Gulf Pine Catholic

Gulf Pine Catholic • October 19, 2018 7 When you are open to life, it surprises you. Sometimes it takes patience and it seems that things never change; and suddenly -- everything is different. BY MICHELE PISCIOTTA, MD My name is Michele Pisciotta. As a retired obstetrician and gynecologist, I have been asked by the Office of Marriage and Family Life to begin an official Pro-Life Ministry and Natural Family Planning education initiative in our diocese. I am flattered and a bit intimidated by the job title. My position is under the umbrella of the office of Family and Life Ministries. Our diocese is not unique in that we have not had a structured Pro-Life office. As October is the recognized Respect Life Month in the Catholic Church I thought that this was the opportune time to introduce myself. Why me? I am also a Catholic wife and mother of five children who is willing to try new things and likes a challenge. Honestly, I also tend to volunteer too much. For a while now, I have been restraining myself from volunteering because it seemed that my endeavors weren’t working well for me or for my family. I really don’t like feeling like a failure or a quitter, so I promised myself that I would not start anything new for a minimum of one calendar year. That year ended in May of 2018, and suddenly in June, I am asked to do these wonderful things! I am trying on another new hat and am praying that it fits. Life continues to surprise me. As I reflect on what being Pro- Life means to me, I am bombarded with thoughts and images. The obvious headline that usually represents the movement centers around abortion. The abortion issue is very near and dear to me (I will undoubtedly share more about this in another column), but it is not the only issue of life that is important. Embracing a culture of life and rejecting the secular culture of death includes caring for the chronically ill, the elderly, the homeless, the single-parent family, overworked mothers and fathers, the immigrants, the prisoners, the malnourished, the depressed and lonely, the young adult finding his way, the family next door, and the teenager that just needs encouragement. The list does not stop. It’s so easy to love babies, and goodness knows I love babies, but let’s not forget the rest. There is no doubt thatmany people feel overwhelmed on their journey through life. I believe that slowing down enough to make eye contact with a smile and a greeting supports a culture of life and can really benefit a person. I also believe that shared experiences can make a huge difference. We are called to be social and to build communities which will help us to live our lives more abundantly. And we never know if a life that is touched in a seemingly insignificant way may be changed for the better. I would like to use the Gulf Pine Catholic as a springboard to engage our community. Please send feedback about the topics that are important to you. I hope to get help from local experts and to tell stories about how we can all live large and support the lives around us. If you have a topic in mind that you want to learn more about, please reach out and I will do my best to get information on it. You can contact me through the newspaper at gulfpinecatholic@biloxidiocese.org. I really like the current Taco Bell slogan. So, in conclusion, let’s all LIVE MAS! Living Large Pisciotta An introduction to pro-life issues Synod already leading to some changes, bishops report BY CINDY WOODEN Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY ( CNS ) -- Even on the ninth day of the 25-day-long Synod of Bishops on young people, the faith and vocational discernment, two bishops said they already had ideas for things they would want to start in their ministries. Auxiliary Bishop Robert E. Barron of Los Angeles told reporters Oct. 12 that the presence and input of 34 young adults at the synod has convinced him of the importance of having regular structures for listening to young people and seeking their opinion. Auxiliary Bishop Everardus de Jong of Roermond, Netherlands, said he was so struck by the personal tes- timony of Safa al Abbia, a 26-year-old Chaldean Catholic dentist from Iraq, that he vowed to do more in his diocese to raise awareness of and help persecuted Christians. “Global solidarity is part of the faith,” he said. Both bishops also said the 30 or so women at the synod are being heard and offering important insights, but neither could address the question of why, when two religious brothers are voting members of the synod, no religious sisters are. “We listen to women, but voting is not so much about having power or steering roles” since the synod is an advisory body to the pope, Bishop de Jong said. “This is a bishops’ synod, we have to listen to women, but there are no women bishops. We don’t have women cardinals. We have to live with that.” Bishop Barron said he only could echo what Bishop de Jong said in noting it is a bishops’ synod. “Are women present, especially young women? Absolutely. Are they speaking? Absolutely. Are they present around the tables in the small groups? Absolutely.” Sister Mina Kwon, a member of the Sisters of St. Paul of Chartres from South Korea, who repeated to journalists what she had told the synod -- that young people are put off by “inequality and exclusion” -- said, “the situation is improving.” Members of the synod -- bishops, observers and experts -- began meeting in small groups Oct. 12 to discuss the presentations they had heard in the previous days about spiritual guidance and vocational discern- ment. Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, major archbishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, had told the synod that a survey of young Ukrainian Catholics completed for the synod already had led him to action. After many young people -- both in Ukraine and abroad -- said they wanted help in learning to pray, the archbishop said he asked every Ukrainian Catholic monastery to open its doors and every bishop to open his residence to young people at prayer times. “Entire generations of young people have grown up never seeing their father or mother pray and never hav- ing prayed at home,” he told the synod. Some of the young people said they had attended a divine liturgy in a church, “but they never had seen a priest pray alone or pray with them.” One place young people have learned to pray, he said, is on pilgrimages or at prayer events organized by the France-based Taize community. With the leader of the community, Brother Alois, present in the synod hall, Archbishop Shevchuk told his fellow bishops that Taize “is becoming a center of prayer for young people on a global level and is forming a youth culture of prayer.” Cardinal Gerald Lacroix of Quebec reminded the synod, “Our church is full of inspiring models of young people who have left a mark of ‘physical vigor, strength of spirit and courage to risk.’ As Mark Twain would have said, ‘They did it because they did not know it was impossible.’” The cardinal cited Mary, St. Francis of Assisi and Quebec’s own Sts. Francois de Laval and Marie de l’Incarnation as young adults who left everything behind to follow Jesus. “We sometimes doubt the ability of our youth to participate actively in the mission of the church,” the cardinal said, but “obviously the Lord does not share our hesitation.” “Let us be bold in inviting young people to meet Christ and learn to follow him,” the cardinal urged. Another Canadian, Bishop Stephen Jensen of Prince George, British Columbia, looked at the ingredients that are part of the success many new movements in the Catholic Church have had in bringing young people to Jesus and supporting them in their vocations to mar- riage, religious life or priesthood. The methodology, he said, “reflects the ministry of Jesus and the first disciples,” by first calling people into a relationship within a community. “Such friendship becomes the basis for authentic accompaniment, pro- viding a young person mentorship on the journey of responding to the grace of an encounter with Jesus.” “This companionship makes possible profound communication, providing the security in which a young person can recognize the call to conversion of life as a gift rather than a burden and respond in free- dom,” he said. The support helps young people “resist pressures to compromise the Gospel’s teaching” and show them how every aspect of their lives can be trans- formed by Christ.