The Dialog

By Carol Glatz

Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY — Evolutionary science is still grappling with understanding how the human species, with its unique capacities for language, culture, abstract reasoning and spirituality, may have emerged from a pre-ape ancestor.

While the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that God, “in a plan of sheer goodness freely created man to make him share in his own blessed life,” the church still considers the scientific investigation of the origins of humanity to be a valuable contribution to human knowledge.

A counselor specializing in biofeedback therapy poses next to an illustration of the human brain in his office in Litchfield Park, Ariz., in 2012. The Pontifical Academy of Sciences is in dialogue with world-renowned scientific experts about the physical and cultural changes that occurred during mankind’s evolution, including the development of the human brain. (CNS photo/ Nancy Phelan Wiechec)

In its continuing dialogue with world-renowned scientific experts, the Pontifical Academy of Sciences brought together evolutionary biologists, paleoanthropologists, archaeologists, neuroscientists, theologians and philosophers to discuss the major physical and cultural changes that occurred during mankind’s evolution.

The working group on “The Emergence of the Human Being” met April 19-21 to discuss topics such as the mastery and use of fire, the beginning of burial and funeral rites and the emergence of language, culture and conscience.

Bishop Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo, the science academy’s chancellor, told the group that scientific truths are part of divine truth and “can help philosophy and theology understand ever more fully the status and future of the human person.”

Science investigates the external world and how it works, while religion is concerned with “the internal world of the self, which belongs to the spirit present in his being and to his relationship with God,” the bishop said.

As such, theology and philosophy “must not engage in a losing battle to establish the facts of nature that constitute the very scope of science,” he said.

“Philosophy and theology should ask themselves how they can find a meeting point with and become enriched by the naturalist viewpoint of science, starting from the assumption that the human being is already a speaking, questioning being,” he added.

How that speaking, questioning being emerged from a 5 million-year-long lineage of other primates is still a matter of much debate.

Along that evolutionary path, no species turned out to be more unlike its ancestors than the human species, said Ian Tattersall, a British-American paleontologist and former curator of the anthropology division of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.

What’s so unusual is humans ended up with such “special and unique properties” even though they followed the same evolutionary mechanisms of genetic variation, adaptation and natural selection as all other species, he said.

That radical transformation “I think was due to culture,” he said, which changed the way early humans responded to their environment.

But how that transformation came about is still a mystery, Tattersall said.

“It’s absolutely mind-boggling: How do you go from a nonlinguistic and non-symbolic creature to a symbolic and linguistic successor?” he said.

Wolf Singer, a neurophysiologist and founding director of the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies and co-director of the Brain Imaging Center in Frankfurt, Germany, said, “The neurons are the same in our (human) cerebral cortexes as they are in the mollusk.”

Groups of neurons — called modules — in the brain cortex also didn’t experience any structural changes during evolution, so “a piece of cortex from a cat is exactly the same as a piece of cortex from a human being,” he said.

But the human brain radically diverged from other species in that it experienced a rapid and dramatic increase in volume; in evolution, “more of the same makes all the difference,” Singer said.

Simple animal brains have “a fairly short path” to follow from sensory perception to processing the information to reacting to that external stimulus, he said.

However, in the bigger, more complex human brain, there is an increase in areas that “digest the output of already existing areas” of the brain.

Neurons no longer take a direct path from sensing to responding or “talking to the environment,” but they mull things over in the cerebral cortex, “talking” to other neurons and engaging in highly dynamic and large scale interactions, he said.

Singer said it’s precisely this “very autistic, self-referential system” of neurons computing each other’s output in numerous stages that allows for increasingly abstract representation, “imagery, imagination, extrapolation and model-making” and ultimately a sense of self and consciousness.

“While we know a lot about the nuts and bolts of the system,” like how neurons work and pass signals to one another, these high-level human brain functions like reasoning, long-term memory and assigning meaning are enormously complex and “resist explanation,” he said.

Brain research has implications for topics that normally concerned only philosophy, such as free will, the boundaries of mind and body, and the nature of consciousness, he said.

“All of these are questions that neurobiologists can’t avoid anymore and there are heated debates with our fellow philosophers,” he said.

Bishop Sanchez said the evolutionary laws of heredity and genetic mutation pose no conflict to the Catholic faith and offer a biological explanation for the development of species on earth.

However, he said, the beginning of the universe, “the transition from nothing to being,” is not a mutation; God is the first cause of creation and being.

“In this first transcendent origin of the human being we should in fact admit the direct participation of God,” which also occurs with each conception of human life, he said.

Human beings are not just biological creatures, but spiritual, too, whose “incorruptible soul,” he said, “requires a creative act of God.”

Msgr. Fiorenzo Facchini, who is an anthropologist and paleontologist, said evolution could have ended at the pre-human stage, but thanks to God’s will, humans emerged with the capacity for self-reflection and knowing the transcendent.

Msgr. Facchini has said that rather than picturing it as humans descending from the apes, humans ascended or rose up from the animal kingdom to a higher level, thanks to the hand of God.

By Cindy Wooden

Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY — For the good of all people, the care of the poor and the future of the Earth, religions must cooperate in reminding modern men and women that God exists and has a plan for their lives and their behavior, Pope Francis said.

“The Catholic Church knows the importance of promoting friendship and respect among men and women of different religious traditions,” he said, repeating the entire phrase twice for emphasis March 20 during a meeting with the Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, Sikh and Jain delegations that had come to the Vatican for his inauguration.

Pope Francis embraces Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, spiritual leader of Orthodox Christians, at the Vatican March 20. The pope met with Patriarch Bartholomew before a meeting with the Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, Sikh and Jain delegations that had come to t he Vatican for his inauguration. (CNS photo/L’Osservatore Romano via Reuters)

The Catholic Church, he said, “is equally aware of the responsibility that all have for this world, for creation, which we must love and protect, and we can do much good for those who are poor, weak and suffering, to favor justice, to promote reconciliation, to build peace.”

“But more than anything,” he said, “we must keep alive in the world the thirst for the Absolute. We must never allow a one-dimensional vision of the human person to prevail, a vision that reduces the person to what he produces and consumes.”

“This is one of the most dangerous, insidious things of our age,” Pope Francis told his guests from other Christian churches and other religions.

Too much violence, he said, has resulted from “the attempt to eliminate God or the divine” from people’s personal and social lives.

To be open to the transcendent, to seek God, is part of being fully human, and continues to exist in the human heart, he said.

The pope told the religious leaders that he and they have an obligation to be close to people who do not belong to a faith community, but who are “searching for the truth, goodness and beauty.” Such people, he said, “are our precious allies in the commitment to defending human dignity in building peaceful coexistence among peoples and in safeguarding creation.”

Before meeting the entire group, the pope held private meetings with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, the “first among equals” of Orthodox bishops and a frequent visitor during Pope Benedict XVI’s papacy, and with Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, head of ecumenical relations for the Russian Orthodox Church.

At the beginning of the audience with all of the religious leaders, Patriarch Bartholomew addressed the pope, congratulating him on his election and emphasizing the importance of the Catholic Church’s involvement in the search for Christian unity as a sign of the credibility of the Gospel message and a way of strengthening the good Christians can do in the world.

“We have an obligation to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, cure the sick and, more in general, to care for those in need,” the patriarch said, acknowledging how much Pope Francis did that as archbishop of Buenos Aires.

He said Pope Francis’ choice of a simple papal style is a sign of his focus “on the essential, which fills with joy the hearts” of Catholics and non-Catholics alike, because it demonstrates the priority of “justice and mercy” in Christian teaching.

In his talk to the group, Pope Francis spoke explicitly about the Second Vatican Council for the first time in a public speech, and he quoted the council’s description of Muslims as people who “adore the one, merciful God.”

Pope Francis sat in a simple chair, not a throne, as he met the delegates in the Clementine Hall of the Apostolic Palace. Sitting closest to him on one side was Patriarch Bartholomew and on the other was Rabbi Riccardo di Segni, chief rabbi of Rome.

MORE TO COME

By TheDialog

Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis held an informal, private meeting and lunch with Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner March 18.

The previous day, the pope met with the superior general of the Jesuits, Father Adolfo Nicolas, but the Vatican released no information about that meeting.

Newly elected Pope Francis holds a mate, the traditional Argentine herbal tea, given to him as a present from Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner at the Vatican March 18. (CNS photo/Argentine Presidency handout via Reuters)

The closed-door meeting with Fernandez was held in the Vatican’s Domus Sanctae Marthae residence March 18. The meeting lasted about 15-20 minutes, said the Vatican spokesman, Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi.

The pope also greeted and had lunch with Fernandez’s presidential delegation at the residence, where he is living until the papal apartment has been renovated.

Father Lombardi told journalists there would be no official communique from the Vatican about the meeting since the encounter was “very informal.”

Pope Francis and “Los Kirchner,” Fernandez and her late husband, former President Nestor Kirchner, occasionally clashed over social issues such as gay marriage and abortion. During one Mass for public officials, Pope Francis criticized perceived corruption, and the presidential couple reportedly began attending Mass outside the city. Nestor Kirchner, who died in 2010, served as president 2003-2007, when he was succeeded by Fernandez.

However, Pope Francis also spoke out against corruption in governments prior to the 2001 Argentine economic crisis, said Sergio Berensztein, an independent political analyst in Buenos Aires.

“Cristina never tolerated that (Cardinal Jorge Mario) Bergoglio was a person so prestigious, influential and critical of them,” Berensztein said.

“They never tolerated limits being put on their power, and Bergoglio represented a significant limit.”

He said he expected the relationship to change as Pope Francis assumes his new position.

“Bergoglio is a very generous person, and I’m sure that his meeting Cristina is a manifestation of his … new role,” he said.

Contributing to this story was David Agren in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

By Carol Zimmermann

and Carol Glatz

Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The tens of thousands of rain-drenched pilgrims who filled St. Peter’s Square March 13 joyously cheered the new leader of the church, Pope Francis.

Cheers of “Francesco! Francesco! Francesco!” resounded throughout the square as he greeted the exuberant crowd in Italian and blessed them from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica.

When the name of Argentine Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio was initially announced, the crowd was momentarily quiet and visibly puzzled about who he was, but they clapped and cheered when they heard the name Francis, even if they still didn’t know much about him. Read more »

By Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Here is the English translation of Pope Francis’ remarks delivered from the balcony after his election as pope.

Read more »

By Cindy Wooden

Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY — After Pope Benedict XVI officially became pope emeritus, he ate dinner, watched the television news and strolled through the lake-view rooms of the papal villa at Castel Gandolfo.

Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, said he spoke March 1 with Archbishop Georg Ganswein, the retired pope’s secretary, who said the mood in the villa after the pontificate ended was “relaxed” and his boss slept well.

Vatican workers seal the doors leading to the pope’s private apartment in the Apostolic Palace at the Vatican Feb. 28. Pope Benedict XVI ended his reign pledging unconditional obedience to whoever is elected to succeed him. (CNS photo/L’Osservatore Romano via Reuters)

After watching two news programs, Pope Benedict expressed his gratitude to the media, because he said the coverage of his last day as pope helped people participate in the event, Father Lombardi said.

The papal secretary said Pope Benedict celebrated Mass at 7 a.m. March 1 as normal, read his breviary, had breakfast and then began reading more of the messages he had received in the last days of his pontificate. He expected to stroll through the villa gardens, praying his rosary, in the afternoon.

Meanwhile, back at the Vatican, officials from the College of Cardinals had a series of tasks to perform at the beginning of the “sede vacante,” the period when there is no pope.

The most symbolic tasks were carried out by Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the camerlengo or chamberlain of the Holy Roman Church, and his assistants. During the sede vacante, the chamberlain is charged with administering and safeguarding the temporal goods of the church.

Gathered with others in the offices of the “apostolic chamber,” Cardinal Bertone asked the time. At 8 p.m. exactly he was handed a “ferula,” a red velvet-covered scepter, as a sign of his authority. The cardinal led the staff in a brief prayer to God: “Give your church a pope acceptable to you.”

Carrying the ferula, he and his aides went into the private papal apartments. They made sure the door to the small private elevator was locked, then stretched tape across the elevator door and stamped it with seals.

Withdrawing from the apartment, they dead-bolted the main door with a large key, then strung a red ribbon through the handles. An aide, using a glue gun, sealed the ribbon’s knot.

The next day, Archbishop Pier Luigi Celata, vice chamberlain, went to the seldom-used papal apartments at the Basilica of St. John Lateran, the pope’s cathedral, and sealed those as well, Father Lombardi said.

Cardinal Angelo Sodano, dean of the College of Cardinals, wrote almost immediately after 8 p.m. to Vatican nuncios and other diplomatic representatives around the world, officially informing them of the sede vacante.

In one of his first acts as dean March 1, Cardinal Sodano wrote to each of the world’s 207 cardinals, including those over age 80 and ineligible to vote in a conclave, notifying them of “the vacancy of the Apostolic See because of the renunciation presented on the part of Pope Benedict XVI.”

He also asked them to come to the Vatican to begin the pre-conclave meetings, known as general congregations, March 4 at 9:30 a.m.

The general congregations will continue until all the cardinal-electors, including those under 80, are present in Rome, “and then the College of Cardinals will decide the date to enter into conclave” to elect a pope, he said.

Asked whether Cardinal Sodano was saying that a conclave date would not be set until all the cardinal-electors were present or accounted for, Father Lombardi said the letter “does not have the weight of law,” but he expected the cardinals would not vote on a conclave date until most of them were present and had time to talk and meet formally.

By Cindy Wooden

Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY—

Pope Benedict XVI walks with a cane as he arrives to meet with seminarians in Rome Feb. 8. The pope announced Feb. 11 that he will resign at the end of the month. (CNS photo/Tony Gentile, Reuters)

From the moment he was elected pope at the age of 78 in 2005, Pope Benedict XVI has kept a schedule that appeared light compared to that of Blessed John Paul II, but busy for a man who already had a pacemaker and who wanted to retire to study, write and pray when he turned 75.

Announcing Feb. 11 that he would resign at the end of the month, Pope Benedict, 85, said, “I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry.”

Speaking to reporters after the pope’s announcement, Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, told reporters the pope was not ill, but made the decision because of his declining strength due to his age.

The pope recognized his limits with “a lucidity and courage and sincerity that are absolutely admirable,” Father Lombardi said.

Meeting reporters again Feb. 12, Father Lombardi confirmed that Pope Benedict had gone to a private health clinic in Rome about three months ago to have the batteries changed on his pacemaker. It was a simple, routine procedure and had not influence on the pope’s decision to resign.

Father Lombardi said the pope had had the pacemaker put in several years before his election. A Vatican reporter, who had followed the career of the then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, said the pacemaker was put in the 1990s at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital.

Pope Benedict often has seemed tired, with large, dark circles under his eyes during especially busy periods of public liturgies and audiences.

In October 2011, Pope Benedict began riding a mobile platform in liturgical processions. At the time, Father Lombardi said it was “solely to lighten the burden” of processions, although he acknowledged the pope had been experiencing the kind of joint pain normal for a man his age. Just a few months later, the pope began using a cane to walk, although it often looks like he is carrying it, not relying on it, for support.

However, just in the past few months when celebrating Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica, the pope no longer walks all the way around the altar when using incense at the beginning of Mass; instead he raises the thurible only from the back of the altar. And at the end of a Mass Feb. 2, the pope lost his grip on his crosier; as it fell, Msgr. Guido Marini, the papal master of liturgical ceremonies, caught it.

When he was elected in 2005, he was said to have told his fellow cardinals that his would not be a long papacy like that of his predecessor, who held the office for more than 26 years.

The German author and journalist Peter Seewald asked Pope Benedict in the summer of 2010 whether he was considering resigning then, a time when new reports of clerical sexual abuse were being published in several European countries.

“When the danger is great, one must not run away. For that reason, now is certainly not the time to resign,” he told Seewald, who published the remarks in the book, “Light of the World: The Pope, the Church and the Signs of the Times.”

The pope did tell him, though, “one can resign at a peaceful moment or when one simply cannot go on. But one must not run away from danger and say that someone else should do it.”

In another section of the book, the pope told Seewald: “If a pope clearly realizes that he is no longer physically, psychologically and spiritually capable of handling the duties of his office, then he has a right and, under some circumstances, also an obligation to resign.”

While no pope has resigned since Pope Gregory XII in 1415, even as a cardinal Pope Benedict did not rule out the possibility.

Even before Blessed John Paul’s health became critical, reporters asked the then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger whether he thought Pope John Paul could resign. “If he were to see that he absolutely could not (continue), then he certainly would resign,” he said.

By Carol Glatz

Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY — When the head of the Pontifical Council for Culture said he wanted to listen to what today’s young people had to say, he wasn’t afraid to hear it belted out at 100 decibels.

Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi invited members of the Italian rock group, The Sun, to speak their minds through music to the cardinals, bishops, lay members and advisers of the council, as well as to a large contingent of foot-stomping, cheering young fans.

Cardinals watch as the Italian rock group The Sun performs during a concert opening the plenary meeting of the Pontifical Council for Culture in Rome Feb. 6. Pictured are Francesco Lorenzi, guitarist and vocalist, Matteo Reghelin, bassist, and Ricky Rossi, drummer. (CNS photo)

The band’s 30-year-old lead lyricist and singer, Francesco Lorenzi, confessed that despite being used to playing stadiums with tens of thousands in the audience, knowing “we’d be playing for cardinals, bishops, ambassadors and journalists, we didn’t get any sleep last night.”

It was the first time a Vatican dicastery had a rock group as the “opening act” of its plenary assembly, usually a routine, speech-filled, sit-down affair where members come together a few days days to discuss a relevant theme.

But if the culture council was going to discuss “Emerging Youth Cultures” for their plenary at the Vatican Feb. 6-9, then what better way to get a feel for the subject than by inviting young people in, the cardinal said.

“We adults, older generations, and we priests have to make an effort to not put (young people) under a sort of microscope, but go to their level and begin to listen a little to what the rhythm of their mind, their heart is like,” Cardinal Ravasi told Vatican Radio.

The Sun’s rhythm, created by two guitarists, a bass player and drummer, shook the walls of Rome’s LUMSA University Feb. 6 as the group delivered songs about their Catholic faith such as “Onda Perfetta” (“Perfect Wave”) that says: “I have a whole world full of hopes and dreams, they’re illusions only if you don’t believe.”

While Vatican VIPs weren’t dancing in the aisles, many read through the lyrics and applauded with smiles.

In between songs, Lorenzi explained the band’s evolution from its birth in 1997 as Sun Eats Hours, which is an Italian saying equivalent to “time is fleeting, so get as much out of life as possible,” to being voted the “best Italian punk band in the world” in 2004.

They lived up their name, he said, traveling the globe, opening for world-famous acts like The Cure and Ok Go and experiencing enormous success.

But instead of feeling happy, the band members were angry and barely spoke to one another, Lorenzi said, losing themselves and each other in a nonstop revelry of “alcohol, drugs and women.”

Lorenzi started to turn his life around in 2007 when a night out with friends fell through and his mother suggested he instead go to a faith formation course being held that week at the local parish.

“I know you love me,” he said he told his mother, “but I want to be happy and I don’t go to church to be happy.”

But he agreed to just see what it was like, even though he was certain it would be miserable and they’d make him “sing awful songs.”

Instead, the warm welcome and genuine joy he saw on people’s faces “really struck me.”

“I saw a joy I never saw before and at a place I thought was for nerds. But it was the kind of joy I needed more than ever,” he said.

Bolstered by a new community, prayer, Mass and eucharistic adoration, Lorenzi’s life changed completely, he said. The other band members saw the transformation and slowly, over a period of five years, followed suit, wanting to discover the source of Lorenzi’s contagious happiness.

The band members had a new mission in life and on stage, Lorenzi said; they cut the band name down to The Sun “because it shines forever” and focused the lyrics on “what matters most in life,” like love, friendship, “life after life” and faith in God.

He told Catholic News Service that people don’t need to “hit bottom” before they discover the beauty of salvation.

“Jesus will come and get you, trying up until the very end, but that doesn’t mean you have to hit bottom, because he’ll take you even when you’re doing fine,” he said.

Telling council members The Sun wanted to help the church bridge the gap with young people, Lorenzi offered a booklet summarizing the results of an informal survey he took with readers of his blog, www.francescolorenzi.it. Over two weeks, some 25,000 people read the post, and hundreds sent responses to his three questions.

Asked “what helps attract young people to the church?” the responses included, “credible and enthusiastic witnesses,” but also pilgrimages to the Holy Land, a chance to have a personal spiritual guide and outlets for artistic expression, the booklet said.

“What do you want from the church?” evoked responses like greater trust in laypeople, putting the great questions of life front and center, and clear, sincere honest dialogue where formality and abstract ideas get set aside now and then, it said.

“What keeps the church and young people apart?” elicited replies like not understanding the reasons behind positions the church takes, “ostentatious wealth,” a lack of answers to people’s questions and poor communication skills.

“The church has lots of beautiful things to say” about things young people care about, “but it needs to find a way to say it” and have that message reach young men and women everywhere, Lorenzi said.

But even the most stirring speech or web post can’t answer people’s hunger for human contact and understanding, Lorenzi told CNS.

“A great speech without contact is at risk” of going nowhere, he said, while if it’s coupled with warm and genuine outreach, “the incredible can happen.”

By TheDialog

Catholic News Service

ROME — The Catholic Church’s efforts to prevent clerical sexual abuse and protect children around the world will be “a long-term effort,” said Father Robert W. Oliver, a Boston priest who began work Feb. 1 as the promoter of justice in the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith.

“All of us, every single person has difficulty coming to understand what this really is and how prevalent it is in our societies across the world,” said Father Oliver, whose position includes monitoring and investigating cases of priests accused of sex abuse.

Father Robert W. Oliver, a Boston priest who began work Feb. 1 as Vatican’s chief promoter of justice in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, attends a Feb. 5 press conference at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. Father Oliver’s new position includes monitoring and investigating cases of priests accused of sex abuse. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)

When one first hears of a case of abuse, he said, “every single one of us begins with denial,” which is why the entire church, at all levels, must make a concerted effort to educate its members about the reality of abuse and the best practices for protecting children.

Speaking at Rome’s Pontifical Gregorian University Feb. 5, Father Oliver said the conference that the university and several Vatican offices sponsored last year for bishops and for superiors of religious orders was an important step forward, as is the pilot project for an online prevention and child protection course being run by the Gregorian-based Center for Child Protection.

Father Oliver spoke at the university as the center presented a report on its activities over the past year.

Responding to a reporter’s question about the role of the media, especially in the United States, in forcing the church to come to terms with the reality and breadth of the sex abuse scandal, Father Oliver said, “those who continued to put before us that we needed to confront this problem did a service” and continually reminded the church that it had to deal with the scandal “with honesty and transparency.”

Still, he said, in some parts of the world bishops and other Catholics are just starting to become aware of the problem and their need to enact measures to protect children and deal with allegations.

In 2011, the doctrinal congregation asked every bishops’ conference in the world to submit guidelines for assisting victims; protecting children; selecting and training priests and religious; dealing with accused priests; and collaborating with local authorities.

Father Oliver said “three-quarters” of the world’s 112 bishops’ conferences have sent in guidelines, and the doctrinal congregation has just begun responding with observations and suggestions. Most of the countries that have not yet responded are in Africa, he said.

He also told reporters that the greatest number of cases of suspected abuse reported to the doctrinal congregation in a single year was about 800 cases reported in 2004; in the last three years, he said, the number has remained steady at about 600 “from the whole world,” with most of the abuse having taken place between 1965 and 1985.

Jesuit Father Hans Zollner, president of the directors’ committee of the Child Protection Center, said that in responding to the scandal and preventing abuse, “the road will be long and difficult because of resistance, conflicts and tensions” as well as “inertia, discouragement on the inside and attacks from the outside.”

Just in the past month, he said, the church’s handling of abuse cases has continued to make the news, demonstrating that “unfortunately, the matter will be with us for a long time. The church is working much more than people know, but is also the object of criticism because of its errors, its failures and the sins of the past. This is why it is extremely important to continue the work of prevention with every available means.”

While some people believe the problem of child sexual abuse afflicts society at large and others “doubt the sincerity of any commitment made by the church,” he said, “that which gives us energy and inspiration are the words of Jesus himself, who taught us that the truth will make us free and who tells us that his love for children is absolute and unconditional.”

By Carol Glatz

Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY — U.S. cyclist Lance Armstrong’s admission to doping is just the tip of the iceberg, since high-stakes commercial interests pressure almost every professional cyclist into the illegal practice, said a Vatican official.

“It’s a world that is rotten, all of cycling, even soccer,” said Msgr. Melchor Sanchez de Toca Alameda, head of the Pontifical Council for Culture’s “Culture and Sport” section.

U.S. cyclist Lance Armstrong’s admission to doping is just the tip of the iceberg, since high-stakes commercial interests pressure almost every professional cyclist into the illegal practice, said a Vatican official. Armstrong is pictured in a 2010 file photo in South Africa. (CNS photo/Mike Hutchings, Reuters)

Pro-sports “have become a commodity that are subordinate to the free market and, therefore, to profit,” he told Catholic News Service Jan. 16.

Instead of sports being an activity that builds important values, respects human dignity and helps shape the whole human person, “it has reduced people to merchandise,” he said.

The monsignor’s comments came the same week Armstrong appeared on U.S. television to admit that he had used performance-enhancing drugs throughout his career.

Armstrong, who won the famed “Tour de France” for a record-breaking seven consecutive times, was stripped of his titles in 2012 after he was accused of using and distributing performance-enhancing drugs. He was also banned from professional cycling for life.

Though he had denied doping, Armstrong never officially appealed the United States Anti-Doping Agency’s sanctions.

Msgr. Sanchez said that some pro-athletes who have confessed to doping also revealed the enormous pressure they felt to give ever-improved performances; some said they felt it was physically impossible to fulfill such high expectations without the illicit boosts.

The practice is especially rampant in cycling, he said, adding, “it’s very sad.”

Pope Benedict XVI recently condemned doping in sports and called on athletes, coaches and team owners to strive for victory through ethical and legal practices.

“Pressure to achieve important results must never drive (people) to take shortcuts as happens in the case of doping,” the pope said during an audience with Italian Olympic and Paralympic athletes in December 2012.

What’s at stake in the world of sports is not just a respect for the rules, but upholding the dignity of and serving the whole person, he said.

Team spirit must be channeled not only to prevent athletes from taking “these dead ends” of illegal performance-enhancement drugs or practices, the pope said, but also to “support those who recognized they’ve made a mistake, so that they can feel accepted and helped” afterward.