True wealth is found in Jesus Christ, not money, Pope Francis says

By Hannah Brockhaus

Vatican City, Aug 7, 2019 / 04:26 am (CNA).- Pope Francis Wednesday criticized those who give more consideration to money than the sacraments or helping others find true wealth – a relationship with Jesus Christ.

“How many times do I think of this when I see some parishes where it is thought that money is more important than the sacraments! Please! A poor Church: let us ask the Lord for this,” the pope said Aug. 7.

The Gospel teaches to not put trust in financial resources, but in “the true wealth” that is a relationship with Jesus Christ, he said. “We are indeed – as St. Paul would say – ‘poor, but capable of enriching many; as people who have nothing and instead possess everything.’”

“Our all is the Gospel, which manifests the power of the name of Jesus who performs wonders.”

“Here the portrait of the Church appears, which sees those in difficulty, does not close its eyes, knows how to look humanity in the face to create meaningful relationships, bridges of friendship and solidarity instead of barriers,” he said.

After a month-long break from general audiences, Pope Francis resumed his catechesis on the Acts of the Apostles, reflecting on the book’s first account of disciples performing a miraculous healing.

In the episode, Peter and John are going to the temple to pray when they encounter a crippled man who had been carried to sit outside the gate called “the Beautiful Gate” to beg for alms.

Francis explained that at that time, people with physical disabilities were not allowed to offer sacrifices inside the temple, or even to enter, because it was believed their infirmity was due to their sin or sins of their parents.

Then Peter took him by the hand and raised him up. The man, crippled from birth, “leaped up, stood, and walked around, and went into the temple with them, walking and jumping and praising God.”

“This is the ‘art of accompaniment,’” Pope Francis said. “This [is what] the two disciples do with the cripple. They see him, they say look at us, they give a hand, they help him rise, and they heal him.”

“This is what Jesus does for all of us,” he added. “When we are in bad moments, in moments of sin, in moments of sadness. We say to Jesus: Look at me. I am here. And we take Jesus’ hand and we let ourselves be raised.”

The goal should be a Church “which knows how to take by the hand and accompany to lift, not to condemn,” he said, adding that “Jesus always, always holds out his hand, always trying to lift, to make people heal, to be happy, to meet God.”

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/true-wealth-is-found-in-jesus-christ-not-money-pope

Sydney Uni Taking Us To Year Zero, Dr Bella d’Abrera Tells Young IPA Podcast Image result for d'abrera podcast

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The IPA’s Dr Bella d’Abrera joined The Young IPA Podcast to discuss her recent article in the Daily Telegraph on the University of Sydney’s ‘Unlearn Campaign’. Here’s what she had to say:

“They have to unlearn everything that they know. They have to break the old rules, and then start again. It’s a crazy idea of starting at Year Zero.”

“Everything they know about climate, about love, about medicine. Everything that they know, they have to unlearn.”

“This is the opposite to the point of a university…this is creating a generation of people who won’t know anything. And it’s quite terrifying, because how are they going to make decisions if they don’t know anything? How are they going to be leaders of the country?” ….

https://ipa.org.au/publications-ipa/freedomwatch/sydney-uni-taking-us-year-zero-dr-bella-dabrera-tells-young-ipa-podcast

Pope Francis urges homosexual priests and nuns to be celibate, or leave

Related Story: Pope says Church should ask forgiveness from gay people

Related Story: Senior Vatican priest sacked after coming out as gay

In his clearest comments on the subject yet, Pope Francis says active homosexuals in the Catholic Church should leave, rather than live a “double life”.

Key points

• Pope makes remarks in new book discussing challenges of religious life
• He says candidates must be “humanly and emotionally mature”
• Church teaches homosexuality not sinful, but homosexual sex is

While he has previously spoken of the need for better screening of candidates for the religious life, his comments, in a new book, suggesting priests who cannot keep their vows of celibacy should leave are some of his clearest to date.

Pope Francis made the comments in a book-length interview with Spanish priest Fernando Prado, called The Strength of Vocation, in which he discusses the challenges of being a priest or nun today.

Pope Francis said in the book that homosexuality in the Church “is something that worries me”.

It is due to be published this week in several languages.

“The question of homosexuality is a very serious one,” he said, adding that those entrusted with training men to be priests must be certain candidates are “humanly and emotionally mature” before they can be ordained.

This also applied to women who wanted to enter female religious communities to become nuns.

In the Catholic Church, priests, nuns and monks all take vows of celibacy.

Francis says ‘no room’ for people with ‘this rooted tendency’

 Photo: A 2017 report found that Catholic institutional patriarchy was one factor that contributed to high rates of child abuse. (AP: Andrew Medichini)

The Church teaches that homosexual tendencies are not sinful in themselves, but homosexual acts are.

Francis said there was “no room for this” in the lives of priests and nuns, adding that the church had to be “demanding” in choosing candidates for what is known as the consecrated life.

“For this reason, the church urges that persons with this rooted tendency not be accepted into [priestly] ministry or consecrated life,” he said.

He urged homosexuals who are already priests or nuns to be celibate and responsible to avoid creating scandal.

“It is better that they leave the priesthood or the consecrated life rather than live a double life,” Pope Francis.

Conservative Archbishop speaks of Vatican ‘homosexual network’

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The Pope’s interview was conducted in mid-August. Less than two weeks later, on August 26, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, the Vatican’s former ambassador to the US, threw the church into turmoil with a bombshell statement against the Pope and Vatican officials.

Archbishop Vigano said a “homosexual network” existed in the Vatican, whose members helped promote each other’s careers in the church.

He also accused the Pope of having ignored alleged sexual misconduct with adult male seminarians by former American cardinal Theodore McCarrick, 88.

The Vatican said Archbishop Vigano’s accusations were riddled with “calumny and defamation”.

In July, Mr McCarrick became the first cardinal to resign in nearly 100 years after US church officials said allegations made in a separate investigation that he had sexually abused a 16-year-old boy almost 50 years ago were credible and substantiated.

Mr McCarrick has said he had no recollection of the alleged abuse of the minor, but has not commented on the allegations of misconduct with the seminarians, which allegedly took place decades ago.

The Catholic Church has been haunted for more than two decades by evidence of thousands of cases of sexual abuse of minors by clergy around the world, in countries ranging from the United States to Australia, Ireland, Belgium, Germany and Chile.

In 2017, RMIT University published a landmark report into the findings of 26 royal commissions and other enquiries from Australia, Ireland, Canada, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.

It found the risk of sexual abuse was much higher in institutions where priests and brothers had minimal contact with women, citing that about 7 per cent of all clergy abused children between 1950 and 2000 — about one in 15 priests globally.

The authors noted many men who were ordained were, “psychosexually immature, psychosexually maldeveloped and sexually deprived and deeply frustrated male priests and religious, particularly those who had not satisfactorily resolved their own sexual identity”

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-12-03/pope-francis-tells-homosexuals-to-leave-church/10575980