© 2005-2026 BISERICI.org
© 2005-2026 BISERICI.org
Timp stanga: 0.03s...
Letter #9, 2024, Thursday, May 9: Ascension[2024-05-09][Engleză]Pope Francis contemplates the Holy Door in St. Peter’s Basilica (VATICAN MEDIA Divisione Foto)Here is Pope Francis today, on May 9, Ascension Thursday, sitting for a moment of contemplation in front of the Holy Door in St. Peter’s Basilica as he promulgated the papal bull indicting the upcoming Jubilee Year of 2025, 1,700 years after the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D. The year will begin with the opening of this door on Christmas Eve, December 24, 2024. The door will be closed and the Holy Year will end on January 6, Epiphany, in 2026. The bull indicting the Jubilee is entitled “Spes Non Confundit,” meaning “Hope Does Not Disappoint.” This once-every-quarter-century Jubilee is expected to bring some 32 million pilgrims to Rome during the year 2025… Rome is rushing to complete many public works before the opening of the Jubilee Year of 2025. Here is a view from some months ago of a planned new metro station in Piazza Venezia at the very heart of old Rome (link). This and other works throughout the city — some of which will open up large areas to pedestrians as traffic is re-routed underground — has been causing traffic jams for months. Still, it is believed Rome will look quite beautiful, and be much easier to move around, when the work is finished. A number of observers, however, are warning that it will “take a miracle”(!) for these projects to be completed in time for the Jubilee’s opening on Christmas Eve, just over seven months from now. Hence, the rush is on… Letter #9, 2024, Thursday, May 9: Ascension Today is the Feast of the Ascension. What was the meaning of Christ’s Ascension into heaven? Why is it important to us? Here is a thoughtful reflection on Ascension Thursday by Br. José Maria Barrero, O.P. of the Dominican Friars of the Holy Name of Jesus in Oakland, California (link). Barrero’s reflection begins by considering the coming into the world of Jesus through the Holy Spirit, and His birth on the first Christmas, then considers Jesus’ going out of our world with His Ascension, 50 days after His resurrection — the Feast which we celebrate today. Here is Brother Barrero’s text: “At Eastertide, the Church celebrates the solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord. Those who pray Vespers will hear a familiar tone which echoes back to the last days of Advent. The antiphon for the Ascension is also in the form of an ‘O’ Antiphon. “O Rex gloriae, Domine virtutum, qui triumphator hodie super omnes coelos ascendisti; ne derelinquas nos orphanos, sed mitte promissum Patris in nos, spiritum veritatis. Alleluia. “O King of glory, Lord of all power, who ascended to heaven on this day triumphant over all; Do not leave us as orphans, but send us the Father’s promise, the spirit of truth. Alleluia.” “The same mode that is used for the descent of divine love is now used for the ascent of divine love, the resurrected and glorified humanity of Jesus. “For St. Thomas Aquinas, every created reality comes from God (exitus), and everything will then return to God (reditus). “In Christ, we see a foreshadowing of all reality coming from God (exitus): ‘In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God…’ (John 1:1). So, too, in Christ all things return to God (reditus). “When humanity was joined to the divine person in Jesus, God Himself remained forever the same without any change to His divinity. Humanity now experiences a re-creation in and through the life of Christ. By God’s free gift of divine grace, the Christian becomes what Christ is by nature. Jesus’ share of His very life will aid the Christian to fulfill the goal of their entire existence, the knowledge of the Trinity in its unity. (St. Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on the Sentences of Peter Lombard. Sent I, d.2, exp.) “The Ascension antiphon pleads to God, ‘do not leave us as orphans.’ The resolution to our orphanhood is the fulfillment of the Father’s promise: the sending of the Spiritum Veritatis [“the Spirit of Truth”], the Holy Spirit. The Apostle reminds us that, “For those who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God… The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if only we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him” (Romans 8:14, 16-17). “May we celebrate the Ascension of the Lord with renewed fervor so that we may be disposed to that which allows us to become by grace what the resurrected, ascended, and glorified Christ is by His nature.” Thus with these profound words, Brother Barrero gives us a deep insight into the meaning of the Feast of the Ascension, which mirrors and completes the meaning of Christmas, the Feast of the Incarnation, itself. *** Also today, in St. Peter’s Basilica, Pope Francis delivered the Bull of Indiction for the Ordinary Jubilee of the year 2025. My friend and correspondent, Anna Artymiak, born in Poland, who has covered the Vatican for many years, was present for the ceremony, and she filed this brief report: By Anna Artymiak May 9, 2024 Spes non confundit – “Hope does not disappoint.” These words of encouragement from the Letter of St. Paul to the Romans (5:5) have been chosen as the title for the Bull of Indiction of the Ordinary Jubilee of the Year 2025, excerpts of which were read aloud today in St. Peter’s Basilica. In other words, hope will be a central message of the coming ordinary Jubilee which will start, as is traditional, on December 24, Christmas Eve. Today, on the Feast of the Ascension in St. Peter’s Basilica, Pope Francis delivered the Bull of Indiction to nine people, including several cardinals, among whom three archpriests of the Papal Basilicas: Mauro Gambetti of St. Peter’s, James Michael Harvey of St. Paul’s-Outside-the-Walls and Stanisław Ryłko of St. Mary Major. The bull was also handed to Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle representing all of the bishops of Asia and to Archbishop Fortunatus Nwachukwu representing all of the bishops of Africa, as well as to Cardinal Claudio Gugerotti of the Dicastery for the Eastern Churches. In order to make his message of hope very clear, Francis announced in his papal bull (full text below) that he would also open a Holy Door in a prison “as a sign inviting prisoners to look to the future with hope and a renewed sense of confidence.” This will be the first time that such a holy door will have been opened in a prison… Historically, Jubilee years included the freeing of slaves and prisoners, as well as the forgiveness of debts. Pope Boniface VIII re-established the jubilee tradition in 1300 with a Christian focus on the forgiveness of sins. Francis also decreed that every Catholic cathedral in the world should celebrate Mass on December 29, 2024, to open the Jubilee Year for their local communities. The Pope urged dioceses to organize pilgrimages to the cathedrals for this occasion. “During the Holy Year, we are called to be tangible signs of hope for those of our brothers and sisters who experience hardships of any kind,” Pope Francis wrote. “The first sign of hope should be the desire for peace in our world, which once more finds itself immersed in the tragedy of war,” Francis wrote. “May the Jubilee remind us that those who are peacemakers will be called “children of God” (Mt 5:9). The need for peace challenges us all, and demands that concrete steps be taken.” Francis also encouraged governments to bring hope to prisoners through forms of amnesty or pardon. [End, text from Anna Artymiak] *** So, this Jubilee is for peace-makers, and also, and in particular, for prisoners. This focus on prisoners seems of special importance, for it is possible to lose hope if one is imprisoned. The iron bars, the impeded liberty, take a toll on the human soul, whether the term to be served is limited, or for life. Indeed, many of us, thinking over our lives, reflecting on some moment of anger, or of, perhaps, reckless or exhausted driving, or of the insistent greed which demands “I want this and I will have it, at any cost…”, might say, with reason, “there, but for the grace of God, go I…” Meaning, we too might have done something which might have landed us in prison, and must be grateful for our freedom… Or, from another perspective, we may suffer from some “imprisonment” that is spiritual — and we may need to be “freed” from such a “prison” as those need to be freed who suffer addiction, or from habitual and unforgiven sin, or from that bitter anger which is due to some type of abuse never confronted, forgiven, healed… One of the works of mercy which the Church asks us to carry out — if someone may be wondering what work of mercy he or she might do during this upcoming year of the Jubilee, or even during any and every year — is to visit a prisoner, and strive in this way to bring that prisoner hope. Corporal works of mercy To feed the hungry. To give water to the thirsty. To clothe the naked. To shelter the homeless. To visit the sick. To visit the imprisoned, or ransom the captive. To bury the dead. In this regard, I would like to note something curious: our magazine, Inside the Vatican, which treats of Vatican affairs, nevertheless publishes a special guest column from… a prisoner. The author is Marcellus Roberts, a prisoner in a prison in the great state of Texas, and also a Catholic. In prison, he has become a Prison Oblate of St. Benedict’s Benedictine Abbey in Atchison, Kansas. Roberts is a brilliant writer, and deserves a wider audience. (Here is a sample of one of his Inside the Vatican essays: link.) Indeed, our magazine has, unexpectedly, become a magazine with a large number of readers who are, in fact, prisoners. Over the years, we have had dozens of prisoners asks for free subscriptions, and we have always responded to each request with a “yes.” Evidently, reading material is hard to obtain in prison, but our magazine is permitted to circulate, and, as our Letters section shows, dozens of prisoners have written to us with thanks, especially with thanks to our donors, who make their subscriptions possible. (To donate to support a prisoner subscription, please click here.) *** Rome is racing against time… Other reports today, particularly one by Nicole Winfield of the Associated Press (link), noted that the city of Rome is taking the opportunity offered by this religious event to carry out many long-delayed public works projects. “For the Vatican,” Winfield wrote, “the Holy Year is a centuries-old tradition of the faithful making pilgrimages to Rome to visit the tombs of Saints Peter and Paul, and receiving indulgences for the forgiveness of their sins in the process. For the city of Rome, it’s a chance to take advantage of some 4 billion euros ($4.3 billion) in public funds to carry out long-delayed projects to lift the city out of years of decay and neglect. ‘In a beautiful city, you live better,’ said the Vatican’s Jubilee point-person, Archbishop Renato Fisichella, who himself is not indifferent to the added bonus of Jubilee funding. ‘Rome will become an even more beautiful city, because it will be ever more at the service of its people, pilgrims and tourists who will come.’ “As occurred in the runup to 2000, pre-Jubilee public works projects have overwhelmed Rome, with flood-lit construction sites operating around the clock, entire swaths of central boulevards rerouted and traffic snarling the city’s already clogged streets. “The Tiber riverfront for much of the city center is now off limits as work crews create new parks. Piazzas are being repaved, bike paths charted and 5G cells built. The aim is to bring the Eternal City up to par with other European capitals and take advantage of the 1.3 billion euros ($1.4 billion) in special Jubilee funding and some 3 billion euros ($3.2 billion) more in other public and post-pandemic EU funds that are available. “Rome Mayor Roberto Gualtieri said recently he was satisfied with the pace of the Jubilee works so far, noting that they got off to a months-delayed start due to the 2022 collapse of Premier Mario Dragi’s government. “But Gualtieri promised they would be completed on time. And in a nod to Romans and tourists who have suffered from the traffic chaos and acute shortage of taxis already, he promised that an extra 1,000 taxi licenses had been approved and would be in use by December. “Yet as of late last month, only two of the 231 city projects had been completed; 57 were under way and another 44 were expected to be started by the end of May, Gualtieri told reporters. Another 18 are up for bids, seven have been assigned, 90 are planned. Thirteen have been canceled.” *** A Rome pilgrimage at Christmas? Some among you may wish to come to Rome, perhaps, to be present at this historic moment: at the very moment of the opening of the Holy Door on December 24, Christmas Eve… You may wish to experience for yourself the splendor of the great basilica, and the spiritual consolation and joy that comes from passing through the Holy Door, symbolic of Christ Himself, the Door to the Father… …and you may wish, also, to see whether Rome will have “managed to make it” — and perhaps behold the entire Eternal City turned into a beautiful park.(!) If you would like to consider joining us in Rome at Christmas, to begin the Holy Year, to pass through the Holy Door, and to check out the city’s progress on its massive public works campaigns, please consider joining our Rome at Christmas pilgrimage, at this link.—RM Here is the complete text of the papal bull proclaiming the Jubilee Year of 2025: SPES NON CONFUNDIT (“Hope does not disappoint”) BULL OF INDICTION OF THE ORDINARY JUBILEE OF THE YEAR 2025 FRANCIS BISHOP OF ROME SERVANT OF THE SERVANTS OF GOD TO ALL WHO READ THIS LETTER MAY HOPE FILL YOUR HEARTS 1. SPES NON CONFUNDIT. “Hope does not disappoint” (Rom 5:5). In the spirit of hope, the Apostle Paul addressed these words of encouragement to the Christian community of Rome. Hope is also the central message of the coming Jubilee that, in accordance with an ancient tradition, the Pope proclaims every twenty-five years. My thoughts turn to all those pilgrims of hope who will travel to Rome in order to experience the Holy Year and to all those others who, though unable to visit the City of the Apostles Peter and Paul, will celebrate it in their local Churches. For everyone, may the Jubilee be a moment of genuine, personal encounter with the Lord Jesus, the “door” (cf. Jn 10:7.9) of our salvation, whom the Church is charged to proclaim always, everywhere and to all as “our hope” (1 Tim 1:1). Everyone knows what it is to hope. In the heart of each person, hope dwells as the desire and expectation of good things to come, despite our not knowing what the future may bring. Even so, uncertainty about the future may at times give rise to conflicting feelings, ranging from confident trust to apprehensiveness, from serenity to anxiety, from firm conviction to hesitation and doubt. Often we come across people who are discouraged, pessimistic and cynical about the future, as if nothing could possibly bring them happiness. For all of us, may the Jubilee be an opportunity to be renewed in hope. God’s word helps us find reasons for that hope. Taking it as our guide, let us return to the message that the Apostle Paul wished to communicate to the Christians of Rome. A word of hope 2. “Since we are justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing in the glory of God… Hope does not disappoint, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us” (Rom 5:1-2.5). In this passage, Saint Paul gives us much to reflect upon. We know that the Letter to the Romans marked a decisive turning point in his work of evangelization. Until then, he had carried out his activity in the eastern part of the Empire, but now he turns to Rome and all that Rome meant in the eyes of the world. Before him lay a great challenge, which he took up for the sake of preaching the Gospel, which knows no barriers or confines. The Church of Rome was not founded by Paul, yet he felt impelled to hasten there in order to bring to everyone the Gospel of Jesus Christ, crucified and risen from the dead, a message of hope that fulfils the ancient promises, leads to glory and, grounded in love, does not disappoint. 3. Hope is born of love and based on the love springing from the pierced heart of Jesus upon the cross: “For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more surely, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life” (Rom 5:19). That life becomes manifest in our own life of faith, which begins with Baptism, develops in openness to God’s grace and is enlivened by a hope constantly renewed and confirmed by the working of the Holy Spirit. By his perennial presence in the life of the pilgrim Church, the Holy Spirit illumines all believers with the light of hope. He keeps that light burning, like an ever-burning lamp, to sustain and invigorate our lives. Christian hope does not deceive or disappoint because it is grounded in the certainty that nothing and no one may ever separate us from God’s love: “Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril or the sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” ( Rom 8:35.37-39). Here we see the reason why this hope perseveres in the midst of trials: founded on faith and nurtured by charity, it enables us to press forward in life. As Saint Augustine observes: “Whatever our state of life, we cannot live without these three dispositions of the soul, namely, to believe, to hope and to love”. [1] 4. Saint Paul is a realist. He knows that life has its joys and sorrows, that love is tested amid trials, and that hope can falter in the face of suffering. Even so, he can write: “We boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope” (Rom 5:3-4). For the Apostle, trials and tribulations mark the lives of those who preach the Gospel amid incomprehension and persecution (cf. 2 Cor 6:3-10). Yet in those very contexts, beyond the darkness we glimpse a light: we come to realize that evangelization is sustained by the power flowing from Christ’s cross and resurrection. In this way, we learn to practise a virtue closely linked to hope, namely patience. In our fast-paced world, we are used to wanting everything now. We no longer have time simply to be with others; even families find it hard to get together and enjoy one another’s company. Patience has been put to flight by frenetic haste, and this has proved detrimental, since it leads to impatience, anxiety and even gratuitous violence, resulting in more unhappiness and self-centredness. Nor is there much place for patience in this age of the Internet, as space and time yield to an ever-present “now”. Were we still able to contemplate creation with a sense of awe, we might better understand the importance of patience. We could appreciate the changes of the seasons and their harvests, observe the life of animals and their cycles of growth, and enjoy the clarity of vision of Saint Francis. In his Canticle of the Creatures, written exactly eight hundred years ago, Francis saw all creation as a great family and could call the sun his “brother” and the moon his “sister”. [2] A renewed appreciation of the value of patience could only prove beneficial for ourselves and for others. Saint Paul often speaks of patience in the context of our need for perseverance and confident trust in God’s promises. Yet, before all else, he testifies to God’s own patience, as “the God of all patience and encouragement” ( Rom 15:5). Patience, one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit, sustains our hope and strengthens it as a virtue and a way of life. May we learn to pray frequently for the grace of patience, which is both the daughter of hope and at the same time its firm foundation. A journey of hope 5. This interplay of hope and patience makes us see clearly that the Christian life is a journey calling for moments of greater intensity to encourage and sustain hope as the constant companion that guides our steps towards the goal of our encounter with the Lord Jesus. I like to think that the proclamation of the first Jubilee, in the year 1300, was preceded by a journey of grace inspired by popular spirituality. How can we fail to recall the various ways by which the grace of forgiveness had been poured out upon God’s holy and faithful People? We are reminded, for example, of the great “Pardon” that Saint Celestine V granted to all those who visited the Basilica of Santa Maria di Collemaggio in Aquila on the 28th and 29th days of August 1294, six years before Pope Boniface VIII instituted the Holy Year. The Church was already experiencing the grace of the Jubilee as an outpouring of divine mercy. Even earlier, in 1216, Pope Honorius III granted the plea of Saint Francis for an indulgence for all those visiting the Porziuncola on the first two days of August. The same can be said of the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela: in 1222, Pope Callistus II allowed the Jubilee to be celebrated there whenever the Feast of the Apostle James fell on a Sunday. It is good that such “dispersed” celebrations of the Jubilee continue, so that the power of God’s forgiveness can support and accompany communities and individuals on their pilgrim way. Pilgrimage is of course a fundamental element of every Jubilee event. Setting out on a journey is traditionally associated with our human quest for meaning in life. A pilgrimage on foot is a great aid for rediscovering the value of silence, effort and simplicity of life. In the coming year, pilgrims of hope will surely travel the ancient and more modern routes in order to experience the Jubilee to the full. In Rome itself, along with the usual visits to the catacombs and the Seven Churches, other itineraries of faith will be proposed. Journeying from one country to another as if borders no longer mattered, and passing from one city to another in contemplating the beauty of creation and masterpieces of art, we learn to treasure the richness of different experiences and cultures, and are inspired to lift up that beauty, in prayer, to God, in thanksgiving for his wondrous works. The Jubilee Churches along the pilgrimage routes and in the city of Rome can serve as oases of spirituality and places of rest on the pilgrimage of faith, where we can drink from the wellsprings of hope, above all by approaching the sacrament of Reconciliation, the essential starting-point of any true journey of conversion. In the particular Churches, special care should be taken to prepare priests and the faithful to celebrate the sacrament of Confession and to make it readily available in its individual form. In a particular way, I would like to invite the faithful of the Eastern Churches, particularly those already in full communion with the Successor of Peter, to take part in this pilgrimage. They have suffered greatly, often even unto death, for their fidelity to Christ and the Church, and so they should feel themselves especially welcome in this City of Rome that is also their Mother and cherishes so many memories of their presence. The Catholic Church, enriched by their ancient liturgies and the theology and spirituality of their Fathers, monks and theologians, wants to give symbolic expression to its embrace of them and their Orthodox brothers and sisters in these times when they endure their own Way of the Cross, often forced by violence and instability to leave their homelands, their holy lands, for safer places. For them, the hope born of the knowledge that they are loved by the Church, which does not abandon them but follows them wherever they go, will make the symbolism of the Jubilee all the more powerful. 6. The Holy Year of 2025 is itself in continuity with preceding celebrations of grace. In the last Ordinary Jubilee, we crossed the threshold of two millennia from the birth of Jesus Christ. Then, on 13 March 2015, I proclaimed an Extraordinary Jubilee for the sake of making known and encouraging an encounter with the “merciful face of God”, [3] the core message of the Gospel for every man and woman of every time and place. Now the time has come for a new Jubilee, when once more the Holy Door will be flung open to invite everyone to an intense experience of the love of God that awakens in hearts the sure hope of salvation in Christ. The Holy Year will also guide our steps towards yet another fundamental celebration for all Christians: 2033 will mark the two thousandth anniversary of the redemption won by the passion, death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. We are about to make a pilgrimage marked by great events, in which the grace of God precedes and accompanies his people as they press forward firm in faith, active in charity and steadfast in hope (cf. 1 Thess 1:3) . Sustained by this great tradition, and certain that the Jubilee Year will be for the entire Church a lively experience of grace and hope, I hereby decree that the Holy Door of the Basilica of Saint Peter in the Vatican will be opened on 24 December 2024, thus inaugurating the Ordinary Jubilee. On the following Sunday, 29 December 2024, I will open the Holy Door of my cathedral, Saint John Lateran, which on 9 November this year will celebrate the 1700th anniversary of its dedication. Then, on 1 January 2025, the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, the Holy Door of the Papal Basilica of Saint Mary Major will be opened. Finally, Sunday, 5 January 2025, will mark the opening of the Holy Door of the Papal Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls. These last three Holy Doors will be closed on Sunday, 28 December 2025. I further decree that on Sunday, 29 December 2024, in every cathedral and co-cathedral, diocesan bishops are to celebrate Holy Mass as the solemn opening of the Jubilee Year, using the ritual indications that will be provided for that occasion. For celebrations in co-cathedrals, the bishop’s place can be taken by a suitably designated delegate. A pilgrimage that sets out from a church chosen for the collectio and then proceeds to the cathedral can serve to symbolize the journey of hope that, illumined by the word of God, unites all the faithful. In the course of this pilgrimage, passages from the present Document can be read, along with the announcement of the Jubilee Indulgence to be gained in accordance with the prescriptions found in the ritual indications mentioned above. The Holy Year will conclude in the particular Churches on Sunday, 28 December 2025; in the course of the year, every effort should be made to enable the People of God to participate fully in its proclamation of hope in God’s grace and in the signs that attest to its efficacy. The Ordinary Jubilee will conclude with the closing of the Holy Door in the Papal Basilica of Saint Peter in the Vatican on 6 January 2026, the Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord. During the Holy Year, may the light of Christian hope illumine every man and woman, as a message of God’s love addressed to all! And may the Church bear faithful witness to this message in every part of the world! Signs of hope 7. In addition to finding hope in God’s grace, we are also called to discover hope in the signs of the times that the Lord gives us. As the Second Vatican Council observed: “In every age, the Church has the responsibility of reading the signs of the times and interpreting them in the light of the Gospel. In this way, in language adapted to every generation, she can respond to people’s persistent questions about the meaning of this present life and of the life to come, and how one is related to the other”. [4] We need to recognize the immense goodness present in our world, lest we be tempted to think ourselves overwhelmed by evil and violence. The signs of the times, which include the yearning of human hearts in need of God’s saving presence, ought to become signs of hope. 8. The first sign of hope should be the desire for peace in our world, which once more finds itself immersed in the tragedy of war. Heedless of the horrors of the past, humanity is confronting yet another ordeal, as many peoples are prey to brutality and violence. What does the future hold for those peoples, who have already endured so much? How is it possible that their desperate plea for help is not motivating world leaders to resolve the numerous regional conflicts in view of their possible consequences at the global level? Is it too much to dream that arms can fall silent and cease to rain down destruction and death? May the Jubilee remind us that those who are peacemakers will be called “children of God” (Mt 5:9). The need for peace challenges us all, and demands that concrete steps be taken. May diplomacy be tireless in its commitment to seek, with courage and creativity, every opportunity to undertake negotiations aimed at a lasting peace. 9. Looking to the future with hope also entails having enthusiasm for life and a readiness to share it. Sadly, in many situations this is lacking. A first effect of this is the loss of the desire to transmit life. A number of countries are experiencing an alarming decline in the birthrate as a result of today’s frenetic pace, fears about the future, the lack of job security and adequate social policies, and social models whose agenda is dictated by the quest for profit rather than concern for relationships. In certain quarters, the tendency “to blame population growth, instead of extreme and selective consumerism on the part of some, is one way of refusing to face the [real] issues”. [5] Sursa: www.InsideTheVatican.com Contor Accesări: 201, Ultimul acces: 2026-08-31 13:05:07
|
Timp total: 0.04s...
[]:1
