People who are dying must be given love and professional care, but there is no requirement that every means available must be used to prolong their lives, according to Pope Francis. “Even if we know that we cannot always guarantee healing or a cure, we can and must always care for the living, without ourselves shortening their life, but also without futilely resisting their death,” the Holy Father said. By Cindy Wooden.

“The family born of marriage generates fruitful bonds, which prove to be the most effective antidote to the current rampant individualism,” Pope Francis has said. In a video message to participants in the Third International Symposium on Amoris Laetitia, the Holy Father said that on the path of conjugal love and family life, there are situations that require difficult decisions to be made with rectitude. By Catholic News Service

Pope Francis has this month sent a message to Australia’s young people ahead of the Australian Catholic Youth Festival. The Holy Father sent the message assuring youth of his prayers, spiritual closeness and hope that the festival will be an occasion for them to “deepen their relationship with the Lord”. The ACYF is scheduled to commence in Sydney on Thursday 7 November, 2017.

Parish Priest Fr Vinh Dong and Deacon Joseph Laundy welcomed more than 350 parishioners for the occasion, which also marked three years since the commencement of the parish, with the proposed new Church building to be named after the former Pontiff and now Saint. By Jamie O’Brien.

Pope Francis focused his remarks on the Sunday Gospel reading from St Matthew, in which Jesus tells the Pharisees that the greatest commandments are ‘You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind” and “You shall love your neighbor as yourself’. “Jesus lived according to those two commandments. By Catholic News Service

Catholics must make a real effort to share the Gospel with all people, fighting the recurring temptation that leads some to focus only on internal Church matters or to be pessimistic about evangelisation efforts, Pope Francis wrote in a letter encouraging preparations for an ‘extraordinary missionary month’ to be celebrated in October 2019. By Cindy Wooden.

There is no sense in lamenting hunger and forced migration if one is unwilling to address the root causes, which are conflict and climate change, Pope Francis said. “War and climate change lead to hunger; so lets avoid presenting it as if it were a disease,” and instead implement laws, economic policies, and lifestyle changes that prevent the problems in the first place, he told world leaders. By Carol Glatz.

Australian Catholic Bishops Conference President Archbishop Denis Hart and Vice President Archbishop Mark Coleridge recently met with Vatican officials to discuss the crises facing the Church in Australia. The meeting on 5 October included discussion on the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse and the relationship between the Church and society. With CNS and The Catholic Leader.

Obedient to his father, Jesus was patient with his sinning, fearful disciples throughout his lonely journey toward the cross, Pope Francis said on 3 October during morning Mass at Domus Sanctae Marthae. The Holy Father said when Jesus set out to go to Jerusalem, he knew he would face humiliation, suffering and death there, as his disciples would each fall away and not accompany him. By Carol Glatz.

The worst sin of all is not trusting in God’s infinite love and not believing that God is always waiting for his sinning children to return to him, Pope Francis has said during a Mass in the Vatican City. “He is always at the door, waiting for me to open it just a tiny bit to let him in, and to not be afraid” of past sins getting in the way of conversion, the Holy Father said in a Homily on 24 September. By Carol Glatz.