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Vatican City, Oct 24, 2024 / 12:00 pm (CNA).

A prominent Italian theologian and archbishop has called Pope Francis' new encyclical on the Sacred Heart "the key to his entire pontificate" and "the inspiring motive of [his] whole ministry and magisterium."

Archbishop Bruno Forte of Chieti-Vasto presented Dilexit Nos ("He Loved Us") at a press conference at the Vatican on Oct. 24.

A prolific spiritual writer, Forte, who became a member of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith in June, called the encyclical "extremely timely" for its attention to "the centrality of God's love in Jesus Christ" and to the "dramatic challenges of the present time."

Pope Francis released Dilexit Nos on Thursday, calling for a renewed understanding of devotion to the Sacred Heart in the modern era and its many pressing challenges.

Forte said Pope Francis' magisterium is "far from being … restricted to social issues, as it has sometimes been clumsily understood," and his message "to the entire human family stems from a single spring, presented here in a more explicit, clear way: Christ the Lord, his love for humanity."

"It is the truth on which Jorge Mario Bergoglio has staked his whole life and continues to spend it passionately as bishop of Rome, pastor of the universal Church," the archbishop added.

He emphasized that the encyclical "can really be considered a compendium of everything that Pope Francis, the pope that God gave the Church in these not-easy years, wanted and wants to say to every brother and sister in humanity."

Forte presented the encyclical together with Sister Antonella Fraccaro, superior general of the Disciples of the Gospel (Discepole del Vangelo), who said: "The encyclical calls us to be missionaries."

We are called to be "missionaries," she added, "who transmit love, who love therefore with witness, with presence alone, with words when needed, without the need to engage in proselytism."

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Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 24, 2024 / 12:30 pm (CNA).

A Maryland school district has pulled two books with "LGBTQ+" characters from its curriculum amid an ongoing legal battle launched by concerned parents vying for the right to opt their children out of classroom lessons they say conflict with their religious faith.

The Washington Post reported on Thursday that it had discovered two books, "Pride Puppy" and "My Rainbow," had been pulled from the Montgomery County Public Schools' curriculum after school officials determined that the use of the texts "could require teachers to explicitly teach vocabulary terms outside the context of the lesson." The administrators have not clarified what they took issue with in the texts.

Both books remain available in school libraries.

Parents from diverse faith backgrounds — including Catholicism, Islam, and Orthodox Christianity — filed suit in May 2023 after the district announced it would no longer allow parents to opt out of lessons featuring literature that touches on homosexuality, transgenderism, and other aspects of gender ideology.

Becket, the religious freedom law firm representing the parents in Mahmoud v. Taylor, argued that the policy infringes upon parental rights and religious freedom that are guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution, Maryland law, and even the board's own policies.

In May, a federal appeals court ruled that the parents of children in the district did not have the right to opt out or receive notification of lessons featuring the books in advance. Becket has since appealed the ruling to the Supreme Court, which will decide later whether it will be on the docket. 

According to the school district's database cited by the Washington Post, "My Rainbow" had been used by teachers to help kindergarten through third-grade students "determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development" and to "summarize the key supporting details and ideas." Based on the life of its authors' Deshannah and Trinity Neal, the book follows the story of a mother who crafts a rainbow-colored wig for her trans-identifying child. 

Designated for pre-K through fifth-grade students, "Pride Puppy" follows the story of a family who attends a pride parade and has been used in the classroom to "ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a text, referring explicitly to the text as the basis for the answers." 

The books are among 20 sexuality and gender-related children's books added to the school district's curriculum in the fall of 2022.

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Vatican City, Oct 24, 2024 / 13:30 pm (CNA).

Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, on Wednesday cited some of the "gifts" that candidates for bishops must have, a decision reserved to the Holy Father but whose selection process will increasingly involve the participation of the "people of God."

At the beginning of his Oct. 23 address to journalists in Rome at the daily Synod on Synodality briefing, the cardinal said the question of the selection process for bishops in each episcopal conference and the way in which it is carried out has been one of the issues discussed during the synod.

"The question is: How can this process of searching for candidates be made more synodal and include the greatest participation not only of bishops but of priests, religious, and laypeople?" Prevost said.

One of the most important functions of the apostolic nuncios is to participate in this selection process. The Vatican "ambassadors" play a crucial role in the selection of candidates.

This new approach oriented toward a "synodal" style requires, according to the cardinal, that the nuncio "know the people well" during pastoral visits and that they not just be "received by the parish priest" and participate in the ceremonies.

It is also necessary to "get in touch with parish groups" to listen to their problems and reflect on the ways in which the Church can be strengthened.

The criteria for selecting a bishop

Asked about the "criteria" necessary for selecting bishops, Prevost emphasized both their universal character and, at the same time, their specificity due to the particular areas in which they are carried out.

"We ask the nuncios to draw up reports that will then be sent to the dicastery and subsequently presented to the Holy Father," which include a series of aspects about the candidate.

Among some of these requirements, the prelate mentioned the candidate's "worthiness" in addition to the study on whether he has had "serious problems that no one knows anything about," certain health problems, "or if there are other aspects" in his background "that would make him not a good candidate."

"But we also look at the specific dioceses and their needs. That's why the apostolic nuncio is in charge of reporting not only about the bishops but also about the priests, laypeople, and religious. To know what the diocese is like, its needs, and what bishop they need," he added.

The cardinal pointed out that this closeness to the people of God should exist as long as the apostolic nuncio "does his job correctly" — that is, studying the local situation, speaking with the people, and looking for ways to find the best candidate.

He noted that Pope Francis has spoken many times about these criteria, highlighting "the smell of sheep" that bishops must have as a result of walking alongside the people of God and even "suffering with them."

In addition, he pointed out that a candidate must also have the gift of leadership, sometimes even in "communities that have many good priests," but without a good leader, "they're going nowhere."

'Shepherds who walk with the people of God'

Prevost spoke about the pastoral duties of bishops, who are not "business administrators only dedicated to organizations and structural and ceremonial matters."

"They have to be shepherds who walk joyfully with the people of God," he said.

The prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, which is responsible for everything related to the constitution and provision of the particular Churches and the exercise of the episcopal function in the Church, emphasized that prelates are also called to be "judged and evaluated" on their actions and attitudes. For the cardinal, "the tension of being pastors and being evaluated is what it means to be bishops."

In this regard, he quoted the Holy Father, recalling that the only authority of bishops "is to serve," and he insisted on the importance of "changing the entire dynamic and paradigm of the structure of power," with an eye to the service that a bishop must exercise toward all the members of his diocese.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA's Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

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CNA Staff, Oct 24, 2024 / 14:00 pm (CNA).

Local, state, and federal officials are investigating an apparent act of arson that has shuttered a Massachusetts Catholic parish.

The Franklin Fire Department in Massachusetts said in a Facebook post on Wednesday night that it responded to a fire at St. Mary Church in Franklin in the Archdiocese of Boston.

"A fire in the rear sacristy was quickly extinguished by the initial arriving crews," the department said. "There was a significant amount of smoke throughout the entire church."

Firefighters "remained on scene for a period of time to ventilate the building," the department said.

In a press release on Thursday afternoon, the state Department of Fire Services said the blaze "is being investigated as arson."

Local investigators were joined by state officials as well as agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) in investigating the fire, the department said.

"Based on an examination of the scene, witness interviews, and other evidence gathered throughout last night and this morning, they collectively determined that the fire was intentionally set," the press release said.

Franklin Fire Chief James McLaughlin had told CNA earlier on Thursday morning that there was "a thorough, ongoing investigation" of the cause of the fire.

The chief said it appeared the church "is going to be out of service for a while," in part because it "sustained a lot of smoke damage."

"There was going to be a funeral for a pastor today [Thursday]," McLaughlin added. "It's very unfortunate."

The parish was set to celebrate a funeral Mass for the late Father John Sullivan, who passed away on Oct. 13 at the age of 76. The priest had served at the parish since 2012 and retired in the spring of this year while continuing to maintain a residence there.

On its Facebook page on Wednesday, St. Mary Parish said Sullivan's funeral service was canceled "and will be rescheduled at a future day and time."

The parish in another post said that "no activities will be held in the church building until further notice."

St. Mary's was established as a parish in 1877. The cornerstone of the present church building was laid in 1923, according to the parish's history timeline. Older church buildings had been destroyed by fires in 1900 and 1923.

Several other Catholic churches in the U.S. have recently suffered fires. An early-morning fire on Oct. 18 severely damaged St. Anthony of Padua Church in Casa Grande, Arizona.

A Catholic church in Florida, meanwhile, has suffered multiple fires in just 16 months, with officials confirming last week that the most recent fire is currently being investigated as arson.

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Vatican City, Oct 24, 2024 / 14:30 pm (CNA).

A year ago, at the end of the Synod on Synodality's first general assembly, electronic versions of a draft of the confidential summary report were circulated among the media and others, as inevitably happens, in the days leading up to the delegates' last amendments and final vote.

This year, apparently to discourage such leaks, synod organizers only provided participants with hard copies of the draft report, which aren't as easily disseminated.

The irony is that there may not be much to share.

Internally and externally over the past several weeks, the assembly has come under intense pressure to change the Church's governing structures and even some of its basic doctrines.

Theologian Myriam Wijlens, a synod consultant, emphasized at an Oct. 23 press briefing that Pope Francis has called for "reconfiguring the Church in a synodal way." Doing so would require changes to canon law to, for example, make parish or diocesan councils mandatory.

But bigger changes, such as opening the diaconate to women or allowing exceptions to priestly celibacy, to cite two issues that were promoted publicly this month, appear off the table.

According to sources who have spoken to CNA, what's left is a draft report that is generating disappointment in progressive quarters but very little buzz.

Titled "Communion, Mission, and Participation," it's a short document — 152 paragraphs, for the time being, covering about 47 pages. According to synod sources, it is divided into five parts.

The first part deals with the shared understanding of synodality and its theological principles. The second concerns what is called a "relational conversion." The third part speaks of ecclesial discernment, decision-making processes, the culture of transparency, accountability, and evaluation. The fourth part seeks to understand how to cultivate the exchange of gifts in new ways. Finally, the fifth part speaks of formation in and for missionary synodality.

The synod's final document, one delegate told CNA, appears to be strongly borrowed from the document on synodality that the International Theological Commission published in 2018, titled "Synodality in the Life and Mission of the Church."

After reviewing it the synod delegates can propose amendments, which the assembly will discuss and vote on this Saturday.

Two-thirds of the assembly must approve a paragraph for it to be retained. In the past, if a paragraph did not reach even two-thirds, it would not be published. It was said that it did not represent synodal communion. Pope Francis has instead wanted each paragraph of the final document to be published and that votes for or against be indicated together with the paragraph. 

Beyond the talks about healthy decentrality, the draft document addresses how this decentralization should be addressed. In particular, there is a paragraph that says that in a synodal Church, the decision-making competence of the bishop and of the bishop of Rome is "inalienable" while proposing some good practices to make the diocesan and parish council representative of all the people of God, women included.

Some describe the document as interlocutory rather than definitive. One bishop observed that "the document allows everyone to manage things as they wish." But, he added, showing some disappointment, "So what were we discussing?"

If these are the results of two synodal stages in Rome and a three-year journey of dialogue and listening before that, it's clear that many will be disappointed. There are no revolutions, but rather a call for a change of mentality in the Church grounded in the idea that synodality has always been present in the Church.

This will be the starting point for Saturday's concluding session.

After the publication of the final document we will have to wait for Pope Francis to act. The Holy Father could decide to adopt the final document in full as a postsynodal exhortation or he could draft a postsynodal exhortation himself, either before or after the various study groups of experts deliver their final reports in May.

In the end, everything depends on the pope.

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Vatican City, Oct 24, 2024 / 15:30 pm (CNA).

Here are some of the most inspiring quotes from Pope Francis in his new encyclical Dilexit Nos on the divine and human love of the heart of Jesus Christ:

1. "Mere appearances, dishonesty, and deception harm and pervert the heart. Despite our every attempt to appear as something we are not, our heart is the ultimate judge, not of what we show or hide from others, but of who we truly are. It is the basis for any sound life project; nothing worthwhile can be undertaken apart from the heart. False appearances and untruths ultimately leave us empty-handed" (No. 6).

2. "If we fail to appreciate the specificity of the heart, we miss the messages that the mind alone cannot communicate; we miss out on the richness of our encounters with others; we miss out on poetry. We also lose track of history and our own past, since our real personal history is built with the heart. At the end of our lives, that alone will matter" (No. 11).

3. "The heart of Christ is 'ecstasy,' openness, gift, and encounter. In that heart, we learn to relate to one another in wholesome and happy ways, and to build up in this world God's kingdom of love and justice. Our hearts, united with the heart of Christ, are capable of working this social miracle" (No. 28).

4. "In the presence of the heart of Christ, I once more ask the Lord to have mercy on this suffering world in which he chose to dwell as one of us. May he pour out the treasures of his light and love, so that our world, which presses forward despite wars, socio-economic disparities, and uses of technology that threaten our humanity, may regain the most important and necessary thing of all: its heart" (No. 31).

5. "If we find it hard to trust others because we have been hurt by lies, injuries, and disappointments, the Lord whispers in our ear: 'Take heart, son!' (Mt 9:2), 'Take heart, daughter!' (Mt 9:22). He encourages us to overcome our fear and to realize that, with him at our side, we have nothing to lose" (No. 37).

6. "Whenever we feel that everyone ignores us, that no one cares what becomes of us, that we are of no importance to anyone, he remains concerned for us" (No. 40).

7. "I ask, then, that no one make light of the fervent devotion of the holy faithful people of God, which in its popular piety seeks to console Christ. I also encourage everyone to consider whether there might be greater reasonableness, truth, and wisdom in certain demonstrations of love that seek to console the Lord than in the cold, distant, calculated, and nominal acts of love that are at times practiced by those who claim to possess a more reflective, sophisticated, and mature faith" (No. 160).

8. "Christ asks you never to be ashamed to tell others, with all due discretion and respect, about your friendship with him. He asks that you dare to tell others how good and beautiful it is that you found him" (No. 211).

9. "In a world where everything is bought and sold, people's sense of their worth appears increasingly to depend on what they can accumulate with the power of money. We are constantly being pushed to keep buying, consuming, and distracting ourselves, held captive to a demeaning system that prevents us from looking beyond our immediate and petty needs. The love of Christ has no place in this perverse mechanism, yet only that love can set us free from a mad pursuit that no longer has room for a gratuitous love. Christ's love can give a heart to our world and revive love wherever we think that the ability to love has been definitively lost" (No. 218).

10. "The wounded side of Christ continues to pour forth that stream which is never exhausted, never passes away, but offers itself time and time again to all those who wish to love as he did. For his love alone can bring about a new humanity" (No. 219).

    This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA's Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

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Rome Newsroom, Oct 24, 2024 / 06:01 am (CNA).

Pope Francis released a new encyclical Dilexit Nos  ("He Loved Us") on Thursday, calling for a renewed understanding of devotion to the Sacred Heart in the modern era and its many pressing challenges.

In the document, the pope argues that the spirituality of the Sacred Heart offers a vital response to what he calls a "liquid society" dominated by technology and consumerism.

Pope Francis writes: "Living as we do in an age of superficiality, rushing frenetically from one thing to another without really knowing why, and ending up as insatiable consumers and slaves to the mechanisms of a market unconcerned about the deeper meaning of our lives, all of us need to rediscover the importance of the heart."

Subtitled "Letter on the Human and Divine Love of the Heart of Jesus Christ," the document is the first papal encyclical dedicated entirely to the Sacred Heart since Pope Pius XII's Haurietis Aquas in 1956.

Throughout the document, Francis weaves together traditional elements of Sacred Heart devotion with contemporary concerns, presenting Christ's heart as the principle unifying reality in a fragmented world.

The document's release fulfills an announcement made by the pope in June, when he noted that meditating on the Lord's love can "illuminate the path of ecclesial renewal and say something meaningful to a world that seems to have lost its heart."

At a press conference presenting the document on Thursday, Italian Archbishop Bruno Forte said the encyclical expresses "in a profound way the heart and the inspiring motive of the whole ministry and magisterium of Pope Francis."

The theologian added that in his opinion, the text is "the key to understanding this pope's magisterium."

Forte, who is a member of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, presented the encyclical together with Sister Antonella Fraccaro, superior general of the Disciples of the Gospel (Discepole del Vangelo).

From Scripture to AI: Inside the Pope's Vision

The approximately 30,000-word encyclical draws extensively from Scripture and tradition, featuring insights from St. Thérèse of Lisieux, St. Francis de Sales, and St. Charles de Foucauld.

Released as the Synod on Synodality is concluding its month-long deliberations in Rome, the document emphasizes both personal spirituality and communal missionary commitment.

Francis develops his vision across five chapters, beginning with a philosophical and theological exploration of "the importance of the heart" before moving through reflections on Christ's actions and words of love, the theological meaning of Sacred Heart devotion, its spiritual dynamics and social implications.

Pope Francis Addresses Tech Age

"The algorithms operating in the digital world show that our thoughts and will are much more 'uniform' than we had previously thought," Francis writes, arguing that technological solutions alone cannot address the deeper needs of the human heart.

He emphasizes that the meaning of the word "heart" is not sufficiently captured by biology, psychology, anthropology or any other science.

"In this age of artificial intelligence, we cannot forget that poetry and love are necessary to save our humanity. No algorithm will ever be able to capture, for example, the nostalgia that all of us feel, whatever our age, and wherever we live," Francis writes.

The pope emphasizes that devotion to the Sacred Heart is not merely a private spiritual practice but has profound implications for social life and human relationships.

"The world can change, beginning with the heart," he writes, connecting individual transformation with broader social renewal.

Sacred Heart Teaching from Pius XII to Francis

The encyclical builds on centuries of Catholic devotion to the Sacred Heart while offering fresh insights for modern challenges. Francis cites extensively from previous papal teachings, particularly from St. John Paul II.

"Devotion to the Sacred Heart, as it developed in Europe two centuries ago, under the impulse of the mystical experiences of Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque, was a response to Jansenist rigor, which ended up disregarding God's infinite mercy," the late pope writes.

"The men and women of the third millennium need the heart of Christ in order to know God and to know themselves; they need it to build the civilization of love."

Heidegger, goosebumps and the heart

In a significant theological and philosophical development, the encyclical engages deeply with modern thought, particularly through its discussion of German philosopher Martin Heidegger's understanding of human emotion and understanding.

The pope cites Heidegger's insight that "philosophy does not begin with a pure concept or certainty but with a shock," as "without deep emotion, thought cannot begin. The first mental image would thus be goosebumps."

For Francis, this is where the heart comes in as it "listens in a non-metaphoric way to 'the silent voice' of being, allowing itself to be tempered and determined by it."

'A New Civilization of Love': The Path Forward

As the heart can "unify and harmonizing our personal history, which may seem hopelessly fragmented," the pope writes, it "is the place where everything can make sense."

"The Gospel tells us this in speaking of Our Lady, who saw things with the heart."

The document calls for a renewal of traditional Sacred Heart practices on this understanding while emphasizing their contemporary relevance.

"Our communities will succeed in uniting and reconciling differing minds and wills, so that the Spirit can guide us in unity as brothers and sisters. Reconciliation and peace are also born of the heart. The heart of Christ is 'ecstasy,' openness, gift and encounter."

The pope concludes by connecting this spiritual vision to the Church's broader mission in the modern world, calling for what he — following St. John Paul II — terms a "civilization of love" built on the foundation of Christ's love.

This vision also connects directly to previous social encyclicals by Pope Francis, Laudato Si' and Fratelli Tutti, presenting Christ's love as the foundation for addressing and solving contemporary challenges.

Hanna Brockhaus contributed to this report.

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Ann Arbor, Michigan, Oct 24, 2024 / 07:00 am (CNA).

There are young people who are called to serve in dangerous places, not just in the military but also as missionaries. The latter call has been heeded by a select few, willing to go where the faith has been oppressed or even absent for centuries. 

Project Omnes Gentes is a Catholic missionary initiative of the Order of St. Elijah, based in Argentina, to share the Gospel for the first time to nations who do not know Christ. It organizes short-term missions to the most remote places, including Malawi, Pakistan, Tibet, and Yemen.

CNA interviewed missionaries who recently returned from Pakistan, where they freed nearly 200 Christians from slavery. Rico and Diego are not further identified because of the peril it represents for them and persecuted Christians. 

Diego, a young lay Spaniard who recently reconverted to the faith, bravely threw himself into one of the most perilous missions yet undertaken by the order. "Since my conversion about five months ago, I have felt a great need to spread the Gospel," he told CNA.

Recalling his conversion, he said once leaving Mass as an unbeliever, he suddenly felt an "oppressive presence, like an immense and heavy blanket." Diego cried out to God for help. 

"After having let God be part of my life again, multiplying its value exponentially, I could not remain silent, I had to go on a mission. With the Order of St. Elijah, I could. I couldn't be more grateful to God for putting them in my path and being able to help them preach the Gospel," he said.

Diego accompanied Rico, a priest of the order, to the Punjab region of Pakistan, a country dominated by Islam. According to International Christian Concern, at least 1,000 girls and women in that country are annually abducted, raped, and forced to convert to Islam. A report by InfoVaticana claimed some 700 of these are Christians. Many are forced into hard labor or domestic slavery.

Father Rico told CNA: "Thanks to God and the holy Virgin, the mission accomplished its goals. We rescued five illiterate female sex slaves, who were raped for 10 years by four different men. When the rapists went looking for them, we were able to take them into hiding. We also rescued 75 debt slaves: among whom, there were people who were tortured and many little girls. We 'bought' them with the money donated to us by a bishop."

"After the rescues, we assist them with what they need to survive. We want to start a small safe neighborhood for freed slaves — why not dream if 'nothing will be impossible with God,'" he said, quoting Luke 1:37. The new Christian enclave, he said, will be called "Pax," Latin for "peace."

It was no coincidence, Father Rico said, that he began his work on the solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin, Aug. 15, and finished on the feast of the Most Holy Name of Mary, Sept. 12. He will return within a few months to liberate more.

"Of the 80 freed slaves, six Christian families had fallen into unwilling apostasy because they had renounced Christ and become Muslims," he said. "The men were tortured and women raped in the process. When we went to rescue them, they said they were sorry. Those families were Protestant Christians." He was under nearly constant surveillance by Muslim informants, whose testimony could have meant death.

"We saw malice so extreme that it could not be merely human malice. I think it was a preternatural, demonic malice. How else can it be explained that they drug a man to rape his wife and kill the baby generated in the rape through an abortion?" Father Rico said.

He added that he hopes to consult with Catholic psychologists and social workers to help the healing of the liberated slaves. "Above all, we will place the victims before the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary," he said.

The priest said the unbaptized and Protestant Christians requested admittance to full communion with the Catholic Church. He baptized according to the traditional Rituale Romanum, which includes several exorcisms.

"We gave them images of the Holy Family, Bibles, and rosaries. We celebrated holy Mass for them and put them in contact with a priest who will catechize them. They entered the Catholic Church full of joy," he recounted.

"Seeing the Holy Spirit work such miracles, and seeing how Christians prefer death rather than renounce the faith, united me with the mystical body of Christ on levels that I could not have imagined," Diego said. "It is truly overwhelming to talk to these persecuted Catholics about their conversions, their faith, their experiences. I am sure that many of them, living through that hell, will earn heaven."

According to a 2023 report by WalkFree, approximately 10 out of every 1,000 Pakistanis are engaged in forced labor. In other words, 2.3 million Pakistanis are subjected to forced labor or forced marriage. The nonprofit watchdog says Pakistan ranks 18th in the world and fourth in Asia for these practices. The U.S. Department of Labor reports that forced labor is notable in brickmaking, carpet weaving, coal mining, and agriculture.

Pakistan's Christians are frequently targeted by Muslims and authorities for violating the country's strict Muslim blasphemy laws that forbid denouncing Islam and its founder, Muhammad. In September, Aid to the Church in Need reported that a Pakistani woman, a mother of four, was sentenced to death for the alleged crime.

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Vatican City, Oct 23, 2024 / 13:35 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis said the Holy Spirit plays an essential role in the unity of a husband and a wife, and advised married couples to invoke the Spirit's help for their marriage, because the separation of spouses is a source of suffering for children.

"What can the Holy Spirit have to do with marriage, for example? A great deal, perhaps the essential," the pope said during his weekly audience with the public in St. Peter's Square on Oct. 23.

"Christian marriage is the sacrament of self-giving, one for the other, of man and woman. This is how the Creator intended it when he 'created man in his own image … male and female he created them (Gn 1:27),'" Francis said to crowds gathered in an overcast square. 

In the Wednesday general audience, the pontiff continued his series of teachings on the Holy Spirit, focusing on the role of the Third Person of the Trinity in the sacrament of matrimony, including the couple as a "realization of the communion of love that is the Trinity."

Francis said like the Trinity, "married couples, too, should form a first-person plural, a 'we.' Stand before each other as an 'I' and a 'you,' and stand before the rest of the world, including the children, as a 'we.'"

"How much children need this unity — mother and father together — unity of parents, and how much they suffer when it is lacking," he emphasized. "How much the children of separated parents suffer, how much they suffer."

Drawing on the story of the wedding at Cana, Francis noted that for "so many couples, one must repeat what Mary said to Jesus, at Cana in Galilee: 'They have no wine.' The Holy Spirit is he who continues to perform, on a spiritual level, the miracle that Jesus worked on that occasion; namely, to change the water of habit into a new joy of being together."

"It is not a pious illusion: It is what the Holy Spirit has done in so many marriages, when the spouses decided to invoke him."

"No one," the pope continued, "says that such unity is an easy task, least of all in today's world; but this is the truth of things as the Creator designed them, and it is therefore in their nature. Certainly, it may seem easier and quicker to build on sand than on rock; but Jesus tells us what the result is…"

Pope Francis noted that marriage needs the support of the Holy Spirit, "the Gift," and recommended that marriage preparation include a deeper spiritual preparation in addition to just psychological, legal, and moral information.

"Where the Holy Spirit enters, the capacity for self-giving is reborn," he said.

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CNA Staff, Oct 23, 2024 / 14:05 pm (CNA).

A Texas death row inmate whose execution was recently halted was prevented from testifying at the state capitol on Monday after the office of Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton refused to let him testify in person, citing security concerns. 

The Supreme Court of Texas granted an emergency motion last week to halt the execution of Robert Roberson, which had been scheduled to take place Oct. 17. 

In an opinion issued when the Texas Supreme Court halted the execution, Justice Evan Young noted that the Legislature "has subpoenaed an inmate subject to a sentence of death to appear as a witness" and that "if the sentence is carried out, the witness obviously cannot appear."

Bishop Joe Vásquez of the local Diocese of Austin told "EWTN News Nightly" that the bishops of Texas, who praised the halting of Roberson's execution, believe that "he is innocent, and at least his case should be reviewed."

Roberson was convicted in 2003 of the murder of his infant daughter, Nikki, whom he had brought to a local hospital with severe injuries. Roberson claimed the baby had fallen from her bed, but medical experts argued that her injuries were consistent with child abuse.

Testimony at his trial included the claim that Nikki's injuries were consistent with "shaken baby syndrome," a formerly common diagnosis that is controversial today among experts. 

Since his conviction, Roberson has attempted to establish his innocence by invoking Texas' "junk science" law, which allows defendants to argue that scientific evidence used in their conviction was flawed. He would be the first person in the U.S. put to death for a conviction linked to "shaken baby syndrome" if his execution ends up moving forward, CBS News reported.

The canceled Oct. 21 hearing, convened by the Texas House of Representatives Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence, was set to consider testimony regarding the "junk science" law. Lawmakers had issued a subpoena for Roberson to appear before the committee to testify, effectively delaying Roberson's execution — a tactic that Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has since criticized. 

In the end, Roberson was also not permitted to testify to the Legislature virtually, with lawmakers citing the fact that he has autism and has rarely interacted with modern technology during his 20-year incarceration. The Texas House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee hopes to have Roberson appear to testify in person at another time. 

Last week, the Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops said in a statement that it was "grateful" for the decision to halt the execution. The Catholic Church teaches that the death penalty is "inadmissible," even for people who have committed heinous crimes. 

"Now is the time for all Texans to demand justice for Robert and denounce the execution of a likely innocent man, which violates the laws of God and humanity to which we hold one another accountable," the bishops said.

Krisanne Vaillancourt Murphy, the executive director of the anti-death penalty Catholic Mobilizing Network, likewise praised "the bipartisan, courageous leadership of the Texas legislators who took action that led to this temporary stay of execution."

"As Catholics, we know that every life is sacred," Murphy said. "Catholic teaching on the 'inadmissibility in all cases' of capital punishment is crystal clear — no exclusions or exceptions."

"We will continue to educate, advocate, and pray that soon, every state — including the state of Texas — will be free of the scourge of capital punishment," she said.

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