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Rome, Italy, Dec 8, 2021 / 18:19 pm (CNA).
Pope Francis has encouraged young people suffering from addiction to take an honest look at their suffering, and courageously to invite Christ into their lives.
“Do not be afraid of reality— of the truth— of our miseries,” the pope said during a Dec. 8 visit to the Rome headquarters of the Cenacolo Community.
“Don’t be afraid, because Jesus likes reality as it is, not made up; the Lord doesn’t like people who make up their souls, who make up their hearts.”
The Cenacolo Community was founded in Italy in 1983 to support young people experiencing addiction or marginalization. The community has since expanded to include houses in nearly two dozen countries, including the United States.
The pope spent about two hours at the headquarters. He met with several families and young people involved in the community, and 25 brothers and sisters of the local Good Samaritan fraternity.
He watched a film on the life of St. Joseph that was produced by members of two fraternities in Medjugorje. He also blessed a chapel at the headquarters that was entirely constructed by recycled materials, to symbolize the renewal of life of each person in the Cenacle Community.
The pope listened to the stories of the young people present, and encouraged them to continue sharing their stories, in order to help others who may find themselves in similar situations.
“Have the courage to say: ‘I think that there is a better way’,” the pope said.
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Pope Francis reflected on the dangers of coveting wealth and possessions during his Angelus reflection in St. Peter’s Square in Rome on July 31, 2022. / Vatican Media
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 31, 2022 / 06:32 am (CNA).
A day after returning to Rome from his weeklong trip to Canada, Pope Francis on Sunday reflected on the dangers of coveting wealth and possessions.
In Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus responds to a man who wants his brother to share his inheritance with him. “Take care to guard against all greed,” Jesus tells the crowd, “for though one may be rich, one’s life does not consist of possessions” (Lk. 12:15).
The Holy Father noted that rather than entering into the details of the man’s situation, he “goes to the root of the divisions caused by the possession of things”: covetousness.
“What is covetousness? It is the unbridled greed for possessions, always desiring to be rich,” the pope said, speaking to pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square before the weekly recitation of the Angelus.
“This is an illness that destroys people, because the hunger for possessions creates an addiction. Above all, those who have a lot are never content, they always want more, and only for themselves. But this way, the person is no longer free: he or she is attached to, a slave, of what paradoxically was meant to serve them so as to live freely and serenely,” Pope Francis warned.
“Rather than being served by money, the person becomes a servant of money.”
The pope identified covetousness as a “dangerous illness for society as well,” pointing to the greed that fuels wars and in particular the “scandal” of the arms trade.
“And so, let us try to ask ourselves: Where am I at with my detachment from possessions, from wealth?” the pope asked. “Do I complain about what I lack, or do I know how to be content with what I have? In the name of money or opportunity, am I tempted to sacrifice relationships and sacrifice time with others? And yet again, does it happen that I sacrifice legality and honesty on the altar of covetousness?”
Pope Francis reflected on the dangers of coveting wealth and possessions during his Angelus reflection in St. Peter’s Square in Rome on July 31, 2022. Vatican Media
The pope next shifted to focus on the “richness” of God.
“And so, we might think, so, no one should desire to get rich? Certainly, you can; rather, it is right to want it. It is beautiful to become rich, but rich according to God! God is the richest of anyone,” he said.
“He is rich in compassion, in mercy. His riches do not impoverish anyone, do not create quarrels and divisions. It is a richness that knows how to give, to distribute, to share. Brothers and sisters, accumulating material goods is not enough to live well, for Jesus says also that life does not consist in what one possesses (see Lk 12:15). It depends, instead, on good relationships – with God, with others, and even with those who have less.”
The pope continued: “So, let us ask ourselves: For myself, how do I want to get rich? Do I want to get rich according to God or according to my covetousness? And, returning to the topic of inheritance, what legacy do I want to leave? Money in the bank, material things, or happy people around me, good works that are not forgotten, people that I have helped to grow and mature?”
Pope Francis concluded by asking Our Lady, who shared in God’s riches, to “help us understand what the true goods of life are, the ones that last forever.”
Following his reflection, the pope thanked all those who assisted him on his trip to Canada, while assuring those suffering from the war in Ukraine that they remain in his prayers.
“Also, during this journey, I did not cease praying for the suffering and battered Ukrainian people, asking God to free them from the scourge of war,” Pope Francis said.
“If one looked at what is happening objectively, considering the harm that war brings every day to those people, and even to the entire world, the only reasonable thing to do would be to stop and negotiate,” he added. “May wisdom inspire concrete steps toward peace.”
CNA Staff, Nov 2, 2020 / 03:30 am (CNA).- Polish pro-lifers are inviting Catholics around the world to join a global rosary initiative that launched on Sunday.
The “Rosary to the Gates of Heaven” event, which takes place Nov. 1-8, ho… […]
London, England, Mar 7, 2019 / 03:36 am (CNA).- Next month, the United Kingdom will roll out new online restrictions in an attempt to protect children under the age of 18 from accessing pornography.
Digital Minister Matt Hancock signed a commencement order for the Digital Economy Act in 2017. After two years of development, the program will be released on April 1.
To view online pornography, internet users will need to confirm their age by entering information from a driver’s license, credit card, or passport. If users do not wish to input their personal information, they may purchase a special ID card, available at thousands of retail shops across the nation for under £10.
Websites that fail to follow the age verification rules may face a nearly $330,000 fine or be blocked by the country’s internet service providers.
Matt Fradd, author of The Porn Myth and creator of the new 21-day porn detox STRIVE, voiced support for increased restrictions surrounding pornography.
“If it’s something as simple as age verification, I’m all for it,” he told CNA. “It just sounds like we are expecting the same thing of people online that we already expect of them offline.”
The most popular verification service is called AgeID and was built by MindGeek, which operates and owns several common pornographic sites.
Some critics of the new UK policy say it violates the privacy and safety of pornography users. Others argue that it does not go far enough to protect minors.
“It may make it harder for children to stumble across pornography, especially in the younger age range, but it will do nothing to stop determined teenagers,” said Dr. Victoria Nash, deputy director of the Oxford Internet Institute, according to BirminghamLive.
Dr. Joss Wright, senior research fellow at the institute, added that the new policy raises “privacy issues – you’re requiring people to effectively announce the fact they are looking at this material to the credit card authorities. And there’s serious security issues from requiring people to enter their credit card details into untrusted sites.”
The UK’s National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) said the age verification is a valuable first step, but that other measures need to be taken alongside it.
“The NSPCC is calling for social networks to be required by law to give under-18s safe accounts with extra protections built in, so that children are kept as safe online as they are in the real world,” read a statement from the organization, according to BirminghamLive.
Fradd said the restrictions are enforcing age requirements that are already established offline. He said there is often confusion among parents about the seriousness of material viewed online compared to explicit material accessed in stores or movie theaters.
“Imagine a 17-year-old going to watch 50 Shades of [Grey] and being turned away and within five minutes looking at something a hundred times worse on their phone. So either allow children to watch 50 Shades of Grey and buy pornography from stores, or be consistent and require age verification,” he said.
Children’s access to online pornography has been identified as a significant problem: A 2016 study by internet security company Bitdefender found that about 1 in 10 visitors to porn video sites is under age 10.
Fight the New Drug, an organization that works to fight pornography addiction, has highlighted numerous studies showing negative effects of pornography on underage users, including the creation of addictions, changes in sexual taste, and physical impact on the brain.
“Just more broadly, I would say pornography perverts a child’s understanding of human intimacy and sexual life, which is a very beautiful thing,” Fradd stressed.
“It’s as pernicious as sex is beautiful and human intimacy is worthwhile. Since those two things are beautiful and worthwhile, the corruption of it [in regards to] a child is all together something despicable and horrid.”
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