The insidious danger behind 'family balancing'
By Matt Hadro
Washington D.C., Apr 25, 2016 / 04:21 pm (CNA/EWTN News) - For years, expectant parents have relied on ultrasounds to find out the sex of their unborn baby.
But now, technology allows them to pick the sex of their child before he or she even enters the womb – a development that ethicists warn could have grave moral consequences.
Sex selection of human embryos orders a fertility company to “deliver a product” rather than a human child, said Dr. John Brehany, an ethicist and director of institutional relations at the National Catholic Bioethics Center.
Also, these companies are “ultimately taking actions to simply throw out” and “discard human beings,” which is fundamentally wrong, he told CNA.
Many expecting parents find out the gender of their unborn baby through an ultrasound screening, or through methods of prenatal testing that can determine the gender of a baby as early as 7 to 10 weeks gestation.
However, more and more couples are opting not just to find out the gender of their baby, but to actually determine whether their next child will be a boy or a girl, through the process of “family balancing.”
Procedures can cost into the tens of thousands of dollars. Couples might want a boy to carry on the family name or parents of two boys might want a baby girl badly enough to spend $100,000 and endure multiple assisted reproductive procedures to have one, as one couple did.
Advances in assisted reproductive technology have made this more possible, combined with in vitro fertilization where the human embryo – fertilized in a lab – is implanted in the mother’s womb.
Technology like pre-implantation genetic screening can ensure that a human embryo is of the desired sex and free from unwanted genetic abnormalities. To better ensure a “successful” implantation, multiple human embryos may be implanted in the mother.
This is done “in the expectation that some embryos will be lost and multiple pregnancy may not occur,” the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith stated in its 2008 document Dignitas Personae. “In this way, the practice of multiple embryo transfer implies a purely utilitarian treatment of embryos.”
The practice is on the rise in the U.S. A 2006 Johns Hopkins survey of U.S. fertility clinics showed 42 percent of clinics that conducted pre-implantation genetic screening offered it for non-medical sex-selection purposes.
Anna Higgins, an associate scholar at the pro-life Charlotte Lozier Institute who just authored a report on sex-selection abortion, thinks there has been a notable increase in the use of the practice, based on doctors’ statements and the number of clinics advertising gender selection and family balancing, as well as their “commercial success.”
But according to decades of Catholic moral teaching, sex selection and in vitro fertilization are clearly wrong, Dr. Brehany said.
“First and foremost, it separates procreation from incarnated marital love,” he told CNA, noting that the human embryo is created from sperm and an egg from the father and mother in a lab, outside the marital act. “It separates procreation from the manner in which God has designed human beings to come in to being, which should be in an actual act of marital love.”
Also, he added, gender selection through assisted reproductive methods “almost instantly subjects the child to the standards and sort of the pressures, if you will, of production, and of producing an object.”
Pre-implantation genetic diagnosis for sex selection, he explained, involves pulling a cell out of a human embryo or zygote to run tests for its gender. This can not only endanger the human embryo, but if it is selected for implantation, the other human embryos that have been created are at risk of being discarded, frozen, or experimented upon.
Clinics are being paid to “deliver a product” according to the customer’s wishes, he said of the process, and are ultimately taking actions to simply throw out or otherwise discard human beings, and that’s profoundly problematic.”
Dignitas Personae makes it clear that in vitro fertilization is wrong: “The Church moreover holds that it is ethically unacceptable to dissociate procreation from the integrally personal context of the conjugal act: human procreation is a personal act of a husband and wife, which is not capable of substitution,” the document stated.
It also lists some of the evils resulting from the procedure – foremost the destruction of other embryos in the process, being discarded, frozen, or experimented upon.
“The blithe acceptance of the enormous number of abortions involved in the process of in vitro fertilization vividly illustrates how the replacement of the conjugal act by a technical procedure – in addition to being in contradiction with the respect that is due to procreation as something that cannot be reduced to mere reproduction – leads to a weakening of the respect owed to every human being,” the document says.
Ultimately, these assisted reproductive options used for sex selection “the Church would view as no better than abortion, and in some respects worse,” Brehany said.
“You’re picking one [embryo], you’re throwing out the others, and you’re doing this outside the context of marital love, which in some respects makes it worse [than sex-selective abortion], not better.”
Even the American Society of Reproductive Medicine admits that non-medical sex-selection is “controversial.”
Some of the arguments raised against it, the society noted in a 2015 ethics report, are that “long-term risks” to children might exist and that further evaluation needs to be done on the matter, along with the concern that parents will not be showing “unconditional” love to their children who deserve it.
Pope to teens: There isn't a phone
app for love and happiness
By Ann Schneible
Vatican City, Apr 24, 2016 / 07:04 am (CNA/EWTN News) - Freedom does not come from things we possess or from doing whatever we want, Pope Francis said Sunday in his homily for the Jubilee for boys and girls. Rather, true freedom and happiness can only be found in the love of Jesus.
“Your happiness has no price,” the Pope said during Mass in St. Peter's Square. “It cannot be bought: it is not an app that you can download on your phones nor will the latest update bring you freedom and grandeur in love.”
“That is because love is a free gift which calls for an open heart,” he said. “It is a noble responsibility which is life-long; it is a daily task for those who can achieve great dreams!”
Francis challenged the young teens to not “be content with mediocrity,” or believe those who equate importance with the sort of toughness shown by heroes in films, or by wearing the “latest fashions.”
“Don't believe those who would distract you from the real treasure, which you are, by telling you that life is beautiful only if you have many possessions.”
Delivering his homily to the over 90,000 people overflowing the Square, Pope Francis assured the teens that, because of their friendship with Christ, they are never alone.
“Even if you disappoint him and walk away from him, Jesus continues to want the best for you and to remain close to you; he believes in you even more than you believe in yourself.”
“The biggest threat to growing up well comes from thinking that no one cares about us, from feeling that we are all alone,” he said. “The Lord, on the other hand, is always with you and he is happy to be with you.”
Moreover, Jesus calls young people to follow him, just as he did the first disciples, the Pope added. “Jesus is waiting patiently for you. He awaits your response. He is waiting for you to say 'yes'.”
The Jubilee for boys and girls, geared specifically towards young teenagers, is the latest initiative for the Holy Year of Mercy, which began on December 8. The three-day event started Saturday with the sacrament of reconciliation in St. Peter's Square – where Pope Francis himself heard confessions -- followed by a youth rally in Rome's Olympic Stadium.
In his homily, Pope Francis stressed that love is the “Christian's identity card,” and is “the only valid 'document' identifying us as Christians.”
“If this card expires and is not constantly renewed, we stop being witnesses of the Master,” he said.
Those who wish to be Jesus' disciples, to be “his faithful friends,” and to “experience his love,” must learn how to love from him.
Going off the cuff, the Pope said that Jesus' “true friends” stand out because theirs is a “genuine love that shines forth in their way of life,” through “real actions.”
“Those who are not real and genuine and who speak of love are like characters is a soap opera, some fake love story,” he said.
“Before all else, love is beautiful, it is the path to happiness,” Pope Francis said, but he warned that this path is also demanding and “requires effort.”
The Pope gave the example of everyone who has given us a gift, invested time, and sacrificed for our sake. He cited in particular the sacrifices made by the parents and group leaders who organized the pilgrimages to Rome for this weekend's Jubilee for boys and girls.
“To love means to give, not only something material, but also something of one’s self: one’s own time, one’s friendship, one’s own abilities.”
Addressing the teens present at the Mass, Francis acknowledged their “growing desire to demonstrate and receive affection.”
“The Lord, if you let him teach you, will show you how to make tenderness and affection even more beautiful,” the Pope said.
Moreover, this love is not possessive, but allows the other person freedom. “There is no true love that is not free!” he said in unscripted remarks.
Today's “consumerist culture” reinforces the temptation to “'have to have' what we find pleasing,” the Pope said.
“Yet when we hold on too tightly to something, it fades, it dies, and then we feel confused, empty inside.”
“The Lord, if you listen to his voice, will reveal to you the secret of love. It is caring for others, respecting them, protecting them and waiting for them.”
Pope Francis acknowledged the teenagers “great longing for freedom,” but warned that freedom does not mean “doing whatever you want.”
This interpretation of freedom “makes us self-centred and aloof, and it prevents us from being open and sincere friends.”
“Instead, freedom is the gift of being able to choose the good,” he said. “The free person is the one who chooses what is good, what is pleasing to God, even if it requires effort.”
Pope Francis stressed that love is more than a “sweet poem” we study and memorize, but a “life choice” which must be practiced.
“Love is nurtured by trust, respect and forgiveness,” he said, adding that we grow in love through Jesus, who “gives us himself in the Mass, he offers us forgives and peace in Confession. There we learn to receive his love, to make it ours and to give it to the world.”
“And when loving seems hard, when it is difficult to say no to something wrong, look up at Jesus on the cross, embrace the cross and don’t ever let go of his hand. He will point you ever higher, and pick you up whenever you fall.”
“Throughout life we will fall many times, because we are sinners, we are weak,” the Pope said, again going off script. “But there is always the hand of God who picks us up, who raises us up. Jesus wants us to be up on our feet!”
Pope Francis concluded his homily by speaking about the capability of young people towards “acts of great friendship and goodness,” and challenged them to live their “youth and all its gifts to the fullest and without fear of hard work.”
“Be like sporting champions, who attain high goals by quiet daily effort and practice,” and whose daily routine consists of the works of mercy.
“Enthusiastically practice them, so as to be champions in life, champions of life! In this way you will be recognized as disciples of Jesus.”
Towards the end of Mass, Pope Francis delivered his Regina Caeli address, during which he praised the youth for their “joyful and boisterous witness,” encouraging them to “go forward with courage.”
The Pope also remembered Saturday's beatification in Burgos, Spain of the priest Valentín Palencia Marquina who, along with four others, were martyred for their faith during the Spanish Civil War.
“We praise the Lord for these courageous witnesses and to beseech their intercession to free the world from all violence,” he said.
Pope Francis also expressed his concern for bishops, priests and religious – Catholic and Orthodox alike -- who have been kidnapped in Syria. He prayed that God in his mercy would touch the “hearts of the kidnappers,” and release “our brothers and sisters” back to their communities. Leading into the Marian prayer, he asked everyone to pray for these, and all victims of kidnapping through the world.
After reciting the Regina Caeli, Pope Francis once again addressed the young people in the crowd.
“You have celebrated the Jubilee (for boys and girls): Now back home with the joy of your Christian identity. Standing, head held high, and with your ID card in your hands and in your heart!”
How Christian women suffer
worse persecution than men
By Loredana Vuoto
Santa Ana, Calif., Apr 25, 2016 / 04:48 pm (CNA/EWTN News) - A recent global survey reveals that the rise of radical Islamic extremism is the primary reason for the persecution of Christians around the world – and many of the victims are women.
“Unfortunately, more and more women are the target of terrorist groups,” Emily Fuentes, communications director for Open Doors, told CNA April 20.
“There are numerous international incidents of women being kidnapped, raped, and forced to convert from Christianity to Islam by radical extremist groups like Boko Haram. Many are also sold on the open market. This brutality is not only occurring in the Middle East but in Africa and in many other places.”
The California-based Open Doors organization focuses on anti-Christian persecution in countries around the world. According to its 2016 World Watch List, the level of violence against Christians globally has reached an all-time high, with numbers almost doubling every year. The report also found that Islamic extremism is “the primary driving factor in 35 out of the top 50 states.”
“In many of these countries, women are subject to persecution because they are considered second-class citizens because of their gender,” Fuentes added. “As minorities in both gender and faith, Christian women face double the persecution. Although we don’t have an exact number, we know that millions of women are being persecuted.”
In the last two years, the Islamic State group has reportedly executed 250 girls in for refusing to become sex slaves. Two years ago, Boko Haram infamously stormed a school in Chibok, Nigeria, kidnapping 276 teen girls. The majority of those girls are still missing.
Open Doors’ top 50 watch list ranked North Korea as the country where Christians are most persecuted, followed by Somalia, Iraq, Eritrea, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. Most of the countries listed are either in the Middle East or Africa.
Last year, more than 7,000 Christians were killed for their faith. This is an increase from 4,344 in 2014 and 2,123 in 2013. The statistics do not include Christians killed in North Korea, Iraq or Syria, where reports are unattainable.
In 2015, there were 2,484 Christians killed for their faith in Nigeria—the most deaths of Christians in any country. The Central African Republic was second worst, with 1,088 deaths. Syria, Kenya and North Korea also proved deadly for Christians, with at least a hundred deaths in each country.
Fuentes explained that these countries fear public religious expression.
This can especially have an effect on women.
“Christian women tend to be more outspoken and devoted to their faith than men. Unfortunately, they end up paying a price for it,” she said, noting that some countries believe that religion is a threat to their rule. “Women are seen as valuing their faith and serving a God that is higher than the government and that is unacceptable to foreign governments.”
According to the Pew Research Center, Christian women are the largest religious group in the world, making up almost 34 percent of the global population. In many countries, these women pray more frequently and attend weekly church services more often than men. They also consider religion more important.
Fuentes underscored that the persecution of women goes beyond physical abuse.
“In these Muslim-dominated countries, Christian women are systematically deprived of their freedom to live and are denied basic human necessities,” she explained. “They do not have access to proper health care, nutrition or education.”
“Surviving is all about strategically going about their day and taking extra precautions like traveling with a male relative,” Fuentes added. “In some cases, it is easy for them to make small inconvenient plans. But most times, there is no solution--which puts women at grave risk daily.”
Fuentes said knowledge of this situation is lacking.
“There definitely needs to be a lot more education and advocacy on behalf of women who are facing persecution all over the world,” she said. “It is vital to assess international aid and relations with different governments to see how they are treating Christian women.”
She said it’s necessary to say that “persecuting women and people of faith is unacceptable.”
In March, the U.S. House of Representatives unanimously voted on a resolution against the actions of the Islamic State Group against Christians, Yazidis, and other religious and ethnic minorities in the Middle East. The resolution officially recognized these acts as “war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.”
But Olivia Enos, research associate in the Asian Studies Center at the Heritage Foundation, told CNA that identifying the problem is only the first step.
“The Obama administration has not made this issue a priority,” she said April 21. “It’s great that the U.S. government has identified these atrocities as genocide, but it really hasn’t done much to follow-up on this designation. If we want to demonstrate that religious freedom is something our government really cares about, then there should be next steps and action items.”
Enos said that only a more comprehensive approach can resolve this “ethnic cleansing.”
“Oftentimes, human rights issues are viewed in isolation from broader national security concerns when they really should be viewed as complementary to those efforts,” she said. “Advancing national security interests should never be to the detriment of human rights. A safe country is tolerant of different religions.”
“When you don’t defend religious freedom, you have severe human rights abuses,” Enos added. “It is not just religious freedom for women or one group of people, it is religious freedom for all.”
Please forgive our indifference –
Pope Francis' heartfelt plea to refugees
Vatican City, Apr 19, 2016 / 06:09 am (CNA/EWTN News) - Pope Francis has offered his praise to the Jesuits in Italy for their longstanding work with refugees, but asked the foreigners for their pardon on behalf of all who have been closed-minded and indifferent to their plight.
“I was a stranger and you welcomed me,” the Pope said in a video message directed to refugees and workers who help them, calling to mind Chapter 25 of Matthew’s Gospel.
“Too often we have not welcomed you! Forgive the closure and indifference of our societies, who fear the change of life and mentality that your presence requires,” he said.
Francis noted that after coming to a new country, refugees are frequently treated as burdens and problems which only bring more cost. However, “you are instead a gift.”
“You are the testimony of how our heavenly and merciful God transforms the evil and injustice of those who suffer into a good for all,” the Pope said, explaining that each refugee can be a bridge “that unites peoples who are far away, that makes possible the meeting of cultures and different religions,” and which lead to a path of “rediscovering our common humanity.”
Pope Francis offered his words in a video message for the 35th anniversary of Centro Astalli, the Italian headquarters of the Jesuit Refugee Service. Published April 19, the message coincides with the presentation of the center’s annual report in Rome.
In his brief comments, Francis spoke directly to both the workers and volunteers of the center, as well as the refugees they assist.
He pointed to the first part of the passage in Matthew 25: “I was a stranger.” Each refugee, he said, has “the face of God and the flesh of Christ.”
Speaking directly to the refugees who receive help from the center, Francis told them that their experiences of both pain and hope serve as a reminder that every person on the earth is a stranger and a pilgrim who has been welcomed by someone “with generosity and without any merit.”
“Whoever, like you, has fled from their own land due to oppression, war, nature disfigured by pollution and deforestation, or from the unjust distribution of the planet’s resources, is a brother with whom to share one’s bread, home and life,” the Pope observed.
He said the Astalli Center is prime example of what the daily welcoming of peoples ought to look like, and thanked the workers and volunteers, both lay and consecrated, for their work.
Through their work, they show “in the facts that if we walk the path together there is less fear,” he said, and urged them to be concrete witnesses “of the beauty of encounter. Help our society to listen to the voice of the refugees.”
“Continue to walk with courage at their side, accompany them and be their guide,” Pope Francis said in conclusion, adding that “refugees know the roads that lead to peace, because they know the acrid smell of war.”
Not your grandpa's porn –
Has the Church caught
up to the problem?
Denver, Colo., Apr 19, 2016 / 03:36 am (CNA) - Clay Olsen speaks to thousands of youth about a subject most people would rather not touch: pornography.
As the founder and CEO of Fight the New Drug, an organization that educates people about pornography addiction, Olsen travels the country giving presentations to young people about how pornography is affecting their brains, their relationships and ultimately the world.
Olsen told CNA that after one particular presentation, a young man asked a question that perfectly illustrates how drastically pornography has changed.
“He asked me very sincerely whether Playboy was pornography or not,” Olsen recalled.
“His definition of pornography had shifted so dramatically...that Playboy doesn’t even make the cut.”
Importantly, this young man is the rule of his generation, not the exception, Olsen said. The effects of constant access to the Internet, made possible by the availability of personal laptops, tablets, and smartphones, has drastically changed how young people consume pornography in a way that many adults dangerously underestimate.
An evolving problem
In the earlier days of the Internet, before the boom of smartphones, a 2004 study from an internet traffic management company saw porn sites grow by 1,800% between 1998 and 2004. At the time, Nielsen/Net ratings estimated that about 34 million people visited adult websites every month.
Today, those numbers seem almost laughable. PornHub, one of the world’s largest adult sites with explicit video streaming, reports that it averages 2.4 million visitors per hour. In 2015 alone, the number of hours streamed from the site was double the amount of time human beings have populated the Earth, according to TIME Magazine.
The amount of content is not the only thing that has changed either. Because of the constant availability of pornography, many users find themselves seeking more and more extreme forms of content, and the Internet has kept up with the demand.
As reported in the Washington Post, a recent content analysis of some of the most popular porn sites found that 88 percent of analyzed scenes contained physical aggression such as spanking, gagging, choking or slapping, and verbal aggression occurred in 49 percent of the scenes. Men perpetrated 70 percent of the aggressive acts, while women were the targets 94 percent of the time.
Several studies have also shown a correlation between the viewing of pornography and the likelihood of committing, or wanting to commit, rape or sexual assault. Other studies show a correlation between men who consume pornography and experience erectile dysfunction, once thought to mostly be a condition of older men.
“So you combine those two things - the prevalence and then also the nature - and that cocktail is really what has driven individuals like myself and those that work with me, and millions of others, to rise up and say we can do better, we have to do better,” Olsen said.
Fortunately, Olsen added, it seems that society may finally be catching up to the truth about the harmful nature of porn. Last month, Belinda Lascombe for TIME Magazine chronicled the stories of young men who are anti-porn advocates after their experiences of porn addiction and consequential impotence. A follow-up op-ed from the Washington Post declared that regardless of pornography’s morality, it’s a public health issue. Also last month, Utah’s Senate unanimously approved a resolution declaring pornography addiction a public health crisis.
Shortcomings in the Church
But what about the Catholic Church? Is enough being done to make the faithful aware of the danger of pornography – to provide resources both protecting those who have not fallen victim and reaching out to those who have?
Pope Francis’ most recent papal exhortation, Amoris Laetitia, mentions pornography directly just two times - once to mention that the bishops have expressed concern about it, and once to mention it within the context of age-appropriate sex education.
But that the word made it into the document at all is a significant step, said Fr. Sean Kilcawley, a priest with the Diocese of Lincoln who has spent a significant amount of his priesthood in pornography addiction and educational ministry. He currently serves as the program director and theological advisor for Integrity Restored, a Catholic apostolate that addresses pornography issues and addiction in families, individuals and clergy.
“Pope Francis has talked about pornography more than any other pope in history, I guarantee it,” Fr. Kilcawley told CNA.
Last June aboard the papal plane, Pope Francis (who does not use the internet or watch TV, and reads just one newspaper) told journalists that parents need to be aware of the “dirty” content, including pornography, that can be found online, and urged them to take preventative steps such as keeping computers in common rooms. He has also mentioned the issue in various homilies and talks, particularly to youth, throughout his pontificate.
The problem in the Church, on a practical and local level, is that pornography addiction treatment programs need to part of a parish’s mainstream ministry and not seen as an obscure ministry needed by the few, Fr. Kilcawley said.
“Anti-pornography ministry is not a peripheral ministry,” he stressed.
“We don’t just need tools to help a few people, we have to take those tools and incorporate them into an evangelization plan that’s trying to evangelize within an entire culture that’s being affected by pornography,” he said.
“Pornography is the biggest obstacle to evangelization that we’re facing as a Church,” Fr. Kilcawley added. “Because the core beliefs of an addict are I’m unlovable, if people really knew me they would reject me, no one can meet my needs not even God.”
Matt Fradd, director of content at Integrity Restored, said the clergy abuse scandal could be part of the reason that clergy are so reticent about addressing pornography.
The demand is enormous, there are many that are struggling...We get emails from 8-year-olds, 9-year-olds, 10-year-olds.
“If sex plus kids equals lawsuits...is it any wonder that nobody wants to talk to kids about pornography?” Fradd told CNA.
Fr. Kilcawley also said some priests may also feel shame addressing the issue due to their own sexual stories.
“We might be afraid that if we talk about it, people will think that we have a problem with it, and so whether we have a problem or not, we can be afraid of that,” Fr. Kilcawley said.
Reluctance to address the issue publicly could also be because of a priest’s own struggle with pornography. In comments to CNA in October 2015, at the time of the Ordinary Synod on the Family in Rome, Archbishop Charles Chaput said that pornography was a major issue among clergy.
“The number of our Catholic clergy who struggle with this problem is very unsettling, and it has nothing to do with celibacy,” the archbishop said, noting that Protestant ministers and Jewish rabbis contend with the same issue. A 2000 survey by Christianity Today found that clergy and laity reported visiting sexually explicit websites at nearly the same rates.
“Pornography’s always been a problem. Ancient Rome was famous for it. Sex is powerful and fascinating, and people have always abused its appeal. … It’s an epidemic, or more accurately, a pandemic. Anyone with an Internet connection anywhere in the world can find all the (pornography) he or she wants,” Archbishop Chaput noted.
But given the prevalence of pornography and its damaging effects, Olsen said, adults can no longer afford to avoid addressing this issue with the children in their lives.
“For many adults, the inclination is to not discuss it. In their opinion, it's hard, it’s gross, it’s I don’t even want to go there, let’s not focus on it. And although I totally and completely respect their intent and their desires, I have to respectfully come back and say we no longer have the luxury as a society, to sit idly by and watch things continue to progress in a very harmful and societally damaging way.”
Pornography is also important for priests to address with their parishioners in order for them to feel comfortable enough to seek healing, Fr. Kilcawley said.
“It’s just giving people permission to be wounded, which I think is what Pope Francis has been trying to do,” Fr. Kilcawley said. “You have permission to be wounded, and so it’s ok to come and tell your priest that you have this problem in your life. He’s not going to run away from you, he’s not going to scold you, he’s not going to condemn you, he just wants to help you heal.”
“The most shameful sins in our life, we need permission to talk about them,” he said.
Finding solutions
Part of what Fr. Kilcawley does for his anti-pornography ministry is to talk to the parents of his first communicants at a retreat about motherhood and fatherhood within the context of the Church’s teaching on the Theology of the Body. He also spends an hour on internet safety and sex education.
“Pastorally speaking, the best approach is to focus on prevention and focus on relationships within the family, evangelization within the family, and protecting kids from pornography, and the more we talk about it in that way, it’s both bold and less threatening, and then it gives people the freedom to come to the Church to look for healing.”
Once he started talking about the issue of pornography with families, Fr. Kilcawley had so many adults approach him about pornography addiction that he decided to form support groups as well. He now is in charge of a group for men addicted to pornography, as well as a group for women whose husbands are addicted to pornography.
Fr. Kilcawley said he also encourages people who are addicted to abstain from receiving the Eucharist unless they have gone to confession. Even though they may not be in a state of mortal sin due to the compulsive nature of the behavior, not being able to receive the Eucharist unless having gone to confession is an added incentive in the recovery process.
Fradd said talking to kids about pornography in an age-appropriate way is one of the best means to prevent future pornography use and addiction. And the younger parents start, the better, since some researchers estimate the average age of pornography exposure today is 8 years-old.
“I feel like we’re guinea pigs, because parenting in the 8th century and the 13th and the 19th - it was relatively similar compared to parenting in the 21st century,” Fradd said. “The internet really has changed everything.”
Integrity Restored provides parents with free resources about the best ways to talk to their children about pornography. There’s also a children’s book called “Good Pictures Bad Pictures” by Kristen Jenson (available on Amazon), for broaching the subject with the youngest of audiences in an age appropriate way.
Integrity Restored also provides free resources to priests looking for the best ways to broach the subject with their congregations, and hosts symposiums in dioceses in order to educate priests, catechists and the general public on the issue.
Fradd also founded The Porn Effect, which is the youth outreach branch of Integrity Restored that educates youth and provides resources for them about pornography use and addiction. Another important aspect of prevention is internet filters and accountability systems, for which Fradd said he recommends Covenant Eyes.
Olsen said he thinks the best approach to combat a culture of pornography is three-tiered: prevention in children, research on the subject, and recovery therapy programs. Fight the New Drug has spent several years working with neuroscientists and psychologists to develop the Fortified Program, a free and anonymous online recovery program for youth. It currently has over 35,000 users in over 155 countries, and Olsen said he didn’t even put “a penny into marketing or advertising.”
“So the demand is enormous, there are many that are struggling,” he said. “We get emails from 8-year-olds, 9-year-olds, 10-year-olds.”
That the program is free and anonymous is key, Olsen said, because many of these children seeking help will stop once they see either a credit card or parental consent is required, “both of which are a Mount Everest that they are unwilling or unable to climb,” he said.
“We have created a solution that they can jump into that will help them overcome that, so recovery is a big part of how we will heal society.”
Fradd said that in many ways, the resources that the Church needs in order to better address this issue already exist - they just need to be utilized.
“We’re all kind of playing catch up to honest,” he said. “There are beautiful things happening, we just need to know about them.”
Japanese bishops mobilize relief
efforts to help earthquake victims
Fukuoka, Japan, Apr 18, 2016 / 02:52 pm (CNA/EWTN News) - Japan's Catholic bishops are coordinating efforts to help the thousands of people affected by the two earthquakes which struck the city of Kumamoto on the southwestern island of Kyushu last week.
A 7.3 magnitude quake hit Kumamoto, nearly 70 miles south of Fukuoka, on April 16, following a 6.4 magnitude earthquake on April 14. At leat 41 persons were killed, and thousands wounded. Some 180,000 have been rendered homeless, according to the BBC.
“We thought the damage was contained in the small area of Mashiki town,” Bishop Tarcisio Isao Kikuchi of Niigata told CNA April 16, “but this morning's quake caused damage in a much wider area, including the neighboring Ohita prefecture.”
Bishop Kikuchi is head of Caritas Japan, the national bishops' social action arm, which is assisting in rescue and relief efforts on Kyushu. He conveyed the prayers and solidarity of all the Japanese bishops and stated their appreciation for the prayers and aid sent from around the world.
Bishop Dominic Ry?ji Miyahara of Fukuoka on Saturday called an emergency meeting of diocesan officials to discuss how to mobilize relief efforts for the earthquake's victims.
He has appealed for donations ot the diocese for relief and rehabilitation needs, and has sent the director of the diocesan branch of Caritas to assess the situation. One Catholic school was damaged in the quake, but no other serious damage has been reported at other Catholic institutions.
It is “very hard for the victim[s] to lose their homes where mornings and nights are still chilly,” Bishop Miyahara said in an appeal for support.
“I'm praying for those who suffer great damage from this earthquake and we, [the] Diocese of Fukuoka are with you in your pains and sorrows. We ask your prayers for the victim[s] and people in these areas for them to have comfort and enough strength to go through this situation and for them to have quick recovery from this damage.”
Bishop Kikuchi explained to CNA that the affected area is “largely mountainous, and thus difficult for volunteers to access.” Landslides have cut off some remote villages, and roads, bridges, and tunnels have all been damaged.
Some communications are cut off, and electricity and water supplies have been affected. Aftershocks were continuing through at least Sunday.
Bishop Kikuchi said that it is rare for such a powerful earthquake to hit Japan, particularly Kyushu. Quakes of a similar magnitude were recorded in 1995 in Kobe, in 2004 in Niigata, and in 2011 in Tohoku.
As messages and prayers flooded social media for the earthquake victims, Catholics in Thailand also expressed their prayers.
Fr. Joseph Thammarat Ruanngam, chancellor of the Diocese of Chanthaburi, told CNA that his community “expresses its heartfelt condolences following the devastating earthquake and stands united in prayer with the affected people of Japan.”
'You are not forgotten,'
Cardinal Dolan tells Iraq's
Christians and Yazidis
By Elise Harris
Dohuk, Iraq, Apr 10, 2016 / 03:52 pm (CNA/EWTN News) - On his second full day in Iraq, Cardinal Timothy Dolan traveled three hours to Dohuk, the city where the majority of those who fled Mosul, including the members of the minority Yazidi population, escaped to when ISIS overran the city.
After the lengthy ride, Cardinal Dolan briefly visited a medical dispensary set up by CNEWA, where he greeted the staff and some refugees, most of whom come from Mosul.
He then traveled to the Inishke village in the upper region of Dohuk where he concelebrated Mass in the Chaldean rite in the presence of the local Christian community, a number of refugees, as well as representatives of the Yazidi and Muslim communities.
The principal celebrant for the Mass was Bishop Shlemom Wardoni, who is one of three auxiliary bishops serving under Chaldean Patriarch Louis Raphael Sako. Members of other rites, including the Syriac-Catholic rite, were also present at the Mass, including a number of displaced priests.
Although Cardinal Dolan was not the main celebrant at Mass, he preached the homily, conveying the core message that he came to share with everyone: “We love you…You are not forgotten.”
He then wrapped up his day with a visit to the Dawodiya displacement camp near Dohuk, which consists of roughly 2,200 people. About 60 to 70 percent of the camp’s inhabitants are Yazidi, while the rest are mainly Christians.
Some Muslims are also present in the camp, as well as a few other small minority religions.
The Yazidi population is one of Iraq's smallest ethnic-religious minorities. Of Kurdish descent, their religion is considered to be a pre-Islamic sect branching from Christianity, Judaism, and Zoroastrianism.
Most of the small community lived in Iraq's Nineveh province prior to the Islamic State's invasion. Their religion is syncretistic, and some Muslims consider the Yazidis to be devil worshippers.
Roughly 125 miles from Erbil, Dohuk is where the majority of Iraq’s Yazidi population now resides, as well as thousands of others forced to leave their homes in Mosul and Sinjar when ISIS unleashed an offensive that took the Nineveh Plain in June 2014.
When ISIS stormed Sinjar shortly after, many of the Yazidi population seeking to escape the attacks fled to the surrounding mountains. Facing the possibility of death if they retreated down the mountain, they had been stranded for days without access to food or water. Some, including children, died of dehydration due to the desert’s high temperatures.
They were finally released from the nightmare when the U.S. President Barack Obama air dropped shipments of food and water onto the mountain, and authorized airstrikes allowing them to safely flee to surrounding cities.
Cardinal Dolan’s trip to the city falls on the second day of his visit to Iraqi Kurdistan, where he is currently on a pastoral visit intended to offer support and solidarity to families, Church leaders, priests and religious who were displaced as a result of the 2014 ISIS attacks.
In addition to his role as Archbishop of New York, the cardinal is also chair of the Catholic Near East Welfare Association. Traveling with him is CNEWA board member Bishop William Murphy of Rockville Centre, CNEWA President Msgr. John Kozar, and the Executive Director of Catholic Charities for the Archdiocese of New York, Msgr. Kevin Sullivan. CNA is also part of the delegation.
How Pope Francis thinks
we should change marriage prep
Vatican City, Apr 10, 2016 / 05:39 am (CNA/EWTN News) - Among the less-noticed passages of Pope Francis’ new exhortation was a lengthy section on marriage preparation, a subject that the pontiff has repeatedly spoken on, calling for additional focus at the diocesan and parish levels.
“Learning to love someone does not happen automatically, nor can it be taught in a workshop just prior to the celebration of marriage,” Pope Francis said. “For every couple, marriage preparation begins at birth.”
His reflections on the October 2015 Synod on the Family were released April 8 in the lengthy post-synodal exhortation “Amoris Laetitia.” He cited many statements of the synod and added his own commentary.
The main objective of marriage preparation for engaged couples is to “help each to learn how to love this very real person with whom he or she plans to share his or her whole life,” the Pope said.
“We need to find the right language, arguments and forms of witness that can help us reach the hearts of young people, appealing to their capacity for generosity, commitment, love and even heroism, and in this way inviting them to take up the challenge of marriage with enthusiasm and courage,” he added.
Among those who are best prepared for marriage are likely those who witnessed the example of Christian marriage from their parents, the pontiff said.
He characterized marriage preparation as an initiation to the Sacrament of Matrimony. It provides couples with “the help they need to receive the sacrament worthily and to make a solid beginning of life as a family.”
The Church can help engaged couples’ love grow and mature through the example and advice of missionary families and the couples’ own families; other pastoral resources; discussion groups; and optional talks, he advised. However, individual meetings with the couple are still essential.
The Pope also stressed the Sacrament of Reconciliation as a means for engaged couples to find the mercy and “healing strength” of God from their past sins. He encouraged couples to reflect on the Bible readings of their wedding Mass and the meaning of the rings they will exchange.
“Nor would it be good for them to arrive at the wedding without ever having prayed together,” he said, suggesting that couples consecrate their love before an image of the Virgin Mary.
In preparing for marriage, the Pope cautioned that the financial and social preparations for the wedding ceremony risk leaving spouses “exhausted and harried, rather than focused and ready for the great step that they are about to take.”
Noting that some people in relationships never get married due to concerns about the expenses, he encouraged more modest and simple weddings.
“Have the courage to be different. Don’t let yourselves get swallowed up by a society of consumption and empty appearances. What is important is the love you share, strengthened and sanctified by grace.”
Pope Francis also commented on the various reasons that some young people choose not to get married – reasons ranging from financial motivations and a feeling of not having a future to anti-marriage ideologies and a sense that marriage limits one’s options and independence.
“The Synod Fathers stated in a number of ways that we need to help young people discover the dignity and beauty of marriage,” the Pope reflected.
“They should be helped to perceive the attraction of a complete union that elevates and perfects the social dimension of existence, gives sexuality its deepest meaning, and benefits children by offering them the best context for their growth and development.”
Furthermore, couples should be encouraged to see the meaning in the Catholic wedding ceremony and the “God-given meaning” in their created bodies, signs of the covenant of love between Christ and the Church, he continued.
Those charged with helping couples prepare for marriage should take care not to overwhelm them with too much information, but to focus on aiding them in accepting Church teaching and offering access to resources, practical advice, programs, and guidance, the pontiff said.
In addition, he recommended that marriage preparation help couples recognize eventual problems and risks before they commit to marriage.
“In this way, they can come to realize the wisdom of breaking off a relationship whose failure and painful aftermath can be foreseen. In their initial enchantment with one another, couples can attempt to conceal or relativize certain things and to avoid disagreements; only later do problems surface.”
“Sadly, many couples marry without really knowing one another,” the Pope lamented, saying that couples should be strongly encouraged to discuss their expectations in marriage, their understanding of love and commitment, what they want from each other, and what kind of life they want to build together. These discussions can help them discover if they have little in common and realize that mutual attraction alone is not sufficient for an enduring marriage.
“The decision to marry should never be encouraged unless the couple has discerned deeper reasons that will ensure a genuine and stable commitment,” he said.
At the same time, engaged couples discerning marriage must have a “realistic trust” in the possibility that each other’s weak points can be countered by developing good qualities.
“This entails a willingness to face eventual sacrifices, problems and situations of conflict; it demands a firm resolve to be ready for this,” the Pope said. Marriage is not the “end of the road” but “a life-long calling based on a firm and realistic decision to face all trials and difficult moments together.”
Noting that many couples tend to “drop out” of the Christian community after their wedding, the Pope encouraged Christian communities to recognize the great benefit they receive from supporting and engaged and newlywed couples.
Marriage support must also extend through the first years of marriage, when initial affection or attraction can diminish, he commented. Couples who were insufficiently mature at the time of their wedding merit special attention.
“Young love needs to keep dancing towards the future with immense hope,” Pope Francis said. “Hope is the leaven that, in those first years of engagement and marriage, makes it possible to look beyond arguments, conflicts and problems and to see things in a broader perspective.”
Pope Francis calls for
release of kidnapped priest
By Ann Schneible
Vatican City, Apr 10, 2016 / 05:55 am (CNA/EWTN News) - Pope Francis on Sunday issued an appeal for the release of kidnapped Salesian priest, Fr. Tom Uzhunnalil, and all persons being held captive in conflict regions.
“Dear brothers and sisters, in the hope given to us by the Risen Christ, I renew my appeal for the freeing of all kidnapped persons in armed conflict zones,” the Pope told the crowds in St. Peter's Square after the recitation of Regina Caeli prayer.
“In particular, I wish to remember Salesian priest Tom Uzhunnalil, who was abducted in Aden, Yemen last March 4.”
Fr. Uzhunnalil, an Indian national, was abducted last month when four gunmen attacked a Missionaries of Charity-run retirement home in Aden, Yemen, killing 16 people, including four Missionary of Charity sisters. The attacks are thought to have been perpetrated by Islamist terrorists, though no group has claimed responsibility for the incident. Both the Islamic State and al-Qaeda have a presence in the area.
During Holy Week, rumors circulated of Fr. Uzhunnalil having been crucified on Good Friday. However, it was later revealed by India's government and bishops that the abducted priest was alive, and efforts were underway to ensure his safe return.
Before leading the crowds in the Regina Caeli, Pope Francis reflected on the Gospel reading for the third Sunday of Easter which recounts the Risen Jesus appearing to the disciples in Galilee.
“The story is placed within the framework of the disciples' daily life,” after their return to their work as fishermen following Jesus' death and resurrection, the Pope said.
After fishing through the night, the Gospel recounts, the disciples fail to catch any fish. The empty nets represent the disciple's experience to a certain extent, the Pope said: “they knew him, they had left everything to follow him, full of hope... and now what?”
In the account, Jesus then appears to the disciples after they have spent all night fishing on the lake, although they do not recognize him at first. Calling to the disciples from the beach, Jesus tells them to let down their nets once more; they obey, and catch more fish than their nets can contain. Upon recognizing Jesus – exclaiming, “It is the Lord!” -- they rush toward him, with Peter jumping from the boat and swimming to shore.
With this exclamation “It is the Lord!” the Pope said, “there is all the excitement of Easter faith, full of joy and amazement, which contrasts sharply with the bewilderment, despair, and sense of helplessness that had accumulated in the minds of the disciples.”
“The presence of the risen Jesus transforms everything: darkness is overcome by light, fruitless work once again becomes fruitful and promising, the sense of fatigue and neglect gives way to a new momentum and the assurance that he is with us.”
Since then, the Pope said, “these same sentiments have enlivened the Church, the Community of the Risen.”
This “profound joy” and “invincible hope” in the Risen Christ continues to resonate today, and challenges the faithful to spread the message, Francis said.
It may seem as though “the darkness of evil and fatigue of daily life have the upper hand,” he said, but “the Church knows with certainty that those who follow the Lord Jesus now shine (with) the everlasting the light of Easter.”
“Today too the Church continues to resonate this festive announcement: the joy and hope continue to flow into the hearts, the faces, gestures and words.”
The Pope said Christians are called to “communicate the message of the Resurrection to those we encounter, especially the suffering, the alone, those who are in dangerous conditions, the sick, the refugees, the marginalized.”
Jesus “renews in us the Easter faith,” Francis concluded. “May he make us ever more aware of our mission at the service of the Gospel and of the brothers; may he fill us with His Holy Spirit in order that, supported by the intercession of Mary, we may proclaim to the whole Church the greatness of his love and the richness of his mercy.”
No doctrine change from
Pope Francis –
but a call for better
pastoral care
Vatican City, Apr 8, 2016 / 04:00 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Catholics who have divorced-and-remarried need the fullness of Church teaching. They also need a wise pastoral and community response to their difficulties that can help them grow in the Christian life, Pope Francis said on Friday in his new document on love in the family.
“The Church’s pastors, in proposing to the faithful the full ideal of the Gospel and the Church’s teaching, must also help them to treat the weak with compassion, avoiding aggravation or unduly harsh or hasty judgements,” the Pope said in Amoris Laetitia.
Pope Francis’ highly anticipated post-synodal apostolic exhortation on the gifts and challenges of family life was published April 8.
Titled Amoris Laetitia, or The Joy of Love, the document was presented to journalists in Italian, French, English, German, Spanish and Portuguese. Signed March 19, the Feast of St. Joseph, the release of the document was delayed in order to allow time for its translation into other languages.
The apostolic exhortation is the conclusion of a two-year synod process discussing both the beauty and challenges of family life today. Hosted at the Vatican in 2014 and 2015, these synods gathered hundreds of bishops from around the world.
While much of the Western secular media focused its coverage on homosexuality and the question of communion for the divorced-and-civilly remarried, actual topics discussed in the meetings were much broader, with synod fathers touching on themes such as domestic violence, incest and abuse within families, and marriage preparation.
Pope Francis acknowledged the attention generated by the synods, saying, “The debates carried on in the media, in certain publications and even among the Church’s ministers, range from an immoderate desire for total change without suf¬ficient reflection or grounding, to an attitude that would solve everything by applying general rules or deriving undue conclusions from particular theological considerations.”
The wide-ranging document included Biblical reflections on family, as well as discussion of the family as a place of faith and labor, celebration and tears. The Pope spoke about sexuality within marriage and on the sometimes devastating effects of poverty and migration on families. He also touched on the importance of communication within the family, the challenges of raising children in a technology-saturated world, and the witness of virginity.
Pope Francis devoted a substantial section of the document to the topic of educating children, observing, “The family is thus the place where parents become their children’s first teachers in the faith.” He also offered suggestions for improving marriage preparation programs, inviting engaged couples to consider a simple wedding and to set aside technological distractions.
In a world where many have lost respect for marriage and are delaying the union or choosing cohabitation instead, the Church must speak up, Pope Francis said.
“As Christians, we can hardly stop advocating marriage simply to avoid countering contemporary sensibilities, or out of a desire to be fashionable or a sense of helplessness in the face of human and moral failings,” he reflected. “We would be depriving the world of values that we can and must offer.”
At the same time, he said, “there is no sense in simply decrying present-day evils, as if this could change things. Nor it is helpful to try to impose rules by sheer authority. What we need is a more responsible and generous effort to present the reasons and motivations for choosing marriage and the family, and in this way to help men and women better to respond to the grace that God offers them.”
Pope Francis praised the “indissolubility of marriage,” saying that it “should not be viewed as a ‘yoke’ imposed on humanity, but as a ‘gift’ granted to those who are joined in marriage.” He added that “Divorce is an evil and the increasing number of divorces is very troubling.”
In addition, he said that “divorced people who have not remarried, and often bear witness to marital fidelity, ought to be encouraged to find in the Eucharist the nourishment they need to sustain them in their present state of life.”
In the document’s introduction, Pope Francis wrote that “everyone should feel challenged by Chapter Eight,” which is titled “Accompanying, Discerning and Integrating Weakness.”
That chapter, which describes the Church as “a field hospital,” discusses the pastoral care of the divorced-and-civilly-remarried, as well as those who cohabit and face other irregularities.
Pope Francis wrote that “it is a matter of reaching out to everyone, of needing to help each person find his or her proper way of participating in the ecclesial community.” He emphasized that the divorced-and-remarried “can find themselves in a variety of situations” and that this variety requires discernment and accompaniment on the part of pastors.
The Pope voiced agreement with the Synod Fathers’ observations that divorced-and-remarried Catholics need to be “more fully integrated into Christian communities…while avoiding any occasion of scandal.” He restated that the divorced-and-remarried are not excommunicated, and quoted the Synod Fathers, who had said that “language or conduct that might lead them to feel discriminated against should be avoided.”
Care for these persons is not a weakening of Christian faith and belief in the indissolubility of marriage, but is rather “a particular expression of its charity,” he said, again quoting the Synod Fathers.
While he affirmed the ideal of sacramental marriage in ministering to those in broken situations, the Pope also rejected a one-size-fits-all approach to individual cases.
Considering the “immense variety of concrete situations” that the divorced-and-remarried have put themselves in, he said, “it is understandable that neither the Synod nor this Exhortation could be expected to provide a new set of general rules … applicable to all cases.”
Instead, he said, what is possible is “a responsible personal and pastoral discernment of particular cases” which would recognize varying degrees of responsibility and therefore varying consequences or effects.
This is also the case with admission to the sacraments of Confession and Communion, he said, due to mitigating factors that might reduce a person’s culpability.
“Hence it can no longer simply be said that all those in any ‘irregular’ situation are living in a state of mortal sin and are deprived of sanctifying grace,” Pope Francis said. “More is involved here than mere ignorance of the rule. A subject may … be in a concrete situation which does not allow him or her to act differently and decide otherwise without further sin.”
Someone in such a situation of objective sin but without full culpability can grow in charity with the help of the Church, and “in certain cases, this can include the help of the sacraments,” he noted. “I would also point out that the Eucharist 'is not a prize for the perfect, but a powerful medicine and nourishment for the weak',” he added, quoting from his 2013 apostolic exhortation Evangelii gaudium.
The Pope acknowledged the importance of fidelity to the Gospel, saying that “To show understanding in the face of exceptional situations never implies dimming the light of the fuller ideal, or proposing less than what Jesus offers to the human being.”
He called it “reductive” in discernment merely “to consider whether or not an individual's actions correspond to a general law or rule.”
“A pastor cannot feel that it is enough simply to apply moral laws to those living in ‘irregular’ situations, as if they were stones to throw at people’s lives. This would bespeak the closed heart of one used to hiding behind the Church’s teachings.”
Pope Francis professed understanding for those who prefer “a more rigorous pastoral care which leaves no room for confusion.”
“But I sincerely believe that Jesus wants a Church attentive to the goodness which the Holy Spirit sows in the midst of human weakness, a Mother who, while clearly expressing her objective teaching, 'always does what good she can, even if in the process, her shoes get soiled by the mud of the street'.”