ZENIT in Roswell, Georgia, United States for Thursday, 16 June 2016 "How Can Youth Dream of a Future if Grandparents’ Testimony of Success Is Hidden?, Pope Asks..."

ZENIT in Roswell, Georgia, United States for Thursday, 16 June 2016 "How Can Youth Dream of a Future if Grandparents’ Testimony of Success Is Hidden?, Pope Asks..."
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How Can Youth Dream of a Future if Grandparents’ Testimony of Success Is Hidden?, Pope Asks by Kathleen Naab

Pope Francis this evening opened the annual ecclesial conference of the Diocese of Rome, giving an address and then later speaking off-the-cuff to the questions of the audience.
In his address, the Pope drew from three biblical images in order to speak of family themes related to topics addressed in the recent synods on the family.
In the first, “put off your shoes … you are standing on holy ground” from Exodus, the Holy Father encouraged giving “a face to topics,” which exacts “an atmosphere of respect capable of helping us to listen to what God is saying to us within our situations.”
“How much it helps to give a face to topics!” he affirmed, saying that this “frees us from speaking in the abstract, to be able to approach and commit ourselves to concrete individuals.”
The second image the Pope used was from Luke’s account of the Pharisee who “prayed” by thanking God that, “I am not like these other men.”
“I consider it necessary to take an important step,” the Pope said in this regard. “We cannot analyze, reflect and even less so pray about reality as if we were on different banks or paths, as if we were outside of history. We are all in need of conversion; we are all in need of putting ourselves before the Lord.”
He said that analyzing family issues is “important and necessary” and the analyses “will help us to have a healthy realism.”
“But,” the Holy Father emphasized, “nothing is comparable to the evangelical realism, which does not halt at the description of situations, of problems, — even less of sin — but always goes beyond and succeeds, seeing behind every face, every story, every situation an opportunity, a possibility.”
The Pope said that this type of realism “soils its hands because it knows that ‘wheat and weeds’ grow together, and the best wheat — in this life — will always be mixed with a bit of weeds.”
Finally, the Pope used from the Book of Joel the image of “old men shall dream dreams” to speak about the value of testimony, and particularly of the role of the elderly in society.
“As a society, we have deprived our elderly of their voice; we have deprived them of their space; we have deprived them of the opportunity to tell us about their life, their stories and their experiences,” he lamented. “We have set them aside and thus we have lost the richness of their wisdom. By discarding them, we discarded the possibility of having contact with the secret that enabled them to go forward. We are deprived of the testimony of spouses that not only persevered in time, but that keep in their heart gratitude for all that they have lived.”
This lack of testimony, of models, keeps young people from being able to “make plans, given that the future generates insecurity, mistrust and fear.”
“How can we pretend that young people live the challenge of the family, of marriage as a gift, if they continually hear from us that it is a burden?” he asked. “If we want ‘visions,’ let us allow our grandparents to tell us, to share with us their dreams, so that we can have prophecies of the morrow.”
The Pope concluded by calling for a family pastoral ministry that is “capable of receiving, accompanying, discerning and integrating. A pastoral ministry that permits and renders possible the appropriate scaffolding so that the life entrusted to us finds the support of which it is in need to develop according to God’s dream.”
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On ZENIT’s web page:
Full text: https://zenit.org/articles/popes-address-at-opening-of-romes-ecclesial-congress/
Pope’s Address at Opening of Rome’s Ecclesial Congress by ZENIT Staff

At 7:00 pm today, Pope Francis opened the Ecclesial Congress of the Diocese of Rome. The theme this year is: “’The Delight of Love’: The Path of Families to Rome in the Light of Pope Francis’ Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia.”
After the greeting of the Cardinal Vicar Agostino Vallini and the opening prayer, Pope Francis addressed the families, catechists, priests and pastoral workers present.
Here is a ZENIT translation of the prepared text of his address.
* * *
The theme of your Diocesan Congress is “The Delight of Love: The Path of Families to Rome.” I will not begin by speaking of the Exhortation, given that you will examine it in different working groups. I would like to recover, together with you, some key ideas/tensions that emerged during the Synodal course, which can help us to understand better the spirit that is reflected in the Exhortation — a Document that can orient your reflections and your dialogues and thus “bring courage, stimulation and help to families in their commitment and in their difficulties” (AL 4).
I would like to do so with three biblical images, which enable us to have contact with the passage of the Spirit in the discernment of the Synodal Fathers.
1.“Put off your shoes from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground” (Exodus 3:5). This was God’s invitation to Moses before the burning bush. The terrain to cover, the topics to address in the Synod were in need of a specific attitude. It was not about analyzing any argument; we were not facing any situation. We had before us the concrete faces of so many families. I learnt that, in some groups, before beginning the works, the Synodal Fathers shared their own family reality. This giving of a face to topics exacted (and exacts) — so to speak — an atmosphere of respect capable of helping us to listen to what God is saying to us within our situations. Not a diplomatic or politically correct respect, but a respect charged with honest concerns and questions that looked to the care of the lives we are called to feed. How much it helps to give a face to topics! It frees us from being in a hurry to obtain well-formulated conclusions but often lacking of life. It frees us from speaking in the abstract, to be able to approach and commit ourselves to concrete individuals. It protects us from ideologizing the faith through well-architected systems but which ignore grace. And this can only be done in an atmosphere of faith. It is faith that pushes us tirelessly to seek God’s presence in the changes of history.
Every one of us has had a family experience. In some cases thanksgiving gushes with greater facility than in others, but we have all lived this experience. God came to meet us in that context, His Word came to us not as a sequence of abstract texts, but as a fellow traveler that has sustained us in the midst of sorrow, has animated us in celebration and has always indicated to us the end of the journey (AL, 22). This reminds us that our families, the families in our parishes with their faces, their stories, with all their complications “are not a problem but an opportunity” — an opportunity that challenges us to arouse a missionary creativity capable of embracing all the concrete situations, in our case, of Roman families. Not only those that come to or are in the parishes, but to be able to reach the families of our districts. This meeting challenges us not to hold anything or anyone as lost, but to seek to renew the hope of knowing that God continues to act within our families. It challenges us not to abandon anyone because he is not up to the measure of what is asked of him. And this imposes on us to come out of statements of principle to enter the beating heart of Roman neighborhoods and, as artisans, to mold in this reality God’s dream, something that only persons of faith can do, those that do not close the passage to the Spirit’s action. To reflect on the life of our families, as they are and as they find themselves, calls us to take off our shoes to discover God’s presence.
2.Now the second biblical image, that of the Pharisee, when he prayed saying to the Lord: “God, I thank Thee that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector” (Luke18:11). One of the temptations (cf. AL , 229) to which we are continually exposed is to have a separatist logic. We think we gain in identity and security every time we differentiate ourselves and isolate ourselves from others, especially from those that are living in a different situation.
I consider it necessary to take an important step: we cannot analyze, reflect and even less so pray about the reality as if we were on different banks or paths, as if we were outside of history. We are all in need of conversion; we are all in need of putting ourselves before the Lord and of renewing every time our covenant with Him and of saying, together with the tax collector: My God, have mercy on me who am a sinner! With this point of departure, we remain included in the same “part” and we put ourselves before the Lord in an attitude of humility and of listening.
In fact, to look at our families with the delicacy with which God looks at them helps us to put our consciences in His same direction. The accent put on mercy puts us before the reality in a realistic way, not, however, with just any realism but with God’s realism. Our analyses are important and necessary and they will help us to have a healthy realism. But nothing is comparable to the evangelical realism, which does not halt at the description of situations, of problems, — even less of sin — but always goes beyond and succeeds, seeing behind every face, every story, every situation an opportunity, a possibility. Evangelical realisms is committed to the other, to others and does not make ideals and of “having to be” an obstacle to encounter others in the situations in which they find themselves. It is not about not proposing the evangelical ideal; on the contrary, it invites us to live it within history, with all that it entails. This does not mean not to be clear in Doctrine, but to avoid falling into judgments and attitudes that do not take in the complexity of life. Evangelical realisms soils its hands because it knows that “wheat and weeds” grow together, and the best wheat — in this life — will always be mixed with a bit of weeds. “I understand those who prefer a more rigorous pastoral care which leaves no room for confusion. But I sincerely believe that Jesus wants a Church attentive to the good- ness which the Holy Spirit sows in the midst of human weakness, a Mother who, while clearly expressing her objective teaching, “always does what good she can, even if in the process, her shoes get soiled by the mud of the street”. The Church’s pastors, in proposing to the faith- ful the full ideal of the Gospel and the Church’s teaching, must also help them to treat the weak with compassion, avoiding aggravation or undu- ly harsh or hasty judgements. The Gospel itself tells us not to judge or condemn (cf. Mt 7:1; Lk 6:37)” (AL, 308).
3.“Old men shall dream dreams” (cf. Joel <2:28>). Such was one of Joel’s prophecies for the time of the Spirit. Old men shall dream dreams and young men shall see visions. With this third image, I would like to underscore the importance that the Synodal Fathers gave to the value of testimony as the place in which God’s dream can be found and the life of men. In this prophecy we contemplate an unbreakable reality: in the dreams of our old men resides many times the possibility that our young men have new visions, have a future again, a tomorrow, a hope. They are two realities that go together and that are in need of one another and are connected. It is lovely to find spouses, couples that as elderly people continue to seek one another, to look at one another; they continue to love one another and to choose each other. It is so lovely to find “grandparents” that show on their faces, wrinkled by time, the joy that is born of having made a choice of love and for love.
As a society, we have deprived our elderly of their voice; we have deprived them of their space; we have deprived them of the opportunity to tell us about their life, their stories and their experiences. We have set them aside and thus we have lost the richness of their wisdom. By discarding them, we discarded the possibility of having contact with the secret that enabled them to go forward. We are deprived of the testimony of spouses that not only persevered in time, but that keep in their heart gratitude for all that they have lived (cf. AL , 38).
This lack of models, of testimonies, this lack of grandparents, of fathers able to tell dreams does not enable the young generations to “have visions.” It does not enable them to make plans, given that the future generates insecurity, mistrust and fear. Only the testimony of our parents, to see that it was possible to struggle for something that was worthwhile, will help them to raise their eyes. How can we pretend that young people live the challenge of the family, of marriage as a gift, if they continually hear from us that it is a burden? If we want “visions,” let us allow our grandparents to tell us, to share with us their dreams, so that we can have prophecies of the morrow.
Three images:
The life of every person, the life of every family must be treated with much respect and much care, especially when we reflect on these things.
Let us beware of putting in the field a pastoral plan of ghettoes and for ghettoes.
Let us give space to the elderly so that they can dream again.
Three images that remind us how “the faith does not take us out of the world but inserts us more profoundly in it” (AL , 181). Not like those perfect and immaculate ones that think they know it all, but as persons that have known the love that God has for us (cf. 1 John 4:16). And in this confidence, with this certainty, with much humility and respect, let us approach all of our brothers to live the joy of love in the family. With this trust we give up “niches” “which shelter us from the maelstrom of human misfortune, and instead to enter into the reality of other people’s lives and to know the power of tenderness” (AL, 308). This imposes on us the development of a family pastoral ministry capable of receiving, accompanying, discerning and integrating. A pastoral ministry that permits and renders possible the appropriate scaffolding so that the life entrusted to us finds the support of which it is in need to develop according to God’s dream.
[Original text: Italian] [Translation by ZENIT]
Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQ5h2efV0a4
Pope: Bringing Joy to a Gloomy World Is Act of Mercy by Kathleen Naab

Pope Francis says that bringing beauty and joy to a sometimes gloomy and sad world is also an act of mercy.
The Pope affirmed this today when he gave a brief address for the Jubilee to itinerant artists — from puppeteers and street musicians to open-air painters and circus performers.
The Holy Father told the musicians and performers that they are “‘artisans’ of celebration, of wonder, of the beautiful.”
“With these qualities you enrich the society of the whole world,” he said, adding: “You do so through exhibitions that have the capacity to elevate the spirit, to show the audacity of particularly demanding exercises, to fascinate with the wonder of the beautiful and of proposing occasions of healthy entertainment.”
The Pope said the artists and performers are in fact a “special resource” in evangelization: “With your continuous moving, you can bring to all the love of God, His embrace and His mercy. You can be an itinerant Christian community, witnesses of Christ who is always on the way to encounter those who are most distant.”
The Holy Father also congratulated them for various initiatives in the Year of Mercy to make their entertainment programs available to the poor, prisoners, and other needy groups. “This too is mercy: to sow beauty and joy in a world that at times is gloomy and sad,” he said.
The Pontiff also recognized the difficulties these groups have in participating in parish life. “Therefore, I invite you to take care of your faith,” he said. “Take every occasion to approach the Sacraments. Transmit to your children the love of God and of neighbor.”
He also called on particular Churches to be attentive to the needs of these and similarly mobile groups.
“As you know, the Church is concerned about the problems that accompany your itinerant life, and she wishes to help you to eliminate the prejudices that sometimes keep you somewhat on the margins,” he assured. “May you always be able to carry out your work with love and care, confident that God accompanies you with His Providence, generous in the works of charity, willing to offer the resources and the genius of your arts and of your professions.”
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On ZENIT’s Web page:
Full text: https://zenit.org/articles/popes-address-to-traveling-artists-performers/
Pope’s Address to Traveling Artists, Performers by ZENIT Staff on 16 June, 2016

Pope Francis today received in audience participants in Jubilee celebrations for itinerant artists, from puppeteers and street musicians to open-air painters and circus performers.
Here is a ZENIT translation of the Pope’s address.
__
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
I give my cordial welcome to all of you, who in various ways work in the realm of the travelling and popular show. I thank the Cardinal President for his words, and I thank your representatives, who gave us their testimonies and a brief show, as well as all those who collaborated to prepare this event. I extend my greeting to your families and colleagues who were unable to be present.
Circus and fair people, fun fair and fairground workers, buskers and pavement artists and members of musical bands, you form the great family of the travelling and popular show. You are “artisans” of celebration, of wonder, of the beautiful: with these qualities you enrich the society of the whole world, also with the ambition to nourish sentiments of hope and trust. You do so through exhibitions that have the capacity to elevate the spirit, to show the audacity of particularly demanding exercises, to fascinate with the wonder of the beautiful and of proposing occasions of healthy entertainment.
Celebration and delight are distinctive signs of your identity, of your professions and of your life, and, in the Jubilee of Mercy, this meeting could not be lacking. You have a special resource: with your continuous moving, you can bring to all the love of God, His embrace and His mercy. You can be an itinerant Christian community, witnesses of Christ who is always on the way to encounter those that are most distant.
I congratulate you because, in this Holy Year, you opened your shows to the neediest, to the poor and to the homeless, to prisoners, and to poor youngsters. This too is mercy: to sow beauty and joy in a world that at times is gloomy and sad.
The travelling and popular show is the oldest form of entertainment; it is in reach of all and addressed to all, little ones and grownups, in particular to families. It spreads the culture of encounter and socialization in entertainment. Your spaces of work can become places of aggregation and fraternity. Therefore, I encourage you to always be welcoming towards the little ones and the needy; to offer words and gestures of consolation to those shut-in on themselves, recalling Saint Paul’s words: “He who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness” (Romans12:8). As Saint John Paul II said, you can “make a child smile and illumine for an instant the desperate look of a person alone and, through the show and celebration, render men closer to one another” (6thInternational Meeting of the Pastoral for Circus and Fair People, December 16, 1993: Insegnamenti XVI, 2 [1993], 1486).
I am well aware that, because of the rhythms of your life and your work, it is difficult for you to be part of a parish community in a stable way. Therefore, I invite you to take care of your faith. Take every occasion to approach the Sacraments. Transmit to your children the love of God and of neighbor. And I recommend to the particular Churches and to parishes to be attentive to your needs and those of all people in mobility. As you know, the Church is concerned about the problems that accompany your itinerant life, and she wishes to help you to eliminate the prejudices that sometimes keep you somewhat on the margins. May you always be able to carry out your work with love and care, confident that God accompanies you with His Providence, generous in the works of charity, willing to offer the resources and the genius of your arts and of your professions.
I entrust you all to the maternal protection of Mary Most Holy, Mother of Mercy. I impart to you and to your dear ones my blessing and I ask you, please, not to forget to pray for me. Thank you.
[Original text: Italian] [Translation by ZENIT]
Pope Points to Archaeological Find in Urging Reflection of Light of Christ by ZENIT Staff

Pope Francis today spoke of the discovery of the face of an angel in a mosaic being restored in Bethlehem, saying the image of the angel uncovered from various incrustations is a metaphor for a call to enable the face of the Church to visibly reflect the light of Christ.
The Pope said this in an address to the Reunion of Aid Agencies for the Oriental Churches (ROACO), currently holding its assembly, attended by papal representatives in Jerusalem, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Jordan and Ukraine, which accompany the life of the Church and the peoples of these countries, expressing the closeness of the Pope and the Holy See both in meetings and in concrete gestures of charity in coordination with the entities of the Roman Curia. In the assembly, the presence of the Syro-Malabar and Syro-Malankara Churches in the Indian territories outside Kerala was also discussed.
This morning the Pope received the members of ROACO in audience, greeted the new Custos of the Holy Land, Fr. Francesco Patton, and thanked all the Friars Minor who for centuries have ensured the maintenance of the holy places thanks also to the Good Friday collection, instituted by Blessed Pope Paul VI. He also expressed his hope that with the generous contribution of many people and other Christian communities, the restoration of the Basilica of the Nativity and the aedicule of the Holy Sepulchre might be completed.
In the course of restoration work in Bethlehem, a seventh angel in mosaic has come to light, forming with the other six a sort of procession towards the place commemorating the mystery of the birth of the Word made flesh.
“This can lead us to reflect on how the face of our ecclesial communities can also be covered by incrustations as a result of various problems and sins,” the Pope suggested. “Yet your work must unfailingly be guided by the certainty that, beneath material and moral incrustations, and the tears and bloodshed caused by war, violence and persecution, beneath this apparently impenetrable cover there is a radiant face like that of the angel in the mosaic. All of you, with your projects and your activities, are part of a ‘restoration’ that will enable the face of the Church to reflect visibly the light of Christ the Word Incarnate. He is our peace, and He is knocking at the doors of our heart in the Middle East, as He does in India and in Ukraine, a country for which I determined last April that an extraordinary collection should be taken up among the Churches of Europe.”
With regard to the reflection by the ROACO assembly on the presence of the Syro-Malabar and Syro-Malankara Churches in the territories of India, the Holy Father expressed his hope that, following the indications set out by his predecessors, progress can be made in respect for the proper rights of each, without a spirit of division, but rather fostering communion in witness to the one Saviour, Jesus Christ.
“That communion, in all those parts of the world where Latin and Oriental Catholics live side-by-side, needs the spiritual riches of East and West as a source from which coming generations of priests, men and women religious, and pastoral workers can draw,” he said. “For, as St. John Paul II observed: ‘The words of the West need the words of the East, so that God’s word may ever more clearly reveal its unfathomable riches. Our words will meet forever in the heavenly Jerusalem, but we ask and wish that this meeting be anticipated in the holy Church which is still on her way towards the fullness of the Kingdom.'”
Francis asked the members of the ROACO to pray for his upcoming pilgrimage to a land of the East, Armenia, “the first nation to welcome the Gospel of Jesus.”
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On ZENIT’s Web page:
Full text: https://zenit.org/articles/popes-address-to-assembly-of-the-reunion-of-aid-agencies-for-the-oriental-churches-roaco/
Pope’s Address to Assembly of the Reunion of Aid Agencies for the Oriental Churches (ROACO) by ZENIT Staff

Today Pope Francis received in audience participants in the Assembly of the Reunion of Aid Agencies for the Oriental Churches (ROACO).
Here is a translation of the Pope’s address to those present at the meeting.
* * *
I welcome you and I thank Cardinal Sandri for the words with which he introduced our meeting; I greet each one of you from my heart and the Communities to which you belong. I am grateful to you all for the zeal you put in carrying forward the mission entrusted to you and for your attention to the needs of our brothers of the East. Taking part in your works are Pontifical Representatives in Jerusalem, in Lebanon, in Syria, in Iraq and Jordan, and in Ukraine, who support the life of the Church and of the people of those countries, rendering the Pope and the Holy See close, through meetings but also with gestures of concrete charity, in coordination with all the organizations involved in the Roman Curia.
I also greet, with a fraternal greeting, Father Francis Patton, who succeeded Father Pierbattista Pizzaballa as Custos of the Holy Land; and I take the occasion to express my affection and gratitude to all the Friars Minor, who for centuries have guaranteed the maintenance of the Holy Places and the Shrines, also thanks to the Good Friday Collection that is renewed every year, stemming from the happy intuition of Blessed Paul VI. May the Lord protect you and give you peace! I hope that, with the generous aid of so many, the works of restoration of the Basilica of the Nativity and of the aedicule of the Holy Sepulcher have come to an end, also with the contribution of the other Christian Communities.
I have been told that precisely in the course of the restorations at Bethlehem, there has come to light on a wall of the nave a seventh Angel in mosaic that, together with the other six, forms a sort of procession towards the place that commemorates the mystery of the birth of the Word made flesh. This event makes us think that the face of our Ecclesial Communities might also be covered with “incrustations” due to different problems and sins. However, your work must always be guided by the certainty that under the material and moral incrustations, also under the tears and blood caused by war, by violence and by persecution, under this stratum that seems impenetrable, there is a luminous face like that of the Angel of the mosaic. And all of you, with you projects and your actions, have cooperated in this “restoration,” so that the face of the Church reflects visibly the light of Christ the Incarnate Word. He is our peace, and He knocks on the door of our heart in the Middle East, as He does in India and in Ukraine, country, the latter, that I wanted the extraordinary collection to be allocated, proclaimed last month of April among the Churches of Europe.
The reflection that in these days you wished to dedicate to the presences of the Syro-Malabar and Syro-Malankara Churches in the territories of India, outside of Kerala, makes me hope that one can proceed according to the indications of my Predecessors, in respect of each one’s right, without a spirit of division, but fostering communion in witnessing the only Savior Jesus Christ. This communion, in every part of the world where Latin and Oriental Catholics live side by side, needs the spiritual riches of the West and of the East, from which the young generations of priests, men and women religious, and pastoral workers can draw, in keeping with what Saint John Paul II affirmed: “The words of the West are in need of the words of the East, so that the Word of God manifests ever better its unfathomable riches. Our words will meet forever in the Heavenly Jerusalem, but we invoke and want that meeting to be anticipated in the Holy Church that is still walking towards the fullness of the Kingdom” (Apostolic Letter Orientale Lumen, 28).
While I invoke the Lord’s blessing upon you, I ask you to pray for me, who in a few days will go as a pilgrim to an Eastern land, Armenia, first among the Nations to receive Jesus’ Gospel. Thank you from my heart. May Our Lady protect and accompany you.
[Original text: Italian] [Translation by ZENIT]
Analysis: Parenthood in an Age of Surrogacy by Fr. John Flynn

The ever-widening use of IVF and surrogate mothers is continuing to create legal disputes and to expand the definition of parenthood.
Some of the latest news is about so-called three parent babies, with the latest experiments promising to lead to an imminent expansion of this technique. According to a June 8 news report on the New Scientist Website the first babies from this method could be born in a couple of years.
The aim of the method is to enable the birth of babies free from inherited mitochondrial diseases. The body of the egg, which has the DNA, is extracted from the birth mother, and inserted into a nucleus-free donated egg which has healthy mitochondrial.
The baby born as a result of this has in most part the DNA of the father and birth mother, but does also have a small amount of mitochondrial DNA from the donor of the egg.
The experiments were carried out at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Mitochondrial Disease at Newcastle University, UK. Already last year the Catholic bishops of England and Wales criticized the attempts to create three parent babies.
When the British parliament debated the legalization of the three parent technique early last year the bishops published a statement dated January 31 in which they pointed out that the procedure involves the destruction of human embryos.
“The human embryo is a new human life, and it should be respected and protected from the moment of conception,” they said.
Who is the mother?
Another technique using the aid of a third person to bring about a successful birth is the use of surrogate mothers. Its use has led to frequent legal disputes over rights to the babies.
Earlier this month a California mother of triplets lost her legal battle to be named as their mother, reported Reuters on June 8. Through the mediation of a surrogacy agency Melissa Cook carried the babies conceived as a result of the fertilisation of eggs from a father known only as C.M. and an anonymous egg donor.
In August 2015 three embryos were implanted in Cook’s womb and it turned out all three were viable. The father asked Cook to abort one of the fetuses. She refused, and as a result the relationship between the two became contentious.
Cook unsuccessfully asked the state courts to be named as the child’s mother and her latest action in a federal court was dismissed.
Back in England existing surrogacy laws which prevent single people from claiming parental rights will now have to change, following a decision by the Family Division of the High Court.
The court ruled that a single man who fathered a child via a surrogate mother had his right to raise the child discriminated against, the BBC reported May 23.
The man claimed that existing laws meant an application for a “parental order” could only be made by two people. As a result the government said it was now considering updating the legislation.
Labour member of parliament and former Social Security Minister Frank Field told The Mail on Sunday newspaper that: “In all these decisions, the natural rights of children get overlooked.”
“Parenting is a huge job and it’s about time that children are put centre stage, not selfish adults,” the May 22 article stated.
Third World exploitation
The use of surrogacy is contentious not only in Western countries, it also creates problems for Third World countries, which often provide the services of surrogate mothers at a lower cost.
A May 31 article published on the Atlantic magazine Website described how some Australian couples used Nepal to have children with surrogate mothers. In one case the total cost of the IVF procedure and other expenses would be $35,000, of which $10,000 would go to the surrogate mother.
For the Australian homosexual couple of Stephen and Michael it is illegal for them to pay for a surrogate mother in their own country. So last year the Indian mother went to Nepal to be impregnated with a donor egg from a South African woman fertilised with the sperm of one of the Australian couple.
Before the baby was born Nepal banned surrogate motherhood and the twins of the homosexual couple were left in legal limbo.
The Atlantic’s article pointed out that 30 years after the birth of the first surrogate baby, laws are still struggling to deal with the issue. Within the United States there is a wide variety of laws from state to state. A few countries allow commercial surrogacy, but in the last couple of years Thailand, India and Nepal have tightened their laws.
Critics of the recourse to Third World surrogacy by Western couples point to the dangers of the exploitation of poor women and the commodification of their bodies, the article explained.
“No country allows the sale of human beings – yet, who cares, so long as we are served cute images of famous people and their newborns?” commented Kajsa Ekis Ekman, a Swedish journalist and author of Being and Being Bought – Prostitution, Surrogacy and the Split Self.
Her comments came in an opinion article written for the Guardian newspaper on February 25 following a report by a government inquiry that recommended Sweden ban surrogacy.
She described surrogacy as an industry: “Where babies are tailor-made to fit the desires of the world’s rich. Where a mother is nothing, deprived even of the right to be called ‘mum,’ and the customer is everything.”
The Catholic Church has long warned that human life should not be treated as if it were a commercial product and the consequences of ignoring this warning are more evident each day.
When I Pray ‘Father,’ It Gets to Roots of My Christian Identity, Says Pope by Kathleen Naab

The Gospel of today’s Mass recounts Jesus teaching his disciples the “Our Father” prayer, and Pope Francis’ reflections on this prayer this morning during his homily at Casa Santa Marta are a good preparation for this weekend’s celebration of Father’s Day in many countries.
According to Vatican Radio, the Pope noted that Jesus always used the word “Father” in the most important or challenging moments of his life, saying our Father “knows the things we need, before we even ask Him.” He is a Father who listens to us in secret just like Jesus advised us to pray in secret.
“It’s through this Father that we receive our identity as children. And when I say ‘Father’ this goes right to the roots of my identity: my Christian identity is to be his child and this is a grace of the Holy Spirit. Nobody can say ‘Father’ without the grace of the Spirit. ‘Father’ is the word that Jesus used in the most important moments: when he was full of joy, or emotion: ‘Father, I bless you for revealing these things to little children.’ Or weeping, in front of the tomb of his friend Lazarus: ‘Father, I thank you for hearing my prayer,’ or else at the end, in the final moments of his life, right at the very end.”
The Holy Father reflected that “unless we feel that we are his children [and] without considering ourselves as his children, without saying ‘Father,’ our prayer is a pagan one, it’s just a prayer of words.”
The Pontiff said that this prayer taught by Jesus should be the cornerstone of our prayer life.
If we are not able to begin our prayer with this word, he warned, “our prayer will go nowhere.”
“’Father.’ It’s about feeling that our Father is looking at me, feeling that this word ‘Father’ is not a waste of time like the words in the prayers of pagans: it’s a call to Him who gave me my identity as his child. This is the dimension of Christian prayer – ‘Father’ and we can pray to all the saints, the angels, we can go on processions, pilgrimages … all of this is wonderful but we must always begin (our prayers) with ‘Father’ and be aware that we are his children and that we have a Father who loves us and who knows all our needs. This is that dimension,” the Pope said.
Brothers and sisters
Francis said that the part of the prayer about forgiving trespasses springs from this same certainty, since we are all brothers and sisters of the same family.
Rather than behaving like Cain who hated his own brother, he said, it’s so important for us to forgive, to forget offences against us, that healthy attitude of saying ‘let’s forget this’ and not harbour feelings of rancour, resentment or a desire for revenge.
“It’s good for us to sometimes examine our own consciences on this point,” he said. “For me, is God my Father? Do I feel that He is my Father? And if I don’t feel that, let me ask the Holy Spirit to teach me to feel that way. And am I able to forget offences, to forgive, to let go of it, and if not, let us ask the Father: ‘these people too are your children, they did something horrible to me … can you help me to forgive them?’ Let us carry out this examination of our consciences and it will do us a lot of good, good, good. ‘Father’ and ‘our’: give us our identity as his children and give us a family to journey with during our lives.”
Readings provided by the US bishops’ conference:
Thursday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 368
Reading 1

SIR 48:1-14
Like a fire there appeared the prophet Elijah
whose words were as a flaming furnace.
Their staff of bread he shattered,
in his zeal he reduced them to straits;
By the Lord’s word he shut up the heavens
and three times brought down fire.
How awesome are you, Elijah, in your wondrous deeds!
Whose glory is equal to yours?
You brought a dead man back to life
from the nether world, by the will of the LORD.
You sent kings down to destruction,
and easily broke their power into pieces.
You brought down nobles, from their beds of sickness.
You heard threats at Sinai,
at Horeb avenging judgments.
You anointed kings who should inflict vengeance,
and a prophet as your successor.
You were taken aloft in a whirlwind of fire,
in a chariot with fiery horses.
You were destined, it is written, in time to come
to put an end to wrath before the day of the LORD,
To turn back the hearts of fathers toward their sons,
and to re-establish the tribes of Jacob.
Blessed is he who shall have seen you
And who falls asleep in your friendship.
For we live only in our life,
but after death our name will not be such.
O Elijah, enveloped in the whirlwind!Then Elisha, filled with the twofold portion of his spirit,
wrought many marvels by his mere word.
During his lifetime he feared no one,
nor was any man able to intimidate his will.
Nothing was beyond his power;
beneath him flesh was brought back into life.
In life he performed wonders,
and after death, marvelous deeds.
Responsorial Psalm

PS 97:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7
R. (12a) Rejoice in the Lord, you just!
The LORD is king; let the earth rejoice;
let the many isles be glad.
Clouds and darkness are round about him,
justice and judgment are the foundation of his throne.
R. Rejoice in the Lord, you just!
Fire goes before him
and consumes his foes round about.
His lightnings illumine the world;
the earth sees and trembles.
R. Rejoice in the Lord, you just!
The mountains melt like wax before the LORD,
before the Lord of all the earth.
The heavens proclaim his justice,
and all peoples see his glory.
R. Rejoice in the Lord, you just!
All who worship graven things are put to shame,
who glory in the things of nought;
all gods are prostrate before him.
R. Rejoice in the Lord, you just!
Alleluia

ROM 8:15BC
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
You have received a spirit of adoption as sons
through which we cry: Abba! Father!
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel

MT 6:7-15
Jesus said to his disciples:
“In praying, do not babble like the pagans,
who think that they will be heard because of their many words.
Do not be like them.
Your Father knows what you need before you ask him.“This is how you are to pray:‘Our Father who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name,
thy Kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread;
and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us;
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.’
“If you forgive others their transgressions,
your heavenly Father will forgive you.
But if you do not forgive others,
neither will your Father forgive your transgressions.”
Mother Teresa’s Canonization to Be ‘Great Joy’ for All of India by Eva-Maria Kolmann

An Indian prelate has described Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, who will be canonized by Pope Francis Sept. 4, 2016, as the “best missionary of the millennium.”
Bishop Salvadore Lobo of Baruipur, who headed the canonization committee, reported that Christ had said to Mother Teresa in a vision: “Go into the houses, I cannot go alone, you be my face.” Indeed, “for the world today she has become the face of Christ,” the bishop said.
Bishop Lobo said that Hindus are also convinced that she was a saint. He said: “Some Hindus wonder why the Church needs to go through a canonization process. They say, ‘Mother Teresa was a saint anyway. But if the Church needs these formalities, then so be it.’”
Hindus also understand, Bishop Lobo added, that “service to the poor is service to God.” The bishop reported that during the beatification process as well, a large number of witnesses had come forth, including many Hindus and Muslims. He described the canonization as “a great joy” for all of India.
Bishop Lobo, who met Mother Teresa as a young seminarian and worked with the dying at her “Kalighat” hospice in Calcutta as a volunteer, described his first impression of her as that of a “transformative saint” who “emanated the personification of Christ.” “She taught the world a lesson: Jesus lives in the hearts of the poor. We shall find His face in them,” the prelate said.
Mother Teresa was born Anjezë (Agnes) Gonxha Bojaxhiu Aug. 26, 1910 in Skopje (at the time it was part of the Ottoman Empire, today it is part of Macedonia). Her family was Albanian. At age 18, she entered the Order of the Loreto Sisters. Soon thereafter she was sent to India, where she worked as a teacher until 1946, when she felt the calling to serve the poor.
At first she went alone into the slums of Calcutta, but was then joined by several former fellow students. She founded the order of the “Missionaries of Charity,” which continues to take care of the poorest of the poor all over the world today.
Mother Teresa was already considered a saint during her lifetime and became famous the world over as the “Angel of the Poor.” She received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979. She died Sept. 5, 1997, in Calcutta (India). Pope John Paul II beatified her on Oct. 19, 2003, only six years after her death. Her liturgical feast day will be 5th of September.
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Aid to the Church in Need is an international Catholic charity under the guidance of the Holy See, providing assistance to the suffering and persecuted Church in more than 140 countries. www.churchinneed.org (USA); www.acnuk.org (UK); www.aidtochurch.org (AUS); www.acnireland.org (IRL); www.acn-aed-ca.org (CAN)www.acnmalta.org (Malta)
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