Learning to be Quick to Listen

Pope Benedict XVI called on young people to not pursue power, money and prestige, but to find true joy in Christ and live a life of generous service to others. In his message for World Youth Day 2012, he told the world's young Catholics to start making the world a better, more just and humane place right now, even while they continue to pursue their studies, talents and interests. Do not be content in giving the minimum, he said. "The world needs men and women who are competent and generous, willing to be at the service of the common good," the pope said. The Vatican and most dioceses around the world will mark World Youth Day on Palm Sunday, April 1. International celebrations of World Youth Day are normally held every two-three years. In the message, released by the Vatican in English, Spanish, Italian and French March 27, the pope chose the theme from St. Paul's Letter to the Philippians: "Rejoice in the Lord always." The pope said: "Joy is at the he...

The 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council is an opportunity to revisit the clear teaching of its documents and reject distortions and false interpretations that have gained traction in the Catholic Church, according to a council scholar. Alan Schreck, professor of theology at Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio, spoke at the Graymoor Spiritual Life Center in Garrison March 13 on "Vatican II: World Church or Church of the Little Flock?" Vatican II is still a sure compass for the church today, Schreck said, and each pope since the council reaffirmed its teachings as "God's teachings in our time." Nonetheless, he said, there has been tumult as the postconciliar church sought to understand what the council meant and how to implement it. Schreck said extreme responses vary from those who thought the council did not go far enough to create a democratic church to those who thought it wrought too many changes and opened the door to secularism and mode...

Actress Shari Rigby sat right across from her interviewer, her legs crossed. On the instep of her right foot was a tattoo of a flower. She was asked what it was. "Her name would have been Lily," Rigby answered, "and so that's there to remind me." She was talking about the baby she had aborted 20 years ago. Rigby plays a relatively small part in the new movie "October Baby," but it's a pivotal role: She plays the birth mother of Hannah (Rachel Hendrix), but Hannah was born as the survivor of a botched abortion; Hannah's twin brother only survived a handful of days after the abortion attempt. But the kicker is that brother directors Andrew and Jon Erwin, when they sent Rigby the script for her consideration, had no idea she had ever undergone an abortion. In fact, Jon Erwin told Catholic News Service, it wasn't until after the movie had been shown to several focus groups that Rigby went in front of the camera again to address moviegoers about...

Tammy Becht and her family sought shelter in the basement of their Floyd County home when tornadoes ravaged small towns across southern Indiana. About an hour later, she began seeing the devastation through live TV reports from the affected towns. "I realized that we were dealing with a massive amount of destruction," said Becht, a member of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish in New Albany. "And that meant that people were going to want to respond." Becht soon sent a message through the Internet social networking website Facebook to her pastor, Father Eric Augenstein. Becht was ready to help in large part because of her experience more than five years ago in leading four relief trips to the Gulf Coast in the months immediately after Hurricane Katrina ravaged that region. "(Helping after Katrina) impacted me in so many ways," she said. "I realized how much power we have as a faith community to be able to reach out to other people. It doesn't matter ...

Just like the disciples, every follower of Jesus needs a "mountain-top" experience of light and of closeness to the Lord to get them through life's difficult and painful moments, Pope Benedict XVI said. Celebrating a morning Mass March 4 at the Church of St. John Baptist de la Salle in a Rome suburb and reciting the Angelus at midday with visitors at the Vatican, Pope Benedict commented on the day's Gospel account of the Transfiguration. Jesus told his disciples that he would have to suffer and die, but they did not understand him and, in fact, they objected to the idea, the pope told the crowds gathered in St. Peter's Square for the Angelus. "For this reason, Jesus took three of them up the mountain and revealed his divine glory, the splendor of truth and love. Jesus wanted this light to illuminate their hearts when they would pass through the thick darkness of his passion and death, when the scandal of the cross would be insupportable for them," the po...

The chairman of the U.S. bishops' Ad Hoc Committee on Religious Liberty went before Congress to urge rescission of the Department of Health and Human Services' contraceptive mandate or passage of the Respect for Rights of Conscience Act. Bishop William E. Lori's testimony before the House Judiciary Committee focused on some of the "absurd and surreal consequences" of the mandate and the "accommodation" announced by President Barack Obama, which the bishop called "a legally unenforceable promise to alter the way the mandate would still apply to those who are still not exempt from it." He said: "'Without change' suddenly means 'with change.' 'Choice' suddenly means 'force.'" The bishop of Bridgeport, Conn., who addressed the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee February 16 on a similar topic, was joined at the hearing by a Muslim-American attorney, the director of the Family Research Council...