Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish
Pope urges faithful to overcome selfishness with Lenten charity
By Benjamin Mann
Vatican City, Feb 7, 2012 / 08:10 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The Catholic Church must demonstrate the power of love and show the limitations of an individualistic worldview, Pope Benedict XVI taught in a Lenten message released two weeks before Ash Wednesday.
In the letter released Feb. 7, the Pope contrasted an ethic of “custody' of others,” with “a mentality that, by reducing life exclusively to its earthly dimension … accepts any moral choice in the name of personal freedom.”
A society with this mindset, he warned, “can become blind to physical sufferings and to the spiritual and moral demands of life. This must not be the case in the Christian community!”
The Pope's message for Lent of 2012, which begins Feb. 22, drew from the New Testament's Letter to the Hebrews – particularly the verse that proclaims, “Let us be concerned for each other, to stir a response in love and good works.”
“All too often, however, our attitude is just the opposite,” Pope Benedict observed, describing “an indifference and disinterest born of selfishness and masked as a respect for 'privacy.'”
“Today too, the Lord’s voice summons all of us to be concerned for one another. Even today God asks us to be 'guardians' of our brothers and sisters, to establish relationships based on mutual consideration and attentiveness to the well-being, the integral well-being of others.”
He encouraged believers “to recognize in others a true 'alter ego,' infinitely loved by the Lord.”
“If we cultivate this way of seeing others as our brothers and sisters, solidarity, justice, mercy and compassion will naturally well up in our hearts.”
But when this love and care for others diminishes, social and global problems correspondingly increase.
The Pope cited the words of his predecessor, the Servant of God Paul VI, who declared that the world was “sorely ill” – with a sickness caused not by material factors, but by selfishness and “the weakening of brotherly ties between individuals and nations.”
“Contemporary culture seems to have lost the sense of good and evil,” Pope Benedict said, as he warned about the danger of “a sort of 'spiritual anesthesia' which numbs us to the suffering of others.”
“What hinders this humane and loving gaze towards our brothers and sisters?” he asked.
“Often it is the possession of material riches and a sense of sufficiency, but it can also be the tendency to put our own interests and problems above all else.”
“We should never be incapable of showing mercy towards those who suffer. Our hearts should never be so wrapped up in our affairs and problems that they fail to hear the cry of the poor.”
Yet even when the world's love grows cold, goodness “does exist and will prevail – because God is 'generous and acts generously',” through those who work on behalf of “life, brotherhood, and communion.”
“In a world which demands of Christians a renewed witness of love and fidelity to the Lord, may all of us feel the urgent need to anticipate one another in charity, service and good works,” the Pope stated, as he called all believers to practice the traditional Lenten disciplines of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.
“This is a favorable time to renew our journey of faith, both as individuals and as a community, with the help of the word of God and the sacraments. This journey is one marked by prayer and sharing, silence and fasting, in anticipation of the joy of Easter.”
All of these ancient practices are meant to help the faithful grow in charity – which Pope Benedict described as “the very heart of Christian life.”
Catholic Conference 2012 (with ROOTS Program)
Open Wide the Doors...Welcome the New Evangelization
March 9 - 10
Location: The Coast Plaza Hotel and Conference Centre Calgary
Keynote Speaker: Steve Angrisano & Archbishop Gerard Pettipas
Hosted by: Alberta Conference of Catholic Bishops & Alberta Catholic School Trustees' Association
The 2012 Catholic Conference brings together adults from across Alberta and the Northwest Territories in a celebration of faith and learning. Join us and our Catholic faith community as we learn and grow under the theme Open Wide the Doors ... Welcome the New Evangelization! The objectives of the 2012 Catholic Conference are:
- Celebrating 50 years of the Second Vatican Council
- Realizing the spirit of the Second Vatican Council
- Renewing the energy of the Second Vatican Council
- Nourishing our Catholic faith
- Worshipping in Word and Sacrament
This year the conference features a wide-range of speakers addressing topics ranging from marriage, faith and culture to pastoral and palliative care and interchurch relationships. As well, our ROOTS Program will also run concurrently with the conference. And will feature internationally recognized keynote speakers: Steve Angrisano and Archbishop Gerard Pettipas.
Conference registration fee:
Adult Conference Registration fee: $190 ($200 for registration after February 24, 2012) GST exempt.
Fees include lunch and refreshment breaks on Saturday.
Registrations received prior to February 24, 2012 will receive confirmation by mail, including name tags and session tickets.
Cancellations are subject to a $40 processing fee.
Registrations received after February 24, 2012 will receive their package at The Coast Plaza Hotel and Conference Centre Calgary on Friday, March 9, 2012.
Please wear your conference name tag and bring your session tickets with you to your Saturday sessions. There is a $30 fee for replacement name tags and/or session tickets.
Register Now
Obama using state coercion against religious, Rep. Smith charges By Kevin J. Jones
Washington D.C., Feb 9, 2012 / 09:00 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- President Barack Obama’s decision to require religious employers to provide insurance coverage for contraception and sterilization is an “unconscionable” violation of religious freedom, Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) says.
“President Obama is using the coercive power of the state to force people of faith and people of conscience to violate a fundamental conviction or suffer severe penalty,” Rep. Smith said Feb. 9.
“By coercing all health insurers including faith-based institutions to pay for all means of preventive programs including subsidizing abortifacients like Ella and Plan B, President Obama demonstrates a reckless disregard for conscience rights,” he stated.
“Everyone must comply regardless of moral convictions or religious tenets simply because Obama says so.”
The Department of Health and Human Services mandate will require many Catholic health care providers, educational institutions and charities to provide employees with no-co-pay insurance coverage for sterilization and contraception.
The narrow religious exemption for the mandate is narrow and does not cover many religious institutions.
The Catholic media network EWTN has filed lawsuit against the rule. Network president and CEO Michael Warsaw said the rule forces EWTN to use donations to pay for objectionable coverage and to tell employees how to obtain the drugs or procedures.
Failure to provide the mandated insurance policies means the network could face fines of over $600,000 annually. The HHS department will assess a fine of $2,000 per employee on an annual basis.
Rep. Smith charged that President Obama’s attitude on conscience fits “a dangerous emerging pattern.”
He cited the withdrawal of a federal grant to a U.S. bishops’ conference program that helps victims of human trafficking because the conference would not refer for abortions.
“If Obama’s attack on conscience rights isn’t reversed, faith-based employers will be discriminated against and fined, and employees who today benefit from health insurance plans provided by their faith-based employer will be dumped into government health exchanges,” he said.
The congressman said that Republican House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has made religious freedom protection a “high priority.” Boehner announced on Feb. 8 that fellow congressman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) was preparing legislation to repeal the mandate.
While there have been rumors of a compromise on the mandate, Bishop William E. Lori of Bridgeport,Conn. told CNA in a Feb. 8 statement that no one from the Obama administration has approached theU.S. bishops’ conference for discussion.
Bishop Lori, chair of the bishops’ committee for religious liberty, said “the only acceptable solution” is for the administration to rescind “completely” the mandate to cover abortion-inducing drugs, sterilization and contraception.