TOPIC: CATECHESIS; YOUTH AND CATHOLIC VALUE WITH A SPECIAL EMPHASIS ON ABORTION. According to Oxford dictionary, it defines the word “YOUTH” as the time of life when a person is young, especially the time before a child becomes an adult or the quality or state of being young. Youth can also be define as the appearance, freshness, vigor, spirit; strong will est. characteristics of one who is young. The most delicate period of an individual is the youthful age. In this wise, it is of utmost important for parent to give appropriate checks and balances to their children. We all have a role to play in the life of our fellow youth; these roles can be adequately played if there is unity among cyonites. Unity among youth announces to the world the love that Christ has for all people and his wish to share his life with them. Christ himself knowing the importance of unity prays to his father, ” that they may all be one as thou father in me and I in you”, we are living stones in the building of which there is only one foundation, Jesus Christ. Each of us has the responsibility of promoting unity in a world largely indifferent to the church. Nowhere in the teaching of Jesus is “rugged individualism” promoted as an option for Christian spirituality. Christian would be known by their love and interconnectedness in caring relationships. When we live in one another, we not only share one another‟s burdens, we share one another‟s blessing, strengths and joys as well. Our personal development and spiritual growth need to be built on a foundation of mutual supportive relationships. The emotional pain we suffer most frequently arises from our inability to relate and communicate effectively. Our difficulties often stem from believes we have grown up with that we are separated , that other people are threats to our security and that our needs are unconnected with the needs of others. We need to be mindful, therefore, of the importance of being connected. One of our primary concerns should be for “US”. There is an old saying that the nights is over and the day has begun when we recognize other people as our brothers and sisters. God cares about how we treat our fellow youth and others around us. Everyone is made in his image and likeness. To profess that we love God while remaining indifferent to the plight of
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others is a contradiction. We all want love to be a thorn less rose, smooth and velvet to the touch but if we are following Christ we will find that it involves sacrifices and the shadow of the cross. Love is seeing God in our fellow youth. The parish community has a special role in the life, mission and work of the youth. First, parish, “should be a place where young people are welcomed, grow in Jesus Christ and minister side by side with the adults of the community, Young people should feel a sense of belonging and acceptance as full-fledged members of the community. Young people are more likely to gain a sense of identity in the catholic community if they are regarded as full-fledged members. Parish communities that see young people as resources- recognizing and empowering their gifts and talents , giving them meaning full roles in leadership and ministering and encouraging their contributions. These are parish community that provides young people with opportunities for intergenerational relationshipdeveloping relationships with adults who serve as role models and mentors. In a nut shell, “youths friendly” parish community makes a commitment to young people and their growth. This makes the youth to know and recognize catholic values. In knowing what catholic values are, one have to understand what value is all about. According to Romanus Ibekwe (2012), he views value as a belief about what is right and wrong and what is important in life. Catholic value can therefore be view as what gave a proper direction to her member‟s. One of the values of the Catholic Church is “consistent ethnic of life”. Catholic believes that life is a sacred gift from God and needs to be treated with all human dignity from the moment of conception to the point of natural death. The Catholic Church pro-life in this wildest sense is often called a “consistent ethnic of life”. This pro-life stance stress the highest regards for dignity of human life including that of unborn in objecting to abortion, invitro fertilization (fertilization of an ovum outside the body), frozen embryos, embryonic stem, cell research and cloning. The Catholic Church considers life to begin at conception; therefore, abortion is seen as a form of murder, making it a sin. The church distinguishes between what they consider to be direct abortion and an indirect abortion.

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A direct abortion is an act that purposely ends the life of embryo or fetus (It refers to an unborn child from its eighth week of development). These forms of abortion are always thought to be morally wrong; thus making them a sin. An indirect abortion refers to an act that is used to save a woman‟s life but that indirectly causes an unborn child to die. COMMENTS: (1) ask who are in a relationship (2) ask if they are proud of their relationship (3) ask if their relationship are free of immoral doings (4) 40% of the blame of abortion are on male partner. Furthermore, statistics holds that 3 out of every 7 youths who had sex before marriage must have aborted a baby through various ways. Catholics especially youth are strongly advised against having sexual relations before getting married referred to as fornication, having sex before marriage is considered to be a mortal sin, requiring one to go to confession before they are allowed to take part in Holy Communion again. However, it is not just strictly the act of having sexual intercourse that the catholic church advice; it is any form of sexual activities because engaging in sexual activity may lead to temptation and therefore sex which may results into unwanted pregnancy thereby breeding the thought of abortion. ZIG ZIGLAR will say “ discipline yourself to do the things you need to do when you need to do them and the day will come when you will be able to do things you want to do when you want to do them. The bible repeatedly refers to children before birth as simply very small children. In Luke‟s gospel , Jesus and john the Baptist “ greet one another whilst they are still in the wombs of their mothers verse 41 of the first chapter says “ It happened when Elizabeth heard Mary‟s greetings, the baby leaped in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the holy spirit”. The catholic church position is clear that “The human being is to be respected and treated as a person from the moment of conception; and therefore from that same moment his right as a person must be recognized among which in the first place is the inviolable human being to life,” Direct abortion or the intentional killing of a human being living in the womb is seriously immoral because as persons the right-to-life is the most basic and fundamental right we possess. Even in light of this clear teaching, some questions that affect people of conscience include:

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1. Does the Catholic Church oppose abortion if it is needed to save a woman‟s life? We may never perform an intrinsically evil act to bring about a great good. For example, a just society cannot intentionally kill innocent civilians in a war, even for the praise worthy goal of ending a conflict quickly or saving many lives. Likewise, in the context of pregnancy, a woman may not be killed in order to save the life of her child and a child may not be killed in order to save the life of his mother. However, the church does permit morally neutral procedures designed to save a pregnant woman‟s life that may have an unintended side-effect of causing a child to die in the womb such as the removal of a cancerous uterus. 2. Does the Catholic Church oppose abortion in the case of pregnancy due to rape or incest? In Romans: 12:21 Paul says that we should not be conquered by evil but that we should conquer evil with good. The act of rape is a grave sin and injustice that claims too many people, most often women and children as victims. The church teaches that victims of rape deserve immediate medical, emotional and spiritual care. The ethical and religious directives for catholic health care provider have a duty to provide this care and to prevent contraction of disease to the conception of a child. However, if a child is conceived in a pregnancy caused by rape, then this child is just as innocent and precious as the woman who was victimized and he or she should not be killed because of the action of the rapist. The church teaches that through mercy and love, a non-violent solution for both mother and child is far superior to helping violence. The raped woman commits violence against her own child through abortion. 3. What about women have had abortion? How does the church view them? According to the Alan gattmacher institute, if current trends continues , by age 45 one in three women will have had at least one abortion while the church teaches that abortion is gravely immoral, she also teaches that God‟s
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mercy and grace are never far from those who have sinned and seek God‟s forgiveness. Along with women who have had abortions, it is common that the woman‟s partner, family, friends and even society at large are complicit in re-affirming or even guilty of pressuring her to make the “ choice” of abortion. In the encyclical evengelium vitae pope John Paul ii wrote a special message to women who are post-abortive, he wrote; “I would now like to say a special word to women who have had an abortion. The church is aware of the many factors which may have influenced your decision and she does not doubt that in many cases it was a painful and even shattering decision. The wound in your heart may not yet have healed. Certainly what happened was and remains terribly wrong but do not give into discouragement and do not lose hope. Try rather to understand what happened and face it honestly. If you have not already done so, give yourself over with humility and trust to repentance. The father of mercies is ready to give his forgiveness and his peace in the sacrament of reconciliation. To the same father and his mercy you can with sure hope entrust your child with the friendly and expert help and advice of other people and as a result of your own painful experience, you can be among the most eloquent defenders of everyone‟s right to life. Through your commitment to life , whether by accepting the birth of other children or by welcoming and caring for those most in need of someone to be close to them you will become promoters of a new way of looking at human life” 4. Has the Catholic Church always opposed legal abortion? Some critics of the church‟s teaching on abortion have attempted to twist history and make it seems as if the church has only recently opposed abortion. But a true look at the writings of the Catholic Church. Fathers and members of magisterium show that this is simply not the case. Consider the following examples of churches teaching on the issue of abortion: Johnpaul ii recounts how the popes of the 20th century carried on this ancient tradition and say this in evangelium vitae: “given such unanimity in the doctrinal that this tradition is unchanged and unchangeable. Therefore, by the authority which Christ conferred upon peter and his successors, in communions with the bishops … who on various occasions have condemned abortion and who in the aforementioned consultation, albeit dispersed
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throughout the word, have shows unanimous agreement concerning this doctrine… I declare that direct abortion, that is, abortion willed as an end or willed as a means, always constitutes a grave moral disorder, since it is the deliberate killings of an innocent human being. This doctrine is based upon the natural law and upon the written word of God, is transmitted by the church‟s tradition and taught by the ordinary and universal magisterium. In conclusion, children may be the most insignificant and totally dependent beings in the world but every child is a sign of unlimited hope for the future. Blessed mother Theresa said, “We must not be surprised when we hear of murders, killings, wars or hatred. If a mother can kill her own child, what is left for us than to kill each other? For me, life is the most beautiful gift of God to mankind. Therefore, people and nations who destroy life by abortion and euthanasia are the poorest. I do not say legal or illegal, but I think that no human hand should be raised to kill life. Life is God‟s life in us, even in an unborn child.” By abortion, the mother kills her own child to solve her problems, by abortion; the father is told that he does not have to take any responsibility for the child he has brought into the world. The father is likely to put other women into the same condition. So abortion leads to more abortion. The lord himself said,‟‟ Can a mother forget their nursing child, even if she forgets I will not forget you,‟‟ A mother can reject or abandon a child but can never forget the fruits of her womb. if a child is born, it is to be protected by all means, as the scripture says,‟‟ if you hold back from rescuing those taken away to death, those who go staggering to the slaughter, if you say,‟‟ look, we did not know this‟‟- does not he who weighs the heart perceived it? Does not he who keeps watch over your soul know it? And will he not repay all according to their deeds? „(prov. 24: 11-12). Charles Dickens will say “every baby born into the world is a finer one than the last”. Abortion is murder. It is a grave sin to be repented and confessed. THANK YOU

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