\u2026 The heart of the Pope expands to include everyone. To testify to the immensity of God\u2019s love is the heart of the mission entrusted to the Successor of Peter, the Vicar of the One who on the cross embraced the whole of mankind. May no member of Christ\u2019s body and the American people feel excluded from the Pope\u2019s embrace. Wherever the name of Jesus is spoken, may the Pope\u2019s voice also be heard to affirm that: \u201cHe is the Savior\u201d!<\/span>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n\u2026\u00a0I do not feel a stranger in your midst. I am a native of a land which is also vast, with great open ranges, a land which, like your own, received the faith from itinerant missionaries. I, too, know how hard it is to sow the Gospel among people from different worlds, with hearts often hardened by the trials of a lengthy journey. Nor am I unaware of the efforts made over the years to build up the Church amid the prairies, mountains, cities and suburbs of a frequently inhospitable land, where frontiers are always provisional and easy answers do not always work.<\/span><\/p>\n\u2026\u00a0We are bishops of the Church, shepherds appointed by God to feed his flock. Our greatest joy is to be shepherds, and only shepherds, pastors with undivided hearts and selfless devotion. We need to preserve this joy and never let ourselves be robbed of it. The evil one roars like a lion, anxious to devour it, wearing us down in our resolve to be all that we are called to be, not for ourselves, but in gift and service to the \u201cShepherd of our souls\u201d (1 Peter 2:25).<\/p>\n
<\/div>\n
The heart of our identity is to be sought in constant prayer, in preaching (Acts 6:4) and in shepherding the flock entrusted to our care (John 21:15-17; Acts 20:28-31).<\/div>\n
\u2026\u00a0Bishops need to be lucidly aware of the battle between light and darkness being fought in this world. Woe to us, however, if we make of the cross a banner of worldly struggles and fail to realize that the price of lasting victory is allowing ourselves to be wounded and consumed (Philippians 2:1-11).<\/p>\n
<\/div>\n
We all know the anguish felt by the first Eleven, huddled together, assailed and overwhelmed by the fear of sheep scattered because the shepherd had been struck. But we also know that we have been given a spirit of courage and not of timidity. So we cannot let ourselves be paralyzed by fear.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
I know that you face many challenges, that the field in which you sow is unyielding and that there is always the temptation to give in to fear, to lick one\u2019s wounds, to think back on bygone times and to devise harsh responses to fierce opposition.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
And yet we are promoters of the culture of encounter. We are living sacraments of the embrace between God\u2019s riches and our poverty. We are witnesses of the abasement and the condescension of God who anticipates in love our every response.<\/div>\n
\u2026\u00a0The innocent victim of abortion, children who die of hunger or from bombings, immigrants who drown in the search for a better tomorrow, the elderly or the sick who are considered a burden, the victims of terrorism, wars, violence and drug trafficking, the environment devastated by man\u2019s predatory relationship with nature: At stake in all of this is the gift of God, of which we are noble stewards but not masters.<\/strong><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/strong><\/div>\nIt is wrong, then, to look the other way or to remain silent.<\/strong><\/div>\n\u00a0<\/strong><\/div>\nNo less important is the gospel of the family, which in the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia I will emphatically proclaim together with you and the entire Church.<\/strong><\/div>\n\u00a0<\/strong><\/div>\nThese essential aspects of the Church\u2019s mission belong to the core of what we have received from the Lord. It is our duty to preserve and communicate them, even when the tenor of the times becomes resistent and even hostile to that message (Evangelii Gaudium<\/em>, 34-39).<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Read more:\u00a0
http:\/\/www.ncregister.com\/daily-news\/pope-to-us-bishops-we-are-promoters-of-the-culture-of-encounter\/#ixzz3maPZCYmu<\/a><\/div>\n\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Pope Francis delivered a stirring homily to the American bishops this morning. I bolded the paragraphs in which he talks about abortion and marriage because I know they are a great concern for all of us at this point in our country\u2019s history. You are read the entire homily at the National Catholic Register.\u00a0 In […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1155,"featured_media":27469,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7734,1],"tags":[18,7762,214,7763,7761,7760],"class_list":["post-30525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pope-francis-visit-united-states","category-uncategorized","tag-abortion","tag-climate-change-and-pope-francis","tag-gay-marriage","tag-gospel-of-the-family","tag-immigrants","tag-pope-francis-in-us"],"yoast_head":"\n
Pope Frances: Innocent Victims of Abortion, Gospel of the Family are Essentials of Church's Mission<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Pope Francis delivered a stirring homily to the American bishops this morning. I bolded the paragraphs in which he talks about abortion and marriage\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2015\/09\/pope-frances-innocent-victims-of-abortion-gospel-of-the-family-are-essentials-of-churchs-mission\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pope Frances: Innocent Victims of Abortion, Gospel of the Family are Essentials of Church's Mission\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Pope Francis delivered a stirring homily to the American bishops this morning. I bolded the paragraphs in which he talks about abortion and marriage\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2015\/09\/pope-frances-innocent-victims-of-abortion-gospel-of-the-family-are-essentials-of-churchs-mission\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Public Catholic\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-09-23T18:13:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-09-23T19:37:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/254\/2015\/01\/Pope_Francis_in_March_2013.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"480\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"480\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Rebecca Hamilton\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Rebecca Hamilton\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2015\/09\/pope-frances-innocent-victims-of-abortion-gospel-of-the-family-are-essentials-of-churchs-mission\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2015\/09\/pope-frances-innocent-victims-of-abortion-gospel-of-the-family-are-essentials-of-churchs-mission\/\",\"name\":\"Pope Frances: Innocent Victims of Abortion, Gospel of the Family are Essentials of Church's Mission\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-09-23T18:13:41+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-09-23T19:37:59+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/#\/schema\/person\/e8d2778109308e0e776e5c16eae7b67d\"},\"description\":\"Pope Francis delivered a stirring homily to the American bishops this morning. I bolded the paragraphs in which he talks about abortion and marriage\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2015\/09\/pope-frances-innocent-victims-of-abortion-gospel-of-the-family-are-essentials-of-churchs-mission\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2015\/09\/pope-frances-innocent-victims-of-abortion-gospel-of-the-family-are-essentials-of-churchs-mission\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2015\/09\/pope-frances-innocent-victims-of-abortion-gospel-of-the-family-are-essentials-of-churchs-mission\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Pope Frances: Innocent Victims of Abortion, Gospel of the Family are Essentials of Church’s Mission\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/\",\"name\":\"Public Catholic\",\"description\":\"Catholic in the Public Square\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/#\/schema\/person\/e8d2778109308e0e776e5c16eae7b67d\",\"name\":\"Rebecca Hamilton\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f6253ced313d53e0b7bfa51e5c9eb56d?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f6253ced313d53e0b7bfa51e5c9eb56d?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Rebecca Hamilton\"},\"description\":\"During her tenure in the Oklahoma Legislature, Rep. Hamilton has been an advocate for human rights, believing that government must support and defend the sanctity of all human lives, from conception to natural death. Representative Hamilton: Authored the original Victim\u2019s Protective Order to protect battered women, Obtained funding for the first statewide program for adult day care and the first statewide program of domestic violence shelters, and she She has also passed legislation to prevent law enforcement officials from publicly posting the private information of rape victims, Rep. Hamilton authored a 2005 law hailed as the most significant piece of pro-life legislation in Oklahoma in 30 years. She also passed the bill outlawing elective abortions in state-funded hospitals She has passed pro life bills requiring informed consent, parental notification, and limiting forced abortions. She also passed a law allowing prosecutors to file criminal charges against anyone who intentionally causes the death of an unborn child by harming the mother. Rep. Hamilton has also authored legislation ensuring taxpayers are not forced to subsidize elective abortions Rep. Hamilton was one of six original co-founders of first rape crisis center in Oklahoma. The Oklahoma City Democrat has worked to bring a wide range of groups together to fight on the behalf of abused women, including the creation of the Annual Day of Prayer for an End to Violence Against Women at the Oklahoma Capitol. Rep. Hamilton has been married for 30 years to her husband, Rodney, and the couple has two grown sons. She attends St. James Catholic Church, and is a long-time volunteer at Birth Choice of Oklahoma.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/author\/rhamilton\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Pope Frances: Innocent Victims of Abortion, Gospel of the Family are Essentials of Church's Mission","description":"Pope Francis delivered a stirring homily to the American bishops this morning. I bolded the paragraphs in which he talks about abortion and marriage","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2015\/09\/pope-frances-innocent-victims-of-abortion-gospel-of-the-family-are-essentials-of-churchs-mission\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Pope Frances: Innocent Victims of Abortion, Gospel of the Family are Essentials of Church's Mission","og_description":"Pope Francis delivered a stirring homily to the American bishops this morning. I bolded the paragraphs in which he talks about abortion and marriage","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2015\/09\/pope-frances-innocent-victims-of-abortion-gospel-of-the-family-are-essentials-of-churchs-mission\/","og_site_name":"Public Catholic","article_published_time":"2015-09-23T18:13:41+00:00","article_modified_time":"2015-09-23T19:37:59+00:00","og_image":[{"width":480,"height":480,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/254\/2015\/01\/Pope_Francis_in_March_2013.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Rebecca Hamilton","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Rebecca Hamilton","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2015\/09\/pope-frances-innocent-victims-of-abortion-gospel-of-the-family-are-essentials-of-churchs-mission\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2015\/09\/pope-frances-innocent-victims-of-abortion-gospel-of-the-family-are-essentials-of-churchs-mission\/","name":"Pope Frances: Innocent Victims of Abortion, Gospel of the Family are Essentials of Church's Mission","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/#website"},"datePublished":"2015-09-23T18:13:41+00:00","dateModified":"2015-09-23T19:37:59+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/#\/schema\/person\/e8d2778109308e0e776e5c16eae7b67d"},"description":"Pope Francis delivered a stirring homily to the American bishops this morning. I bolded the paragraphs in which he talks about abortion and marriage","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2015\/09\/pope-frances-innocent-victims-of-abortion-gospel-of-the-family-are-essentials-of-churchs-mission\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2015\/09\/pope-frances-innocent-victims-of-abortion-gospel-of-the-family-are-essentials-of-churchs-mission\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2015\/09\/pope-frances-innocent-victims-of-abortion-gospel-of-the-family-are-essentials-of-churchs-mission\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Pope Frances: Innocent Victims of Abortion, Gospel of the Family are Essentials of Church’s Mission"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/","name":"Public Catholic","description":"Catholic in the Public Square","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/#\/schema\/person\/e8d2778109308e0e776e5c16eae7b67d","name":"Rebecca Hamilton","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f6253ced313d53e0b7bfa51e5c9eb56d?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f6253ced313d53e0b7bfa51e5c9eb56d?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"Rebecca Hamilton"},"description":"During her tenure in the Oklahoma Legislature, Rep. Hamilton has been an advocate for human rights, believing that government must support and defend the sanctity of all human lives, from conception to natural death. Representative Hamilton: Authored the original Victim\u2019s Protective Order to protect battered women, Obtained funding for the first statewide program for adult day care and the first statewide program of domestic violence shelters, and she She has also passed legislation to prevent law enforcement officials from publicly posting the private information of rape victims, Rep. Hamilton authored a 2005 law hailed as the most significant piece of pro-life legislation in Oklahoma in 30 years. She also passed the bill outlawing elective abortions in state-funded hospitals She has passed pro life bills requiring informed consent, parental notification, and limiting forced abortions. She also passed a law allowing prosecutors to file criminal charges against anyone who intentionally causes the death of an unborn child by harming the mother. Rep. Hamilton has also authored legislation ensuring taxpayers are not forced to subsidize elective abortions Rep. Hamilton was one of six original co-founders of first rape crisis center in Oklahoma. The Oklahoma City Democrat has worked to bring a wide range of groups together to fight on the behalf of abused women, including the creation of the Annual Day of Prayer for an End to Violence Against Women at the Oklahoma Capitol. Rep. Hamilton has been married for 30 years to her husband, Rodney, and the couple has two grown sons. She attends St. James Catholic Church, and is a long-time volunteer at Birth Choice of Oklahoma.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/author\/rhamilton\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1155"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30525"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30525\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30532,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30525\/revisions\/30532"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Photo](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/254\/2015\/01\/Pope_Francis_in_March_2013.jpg\")
<\/a>