Jesus renews life, hope even when all seems lost

BY CAROL GLATZ

VATICAN CITY • Jesus can offer everyone hope and new life, Pope Francis said.

“Let yourself be pulled out” by Jesus during “these bad moments that happen to us all,” the Pope said before praying the Angelus with some 35,000 visitors gathered in St. Peter’s Square March 26.

In his talk, Pope Francis reflected on the day’s Gospel reading from St. John in which Jesus weeps and prays at Lazarus’ tomb then calls to him to “Come out,” bringing him back to life.

“The message is clear: Jesus gives life even when it seems that all hope has gone,” the Pope said.

Like the stone sealing shut Lazarus’ tomb, he said, there are “moments when life seems to be a sealed tomb: everything is dark and around us we see only sorrow and despair.”

But Jesus’ miracle at the tomb teaches “this is not the end, that in these moments we are not alone; on the contrary, it is precisely in these moments that he comes closer than ever to restore life to us,” the Pope said.

Even though Jesus wept for his friend’s death, the Pope said, he also asked that the tomb be opened and that Lazarus, “Come out!” showing that Jesus “invites us not to stop believing and hoping, not to let ourselves be crushed by negative feelings.”

“Jesus says this to us, too. Take away the stone: the pain, the mistakes, even the failures, do not hide them inside you, in a dark, lonely, closed room. Take away the stone: draw out everything that is inside” without fear, the Pope said.

Jesus “will not be outraged,” he said, because he always says, “I am with you, I

MORE FROM POPE FRANCIS ON TRENTONMONITOR.COM:

 Without Holy Spirit, evangelization is empty advertising

 Do not be afraid to be a witness to God’s love

 “We need to be cleansed of all the dust that has sullied our hearts. How? Prayer, fasting, works of mercy: this is the journey of #Lent.”

@PONTIFEX

March 27, 2023 care about you, and I want you to start living again” by getting back on the right path with renewed confidence.

A woman and child pray by a cemetery grave. The U.S. bishops have stated that two new alternatives to burial and cremation fail to comply with the Catholic Church’s teaching on respect for the bodies of the dead. Shutterstock image

HUMAN COMPOSTING, ALKALINE HYDROLYSIS NOT ACCEPTABLE FOR BURIAL, SAY U.S. BISHOPS

WASHINGTON, DC (OSV News) • Two new alternatives to burial and cremation fail to comply with the Catholic Church’s teaching on respect for the bodies of the dead, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Doctrine said.

In a March 23 statement, the committee said it had evaluated human composting and alkaline hydrolysis, and concluded that both “fail to satisfy the Church’s requirements for proper respect for the bodies of the dead.”

The methods, which rapidly accelerate decomposition, have gained support in recent years as “eco-friendly” forms of treating human remains. Currently, six U.S. states – California, Colorado, New York, Oregon, Vermont and Washington –permit human composting. However, both techniques – unlike flame-based cremation – do not yield remains that can be interred in a sacred place. Church teaching requires proper care of the human body in death as recognition of the human person’s unity of soul and body, and the hope of the resurrection when Jesus Christ returns in glory.

MEDICALLY CHANGING PERSON’S SEX CHARACTERISTICS TO THOSE OF OPPOSITE SEX ‘NOT MORALLY JUSTIFIED,’ SAY BISHOPS

WASHINGTON (OSV News) • Surgical, chemical or other interventions that aim “to exchange” a person’s “sex characteristics” for those of the opposite sex “are not morally justified,” said the U.S. bishops’ doctrine committee in a statement released March 20.

“What is of great concern, is the range of technological interventions advocated by many in our society as treatments for what is termed ‘gender dysphoria’ or ‘gender incongruence,’” it said.

The statement urged “particular care” be taken “to protect children and adolescents, who are still maturing and who are not capable of providing informed consent” for surgical procedures or treatments such as chemical puberty blockers, “which arrest the natural course of puberty and prevent the development of some sex characteristics in the first place.”

Technological advances that enable the cure of “many human maladies” today and “promise to cure many more” have “been a great boon to humanity,” but there are “moral limits to technological manipulation of the human body,” it said.

“The human person, body and soul, man or woman, has a fundamental order and finality whose integrity must be respected,” the committee said. “Because of this order and finality, neither patients nor physicians nor researchers nor any other persons have unlimited rights over the body; they must respect the order and fi- nality inscribed in the embodied person.”

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Administrative Committee March 15 approved release of the 14-page statement by the USCCB’s Committee on Doctrine, chaired by Bishop Daniel E. Flores of Brownsville, Texas.

RESPONDING TO INDIGENOUS, VATICAN DISAVOWS ‘DOCTRINE OF DISCOVERY’

VATICAN CITY (CNS) • The Catholic Church formally “repudiates those concepts that fail to recognize the inherent human rights of Indigenous peoples, including what has become known as the legal and political ‘doctrine of discovery,’” a Vatican statement said.

Issued March 30 by the dicasteries for Culture and Education and for Promoting Integral Human Development, the statement said papal texts that seemed to support the idea that Christian colonizers could claim the land of non-Christian Indigenous people “have never been considered expressions of the Catholic faith.” But, “at the same time, the Church acknowledges that these papal bulls did not adequately reflect the equal dignity and rights of Indigenous peoples,” the statement said.

Canadian Cardinal Michael Czerny, prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, said the document responds to the repeated requests of Indigenous people in Canada and the United States to disavow the so-called doctrine, but it does not claim the discussion has ended or should end. “It acknowledges that dealing with such a painful heritage is an ongoing process,” he told reporters. “It acknowledges still more importantly that the real issue is not the history but contemporary reality.”

And, the cardinal said, it is a call “to discover, identify, analyze and try to overcome what we can only call the enduring effects of colonialism today.”

 To read more on these subjects, visit TrentonMonitor.com and click on NEWS>CHURCH.

CHURCH LEADERS WELCOME MOVE ON RUSSIAN WAR CRIMES IN UKRAINE, DECRY ABDUCTION OF UKRAINIAN CHILDREN

KYIV, Ukraine (OSV News) • Ukrainian Church leaders have warned Russians they will have to answer for savagery inflicted on their country, following the International Criminal Court’s indictment of President Vladimir Putin for war crimes.

“The world is gradually waking up to what we are suffering and giving a name to it,” said Bishop Stanislav Szyrokoradiuk of Odessa-Simferopol. “It suited the perpetrators very well when the world resolved not to take note of the great many crimes being committed here, since this helped them spread their lies. Now, thank God, people are grasping what they’re doing more clearly.”

The bishop spoke as international investigators continued amassing evidence of war crimes following the ICC’s March 17 arrest warrant for President Putin and Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, his commissioner for children’s rights, on charges of abducting Ukrainian children and deliberately targeting civilians. Ukraine’s National Information Office says it has evidence that Russia has so far illegally transported over 16,000 Ukrainian children, although other sources put the figure much higher.

In a March 26 national message, the head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk of Kyiv-Halych, said officials from various countries had recognized the “real number” of deported children could reach “tens or hundreds of thousands,” and thanked international institutions for branding the abductions a war crime.

‘PRAY FOR GOD’S HAND’ OVER MISSISSIPPI: DESTRUCTIVE TORNADO KILLS, INJURES DOZENS

ROLLING FORK, Miss. (OSV News) • Powerful tornadoes tore through rural Mississippi the night of Friday, March 24, killing or injuring dozens and causing widespread destruction. A Saturday update from the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) reported the death toll had risen to 25 and dozens of others were injured. (The death toll was later downgraded to 21.) News reports said that search and recovery crews continue to dig through destroyed homes and buildings on Sunday.

“The loss will be felt in these towns forever,” Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said in a Tweet Saturday. “Please pray for God’s hand to be over all who lost family and friends.”

Gov. Reeves issued a State of Emergency on Saturday, and early Sunday morning President Joe Biden ordered Federal aid to supplement state and local recovery efforts in the areas affected. Processing information from damage surveys could take days to complete, but the National Weather Service gave preliminary ratings for the Rolling Fork/Silver City tornado (EF-4, approximately 166-200 mph winds), and Blackhawk/Winona tornado (EF-3, with winds in 136-165 mph range).

“I encourage all to continue to pray and find ways to support all affected commu- nities. We will be reaching out through our Catholic Charities Disaster Response team to assist in recovery efforts,” Bishop Joseph R. Kopacz of the Diocese of Jackson, Mississippi said in a statement posted on the diocesan website.

“We pray also for the victims of the terrible tornado that struck Mississippi in the United States,” Pope Francis said at the end of his Angelus prayer March 26.

The National Weather Service of Huntsville, Alabama, also confirmed four tornadoes touched down in their state overnight March 24-25, all of which were EF-1 or EF-2 strength. At least one person died in Alabama as a result of the severe storm system.

PRAYING FOR SHOOTING VICTIMS AS ‘FAMILY OF FAITH’ IS LIKE ‘AN EMBRACE’ FOR COMMUNITY, NASHVILLE BISHOP SAYS AT MASS

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (OSV News) • Nashville Bishop J. Mark Spalding celebrated Mass the evening of March 27 in Incarnation Cathedral to pray for the victims of the school shooting that morning in The Covenant School.

“On this day of such tragedy, we come here to gather as a people who live in hope, in faith and in love,” Bishop Spalding said at the beginning of Mass. “So, as we gather today, mindful of what our faith teaches us, that darkness, sin, death does not have the final word, but light, love, and the victory of Jesus Christ does.”

The shooter, later identified as 28-year-old Audrey Hale, left six individuals dead, including three children, during the mid-morning hours of March 27 at the private Christian school. Founded as a ministry of Covenant Presbyterian Church, it educates students in preschool through sixth grade.

Metro Nashville Police have identified the three child victims as 9-year-olds Evelyn Dieckhaus, William Kinney and Hallie Scruggs, daughter of the senior pastor of Covenant Presbyterian Church Chad Scruggs. The three adult victims include school head Katherine Koonce, substitute teacher Cynthia Peak and school custodian Mike Hill. Hale, who was armed with two assault-type rifles, was fatally shot dead in interactions with officers who responded to the scene.