The first ever Filipina-American to be crowned Miss World revealed her traditional values in a recent television interview. Megan Young, the 23 year-old who was crowned Miss World on Sept. 28, said in a recent television interview that she is pro-life, rejecting both abortion and contraception. Young, who was born in Virginia but moved to the Philippines with her family as a child, was interviewed on ANC, a Filipino news network, when she was asked about the country's recent adoption of a reproductive health law, which was signed by president Benigno Aquino III on Dec. 21, 2012. The new law mandates sex education in middle and high schools and subsidizes contraceptives, including potentially abortion-inducing drugs. Young indicated opposition to the law, saying, “I'm pro-life, and if it means killing someone that’s already there, then I’m against that of course. I'm against abortion.” Asked about contraception, she added that, “I don't engage in stuff like that,” going on to say she believes that “sex is for marriage” and “should be with your partner for life. I'm actually against divorce,” she added, “because I've seen that in my family. So I think that if you marry someone, that should be the person you should be with forever, through sickness and health, through good or through bad.” When asked how a single woman as “gorgeous” as herself could remain abstinent, Young replied with a laugh, “you just say no, that’s it. If they try to push you, then you step away because you know that that person doesn’t value you, doesn’t value the relationship as much.” She said that a gentleman would not pressure a woman into premarital sex in the first place, while at the same time recognizing that abstaining from sex before marriage takes character. “If the guy is willing to sacrifice that,” she said, “then that means a lot.” Young said she chose to compete in the Miss World pageant rather than Miss Universe because Miss World’s “main focus is charities and helping out and giving back.”

During his daily mass homily Pope Francis warned those in attendance against the idolatry present in greedy hearts, stressing that the Lord gives us our gifts for the betterment of the world. “This greed makes you sick, because it makes you think of everything in terms of money. It destroys you,” the Pope told those gathered in the chapel of the Vatican's Saint Martha guesthouse Oct. 21. In his reflections, the pontiff centered on the Gospel passage in which a man approaches Jesus asking him to help resolve a dispute with his brother surrounding their inheritance, stressing that the story illustrates the problems we face in our relationship with money. “This is a day-to-day problem. How many families have we seen destroyed by the problem of money? Brother against brother, father against son. This,” he urged, “is the first result that this attitude of being attached to money does: it destroys! When a person is attached to money, he destroys himself, he destroys the family. It binds you.” Highlighting the good qualities money can have, the pontiff stressed that it brings about many necessary things and contributes greatly to “human development,” however, “when your heart is attached in this way, it destroys you.” Turning towards the parable which Jesus tells in the Gospel of the rich man who stores up treasures for himself, “but is not rich in what matters to God,” Pope Francis noted that Jesus’ warning is to guard against any form of greed. “That’s what does harm: greed in my relationship with money,” he urged, “it leads you to idolatry, it destroys your relationship with others. It destroys you, it makes you sick.” Pope Francis stressed that the most important thing to remember is that greed is a tool of idolatry “because it goes along a way contrary to what God has done for us.” Referring to the words of Saint Paul in his letters when tells us that Jesus, who was rich, became poor in order to enrich us, the pontiff urged that the path of God is “humility, to lower oneself in order to serve. Greed, on the other hand, takes us on a contrary path: You, who are a poor human, make yourself God for vanity's sake. It is idolatry!” This is why Jesus warns us so frequently against the attachment to money, the Pope said, adding that we cannot “serve two masters,” and that we should not worry because “God knows what we need.” Jesus, noted the pontiff, invites us to a “trusting abandonment to the Father,” rather than placing our trust in something which is “contrary to the path of God. The Lord teaches us the path: not the path of poverty for poverty's sake. No! It is the way of poverty as an instrument, so that God may be God, so that He will be the only Lord! All the goods that we have, the Lord gives them to us to advance the world,” stressed the Pope, “to advance humanity, to help, to help others. Today may the Word of the Lord remain in our hearts: 'Take care to guard against all greed, for though one may be rich, one’s life does not consist of possessions.'”

When Christianity becomes an ideology rather than a faith based on a relationship with God, its followers become proud and rigid, Pope Francis said. When Christianity becomes an ideology, "Jesus isn't there, nor is his tenderness, love and meekness. And ideologies are always rigid, always," the pope said in a homily at his early morning Mass in the Domus Sanctae Marthae, where he lives. According to a Vatican Radio report on the homily, Pope Francis said that ideological Christians are "rigid, moralists, ethicists, but without goodness. When a Christian becomes a disciple of an ideology, he has lost his faith; he is no longer a disciple of Jesus, but of this way of thinking," the pope said. Pope Francis was commenting on the day's Gospel reading from Luke (11:47-54) in which Jesus admonishes the scribes and Pharisees for trying to control the faith rather than live it and share it with others. The Gospel reading included the line: "Woe to you, scholars of the law! You have taken away the key of knowledge. You yourselves did not enter and you stopped those trying to enter."

Do you have family or friends who are in pain? They may have been laid off, gotten divorced, experienced the death of a love one or are just beat down by life in general. Every time you see them or speak with them, the conversation is filled with sadness and anguish. It can be exhausting to talk with them but that is just what Jesus calls us to do. I have been reading Max Lucado's latest book You'll Get Through This. In it, he deals with the very situations I described at the beginning of this post; people who have experienced bad things. It brings to mind the question of why God allows this to happen. Lucado seems to think that God is using these bad things to build a stronger you and me. He says that while Satan weaves hate and terror, God reweaves it into good. The Bible tells us in many different places that God will use hardship to sharpen us as Christians. When you look at Paul, Stephen, Moses, Abraham, and Jesus himself, you will realize that people going through hardship is part of life. Lucado uses the story of Joesph, one of Jacob's sons, to illustrate the model that God expects from us when bad things occur in our lives. Joseph was rejected by his family, sold into slavery, falsely accused of rape, and thrown into prison. Because Joseph had faith and an ongoing relationship with God, he knew that his future had not arrived yet. He trusted in God's perfect timing despite the hardship. He never lost his faith and he constantly relied on the Lord to carry him in these difficult times. He also, as Lucado says, did not make rash or foolish decisions. He based his decision making on the promises that God had revealed to him in a series of dreams. It is a great example for us in these trying times. We often are faced with adversity and many of us make really bad decisions trying to alleviate our pain. God does not promise a painless life. Our road will not always be smooth and there will be impediments to overcome. Isn't it nice to know that despite all of this, our God is always there? He wants to pick us up and carry us through the pain. He is love. The pain and suffering caused by the works of Satan and his followers can always be rewoven into good for God's people. I encourage you to read the story of Joseph in Genesis. Build your own relationship with God. Trust in his grace and providence and remain steadfast that He will reweave your life into something beautiful and lasting.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s repeated public support for abortion is a “grave sin” that means she should not be admitted to holy Communion, out of concern for her spiritual state, said Cardinal Raymond Burke. Cardinal Burke, who heads the Apostolic Signatura, the Vatican's highest court of appeal other than the Pope, explained that Canon 915 of canon law “must be applied” in Pelosi’s case. That canon states that people who are “obstinately persevering in manifest grave sin” should not be admitted to Communion. “This is a person who, obstinately, after repeated admonitions, persists in a grave sin — cooperating with the crime of procured abortion — and still professes to be a devout Catholic,” Cardinal Burke said in a July interview with the Minneapolis-based newspaper The Catholic Servant, republished recently in the Catholic newspaper The Wanderer. “This is a prime example of what Blessed John Paul II referred to as the situation of Catholics who have divorced their faith from their public life and therefore are not serving their brothers and sisters in the way that they must,” the cardinal said, noting that Catholic political leaders have a duty to safeguard and promote “the life of the innocent and defenseless unborn.” Cardinal Burke is prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, the highest legal body in the Catholic Church. Rep. Pelosi, D-Calif., a Catholic, has long supported legalized abortion. At a June press conference, she responded to a question about the difference between legal abortion and the crimes of Kermit Gosnell, a notorious Philadelphia abortionist convicted of murdering several infants born alive during failed abortions. “As a practicing and respectful Catholic, this is sacred ground to me, when we talk about this. I don’t think it should have anything to do with politics,” she said. Cardinal Burke said it is “just false and wrong” to say abortion and related matters are questions about the Catholic faith that have no role in politics. “I fear for Congresswoman Pelosi if she does not come to understand how gravely in error she is. I invite her to reflect upon the example of St. Thomas More, who acted rightly in a similar situation, even at the cost of his life,” he said. He noted that the rejection of abortion is not only a matter of Catholic teaching, but part of the “natural moral law written on every heart” and “illuminated” by Jesus Christ’s teaching, passion and death. Cardinal Burke added that it is a “contradiction” and a “scandal” when high-profile political figures who reject Catholic teaching on life and the family are honored at Catholic university commencement ceremonies, saying that this helps “contribute to the sinfulness of the individuals involved.” He deplored a “false sense of dialogue” in the wider culture and in some areas of the Catholic Church, where people simply “pretend to dialogue about open and egregious violations of the moral law.”

A gathering of researchers and scientists convened in Rome to discuss some of the greatest threats to humanity, identifying the tendency to view persons as less than human as a key factor. “Human beings no longer are looked upon as persons, but as sources of raw material to help those who are the rich and the powerful,” said Dr. Jonathan Haas, president of the Pontifical Academy for Life. The academy – which works to address “issues in law, in culture, in medicine, in bioethics” – met recently for their annual meeting. Established by Bl. John Paul II, the group aims to promote and defend of human life, especially in the field of bioethics as it regards Christian morality. “It's really a profound commitment to defend the dignity of the human person from the first moment of their conception,” he said. Throughout his time in the field, Dr. Haas has observed that the most pressing life issue of modern times is “not individual specific issues, such as abortion or embryonic stem cell research, or euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide. It seems to me that the most pressing, broad issue is the de-humanization, the de-personalization of the human person.” The academy's president observed the increasing culture-wide epidemic of the weak and the poor being treated as “sources of assistance for those who are…more powerful,” as a driving force behind the lack of respect for human dignity. Citing the black market sale of organs and the freezing of embryos for research as examples, he emphasized that “it’s the rich and the powerful really taking advantage of the weak and the vulnerable for their own benefit.” Given the extent of the degradation of human dignity, Dr. Haas explained the approach of the pontifical group, emphasizing that “we are an academy.” This implies, he said, that they seek individuals who are themselves “from the academy; from universities, from institutes of advanced studies, people with backgrounds in law, medicine, philosophy, theology, to address these common threats to human dignity.” Focusing on the organization’s acute expertise in varying fields, he explained that their aim is to discuss current life issues from different angles, but also from a “very high-level academic perspective,” because “those are the people who are formulating and implementing public policy around the world.” “It’s individuals who have expertise in the background, in the field of the natural sciences, the sacred sciences, philosophy, law, who are posing the threats, so we have to come back at these threats from these similar disciplines.” The eight members of the board of directors for the academy had a private audience with the Holy Father on Sept. 27, in which the Pope lauded them for their work, but also stressed the challenges that they face. In reference to the encounter, Dr. Haas said “it was wonderful, it was beautiful. His words were beautiful. He told us that we were going to have to struggle against the current. Everything you do, he said, is against the current, and it will be for the rest of your lives.” Dr. Haas noted that the Pope urged them to keep in mind that “every step that you take forward in the protection of life, the other side, the culture of death, are taking steps forward as well.” One of the qualities which stood out specifically to the academy president “was his gravity. You see pictures of him all the time, and he’s grinning, he’s smiling. But he was very somber, and he looked down, and told us we were going to have to anticipate a lifetime of struggle in addressing these issues.” Having the “support and approbation of the Vicar of Christ, the Successor to St. Peter,” who is “the highest moral authority on the planet,” the Academy president said, was a “significant encouragement” to them in their work.