Pope says families need a miracle
Several
hundred thousand pilgrims thronged to see the popular pontiff preach
Monday at Los Samanes Park in Guayaquil, Ecuador, according to estimates
provided by Ecuadorian officials. Waving flags from several South
American nations -- including Argentina, the Pope's homeland -- the
crowd cheered Francis like a native son.
Monday
is the first full day of Francis' weeklong trip to Ecuador, Bolivia and
Paraguay, three of the smallest and poorest nations in South America.
In addition to the Mass, Pope Francis is expected on Monday to have tea
with Ecuadorian political leaders, pray with a community of Jesuits and
visit a cathedral in the capital city of Quito.
Before the Mass, the Pope visited a shrine and prayed with elderly Catholics and sick children.
In his homily, or sermon, the Pope referred to a highly anticipated meeting of bishops
to be held in Rome this October. The Catholic leaders are expected to
discuss changes to several controversial areas of church teaching,
including divorce and homosexuality.
The
bishops will "consider concrete solutions," Francis said, "to the many
difficult and significant challenges facing families in our time."
"I
ask you to pray fervently for this intention," the Pope continued, "so
that Christ can take even what might seem to us impure, scandalous or
threatening, and turn it ... into a miracle. Families today need
miracles!"
One proposal for the synod
would remove the ban on divorced and remarried Catholics receiving Holy
Communion. But several leading conservative bishops argue that the
church can't change teachings on marriage that originate with Jesus.
At
a preliminary meeting last October, conservatives also scuttled an
early draft report from the meeting that mildly praised same-sex
relationships and said gays and lesbians have "gifts to offer" the Christian community.
While
lightly touching on politics, Francis focused his homily Monday mainly
on family life, calling it the backbone of a moral society.
"The
family is the nearest hospital, the first school for the young, the
best home for the elderly," Francis preached. "The family constitutes
the best 'social capital.' It cannot be replaced by other institutions."
"The
family is also a small church" the Pope continued, "which, along with
life, also mediates God's tenderness and mercy. In the family, we imbibe
faith with our mother's milk."
Apparently
veering off script, the Pope said his mother was sometimes asked which
of her five children was her favorite. They are like the five fingers of
a hand, Francis recalled his mother replying. When one hurts, the whole
hand throbs.
But today, many families
are suffering, the Pope said. To illustrate his point, he drew on the
day's Gospel reading, Jesus' turning of water into wine at the wedding
in Cana.
"Wine is a sign of happiness,
love and plenty," Francis said. "How many of our adolescents and young
people sense that these are no longer found in their homes? How many
women, sad and lonely, wonder when love left, when it slipped away from
their lives? How many elderly people feel left out of family
celebrations, cast aside and longing each day for a little love?"
More
than 425 million Catholics live in Latin America, according to a 2014
study by the Pew Research Center. That's nearly 40% of the world's total
Catholic population.
But Catholics in
nearly every country, including Ecuador, Bolivia and Paraguay, have fled
the church in recent decades for other faiths, or no faith at all.
Later
this week, Francis will take side trips to a home for the aged run by
nuns, a meeting of grass-roots political activists and one of the
continent's largest prisons in Bolivia, as well as a slum and children's
hospital in Paraguay.
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