NFP respects human dignity, natural law, says speaker
NOTRE DAME, Ind. (CNS) --- In deciding a correct course of action, a person must determine not just whether a means is efficient, but, more importantly, whether it respects the dignity of the person and natural law, a physician told a University of Notre Dame audience July 15. Natural Family Planning, known as NFP, not only provides efficient family planning without side effects, but also is ethical because it respects both the unitive and procreative purposes of marriage, said Dr. Maria del Pilar Calva Mercado of Mexico. NFP teaches couples to identify the fertile days in a woman's cycle so that the couple can avoid or achieve pregnancy. Calva Mercado teaches genetics and bioethics at the university level. She is also a member of the Pontifical Academy for Life and serves on the Commission for the Family for the Bioethics Council of the Mexican Episcopal Commission. With her at Notre Dame was Judith Leonard, director of the Office of Family Life and Natural Family Planning for the Diocese of Wichita, Kan. Their visit to the campus came at the end of a week of NFP instruction.

Pope calls for end to 'useless slaughter' of war
LORENZAGO DI CADORE, Italy (CNS) --- Pope Benedict XVI called for an end to the "useless slaughter" of war and asked that "the rule of law" replace the recourse to weapons. When people succumb "to the temptations of evil" and launch violent conflicts and wars, "this stupendous garden that is the world" is opened up to hell, he said. The pope made his appeal for peace July 22 before reciting the noonday Angelus prayer with thousands of pilgrims gathered in the main square of this northeastern Italian town nestled in the Dolomite Alps, where the pope is spending his July 9-27 vacation. The peace and tranquillity of this Alpine region has sharpened "the painful impact of the news I receive about the bloody conflicts and violent events happening in many parts of the world," he said. "The beauty of nature reminds us that we were told by God to cultivate and care for this garden that is the earth. If humanity lived in peace with God and each other, the earth would really look like a paradise," he said.

Bishop says Turkey's poll results should be good for Catholics
ROME (CNS) --- An overwhelming victory for Turkey's ruling Islamic-oriented party should be a "positive thing" for the nation's Catholics, said Bishop Luigi Padovese, apostolic administrator of Anatolia, Turkey. "The relationships the prime minister has built up with Europe over the past years are such that it is difficult to imagine (there would be any) fundamentalist involvement" in shaping future Turkish policies, Bishop Padovese told the Rome newspaper Il Messaggero July 24. Bishop Padovese said he thought "Catholics might also demand" some of the reforms many moderate Muslims are asking for, such as greater freedom of expression. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Justice and Development Party secured more than 46 percent of the votes at the end of general elections July 22. The win gave the center-right, conservative party an absolute majority in the new parliament, with 341 of the 550 legislative seats. "Erdogan will continue his platform of reforms," Bishop Padovese said.

In WYD message, pope calls on youths to evangelize, be missionaries
VATICAN CITY (CNS) --- When adults have so much difficulty bringing young people to faith, it probably is a sign that God is calling youths to evangelize their peers, Pope Benedict XVI said in his message for World Youth Day 2008. The struggle adults have in making the faith convincing "could be a sign with which the Spirit is urging you young people to take this task upon yourselves," the pope wrote in his message, released in English July 24. Pope Benedict also said he hoped a huge crowd of young people would join him in Sydney, Australia, for the July 15-20 international gathering, which will include a renewal of the promises made at baptism and confirmation. "Together we shall invoke the Holy Spirit, confidently asking God for the gift of a new Pentecost for the church and for humanity in the third millennium," the pope said. The theme of World Youth Day 2008 is: "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses."

More than a year after mine disaster, Mexican families seek justice
SAN JUAN DE SABINAS, Mexico (CNS) --- On the 19th day of every month, a group of widows, orphans and family members convene for a Mass at the mouth of the Pasta de Conchos coal mine in San Juan de Sabinas, where a February 2006 explosion claimed the lives of 65 of their loved ones. Some 650 miles to the south, in Mexico City, a smaller group of families from the region also regularly gathers for a Mass outside the corporate offices of Grupo Mexico, the mine's owner. More than 16 months after the disaster, the affected families are still searching for justice, answers and a resolution to the tragedy. Only two of the 65 bodies have been retrieved from the mine as the company halted recovery efforts earlier this year, citing safety reasons. Although each family received compensation offers --- which all but one widow accepted --- a small group, working with the Diocese of Saltillo and the Mexican bishops' labor ministry, is pressing Grupo Mexico to resume efforts to recover bodies from the mine and is petitioning the Mexican government to revoke the company's coal mining permit at Pasta de Conchos.

Pope offers prayers for Polish victims of bus crash in France
VATICAN CITY (CNS) --- Pope Benedict XVI offered his prayers and condolences for victims of a bus crash near Grenoble, France, that left 26 Polish pilgrims dead and 14 others seriously injured. In a telegram sent to Polish Archbishop Zygmunt Kaminski of Szczecin-Kamien, the pope offered his prayers for those killed in the accident and their families, and for the "quick and complete recovery" of those injured. The Vatican released to journalists July 24 a copy of the telegram, which was written on behalf of the pope by Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Vatican secretary of state. The tour bus, carrying 47 pilgrims, two drivers and a guide, had come from the Szczecin area of northwestern Poland and had been stopping at well-known shrines and sanctuaries in France, Spain and Portugal. After visiting the Marian shrine of Notre-Dame-de-la-Salette, south of Grenoble, the bus traveled along a steep Alpine road usually banned to heavy vehicles. The bus July 22 plowed through a guard rail, dove into a ravine below, and burst into flames, killing more than half of the passengers.