Vatican City, Jun 26, 2017 / 04:34 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The Vatican’s top personality on social justice issues has voiced his concern for the increased demand for drugs, including recreational marijuana, saying debate on the plant’s usage doesn’t take ethical concerns into account.
In a June 26 letter on the occasion of the U.N. International Day against Abuse and Illicit Trafficking of Drugs, Cardinal Peter Turkson lamented the fact that narcotics “continue to rage in impressive forms and dimensions” throughout the world.
“It is a phenomenon that is fueled – not without concessions and compromises on the part of institutions – by a shameful market that crosses national and continental borders, intertwined with mafias and drug trafficking,” he said.
Prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, Cardinal Turkson noted that compared to the recent past, drugs have now become “a consumer product made compatible with everyday life, with leisure activity and even with the pursuit of well-being.”
Pointing specifically to cocaine, he noted that the drug is linked to the spread of heroin, which at 80 percent represents the highest number of new requests for opioid-related treatments in Europe.
However, despite the high numbers for heroin and opioid treatment requests, the cardinal noted that “the most commonly consumed recreational drug is cannabis.”
The current, raging international debate on the use of the drug “tends to overlook the ethical judgment of the substance, by definition negative as with any other drug,” he said, pointing to the current focus on its possible therapeutic uses.
This, he stressed, is “a field in which we await scientific data to be validated by monitoring periods, as for any experiment worthy of public consideration.”
According to September 2016 report from the Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, which compared marijuana-related statistics from previous years in Colorado to data from 2013-2015, the first years after the legalization of recreational marijuana in the state, the prospects of the drug’s increased use are grim.
Not only have the number of marijuana-related deaths, hospitalizations and traffic accidents increased since the drug’s recreational use was legalized, there has also been growing concern over marijuana-related crime and a decrease in the IQ of youths who use it.
But before making a firm decision on the issue that is perhaps based on various prejudices, Cardinal Turkson said it would be better to first “understand trends in the use of cannabis, related damages and the consequences of regulatory policies in the various countries.”
It’s especially important to recognize the factors “which push the illegal market to develop products intended to affect patterns of consumption and to reaffirm the primacy of the desire that is compulsively satisfied by the substance.”
On this point, concern has grown for many that the recreational use of marijuana is often a gateway for youth to become addicted, and eventually move on to other drugs such as cocaine, heroin, ecstasy, or meth.
In addition to voicing his concerns on marijuana, heroin, and the dangers of using them to improve one’s “wellbeing,” Cardinal Turkson also pointed to the risks of other addictive behaviors such as gambling, saying its legalization, even in cases aimed at unmasking its criminal managers, “exponentially increases the number of pathological players.”
“Moreover, taxation by the state is to be considered incompatible from an ethical standpoint and contradictory in terms of prevention,” he said, adding that the development of “models of intervention and adequate monitoring systems, associated with the allocation of funds, is highly desirable to tackle the phenomenon.”
The cardinal noted that as the array of addictions continues to diversify, “indifference and at times indirect complicity in this phenomenon contributes to diverting the attention of public opinion and governments, focused on other emergencies.”
Plans to fight the increasing demand for drugs often collapse, he said, explaining that the present-day state of addictions shows “gaps in planning, policies and prospects,” which in turn is a sign of “sluggish progress” in the face of the drug market, “which is highly competitive and flexible to demand, and always open to novelties such as recently-created, extremely powerful synthetic opiates, ecstasy and amphetamines.”
“It is precisely the growing and widespread consumption of ecstasy that may serve as an indicator of how the use of illicit substances has now spread into everyday areas of life,” he said, adding that it could also be an indication of how the ecstasy user no longer identifies with the heroin addict, but “with the new profile of the user of multiple substances and alcohol.”
Because of this, strategies of intervention can’t depend solely on reduced damage, “nor can drugs still be considered as a phenomenon that is collusive with social disorder and deviance.”
Rather, damage reduction “must necessarily involve taking on board both the toxicological aspect and integration with personalized therapeutic programs of a psycho-social nature, without giving rise to forms of chronic use, which are harmful to the person and ethically reprehensible,” the cardinal said.
Cardinal Turkson stressed the importance of not seeing the addict as a problem to be solved or as being beyond the hope of rehabilitation.
To consider people as irrecoverable, he said, “is an act of capitulation that denies the psychological dynamics of change and offers an alibi for disengagement from the addict and the institutions that have the task of preventing and treating.”
“It cannot be accepted that society metabolizes drug use as a chronic epochal trait, similar to alcoholism and tobacco, withdrawing from exchange on the margins of freedom of the state and the citizen in relation to substance use,” he said.
The cardinal recognized that there is no singular cause of drug use, but rather a panorama of causes including the absence of a family, various social pressures, the propaganda of drug dealers, and even the desire to have new experiences.
“Every drug addict has a unique personal story and must be listened to, understood, loved, and, insofar as possible, healed and purified,” he said.
“We cannot stoop to the injustice of categorizing drug addicts as if they were mere objects or broken machines; each person must be valued and appreciated in his or her dignity in order to enable them to be healed.”
For the cardinal, part of this process means finding effective means of prevention, beginning with education.
“The scenario which we must all face is marked by the loss of the ancient primacy of the family and the school, the emptying of authority of adult figures and the difficulties that arise in terms of parenting,” he said, stressing that this is not time for “protagonism,” but rather for “networks” that are capable of “reactivating social educational synergies by overcoming unnecessary competition, delegation and forms of dereliction.”
“To prevent young people from growing up without care, bred rather than educated, attracted by ‘healing prosthetics,’ as drugs appear to them, all social actors must connect and invest in the shared ground of basic and indispensable education values aiming at the integral formation of the person.”
In this regard, educational aspects “are crucial,” he said, especially during adolescence, when youth are more vulnerable, and at the same time curious and prone to periods of depression and apathy.
Youth look for the “vertigo that makes them feel alive,” he said, quoting Pope Francis. “So, let us give it to them! Let us stimulate all that which helps them transform their dreams into plans, and that can reveal that all the potential they have is a bridge, a passage towards a vocation.”
“Let us propose broad aims to them, great challenges, and let us help them achieve them, to reach their targets. Let us not leave them alone.”
In order to combat the ephemeral happiness of addictions, a “creative love” is needed, Cardinal Turkson said, as well as the presence of adults capable of both teaching and practicing healthy self-care.
“A spiritual vision of existence, projected towards the search for meaning, open to the encounter with others, constitutes the greatest educational legacy that must be handed down between generations, today more than ever,” he said.
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How much longer, Lord?
“ But yet the Son of man, when he cometh, shall he find, think you, faith on earth?”
Whether or not Christ finds Faith on Earth is up to us, not God . We must be Faithful and call out the counterfeit church with it’s counterfeit pope and it’s counterfeit magisterium that is attempting to subsist within The One Body Of Christ because they desire to lead others astray from The Deposit Of Faith, and create a god in their own image.
How can we “make disciples of all Nations”, while allowing certain disciples to deny Jesus The Christ?
Those whose”competence it is”, know what needs to be done to save The Papacy from the usurpers.
Pray they have the courage to call out the apostates!
Rather than be accused of gossip this comment will unmistakably be a constructive analysis. Rumor has it that Cdl McElroy is a Pope Francis favoriti. “He’s the cardinal who is most aligned with Pope Francis” (this proves the rumor is more fact than fictitious gossip).
Why should this matter? Doesn’t everyone have their favorites and their deplorables? I’d like for a minute to talk about the deplorables. Deplorables [made famous by Hillary] are a large group, moreso that favoriti. Take the US as a starter, we have Archbishops of much larger Dioceses than San Diego [where favoriti McElroy became cardinal], Denver, San Francisco. Archbishops Aquila and Cordileone must be deplorables. We also have deplorable Cardinals Raymond Burke, Gerhard Muller [Burke evicted from his Vatican apartment by Francis, Muller stripped of his staff when CDF prefect, immediately dismissed at 75, lately a thorn].
Getting back to favoriti McElroy Wash DC is likely the most prestigious US diocese, once the see of the unfortunate Theodore McCarrick. Without envisioning too far afield like the papacy that position is a type of chiefdom within American hierarchy. Since his appointment to San Diego he convened three Synods [of the Synodality kind] in that diocese, and Nov 12, 2024 Cardinal Robert McElroy has proposed that the US bishops set up a task force to implement the agenda of Synod on Synodality (CatholicVote org). Apparently McElroy will be Pope Francis’ Synodality point man and enforcer in the US.
This makes a lot of sense, that Cardinal McElroy is the point man for the pope. It’s also BAD news for American Catholics.
Thanks!! for the heads up.
Let’s pray for faithful priests to overcome the evil that is being done.
A shrewd political operator for the most political of U.S. cities. Even if this appointment seemed inevitable, I am sorry for faithful traditional Catholics in the Archdiocese of Washington who have already lost so much under Traditionis Custodes. I think of someone like Msgr. Charles Pope and pray that he, and they, do not lose more.
Although Cardinal McElroy is known for being outspoken on political and social issues, I believe the Archbishop of Washington, DC, has no jurisdiction over the House, Senate or White House. So his direct influence there is limited. As I understand, Catholic Senators and Representatives “belong” to their home diocese and relatively few elected officials claim residence in the District of Columbia or the Maryland counties included in tbe diocese. The White House operates largely by its own rules. That doesn’t mean that the Archbishop of Washington can’t have indirect influence over national political leaders, as was witnessed in the years when Cardinal McCarrick was in charge. But McElroy enters the DC scene at a major transitional point, and he won’t find the same degree of welcome that he would have found under a Biden administration.
The Washington Post will prop up his insipid pseudo-Christian neo-DEI bromides while even secular liberals tire of it.
True that.
Cardinal McElroy will get more media attention than he did in San Diego, that’s for sure. He will provide the sound bites that the DC based media establishment craves. He’ll also fit in well with the very liberal DC government.
Whether he will actually have more widespread influence to the point of swaying more people, includng Catholics, to his point of view .. well, that remains to be seen. Is the Archbishop of Washington actually looked at as a de facto national leader because of his location in the nation’s capitol? Doesn’t seem like it.
This appointment ain’t gonna play in Peoria.
The Faithful must not continue to ignore the fact that “ it is a sin to accommodate an occasion of sin”, and thus cooperate with those who profess to be Catholic, while they deny The Deposit Of Faith, which is evil.
We have Catholic politicians that constantly violate the laws of our faith and the pope tells them go ahead with receive communion. We need a new pope.
“This appointment ain’t gonna play in Peoria.”
Oh, I don’t know. Have you been in Peoria, IL lately? Really sad, IMO.
Some have claimed that many of Francis’ numerous appointments to the College of Cardinals are far more conservative than one would suspect given the inclinations of the pope who named them. We’ll see if that turns out to be true. A lot of them are so obscure that I don’t think anyone can confidently predict where they’ll come down one way or another.
There is no doubt about any of his American picks, however. They are absolutely the worst selections imaginable, save, perhaps certain famous certain celebrity Jesuits who otherwise seem very much favored by Francis. Francis has a special animus toward American conservative Catholics. This outrageous appointment is just the latest middle finger to a group of people he genuinely detests.
I think Pope Francis thinks all Americans are really rich. Of course, compared to many countries, we do have a lot of people who are earning a decent living and of course, many who are very wealthy. But we still have a lot of poor, disenfranchised, homeless, under-educated, addicted people, and we still have plenty of racism victims in the U.S.
We are not the “Beverly Hills” that I think some people think we are; e.g., “There are no cats in American and the street are made of cheese! (from the movie, An American Tail). Those immigrant mice found out that there are plenty of cats in America, and the streets are definitely NOT made of cheese!
But the opportunity to make a good life in the U.S. still exists, and we still retain many of our freedoms.
We need a new pope
Noting the trifecta election results centered in DC, McElroy’s role in the wake of woke is somehow to put his thumb in the dike, or wherever.
Normal Appointment – coming from where it does…
https://www.fromrome.info/2020/02/05/vatican-intelligence-officer-i-am-a-freemason-and-so-is-bergoglio/
“His Eminence” McElroy = McCarrick, an apostate hierarch of “the-science-of-sanctifying-sodomy-now.”
He, like his promoter-of-pederasty the Pontiff Francis, are witch doctors of “the-cult-to-decapitate-the-Body-of-Christ.”
“His Eminence” McElroy, along with all of his fellow hierarchs of the McCarrick cult, are of the death cult of the dry wood, fit for the prophecy Jesus spoke to the women of Jerusalem, when he was being marched to his crucifixion.
Every church he enters will empty out of Christian faithful.
Mark my word, no faithful Catholic will listen to a word that comes from the mouth of Herr McElroy.
Pope Francis had declared he would make a special exception for the Africans’ “cultural” attitude to homosexualism. Ambongo seems to be able to work along with consequential discrepancies but Tawadros withdrew from the theological dialogue.
So if Pope Francis has homosexualism as “not a sin” also as “cultural phenomenon”, going on in his brain, then it would make sense to appoint McElroy to administer over the towers of confusion among different localities and gravitational points?
A Polyhedron with angles and vectors like Beauty = Truth and Unity = Goodness?
You know, I can understand our Lord saying let the wheat and cockle grow together until the appropriate time -as pastoral. But the Holy Father makes no sense a lot of the time; eg., things were going well with Tawadros only then to turn for the worst.
I concede that some of the exhortations don’t clarify areas that have no apparent reason to them.
Also it seems to me that none of those called in the Nativity epiphanies right up to the time of Joseph’s departure, was told he was sad, or flat, or apathetic, or resigned or trapped.
‘ Even in the darkest nights, a star shines. It is the star of Jesus, who comes to care for our fragile humanity. Let us set out towards Him. Let us not give apathy and resignation the power to trap us in the sadness of a flat life. ‘
https://x.com/Pontifex/status/1876607215177748711
Elias. As a measure for assessment, how would Saint Francis Xavier have responded if Pope Paul III had a worship ceremony for Aztec god Nahuatl [God of the sun and sacrifice] in the Vatican gardens to be followed by an enshrinement of the sun god by a group of singing dancing cardinals in the sanctuary of St Peter’s Basilica? Why was the overall reaction by the Church to the Pachamama idolatry so mild, compared to what we can safely presume would have occurred during Francis Xavier’s day?
Satan had already gained a grip on the Church with the replacement of Aztec human sacrifice with the much greater, worldwide sacrifice of prenatal infants. Homosexuality has a strange, perhaps not so strange diabolic nexus with the murder of infants, now including the sexual exploitation of children. Find an active homosexual who is against abortion. Find one who actively opposes the sexual exploitation of minors. A rarity.
What has occurred with the placement by Francis of McElroy, one, if not the most well educated, intellectual spokesman for abortion and homosexuality, is the solidification of a strategy to totally corrupt the remaining significant Roman Catholic body [putatively the rationale for Francis’ disdain], the American Catholic Church.
The McElroy appointment is about the Mercy Alone heresy flowing from Amoralist Laetitia.
The main reason for McElroy to DC is about the need to hide the sordid history of McCarrick. Watch out Wuerl! Gregory is going to want some of the millions. 💰 🤐
Where do we go from here, Lord, where do we go from here? Only to you, Lord, ONLY to you. Having defeated evil on the cross we pray and work, work and pray aspiring to be counted with your Faithful Remnant in eager anticipation of your 2nd Coming when evil is abolished, your Good Creation restored to the beautiful you intended your good creation to be.
I am a life-long Catholic, 78 years old, who was taught that this is Christ’s church.
I find myself wondering if the Pope and his favorites really believe his. Do they ask
“What does Christ want for His Church?” or Do they have their own personal idea of what
they want the Church to be, with of course an important place for them?
As I recall, Christ rebuked Apostles who were maneuvering to sit at His right hand.
He made it clear that that was not what He was about. Have our higher clergy ever read this passage?
My take is that Cardinal McElroy’s placement in the nation’s capital is a timely reminder from Pope Francis to Catholics in the U.S.. Given the second Trump administration, the rising tide of White Christian (and Catholic!) Nationalism, and the mainly anti-abortion only stand of most of pro-life activists, McElroy’s pulpit will blast the full and complete scope of what pro-life advocacy is. Cardinal McElroy has consistently preached that a consistent pro-life ethic must support not only the protection of life in the womb but also the protection of life outside the womb. Expounding Catholic Social Teachings on the sanctity of life, McElroy asserts, that Catholics are to live out their pro-life commitments in ways that reflect compassion, justice, and solidarity. This vision goes beyond merely opposing abortion or euthanasia; it encompasses a comprehensive approach that sees the life and dignity of each person as sacred, from conception to natural death, and it calls Catholics to act on behalf of those who are often disregarded by society. This means standing up for policies that defend the lost, the least, and the last, such as advocating for humane immigration policies, racial justice, and ensuring that LGBTQIA+ individuals have the same rights and dignity as others in society. Being the U.S. bishop most aligned with Pope Francis in environmental justice advocacy, Cardinal McElroy has also shown that ecological work is deeply intertwined with the pro-life movement, as the health of our environment directly impacts the dignity and survival of all life on Earth. Filling in what is often lacking in most pro-life advocacy initiatives and echoing Pope Francis, Cardinal McElroy proclaims the Catholic Social Teaching that the pro-life stance is not confined to opposing abortion or protecting the unborn; it extends to defending life in all its forms, and that includes caring for the planet that sustains all life.
Catholics in the Archdiocese of Washington will pay attention to Cardinal McElroy’s appointment but “Catholics in the US” probably.won’t. Because he has no jurisdiction over them. The head of the Washington Archdiocese not acquire any national standing simply because he is seated in the national’s capitol. This limits his ability to be the kind of transformative figure you are imagining.
Given that Cardinal Gregory also supports most of the positions cited above, there may not be many dramatic changes. McElroy may be more outspoken and may grab more media attention; whether he will be more assertive in making changes to the archdiocese remains to be seen, but his changes will be to the Archdiocese of Washington, and will not apply to the country as a whole.
And there are a lot of liberals and progressives in the DC area saying saying more or less the same things that Cardinal McElroy is saying, so he is not going to stand out as much as you may imagine.
This extended screed of sycophancy sounds as if McElroy wrote it himself.
I don’t think people should be segregated or categorized by alphabet letters or by other inventions like “race” Deacon Dom. We’re just human beings and from a biblical perspective, we are all instructed to obey the same Commandments. We can each struggle dufferently to keep the Commandments and Christ’s teachings. Some teachings are going to be harder for us than others but that doesn’t create special exemptions based upon our attractions or temptations.
More nonsense from the “Deacon” named Dom.
Cardinal McElroy is a leftist social justice warrior, Deacon. He does have that it in common with Pope Francis. I’m surprised (not really) that you didn’t mention that, like Francis, the good Cardinal has covered for molestors and had, and maybe still has, a great relationship with Ted McCarrick.
Deacon, would being pro-life include not repeating the childishly silly lies pro-aborts and the morally indifferent have been saying about pro-lifers?
Exactly what line of reasoning goes into creating the belief that being a parent or doctor or nurse or teacher or legislator or administrator or homemaker or cook or waiter or builder or truck driver or construction worker or anyone from any other background within the pro-life movement, would preclude having the human compassion you infer that pro-lifers do not have for anyone after they are born? Incidentally, pro-lifers are not only racially white as you also infer. And we also care about thousands of things.
What exactly have you done? Do you provide material aid for abortion turnarounds like we do, or do you just prefer to stereotype us and denigrate us while simultaneously lecturing us about learning “compassion.”
Deacon: Does caring for life also include caring for the victim of a depraved priest raping his victim in satanic rituals or brushing her aside as McElroy has done? Or does “mercy” include caring for and having mercy for the victims of a depraved serial rapist of nuns or protecting the rapist as Francis has done?
Is Jesus God incarnate? Is the Son of God the head of the Church? Although there are disconcerting events and actions in the physical Church, we cannot always discern the workings of the Trinity in this life or in the Church. Trust in God, trust in Christ, trust in the Holy Spirit. Let your faith be authenticate, your life holy from grace, your conscience clear, and serve and love others. May what is True and Good prevail in church life.
McElroy, Cupich, and Tobin have to be “elevated” by Francis if they are going to have any influence. Their brother bishops sure don’t seem inclined to give them any influential roles in the USCCB. They are like the teacher’s pet despised by the rest of the class.
The “elevation” of McElroy to the DC archdiocese will not elevate him; it will only degrade DC.
Trump will get the better of any match with McElroy.
After reading the article I thought, “What a whitewashed piece of journalism this is.” Then when I saw it was written by Hannah Brockhaus of CNA, I understood. CNA does not want Catholics to know how people like McElroy, Francis, and others cover up abuse. CNA never reports on seminarians who are drugged and sodomized like Mark Brooks was in San Diego, or Rachel Mastrogiacom whose ritual satanic abuse McElroy attempted to cover up.
Msgr., I’ve been saying for awhile now that what comes to us from CNA is utter trash. It’s a propaganda agent for Bergolioistas.
Have you been granted a declaration of nullity by a Diocesan Tribunal for your “marriage” to Leila, Gene and have you resumed presenting yourself as a Catholic Priest or do you prefer the title “Dad”?
Woke Doctorates be dammed!
At a web site where a fawning interview of the Cardinal occurred, where he went on and on preaching his pseudo-gospel of “inclusiveness,” I posed these comments.
It seems an incapacity to make rational distinctions is now the necessary criteria for becoming a cardinal in this pontificate. Oh, I forgot. The ability to not be inclusive towards the damaged victims of the savage sinful sexual crimes, ritual satanic abuse in one case, by priests that you, Cardinal covered up, that’s right, what you have systematically ignored. Why doesn’t “inclusiveness” seem to “include” the victims of grave sins??