VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICE
YEAR XXII - # 179
DATE 14-10-2015

Summary:
- General audience: keep our promises to children
- The struggle against poverty
- The Pope praises local development
- The Circuli Minori discuss the second part of the Instrumentum Laboris: the
importance of divine pedagogy
- Other Pontifical Acts

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 General audience: keep our promises to children
 Vatican City, 14 October 2015 (VIS) - Before beginning this Wednesday's
general
audience, the Holy Father asked for forgiveness for the various scandals that
have occurred in Rome and in the Vatican during recent days.
 Returning to the theme of aspects of the relationship between the Church and
the family, the Pope dedicated today's catechesis to to promises we make to
children. He explained that this did not mean the many promises we make during
the day to make them happy or good, or to encourage them to work hard at
school,
but rather the most important ones, "decisive for their expectations in life,
for their trust in relation to other human beings, for their capacity to
conceive of God's name as a blessing".
 "We adults refer to children as a promise of life", he continued. "And we are
easily moved by this, saying that the young are our future. But I wonder, at
times, if we are equally serios about their future! A question that we should
ask more often is this: how faithful are we to the promises we make to children
when we bring them into our world? Welcome and care, closeness and attention,
trust and hope, are all basic promises, that may be summarised in one word:
love. This is the best way to welcome a human being into the world, and we all
learn this before being aware of it. It is a promise that a man and a woman
make
to every child, from the moment he or she is conceived in their thoughts".
 When instead this promise is not honoured, "children are wounded by an
unbearable 'scandal', made even more serious by the fact that they are unable
to
understand it. God keeps watch over this promise from the very first moment. Do
you remember what Jesus said? 'Their angels in heaven always see the face of my
Father in heaven'. Woe to those who betray their trust, woe! Their trustful
abandonment to our promise, that commits us from the very first moment, will be
our judgement". The Pope added that children's spontaneous trust in God "should
never be harmed, especially when this occurs as a result of a certain
presumption, more or less consciously, to substitute Him. God's tender and
mysterious relationship with the soul of children must never be violated. A
child is ready from birth to feel loved by God. As soon as he or she is able to
feel loved, a child also feels that there is a God Who loves children".
 "Only if we look at children with God's eyes are we truly able to understand
how, by defending the family, we protect humanity! The viewpoint of children is
the viewpoint of the Son of God". Francis recalled that the Church herself, in
Baptism, makes great promises to children, that require commitment on the part
of parents and the Christian community, and concluded by asking that Our Lady
and St. Joseph teach us to welcome Jesus in every child God sends us.

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 The struggle against poverty
 Vatican City, 14 October 2015 (VIS) - Following today's catechesis, the Holy
Father mentioned that Saturday 17 October will be International Day for the
Eradication of Poverty, instituted by Fr. Joseph Wresinski, France. The aim of
this day is to promote greater efforts for the elimination of extreme poverty
and discrimination, to ensure that every person is able to fully exercise his
or
her fundamental rights. "We are all invited to make this intention our own, so
that Christ's charity may reach and relieve the poorest and most abandoned of
our brothers and sisters", said Pope Francis.

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 The Pope praises local development
 Vatican City, 14 October 2015 (VIS) - The Holy Father has written a letter to
Piero Fassino, mayor of Turin, Italy, to the authorities and to all
participants
in the Third Global Forum on Local Development, held in Turin from 13 to 16
October. The Pope wished to contribute to this forum by recalling some of the
ideas he expressed recently before the Assembly of the United Nations,
regarding
the Sustainable Development Goals, which are "a hope for humanity, provided
they
are implemented in the correct way".
 In the text, the Pope stresses the importance of the decisions adopted by the
international community that, however, "runs the risk of falling into the trap
of a declamatory nominalism, creating a tranquillising effect on consciences".
He also remarks that the multiplicity and complexity of problems require the
use
of technical tools of measurement. "This, however, leads to a twofold danger:
becoming limited to the bureaucratic exercise of drawing up a long list of good
intentions, or creating a single a priori theoretical solution to respond to
all
challenges".
 "Political and economic action are a prudential activity, guided by the
perennial concept of justice, and it must always be taken into consideration
that before any plan or programme, there are real men and women, equal to their
governors, who live, struggle and suffer, who must be the masters of their own
destiny. Integral human development and the full exercise of human dignity
cannot be imposed".
 From this perspective, he adds, "local economic development seems to be the
most suitable response to the challenges presented to us by a globalised
economy, the results of which are often cruel". Francis mentions his address to
the United Nations, in which he spoke about how "the simplest measure and
indicator of the fulfilment of the new Agenda for development would be
effective, practical and immediate access to indispensable material and
spiritual goods. ... The only way of truly reaching these goals in a permanent
way
is by working at a local level". He remarks that the recurrent world crises
have
demonstrated how economic decisions that in general seek to promote the
progress
of all through the generation of new consumption and the continuing increase of
profits are unsustainable for the progress of the global economy itself". These
decisions are also, he adds, "immoral, as they sideline any question about what
is just and what truly serves the common good".
 He concludes by praising Christian social thinking in Italy, through important
figures such as Giuseppe Toniolo, Don Sturzo and others who, in the wake of
Pope
Leo XIII's Encyclical "Rerum novarum", were able to offer an economic analysis
that, starting from the local and territorial context, proposes options and
directions for the world economy, and notes that much secular social thought,
while based on different premises, makes similar proposals.

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 The Circuli Minori discuss the second part of the Instrumentum Laboris: the
importance of divine pedagogy
 Vatican City, 14 October 2015 (VIS) - During this morning's General
Congregation the various working groups presented to the Synod Fathers the
result of their reflections on the second part of the Instrumentum Laboris.
 Almost all the groups agreed on the need for the final document of the Synod
to
use the language of biblical theology and, as affirmed by the French group B,
to
be clear and simple, avoiding ambiguity and misunderstandings that may impair
understanding of the mission and the vocation of the family in the Church and
in
the world. It will be necessary to take into account the fragility and the
suffering of the family, without overstating the current situation, as these
problems have always existed. The emphasis on this dimension leads the group to
stress that the Church accompanies all her children, and must proclaim the
Gospel and its call to conversion.
 The English group B comments that the final document should illustrate how
divine pedagogy for marriage and the family has accompanied the entire history
of salvation and continues right until our day. "We propose ... [beginning]
with
Genesis, which already provide a definition of marriage as a unique union
between a man and a woman, so total and intimate that because of it a man must
leave his father and mother in order to be united with his wife. This account
of
the creation of marriage presents also the three basic characteristics of
marriage, as it was in the beginning - monogamy, permanence, and equality of
the
sexes. ... But the divine pedagogy of salvation history concerning marriage and
the family reached its climax with the Son of God's entry in human history".
The
group acknowledges that "It is only through reflection on the divine pedagogy
that we will understand our ministry as mirroring God's patience and mercy. The
divine plan continues even in our time. It is the divine pedagogy which
provides
content and tone for the teaching of the Church". With regard to the difficult
situations to be examined in the third part, the group emphasises that "we
should always remember that God never gives up on his mercy. It is mercy which
reveals God's true face. God's mercy reaches out to all of us, especially to
those who suffer, those who are weak, and those who fail".
 The French group, whose rapporteur is Archbishop Laurent Ulrich of Lille,
France, also speaks about divine pedagogy, and proposes "emphasising the many
encounters between Jesus and families" throughout the Gospels, reaffirming that
"divine pedagogy acts in all biblical revelation and must continue to be
experienced by the Church, following families in their joys and sorrows".
Another observation of this group, that resonates widely, is that the Relatio
should express a broader conceptual unity and not speak about indissolubility
as

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 * Origin: Sursum Corda! BBS=Huntsville AL=bbs.sursum-corda.com (1:396/45)