A streamlined annulment process announced by Pope Francis is a positive step for the Catholic Church and has the potential to help many divorced Catholics in the healing process, according to Father Paul Counce, judicial vicar for the Diocese of Baton Rouge. “The church is reaching out to people who are hurting,” said Father Counce said. “We’re making it easier for them to lead lives of faith, to come to church, to come to Communion.” The Vatican released Sept. 8 the texts of two papal documents, “Mitis Iudex Dominus Iesus” (“The Lord Jesus, the Gentle Judge”) for the Latin-rite church and “Mitis et misericors Iesus,” (“The Meek and Merciful Jesus”) for the Eastern Catholic churches. The changes, including the option of a brief process without the obligatory automatic appeal, go into effect Dec. 8, the opening day of the Year of Mercy. Pope Francis said the annulment process must be quicker, cheaper and much more of a pastoral ministry. The pope’s revised policy provides that in some cases, annulments may be obtained in as little as a matter of weeks. The pontiff emphasized he was not “promoting the nullity of marriages, but the quickness of the processes, as well as a correct simplicity” so that Catholic couples are not “oppressed by the shadow of doubt” for prolonged periods. Father Counce explained that the procedures announced by the pope contain two basic differences. One is the new abbreviated process, where if both parties are not contesting the annulment and are cooperating, then an annulment may be granted in as little as five to six weeks. In a significant shift, those decisions will be made by the local bishop after consulting with the tribunal. The second major difference occurs at the back end of the more traditional process, where no longer will each case be required to go to a mandatory appellate review. Father Counce said that alone could lop off as much as seven weeks or more off a process that previously could easily take a year or more, depending on the diocese. Father Counce said the pope’s emphasis is on being merciful and pastoral and added the pontiff does not want Catholics to be put off by the bureaucratic process or expense to obtain an annulment.

Pope Francis threw away a prepared text and, to the delight of tens of thousands of people on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, spoke from the heart about the challenges and love that come with being part of a family. After listening to testimony from six families from various continents Sept. 26, he thanked them for sharing their stories. "A witness given in order to serve is thoroughly good, it makes us good persons, because God is goodness," he began, continuing to increase in speed and emphasis to the delight of the crowd. He smiled, gestured with his hands and the crowd cheered as he said it was "worth being a family." God sent his son into a family, he said, "and he could do this because it was a family that had a truly open heart," he said. The pope spoke in Spanish, the language in which he is most comfortable; his talk was translated by Msgr. Mark Miles. "We are celebrating the feast of the family," he told the crowd. "Families have a citizenship that is divine. The identity card that they have is given to them by God so that within the heart of the family truth, goodness and beauty can truly grow." "Some of you might say of course, Father, you speak like that because you're not married," he said. "Families have difficulties. Families -- we quarrel, sometimes plates can fly, and children bring headaches. I won't speak about mother-in-laws," he quipped. "However, in families, there is always light" because of the love of God's son. "Just as there are problems in families, there is the light of the resurrection," he said. "The family is like a factory of hope," he said. "In the family, there are indeed difficulties" and children bring challenges, too, he said. "But those difficulties are overcome with love," he said. "Hatred is not capable of dealing (with) or overcoming any difficulty. Division of hearts cannot overcome a difficulty; only love can overcome."

Pope Francis exhorted consecrated religious to take part in an evangelization which “burns in the heart,” cautioning against gossip and narcissism as prominent dangers of consecrated life. The Pope explained: “to evangelize is not only to convince, it's to give witness that Jesus Christ is alive. And how do I give you this witness? With your flesh, with your life.” While it is good to study and give courses in evangelization, the Pope said, “the ability of warming hearts doesn't come from books, it comes from the heart! If your heart is burning from love for Jesus Christ, you are a good evangelizer,” he said. He also warned that consecrated life can be sterile when it is “not quite prophetic” and “not allowed to dream.” Pope Francis acknowledged that consecrated life has moments of instability and temptations, especially the temptation to not forgive. He specifically warned that gossip impedes forgiveness and destroys others’ reputations. “But never, never drop the bomb of gossip. Never, never! It's the plague of community life!” he told his audience. The consecrated religious who gossip “drop a bomb on their community and the community is destroyed.” He said narcissism is one of the worst attitudes of a consecrated religious. “No to narcissism, to looking at oneself. And on the contrary, what strips everything of narcissism, is adoration.” While everyone prays, thanks God, and asks for favors, the Pope asked “do we adore the Lord? The prayer of silent adoration is the opposite of reflecting oneself in one's own narcissism,” he said, advising the religious to be “men and women of adoration”

Pope Francis Monday celebrated his second public Mass during his papal visit to Cuba, reflecting that an encounter with Christ has the power to transform even the most rejected sinners into missionaries. “The gaze of Jesus gives rise to missionary activity, service, self-giving,” the Pope said, drawing his inspiration from the conversion of St. Matthew, whose feast is celebrated Sept. 21. “Jesus' love heals our short-sightedness and pushes us to look beyond, not to be satisfied with appearances or with what is politically correct.” Reminding the faithful that they too are sinners, the pontiff called them to take a moment and “recall with gratitude and happiness those situations, that moment, when the merciful gaze of God was felt in our lives. He sees beyond this, to our dignity as sons and daughters, a dignity at times sullied by sin, but one which endures in the depth of our soul,” the Pope Francis said. “He came precisely to seek out all those who feel unworthy of God, unworthy of others.” How does this reflection impact you? Do you feel, from time to time, that you are unworthy or rejected? We all do but the loving embrace of God is always waiting for us. Pray that Pope Francis's visit will bring millions to the Church and inspire people to evangelize as Jesus asked us to do.

Monday’s feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross reminds us that the way of Christ and his followers is one of humble surrender, Pope Francis said in his homily yesterday. “(I)f a Christian wants to make progress on the path of the Christian life, he must lower himself, as Jesus lowered himself: this is the path of humility,” the Holy Father said during his Sept. 14 Mass at the chapel of the Saint Martha guesthouse in the Vatican. He said that while many beautiful images of the crucifixion may help us meditate on the Lord’s sacrifice, what happened was “very different” from what most paintings depict. The reality is that Christ “was all torn and bloodied by our sins,” the Pope said. To illustrate this point, the Pope turned his attention to the figure of the serpent, which seemed to be the “protagonist of today’s readings.” In the first reading, from the book of Numbers, the Lord’s instructions for Moses to raise up the bronze serpent to save the people from the serpent’s venom illustrates “a promise that is not easy to understand.” The Lord chose “this bad, ugly figure” of the serpent to prefigure Christ on the Cross “because Jesus came to take all our sins on himself,” the Holy Father said. Focusing on the second reading, Philippians 2:6-11, he said Christ became as “the greatest sinner, without having ever committed a sin.” In the Gospel reading, John 3:13-17, “Jesus himself explained Moses’ act a bit further to Nicodemus.” Just as the prophet had “lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.” It is through this image that we understand that, “this is the way that (Jesus) has taken in order to defeat the serpent in his field”, he said. If we ask God for help on our Christian journey, the Roman Pontiff concluded, he “gives us the grace that we ask of Our Lady who was under the Cross: the grace to cry, to cry out of love, to cry out of gratitude, because our God loved us so much that he sent his Son to lower himself and allow himself to be crushed in order to save us.

This month, the Knights of Columbus will provide food to some 13,500 families in Erbil who have been displaced by the ISIS takeover of Mosul and Nineveh in Iraq. A national television commercial featuring Fr. Douglas Bazi, a Catholic priest who was kidnapped and tortured and now runs a refugee camp, will also air in the United States, hopefully prompting viewers to send even more aid. “Christians in the Middle East face persecution and extinction simply for their belief in the one who taught us to love one another,” Supreme Knight Carl Anderson said in a press release. “Despite the genocidal persecution against them, they have continued to be an inspiration to the power of their faith, and to the love of God and neighbor. They need our solidarity and support, and we are pleased to help provide it.” The organization has already donated millions in aid to the displaced Christians and other religious minorities in the Middle East, but this shipment of food supplies will bring their assistance to over $4 million. Each package contains food basics such as cooking oil, wheat, beans and canned fish and meat. Including transportation and packaging, each kit costs $60.