Denver Catholic

3 DENVER CATHOLIC | OCTOBER 10-23, 2015 Vatican Notes Planning Your Will and Special Gifts LEARN HOW YOU CAN PROVIDE A BRIGHTER FUTURE FOR THOSE IN NEED... Personally – Leave a legacy of what matters to you most. Financially – Wisely manage the assets that God has entrusted to you, in full compliance with the doctrine of the Catholic Church. Spiritually – Strengthen our parishes and our Catholic community through your charitable giving. The Catholic Foundation can help you plan your will to ensure careful handling of your assets according to your values and charitable giving intentions. Our staff provides planned giving expertise in accordance to faith-based priorities and the standards in its Morally Responsible Investment policy. For more information, visit TheCatholicFoundation.com. START YOUR CHARITABLE GIFT PLANNING FOR TOMORROW, TODAY. JEAN FINEGAN 303.867.0613 "To keep a lamp burning, we need to keep putting oil in it." -Mother Teresa TheCatholicFoundation.com Giving for the Kingdom of God ® giving@thecatholicfoundation.com DEACON STEVE STEMPER 303.468.9885 Aquila graders during retreat at School Westminster annual retreats 11-year-olds 11th-graders Archdiocese Catholic learn beauty to and life. PETTY/ The Opening Mass for the Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on the Family with Pope Francis in St. Peter's Square on October 4, 2015. PHOTO BY DANIEL IBANEZ/ CATHOLIC NEWS AGENCY P ope Francis opened the 2015 Synod on the family with a homily on the themes of solitude, the love between a man and a woman, and the family. A synod is a gathering of the bish- ops under the pope to discuss matters of faith, morals or discipline. The current synod will run Oct. 4-25 and focus on the theme: "The vocation and mission of the family in the Church and the modern world." It follows last year's extraordinary synod, which focused on pastoral challenges regarding family life. Pope Francis opened the synod with a Mass. He began his homily with a line from the fi rst letter of John: "If we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us (1 Jn 4:12)" SOLITUDE The pope described solitude as a drama "experienced by countless men and women in our own day." He spoke of the strange juxtapositions of the modern world. "Today we experience the paradox of a globalized world fi lled with luxurious mansions and skyscrapers, but a lessen- ing of the warmth of homes and families; many ambitious plans and projects, but little time to enjoy them; many sophis- ticated means of entertainment, but a deep and growing interior emptiness; many pleasures, but few loves; many lib- erties, but little freedom... The number of people who feel lonely keeps growing, as does the number of those who are caught up in selfi shness, gloominess, destruc- tive violence and slavery to pleasure and money," Pope Francis said. He said that the modern world's increase in power and loneliness is refl ected in the family, as fewer people are willing to enter into a lifelong union. "It would seem that the most advanced societies are the very ones which have the lowest birth-rates and the highest percentages of abortion, divorce, suicide and social and environmental pollution," the pope said. LOVE BETWEEN MAN AND WOMAN Pope Francis said that God was pained when he saw Adam's loneliness, so he made him a helper. "This is God's dream for his beloved creation: to see it fulfi lled in the loving union between a man and a woman, rejoicing in their shared journey, fruitful in their mutual gift of self," he said. FAMILY Finally, Pope Francis extolled the faithful to "overcome every form of indi- vidualism and legalism which conceals a narrow self-centeredness and a fear of accepting the true meaning of the couple and of human sexuality in God's plan." He likened lifelong married love to the "gratuitousness" of Jesus' sacrifi ce on the cross. "For God, marriage is not some adoles- cent utopia, but a dream without which his creatures will be doomed to solitude!" he said. He said the the Church must carry out her mission "in fi delity, truth and love. To carry out her mission in fi delity of her Master as a voice crying out in the desert, in defending faithful love and encourag- ing the many families which live married life as an experience which reveals God's love; in defending the sacredness of life, of every life; in defending the unity and indissolubly of the conjugal bond as a sign of God's grace and of the human person's ability love seriously." However, he warned that charity must accompany the Church's teaching of the truth, especially when addressing those who are living in error. "The Church must search out these persons, welcome and accompany them, for a Church with closed doors betrays herself and her mission, and, instead of being a bridge, becomes a roadblock," Pope Francis said. Pope: love between man and woman at heart of Synod BY DENVER CATHOLIC 303-715-3230 | denvercatholic@archden.org www.twitter.com/DenverCatholic

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