Antananarivo, Madagascar, Sep 8, 2019 / 08:08 am (CNA).- Pope Francis Sunday visited the “City of Friendship,” a town on the outskirts of Antananarivo, Madagascar. The town has been built through the leadership of Argentine priest Fr. Pedro… […]
Antananarivo, Madagascar, Sep 8, 2019 / 01:43 am (CNA).- Pope Francis Sunday told Catholics in Madagascar that following Jesus can be demanding, but that Christ calls his disciples to place God at the center of their lives.
“As we look around us… […]
On August 5th, Pew Research Center released a survey that found that a majority of Catholics don’t believe that Jesus Christ is truly present in the Holy Eucharist—Body, Blood, soul, and divinity. I became aware […]
Dakar, Senegal, Sep 7, 2019 / 02:58 pm (CNA).- A prestigious Catholic school in the Senegalese capital of Dakar is going ahead with a ban on students wearing Islamic headscarves, local media is reporting.
The Sainte-Jeanne d’Arc Institute in Dak… […]
Readings: Wis 9:13-18b Ps 90:3-4, 5-6, 12-13, 14-17 Phmn 9-10, 12-17 Lk 14:25-33 Writing about a prominent televangelist, I once half-jokingly observed that the “only” topics the preacher in question never discussed for fear of […]
Antananarivo, Madagascar, Sep 7, 2019 / 10:06 am (CNA).- Jesus has called you and has entrusted a mission to you, Pope Francis told a crowd of young people at a prayer vigil in Antananarivo, Madagascar Saturday.
“Through you, the future is coming to Madagascar and to the Church,” the pope said in the diocesan Soamandrakizay field Sept. 7.
“The Lord is the first to trust in you, but he also asks you to trust in yourselves and your own skills and abilities, which are many,” he continued. Jesus “wants to change us and to make our lives a mission.”
According to organizers, there were about 100,000 people present for the meeting, so far the largest gathering during the pope’s six-day trip to the African countries of Mozambique, Madagascar, and Mauritius.
In his message, Francis preached against falling into bitterness, which he said can be a temptation for young people, especially when they lack basic necessities or the means to pursue studies, or cannot find a stable job. “Beware of this bitterness, beware!” he added.
But, he said, “the Lord is the first to tell you no! [Bitterness] is not the way to go.”
“The Lord calls each of us by name and says: Follow me! He does not call us to run after mirages, but to become missionary disciples here and now.”
“He is the first to reject all those voices that would lull you to sleep, make you passive, numb and apathetic, and thus prevent you from seeking new horizons,” he continued. “With Jesus, there are always new horizons to be sought.”
Jesus also tells Catholics not to be afraid to get their hands dirty, he pointed out, explaining that Jesus’ disciples “must not keep still, complaining or looking inward. They need to be on the move, acting, committed, certain that the Lord is supporting and accompanying them.”
Pope Francis said he thinks of every young person as a seeker: “Each person shows it differently, but deep down all of you are looking for the happiness that no one will be able to take from us.”
The pope responded to two testimonies he heard from young adults in the course of the vigil. One was from a 27-year-old man named Rova Sitraka Ranarison.
Pope Francis commented on the story of the young man, who had recounted that he had for a long time felt a desire to visit prisoners, so he had begun to help a priest’s prison ministry, and eventually became more and more involved, adopting it as his “personal mission.”
“You realized that your life is a mission. This search, born of faith, helps make the world in which we live a better place, more in accord with the Gospel,” Francis told Rova.
He also noted the transformation the young man experienced, that it “changed your way of seeing and judging people. It made you a fairer and more sensitive person.”
Rova, the pope said, learned to see people as the Lord sees people. “He does not call us by our sins, our errors, our faults, our limits, but by our name; each of us is precious in his eyes.”
He added that Jesus never abandons his children; no matter how far they have wandered, he is always there, calling and waiting for them to return to him and start over.
Pope Francis also pointed to the testimony of a 21-year-old woman, Vavy Elyssa Nekendraza, who he said made this point well: that “it is impossible to be a missionary disciple all by ourselves.”
An encounter with Jesus as individuals and as a community is essential, he said.
“Certainly, we can accomplish great things on our own, but together we can dream of and undertake things undreamt of! Vavy put it nicely: we are invited to find the face of Jesus in the face of others.”
Francis said no one can say, “I don’t need you,” and asked the young people to repeat three times the phrase “No one can say, ‘I don’t need you,’” which they did in Malagasy.
Catholics, he continued, are one great family that has a mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary, patroness of Madagascar.
“That young woman is now the Mother who watches over her children as they walk in life, often weary and in need, but always anxious that the light of hope not be extinguished,” he said, adding that this is what he desires for Madagascar: “that the light of hope not be extinguished.”
“She, Our Mother, looks at this great assembly of young people who love her and seek her in the silence of their hearts, despite the noise of the world and the chatter and distractions of the journey,” he concluded.
“To Mary I entrust the lives of each of you, and those of your families and your friends. May you never lack the light of hope, and may Madagascar be increasingly the land the Lord has dreamt of.”
Antananarivo, Madagascar, Sep 7, 2019 / 08:05 am (CNA).- Pope Francis told Madagascar’s bishops Saturday that the Catholic Church should participate in public life in order to promote the common good and that the bishops should not be afraid to v… […]
Antananarivo, Madagascar, Sep 7, 2019 / 04:37 am (CNA).- The path to holiness is made up of small, daily acts of obedience and love, Pope Francis told the contemplative nuns of Madagascar in impromptu remarks Saturday.
“I know that all of you cl… […]
Antananarivo, Madagascar, Sep 7, 2019 / 02:31 am (CNA).- In an address to the civil authorities of Madagascar Sept. 7, Pope Francis urged the leaders to embrace the “soul” of their country and to work toward an “integral development&r… […]
Denver, Colo., Sep 6, 2019 / 05:09 pm (CNA).- A Colorado man with cancer and his doctor filed a suit last month against a health system run by the Catholic Church that alleges its policy barring its doctors from participating in assisted suicide violates state law.
Cornelius “Neil” Mahoney, 64, was told July 16 that his cancer was incurable and he would be expected to die within 4-14 months, depending on his treatment, according to a suit filed Aug. 21 in the Arapahoe County District Court by Mahoney and his doctor.
Mahoney quickly inquired about assisted suicide, having anxiety about facing death from cancer and wanting to control the place and time of his death.
According to the AP Mahoney is childless, “and does not want his siblings to have to take care of him.”
He first asked about assisted suicide at Rocky Mountain Cancer Centers the day he was told his cancer was uncurable; his physician there said neither he nor anyone else at RMCC would provide assisted suicide.
Mahoney spoke the same day to a nurse practitioner at Centura Health Physician Group about his desire for assisted suicide, who referred his request to his primary physician, Dr. Barbara Morris.
He asked a social worker assigned to his case at RMCC about assisted suicide July 24, who also told him he would be unable to access it through RMCC.
Morris, Mahoney’s primary physician, was employed at CHPG, which is jointly run by the Catholic Church and the Seventh-day Adventists through Centura Health Corporation.
Abiding by the U.S. bishops’ Ethical and Religious Directives, Centura Health does not permit its employees to participate in assisted suicide.
Morris “would provide [aid-in-dying] to qualified patients but for Centura’s Policy,” the suit says. She told him July 22 that Centura bars its physicians from providing assiste suicide, and she suggested that Mahoney transfer his care to a provider who would be permitted to provide assisted suicide.
Mahoney then inquired with another provider, the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, who said that to obtain assisted suicide he would have to tranfer his care and have his condition re-evaluated.
“Neil does not want to transfer his care to a different facility and endure additional testing,” and likes the convenience of CHPG, which is close to his home.
Mahoney began chemotherapy treatment in July “in the hopes that he responds favorably and can handle the side effects,” and is uncertain whether he wants to receive additional chemotherapy.
Colorado voters legalized assisted suicide in a 2016 ballot measure. The law allows an adult with a terminal illness to request a lethal prescription from their physician. The person must be deemed mentally competent, and two physicians must diagnosis the person as having six months or fewer to live. The measure requires self-administration of secobarbital.
The AP reported Sept. 4 that Jason Spitalnick, who is among the attorneys for Mahoney and Morris, “pointed out that that the law says helping a patient get life-ending drugs does not constitute euthanasia or assisted suicide under the state’s criminal code.”
The law requires the official cause of death to be listed as a patient’s underlying condition, not as an assisted suicide.
A facility may not subject its physicians, nurses, and pharmacists to disciplinary action, suspension, or recovation of privileges or licenses related to conduct taken in good faith reliance on the assisted suicide law.
The law allows health care facilities to prohibit its physicians from prescribing assisted suicide when the patient intends to use the medication on the facility’s premises; the facilities must notify its physicians and patients in advance of its policy.
Centura issued a policy in February 2017 noting that it prohibits its employees from prescribing or dispensing medication for assisted suicides, or engaging in qualifying a patient for assisted suicide.
The policy does allow Centura physicians or providers to assist patients who request assisted suicide in transferring their care to a non-Centura facility.
The suit seeks a declaration that Centura may not prohibit Morris from providing assisted suicide, nor penalize her should she do so.
Morris’ employment was terminated by Centura Aug. 26.
Kaiser Health News reported Aug. 30 that Morris “had planned to help her patient … end his life at his home.”
Centura Health filed a request Aug. 30 that the suit be removed from the Arapahoe district court to the US District Court for the District of Colorado.
Centura requested the transfer to federal court because the suit raises federal questions involving the First Amendment and federal statutes.
It noted that it is a religious organization, and that the doctrines of is sponsors, the Catholic and Seventh-day Adventist healthcare ministries, “govern, direct and inform” its activities.
The group added that when Morris signed an employment agreement with Centura Health-St. Anthony Hospital in 2017, “she expressly agreed that she would not provide any services ‘that are in violation of the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services.’”
Morris told Kaiser Health News she was “shellshocked” at being fired, saying, “it seemed so obvious that they can’t do it.”
JoNel Aleccia wrote at KHN that “Morris said she understood that Centura was religiously affiliated when she was hired but didn’t anticipate a problem.”
Morris said that “I didn’t think it was going to affect my general family practice. Until these conversations about medical aid-in-dying, I hadn’t felt any interference.”
Centura Health’s request for removal stated that “rather than encouraging patient Cornelius Mahoney to receive care consistent with … Catholic doctrine or transferring care to other providers, Dr. Morris has, within her employment, encouraged an option that she knew was morally unacceptable to her employer. It was her employer’s religious judgment that her conduct in relation to Mr. Mahoney violated the religious principles upon which the Hospital operates and warranted the termination of her employment.”
Centura said Aug. 29 that it “expects all our caregivers to act in a manner consistent with our Mission and Core Values,” Kaiser Health News reported.
Wendy Forbes, a Centura spokeswoman, told Kaiser Health News: “We believe the freedom of religion doctrine at the heart of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution supports our policies as a Christian health-care ministry. We will vigorously defend our Constitutional rights.”
Archdiocese of Denver spokesman Mark Haas said that “asking a Christian hospital to play any role in violating the dignity of human life is asking the Christian hospital to compromise its values and core mission. This is not the hospital forcing its beliefs upon others, but rather having outside views forced upon it.”
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