(Vatican Radio) “It’s a real gold mine.”That’s the reaction of Dr Timothy O’Donnell, President of Christendom College (Front Royal, VA, USA), and a consultor to the Pontifical for the Family, to Pope Francis’ Apostolic Exhortation, Amoris laetitia (the Joy of Love).Speaking with Vatican Radio, Dr O’Donnell spoke about some of the challenges in Amoris laetitia. “There are so many, so many challenges that are found in there,” he said. “I think probably the most fundamental challenge, and the thing that he really communicates, in I think a very effective way, is the importance of love, and that if you really do love, whatever aspect, as a husband or as a father, or as a wife or as a mother, or even as children. Love has to grow. You can never be complacent in love.”Listen to the interview of Dr Timothy O’Donnell with Christopher Wells: The Pope’s Exhortation shows that Pope Francis, precisely as our Holy F...
(Vatican Radio) “It’s a real gold mine.”
That’s the reaction of Dr Timothy O’Donnell, President of Christendom College (Front Royal, VA, USA), and a consultor to the Pontifical for the Family, to Pope Francis’ Apostolic Exhortation, Amoris laetitia (the Joy of Love).
Speaking with Vatican Radio, Dr O’Donnell spoke about some of the challenges in Amoris laetitia. “There are so many, so many challenges that are found in there,” he said. “I think probably the most fundamental challenge, and the thing that he really communicates, in I think a very effective way, is the importance of love, and that if you really do love, whatever aspect, as a husband or as a father, or as a wife or as a mother, or even as children. Love has to grow. You can never be complacent in love.”
Listen to the interview of Dr Timothy O’Donnell with Christopher Wells:
The Pope’s Exhortation shows that Pope Francis, precisely as our Holy Father, really “has the heart of a pastor,” Dr O’Donnell said. “And it’s very clear in some of the practical suggestions that he has, that he has a deep and abiding love for family life, and wants to share that. So for me, one of the greatest challenges is the challenge to grow in love.” He said growing in love is “a challenge that’s really worth taking on, and I think our families would be a lot healthier, relationships would be healthier, if that Christ-centred love and that challenge to keep growing and go more deeply into love in all of its aspects was really realized.”
Dr O’Donnell suggested reading Amoris laetitia “prayerfully, slowly” rather than simply jumping to some controversial passage, because, he said, “I think the Holy Father’s mind is beautifully revealed in this document, and that mind is the mind of the man of the Church.” Pope Francis’ teaching in the Exhortation “is placed within the context of the richness of the Church’s teaching concerning marriage and family,” he continued, noting that Francis cites earlier papal documents including Encyclicals like Pius XI’s Casti connubii and Paul VI’s Humanae vitae, as well as John Paul’s teaching on the “Theology of the Body” and the Polish pope’s Apostolic Exhortation Familiaris consortio.
It was the Pope’s focus the Lord, though, that was especially moving. Dr O’Donnell said he was “particularly struck” by chapter 3, “which really talked about Jesus, about looking to Jesus to find the vocation of the family. It’s a very Christocentric vision.” He pointed, too, to Pope Francis’ discussion of “love in marriage,” and “the joy that is to be found there,” especially in chapters 3, 4, and 5. “Any couple, Dr O’Donnell whether contemplating marriage or already married, that “would like to do everything they can to continue to strengthen that bond, in this beautiful witness to a permanent and exclusive relationship” would benefit from reading those chapters dealing with “the beauty of human love.”
A Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish procession honoring the patroness of Cuba on Sept. 7, 2023. / Credit: Sacred Heart of Jesus parish in Havana, CubaACI Prensa Staff, Mar 28, 2024 / 16:00 pm (CNA).The regime of President Miguel Díaz-Canel in Cuba has prohibited several Holy Week processions in different cities of the country, including the El Vedado area of Havana as well as in Bayamo, a town that was the scene of major protests earlier this month.Last week, ACI Prensa, CNA's Spanish-language news partner, reported on the prohibition of processions in the Diocese of the Most Holy Savior located in the Bayamo-Manzanillo area in the province of Granma, due to the regime's fear that new protests would break out. The prohibition has been extended to the capital, Havana, according to a Catholic priest.In a March 25 Facebook post, Father Lester Zayas, pastor of Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish in the El Vedado business district of Havana, reported that the day before he had been notifie...
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The Oregon State Capitol in Salem. / Credit: Zack Frank/ShutterstockWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Mar 28, 2024 / 15:00 pm (CNA).The Oregon Health Authority (OHA) is reporting a significant rise in assisted suicide prescriptions and deaths in the state, a move that comes after authorities in 2022 began allowing out-of-state residents to access the lethal services.Since the state's passage of the "Death with Dignity Act" in 1997, assisted suicide numbers have been generally rising there, with a markedly sharp uptick since 2013. OHA on March 20 released its 2023 assisted suicide data summary that reported a considerable increase in suicide prescriptions in 2023. The study found that assisted suicide prescriptions in the state rose from 433 in 2022 to 560 last year.Of those 560 prescriptions, 367 people are known to have died from ingesting the suicide "medications." This is up from the 304 who died from assisted suicide drugs in Oregon in 2022.Over half, or 56%, of the assisted ...