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News Bytes for Your Parish Bulletin
School of Psalms
Benedict XVI says the Book of Psalms are a school of prayer by which God gives us words to speak to him, just as a child learns words from his parents and surroundings. The Pope made this comparison at the general audience, when he continued his series of catechesis on prayer.
Since the Psalms are God's Word in the Bible, the Holy Father explained, "he who prays the Psalms speaks to God with the very words that God has given to us; he addresses him with the words that he himself gives us. Thus, in praying the Psalms we learn to pray."
Living With Dignity
The process of dying can be frightening, and a society can be judged on how it responds to these fears, according to a U.S. bishops' document on physician-assisted suicide. "When people are tempted to see their own lives as diminished in value or meaning, they most need the love and assistance of others to assure them of their inherent worth," states the document, To Live Each Day With Dignity. It adds that -- contrary to marketing strategies -- the drive to legalize assisted suicide does not enhance the freedom of those with serious health conditions.
News Bytes for Your Parish Bulletin
- US Bishops Launch Virtual Youth Day Pilgrimage
- Bishop for Nicolet, Quebec; Auxiliaries in Montreal
- Byzantine Faithful Welcome Apostolic Visitor to Spain
- Heroic Media Launches Pro-life, Pro-family News Service
Heaven and the Priest
St. John Vianney famously stated, "Only in heaven shall we know what a priest is. If we were to know this on earth, we would die, not of grief, but of love." And why is that? "The answer is simple," according to Dominican Father Romanus Cessario. In a homily delivered at a Mass celebrating the jubilee anniversary of the ordination of fellow Dominican Peter John Cameron, editor in chief of Magnificat, Father Cessario said, "Heaven discloses in a vision the graces that a priest mediates on earth: the truth he preaches, the transformation he enables, the lives he changes."
The Business of Ethics
Benedict XVI's secretary of state says that ethical business leaders face the great challenge of aiming at a goal higher than profit, while not rejecting profit. Such leaders are those who "see their activity as a task and a vocation," Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone told a Vatican-sponsored conference on business ethics. "Nowadays business leaders who want to take the Church's social teaching seriously will need to be more daring, not limiting themselves to socially responsible practices and/or acts of philanthropy -- positive and meritorious though these may be -- but striking out into new territories."
Stem Cell Partners
The Pontifical Council for Culture is collaborating with a U.S. company dedicated to research on adult stem cells. Father Tomasz Trafny, director of the council's Science and Faith department, said that the partnership with NeoStem must focus on two considerations. "The first one relies on the fact that we share the same sensitivity toward those ethical values that are centered on the protection of human life at all stages of its existence," he said. "The second concerns interest of investigation into cultural consequences that scientific discoveries in the field of adult stem cells research and their application in regenerative medicine will cause."