A Reflection on the Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14-30)

Jesus tells about the parable of the landowner who went away and left various talents with his servants, who then they did different things with those talents. One who possessed five talents of gold or silver was a multimillionaire by today's standards. Some calculate the Hebrew talent to be equivalent to 20 years of wages for the common worker. According to my dictionary, other scholars estimate it more conservatively, valuing between $1,000 to $30,000 US dollars. We are talking of a big amount of money here especially during those times.

Some, when they hear the word “talent” may not think about money right away, but the other definition in my dictionary, a natural capacity or gift like a talent for music or sports.

What is helpful for us in applying this parable is to remember that just as the money that was entrusted to the servants by the landowner, was not theirs to do with what they want it, so too the talents are gifts that God has given to us. They are not our own. In fact, our entire life is something that is entrusted to us for a purpose. We are not here to serve ourselves. We are not the landowner, God is. We are here on earth to serve God and we do that by using our talents and gifts for His honor and glory and not our own.

I’d like to share with you a story: In a highly competitive basketball tournament, the underdog team emerged as one of the finalists after winning one game after another. A few hours before the championship game, a reporter asked the coach, “No one was expecting your team to advance in the championship. What made your team win game after game? The coach replied, “Everyone knew what he had to give. And each one gave more than what was expected from him.”

So brothers and sisters, love does not think in terms of minimum requirements, it always asks what more can I do to show you I love you.

CBCP President on the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge

THE ‘ice-bucket challenge’ seems to be the most recent rave with national personalities joining in. Throughout the world, and now, even in the Philippines, people recognize the nobility of the cause: research on the dreaded Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), more popularly known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease.

The anchor Matt Lauer participated in the "ice bucket challenge".

Act of Compassion not a Fad

Mitch Albom poignantly chronicled the deterioration of one stricken with the disease in his very popular book “Tuesdays with Morrie”. Those from older generations may recall how Lou Gehrig bade the world of baseball — and the world — a moving farewell after having been diagnosed with the disease. It is therefore disturbing, to say the least, that some have trivialized the ‘ice-bucket challenge’ by making of the act of dousing oneself with iced water a fad, rather than a gesture of solidarity with all who suffer from the disease and with those who do research on its alleviation.

Embryonic Stem Cell Research?

There have been disturbing reports, however, that ALS research involves the use of stem-cells, and this is not surprising. ALS is a degenerative disorder and stem-cells apparently hold out the promise of reversing the death and degeneration of brain cells, in particular. Stem-cells however are most readily harvested from embryos, and it is in this regard that this type of research is ethically problematic.

On February 22, 1987, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued an “Instruction on Respect for Human Life in Its Origin and on the Dignity of Procreation.” In respect to experimentation on embryos, the Instruction teaches: “No objective, even though noble in itself such as a foreseeable advantage to science, to other human beings, or to society, can in any way justify experimentation on living human embryos or fetuses…To use human embryos or fetuses as the object or instrument of experimentation constitutes a crime against their dignity as human beings having a right to the same respect that is due to the child already born and to every human person.”

It is therefore even more condemnable when embryos are destroyed so that their pluripotent stem cells may be harvested for research for even therapeutic purposes.

It is no better when embryos are the result of ‘in vitro’ fertilization, developed purposely as a source of stem cells. The same Instruction reiterates Catholic teaching in bioethics: “Human embryos obtained in vitro are human beings and subjects with rights. Their dignity and right to life must be respected from the first moment of their existence. It is immoral to produce human embryos destined to be exploited as disposable ‘biological material’”.

ALS Association and Stem Cell Research

A statement issued by the ALS Association on stem cell research contains this declaration: “Most stem-cell research in ALS is currently focused on iPS cells, which are not burdened with ethical issues.” We are told that iPS cells are “induced pluripotent stem cells”, stem cells created from skin cells. Such cells would indeed be pluripotent, but would not be embryonic cells. As such, the ethical objection to the use of embryonic cells, whether harvested from embryos, or obtained through in vitro fertilization, would not arise. What is troubling, however, is that the very same ALS statement, in admitting that iPS cells are used in “most stem-cell research” leaves open the possibility that stem cells from objectionable sources are still used!

We are not prepared to say that the ALS Association, that has promoted the ice-bucket challenge, and all those involved in ALS research are engaged in the unethical practice of using embryonic cells. The importance of ALS research cannot be overstated. Research must proceed, for so many suffer. Human intelligence and skill must conquer this dreadful malady, because it is for this purpose that we have been given dominion over the earth as its stewards. But we must also guide the Catholic faithful, and all who heed the ethical teaching of the Church.

Pastoral Ethical Guideline

As a pastoral guideline, we therefore urge those participating in the ice-bucket challenge and making donations to ALS research to make a clear and unequivocal declaration that their donation is made on condition that none of it is to be applied to research that involves the use of embryonic stem cells, in vivo or in vitro.

Catholics who participate in the challenge and who make donations to this research must also demand of fund-raisers and organizers an assurance that none of the donations made will be applied to researches that are ethically reproved.

As long as research on ALS as well as other debilitating conditions such as Parkinson’s Diseases and Alzheimer’s keep within the confines of the ethical demands of human dignity, they will be encouraged by the Church, and our Catholic faithful will be urged to support them with generosity and with charity for all who suffer.

August 27, 2014, Feast of Saint Monica

+ SOCRATES VILLEGAS
Archbishop of Lingayen-Dagupan
President, CBCP

A Reflection on St. Augustine (August 28)

Today, we celebrate the feast of our Holy Father St. Augustine, Bishop and Doctor of the Church. One of his famous lines goes “our heart is restless until it rests in God”, but many of us may have allowed our hearts to be "anesthetized"; no longer a heart of flesh so to speak; but a heart of stone, as a line of one popular song goes, “kung ako’y muling iibig sana di maging katulad mo, tulad mo na may pusong bato”, no longer in love, and no longer in search for God.

Augustine was educated by his mother Monica in the Christian faith, but as he grew he moved away from it. He studied; he had fun that even led to an immoral life; he knew ‘intense’ love; and began a brilliant career as a teacher. He had arrived in every way. But in his heart, there remained the restlessness of the search for the profound meaning of life.

His autobiography called “The Confessions” is a story of how he went from looking for love in all the wrong places to being found by God Who is Love Himself. Here’s how St. Augustine put it:  “Late have I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved you! You were within me, but I was outside, and it was there that I searched for you.”

Augustine went on looking for happiness, for God, in the things of creation...and all along, God was very near...in fact, within him. Restlessness always seeks the good of others. It always pushes us forward to go out and encounter the others without waiting for the others to tell us what they need. To have a restless heart means to be always in love.

A Reflection on St. Monica (August 27)

 Do you find life difficult? Do you sometimes feel desperate? Did anybody tell you that you’re impossible? Today, we celebrate the memorial of St. Monica and her life will give us a hint to our questions. Monica lived in North Africa and was a Christian wife of a pagan husband. Her husband had some redeeming features, but he had a violent temper and was licentious. Monica also had to bear with a grouchy and irritable mother-in-law who lived in her home. Monica’s prayers and example finally won her husband and mother-in-law to Christianity. Her husband died a year after his baptism.

They had three children and one of them named Augustine was involved in a strange sect called the Manicheans. Augustine also had a mistress and fathered a child out of wedlock. For thirty years, Monica prayed and cried for him.

The circumstances of St. Monica’s life could have made her a nagging wife, a bitter daughter-in-law and a despairing mother, yet she did not give way to any of these temptations.  She continually fasted, prayed, and wept on her son’s behalf. When Monica asked the bishop to put pressure on her son, he told her, “let him be and continue to pray for him. It’s impossible that a son of so many tears should be lost.” What was lost was indeed found. Jesus brought the lost sheep Augustine to the true faith and a moral lifestyle. This lost son is now known as St. Augustine whose feast we celebrate tomorrow. St. Monica is a good example not only of the power of prayer united with tears and suffering, but also of patience. St. Monica showed us that it is not hopeless and we are not hopeless.

Banana Reflection

In a Nutrition Seminar that we attended, the doctor said that bananas contain tryptophan, a type of protein that the body converts into serotonin, and serotonin helps make you feel relaxed, happy and in control.

Though I am not a Biochemistry freak, I think that it's true! I've been eating bananas every night and even though I am already tired or preoccupied by many things or facing the difficult challenges of the week, or checking a Latin quiz with a very low grade, or listening to an unsatisfactory Medieval Church History recitation, I still feel happy.  

More than the bananas, I know that there must be something spiritual. Bananas are given to me with a smile by the Seminary fathers who know that I need sustenance before my nightly routine. The environment where in seminarians and priests serve the Lord wholeheartedly counts. And, of course, the faith that God never abandons you. Well, I guess, it's more than just bananas... but I'll take two for tonight.

Meditation for the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

IN THE YEAR OF THE LAITY…

A MONTH FOR MERCY!

Meditation for the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus during the Year of the Laity

Responding to the urging of not a few of our lay faithful, men and women – young people among them! – we would like to consecrate this month of June 2014, during this YEAR OF THE LAITY, to the Heart of Jesus.

But urged also by the example of Pope Francis, as well as by the recent canonization of Saint John Paul II, who created the Divine Mercy feast, we would like to focus this month of renewed Sacred Heart devotion to the Divine Mercy, — as incarnated, embodied, symbolized in the Pierced Heart of Jesus, the crucified and risen Lord.

Pope Francis, from the first days of his papacy, has been preaching insistently and passionately on God’s constant and untiring mercy, and on the primacy of the Church’s mission of mercy and compassion. Mercy – both divine and human, — is so much needed today in a troubled, confused, and divided world, with so much brokenness, sin and injustice, with a secularized culture that has no place for God.

Pope Francis speaks of our world’s urgent need to return to the unbounded mercy and untiring patience of God towards sinners, toward our human weaknesses and failures. And “it is Jesus who shows us this merciful patience of the loving and forgiving God.” “It is there, in the wounds of Jesus, that … we encounter the boundless love of his Heart.”

The Holy Father also reminds us that we encounter Jesus by living out his compassion and mercy towards our brothers and sisters who are in need of our own compassion and mercy, — brothers and sisters in poverty, suffering, loneliness, brokenness, difficulty and despair.

Like Thomas the Apostle in the Gospel (John 20), our life will only be changed when we touch Christ’s wounds present in the poor, the sick and the needy. . . . The path of our encounter with Jesus is his wounds. There is no other.” (Pope Francis, 3 July 2013)

The Church, People of God and Body of Christ on earth, must thus also become more and more truly “the Church of Mercy”. Where may we then draw the profound grace and spirituality which can and will renew the primacy of Mercy – both divine and human – in and for our own lives and the life of the Church? Christian spiritual tradition; the constant teaching of so many of our Popes; and the lives of the Saints give us one clear and certain answer– from the Pierced Heart of Jesus on the Cross.

This in turn urges us to seek from the Lord a renewed, genuine conversion of heart, and a true reviving and deepening of “the spirituality of the Heart of Jesus” in our lives! This must necessarily involve a renewal and intensification of prayer and devotion in faith and interior life, yes, but it will also call for ongoing earnest, self-sacrificing deeds of love, justice and compassion toward our brothers and sisters. We need to go out from our “comfort-zones” and go forth to give ourselves to others – to “the poor” – in deeds of charity, sharing; in deeds of justice and merciful love.

We are called to consecrate ourselves and our lives anew to the Pierced Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary; earnestly to return to the Eucharist and the sacramental life, and the practice of the corporal and spiritual works of mercy.

Dear faithful people of God, above all – dear lay people, — men and women, adults and young people: Can we make June 2014 of this Year of the Laity a “really special month dedicated to MERCY from the PIERCED HEART OF JESUS”? Can we make this a month wherein by God’s grace the Divine Mercy can fill out our own hearts and lives, can bring conversion into our lives, and through us radiate in some very true way in our communities, our parishes …? A month when we will earnestly ask the Hearts of Jesus and Mary to change us – yes, even little by little – to the likeness of their own hearts, through prayer and devotion, and through deeds of self-giving mercy, compassion, justice and self-sacrifice?

Dear brothers and sisters, our laity and young people above all, what will our response be? The Lord’s Pierced Heart awaits the sincere response of our hearts.

From the Cathedral of Saint John the Evangelist, Dagupan City, June 8, 2014, Pentecost Sunday

+SOCRATES B. VILLEGAS

Archbishop of Lingayen Dagupan

Images of Santa Magdalena de Nagasaki (1611-1634)

ICONOGRAPHIC REPRESENTATION 

AS A DOMINICAN TERTIARY

 Processional Image of Sta. Magdalene de Nagasaki

in Santo Domingo Church, Quezon City, Philippines

Sta. Magdalena of Japan in the Torment of the Pit (Tsurushi 釣殺し) 
illustrated by J. Puigart and J. Miró published in a book (Lit. Hurtado, Barcelona, Spain).

 Computer Painting  of Sta. Magdalene de Nagasaki

by Filipino Kevin Angelo R. Eguia

 A Contemporary Sketch of Sta. Magdalene de Nagasaki

by Filipino Vincent Galileo Loiz (2001)

 A Painting of Sta. Magdalene de Nagasaki

                               One of the Women Martyr depicted in this Painting 
                                                is Sta. Magdalene de Nagasaki

ICONOGRAPHIC REPRESENTATION 

AS AN AUGUSTINIAN RECOLLECT TERTIARY

Sta. Magdalene of Nagasaki is also honored 

by the Augustinian Recollect Sisters in the Philippines by placing a painting of her 

(depicting her in a kimono with the black Augustinian cincture/belt) 
at their Tagaste Retreat House,

named after Santa Monica de Tagaste (Mother of St. Augustine), established in 1991 

and located along Magallanes Drive, Tagaytay City, Province of Cavite, Philippines

Oil painting of Sta. Magdalene de Nagasaki 
at  the Seminary of St. Ezekiel de Pozos de Santa Ana (Costa Rica)

Collage of Sta. Magdalene de Nagasaki

 by Esteban Peña, OAR

Contemporary Drawing 

of Sta. Magdalene de Nagasaki 

by Gonzalo Tassier

The Official Image of St. Magdalene of Nagasaki by Adriano Ambrosioni

                     Oil Painting of Sta. Magdalena de Nagasaki by Giovanni Hajnal 

                           at the Curia of the Order of St. Augustine in Rome, Italy

Sta. Magdalene of Nagasaki in the book "Vivorum illustrium arctioris discalceatorum instituti in eremitano divi augustini ordine athletarum : IV centenario di Fondazione dell'Ordine degli Agostiniani Scalzi (1592-1992)" by Himlstejn-De Groos, (Prague, 1674)

Oil painting of Sta. Magdalene of Nagasaki

by Ida Lucio at the International College of Saint Ildefonso in Rome, Italy

The Recollect Martyrs of Japan, including Magdalene, in the General History of OAR, 2. Engraving by Claudio Coello (1683).

Sketch by Rafael Nieto, OAR. Augustinian Recollects. Marcilla (Navarra, Spain).

Stained Glass Window by Rafael Nieto, OAR. Provincial Curia of St. Thomas (Madrid)

Drawing by Gonzalo Tassier

Augustinian Heaven. Stained Glass Window. Stone Church. City of Panama (2002)

Image of Sta. Magdalena de Nagasaki in San Sebastian Church in Manila, Philippines

                    A Painting entitled "Tre Maddalene" (Three Magdalenes), 1634
                  depicted by Andrea Sacchi in the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica 
                           (National Gallery of Ancient Art) in Rome, Italy.
         It depicts St. Mary Magdalene at the center, St. Magdalene de Pazzi on the left
       and St. Magdalene of Japan on the right wearing the Augustianian Recollect Habit

_________

PRAYER

V. Pray for us Sta. Magdalena de Nagasaki,

R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

Let Us Pray:

O God, fountain and origin of all fatherhood, you made Sta. Magdalena faithful to the Cross of Christ to the point of shedding their blood; grant through their intercession, that, spreading Your love among the brethren, we may be called and become in reality Your Children. Through Jesus Christ Our Lord. Amen.

A Beautiful Story of Love

A very poor man lived with his wife.

One day, his wife, who had very long hair asked him to buy her a comb for her hair to grow well and to be well-groomed.

The man felt very sorry and said no. He explained that he did not even have enough money to fix the strap of his watch he had just broken.

She did not insist on her request.

The man went to work and passed by a watch shop, sold his damaged watch at a low price and went to buy a comb for his wife.

He came home in the evening with the comb in his hand ready to give to his wife.

He was surprised when he saw his wife with a very short hair cut.

She had sold her hair and was holding a new watch band.

Tears flowed simultaneously from their eyes, not for the futility of their actions, but for the reciprocity of their love.

MORAL: To love is nothing, to be loved is something but to love and to be loved by the one you love,that is EVERYTHING. Never take love for granted.

Statement on Assassination of Farmer leader in Porac

The National Secretariat for Social Action, Justice and Peace/ Caritas Philippines (CBCP-NASSA), social advocacy arm of the Philippine Catholic Church, strongly condemns the senseless and brutal assassination of farmer leader Menelao “Melon” Barcia on May 2, 2014 in Purok 3, Barangay Manibaug Paralaya in Porac, Pampanga. Barcia was the third, in six months who was killed in relation to land reform.

It is saddening and infuriating that another farmer leader was killed for the second time in Hacienda Dolores. Threats and fear continuously surrounds the whole community, while they are still in the process of asserting their land rights amidst the threats and harassment of the contesting landowner.

Together with some 300 farmer-families, Barcia demanded the distribution of Hacienda Dolores under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP). They are only requesting a portion of the 761.1 hectares of agricultural land in the Hacienda which they have been cultivating for more than 50 years.

The death of Melon Barcia and Armand Padino (January 2014) who were fighting for the piece of land they were tilling for a long time, only reflects the inability of the Philippine government to protect the landless farmers against wealthy and politically influential landlords. In an apparent attempt to sow fear and dampen the spirits of the poor tillers struggling for their rights, the killing of Barcia is a clear and shameful act of intimidation and violence against the poor and struggling farmers. The fact that it was repeated within a few months reflects impunity on the part of law and justice enforcers.

The Church, in its prophetic ministry of promoting social justice, stands in solidarity with the small farmers and indigenous peoples in Porac to their struggle for their rightful claim for the land.

In support of the call of the Archdiocese of San Fernando, Pampanga, we urge the government to uphold the law and protect the rights of the farmers and Aeta communities in Porac. We demand the Office of the Presidential Adviser for Special Concerns and the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) to immediately act on the resolution of the land conflict in Hacienda Dolores particularly the ancestral domain and the CARP issues. We urge the Department of Justice and the Commission on Human Rights to conduct an immediate and thorough investigation, identify the perpetrators and masterminds, and bring them to justice. We also urge the lay faithful to be brave in defending justice and sacredness of life and dignity, especially for the poor and defenseless.

+ BRODERICK S. PABILLO, DD
National Director, NASSA

+ ROLANDO J. TRIA TIRONA, OCD
Chairman, ECSA-JP


May 10, 2014

Statement of the Asian Conference on the Family 2014

Introduction

We, 551 participants, lay faithful, religious and clergy, coming from 14 Asian countries, 60 Philippine dioceses and 20 lay associations, gathered in Manila from 13 to 16 May 2014 to celebrate with exuberant joy the thirty years since the Charter of the Rights of the Family was promulgated. With us was the Secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Family, Bishop Jean Laffitte, as well as 28 bishops and some men and women of other faith traditions.

The Charter of Rights of the Family

The Charter manifests that nothing authentically human fails to find an echo in the heart of each believer (Gaudium et Spes, n. 1). It expresses what we hold to be the basic framework within which the human family—any human family, every human family—can form, flourish and fulfill its mission.

50 years since Vatican II

In the past 50 years, the world has been undergoing great changes in the economic, social, political, cultural and religious spheres. Affected by these changes is the most basic human institution, the family. In fact, the family itself has been the primary beneficiary and victim of these changes, which have become challenges to families all over the world.

Challenges and Threats

These challenges present themselves as threats to the very existence of the family itself. Abortion kills the very life without which no family can exist. Contraception and sterilization – and a contraceptive mentality which refuses to shoulder the responsibility of having children – threaten the procreative purpose of marriage and the family by attacking the very wellsprings of human life. The advocacy for same-sex marriages likewise attempts to reduce marriage to a sterile relationship between people of the same sex.

An amnesia of God and moral relativism

A consumeristic, materialistic and individualistic culture that suffers from an amnesia of God (Pope Benedict XVI) and is fed by a certain liberal and moral relativism has also threatened the family by breeding lifestyles harmful to family living. And so people live, motivated not so much by the cultivation of healthy human relationships but driven rather by the desire for money, pleasure and success. The outcome is a society where fidelity and commitment come in short supply and are subordinated to the accumulation of possessions and the achievement of personal ambitions; hence, the widespread phenomenon of divorce and marital infidelity.

Poverty breeds moral desolation

Looming large like a storm cloud whose waters can drown the family is the poverty that afflicts billions of people in our continent. This poverty has resulted in conditions which make moral living almost impossible, and has become a fertile field of temptations for impoverished families to surrender their own human dignity in order to meet the economic requirements of survival. Poverty is the fertile ground for pornography, cybercrimes, prostitution, human trafficking, slavery, and other practices that dehumanize and divide members of families. Poverty has also driven people to seek means of livelihood that separate husbands and wives from each other and from their children. Thus, poverty, the deprivation of the necessities for decent human living, has led to the destruction of families.

The ambiguity of affluence

If poverty is gravely harmful to the family, affluence also affects families destructively if it is not tempered by a sense of solidarity with others, especially the poor. Affluence, when enjoyed in a self-centered manner, can only result in the destruction of the lives of individuals and families through hedonism and extravagance.

Threats from other institutions

Compounding the threats to the family are governments and other social institutions that militate against life and the family through coercive measures that run counter to the rights of individuals, couples and families to flourish according to the natural law and the laws of the Church. This natural law we refer to is the participation of human beings in God’s eternal law, a participation inscribed in our very humanity and can be discovered by the light of reason aided by the grace of God. Governments that promote contraception, abortion, sterilization, coercive population control, divorce, same-sex marriages and euthanasia, destroy families which they are duty-bound to protect and foster.

A tsunami of evils

The result of all of these and other threats to family life is a tsunami of evils threatening to engulf families today, whether they be rich or poor.

The family is dear to the heart of God

But the present changes present not only threats but opportunities for families. We believe that the family is especially dear to the heart of God, for the family is the first social institution established by God to foster, defend and promote human life and human love. It is by way of the family, that the good of society, of humanity and of the Church herself passes (CRF, Preamble, K). Because it is so precious to God, it must also be most highly valued by us. Thank God, we in Asia do. Because the family is so valuable and because God wants the future of humanity to pass through the human family, we must safeguard, protect, foster and promote the family. We – each one of us, all of us – must individually and together do this for what is at stake is the future of humanity.

Therefore, we must continue to insist that:

– the family is based on marriage, that intimate union of life in complementarity between a man and a woman which is constituted in the freely contracted and publicly expressed indissoluble bond of matrimony and is open to the transmission of life;

– marriage is the natural institution to which the mission of transmitting life is exclusively entrusted;

– the family, a natural society, exists prior to the State or any other community, and possesses inherent rights which are inalienable (CRF, Preamble, B-D).

Because the family exists prior to the State, we should not allow the State to encroach upon the inherent and inalienable rights of families.

We urge respect for every human life

We urge respect for every human life from conception to natural death and echo the words of St. John Paul II, the saint of the family, who called upon the faithful in Asian countries “where the demographic question is often used as an argument for the need to introduce abortion and artificial population control programs, to resist ‘the culture of death’. They can show their fidelity to God and their commitment to true human promotion by supporting and participating in programs which defend the life of those who are powerless to defend themselves” (Ecclesia in Asia, n. 35).

The family and the destiny of nations

We should also ensure that the family remains “the place where different generations come together and help one another to grow in human wisdom and to harmonize the rights of individuals with other demands of social life” (CRF, Preamble, F). We should realize that our place in human history comes by way of our family.

The need for social equity

We commit ourselves and we urge our Asian societies to work for a more equitable sharing in the goods of this world so as to enable all families to have their rightful share in this world’s goods.

The family and the Church as sacrament

We in the Catholic Church have a special obligation to protect and promote the human family and the Christian family. For the Church is of its nature a sacrament of salvation which both signifies and effects the union of God with human beings and the union of human beings with each other (LG 1). Hence, what makes for the unity of human beings should be protected and fostered by the Church. The family is, of course, most necessary for the union of human beings with each other. But we in the Church should especially protect and foster the Christian family because it is the basic unit of the Church, the domestic Church, the Church in the home. As the Christian family goes, so goes the Church. If the Christian family is strong, the Church will be strong. If the Christian family is weak, the Church will be weak.

The Church protects the family

But it is also true that the Church is the most potent protector of the family. If the Church cannot protect the family, the family will be left without much protection. But if the Church is vigorous in protecting and fostering the family, the family will be protected and flourish.

Governments must protect the family

We urge governments to consider seriously the Charter on the Rights of the Family in the formulation of policies affecting the family. We pledge ourselves to encourage dialogue with our respective governments on matters affecting the family.

The witness of families…

During this assembly, we have heard and seen couples and young people witness how the Christian family has been a powerful transmitter of Gospel values, and of the Good News itself. Where Christ is accepted in faith and imitated in love, there also Christian values are protected and transmitted and the Christian family is strengthened.

…under the sign of the Cross

In this assembly, we wish to express our solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Asia and in other parts of the world who are prevented from expressing their faith in God by oppressive cultural systems and government policies.

With brothers and sisters of other faiths…

We have come to appreciate more through the sharing of our brothers and sisters who are of other faiths that they are also our allies in transmitting to our future generations the values of God and his Kingdom.

We choose life!

Today, we are challenged to choose between life and death for the human family. If we choose life and obey the law of God written in our hearts, we shall live (cf. Dt 30:19f). We in this assembly choose life for the family! We will pray and work for the protection, preservation, and flourishing of every human family.

Encouraged by one another, we are joyful missionaries!

Strengthened by the testimony of those who have given witness in this assembly, encouraged by our togetherness and sharing, and fortified by the Spirit of the Lord, we go forth in joy to make of the family and especially the Christian family Good News for the salvation of the world. We shall be joyful missionaries for the family, proclaiming the Gospel of life and love so as to be “a voice in public life” on behalf of freedom and justice that cannot be silenced by force (cf. Evangelii Gaudium, n. 74).

The Holy Family, the Family of Life

We ask the Holy Family of the Lord Jesus Christ – who is Life (Jn 14:6) – the Blessed Virgin Mary – Mother of Life (cf. Jn 19:26f; cf. Rev 12:1-6) – and St. Joseph – Guardian of Life (Mt 3:13-23) – to intercede for us in our prayer and work for the family to the praise and glory of the Blessed Trinity.

May 16, 2014

Survivors: Pope Francis saved many in dirty wars

by DEBORA REY | Associated Press

SAN MIGUEL, Argentina (AP) — Gonzalo Mosca was a radical on the run. Hunted by Uruguay's dictators, he fled to Argentina, where he narrowly escaped a military raid on his hideout. "I thought that they would kill me at any moment," Mosca says.

With nowhere else to turn, he called his brother, a Jesuit priest, who put him in touch with the man he credits with saving his life: Jorge Mario Bergoglio.

It was 1976, South America's dictatorship era, and the future Pope Francis was a 30-something leader of Argentina's Jesuit order. At the time, the country's church hierarchy openly sided with the military junta as it kidnapped, tortured and killed thousands of leftists like Mosca.

Critics have argued that Bergoglio's public silence in the face of that repression made him complicit, too, and they warn against what they see as historical revisionism designed to burnish the reputation of a now-popular pope.

But the chilling accounts of survivors who credit Bergoglio with saving their lives are hard to deny. They say he conspired right under the soldiers' noses at the theological seminary he directed, providing refuge and safe passage to dozens of priests, seminarians and political dissidents marked for elimination by the 1976-1983 military regime.

Mosca was 27 then, a member of a leftist political movement banned by the military government in his home country of Uruguay. Bergoglio answered his call, and rode with him for nearly 20 miles (30 kilometers) to the Colegio Maximo in suburban San Miguel.

"He gave me instructions: 'If they stop us, tell them you're going to a spiritual retreat,' and 'Try to keep yourself a bit hidden,'" Mosca recalled in an interview with The Associated Press.

Mosca said he could hardly breathe until they had passed through the seminary's heavy iron doors, but Bergoglio was very calm.

"He made me wonder if he really understood the trouble he was getting into. If they grabbed us together, they would have marched us both off," said Mosca, who stayed hidden in the seminary for days, until Bergoglio got him an airplane ticket to Brazil.

Soldiers prowled inside the walled gardens, sniffing for fugitives. But a full raid on the spiritual center was out of the question since Argentina's dictators had cloaked themselves in the mantle of Roman Catholic nationalism. And a constant flow of people masked Bergoglio's scheming from an air force outpost next door.

Several new books assert that Bergoglio's public silence enabled him to save more people.

"Bergoglio's List," by Vatican reporter Nello Scavo, is already being developed into a movie, its title playing on the "Schindler's List" film about the Nazi businessman whose subterfuge saved hundreds of Jewish prisoners during the Holocaust.

Marcelo Larraquy, author of "Pray for Him," told the AP that Bergoglio saved "20 or 30" people. Scavo said about 100 owe him their lives. Both authors say the full number will likely never be known, largely because Bergoglio remains so circumspect.

Like many Argentines, Bergoglio "remained silent in the face of atrocity," but he was determined to thwart the death squads when he could, said Larraquy, who runs investigations for the Argentine newspaper Clarin. "He used back channels, did not complain in public and, meanwhile, he was saving people who sought refuge in the Colegio."

"He locked them up in the compound, gave them help and food, and set up a logistical network to get them out of the country," Larraquy added. "But his condition for giving them refuge was that they had to give up all political activism."

New ways of thinking were running through the lower ranks of Latin America's Catholic Church in the 1970s, influenced by Vatican II reforms announced in 1965. Many lay workers and clergy embraced "liberation theology," which promoted social justice for the poor.

Many were politically active and some were Marxist, but others were simply committed social workers. The right-wing military made few distinctions. Priests as well as Catholic lay workers began to disappear at the hands of death squads.

Sitting in a seminary garden whose tranquility was broken only by the gurgling of a fountain and leaves rustling in the breeze, theologian Juan Carlos Scannone quietly told the AP of the terror he felt decades ago.

Scannone said he was targeted because he promoted a non-Marxist "theology of the people" and worked with slum-dwellers in the city's "misery villages." He said Bergoglio not only defended him against criticism within the church, but personally delivered his writings for publication even when the military was trying to find him.

"It was risky," Scannone said. "Bergoglio told me never to go out alone, that I take someone along so that there would be witnesses if I disappeared."

Scannone said he "wrote a lot about the philosophy of liberation and the theology of liberation, which at the time was a naughty word ... Bergoglio would read it and tell me, 'Don't mail this from San Miguel, because it could be censored,' and he would mail them from Buenos Aires with no return address."

His recollection suggests Francis' view on liberation theology may have always been more nuanced than some of his critics suggested before he became pope. Francis still draws a line against Marxism, but has helped rehabilitate some liberation theologists. The movement's founder, Gustavo Gutierrez, received applause this year during a book presentation at the Vatican.

Bergoglio also intervened, at the request of outspoken Bishop Enrique Angelelli, to save three seminarians after Catholic lay workers were killed in western La Rioja province in 1976. The seminarians were being followed by the same death squads and accused of being "contaminated with Marxist ideas." No one else would take them.

Bergoglio was able to rescue Mario La Civita, Enrique Martinez and Raul Gonzalez just as Angelelli was assassinated in August 1976.

"I watched him save lives," La Civita recalled. "It was a difficult time because two or three soldiers were always walking around in the back of the compound. Bergoglio had a strategy of generating confidence in them so that they wouldn't think he had people hidden."

But Bergoglio couldn*t save everyone he tried to help.

Esther Ballestrino de Careaga, a communist who had been Bergoglio's boss in a laboratory before he became a priest, pleaded with him to hide the Marxist literature in her house after her daughter was kidnapped and son-in-law disappeared. "Those were the books that Bergoglio fought (against), but he carried them away anyway," Larraquy said.

A short while later, she co-founded the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, publicly demanding that the junta account for the missing. Soon, she disappeared.

Bergoglio's role was more ambiguous in the case of two slum priests, Orlando Yorio and Francisco Jalics. He supported their social work, but not their political activism, much less their contacts with armed revolutionaries, and he made them quit the Jesuit order, leaving them without church protection, Larraquy said.

"Bergoglio told them to abandon their political project in the slum, and they refused; they were insubordinate," Larraquy said.

Yorio, Jalics and some Catholic lay workers were seized a short time later after holding Mass, and taken to the regime's clandestine torture center inside the Navy Mechanics School.

Bergoglio testified as part of a human rights trial in 2010 that he persuaded another priest to fake an illness so that he could hold a private Mass for dictator Jorge Videla and personally plead for the Jesuits' release. They were set free in October 1976, left drugged and blindfolded in a field.

"Bergoglio contributed by helping the persecuted, and he dedicated himself to obtaining the release of his kidnapped priests. Still, he didn't participate at the time in the fight against the military dictatorship in defense of human rights," said Adolfo Perez Esquivel, whose human rights work in Argentina won him the Nobel Peace Prize.

Very few other detainees emerged alive from the Mechanics School, and when Bergoglio testified, he didn't reveal any new details about the others who disappeared, "even when their families are demanding an answer," complained human rights lawyer Myriam Bregman.

Bregman says Francis should clear up doubts by opening the church's archives.

"We've asked for it and we keep waiting. The church was part of the dictatorship, it was a direct accomplice, and today it continues without revealing all that it has in its archives," Bregman said.

Mosca sides with Bergoglio. Referring to Yorio and Jalics, Mosca said: "He did not hesitate in risking everything for my cause. He didn't know me. If he did all that for me, how much would he have done for those two?"

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Associated Press writer Nicole Winfield at the Vatican contributed to this report.