refused.
But Sister Constance said Pope Francis made no mention of the lawsuit during his visit. Rather, his message to the group was about the Little Sisters’ “mission to the elderly” and “how important it is in a society that tends to marginalize the elderly and the poor,” she told Catholic News Service Sept. 24.

Pope Francis talks with Sister Marie Mathilde, 102, during his unannounced visit to the Little Sisters of the Poor residence in Washington Sept. 23. (CNS photo/courtesy of the Little Sisters of the Poor)

“We were deeply moved by his encouraging words,” she added.
The Little Sisters did not know about the visit until after the pope’s morning meeting at the White House with President Barack Obama, Sister Constance said. Three Little Sisters of the Poor, including Sister Constance, had been invited to attend the ceremony on the South Lawn.
Sister Maria del Monte Auxiliadora, the mother general, was told after the ceremony that Pope Francis wanted to make a five-minute visit to the Jeanne Jugan Residence, located across the street from the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception and not too far from the St. John Paul II Seminary.
Pope Francis made the stop between the canonization of St. Junipero Serra at the basilica and a visit to the seminary, run by the Archdiocese of Washington.
Because his visit was so brief, the pope was not able to meet any of the home’s residents, Sister Constance said. The visit ended up lasting about 15 minutes, she said.
In addition to the 12 nuns who live and work at the Jeanne Jugan Residence, sisters from other homes operated by the Little Sisters of the Poor and the order’s postulants were invited to the meeting, Sister Constance said.
The Jeanne Jugan Residence provides independent living, assisted living and nursing home care to low-income seniors. Although it currently has 80 to 90 residents, it is undergoing renovations and will upon completion reach full capacity of 100 residents, Sister Constance said.
(Copyright © 2015 Catholic News Service/United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. The CNS news services may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to, such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method in whole or in part, without prior written authority of Catholic News Service.)

By Carol Glatz
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Never try to tame the Holy Spirit, Pope Francis told new bishops.
Let the Spirit “continually turn your life upside down” and inspire you to challenge faithful Catholics, seek out those who have left the church and boldly meet with non-believers, he said.
The pope made his comments Sept. 10 in a written address to some 130 recently appointed bishops from around the world.
In the lengthy text, Pope Francis said he didn’t want to dwell too long on the “dramatic challenges” the bishops would have to face “because I don’t want to frighten you. You are still on your honeymoon” as newly ordained or newly appointed bishops.
However, the pope did remind the bishops of the fear, confusion and dejection many disciples felt after Christ was crucified.
Yet their shattered lives found meaning again when Christ showed them he had conquered death and was truly risen. He breathed the Holy Spirit on them, giving them their new mission of spreading God’s mercy and forgiveness, the pope said.
Never forgetting Christ is risen is key to remaining strong in the face of so much disarray. “Passing through the walls of your helplessness, he has joined you with his presence,” he said. God is aware of their weaknesses, denials and betrayals, but he has still bestowed his Spirit on them, he said.
Safeguard the Spirit because it is a breath that will “turn your life upside down” and never be like it was ever before, the pope said. “I beg you not to tame such power,” but let it constantly move them.
The bishop’s primary task is to be a witness of the Risen Christ, which is “the reality that upholds the entire edifice of the church,” and which promises that all people can be reborn with him, Pope Francis said.
He asked the bishops to never exclude any aspect of human life or any person from their pastoral concern, instead encouraging them to teach and challenge faithful Catholics, actively seek out Catholics who have left the church and bring the Word to those who have always refused or do not know Jesus.
The pope said bishops should take by the hand those who are already part of the Christian community and lead them on a spiritual journey that reveals deeper mysteries about God and their faith than they “perhaps lazily have gotten used to listening to without seeing its power.”
Bishops can inspire their priests to reawaken joy in their parishioners because “without joy, Christianity wastes away into toil.”
Bishops must “intercept” those who are distanced from the church, let them “pour out” their sorrows and disappointments, and help them come to terms with the reasons they turned away from God.
“More than with words, warm their hearts with humble and engaged listening for their true good until they open their eyes and can turn things around and return to the One from whom they have been distanced,” the pope said.
Keep an eye open for signs of pride that may “dangerously worm into your community,” he said, thereby preventing parishioners from celebrating the return of those who were lost.
Finally, the pope said, bishops must be missionaries who “without fear or apprehension” can stand before people who do not know or have refused to believe in God and invite them to discover salvation has a place in their lives.
Showing concern for their true well-being, he said, might be what makes a tiny chink “in the walled perimeter they use to jealously protect their own autocracy.”

By Cindy Wooden
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — While youth ministry and education programs must be updated to meet the needs of young people today, the church’s outreach still must be based on love, concern and spiritual guidance, Pope Francis said.
Writing to members of the Salesian religious orders marking the 200th anniversary of the birth of St. John Bosco, the pope said, “The world has changed much in these two centuries, but the spirit of young people has not: young men and women still are open to life and to an encounter with God and with others.”
Without proper assistance, he said, their ideals and aspirations place them at risk of “discouragement, spiritual anemia and marginalization.”

Pope Francis greets a young woman as he leads a meeting with young people along the waterfront in Asuncion, Paraguay, July 12. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)

In his letter dated June 24 and posted on the Salesian order’s website in mid-July, Pope Francis told the Salesian priests, brothers and sisters that they must look at “the resources the Holy Spirit raises up in situations of crisis,” and not just the ways modern culture “injures” the young.
For example, he said, Salesian outreach to young people must “follow the paths of new means of social communications and of intercultural education among people of different religions or in developing countries or in places marked by migration.”
The challenges present in Turin, Italy, in the 19th century — challenges which led St. John Bosco to found his order and his schools — he said, “have taken on a global dimension: idolatry of money, inequality that breeds violence, ideological colonization and the cultural challenges found in urban contexts.”
The key to helping young people today, he said, is the same as it was in St. John Bosco’s time: love, “understood as a love demonstrated and perceived, where kindness, affection, understanding and participation in the life of the other are expressed.”
Don Bosco insisted his schools and technical training centers have a family atmosphere, he said, one in which the instructor was a “father, teacher and friend of the young” and where there was a “climate of joy and celebration” with “plenty of space for singing, music, and theater” and time set aside for recreation and sports.
“Don Bosco will help you not disappoint the deepest aspirations of the young: their need for life, openness, joy, freedom and a future;their desire to work together to build a more just and fraternal world, promote development for all peoples, to safeguard nature and environments for life,” Pope Francis said.

By Cindy Wooden and Barbara Fraser
QUITO, Ecuador (CNS) – Although still thousands of miles from his birthplace in Argentina, Pope Francis made a homecoming of sorts July 5 when he landed in Ecuador, greeted by cheering crowds and the sights and sounds of South America.
After a 12-hour flight from Rome, the pope participated in a brief welcoming ceremony at Quito’s Mariscal Sucre Airport, telling government dignitaries, bishops and special guests that his pastoral work before becoming pope had taken him to Ecuador many times.
“Today, too, I have come as a witness of God’s mercy and of faith in Jesus Christ,” he said.
Mercy and faith, he said, have shaped Latin American culture for centuries, contributing to democracy and improving the lives of countless millions of people.
“In our own time, too, we can find in the Gospel a key to meeting contemporary challenges,” the pope said, including respecting national, ethnic, religious and cultural differences and fostering dialogue.
The pope’s visit followed a period of public protests over Ecuadorean government policies. Initially triggered by proposed inheritance and capital gains taxes, the protests also have targeted what even some of Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa’s supporters describe as his heavy-handed approach.
Christian values, the pope said, should motivate citizens to promote the full participation of all people in their nation’s social, political and economic life “so that the growth in progress and development already registered will ensure a better future for everyone, with particular concern for the most vulnerable of our brothers and sisters to whom Latin America still owes a debt.”
The program for the pope’s July 5-12 tour of Ecuador, Bolivia and Paraguay was punctuated with formal meetings with government officials and with large public Masses, but it also was filled with visits to the poor, the sick and the elderly, and prisoners.
“Ecuador loves life,” Correa told the pope at the airport ceremony, noting that the constitution protects life from the moment of conception. “It establishes recognizing and protecting the family as the basic core of society and commits us deeply to caring for ‘our common home,’” referring to the environment with the same words Pope Francis used in his encyclical, “Laudato Si’.”
Correa said Ecuador’s was the “first constitution in the history of humanity to grant rights to nature.” Twenty percent of the country is protected in parks and reserves, Correa told the pope.
Some environmental and human rights organizations in Ecuador have questioned Correa’s commitment to environmental safeguards, as conflicts have erupted over plans for open-pit mining and expanded oil and gas exploration and production.
Walking the red carpet at the airport, Pope Francis was greeted by dozens of children and young people dressed in a wide variety of traditional clothes. Correa told the pope that his country is culturally diverse, with a mixed-race majority, as well as 14 indigenous peoples, including two nomadic groups that continue to shun contact with the outside world.
Correa said that “the great social sin of our America is injustice. How can we call ourselves the most Christian continent in the world if we are also the most unequal, when one of the most repeated signs of the Gospel is sharing bread?”
During the flight from Rome, Pope Francis only briefly addressed the 70 members of the media traveling with him. He thanked them for their work, which “can do so much good.” Instead of answering their questions – his practice usually only on flights back to Rome – he walked down one aisle of the Alitalia plane and up the other, greeting each person.
(Copyright © 2015 Catholic News Service/United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. The CNS news services may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to, such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method in whole or in part, without prior written authority of Catholic News Service.)

By Laura Ieraci
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Girls must be educated in preparation for great responsibilities in the church and the world, said Pope Francis.
“Today, it is very important that women are sufficiently valued and can take their rightful place in the church and in society,” he said June 26, during an audience with a delegation of the International Catholic Conference of Guiding.
Girl Scouts of the USA leaders Anna Maria Chavez and Kathy Hopinkah Hannan were among the delegation.
While faith has been a part of Girl Guiding, called Girl Scouting in the United States, since its inception more than 100 years ago, the international Catholic conference was only formed in 1965. It marked its 50th anniversary in Rome, with an international conference, June 25-30, under the theme “Live as a Guide the joy of the Gospel.” More than 200 women attended.
In a world where ideologies contrary to God’s design for marriage and family are spreading, the pope said, “it is not only about educating young girls in the beauty and greatness of their vocation as women” in a right relationship with men and respecting the differences between men and women. But it is also to educate them “to take on important responsibilities in the church and in society,” he said.
The pope said Guiding has a “notable role” to play in the promotion and education of women in countries where women “are still in a position of inferiority, even exploited and treated badly.”
He noted the importance the movement places on the environment and on being in contact with nature. He said his recent encyclical on the environment, “Laudato Si’, on Care for Our Common Home,” speaks of how “education is essential in transforming mentalities and habits in order to overcome the worrying challenges facing humanity regarding the environment.”
The Guiding program is “well armed” to contribute to this goal, he said. He urged Guiding members to continue to be “awakened to the presence and the goodness of the Creator in the beauty of the world.”
“It is a new lifestyle, more in line with the Gospel,” which they can then convey to others, he said.
He also asked the movement “not to forget” to include the possible vocation to consecrated life in its program, noting that many vocations to religious life came through Guiding in the past.
He also urged leaders to consider meetings with the wider international Guiding movement, comprised of women of different faiths and cultures, as valuable opportunities for “sincere and true dialogue, with respect for each other’s convictions” and “in the serene affirmation” of their Catholic faith and identity.
(Copyright © 2015 Catholic News Service/United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. The CNS news services may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to, such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method in whole or in part, without prior written authority of Catholic News Service.)

By Carol Glatz
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (CNS) – Whether you still stick to books or magazines or get everything online, Pope Francis said all media should encourage and edify – not enslave.
“Back in my day – the Stone Age – when a book was good, you read it; when the book was bad for you, you chucked it,” he told hundreds of youth in Sarajevo June 6.
The pope ended his one-day visit to the capital of this Balkan nation meeting with young people of different religions and ethnicities who volunteer together with the archdiocesan St. John Paul II Center. He set aside his prepared text and told the young people he would rather take some questions.
One young man said he read that the pope had stopped watching TV a long time ago, and wanted to know what led him to making that choice.
The pope said he decided back in the middle of 1990 to stop because “one night I felt that this was not doing me good, it was alienating me” and he decided to give it up.
He did not give up on movies, however.
When he was archbishop of Buenos Aires, he would go the archdiocesan television station to watch a recorded film he had picked out, which didn’t have the same isolating effect on him, he said.
“Obviously, I am from the Stone Age, I’m ancient!”
Times have changed, he said, and “image” has become all important. But even in this “age of the image,” people should follow the same standards that ruled back “in the age of books: choose the things that are good for me,” he said.
Those who produce or distribute content, like television stations, have the responsibility of choosing programs that strengthen values, that help people grow and prepare for life, “that build up society, that move us forward, not drag us down.”
Viewers have the responsibility of choosing what’s good, and changing the channel where there is “filth” and things that “make me become vulgar.”
While the quality of content is a concern, it is also critical to limit the amount of time one is tied to the screen, he said.
If “you live glued to the computer and become a slave to the computer, you lose your freedom. And if you look for obscene programs on the computer, you lose your dignity,” he said.
Later, in response to a journalist’s question on the papal plane from Sarajevo back to Rome, the pope said the online or virtual world is a reality “that we cannot ignore; we have to lead it along a good path” and help humanity progress.
“But when this leads you away from everyday life, family life, social life, and also sports, the arts and we stay glued to the computer, this is a psychological illness,” he said.
Negative content, he said, includes pornography and content that is “empty” or devoid of values, like programs that encourage relativism, hedonism and consumerism.
The pope said some parents do not allow their children to have a computer in their own room, but keep it in a common living space. “These are some little tips that parents find” to deal with the problem of unsuitable content, he said.
(Editor’s Note: A related video can be viewed at https://youtu.be/pta1-9YVR5M.)