RIO, July 25, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In some of his clearest pro-life and pro-family statements in his four-month pontificate, Pope Francis told a massive gathering of youth in a soccer field in the slum area of Varginha today that faith, life and family are essential to any “real human development.”
“Dear friends, it is certainly necessary to give bread to the hungry – this is an act of justice. But there is also a deeper hunger, the hunger for a happiness that only God can satisfy,” said Pope Francis. “There is neither real promotion of the common good nor real human development when there is ignorance of the fundamental pillars that govern a nation, its non-material goods: life, which is a gift of God, a value always to be protected and promoted; the family, the foundation of coexistence and a remedy against social fragmentation,” he added.
It is not the first time the Pope has spoken out on life and family during his pontificate. Only last week, in a message to Catholics in Ireland, Scotland, England and Wales, the Pope wrote to let the light of the glory of God “shine so brightly that everyone may come to recognise the inestimable value of all human life. Even the weakest and most vulnerable, the sick, the old, the unborn and the poor, are masterpieces of God’s creation, made in his own image, destined to live for ever, and deserving of the utmost reverence and respect.”
The Pope’s message to the UK was to promote the Day for Life which he prayed would “help to ensure that human life always receives the protection that is its due, so that ‘everything that breathes may praise the Lord.’”
The Pope’s message on the necessity of transmitting the faith along with aiding the poor echoes his former comments warning the Church against becoming “a charitable NGO.”
For weeks the mainstream media has been gloating over Pope Francis’ purported departure from the ways of his predecessors in not mentioning the hot button issues of abortion and homosexual ‘marriage’.
Archbishop Charles Chaput was asked about the phenomenon in a recent interview and replied, “I think the pope has spoken very clearly about the value of human life” but “he hasn't expressed those things in a combative way.” As if telegraphing the Pope’s remarks today, Chaput added, “For me, issues such as abortion and the meaning of marriage aren't political issues; they're doctrinal and moral. We all as bishops, including the bishop of Rome, have to talk about those things.”