The 8 Great Worries of the World
Attacks on Life, Family, Environment Among the Concerns

VATICAN CITY, AUG. 31, 2002 (Zenit.org).- John Paul II believes that nations and leaders must face eight key challenges if a more-just world is to be achieved. And the eight have a common denominator: to put every man and woman at the center of development. Below are the challenges, as presented by the Pope, along with some of his earlier statements and those of his representatives in U.N. forums.

1. Protection of human life
According to John Paul II, the first challenge facing the world is "the defense of the sacredness of human life in all circumstances, especially in relation to the challenges posed by genetic manipulation."
His emphasis on "all circumstances" reminds one of past debates among Catholics. Some pro-life groups, concerned with the protection of human life in its earliest stages, wondered if they should struggle with the same effort against the death penalty. Some of them even favored capital punishment outright. Others who opposed it didn't push the issue, sensing that capital punishment enjoyed wide public support.

2. Promotion of the family
The second challenge is "the promotion of the family, the basic unit of society." Even before its ethical and religious dimension, the Pope presents the family as a human and social reality. In the face of a globalized society that at times reduces people to the level of mere statistics, the family is the first place where "purely functional relationships" are overcome, in order to establish "interpersonal relationships that are rich in inner depth, gratuitousness and self-sacrifice," as John Paul II explained Oct. 15, 2000, during the Jubilee of Families. In the family, the man, woman and child are not consumers but persons with first and last names.

3. Elimination of poverty
The third challenge for John Paul II is "the elimination of poverty, through efforts to promote development, the reduction of debt, and the opening up of international trade." In recent years, U.N. conferences on development have concluded that efforts to halve the rate of world poverty have been insufficient.
Given this situation, the Vatican officials insist increasingly that anti-poverty policies must make every person a protagonist in his future. The Vatican's U.N. permanent observer, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, said as much March 27 at a U.N. Human Rights Commission meeting. "The sad fact," he said, "... is that many people, perhaps the majority today, do not have the means which would enable them to take their place in an effective and humanly dignified way within a productive system in which work is truly essential."

4. Human rights
As the fourth challenge, the Holy Father to "respect for human rights in all situations, with especial concern for the most vulnerable: children, women and refugees." At a Feb. 27 address to the Pontifical Academy for Life, he cited a "serious threat" posed by the "false interpretation of the rights of man, seen as the subjective rights of an individual or group, free from any reference to the truth of human nature," which can lead "even democratic systems of government to turn into an effective totalitarianism."

5. Disarmament
A fifth priority is "disarmament, the reduction of arms sales to poor countries, and the consolidation of peace after the end of conflicts." Last April 8, Monsignor Francis Chullikat, deputy head of a Holy See delegation, addressed a committee for the 2005 review conference on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. He said that the "conference on disarmament is paralyzed. One of the parties to the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty has given notice of withdrawal."

"Even more serious than the lack of progress," he added, "is the overt determination of some nuclear weapon states to maintain nuclear weapons in a critical role in their military doctrines. The old policies of nuclear deterrence, which prevailed in the Cold War, must now lead to concrete disarmament measures. The rule of law cannot countenance the continuation of doctrines that hold nuclear weapons as essential."

6. Medicine for all
The sixth challenge is "the fight against the major diseases, and access by the poor to basic care and medicines." In a letter written to a conference on ethics, science and medicine, held in Poland from April 5-6, the Pontiff said that some developing countries lack access to basic medicines because their economies are not financially attractive to the pharmaceutical industry.

During a World Trade Organization meeting on intellectual property rights, held in Geneva from June 18-22, 2001, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, the Vatican representative, said, "The AIDS crisis, together with the worrying return and diffusion of older infectious diseases, such as malaria and tuberculosis, constitutes a global disaster of dramatic magnitude." The legitimate interests of the pharmaceutical industry must be balanced with the need of poor countries for affordable medicines, he said.

 7. Conservation of the environment
The seventh challenge is "the protection of the environment and the prevention of natural disasters." During a general audience Jan. 17, 2001, John Paul II called for an "ecological conversion."
"Man, especially in our time, has without hesitation devastated wooded plains and valleys, polluted waters, disfigured the earth's habitat, made the air unbreathable, disturbed the hydrogeological and atmospheric systems, turned luxuriant areas into deserts, and undertaken forms of unrestricted industrialization, degrading that 'flowerbed' -- to use an image from Dante Alighieri -- which is the earth, our dwelling place," the Pope said. People, he insisted, must "encourage and support the 'ecological conversion' which in recent decades has made humanity more sensitive to the catastrophe to which it has been heading."

8. Application of law
The eight and last challenge is "the rigorous application of international law and conventions." Though the Catholic Church has criticized the Malthusian or relativist policies of certain U.N. agencies, it is at the same time one of the most committed allies of this institution. The Church sees the United Nations as a forum for promoting dialogue between nations and development, and for safeguarding international law.

The pope added: "But if these priorities became the central concerns of political leaders; if people of good will made them part of their daily endeavors; if religious believers included them in their teaching, the world would be a radically different place."
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VATICAN CITY, SEPT. 17, 2002  
The Minim Sisters of Our Lady of Suffrage have been holding their general chapter in Rome. They specialise in remembering 'the profound communion between the living and the dead'. In particular, the message published Saturday by the Vatican Press Office stressed "'suffrage' for the souls in purgatory."

John Paul II used the occasion to quote from the Catechism of the Catholic Church  (Nos. 1030 and 1031):
"All who die in God's grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven. The Church gives the name Purgatory to this final purification of the elect."

He added: "Christian love knows no boundaries and goes beyond the limits of space and time, enabling us to love those who have already left this earth," he said. He saw the mission of the Minim Sisters "to pray" (in union with Christ); "to act" (in favour of especially the weak, poor and excluded); "to suffer" (in offering their life for the souls in purgatory).

Feeling anxious? Try the philosophy of St Aquinas
VATICAN CITY, JUNE 24, 2002. John Paul II encouraged Christians suffering from anxiety to "return to metaphysics," of which St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) is a leading proponent. The Holy Father presented this proposal to the participants in the third plenary session of the Pontifical Academy of St. Thomas Aquinas.

"Today, we are witnessing two great omissions: the omission of God and of being, the omission of the soul and of the dignity of the human being; at times this creates anxiety… It is necessary to return to metaphysics," John Paul II said, recalling No. 83 of his 1998 encyclical "Fides et Ratio."  
"Many of our contemporaries ask themselves: If God exists, how can he allow evil? It is necessary to explain that evil is the privation of due good, and sin is man's aversion to God, source of all good…The culture of our time talks a lot about man but tends to ignore who he really is. He is the 'image of God' -- 'imago Dei' -- created by love and destined to live in eternity in communion with him."

On the Indians of Equador
VATICAN CITY, MAY 20, 2002 .- The Pontiff addressed the challenge of evangelizing a country rich in ethnic groups and cultures, such as Ecuador, whose Bishops just ended their "Ad Limina" visit, made every five years to the Holy See. The Holy Father insisted on the need to keep "in mind the scope of the Indian world, with its peculiarities, but without creating separations or discriminations."

According to some sources, of the population of Ecuador, 52% (slightly over 13 million inhabitants) is composed of Indians, mostly Quechuas; 40% of Mestizos; and the remaining 8% of primarily Spanish and African descendants. 95% of the population is Catholic.

The Holy Father made it clear that "the Church, firmly rooted in faith in Christ, only Saviour of the whole human race, regards the multiplicity of forms, stemming from different sensibilities and traditions, as a great wealth, in which the one evangelical and ecclesial message may be expressed. Thus respect for each culture is highlighted, and at the same time, its capacity to be transformed and purified (to) encounter the one God, fully and definitively revealed in Christ".
There must be no "'strangers or outsiders" in Christian communities, but “fellow citizens of the saints and family members of God".
The pope warned that trying "to keep intact all traditional components of a human group" implies
1) a danger of compromising "the authentic proclamation of the Good News of the Gospel, which is the promoter of new civilizations.
2) favouring the isolation of these groups "with respect to other communities extended throughout the world." 

Opinions of other religions
VATICAN CITY, January 25, 2002
If there is only one God, and he has revealed himself in Jesus Christ, why has he allowed so many religions? The Holy Father was asked this question by Italian journalist Vittorio Messori in the book "Crossing the Threshold of Hope" (Alfred A. Knopf, 1994).

John Paul II replied that "we should be amazed at the number of common elements found within them." Christ came into the world for all peoples, the Pope says. "He redeemed them all and has His own ways of reaching each of them in the present eschatological phase of salvation history."

Islam
Whoever knows the Old and New Testaments, and then reads the Koran, will note the movement away from what God said about Himself, first in the Old Testament through the Prophets, and then finally in the New Testament through His Son. In Islam all the richness of God's self-revelation, which constitutes the heritage of the Old and New Testaments, has definitely been set aside.

The God of the Koran is ultimately a God outside of the world...Islam is not a religion of redemption. There is no room for the Cross and the Resurrection. Jesus is mentioned, but only as a prophet who prepares for the last prophet, Muhammad. There is also mention of Mary, His Virgin Mother, but the tragedy of redemption is completely absent. For this reason not only the theology but also the anthropology of Islam is very distant from Christianity.

Nevertheless, the religiosity of Muslims deserves respect. The image of believers in Allah who, without caring about time or place, fall to their knees and immerse themselves in prayer remains a model for all, in particular for those Christians who, having deserted their magnificent cathedrals, pray only a little or not at all.

Judaism
The Council says: "The Church of Christ, in fact, recognizes that according to the divine mystery of salvation the origins of the Church's faith and election are already found in the Patriarchs, Moses, and the Prophets. ... The spiritual patrimony common to Christians and Jews is so great that this Sacred Council recommends and promotes a mutual understanding and respect" (Nostra Aetate 4).

This extraordinary people continues to bear signs of its divine election. Israel has truly paid a high price for its "election." Perhaps because of this, Israel has become more similar to the Son of man, also a son of Israel.

Buddhism
The "enlightenment" experienced by Buddha comes down to the conviction that the world is bad, that it is the source of evil and of suffering for man. To liberate oneself from this evil, one must free oneself from this world, necessitating a break with the ties that join us to external reality ties existing in our human nature, in our psyche, in our bodies. Do we draw near to God in this way?
Buddhism is in large measure an "atheistic" system. We do not free ourselves from evil through the good which comes from God; we liberate ourselves only through detachment from the world, which is bad. To save oneself means, above all, to free oneself from evil by becoming indifferent to the world, which is the source of evil.

Hinduism
The Council states that "In Hinduism men explore the divine mystery and express it through an endless bounty of myths and through penetrating philosophical insight. They seek freedom from the anguish of our human condition, either by way of the ascetic life, profound meditation, or by taking refuge in God with love and trust" (Nostra Aetate 2).

"The Catholic Church rejects nothing that is true and holy in these religions. The Church has a high regard for their conduct and way of life, for those precepts and doctrines which, although differing on many points from that which the Church believes and propounds, often reflect a ray of that truth which enlightens all men. However, the Church is bound to proclaim that Christ is 'the way and the truth and the life', in whom men must find the fullness of religious life and in whom God has reconciled everything to Himself" (Nostra Aetate 2).

Animist religions
The animistic religions stress ancestor worship. Is there, perhaps, in this veneration of ancestors a kind of preparation for the Christian faith in the Communion of Saints, in which all believers whether living or dead form a single community, a single body? And faith in the Communion of Saints is, ultimately, faith in Christ, who alone is the source of life and of holiness for all. There is nothing strange, then, that the African and Asian animists would become believers in Christ more easily than followers of the great religions of the Far East.