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'Every Abortion is a Tragedy': Barack Obama (Position Papers, 474, Dec. 2013, pp. 25-28)

The recent interview of Pope Francis, published in September 30, 2013 in America magazine [1] moved many people deeply, especially with his insistence that we live in a wounded world which has the right to expect healing of those wounds from the Church. His repeated insistence clearly came from his heart; "the thing the church needs most today is the ability to heal wounds.... Heal the wounds, heal the wounds."
He is not referring to bodily wounds so much as wounds of the spirit. Knowing well that this will provoke "scandal" among some, I would firmly assert that by far the greatest number of wounded people in today's world are the millions, the tens of millions, of women who, over the past decades, have had an abortion; and, admit it not, are still suffering from the wounds of this tragedy.

Identity as a Catholic: Encyclopedia of Catholic Doctrine (Ed: Russell Shaw. Our Sunday Visitor, 1997)
When we speak of some people being "very human", or others as "lacking in humanity", what we mean is that they are fulfilling - or falling away from - the models or standards befitting human nature. "Human nature" or "what it means to be human" is not something each one decides for himself or that can be changed at will. It has an objective content: one given by God when he made man "in his own image" (Gen 1:27).

           "Why can't a woman be more like a man?", complained Henry Higgins in "My Fair Lady". Today he wouldn't be let get away with the remark without some people (not necessarily feminists) retorting: "and why can't a man be more like a woman?" Others might not only reject both complaints, but even question the importance of a man having to be like a man or a woman having to be like a woman. Indeed, if asked, they might be hard put to say what being a man or being a woman properly means, apart from elementary bodily differences.

Woman and the Cardinal Virtue of Prudence (FAITH Magazine, July-August, 2013)

[In his continuing series on woman and the cardinal virtues Mgr Burke examines the virtue of prudence and its specific calls upon women to see beyond socially imposed expectations].

General Ideas
Prudence, in modern usage, is not a very highly considered virtue. It suggests a general cautiousness, a reluctance to take risky decisions, a preference for the easy life. As such, prudence seems just one step removed from cowardice, self-concerned calculation or simple laziness.