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Vatican City, Oct 10, 2018 / 04:04 am (CNA/EWTN News).- In his general audience Wednesday, Pope Francis said that abortion “suppresses innocent and helpless life in its blossoming.”

“Is it right to take a human life to solve a problem? It’s like hiring a hitman,” Pope Francis said in St. Peter’s Square Oct. 10, in a departure from his prepared remarks.

“Violence and the rejection of life are born from fear,” the pope added.

For this reason, parents who learn that their unborn child will have a disability need “real closeness, true solidarity to face reality; overcoming understandable fears,” he explained.

Pope Francis lamented that parents receiving a difficult prenatal diagnosis often “receive hasty advice to stop the pregnancy.”

It is contradictory to suppress “human life in the womb in the name of safeguarding other rights,” the pope insisted.

“How can an act that suppresses innocent and helpless life in its blossoming be therapeutic, civil, or simply human?”

The pope’s remarks on abortion came during a reflection on the fifth commandment, “Thou shall not kill.” In recent weeks, the pope has dedicated his weekly general audiences to a series of lesson and reflections on the Ten Commandments recorded in the scriptural books of Exodus and Deuteronomy.

“One could say that all the evil done in the world is summarized in this: contempt for life,” Pope Francis told the pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square.

“What leads man to reject life? They are the idols of this world: money, power, success. These are incorrect parameters to evaluate life. The only authentic measure of life is love, the love with which God loves it!”

The positive meaning of the fifth commandment is that “God is a lover of life,” he continued.

“In every sick child, in every weak old man, in every desperate migrant, in every fragile and threatened life, Christ is looking for us, he is looking for our heart, to disclose the joy of love. It is worthwhile to accept every life because every man is worth the blood of Christ. We can not despise what God so loved!” Pope Francis said.

While a sick child or an elderly person who needs assistance can be viewed as a burden, this can actually be “a gift from God,” explained the pope. This vulnerable life can “pull me out of self-centeredness and make me grow in love.”

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Vatican City, Oct 9, 2018 / 05:01 pm (ACI Prensa).- Among those being canonized on Sunday are Fr. Franceso Spinelli, a diocesan priest through whose intercession a newborn was saved from death in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The child was born April 25, 2007 at a hospital in Kinshasa served by the Adorers of the Blessed Sacrament

The newborn and his mother were discharged three days after the baby was born. But on her way  home, the mom tripped and instinctively clutched the baby to herself, but so hard that that she induced a severe hemorrhage.

Returning to the hospital, the doctors tried to help him for 45 minutes. In order to save him they had to give him an emergency blood transfusion. But the baby’s condition was so bad that his veins were thinning, which made the procedure impossible.

Given the lack of technology at the hospital and the impossibility of quickly transferring him to another hospital, the doctors gave the baby up for dead.

While this was going on, Sister Adeline, the Adoration sister in charge of the hospital’s maternity unit, noted the serious condition of the baby and asked her community to pray that the child would survive.

The superior of the congregation, Sister Antonietta Musoni, asked the intercession of Fr. Spinelli and they began to prayer a novena to him.

Sister Adeline placed a holy card of Fr. Spinelli under the baby’s sheets and when the doctors made a final effort they miraculously found a vein just as big as an adult’s to give the blood transfusion.

With just three or four drops of blood the baby began to kick and cry. He completely recovered in a few hours.

The parents, realizing the miracle obtained through the intercession of the founding father of the Institute of the Adorers of the Blessed Sacrament, changed the name of their son from Ambrosio María Díaz to Francisco María Spinelli Díaz.

The child has grown up to be healthy, with no after-effects from that episode. Medical exams performed on the child during the process of investigating Fr. Spinelli’s cause demonstrated his perfect state of health.

Brief Biography

Francesco Spinelli was born in Milan April 14, 1853. He entered the seminary at Bergamo and was ordained a priest Oct. 17, 1875.

He began his apostolate educating the poor and at the same time he served as a seminary professor, spiritual director, and counselor for several women’s religious communities.

In 1882, Fr. Spinelli met Caterina Comensoli, with whom he would found the Institute of the Adorers of the Blessed Sacrament.

The sisters dedicated themselves to Eucharistic adoration day and night which inspired their service to the poor and suffering.

Due to several setbacks,  Fr. Spinelli  transferred from the Diocese of Bergamo to the Diocese of Cremona where he continued to lead the Adoration Institute in Rivolta d’Adda/

The priest died Feb. 6, 1913, and was buried in the church of the Adoration Sisters in Rivolta d’Adda. At that time, the institution had founded 68 communities in different countries.

Currently, the institute has around 250 communities in Italy, Congo, Senegal, Cameroon, Colombia, and Argentina. Their ministries include caring for people with HIV, orphans, drug addicts, and prisoners.
 
Fr. Spinelli was beatified by St. John Paul II June 21, 1992 at the Marian Shrine of Caravaggio.

He will be beatified Oct. 14 at the Vatican along with Paul VI, Bshop of Rome from 1963 to 1978; Oscar Romero, a martyr who was Archbishop of San Salvador from 1977 to 1980; Vincenzo Romano, a diocesan priest from Torre de Greco in Italy; Maria Caterina Kasper, a German nun and founder of the Institute of the Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ; and Nazaria Ignazia of Saint Teresa of Jesus, founder of the Congregation of the Misioneras Cruzadas de la Iglesia Sisters.

This article was originally published by our sister agency, ACI Prensa. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

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Vatican City, Oct 9, 2018 / 01:24 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Young Catholics, particularly clerics, need better formation on sexuality, affectivity, and the body, Cardinal Gérald Lacroix told reporters Tuesday, speaking about the 2018 Synod of Bishops… […]

Vatican City, Oct 9, 2018 / 10:57 am (CNA).-  
The synod of bishops on young people, the faith, and vocational discernment is being held at the Vatican Oct. 3-28.

CNA plans to provide a brief daily summary of the sessions, provided by the synodal fathers from Poland.

Please find below the Polish fathers’ summary of the Oct. 9 session:

The first session on October 9 was dedicated to thirteen reports collected in individual language groups. The novelty was that a Portuguese language group was included. The reports contained over 300 corrections.

“Every report has a different spirit since it reflects the character of the continent. The issues discussed in the reports concern the Instrumentum laboris. In the reports, a more positive look at youth is postulated, treating young people not as a group remaining next to the Church, but as a group belonging to the Church. The youth do not look at the Church, but are part of the great family that is the Church. Hence the desire that often appeared in today’s reports was that the Church would be presented as a great family, as well as a mother and teacher,” said Archbishop Stanisław Gądecki of Poznań.

Some reports were in the form of narratives, others in the form of remarks. “They primarily concerned postulates so that the Church would be more empathic today, forming, but at the same time supporting, various movements and liturgies,” noted Archbishop Gądecki.

The President of the Polish episcopate noted that the salvific mission, for which the Church was established and in which young people participate, was also emphasized. “Not only the baptized and confirmed young people, who are in the Church, but the young all over the world, of different cultures and beliefs. In this context, attention was paid to the formation of pastors who would have better contact with young people through a better pastoral strategy. At the same time, there was emphasized the need to educate young people, leading to a personal encounter with Christ in faith, grace, being a witness of Christ, and an active participation in building a world open to spiritual and evangelical realities,” said Archbishop Gądecki.

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Vatican City, Oct 9, 2018 / 06:16 am (CNA/EWTN News).- From his perspective inside the Vatican’s youth synod, Bishop Robert Barron, auxiliary bishop of Los Angeles, told CNA that participating bishops have real opportunities – through the unique … […]

Vatican City, Oct 8, 2018 / 04:01 pm (CNA).-  
The synod of bishops on young people, the faith, and vocational discernment is being held at the Vatican Oct. 3-28.

CNA plans to provide a brief daily summary of the sessions, provided by the synodal fathers from Poland.

Please find below the Polish fathers’ summary of the Oct. 8 session:

A compass for the Instrumentum Laboris, the irreplaceable role of both father and mother in the family, tasks of Catholic schools, and the importance of memory – these are some of the issues raised in language groups during the synod on Monday.

October 8 was entirely devoted to working in language groups.

“We tried to center our attention on the first part of the Instrumentum Laboris. We have found that this text needs a compass, that is, an orientation, that would give meaning to the whole. This compass could be the passage in the Gospel of John about the young man who brings five loaves and two fishes (Jn 6:9–13). The little that he has with him is distributed by Jesus and nourishes many people. This would indicate that every young person has something to offer not only to the Church but also to the world, simply because he or she exists and has gifts to share,” said Archbishop Stanisław Gądecki of Poznań, President of the Polish Bishops’ Conference.

Another topic was the attention to the fact that both the father and the mother are responsible for the family and share the duty of education in the family. “Not mother or father separately, but mother and father together, thus avoiding the phenomenons of paternalism or matriarchy, linked to the different situations on different continents. In the African context, it is the mother who bears the main responsible for the family’s life, whereas in other places in the world the father alone makes the decisions,” noted Archbishop Gądecki.

The third issue that the bishops talked about, and which was missing in the working document, is the ‘memory’, that Pope Francis often speaks about. “You have to give value to the memory. Young people tend to run towards the future, to diminish the value of the present, so they should be taught to appreciate memory,” emphasized Archbishop Gądecki.

The bishops also drew attention to the question of the Catholic schools, emphasizing the common good they create. “Catholic schools do not work for themselves, they are not only for Catholics, but they serve the common good. In this sense, they are worthy of state support, because they fill gaps that the state cannot fill,” said Archbishop Gądecki.

On Tuesday, October 9, the results of the group discussions will be presented in the Synod Aula.

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Vatican City, Oct 8, 2018 / 08:30 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Archbishop Charles J. Scicluna of Malta said that while the youth synod is not ignoring the sexual abuse crisis, Catholics looking for thorough answers should wait for a February 2019 meeting of bi… […]

Vatican City, Oct 8, 2018 / 03:10 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The president of the U.S.’ bishops’ conference said Sunday he welcomes the Vatican’s announcement of a further investigation into files on Archbishop Theodore McCarrick, praising … […]

Vatican City, Oct 7, 2018 / 05:05 am (CNA/EWTN News).- A married couple striving to faithfully live out their life-long commitment to each other, need both God’s grace and love that is anchored in self-gift, Pope Francis said Sunday.

“What allows married couples to remain united in marriage is a love of mutual self-giving sustained by the grace of Christ,” the pope said Oct. 7.

“If, on the other hand, individual interest and satisfaction prevail in the spouses, then their union cannot endure.”

He explained that if divorce or separation should happen, however, the Church does not condemn, but “on the contrary, faced with so many painful marital failures, she feels called to live her presence of love, of charity, of mercy, to bring back the wounded and lost hearts to God.”

The same mercy God shows to all his people when they fail through sin, “teaches us that wounded love can be healed by God through mercy and forgiveness,” Francis stated.

In his meditation before the Sunday Angelus, Pope Francis reflected on the day’s Gospel, when Jesus defends the permanency of marriage in the face of questioning by the Pharisees. Jesus explained that Moses allowed divorce, because of “the hardness of your hearts,” but that this does not correspond “to the original intention of the Creator.”

Jesus invokes a passage from the Book of Genesis, where it says, “God made them male and female. For this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.”

The pope noted Jesus’ words that “what God has joined together, no human being must separate.”

“This teaching of Jesus is very clear and defends the dignity of marriage, as a union of love that entails fidelity,” he said. In this Gospel passage, Jesus confirms God’s plan for marriage, not allowing for any exceptions to the permanent commitment of marriage.

“He does this to confirm the plan of God, in which the strength and beauty of human relationships stand out,” he said.

“The Church, on the one hand does not tire of confirming the beauty of the family as given to us by Scripture and Tradition; at the same time, she strives to make his maternal closeness felt concretely to those who live the experience of broken relationships or carry on in a painful and tiring way.”

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