On compassion

On the feast of Vesak, the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue to Buddhists wrote:

“Dear Buddhist friends, you offer healing when you embody karuna – compassion towards all beings, taught by the Buddha or when you act selflessly. …The Buddha describes a person entirely informed by karuna: He dwells with mind accompanied by compassion, suffusing one direction. Also, a second direction. Also, a third direction. Also, a fourth direction. Thus identifying with all, he dwells suffusing the world of all (beings) with mind accompanied by compassion, extensive, sublime, unlimited, without enmity, without ill-will.”

Becoming minor

Addressing participants at the plenary assembly of Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life, Pope Francis said:

“All ministries are an expression of the sole mission of the Church, and they are all forms of service to others. At the root of the term ministry there is the word minus, which means ‘minor’. Jesus said: those who command should make themselves the smallest, otherwise they do not know how to command. Those who follow Jesus are not afraid to make themselves ‘inferior’, ‘minor’, to place themselves at the service of others. Jesus said: “whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all’ (Mk 10: 43-44).”

Poverty and abortion

In a statement, the Scottish bishops linked abortion with poverty: “Every abortion involves the taking of innocent human life. Statistics bear out that women from the most deprived areas are twice as likely to have an abortion than women from the least deprived areas. This suggests that poverty plays a significant role in a decision to have an abortion. There is an obligation on the state to support women and families that find themselves in such difficult circumstances and who feel that they have no other option.”

(Compiled by Fr Joe Borg)