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Entire Church Is Grateful
“The principal actors on the stage over these last few days, of course, have been the young people themselves. World Youth Day is their day. It is they who have made this a global ecclesial event, a great celebration of youth and a great celebration of what it is to be the Church, the people of God throughout the world, united in faith and love and empowered by the Spirit to bear witness to the risen Christ to the ends of the earth. I thank them for coming, I thank them for their participation, and I pray that they will have a safe journey home. I know that the young people, their families and their sponsors have in many cases made great sacrifices to enable them to travel to Australia. For this the entire Church is grateful.”
These words of Pope Benedict XVI, spoken upon his departure from the Sydney Airport, speak volumes. The entire Church is grateful indeed! World Youth Day has become, as Cardinal George Pell of Sydney put it, a “stable element of ecclesial life.” The triennial international gatherings are, then, symbols of the unique Christian witness that young people are called to share with the Church and the world.
World Youth Day is a constant reminder to all of us that young Catholics have a great deal to offer, and that calling them the “hope” of the Church is far from a cliché, World Youth Day reminds the entire Church of our responsibility to young Catholics. We are to welcome them, serve their needs, nurture their faith, and call forth their generosity and talents.
We are grateful to Bishop DiMarzio for his leadership in encouraging local youth to attend and for traveling, along with Auxiliary Bishop Frank Caggiano, halfway around the world to accompany them and lead them in prayer. Also kudos must be given to Father Gerard Sauer, the diocesan pilgrimage director, and Marilyn Santos, who organized the youth of Brooklyn and Queens who attended.
We are grateful to family members, parish and school communities and all who made sacrifices to help our diocesan delegation to make the trip.
We are grateful to Tablet reporter Marie Elena Giossi for her professionalism and expertise in sending back stories and photos from the scene. Also to Patrick, Will and George of The Prayer Channel (soon to be NET TV!) for embarking on the journey and contributing their excellent coverage and commentary. Of course, we are grateful to the young people of our diocese for their enthusiasm and participation and for making us proud.
Christ Yesterday and Today, the Beginning and the End, the Alpha and Omega. These words from the Easter Vigil remind us that the Gospel is always new, always exciting and challenging. The true “fountain of youth” is a life of faith. We thank our young people for showing us the way.
Choice for Whom?
New regulations proposed by the Bush Administration would require recipients of federal funding from Health and Human Services (HHS) to certify that they will not discriminate against health care workers who object to abortion and other birth control methods.
According to Reuters, the proposed regulation draft defines abortion as “any form of the various procedures, including prescription and administration of any drug or the performance of any procedure or any other action, that results in the termination of the life of a human being in utero between conception and natural birth, whether before or after implantation.”
Opponents of the proposed HHS regulations believe this will limit women in rural locations or small towns to basic abortion and birth control access and information. While others believe that the proposed definition of abortion is too broad and will cause more health care professionals to deny patients abortion services and other birth control, they feel under the broad definition more doctors will refuse to distribute contraceptives and it will be less available all around.
In a letter dated July 18, 2008, Cardinal Rigali, Archbishop of Philadelphia, points out that many pro-choice groups have insisted that abortion and birth control are a “basic” and “mandatory” right of women and should be part of all health care. They have been vocally opposed to conscience clauses in the past, saying theses clauses are protecting a small group of people from what should be a “supposedly objective medical standard.”
Cardinal Rigali goes on to point out that pro-choice groups are now contradicting their previous stand when they indicate that the number of health care professionals who oppose birth control rights is so prevalent that putting these regulations into effect would essentially make birth control and abortion inaccessible. It makes one wonder why something like abortion, if so many health care professionals are opposed to, should be a “supposedly objective medical standard” in health care.
Pro-aborts have to ask themselves, with all their lip service to choice, where does choice for physicians enter the conversation? There does seem to be duplicitous reasoning in their arguments.
Catholic health care facilities in the future must counter the contradiction in the pro-choice position – apparently pro-life physicians and institutions are not allowed to make their choice!
The HHS regulations are only in draft form and have yet to be finalized. There is speculation that the proposed regulations are possibly drafted to offer protection in states where, even though protection has been offered for years, many health care workers are not aware of it. Since nothing is finalized and all information is from a leaked draft, nothing can be certain as to what, if any, new protection will be offered.
Edward T. Mechmann, Assistant Director, Family Life/ Respect Life Office, Archdiocese of New York, points out that the leak of the possible HHS regulations brings to light, “that both at the federal and state level, there is a desperate need for comprehensive conscience protection” for health care workers.
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