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Pope Francis waves at the end of a mass of Pentecost in Saint Peter's square at the Vatican June 4, 2017 - REUTERS

(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has issued his Message for World Mission Sunday, 2017, which is focused onMission at the Heart of the Christian Faith. World Mission Sunday is marked each year in October, and this year is on October 22nd.

Please find the full text of the Holy Father's Message, below...

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Mission at the heart of the Christian faith

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Once again this year, World Mission Day gathers us around the person of Jesus, the very first and greatest evangelizer (PAUL VI,Evangelii Nuntiandi, 7), who continually sends us forth to proclaim the Gospel of the love of God the Father in the power of the Holy Spirit. This Day invites us to reflect anew on themission at the heart of the Christian faith. The Church is missionary by nature; otherwise, she would no longer be the Church of Christ, but one group among many others that soon end up serving their purpose and passing away. So it is important to ask ourselves certain questions about our Christian identity and our responsibility as believers in a world marked by confusion, disappointment and frustration, and torn by numerous fratricidal wars that unjustly target the innocent. What is thebasisof our mission? What is theheartof our mission? What are theessential approacheswe need to take in carrying out our mission?

Mission and the transformative power of the Gospel of Christ, the Way, the Truth and the Life

1. The Churchs mission, directed to all men and women of good will, is based on the transformative power of the Gospel. The Gospel is Good News filled with contagious joy, for it contains and offers new life: the life of the Risen Christ who, by bestowing his life-giving Spirit, becomes for us the Way, the Truth and the Life (cf.Jn14:6). He is theWaywho invites us to follow him with confidence and courage. In following Jesus as ourWay, we experienceTruthand receive hisLife, which is fullness of communion with God the Father in the power of the Holy Spirit. That life sets us free from every kind of selfishness, and is a source of creativity in love.

2. God the Father desires this existential transformation of his sons and daughters, a transformation that finds expression in worship in spirit and truth (cf.Jn4:23-24), through a life guided by the Holy Spirit in imitation of Jesus the Son to the glory of God the Father. The glory of God is the living man (IRENAEUS,Adversus HaeresesIV, 20, 7). The preaching of the Gospel thus becomes a vital and effective word that accomplishes what it proclaims (cf.Is55:10-11): Jesus Christ, who constantly takes flesh in every human situation (cf.Jn1:14).

Mission and thekairosof Christ

3. The Churchs mission, then, is not to spread a religious ideology, much less to propose a lofty ethical teaching. Many movements throughout the world inspire high ideals or ways to live a meaningful life. Through the mission of the Church, Jesus Christ himself continues to evangelize and act; her mission thus makes present in history thekairos, the favourable time of salvation. Through the proclamation of the Gospel, the risen Jesus becomes our contemporary, so that those who welcome him with faith and love can experience the transforming power of his Spirit, who makes humanity and creation fruitful, even as the rain does with the earth. His resurrection is not an event of the past; it contains a vital power which has permeated this world. Where all seems to be dead, signs of the resurrection suddenly spring up. It is an irresistible force (Evangelii Gaudium, 276).

4. Let us never forget that being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a Person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction (BENEDICT XVI,Deus Caritas Est, 1). The Gospel is a Person who continually offers himself and constantly invites those who receive him with humble and religious faith to share his life by an effective participation in the paschal mystery of his death and resurrection. ThroughBaptism, the Gospel becomes a source of new life, freed of the dominion of sin, enlightened and transformed by the Holy Spirit. ThroughConfirmation, it becomes a fortifying anointing that, through the same Spirit, points out new ways and strategies for witness and accompaniment. Through theEucharist, it becomes food for new life, a medicine of immortality (IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH,Ad Ephesios, 20, 2).

5. The world vitally needs the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Through the Church, Christ continues his mission as theGood Samaritan, caring for the bleeding wounds of humanity, and asGood Shepherd, constantly seeking out those who wander along winding paths that lead nowhere. Thank God, many significant experiences continue to testify to the transformative power of the Gospel. I think of the gesture of the Dinka student who, at the cost of his own life, protected a student from the enemy Nuer tribe who was about to be killed. I think of that Eucharistic celebration in Kitgum, in northern Uganda, where, after brutal massacres by a rebel group, a missionary made the people repeat the words of Jesus on the cross: My God, My God, why have you abandoned me? as an expression of the desperate cry of the brothers and sisters of the crucified Lord. For the people, that celebration was an immense source of consolation and courage. We can think too of countless testimonies to how the Gospel helps to overcome narrowness, conflict, racism, tribalism, and to promote everywhere, and among all, reconciliation, fraternity, and sharing.

Mission inspires a spirituality of constant exodus, pilgrimage, and exile

6. The Churchs mission is enlivened by a spirituality ofconstant exodus. We are challenged to go forth from our own comfort zone in order to reach all the peripheries in need of the light of the Gospel (Evangelii Gaudium, 20). The Churchs mission impels us to undertake aconstant pilgrimageacross the various deserts of life, through the different experiences of hunger and thirst for truth and justice. The Churchs mission inspires a sense ofconstant exile, to make us aware, in our thirst for the infinite, that we are exiles journeying towards our final home, poised between the already and not yet of the Kingdom of Heaven.

7. Mission reminds the Church that she is not an end unto herself, but a humble instrument and mediation of the Kingdom. A self-referential Church, one content with earthly success, is not the Church of Christ, his crucified and glorious Body. That is why we should prefer a Church which is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a Church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its own security (ibid., 49).

Young people, the hope of mission

8. Young people are the hope of mission. The person of Jesus Christ and the Good News he proclaimed continue to attract many young people. They seek ways to put themselves with courage and enthusiasm at the service of humanity. There are many young people who offer their solidarity in the face of the evils of the world and engage in various forms of militancy and volunteering... How beautiful it is to see that young people are street preachers, joyfully bringing Jesus to every street, every town square and every corner of the earth! (ibid., 106). The next Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, to be held in 2018 on the themeYoung People, the Faith and Vocational Discernment, represents a providential opportunity to involve young people in the shared missionary responsibility that needs their rich imagination and creativity.

The service of the Pontifical Mission Societies

9. The Pontifical Mission Societies are a precious means of awakening in every Christian community a desire to reach beyond its own confines and security in order to proclaim the Gospel to all. In them, thanks to a profound missionary spirituality, nurtured daily, and a constant commitment to raising missionary awareness and enthusiasm, young people, adults, families, priests, bishops and men and women religious work to develop a missionary heart in everyone. World Mission Day, promoted by the Society of the Propagation of the Faith, is a good opportunity for enabling the missionary heart of Christian communities to join in prayer, testimony of life and communion of goods, in responding to the vast and pressing needs of evangelization.

Carrying out our mission with Mary, Mother of Evangelization

10. Dear brothers and sisters, in carrying out our mission, let us draw inspiration from Mary, Mother of Evangelization. Moved by the Spirit, she welcomed the Word of life in the depths of her humble faith. May the Virgin Mother help us to say our own yes, conscious of the urgent need to make the Good News of Jesus resound in our time. May she obtain for us renewed zeal in bringing to everyone the Good News of the life that is victorious over death. May she intercede for us so that we can acquire the holy audacity needed to discover new ways to bring the gift of salvation to every man and woman.

From the Vatican, 4 June 2017 Solemnity of Pentecost

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Pope Francis: Message for World Mission Sunday - Vatican Radio

Nanotechnology researchers continue their relentless journey to develop nanobots and they are succeeding. Nanomedicine is using nanobots to cure to cancer. Military nanotechnologies, especially nanobots, will emerge as the defining weapons of the twenty first century.

The United States military already deploys nanoweapons, such as nanotechnology based lasers, toxic nanoparticles, nanoparticle catalysts, and nano electronics. These nanoweapons give the United States significant capabilities in asymmetrical warfare. However, the US militarys greatest quest is the development of nanobots, tiny robots built with nanotechnology.

What is it about nanobots that make them the ideal weapons? Let us address this question by taking several examples. About a third of all US fighter planes today are drones. Todays drones are approximately one-third the size of a manned fighter jet, like the F-35. However, a new class of drones is in development, bird and even insect size drones. For example, in 2014, the Army Research Laboratory announced the creation of a fly drone weighing only a small fraction of a gram. This drone could conceivable fly into an adversarys command post and provide surveillance or into the adversarys dining area to deposit a nano poison. An insect fly drone provides the military with both surveillance and assignation capabilities. This gives a completely new meaning to fly on the wall.

As electronic processors shrink into the nanoscale, becoming nanoprocessors, about 1/1000 the diameter of a human hair, conceivably they could provide the fly drone with artificial intelligence. In effect, it could autonomously carry out its programmed mission.

You may wonder, How does all of this threaten human extinction? To address this question, imagine a scenario where the US military releases millions of artificially intelligent fly drones within an adversarys boarders, programmed to target the populace via commonalities in their DNA. If each fly drone had the capability to assassinate a few people, conceivably they could wipe out an entire nation.

Although this may sound like science fiction, the United States is within a decade of having the capability. The US Army is already testing a fly drone. As for poisons, as little as 100 nano grams of botulism H will kill a human. That quantity of poison is too small to see or taste, yet lethal and small enough for a fly drone to carry. In my book, Nanoweapons: A Growing Threat To Humanity, I classify this type of weapon as a strategic nanoweapon. This classification parallels strategic nuclear weapons that have the capability to destroy nations.

While artificially intelligent insect drones are already a scary proposition, the next step in their development is even more frightening, namely self-replicating insect drones, or more generically self- replicating nanobots. Given the exponential advance in nano electronics and artificial intelligence, characterized by Moores law, it is likely we will see the emergence of self-replicating nanobots in the 2050s.

Self-replicating nanobots are the ultimate invention. In medicine, they will flow through our blood preventing diseases and curing injuries. In military applications, they will have the capability to completely destroy an adversary, from its populace to its structures. This scenario was depicted in the sci-fi movie, The Day the Earth Stood Still.

Strategic nanoweapons, like their nuclear counterparts, pose a threat to humanity. The major issue is control. Will we be able to deploy strategic nanoweapons and maintain control over them? If, for example, we lost control of self-replicating nanobots, we would face a technological plague, one that we currently have no way of stopping.

In a decade, we will see the emergence of nanobots. In medicine, they will cure cancer. In warfare, they may kill millions. In the 2050s, we will see the emergence of self-replicating nanobots. In medicine, they will offer immortality. In warfare, they will pose a threat to humanity.

Start your workday the right way with the news that matters most.

Continued here:
Are Nanoweapons Paving the Road to Human Extinction? - HuffPost

By Caroline Wellbery By Caroline Wellbery June 4 at 7:30 AM

After my father died, I retreated to a place in California Ive long cherished for its peacefulness. On a hike, I took a wrong turn and got caught in an endless thicket of branches and brambles. But I couldnt go back. I could readily see the trailhead below through the thorns. Theres only one way to go, I told myself, and that was forward.

It could hardly be a coincidence that just three weeks earlier, when my father was dying, I had spoken those same words: The only way is the way forward. Like that wrong turn while hiking, my fathers last illness thrust my family and me down a painful path, and we had no choice but to keep going.

My father, so alive, so witty and loving, had been in the middle of a conversation when he had a stroke. Two days later, in the hospital, unable to control his airway because his swallowing muscles were paralyzed from the stroke, he inhaled his secretions and began struggling to breathe.

My dad had always been clear about the circumstances under which he would choose not to live. His wife, my siblings and I knew what he would want us to do. It was a difficult decision, made at a meeting with doctors, hospice nurses and social workers, but a decision without moral ambivalence for any of us: The time had come to stop the antibiotics and IV fluids. In addition, we refused a feeding tube that the doctors had suggested but we knew he would not want. The time had come to let him die.

While morphine eased my fathers breathing, our emotional pain sharpened. His death was now inevitable. Before our decision, he had had a serious bleed in his brain, paralyzing his body and slurring his speech. After our decision, he was bound to die. The difference in trajectory cannot be underestimated. Its the difference between hope and utter resignation.

[They said my dad was having a stroke. I wish Id been able to handle it better.]

My mind played tricks on me as we waited: Isnt there some other way? I kept thinking of Beethoven, who, in his last string quartet, incorporated this question: Does it have to be? He answers straightaway in a determined allegro: Yes, it has to be. The words became a mantra for me: Yes, it has to be. As a doctor, Ive seen so many families struggle to accept similar losses, but now it was my turn to experience the nearly unbearable command of these words.

Grieving begins, really, with the knowledge of our mortality. I had begun preparing for my fathers death. Intellectually vibrant though he was his extraordinary memory a Google for our family he was 94. He would not live forever. This was my experience of the first stage, still full of hope.

The next stage came when I arrived at the hospital on the day of his stroke. As a physician, I knew how bad it was. I saw the CT scan, with what doctors called the moderate-size bleed on the left side of his brain. As he developed complications, my grief intensified. I took in, as though drinking in gulps, his gestures, his nods, his efforts to speak. I took in the smell of his hair, the feel of the bristles of his little mustache. I took in his racing heart, the living warmth of his skin, the squeeze of his hand when he couldnt talk. I took in the single tear that rolled down the side of his face. I took in his breaths. I was fully present during his last moments, as his breathing stuttered and his jaw slackened, as though I were memorizing everything.

Naturally, the grieving continued. Grieving is both universal and unique. The intense cramp around the heart, cries and tears, the waves of sorrow, these are all our common responses to loss. They have a biological feel and cannot be so different from what some animals undergo when they mourn. There is also a strong sense of disbelief that someone who has always been there and has been a reliable part of your life has suddenly vanished forever.

Handbooks on grieving tell you some specific things about losing a parent. For example, a parents death shatters the myth we children nurture of their immortality. So true, in spite of everything I knew about death. I cried: Why did my father have to die at 94? Why couldnt he have lived to 96? Its irrational, but such thoughts make sense in light of our commonly held belief that death, while inevitable, lies somewhere vaguely in the future.

More truisms about parental loss: The death of a father or a mother can leave a person feeling adrift as that last remnant of seemingly supernatural protection breaks loose.

Then theres the accompanying loss of identity. Parents are keepers not only of childhood memories but also of the entire context in which we children grow up, which makes us feel even more bereft when they are gone.

And finally, parents may have been friends and confidants, as my father was to me, especially after my mother died 10 years ago. He and I spoke every night. He infused his attention with an unconditional love impossible to find anywhere else.

My mother had had a stroke years earlier, in exactly the same part of the brain as my father did. At the time, she was in her late 70s, and she survived for seven more years. These were difficult years, spent in a wheelchair, requiring my fathers full-time care. Slowly, imperceptibly, she faded, slipping into ever greater passivity, until in the end an aide dropped her and she didnt survive the fall. Sad as we were, wed all had a long time to prepare.

With my father, it was so different. He was full of plans. He was going to travel with his wife to Europe. He was slated to receive an achievement award in his native Vienna for his scholarly contributions. We were going to meet in California for my beloved retreat at a Zen monastery. We were supposed to enjoy the smell of the Pacific Ocean and walk in the Marin headlands where I ended up hiking alone. He was supposed to stay in the room next to mine. His death was a shock.

My siblings and I grieved his death according to our personalities.

My sister, practical and forward-moving, makes every effort to put aside the painful memories of the hospital as best she can. I, an introvert and a doctor, have immersed myself in them. My brother, who deals with most difficulties by going on long, arduous runs, went running. Uncomfortable expressing emotions, he has avoided the topic of my fathers death. But he also sent me this poem, exploring the conflicts in his relationship with my dad that remained unresolved:

We had no foundation.

I built ruins upon ruins,

that crumbled into dust and blew away

Where shall I lay my weary head?

My house is made of the stuff of dreams,

flitting like ghosts in the sunlight,

dust devils meandering without destination.

The drums of war deep into the night.

Where is our peace?

Three weeks after my fathers death, I went on my hike and got lost. Eventually I emerged from the brush and found the trailhead. I got into the car, returning it on time to the rental place. My arms were scratched up. My legs were black and blue from some falls Id taken.

A few days later, my body erupted in blisters and sores. First the rash appeared on my arms. Then it traveled to my neck and face. It covered my trunk, groin and finally encircled my ankles. I had developed an allergic skin reaction, maybe to some poison oak that I hadnt noticed. The rash was so bad it could only have been invented in hell.

Weeks later, the pain, redness and itch slowly faded away. The memory of it, a reminder that there is no way but forward as painful as that may be, will remain with me always.

Wellbery is a family physician and medical educator at the Georgetown University School of Medicine.

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[Dinner-part diagnosis: The occupational hazard of being a doctor]

[This physician wants her patients to use fewer medications]

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We unplugged my father from everything, as he wished, but I wasn't ready to let go - Washington Post