VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICE   
   YEAR XXII - # 020   
   DATE 28-01-2015   
      
   Summary:   
   - General audience: fatherly responsibility and the sense of orphanhood in   
   children   
   - Other Pontifical Acts   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    General audience: fatherly responsibility and the sense of orphanhood in   
   children   
    Vatican City, 28 January 2015 (VIS) - Pope Francis, returning to the theme of   
   the family, dedicated the catechesis of today's Wednesday general audience to   
   the figure of the father: "a word dear to us as Christians, more than any   
   other, as it is the name with which Jesus taught us to call God", he said to   
   the thousands of faithful gathered in the Vatican's Paul VI Hall.   
    "Father is a universal word, known to all. It indicates a fundamental   
   relationship that is real and ancient as the history of mankind. Today,   
   however, we have reached the point of affirming that ours would be a 'society   
   without fathers'. In other words, in particular in western culture, the figure   
   of the father would be symbolically absent, to have vanished. ... At first,   
   this was perceived as a form of liberation: freedom from the father-master,   
   from the father as the representative of a law imposed from the outside, from   
   the father as the censor of the happiness of his children and an obstacle to   
   the emancipation of the autonomy of the young. Indeed, in the past in some   
   cases authoritarianism, indeed even oppression reigned in some homes: parents   
   who treated their children like servants, who did not respect the personal   
   needs of their growth, fathers who did not help them to embark on their path   
   in freedom, to assume their own responsibilities for building their future and   
   that of society".   
    "And, as often happens, we have passed from one extreme to the other. The   
   problem of our times no longer seems to be the invasive presence of fathers,   
   but rather their absence. ... Fathers are so focused on themselves, on their   
   work and at times their personal fulfilment, that they even forget their   
   families, leaving children and the young to their own devices. ... Now, on   
   this shared path of reflection on the family, I would like to say to all   
   Christian communities that we must be more careful: the absence of the   
   paternal figure in the life of children and the young produces lacunae and   
   wounds that can be very serious. And in effect the deviances of children and   
   adolescents may to a considerable extent be due to this lack of examples and   
   authoritative guidance in their everyday life, to this lack of closeness and   
   love from their fathers".   
    "The feeling of orphanhood experienced by many young people is more profound   
   than we might think. They are orphans in their families because their fathers   
   are often absent, also physically, from the home, but above all because when   
   they are present, they do not act like fathers: they do not speak with their   
   children, they do not give their children, by their example accompanied by   
   words, those principles, those values, those rules for life that the young   
   need in the same way as they need bread. ... At times it seems as if fathers   
   are not sure what position they should occupy in the family, or how to educate   
   their children. And so, in doubt, they abstain, they withdraw and neglect   
   their responsibilities, possibly seeking refuge in an improbable relationship   
   of parity with their children".   
    The civil community with its institutions too has "a certain responsibility   
   towards the young, that might be described as paternal", the Pope added: "a   
   responsibility that at times it neglects or exercises poorly. This too leaves   
   them as orphans, and does not offer them true prospects. The young are   
   therefore orphaned of sure paths to follow, orphaned of teachers in whom they   
   can trust, orphaned of ideals to warm their hearts, orphaned of values and   
   hopes that support them day by day. They are filled with idols but robbed of   
   their hearts; they are driven to dream of enjoyment and pleasure, but they are   
   not given work; they are deluded by the god of money and denied true richness".   
    "Therefore, it is good for all of us, fathers and children, to listen once   
   again to the promise that Jesus made to His disciples: 'I will not leave you   
   orphans'. Indeed, He is the path to follow, the master to listen to, the hope   
   that the world can change, that love will conquer hate, that there can be a   
   future of brotherhood and peace for all", Francis concluded. He added that   
   next Wednesday he will further pursue this theme, focusing on "the beauty of   
   paternity". "For this reason I have chosen to begin with the darkness in order   
   to reach the light. May the Lord help us to understand these things well".   
      
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    Other Pontifical Acts   
    Vatican City, 28 January 2015 (VIS) - The Holy Father has:   
    - appointed Fr. Cesar Alcides Balbin Tamayo as bishop of Caldas (area 1,395,   
   population 260,000, Catholics 250,000, priests 61, religious 76), Colombia.   
   The bishop-elect was born in Santa Rosa de Osos, Colombia in 1958 and was   
   ordained a priest in 1985. He holds a licentiate in moral theology from the   
   Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Rome, a licentiate in philosophy and   
   science of religious education from the Universidad Catolica de Oriente,   
   Colombia, and a master's degree in business administration from the Escuela de   
   Administracion de Empresas in Barcelona, Spain. He has served in a number of   
   pastoral and administrative roles, including rector of the "Miguel Angel   
   Builes" minor seminary and of the "Santo Tomas de Aquino" major seminary in   
   the diocese of Santa Rosa de Osos, director of the "Cooperativa Fraternidad   
   Sacerdotal", administrator of the "Mutuo Auxilio Sacerdotal Colombiano" of the   
   Episcopal Conference of Colombia, and financial director of the Episcopal   
   Conference of Colombia. He is currently parish priest of the "Santa Barbara"   
   parish in Bellavista. He succeeds Bishop Soleibe Arbelaez, whose resignation   
   from the pastoral care of the same diocese upon reaching the age limit was   
   accepted by the Holy Father.   
    - accepted the resignation from the pastoral care of the diocese of   
   Graz-Seckau, Austria presented by Bishop Egon Kapellari, upon reaching the age   
   limit.   
      
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