VATICAN CITY — The last battle of the almost-grownup Harry Potter may be too scary for young viewers, but it champions the values of friendship and sacrifice, the Vatican newspaper said.

"The atmosphere of the last few episodes, which had become increasingly dark and ominous, reaches its pinnacle," said one of two reviews of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 printed July 12 in the Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano.

Along with the rights to freedom of speech, food and water, and various others, we need to be cognizant of the human right to tenderness. The future Pope John Paul spoke of this right in his 1960 book Love and Responsibility, but in the intervening 51 years it has yet to gain much notice.

Every person needs to experience tenderness on an ongoing basis. It is essential to human flourishing. In a marriage, tenderness is essential and each person has the right to receive tenderness from one's partner and the responsibility to give it. But tenderness is also essential outside the marriage bond. The sick, the dying, the rejected, those suffering emotional traumas, the single, the widowed and divorced, single parents, children and infants all need tenderness.

FR. RON ROLHEISER, omi

I've lived and worked in academic circles for most of my adult life, studying in various universities, teaching in university circles and having university professors as close friends and colleagues. What's that world like? What kind of folks inhabit academic circles?

Perhaps my experience is atypical because most of the scholars under whom I studied and most of the theologians and other scholars who have been my colleagues became professors and university lecturers in function of ministry, as a vocation, rather than as a career.

KATHLEEN GIFFIN

16th Sunday in Ordinary Time — July 24, 2011

Thirty years ago, having recently returned to my faith and the Church, my mother asked me to choose a favourite Scripture passage for her to stitch on a wall hanging for me. I don't remember the process I went through in choosing the reading, but the end result still hangs on my wall, "God makes all things work for good for those who love him."

That Scripture, over the intervening years, has anchored me in hope, courage and trust in a way that no other passage has done. I think I am not alone in my esteem for those words and that truth, for it is a Scripture that nourishes the faith of many people.

MARK PICKUP

Recently I was at a park with some of my grandchildren. A woman arrived with a couple of her grandchildren. We started talking. At one point, she revealed that she lost a grandson to heart disease when he was only seven. Needless to say, I was stunned.

As we talked further I discovered that she turned her grief into positive action through starting a charity to raise funds for research, education and to offer support to families of children with heart disease or who have lost children to it. This is a wonderful example of turning a negative into a positive — a terrible tragedy into something good.

LISA PETSCHE

Recently our mail included the annual status report on the child our family supports through Chalice, formerly Christian Child Care International. She lives in Haiti, the poorest and most densely populated country in the Western Hemisphere.

Our family learned about Chalice, a Canadian Catholic organization, several years ago when a visiting priest spoke at Mass about its projects. Chalice's mission is to "support local initiatives in developing countries, primarily through the sponsorship of children and elderly in need." In doing so, it gives witness to Christ's love and provides hope for the future.

BOB MCKEON

A few weeks ago, I was invited to talk with a group of summer interns at Mustard Seed in inner city Edmonton. For the past several years, Mustard Seed has provided a summer employment opportunity for several young adults seeking an experience of Christian outreach and service with inner city men, women and children.

The summer workers get to work in the different programs of the agency including emergency food and clothing, community development projects and public education and advocacy initiatives.

What I have to report will come as a surprise to many Canadian Roman Catholics.

In recent years, many of you have grown accustomed to hearing that religion is in decline and that your numbers are dropping. The common portrait painted by the media is one of an aging Church whose golden years of large and vibrant congregations comprised of people of all ages is a thing of the past.

KANSAS CITY, MO. — Nuclear weapons have "threatened humanity" for far too long and it is urgent to now move to a "world without nuclear weapons," said the Vatican's ambassador to the United Nations.

"Now is the time for a profound rethinking and change in our perception of nuclear weapons. Nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation are essential from a humanitarian point of view," Archbishop Francis Chullikatt said July 1.

For Angie LaRose, St. Agnes Parish was where she began to grow in her faith.

"I started climbing up the hill in my faith here," LaRose said in an interview at the parish's 75th anniversary celebration July 10.