Quote
“Dear young friends, never be afraid to go out from yourselves and begin the journey. The Gospel is the message which brings freedom to our lives; it transforms them and makes them all the more beautiful.” | Pope Francis, in his message for the 2015 World Day of Prayer for Vocations released April 14 by the Vatican. All children of God are called to leave behind the land they know and trust completely in God to show them the way to a whole new world, the pope wrote. (Catholic New Service)
In the news
Taking care of earth, humanity
VATICAN CITY – With the participation of U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the Pontifical Academy of Sciences is hosting a summit, “Protect the Earth, Dignify Humanity,” at the Vatican April 28.
The focus of the workshop will be the moral dimensions of climate change and sustainable development.
Pope Francis has announced he is preparing an encyclical letter on the environment and said it should be published this summer.
Cardinal Peter Turkson, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, who helped with the early drafts of the letter, said in March that the pope’s interest in climate change and ecology “is not some narrow agenda for the greening of the church or the world. It is a vision of care and protection that embraces the human person and the human environment in all possible dimensions.”
Saints under 40
Destined to serve
Jesuit priest and missionary Gabriel Lalemant was born into a well-to-do family in Paris, but his faith journey delivered him to Canada where his martyrdom would occur at just 38 years old in a town named for his order’s founder.
Lalemant entered the novitiate at age 20; a couple years after that, he committed himself to foreign missions through his religious vows. In 1646 he arrived in Canada and, after spending more than two years in Quebec, ended up at a mission near Saint-Ignace.
In 1649 the mission was overrun by a war party of Iroquois Indians. Though Lalemant and his colleague, Jean de Brebeuf, were urged to leave, they remained in place. The Iroquois then captured the two men and tortured each extensively before killing them. (www.biographi.ca)