Marta Lago

In a society that consumes information, statistics behind their cold appearance can be a concise and effective expression of human dramas. Every figure can be a symbol of a life suppressed, of a terminated pregnancy and its devastating consequences for the whole European continent, which in 2008 alone rid itself of 2,863,649 children by abortion. Of these, 1,207,646 (42 percent) were aborted in the 27 countries of the European Union where 20,635,919 abortions have been performed in the past 15 years. These chilling statistics were presented on 2 March at the European Parliament by the Institute of Family Policies (ipf), in its annual report on the incidence of abortion in Europe and in Spain.
In Brussels Eduardo Hertefelder, President of the International Federation of the IPF, warned that "Europeans and our administrations cannot look in the opposite direction when an abortion is being practised every 11 seconds". Abortion is in fact the principal cause of death throughout the continent. The number of abortions in one year more than 1.2 million is equivalent to the deficit in the birth-rate of the European Union.
The alarm sounded by the IPF is amplified in Spain where the new abortion law entails a serious step backwards in the European context and also contradicts the trends in the majority of the member countries of the Union. The report cites the United Kingdom, France, Romania, Italy and Spain as the EU countries in which the abortions are recorded (a comprehensive 775,000 annually). Spain, with an annual increase of 61,965 abortions (+ 115 percent), is the country with the largest increase in the past 10 years, followed with a large gap by the United Kingdom (+ 16.088 abortions annually) and by Sweden (+ 7,041 abortions per year).
The statistics show a dramatic increase in abortions in 2008, placing Spain, with 115,912 abortions, ahead of Germany, with 114,484. Spain is thus almost level with Italy (121,406) and Romania (127,907), obtaining a tragic fifth place among the Union countries in which the most abortions are practised. Moreover, given the current legal approach, abortions in Spain are on the rise.
All this is contrary to the current trend on the other side of Spain's boundaries. In comparison with 2007, the number of abortions in 2008 decreased in Romania (- 9,319), Italy (- 5,156), Germany (- 2,387) and the United Kingdom (- 3,361).
Since 1985, 1,350,494 abortions have been practised in Spain. Today one abortion takes place every four-and-a-half minutes, and the law on sexual and reproductive health and on the voluntary termination of pregnancy will shortly be brought into force. The law has been defined by the IPF as "regressive, in comparison with Europe, and anti-constitutional", since in practical terms it permits abortion until the 14th week of gestation even for 16- and 17-year-old girls and to the 22nd week if the mother's health is threatened or if there are serious abnormalities in the unborn child.
This legislation has predictable consequences. According to the same report, in 2015 Spain will cross the threshold of 150,000 abortions per year, thus joining France and the UK among the countries in the EU where the most abortions are performed.
This catastrophic forecast could be avoided, at least in part, with a new and equally realistic factor:  Spanish public opinion, which in the past year has shown itself to be largely against abortion in the form provided by the new law. A contribution has been made to this about-turn by Derecho a Vivir [Right to Live] (dav) a platform of the very active Hazte Oir organization. It has alerted citizens to their rights and duties, inviting them to gatherings throughout Spain and in various cities of America and Europe on Sunday, 7 March. The epicentre is located in Madrid, where España Vida Sí ["Yes" to Life Spain] was proclaimed and the fact that "in a democracy the people are heard" was remembered.
"The Government has made laws behind the Spanish people's backs", Gádor Joya told L'Osservatore Romano. From this civic platform all possible democratic means are being used to show the widespread opposition to the law.
Furthermore, demonstrations are being organized. A year ago, half a million people thronged the streets of Madrid:  last October, they amounted to a million, just as more than a million people signed the petition for the abrogation of the legislation on abortion. Hundreds of organizations across the world joined the march on 7 March and from Madrid, people will return to embracing human life, motherhood, and women.
"Spain has said that it does not want this law and will continue to say so until it is abolished", Joya asserted. This is the message being sent to the Government, in a historic year in the battle for respect for life.

On 7 March, the Third Sunday of Lent, prior to leading the recitation of the Angelus with the faithful gathered in St Peter's Square, the Holy Father reflected on the theme of conversion. The following is a translation of the Pope's Reflection, which was given in Italian.

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
The Liturgy of this Third Sunday of Lent presents to us the topic of conversion. In the First Reading from the Book of Exodus, Moses, while tending his flock, sees a burning bush that is not consumed by the flames.
He goes closer to look at this miracle when a voice calls him by name and, reminding him of his unworthiness, orders him to take off his sandals because that place is holy. The voice says to him, "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob". And he adds, "I am who am" (Ex 3: 6a, 14).
God likewise shows himself in various ways in each of our lives. To be able to recognize his presence, however, we must approach him with an awareness of our wretchedness and with deep respect. Otherwise we would make ourselves incapable of encountering him and entering into communion with him.
As the Apostle Paul writes, this event is also recounted as a warning to us:  it reminds us that God does not reveal himself to those in whom are entrenched self-sufficiency and frivolity but rather to those who are poor and humble before him.
In today's Gospel passage, Jesus is questioned on certain distressing events:  the killing of several Galileans in the temple, on the orders of Pontius Pilate, and the collapse of a tower on some passers by (cf. Lk 13: 1-5).
In the face of the easy conclusion of considering evil as an effect of divine punishment, Jesus restores the true image of God who is good and cannot desire evil. And guarding us against believing that misfortunes are the immediate effect of the personal sins of those whom they afflict, says:  "Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered thus? I tell you, No; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish" (Lk 13: 2-3).
Jesus asks us interpret these events differently, putting them in the perspective of conversion:  misfortunes, sorrowful events must not awaken curiosity in us or the quest for presumed sins; instead they must be opportunities for reflection, in order to overcome the illusion of being able to live without God and to reinforce, with the Lord's help, the commitment to change our way of life.
With regard to sin, God shows himself to be full of mercy and never fails to remind sinners to avoid evil, to grow in love for him and to offer practical help to our neighbour in need, to live the joy of grace and not to go towards eternal death.
However, the possibility of conversion demands that we learn to read the events of life in the perspective of faith, animated, that is, by holy fear of God. In the presence of suffering and bereavement, the true wisdom is to let ourselves be called into question by the precarious state of existence and to see human history with the eyes of God who, desiring always and only the good of his children, through an inscrutable design of his love sometimes permits us to be tried by suffering in order to lead us to a greater good.
Dear friends, let us pray Mary Most Holy, who accompanies us on our Lenten journey, that she may help every Christian to return to the Lord with his whole heart. May she sustain our firm decision to renounce evil and to accept the will of God in our lives with faith.

After the Angelus the Pope said: 

I greet all the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors present for today's Angelus, especially a group of visitors from Boston, in the United States. The Readings of today's Liturgy invite all of us to embrace conversion, and to be humble in allowing the Lord to prepare us to bear more fruit. Our cooperation with the Lord often demands great sacrifice, but the fruit which that conversion bears always leads to freedom and joy.
May we experience these great gifts of God! Upon each of you and your loved ones at home, I invoke God's abundant Blessings. I wish you all a good Sunday.

Next 6 and 7 November Benedict XVI will go to Santiago de Compostela and Barcelona. The two-day Visit following those previously announced to Malta, Fatima, Cyprus and the United Kingdom was announced on Wednesday morning 3 March by Fr Federico Lombardi, sj, Director of the Holy See Press Office. "The details have not been worked out yet", he explained to journalists, "however the Pontiff's presence in Santiago on 6 November has great importance in a European key, given the celebration of the Compostela Holy Year".
The following day the Pope will be in Barcelona for the dedication of the expiatory church of La Sagrada Familia, the work of Antoni Gaudí, "a significant gesture", he added, "which also shows an appreciation of the figure and art of this architect, of whose beatification process is under way".
The journey to Galicia and Catalonia will be Benedict XVI's second Visit to Spain. On 8 and 9 July 2006 he went to Valencia to take part in the closing celebrations of the Fifth World Meeting of Families.

Bishop Gerhard Ludwig Müller of Regensburg issued the following communiqué concerning the Regensburger Domspatzen.

The Regensburger Domspatzen is made up of three sections: 
 The Secondary School (Gymnasium) directed by a lay headmaster;
 The Boarding School (Internat), directed by a priest, assisted by teachers and educators;
 The Choir (Chor) directed by the Choir Master of the Cathedral Choir (Domkapellmeister).
The elementary school in Etterzhausen, today located at Pielenhofen, is an institution independent of the Domspatzen; they collaborate solely on a few specific points in the context of musical education (thus it is also called the Vorschule, that is, the preparatory school for the Domspatzen.
In the past few days, two cases of sex abuse have been called to mind: 
 in the first case the abuse occurred in 1958 and it was committed by the Vice-Director of the preparatory school. As soon as the crime became known, he was removed from his post and prosecuted;
 the second case involves a person who worked at the Domspatzen for seven months in 1958. After 12 years he was sentenced for a case of sex abuse. The events that occurred during the seven-month-period that he spent at the Domspatzen are currently being investigated.
Both these cases were already public knowledge at the time and should be considered closed from the legal viewpoint. They do not coincide with the term of office of Maestro Prof. Georg Ratzinger (1964-1994).
The Bishop of Regensburg is responsible, in the canonical sense, for institutions in the Diocese of Regensburg.

***

The Holy See supports the diocese in its willingness to analyze the painful matter with determination and openness, in accordance with the directives of the German Bishops' Conference. The main objective of clarification on the Church's part is to do justice to the possible victims. In addition, the Church is grateful for this commitment to clarity within her and hopes that clarifications will likewise be made in other public and private institutions, if all truly have the good of children at heart.

On Friday, 5 March, in the Vatican's Consistory Hall, the Holy Father spoke to the Uganda Episcopal Conference towards the end of their visit "ad limina Apostolorum". The following is the text of the Pope's Address to the Ugandan Prelates, which was given in English.

Your Eminence,
Dear Brother Bishops,
I am pleased to greet you, the Bishops of Uganda, on your ad limina visit to the tombs of the Apostles Peter and Paul. I thank Bishop Ssekamanya for the gracious sentiments of communion with the Successor of Peter which he expressed on your behalf. I willingly reciprocate and assure you of my prayers and affection for you and for the People of God entrusted to your care.
In a particular way my thoughts go to those who have been affected by the recent landslides in the Bududa region of your country. I offer prayers to Almighty God, the Father of all mercies, that he may grant eternal rest to the souls of the deceased and give strength and hope to all who are suffering the consequences of this tragic event.
The recently celebrated Second Special Assembly for Africa of the Synod of Bishops was memorable in its call for renewed efforts in the service of a more profound evangelization of your continent (cf. Message to the People of God, 15). The power of the word of God and the knowledge and love of Jesus cannot but transform people's lives by changing for the better the way they think and act.
In the light of the Gospel message, you are aware of the need to encourage the Catholics of Uganda to appreciate fully the sacrament of marriage in its unity and indissolubility, and the sacred right to life. I urge you to help them, priests as well as the lay faithful, to resist the seduction of a materialistic culture of individualism which has taken root in so many countries. Continue to call for lasting peace based on justice, generosity towards those in need and a spirit of dialogue and reconciliation.
While promoting true ecumenism, be especially close to those who are more vulnerable to the advances of sects. Guide them to reject superficial sentiments and a preaching that would empty the cross of Christ of its power (cf. 1 Cor 1: 17); in this way you will continue, as responsible Pastors, to keep them and their children faithful to the Church of Christ. In this regard I am pleased to learn that your people find spiritual consolation in popular forms of evangelization such as the organized pilgrimages to the Shrine of the Ugandan Martyrs at Namugongo, where the active pastoral presence of Bishops and numerous priests guides the piety of the pilgrims towards renewal as individuals and communities.
Continue to sustain all who with generous hearts assist displaced persons and orphans from war-torn areas. Encourage those who care for people afflicted by poverty, AIDS and other diseases, teaching them to see in those whom they serve the suffering face of Jesus (cf. Mt 25: 40).
Renewed evangelization gives rise in turn to a deeper Catholic culture which takes root in the family. From your Quinquennial Reports I am aware that programmes of education in parishes, schools and associations, and your own interventions on topics of common interest, are indeed spreading a stronger Catholic culture. Great good can come from well-prepared lay people who are active in the media, in politics and culture.
Courses for their adequate formation, especially in Catholic Social Doctrine, should be provided, taking advantage of resources at Uganda Martyrs University or other institutions. Encourage them to be active and outspoken in the service of what is just and noble. In this way, society as a whole will benefit from trained and zealous Christians who take up leadership roles in the service of the common good. Ecclesial movements also deserve your support for their positive contribution to the life of the Church in many sectors.
Bishops, as the first agents of evangelization, are called to bear clear witness to the practical solidarity born of our communion in Christ. In a spirit of Christian charity Dioceses that enjoy more resources, both materially and spiritually, should assist those that have less. At the same time, all communities have a duty to strive for self-sufficiency. It is important that your people develop a sense of responsibility towards themselves, their community and their Church, and become more deeply imbued with a Catholic spirit of sensitivity to the needs of the universal Church.
Your priests, as committed ministers of evangelization, already benefit greatly from your fatherly concern and guidance. In this Year for Priests offer them your assistance, your example and your clear teaching. Exhort them to prayer and vigilance, especially in regard to self-centred, worldly or political ambitions, or excessive attachment to family or ethnic group. Continue promoting vocations, providing for due discernment of candidates and for their proper motivation and formation, especially their spiritual formation. Priests must be men of God, capable of guiding others, through wise counsel and example, in the Lord's ways.
Religious men and women in Uganda are called to be an example and a source of encouragement to the whole Church. By your advice and prayers, assist them as they strive for the goal of perfect charity and bear witness to the Kingdom. Priests and religious require constant support in their lives of celibacy and consecrated virginity. By your own example, teach them of the beauty of this way of life, of the spiritual fatherhood and motherhood with which they can enrich and deepen the love of the faithful for the Creator and Giver of all good gifts. Your catechists likewise are a great resource. Continue to be attentive to their needs and formation, and place before them, for their encouragement, the example of martyrs such as Blessed Daudi Okello and Blessed Jildo Irwa.
Dear Brother Bishops, with the Apostle Paul, I exhort you:  "always be steady, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfil your ministry" (2 Tim 4: 5). In the Blessed Ugandan Martyrs you and your people have models of great courage and endurance in suffering. Count on their prayers and strive always to be worthy of their legacy. Commending you and those entrusted to your pastoral care to the loving protection of Mary, Mother of the Church, I affectionately impart to all of you my Apostolic Blessing.

On Friday, 5 February, in the Vatican's Consistory Hall, Bishop Matthias Ssekamanya of Lugazi, President of the Uganda Episcopal Conference, began the Papal Audience by speaking to the Holy Father on behalf of the Ugandan Bishops. The following is the Bishop's Address to the Pope, which was given in English.

Most Holy Father,
This is the first ad limina Apostolorum visit the members of the Uganda Episcopal Conference pay to you since the commencement of your Pontificate. It is, therefore, appropriate that at this juncture we reiterate our congratulations on your being elected the Supreme Pontiff, the Successor of St Peter and the Bishop of Rome.
You have been our leader for almost five years. During this period you have demonstrated your paternal solicitude for the universal Church and in a special way for the Church in Uganda. The recent Second Synod of Bishops for Africa in 2009 is another landmark in the history of the Church in Africa.
Your Encyclicals and other documents as well as speeches are a tribute to your personal involvement in the affairs of the Church and her patrimony.
As far as the Church is concerned in our country, we are grateful for the appointments of Shepherds for the Dioceses of Kasana-Luweero, Kotido, and Soroti, also for the Archdioceses of Kampala and Tororo.
We, however, regret to report the deaths of our Brother Bishops Joseph Mukwaya (4 September, 2008) and Adrian Kivumbi Ddungu (30 December 2009).
The various Reports presented by the Ordinaries give a true picture of the state of the Church in Uganda. We have some success but nonetheless, we have many challenges to meet for the spiritual, pastoral and material needs of our people. The Conference Report outlines the common national activities carried out by our Secretariat, its commissions and departments.
We know much remains to be done. Still we thank the Lord for what has been achieved, albeit little. The members of the Conference are determined to work in unity "with one heart" to utilize available resources to the maximum potential.
We could not carry on our ministry without your support and that of many benefactors the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples etc. To all gratitude is due.
On behalf of all the Bishops of Uganda, we are most grateful for the opportunity you have accorded us to meet with you.
We ask for your prayers and Apostolic Blessing.

On Saturday morning, 6 March, in the Vatican's Paul vi Audience Hall, the Holy Father spoke to about 7,000 Members, Personnel and Volunteers, of the Italian National Civil Defence. The following is a translation of the Pope's Address to them, which was given in Italian.

Dear Friends,
I am very glad to receive you and to address my cordial welcome to each one of you. I greet my Brothers in the Episcopate and in the Priesthood and all the Authorities. I greet Mr Guido Bertolaso, Undersecretary of the Office of the Prime Minister and Head of the Department for Civil Protection and I thank him for his courteous words to me on behalf of all and for all that he does for civil society and for all of us. I greet Mr Gianni Letta, Undersecretary of the Office of the Prime Minister, present at this meeting. I address my affectionate greeting to the many volunteers and to the representatives of several sections of the National Service for Civil Defence.
This Meeting was preceded by a joyful and festive moment, brightened by the musical performance of the "Istituzione Sinfonica Abruzzese" my grateful thoughts to you all.
You have wished to review the Civil Defence's role over the past 10 years, on the occasion of both national and international emergencies and in support activities for important and specific events.
How could one fail to mention in this regard the interventions on behalf of the earthquake victims in San Giuliano di Puglia and, above all, in Abruzzo? In visiting Onna and l'Aquila last April I was able to see for myself how hard you had worked to help those who had lost their loved ones and their homes. The words I addressed to you on that occasion seem to me to be appropriate:  "Thank you for all you have done and especially for the love with which you have done it. Thank you for the example you have given" (Visit to Abruzzo Region, Address to the faithful, volunteers, rescue teams, the military and other authorities, 28 April 2009; L'Osservatore Romano English edition, 6 May 2009, p. 5).
And how can we fail to think with admiration of the many volunteers who provided assistance and security to the immense crowd of young people and not only to them present at the unforgettable World Youth Day in the year 2000, or to those who came to Rome to pay their last respects to Pope John Paul ii?
Dear volunteers of the Civil Defence I know how much you have been looking forward to this Meeting. I can assure you that it is something that I too eagerly awaited. You constitute one of the most recent and mature expressions of the long tradition of solidarity that is rooted in the altruism and generosity of the Italian people. The Civil Defence's voluntary service has become a national phenomenon that has acquired characteristics of participation and organization that are particularly significant and today has about 1,300,000 members, divided into more than 3,000 organizations. Your Association's aim and intentions have been recognized in appropriate legislative norms which have helped to shape the national identity of the Civil Defence's voluntary service which is attentive to the primary needs of the individual and of the common good.
The terms "defence" and "civil" are precise terms and a profound expression of your mission, or I would say your "vocation":  to protect people and their dignity which are central goods to civil society in the tragic cases of calamities and emergencies that threaten the life and security of families or entire communities. This mission does not consist solely in emergency management but also in making a prompt and praiseworthy contribution to achieving the common good, which always constitutes the horizon of human coexistence even, and above all, in times of great trial.
Such trials constitute an occasion for discernment rather than for desperation. They afford the opportunity to formulate a new social programme that focuses more on virtue and on the good of all.
The twofold dimension of protection, which is expressed both during the emergency and after it, is clearly seen in the figure of the Good Samaritan, taken from Luke's Gospel (cf. Lk 10: 30-35). In assisting the unfortunate traveller in the moment of his greatest need the Good Samaritan certainly showed charity, humility and courage. And he did so when everyone else some through indifference, others because they were hard-hearted looked away. The Good Samaritan, however, teaches us to go beyond the emergency and to prepare, we might say, for the return to normality. Indeed, not only did he bind up the wounds of the man who had been left lying on the ground, but he then took the trouble to entrust him to the innkeeper so that once the emergency was past he might recover.
As this Gospel passage teaches us, love for neighbour cannot be delegated:  the State and politics, even with the necessary concern for welfare, cannot replace it.
As I wrote in my Encyclical Deus Caritas Est:  "Love caritas will always prove necessary, even in the most just society. There is no ordering of the State so just that it can eliminate the need for a service of love. Whoever wants to eliminate love is preparing to eliminate man as such. There will always be suffering which cries out for consolation and help. There will always be loneliness. There will always be situations of material need where help in the form of concrete love of neighbour is indispensable" (n. 28, b).
This always requires and always will require personal and voluntary commitment. For this very reason volunteers are not "stopgaps" in the social network but people who truly contribute to tracing society's human and Christian features. Without voluntary service the common good and society could not last long, for their progress and dignity depend to a large extent precisely on those people who do more than their duty strictly demands of them.
Dear friends, your commitment is a service to the dignity of the human beings founded on their having been created in God's image and likeness (cf. Gn 1: 26). As the episode of the Good Samaritan has shown us, sometimes seeing can turn to emptiness or even contempt, but a gaze can also express love.
In addition to being custodians of the territory, you are, increasingly, living icons of the Good Samaritan, attentive to your neighbour, remembering human dignity and inspiring hope.
When a person does not limit himself to doing no more than his professional or family duties require but seeks to help others, his heart expands. Those who love and freely serve others as their neighbour live and act in accordance with the Gospel and take part in the mission of the Church that always looks at the whole person and wants him to feel God's love.
Dear volunteers, the Church and the Pope support your invaluable service. May the Virgin Mary who went "with haste" to her kinswoman Elizabeth to help her (cf. Lk 1: 39), be your model. As I entrust you to the intercession of your Patron, St Pius of Pietrelcina, I assure you of my remembrance in prayer and with affection impart the Apostolic Blessing to you and to your dear ones.