VATICAN (CNS): Catholic young adults felt the Church hierarchy started listening to them in preparation for the 2018 Synod of Bishops on Young People, and they will do whatever they can to make sure their voices continue to be heard, Isabella McCafferty from the Archdiocese of Wellington New Zealand said at a Vatican news conference on June 18
“May we be bold,” she said.
 
McCafferty was one of more than 280 young people from 109 countries set to take part in a post-synod Youth Forum from June 19 to 22.
 

VATICAN (CNS): “Abortion is never the answer” to couples seeking a way to deal with a prenatal diagnosis of serious illness or disability, Pope Francis said at a Vatican conference on medical care for “extremely fragile” babies and on the pastoral care of their parents, sponsored by the Dicastery for Laity, the Family and Life, on May 25.
 
The pope explained that the Catholic Church’s total opposition to abortion is not primarily a religious position, but a human one.
 

VATICAN (CNS): “One of the greatest challenges to every mother is the thought that the child in the womb may be diagnosed with a grave illness,” Kevin Cardinal Farrell, prefect of the Dicastery for Laity, the Family and Life, said on May 23, opening the two-day Yes to Life: Caring for the Precious Gift of Life in its Frailness conference on protecting life.
 

VATICAN CITY (CNS): “The dicastery works to deepen the reflection on the relationship between men and women in their respective specificity, reciprocity, complementarity and equal dignity,” say the new statutes of the Dicastery for Laity, the Family and Life.
 
They say that in “valuing the feminine ‘genius,’ (the dicastery) offers a contribution to ecclesial reflection on the identity and mission of women in the Church and in society, promoting their participation.”