In a statement from the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference (ACBC) released yesterday, the bishops stated that "political decisions" can damage the institution of marriage and hurt families.

Australia's federal election is scheduled for July 2.

The Australian Labour party has promised to legalise same-sex marriage within 100 days if it is elected.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has promised to hold a A$160 million plebiscite on the issue if he is re-elected.

The bishops' statement, titled "A Voice for the Voiceless", affirmed that marriage and family are at the heart of a healthy social environment.

But "political decisions can end up undermining marriage and providing less and less support for families despite a rhetoric that claims otherwise".

"The fact is that economic decisions have been less and less favourable to families in recent years; and it may be that political decisions in the future will undermine further the dignity and uniqueness of marriage as a lifelong union of man and woman," the bishops stated.

"Support for marriage and the family does not look a big vote-winner, so that even the most basic human institution, upon which the health of a society depends, can become part of the throwaway culture or at best an optional extra."

The purpose of the bishops's statement was "to give a voice to the voiceless and make their faces seen, however briefly . . . ".

The bishops highlighted "a danger that the economy can become a kind of false god to which even human beings have to be sacrificed".

The bishops also raised the plight of asylum seekers, the mentally ill, indigenous Australians, the elderly, sex abuse survivors, unborn babies who are "defenceless", the environment and highlighted the dangers of focusing on economic management at the expense of human beings.

The statement added that "any society is ultimately judged not on how well it manages the economy but on how well it treats the thrown-away people".

And on tackling climate change and protecting the environment, the bishops stated that "now is the time to act".

Sources

• Sydney Morning Herald
• Australian Electoral Commission
• ACBC statement: A Voice for the Voiceless
• Image: Leeduguid.com.au

In Rome, Ban Ki-moon hailed the personal commitment by Pope Francis to eradicating poverty and promoting sustainable development.

Mr Ban and heads of major UN agencies had been meeting for two days in Rome, and they had an audience with the Pontiff on May 9.

"Across the UN agenda, I see the need for calm, compassion, cooperation and courage," Mr Ban said to Pope Francis.

"Your papacy embodies these principles and has inspired people in all regions and from all backgrounds, he added.

Mr Ban invited the Pope to visit UN Headquarters in New York.

"That would continue a tradition of papal visits - and be an opportunity for you to speak of your vision for our common future."

In his speech to Mr Ban and UN officials, Pope Francis called for the United Nations to promote a "worldwide ethical mobilisation" of solidarity with the poor in a new spirit of generosity.

He said a more equal form of economic progress can be had through "the legitimate redistribution of economic benefits by the state, as well as indispensable cooperation between the private sector and civil society".

Francis voiced a similar message to the World Economic Forum in January and in his apostolic exhortation "The Joy of the Gospel".

The Pope also said charity and justice should be based on "an awareness of the dignity of each of our brothers and sisters, whose life is sacred and inviolable from conception to natural death".

The UN must challenge injustice and oppose the "‘economy of exclusion', the ‘throwaway culture' and the ‘culture of death' which nowadays sadly risk becoming passively accepted", Francis added.

A few days before the audience, Vatican officials had faced a two-day grilling in Geneva by the UN committee against torture.

Some UN representatives had argued that child sexual abuse amounted to torture.

But the Pope did not mention the subject during the Rome audience, instead focusing on working for greater equality and the eradication of poverty.

Sources

• The Tablet
• United Nations
• New York Daily News
• Image: New York Daily News

He called for greater efforts to build a worldwide "culture of encounter and solidarity".

The Pope's words came in his annual message for World Food Day, addressed to the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation in Rome.

He called it "paradoxical" that globalisation is increasing the world's awareness of situations of need, yet there appears to be "a growing tendency towards individualism and inwardness, which leads to a certain attitude of indifference — at a personal, institutional and state level — towards those who die of hunger and suffer as a result of malnutrition".

"Something must change in us, in ourselves, in our mentality, in our societies," he said.

Pope Francis called the waste of food — which, according to the FAO, accounts for approximately a third of worldwide food production — "one of the fruits of the 'throwaway culture' that often sacrifices men and women to the idols of profit and consumption; a sad sign of the 'globalisation of indifference', which is slowly 'habituating' us to the suffering of others, as if it were something normal."

He said the tragic condition in which millions of hungry and malnourished people, including many children, live today is "one of the most serious challenges for humanity".

"It is a scandal," he said, "that there is still hunger and malnutrition in the world! Not only must we respond to immediate emergencies, but face together, at all levels, a problem that challenges our personal and social awareness, to bring about a just and lasting solution."

Pope Francis said education in solidarity and a lifestyle that rejects the "throwaway culture", placing each person and his or her dignity in the centre, must begin in the family.

Sources:

Vatican Insider

Catholic News Service

Vatican Information Service

Image: Wanted in Rome