VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICE
YEAR XXII - # 020
DATE 28-01-2015

Summary:
- General audience: fatherly responsibility and the sense of orphanhood in
children
- Other Pontifical Acts

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 General audience: fatherly responsibility and the sense of orphanhood in
children
 Vatican City, 28 January 2015 (VIS) - Pope Francis, returning to the theme of
the family, dedicated the catechesis of today's Wednesday general audience to
the figure of the father: "a word dear to us as Christians, more than any
other, as it is the name with which Jesus taught us to call God", he said to
the thousands of faithful gathered in the Vatican's Paul VI Hall.
 "Father is a universal word, known to all. It indicates a fundamental
relationship that is real and ancient as the history of mankind. Today,
however, we have reached the point of affirming that ours would be a 'society
without fathers'. In other words, in particular in western culture, the figure
of the father would be symbolically absent, to have vanished. ... At first,
this was perceived as a form of liberation: freedom from the father-master,
from the father as the representative of a law imposed from the outside, from
the father as the censor of the happiness of his children and an obstacle to
the emancipation of the autonomy of the young. Indeed, in the past in some
cases authoritarianism, indeed even oppression reigned in some homes: parents
who treated their children like servants, who did not respect the personal
needs of their growth, fathers who did not help them to embark on their path
in freedom, to assume their own responsibilities for building their future and
that of society".
 "And, as often happens, we have passed from one extreme to the other. The
problem of our times no longer seems to be the invasive presence of fathers,
but rather their absence. ... Fathers are so focused on themselves, on their
work and at times their personal fulfilment, that they even forget their
families, leaving children and the young to their own devices. ... Now, on
this shared path of reflection on the family, I would like to say to all
Christian communities that we must be more careful: the absence of the
paternal figure in the life of children and the young produces lacunae and
wounds that can be very serious. And in effect the deviances of children and
adolescents may to a considerable extent be due to this lack of examples and
authoritative guidance in their everyday life, to this lack of closeness and
love from their fathers".
 "The feeling of orphanhood experienced by many young people is more profound
than we might think. They are orphans in their families because their fathers
are often absent, also physically, from the home, but above all because when
they are present, they do not act like fathers: they do not speak with their
children, they do not give their children, by their example accompanied by
words, those principles, those values, those rules for life that the young
need in the same way as they need bread. ... At times it seems as if fathers
are not sure what position they should occupy in the family, or how to educate
their children. And so, in doubt, they abstain, they withdraw and neglect
their responsibilities, possibly seeking refuge in an improbable relationship
of parity with their children".
 The civil community with its institutions too has "a certain responsibility
towards the young, that might be described as paternal", the Pope added: "a
responsibility that at times it neglects or exercises poorly. This too leaves
them as orphans, and does not offer them true prospects. The young are
therefore orphaned of sure paths to follow, orphaned of teachers in whom they
can trust, orphaned of ideals to warm their hearts, orphaned of values and
hopes that support them day by day. They are filled with idols but robbed of
their hearts; they are driven to dream of enjoyment and pleasure, but they are
not given work; they are deluded by the god of money and denied true richness".
 "Therefore, it is good for all of us, fathers and children, to listen once
again to the promise that Jesus made to His disciples: 'I will not leave you
orphans'. Indeed, He is the path to follow, the master to listen to, the hope
that the world can change, that love will conquer hate, that there can be a
future of brotherhood and peace for all", Francis concluded. He added that
next Wednesday he will further pursue this theme, focusing on "the beauty of
paternity". "For this reason I have chosen to begin with the darkness in order
to reach the light. May the Lord help us to understand these things well".

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 Other Pontifical Acts
 Vatican City, 28 January 2015 (VIS) - The Holy Father has:
 - appointed Fr. Cesar Alcides Balbin Tamayo as bishop of Caldas (area 1,395,
population 260,000, Catholics 250,000, priests 61, religious 76), Colombia.
The bishop-elect was born in Santa Rosa de Osos, Colombia in 1958 and was
ordained a priest in 1985. He holds a licentiate in moral theology from the
Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Rome, a licentiate in philosophy and
science of religious education from the Universidad Catolica de Oriente,
Colombia, and a master's degree in business administration from the Escuela de
Administracion de Empresas in Barcelona, Spain. He has served in a number of
pastoral and administrative roles, including rector of the "Miguel Angel
Builes" minor seminary and of the "Santo Tomas de Aquino" major seminary in
the diocese of Santa Rosa de Osos, director of the "Cooperativa Fraternidad
Sacerdotal", administrator of the "Mutuo Auxilio Sacerdotal Colombiano" of the
Episcopal Conference of Colombia, and financial director of the Episcopal
Conference of Colombia. He is currently parish priest of the "Santa Barbara"
parish in Bellavista. He succeeds Bishop Soleibe Arbelaez, whose resignation
from the pastoral care of the same diocese upon reaching the age limit was
accepted by the Holy Father.
 - accepted the resignation from the pastoral care of the diocese of
Graz-Seckau, Austria presented by Bishop Egon Kapellari, upon reaching the age
limit.

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