Sunday, October 29, 2017
Pope's at "(Re)Thinking Europe Conference": Full text
(Vatican Radio) Here is the full text of Pope Francis' remarks at the conference on (Re)Thinking Europe: a Christian Contribution to the Future of the European Project, sponsored by the Commission of the Bishops' Conferences of the European Community (COMECE):
Address of His Holiness Pope Francis
to the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences
of the European Community
Saturday, 28 October 2017
Your Eminences,
Your Excellencies,
Distinguished Authorities,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I am pleased to join you at the conclusion of your Dialogue on the theme (Re)Thinking Europe – a Christian Contribution to the Future of the European Project, sponsored by the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Community (COMECE). In a particular way I greet the President of the Commission, His Eminence Cardinal Reinhard Marx, and the Honourable Antonio Tajani, President of the European Parliament, and I thank them for their kind words. To each of you I express my deep appreciation for your active contribution to this important discussion.
In these days, your Dialogue has allowed for wide-ranging reflection on the future of Europe from a variety of viewpoints, thanks to the presence of leading figures from the ecclesial, political and academic sectors, and from civil society as a whole. The young have been able to present their expectations and hopes, and to share them with their elders, while these in turn have drawn on their own reflections and experiences. It is significant that this meeting was intended above all to be a dialogue, pursued in a spirit of openness and freedom, for the sake of mutual enrichment. It has sought to shed light on the future path of Europe, the road that all of us are called to travel in surmounting present crises and facing challenges yet to come.
To speak of a Christian contribution to the future of the continent means, before all else, to consider our task, as Christians today, in these lands which have been so richly shaped by the faith down the centuries. What is our responsibility at a time when the face of Europe is increasingly distinguished by a plurality of cultures and religions, while for many people Christianity is regarded as a thing of the past, both alien and irrelevant?
Person and community
In the twilight of the ancient world, as the glories of Rome fell into the ruins that still amaze us, and new peoples flooded across the borders of the Empire, one young man echoed anew the words of the Psalmist: “Who is the man that longs for life and desires to see good days?”[1] By asking this question in the Prologue of his Rule, Saint Benedict pointed the people of his time, and ours as well, to a view of man radically different from that of classical Greco-Roman culture, and even more from the violent outlook typical of the invading barbarians. Man is no longer simply a civis, a citizen endowed with privileges to be enjoyed at leisure; no longer a miles, a soldier serving the powers of the time; and above all, no longer a servus, a commodity bereft of freedom and destined solely for hard labour.
Saint Benedict was not concerned about social status, riches or power. He appealed to the nature common to every human being, who, whatever his or her condition, longs for life and desires to see good days. For Benedict, the important thing was not functions but persons. This was one of the foundational values brought by Christianity: the sense of the person created in the image of God. This principle led to the building of the monasteries, which in time would become the cradle of the human, cultural, religious and economic rebirth of the continent.
The first and perhaps the greatest contribution that Christians can make to today’s Europe is to remind her that she is not a mass of statistics or institutions, but is made up of people. Sadly, we see how frequently issues get reduced to discussions about numbers. There are no citizens, only votes. There are no migrants, only quotas. There are no workers, only economic markers. There are no poor, only thresholds of poverty. The concrete reality of the human person is thus reduced to an abstract – and thus more comfortable and reassuring – principle. The reason for this is clear: people have faces; they force us to assume a responsibility that is real, personal and effective. Statistics, however useful and important, are about arguments; they are soulless. They offer an alibi for not getting involved, because they never touch us in the flesh.
To acknowledge that others are persons means to value what unites us to them. To be a person connects us with others; it makes us a community. The second contribution that Christians can make to the future of Europe, then, is to help recover the sense of belonging to a community. It is not by chance that the founders of the European project chose that very word to identify the new political subject coming into being. Community is the greatest antidote to the forms of individualism typical of our times, to that widespread tendency in the West to see oneself and one’s life in isolation from others. The concept of freedom is misunderstood and seen as if it were a right to be left alone, free from all bonds. As a result, a deracinated society has grown up, lacking a sense of belonging and of its own past.
Christians recognize that their identity is primarily relational. They are joined to one another as members of one body, the Church (cf. 1 Cor 12:12), and each, with his or her unique identity and gifts, freely shares in the common work of building up that body. Analogously, this relationship is also found in the areas of interpersonal relationships and civil society. By interacting with others, each one discovers his or her own qualities and defects, strengths and weaknesses. In other words, they come to know who they are, their specific identity.
The family, as the primordial community, remains the most fundamental place for this process of discovery. There, diversity is valued and at the same time brought into unity. The family is the harmonious union of the differences between man and woman, which becomes stronger and more authentic to the extent that it is fruitful, capable of opening itself to life and to others. Secular communities, likewise, are alive when they are capable of openness, embracing the differences and gifts of each person while at the same time generating new life, development, labour, innovation and culture.
Person and community are thus the foundations of the Europe that we, as Christians, want and can contribute to building. The bricks of this structure are dialogue, inclusion, solidarity, development and peace.
A place of dialogue
Today the whole of Europe, from the Atlantic to the Urals, from the North Pole to the Mediterranean, cannot miss the chance to be first and foremost a place of candid and constructive dialogue, in which all participants share equal dignity. We are called to build a Europe in which we can meet and engage at every level, much as in the ancient agorá, the main square of the polis. The latter was not just a marketplace but also the nerve centre of political life, where laws were passed for the common good. The presence of a temple dominating the square was a reminder that the horizontal dimension of daily life ought never to overlook the transcendent, which invites us to see beyond the ephemeral, the transitory and the provisional.
This leads us to reflect on the positive and constructive role that religion in general plays in the building up of society. I think, for example, of the contribution made by interreligious dialogue to greater mutual understanding between Christians and Muslims in Europe. Regrettably, a certain secularist prejudice, still in vogue, is incapable of seeing the positive value of religion’s public and objective role in society, preferring to relegate it to the realm of the merely private and sentimental. The result is the predominance of a certain groupthink,[2] quite apparent in international meetings, which sees the affirmation of religious identity as a threat to itself and its dominance, and ends up promoting an ersatz conflict between the right to religious freedom and other fundamental rights.
Favouring dialogue, in any form whatsoever, is a fundamental responsibility of politics. Sadly, all too often we see how politics is becoming instead a forum for clashes between opposing forces. The voice of dialogue is replaced by shouted claims and demands. One often has the feeling that the primary goal is no longer the common good, and this perception is shared by more and more citizens. Extremist and populist groups are finding fertile ground in many countries; they make protest the heart of their political message, without offering the alternative of a constructive political project. Dialogue is replaced either by a futile antagonism that can even threaten civil coexistence, or by the domination of a single political power that constrains and obstructs a true experience of democracy. In the one, bridges are burned; in the other, walls are erected.
Christians are called to promote political dialogue, especially where it is threatened and where conflict seems to prevail. Christians are called to restore dignity to politics and to view politics as a lofty service to the common good, not a platform for power. This demands a suitable formation, since politics is not the “art of improvising”. Instead, it is a noble expression of self-sacrifice and personal dedication for the benefit of the community. To be a leader demands thoughtfulness, training and experience.
An inclusive milieu
Leaders together share responsibility for promoting a Europe that is an inclusive community, free of one fundamental misunderstanding: namely that inclusion does not mean downplaying differences. On the contrary, a community is truly inclusive when differences are valued and viewed as a shared source of enrichment. Seen in this way, migrants are more a resource than a burden. Christians are called to meditate seriously on Jesus’ words: “I was a stranger and you welcomed me” (Mt 25:35). Especially when faced with the tragedy of displaced persons and refugees, we must not forget that we are dealing with persons, who cannot be welcomed or rejected at our own pleasure, or in accordance with political, economic or even religious ideas.
Nor is this opposed to the duty of all government authorities to address the migration issue “with the virtue proper to governance, which is prudence”.[3] Authorities should keep in mind the need for an open heart, but also their ability to provide for the full integration, on the social, economic and political level, of those entering their countries. We cannot regard the phenomenon of migration as an indiscriminate and unregulated process, but neither can we erect walls of indifference and fear. For their part, migrants must not neglect their own grave responsibility to learn, respect and assimilate the culture and traditions of the nations that welcome them.
Room for solidarity
Striving for an inclusive community means making room for solidarity. To be a community in fact entails supporting one another; bearing burdens and making extraordinary sacrifices do not fall to some few, while the rest remain entrenched in defence of their privileged positions. A European Union that, in facing its crises, fails to recover a sense of being a single community that sustains and assists its members – and not just a collection of small interest groups – would miss out not only on one of the greatest challenges of its history, but also on one of the greatest opportunities for its own future.
Solidarity, which from a Christian perspective finds its raison d’être in the precept of love (cf. Mt 22:37-40), has to be the lifeblood of a mature community. Together with the other cardinal principle of subsidiarity, it is not limited to relations between the states and regions of Europe. To be a solidary community means to be concerned for the most vulnerable of society, the poor and those discarded by social and economic systems, beginning with the elderly and the unemployed. At the same time, solidarity calls for a recovery of cooperation and mutual support between the generations.
An unprecedented generational conflict has been taking place since the 1960’s. In passing on to new generations the ideals that made Europe great, one could say, with a touch of hyperbole, that betrayal was preferred to tradition. The rejection of what had been passed down from earlier generations was followed by a period of dramatic sterility. Not only because Europe has fewer children, and all too many were denied the right to be born, but also because there has been a failure to pass on the material and cultural tools that young people need to face the future. Europe has a kind of memory deficit. To become once more a solidary community means rediscovering the value of our own past, in order to enrich the present and to pass on a future of hope to future generations.
Instead, many young people are lost, without roots or prospects, “tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine” (Eph 4:14). At times they are even “held captive” by possessive adults who struggle to carry out their own responsibilities. It is a grave responsibility to provide an education, not only by offering technical and scientific knowledge, but above all by working “to promote the complete perfection of the human person, the good of earthly society and the building of a world that is more human”.[4] This demands the involvement of society as a whole. Education is a shared duty that requires the active and combined participation of parents, schools and universities, religious and civil institutions. Without education, culture does not develop and the life of the community dries up.
A source of development
A Europe that rediscovers itself as a community will surely be a source of development for herself and for the whole world. Development must be understood in the terms laid down by Blessed Paul VI: “To be authentic, it must be well rounded; it must foster the development of each man and of the whole man. As an eminent specialist on this question has rightly said: ‘We cannot allow economics to be separated from human realities, nor development from the civilization in which it takes place. What counts for us is man – each individual man, each human group, and humanity as a whole’”.[5]
Work certainly contributes to human development; it is an essential factor in the dignity and growth of the person. Employment and suitable working conditions are needed. The last century provided many eloquent examples of Christian entrepreneurs who understood that the success of their ventures depended above all on the ability to provide employment opportunities and dignified working conditions. There is a need to recover the spirit of those ventures, for they are also the best antidote to the imbalances caused by a soulless globalization which, more attentive to profits than people, has created significant pockets of poverty, unemployment, exploitation and social unease.
It would also be helpful to recover a sense of the need to provide concrete opportunities for employment, especially to the young. Today, many people tend to shy away from certain jobs because they seem physically demanding and unprofitable, forgetting how indispensable they are for human development. Where would we be without the efforts of those whose work contributes daily to putting food on our tables? Where would we be without the patient and creative labour of those who produce the clothes we wear or build the houses in which we live? Many essential professions are now looked down upon. Yet they are essential both for society and, above all, for the satisfaction that they give to those who realize that they are being useful in themselves and for others, thanks to their daily work.
Governments also have the duty to create economic conditions that promote a healthy entrepreneurship and appropriate levels of employment. Politicians are especially responsible for restoring a virtuous circle that, starting from investments that favour the family and education, enable the harmonious and peaceful development of the entire civil community.
A promise of peace
Finally, the commitment of Christians in Europe must represent a promise of peace. This was the central concern that inspired the signatories of the Treaties of Rome. After two World Wars and atrocious acts of violence perpetrated by peoples against peoples, the time had come to affirm the right to peace.[6] Yet today we continue to see how fragile is that peace, and how particular and national agendas risk thwarting the courageous dreams of the founders of Europe.[7]
Being peacemakers (cf. Mt 5:9), however, does not mean simply striving to avoid internal tensions, working to end the bloodshed and conflicts throughout our world, or relieving those who suffer. To be workers for peace entails promoting a culture of peace. This requires love for the truth, without which authentic human relationships cannot exist; it also requires the pursuit of justice, without which oppression becomes the rule in any community.
Peace also requires creativity. The European Union will remain faithful to its commitment to peace only to the extent that it does not lose hope and can renew itself in order to respond to the needs and expectations of its citizens. A hundred years ago, in these very days, the battle of Caporetto was fought, one of the most dramatic of the First World War. It was the culmination of that war of attrition, which set a sinister record in reaping countless casualties for the sake of risible gains. From that event we learn that entrenchment in one’s own positions only leads to failure. Now is not the time, then, to dig trenches, but instead to work courageously to realize the founding fathers’ dream of a united and harmonious Europe, a community of peoples desirous of sharing a future of development and peace.
To be the soul of Europe
Your Eminence, Your Excellencies,
Distinguished Guests,
The author of the Letter to Diognetus states that “what the soul is to the body, Christians are to the world”.[8] In our day, Christians are called to revitalize Europe and to revive its conscience, not by occupying spaces, but by generating processes[9] capable of awakening new energies in society. This is exactly what Saint Benedict did. It was not by chance that Paul VI proclaimed him the Patron of Europe. He was not concerned to occupy spaces in a wayward and confused world. Sustained by faith, Benedict looked ahead, and from a tiny cave in Subiaco he gave birth to an exciting and irresistible movement that changed the face of Europe. May Saint Benedict, “messenger of peace, promoter of union, master of civilization”[10] make clear to us, the Christians of our own time, how a joyful hope, flowing from faith, is able to change the world.
Thank you.
[1] SAINT BENEDICT, Rule, Prologue, 14; cf. Ps 34:12.
[2] La dittatura del pensiero unico, Morning Reflection in the Domus Sanctae Marthae Chapel, 10 April 2014.
[3] Cf. Press Conference on the Return Flight from Colombia, 10 September 2017.
[4] SECOND VATICAN ECUMENICAL COUNCIL, Declaration Gravissimum Educationis (28 October 1963), 3.
[5] PAUL VI, Encyclical Letter Populorum Progressio (26 March 1967), 14.
[6] Cf. Address to Students and Academic Authorities, Bologna, 1 October 2017, 3.
[7] Cf. ibid.
[8] Op. cit., VI.
[9] Cf. Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, 223.
[10] PAUL VI, Apostolic Letter Pacis Nuntius, 24 October 1964.
(from Vatican Radio)
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Pope urges members of secular institutes to act and be God's Word
Pope Francis on Saturday reminded members of Secular Institutes about their prophetic presence in the world, especially by being and acting the Word of God they hear. The Holy Father’s exhortation came in message he sent to the Italian Conference of Secular Institutes (CIIS) that is holding a conference in Rome, Oct. 28-29, on the theme, “Beyond and in the Midst: Secular Institutes: Stories of passion and prophecy for God and the world.” A secular institute is an organization of consecrated persons who live in the world, unlike members of a religious institute or congregation who are required to live in a community.
Acting, not talking
Pope Francis told the confernece participants that their laicity consists in knowing what God has to say to the world, where “saying” means acting and not talking. This, he said is very much needed in our times where difficulties could tempt one to isolate herself or himself into a comfortable and secure situation and withdraw from the world. But the Pope said, “your place is to “stay in” with the transforming presence of the Gospel.” He admitted it is a difficult path, but assured them the Lord wants to walk with them.
Pope Francis said that their vocation and mission is to be aware not only of their surroundings, without stopping at appearance but going deeper, but also discovering where God manifests Himself. In other words - aware of the world but with hearts immersed in God.
Five spiritual attitudes
In this regard, Pope Francis suggested five spiritual attitudes. One needs to pray to be united to God and to listen to Him. One needs discernment to distinguish between essentials and unimportant things. Like Jesus, one needs to share the lot of men and women even in tragic and dark times. One should never to lose confidence and courage, knowing how to find good in everything. And lastly, one should be animated by Christ's sympathy for the world and the people, to be free and passionate like salt and yeast in the world.
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Pope insists on moral duty to protect human dignity, especially in conflicts
Pope Francis on Saturday insisted on the moral duty of protecting human dignity in every circumstance, especially in armed conflict, saying at the end of life we will be judged on our mercy and solidarity for the victims of war. He was speaking to some 250 participants in the 3rd Conference on International Humanitarian Law sponsored by the European Society of International Law. The Oct. 27-28 meeting in Rome discussed “The protection of civilian population in warfare - The role of Humanitarian Organizations and Civil Society.”
Atrocities and outrage during conflicts
The Pope noted that the Holy See, convinced of the essentially negative nature of war and man's most dignified aspiration to abolish it, ratified the 1977 Additional Protocols to the 1949 Geneva Conventions, in order to encourage the “humanization of the effect of armed conflict.” He drew attention to the atrocities and outrage perpetrated on civil populations and persons during conflicts, with mutilated and headless bodies and “our brothers and sisters tortured, crucified and burnt alive,” in total disregard for their human dignity. The destruction or damaging of cultural treasures, hospitals, schools and places of worship deprive entire generations of their right to life, health, education and religion.
Indifference
The Pope warned that such news could lead to a sort of “saturation” that anesthetizes and relativizes the gravity of the problem, making it more difficult for one to be moved to compassion and solidarity. The Holy Father called for a change of heart, an openness to God and neighbor, that urges persons to overcome indifference and live solidarity as a moral virtue and social attitude. He expressed satisfaction over numerous manifestations of solidarity and charity in times of war by persons, charities and NGOs, in the Church and outside, who despite dangers and hardships, reach out to the wounded, the sick, the hungry, prisoners and the dead. “Indeed,” he stressed, “aid to victims of conflict calls for various works of mercy on which we will be judged at the end of life.”
Moral duty to respect, protect human dignity
The Holy Father wished that fighters as well as humanitarian organizations and workers be able to put into practice the fundamental principles of humanity, impartiality, neutrality and independence, that are the heart of humanitarian law. But where humanitarian law is met with hesitation and omission, he said, “individual conscience must recognize the moral duty to respect and protect the dignity of the human person in every circumstance, especially in situations where it is most threatened.”
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Pope and Anglican leader appeal for peace in South Sudan
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis met on Friday with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, together with the new director of Rome’s Anglican Centre, Archbishop Bernard Ntahoturi of Burundi. Following their half hour encounter in the Apostolic Palace, the two Anglican archbishops and their wives joined the pope for lunch in his Santa Marta residence to continue the conversation.
On Thursday, the Anglican leader presided at Vespers at Rome’s Caravita church for the installation of Archbishop Bernard Ntahoturi as his official representative to the Holy See. The Vatican’s foreign minister, Archbishop Paul Gallagher, who previously served as nuncio in Burundi, preached the homily, stressing that ecumenical engagement is a moral imperative for all Christians.
Philippa Hitchen caught up with Archbishop Welby at the end of his brief visit to Rome to find out more about his meeting with the pope and their plans for a joint visit to war-torn South Sudan…
Listen:
The Anglican archbishop says his meetings with the pope were “full of meaning, but also full of joy, a good deal of laughter, very relaxed but very thoughtful”. In particularly, he says, they talked about mutual concerns on conflict, human trafficking, and the need for Church unity in a fractured world.
Progress in Anglican-Catholic dialogue
He notes that, like his predecessors during their visits to Rome, he wears the episcopal ring that Pope Paul VI gave to Archbishop Michael Ramsey in 1966. He says there has been enormous progress towards unity since then and both ARCIC and IARCCUM “continue the theological and missional dialogues very, very effectively”. Alongside that, there is ecumenism of action, and of prayer, something which has grown out of the theological work, he says, but is also pushing it forward.
Separation in the Eucharist
Speaking about the lack of unity in the Eucharist, Archbishop Welby says he is reminded of that each day in Lambeth Palace, celebrating with Catholic and non-Catholic members of the youth community of St Anselm. It is painful, he says, but in another sense, it is “a healthy pain that compels us to work harder” for unity.
Appeal to South Sudan's leaders
Asked about a joint visit to South Sudan, the Anglican leader says “a visit like that has to be done at a moment when it can make an enormous difference” and “tip the balance towards peace”. He says that he and the Holy Father call on the political leaders “to turn away from violence and think of the people in South Sudan”. He recalls a recent visit to refugee settlements in northern Uganda housing 260.000 people, a small fraction of those who’ve fled the violence. We are “waiting and praying” for a change of heart from the political leaders, he says.
Don't be paralised by disagreements
Asked about divisions within the Anglican world, in particular over homosexuality, Archbishop Welby says “you can’t be paralised by disagreements”, which all Churches are currently facing. In a communion as diverse as the Anglican world, he adds, there are bound to be disagreements “but we have to see the call of Christ to be united in the service of the poor…..and not let anything distract us from the proclamation of the Good News”.
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Friday, October 27, 2017
Thursday, October 26, 2017
Pope Francis speaks with ISS commander and crew
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis spoke via satellite link with the crew of the International Space Station on Thursday. Astronaut Randolph Bresnik of the US commands the current, 53rd ISS expedition, which has a complement of 5 mission specialists: Italian astronaut Paolo Nespoli; Russian astronauts Sergey Ryanzansky and Alexander Misurkin; and US astronauts Joe Acaba and Mark Vande Hei.
Pope Francis spoke via satellite link with the crew of the International Space Station on Thursday. Astronaut Randolph Bresnik of the US commands the current, 53rd ISS expedition, which has a complement of 5 mission specialists: Italian astronaut Paolo Nespoli; Russian astronauts Sergey Ryanzansky and Alexander Misurkin; and US astronauts Joe Acaba and Mark Vande Hei.
The video link-up lasted about 20 minutes, with the Holy Father speaking to the astronauts from the "auletta" of the Paul VI Hall, in the presence of the President of the Italian Space Agency (ASA), Roberto Battiston, and the Director of Earth Observation Programmes of the European Space Agency (ESA), Josef Aschbacher.
During the course of the virtual visit, Pope Francis asked questions of the astronauts, on topics ranging from the place of humanity in the universe, to the difference in perspective that living on the ISS brings, to the role of the "That Love which moves the sun and the other stars," in their work of understanding, to their reasons for desiring to explore space. Watch the full video below...
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Pope at daily Mass: Easy-going Christians don't exist
(Vatican Radio) “Jesus calls us to change our lives, to change paths, calls us to conversion.” And this means fighting against evil, even in our own hearts, “a struggle that does not give you ease, but gives you peace.” That was the message of Pope Francis in his reflection during the morning Mass at Casa Santa Marta. Inspired by the day’s Gospel, Pope Francis explained that this is the “fire” that Jesus sets on earth – a fire, he said, that calls for change:
“Changing our way of thinking, changing our way of feeling. Your heart, which was worldly, pagan, now becomes Christian with the strength of Christ: to change, this is conversion. And changing your manner of acting: your works must change.”
It is, he continued, a conversion that “involves everything, body and soul, everything.” Pope Francis emphasized:
“It is a change, but it is not a change that is made with make-up. It is a change that the Holy Spirit makes, within. And I have to make it mine so that the Holy Spirit can act. And this means a battle, fighting!”
“Easy-going Christians, who don’t fight, don’t exist,” the Pope added. “Those are not Christians, they are lukewarm.” The tranquility necessary for sleep can be found “even with a pill,” he said, “but there are no pills” for inner peace. “Only the Holy Spirit,” can give “that peace of the soul that gives strength to Christians.” And, he said, “we must help the Holy Spirit,” by “making space in our hearts.” A daily examination of conscience “can help us in this,” the Pope said. It can help us “to fight against the maladies the enemy sows,” which he called “maladies of worldliness.”
“The fight Jesus wages against the devil, against evil, is not something old, it is a modern thing, a thing of today, of all days,” Pope Francis said, because “the fire that Jesus has come to bring us is in our hearts.” And so we must allow Him to enter, and must “ask ourselves, each day: how have I passed from worldliness, from sin, to grace? Have I made room for the Holy Spirit, so that He could act?”
“The difficulties in our lives are not resolved by watering down the truth. The truth is this: Jesus has brought fire, and struggle. What am I going to do?”
For conversion, Pope Francis concluded, “a generous and faithful heart” is needed: “generosity that always comes from love,” and “is faithful, faithful to the Word of God.”
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Wednesday, October 25, 2017
Tuesday, October 24, 2017
Pope Francis meets group from Tel Aviv University
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis met on Monday with a delegation from Tel Aviv University, stressing the need to develop a culture of wisdom that can form future leaders who are sensitive to the profound ethical issues facing our societies.
Please find below the full text of the Pope’s greeting to the delegation from Tel Aviv University
Dear Friends,
I offer you a warm welcome, and I thank Professor Joseph Klafter, Rector of Tel Aviv University, for his kind words.
To all of you I express my appreciation for your commitment to the education of the young, who represent the present and the future of society. The work of education, demanding yet essential, calls for great insight and tact, for it seeks to form the whole person. Carrying out this vital service certainly requires professional and technical knowledge and expertise, but also empathy and sensitivity, in order to foster dialogue with students and to promote their formation both as individuals and as future professionals in their areas of study.
In a word, knowledge and wisdom must advance together. Wisdom, in its biblical sense, urges us to go beyond empirical realities in order to discover their ultimate meaning. Universities are challenged to foster a culture of wisdom, one capable of harmonizing technical and scientific research with a humanistic approach, in the conviction that the pursuit of the true and the good is ultimately one. So Solomon, son of David, upon ascending the throne, withdrew in prayer to the temple of Gibeon, and begged the Lord for wisdom in these words: “Give your servant an understanding mind to govern your people, that I may discern between good and evil” (1 Kg 3:9).
Our world urgently needs to develop a culture of wisdom. We need to find ways of forming leaders capable of striking out on new paths in the effort to meet today’s needs without prejudice to future generations (cf. Laudato Si’, 53). Meeting this challenge in an effective way is all the more important in the light of our rapidly evolving global society, marked by social and economic crises and intergenerational conflicts. I am confident that your University will strive to produce future leaders sensitive to the profound ethical issues facing our societies and the need to protect and care for the most vulnerable of our brothers and sisters. For only by serving an integral human development can science and the arts display their full dignity.
I thank you for your visit, and I pray that you will always thirst for that wisdom which is a divine gift enabling us to lead good and productive lives. May the Lord bless you, your families and your important work.
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Monday, October 23, 2017
Pope Francis: letter to Card. Filoni on World Mission Sunday
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has sent a letter to the Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, Cardinal Fernando Filoni, on occasion of the 2017 iteration of World Mission Sunday. In the letter, the Holy Father reflects on the upcoming centenary of the great missionary charter of the 20th century, the Apostolic Letter Maximum illud of his predecessor, Pope Benedict XV, promulgated on November 30th, 1919.
Below, please find the full text of the letter in its official English translation
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To my Venerable Brother
Cardinal Fernando Filoni
Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples
On 30 November 2019, we will celebrate the hundredth anniversary of the promulgation of the Apostolic Letter Maximum Illud, with which Pope Benedict XV sought to give new impetus to the missionary task of proclaiming the Gospel. In 1919, in the wake of a tragic global conflict that he himself called a “useless slaughter,”[1] the Pope recognized the need for a more evangelical approach to missionary work in the world, so that it would be purified of any colonial overtones and kept far away from the nationalistic and expansionistic aims that had proved so disastrous. “The Church of God is universal; she is not alien to any people,”[2] he wrote, firmly calling for the rejection of any form of particular interest, inasmuch as the proclamation and the love of the Lord Jesus, spread by holiness of one’s life and good works, are the sole purpose of missionary activity. Benedict XV thus laid special emphasis on the missio ad gentes, employing the concepts and language of the time, in an effort to revive, particularly among the clergy, a sense of duty towards the missions.
That duty is a response to Jesus’ perennial command to “go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature” (Mk 16:15). Obeying this mandate of the Lord is not an option for the Church: in the words of the Second Vatican Council, it is her “essential task,”[3] for the Church is “missionary by nature.”[4] “Evangelizing is in fact the grace and vocation proper to the Church, her deepest identity; she exists in order to evangelize.”[5] The Council went on to say that, if the Church is to remain faithful to herself and to preach Jesus crucified and risen for all, the living and merciful Saviour, then “prompted by the Holy Spirit, she must walk the same path Christ walked: a path of poverty and obedience, of service and self-sacrifice.”[6] In this way, she will effectively proclaim the Lord, “model of that redeemed humanity, imbued with brotherly love, sincerity and a peaceful spirit, to which all aspire.”[7]
What Pope Benedict XV so greatly desired almost a century ago, and the Council reiterated some fifty years ago, remains timely. Even now, as in the past, “the Church, sent by Christ to reveal and to communicate the love of God to all men and nations, is aware that there still remains an enormous missionary task for her to accomplish.”[8] In this regard, Saint John Paul II noted that “the mission of Christ the Redeemer, which is entrusted to the Church, is still very far from completion,” and indeed, “an overall view of the human race shows that this mission is still only beginning and that we must commit ourselves wholeheartedly to its service.”[9] As a result, in words that I would now draw once more to everyone’s attention, Saint John Paul exhorted the Church to undertake a “renewed missionary commitment”, in the conviction that missionary activity “renews the Church, revitalizes faith and Christian identity, and offers fresh enthusiasm and new incentive. Faith is strengthened when it is given to others! It is in commitment to the Church’s universal mission that the new evangelization of Christian peoples will find inspiration and support.”[10]
In my Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, drawing from the proceedings of the Thirteenth Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, which met to reflect on the new evangelization for the transmission of the Christian faith, I once more set this urgent summons before the whole Church. There I wrote, “John Paul II asked us to recognize that ‘there must be no lessening of the impetus to preach the Gospel’ to those who are far from Christ, ‘because this is the first task of the Church.’ Indeed, ‘today missionary activity still represents the greatest challenge for the Church’ and ‘the missionary task must remain foremost.’ What would happen if we were to take these words seriously? We would realize that missionary outreach is paradigmatic for all the Church’s activity.”[11]
I am convinced that this challenge remains as urgent as ever. “[It] has a programmatic significance and important consequences. I hope that all communities will devote the necessary effort to advancing along the path of a pastoral and missionary conversion that cannot leave things as they presently are. ‘Mere administration’ can no longer be enough. Throughout the world, let us be ‘permanently in a state of mission.’”[12] Let us not fear to undertake, with trust in God and great courage, “a missionary option capable of transforming everything, so that the Church’s customs, ways of doing things, times and schedules, language and structures can be suitably channeled for the evangelization of today’s world rather than for her self-preservation. The renewal of structures demanded by pastoral conversion can only be understood in this light: as part of an effort to make them more mission-oriented, to make ordinary pastoral activity on every level more inclusive and open, to inspire in pastoral workers a constant desire to go forth and in this way to elicit a positive response from all those whom Jesus summons to friendship with himself. As John Paul II told the Bishops of Oceania, ‘All renewal in the Church must have mission as its goal if it is not to fall prey to a kind of ecclesial introversion.’”[13]
The Apostolic Letter Maximum Illud called for transcending national boundaries and bearing witness, with prophetic spirit and evangelical boldness, to God’s saving will through the Church’s universal mission. May the approaching centenary of that Letter serve as an incentive to combat the recurring temptation lurking beneath every form of ecclesial introversion, self-referential retreat into comfort zones, pastoral pessimism and sterile nostalgia for the past. Instead, may we be open to the joyful newness of the Gospel. In these, our troubled times, rent by the tragedies of war and menaced by the baneful tendency to accentuate differences and to incite conflict, may the Good News that in Jesus forgiveness triumphs over sin, life defeats death and love conquers fear, be proclaimed to the world with renewed fervour, and instil trust and hope in everyone.
In the light of this, accepting the proposal of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, I hereby call for an Extraordinary Missionary Month to be celebrated in October 2019, with the aim of fostering an increased awareness of the missio ad gentes and taking up again with renewed fervour the missionary transformation of the Church’s life and pastoral activity. The Missionary Month of October 2018 can serve as a good preparation for this celebration by enabling all the faithful to take to heart the proclamation of the Gospel and to help their communities grow in missionary and evangelizing zeal. May the love for the Church’s mission, which is “a passion for Jesus and a passion for his people,”[14] grow ever stronger!
I entrust you, venerable Brother, the Congregation which you head, and the Pontifical Missionary Societies with the work of preparing for this event, especially by raising awareness among the particular Churches, the Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, and among associations, movements, communities and other ecclesial bodies. May the Extraordinary Missionary Month prove an intense and fruitful occasion of grace, and promote initiatives and above all prayer, the soul of all missionary activity. May it likewise advance the preaching of the Gospel, biblical and theological reflection on the Church’s mission, works of Christian charity, and practical works of cooperation and solidarity between Churches, so that missionary zeal may revive and never be wanting among us.[15]
From the Vatican, 22 October 2017
XXIX Sunday of Ordinary Time
Memorial of Saint John Paul II
World Mission Sunday
[1] Letter to the Leaders of the Warring Peoples, 1 August 1917: AAS IX (1917), 421-423.
[2] Benedict XV, Apostolic Letter Maximum Illud, 30 November 1919: AAS 11 (1919), 445.
[3] Decree on the Missionary Activity of the Church Ad Gentes, 7 December 1965, 7: AAS 58 (1966), 955.
[4] Ibid., 2: AAS 58 (1966), 948.
[5] Paul VI, Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi, 8 December 1975, 14: AAS 68 (1976), 13.
[6] Decree Ad Gentes, 5: AAS 58 (1966), 952.
[7] Ibid., 8: AAS 58 (1966), 956-957.
[8] Ibid., 10: AAS 58 (1966), 959.
[9] Encyclical Letter Redemptoris Missio, 7 December 1990, 1: AAS 83 (1991), 249.
[10] Ibid., 2: AAS 83 (1991), 250-251.
[11] Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium 15: AAS 105 (2013), 1026.
[12] Ibid., 25: AAS 105 (2013), 1030.
[13] Ibid., 27: AAS 105 (2013), 1031.
[14] Ibid., 268: AAS 105 (2013), 1128.
[15] Ibid., 80: AAS 105 (2013), 1053.
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Pope Francis at Angelus: on being Christian in the world
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis prayed the Angelus with pilgrims and tourists gathered in St. Peter’s Square on Sunday.
Addressing them ahead of the traditional prayer of Marian devotion, Pope Francis shared a reflection on the Reading from the Sunday Gospel, which this week came from St. Matthew and contains the maxim, “Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s, and render unto God what is God’s.”
Pope Francis explained that the episode teaches us both the legitimacy of earthly authority and the primacy of God in human affairs and over all the universe.
“The Christian is called to be concretely committed in human and social realities,” said Pope Francis, “without putting God and ‘Caesar’ in contraposition.” He said that counterposing God and Caesar would be, “a fundamentalist attitude.”
“The Christian,” Pope Francis continued, “is called upon to engage concretely in earthly realities, but enlightening them with the light that comes from God. Entrusting oneself to God in the first, and placing one’s hope in Him, do not require us to escape from reality, but rather to work diligently to render unto Him, all that it His. That is why the believer looks to future reality, to that of God: that he might live his earthly life in fullness, and respond with courage to its challenges.”
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Pope Francis at Angelus: Church's mission entrusted to Pope St. John Paul II
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has proclaimed October, 2019 an “Extraordinary Missionary Month” to be marked and celebrated in the whole Church throughout the world, and entrusted the mission of the Church in the world especially to Pope St. John Paul II.
The Holy Father recalled his intention to celebrate the Extraordinary Missionary Month on Sunday – World Mission Sunday – during the course of remarks to pilgrims and tourists gathered in St. Peter’s Square beneath the window of the Papal apartments in the Apostolic Palace, to pray the traditional Angelus with him at noon.
“Today,” said Pope Francis, “World Mission Day is celebrated, on the theme: Mission at the heart of the Christian faith. I urge everyone to live the joy of mission by witnessing the Gospel in the environs where each one lives and works.”
The Holy Father went on to say, “At the same time, we are called upon to support with affection, concrete help, and prayer, the missionaries who have gone out to proclaim Christ to those who still do not know Him.”
“I also recall,” he continued, “that I intend to promote an Extraordinary Missionary Month in October 2019, in order to nourish the ardor of the evangelizing activity of the Church ad gentes. On the day of the liturgical memory of Saint John Paul II, missionary Pope, we entrust to his intercession the mission of the Church in the world.”
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Thursday, October 19, 2017
Pope meets students, staff of “Institution des Chartreux”
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Thursday urged students of a French Catholic School to watch out against the lure and slavery of money, and train themselves to be promoters and defenders of equality and justice in the world.
Some 80 students and staff of Institution des Chartreux of Lyons, in Rome as part of their semester, met the Pope in the Vatican. Known commonly as Les Chartreux, the private school is managed by the Carthusians.
Lure and slavery of money
The Pope expressed satisfaction that while they were preparing themselves to enter the big commercial schools to pursue professional careers in the world of finance, their current academic formation at Les Chartreux was providing them a strong human, philosophical and cultural dimension. “It is essential,” he said, “that from now on and in your future professional life you learn to be free from the ‘lure of money’, from the slavery into which money shuts those who worship it.” He said it is also important that they have the “strength and courage not to blindly obey the invisible hand of the market.” “Hence,” he said, “I encourage you to make the best of your study time to train yourselves to become promoters and defenders of growth in equity, and artisans of an upright and adequate administration of our common home, the world.”
Just and humane world
Pope Francis further exhorted them to become responsible for this world and for the life of every man, never forgetting that “every injustice against a poor person is an open wound and belittles your very dignity.” He told the students to find the means and the time to take on the path of brotherhood to create bridges rather than walls among men in order to add their stone to building a more just and humane society. He concluded encouraging them to work for good and be a humble seed of a new world.
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Wednesday, October 18, 2017
Pope addresses “Religions for Peace” delegation
(Vatican Radio) “Religions, with their spiritual and moral resources, have a specific and unique role to play in building peace,” Pope Francis said on Wednesday. “They cannot be neutral, much less ambiguous, where peace is concerned,” he told a delegation of 80 members of “Religions for Peace”, who met him in the Vatican.
Religions for Peace is the world’s largest and most representative multi-religious coalition that advances common action among the world’s religious communities to transform violent conflict, advance human development, promote just and harmonious societies, and protect the earth.
Peace and justice
Noting that “peace is both a divine gift and a human achievement,” the Pope said “believers of all religions are called to implore peace and to intercede for it.” He stressed that “peacemaking and the pursuit of justice go together,” and said that “all men and women of good will, particularly those in positions of responsibility, are summoned to work for peace with their hearts, minds and hands.”
Violence in God’s name
Pope Francis once again denounced violence in the name of religion saying, “they gravely offend God, who is peace and the source of peace, and has left in human beings a reflection of his wisdom, power and beauty.”
Care for creation
The Pontiff expressed appreciation for the efforts of Religions for Peace, saying “religions are bound by their very nature to promote peace through justice, fraternity, disarmament and care for creation.” He said there is a “need for a common and cooperative effort on the part of the religions in promoting an integral ecology.” Religions, he noted have the “wherewithal to further a moral covenant that can promote respect for the dignity of the human person and care for creation.” The Pope expressed satisfaction that there are many examples of the power of interreligious cooperation around the world that oppose violent conflicts, advance sustainable development and protect the earth.
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Pope’s condolence for death of Philippine Cardinal Ricardo Vidal
Pope Francis has expressed his condolence for Philippine Cardinal Ricardo Vidal, who passed away in Cebu on Wednesday. The 86-year old prelate who was Archbishop of Cebu for nearly 3 decades until his retirement in 2010, died of complications from pneumonia.
Pope Francis sent a telegram to Archbishop Jose S. Palma of Cebu, expressing gratitude for Cardinal Vidal’s “untiring and devoted service to the Church, and for his constant advocacy of dialogue and peace for all the people in the Philippines”.
Please find below the text of the Pope’s condolence telegram:
The Most Reverend Jose S. Palma
Archbishop of Cebu
Deeply saddened to learn of the death of Cardinal Ricardo Vidal, I extend my sincere condolences to you, and to the clergy, religious and lay faithful of the Archdiocese of Cebu. Joining with you in expressing profound gratitude for the late Cardinal’s untiring and devoted service to the Church, and for his constant advocacy of dialogue and peace for all the people in the Philippines, I commend his soul to the infinite love and mercy of our heavenly Father. As a pledge of consolation and hope in the Lord, to all who mourn his passing in the certain hope of the Resurrection, I willingly impart my Apostolic Blessing
FRANCISCUS PP.
Cardinal Ricardo J. Vidal, Archbishop emeritus of Cebu (Philippines), was born on 6 February 1931 in Mogpoc, Philippines. He did his studies at the minor seminary of the Most Holy Rosary (which later assumed the title of Our Lady of Carmel) and at the seminary of San Carlo.
He was ordained on 17 March 1956. The Bishop of Lucena entrusted him as spiritual director of the local seminary of Mount Carmel. He then became superior of the same institute and was dedicated to the formation of the young candidates to priesthood until 10 September 1971, when he was named Coadjutor Bishop of Malolos, Bulacan, and was elected to the titular church of Claterna. He received episcopal ordination on 30 November 1971. On 22 August 1973 he was named Archbishop of Lipa in Batangas.
On 13 April 1981 he was named Coadjutor with the right of succession to the Archbishop of Cebu, Cardinal Julio Rosales. He was named Archbishop on 24 August 1982.
He served as president of the Bishops’ Commission for Vocations within the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines. He was also vice-president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference and then president from 1985 to 1987.
He was created and proclaimed Cardinal by John Paul II in the Consistory of 25 May 1985,with the Title of Ss. Pietro e Paolo in Via Ostiense (Sts. Peter and Paul in Via Ostiense, Rome).
In a message, Cebu archdiocese’s spokesman Msgr. Joseph Tan said the prelate died due to infection leading to septic shock at the city’s Perpetual Succour Hospital where he was hospitalized on Oct 11 when he became seriously ill.
Requesting prayers for the prelate’s soul, Tan said the details of funeral rites will be made available as soon as possible.
A native of Mogpog, Marinduque, Vidal was ordained a priest in 1956 by Bishop and Servant of God Alfredo Maria Aranda Obviar.
Then Pope John Paul II appointed Vidal head of the Cebu archdiocese in 1982. He retired in 2011.
In a statement released shortly after Vidal’s death, CBCP president Archbishop Socrates Villegas stressed Vidal’s legacy will live on despite his passing.
“Cardinal Vidal cannot die. He who has always shared in the dying and rising of the Lord daily in his priestly life cannot die. He now joins the immortal ones who served the Lord faithfully here on earth. His wisdom and his humility, his love for priests and his devotion to the Virgin Mary must live on in us whom he has left behind,” he said. Archbishop Villegas also expressed hope in Cardinal Vidal’s intercession for the faithful. “Rest well Eminence. Pray for us in the Father’s House.”
Meanwhile Cotabato Archbishop Orlando Cardinal Quevedo praised Card Vidal for being a “true servant-leader rather than a ‘prince.’”
“For me his legacy is his own outstanding character. Some of these are: Humility, low profile style; Simplicity and Approachability; Ability to listen even to opposing views; Prudence in political issues; Courage in presenting and defending the CBCP position leading to the 1986 People Power; Charity for those considered as ‘enemies,’” he said in a message to CBCPNews.
With the death of Card. Vidal, the number of cardinals worldwide now stands at 219, of whom 120 are below the age of 80, hence are eligible to vote for a new pope. Ninety-nine are non-voters.
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Pope at General Audience: 'Jesus came to save us from death'
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Wednesday reminded Christians that Jesus came to heal us and to save us from death. He also prayed for the over 300 victims of a deadly bombing in Somalia's capital Mogadishu and condemned the terrorist attack that falls on an ravaged tortured nation.
He was addressing the pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square for the Wednesday General Audience, during which he continued his catechesis on Christian Hope.
Noting that death is a reality that modern civilization “tends, more and more, to set aside” and not reflect upon, Pope Francis said that for believers death is actually “a door” and a call to live for something greater.
For those “in doubt”, he added, it contains a glimmer of light that shines through a slightly open threshold.
For all of us, he continued, in the mystery of death is a grace and that light will shine for everyone.
Prepare for death
The pope invited those present to think of the moment of their death and imagine the time when Jesus will take us by hand and say: “come, rise and come with me”.
In that moment, he said, hope will end and it will become reality.
Often, he continued we find ourselves unprepared to face death, and yet for centuries past civilizations had the courage to face this inevitable reality. Older generations taught the younger to see that inescapable event as a call to live for something enduring, greater than themselves.
Pointing out that our days, no matter how many they are, pass like a breath, Francis said “death lays bare our lives” forcing us to acknowledge that all those actions born from pride, anger and hatred” were useless and vain.
To the contrary, he said, it highlights how all the good things that we have sown have germinated and now “hold us by the hand”.
Jesus will take us by the hand
Jesus, the Pope explained, is the one who ultimately helps us to confront the mystery of death. He shows us that it is natural to weep and to mourn the loss of a loved one, just as he wept at Lazarus’ death.
But he did not only mourn, he also prayed to the Father and called Lazarus from the tomb pointing out that “Here is our Christian hope: Jesus has come to heal us, to save us from death”.
Recalling the gospel story of Jairus who turned to Jesus in faith asking him to save his sick daughter, and Jesus’s exhortation: “Do not fear, only believe”, the Pope urged Christians not to be afraid, but to keep the flame of faith burning.
Jesus, Francis said, puts us on this “ridge” of faith: every time death comes to tear us away from the fabric of live and our earthly ties, Jesus is there reminding us that He is the resurrection and the life.
We are all small and defenseless before the mystery of death, Pope Francis concluded, but if we keep the flame of faith alive in our hearts, Jesus will take us by the hand, just as he did with Jairus’ daughter when he said: "Talitha cum" which means, "Little girl, I say to you, arise. To each of us, he concluded, he will say: “I say to you, arise.”
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Pope Francis deplores Mogadishu terror attack
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has condemned the terrorist attack that killed over 300 people, including children, in the Somali capital Mogadishu.
Speaking during the weekly General Audience in St. Peter’s Square, the Pope said he wished to express his sorrow for the massacre that took place on Saturday.
“This terrorist act , he said, deserves to be most strongly deplored, also because it falls on a population that is already suffering deeply”.
The Pope said he is praying for the dead, for the wounded, for their families and for the whole people of Somalia.
“I implore the conversion of those who are violent and send my encouragement to those, who with enormous difficulties, are working for peace in that tortured land” he said.
On the ground in Mogadishu nearly 70 people are still missing from Saturday's bomb blast that killed more than 300 people in one of the world's deadliest attacks in years
The death toll of 302 is expected to rise.
Somalia’s government has blamed the attack on the al-Shabab extremist group, which has not commented.
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Pope General Audience: English Summary
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Wednesday reminded Christians that Jesus came to heal us and to save us from death.
He was addressing the pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square for the weekly General Audience, during which he continued his catechesis on Christian Hope.
Please find below the English Summary of the Pope’s catechesis:
Dear Brothers and Sisters: this morning I wish to reflect on Christian hope and the reality of death, a reality which our modern world so often leaves us unprepared to face. Past civilizations had the courage to face death, and older generations taught the younger to see that inescapable event as a call to live for something enduring, greater than themselves. For our days, no matter how many they are, pass like a breath. It is Jesus, however, that ultimately helps us to confront this mystery. He shows us that it is natural to mourn the loss of a loved one. For he too wept at Lazarus’ death. But he did not only mourn; he also prayed to the Father and called Lazarus from the tomb. Here is our Christian hope: Jesus has come to heal us, to save us from death. He says: “I am the resurrection and the life” (Jn 11:25); if we believe in him, even if we die, we will live. In the face of our sorrow, Jesus invites us to faith in him. This is our hope: when we mourn, we know that Christ remains always close to us. And one day, when we too face death, we will hear Jesus’s voice: “I say to you, arise” (Mk 5:41).
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Tuesday, October 17, 2017
Monday, October 16, 2017
Pope appeals for end to conflicts, climate change in fight against hunger, migration
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Monday appealed to the international community not only to guarantee enough production and fair distribution of food for all but also to ensure the right of every human being to feed himself according to his needs without being forced to leave his home and loved ones.
He made the call at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Rome, where he marked World Food Day, which this year has as its theme, “Change the future of migration. Invest in Food Security and rural development.” (Click here for the video of the Pope's FAO visit)
Conflicts and climate-change
Addressing the UN’s specialized agency that leads the international community’s fight against hunger and malnutrition in the world, the Pope urged governments to work together to end the conflicts and climate-change related disasters that force people to leave their homes in search of their daily bread. Citing the 2016 Paris climate accord in which governments committed themselves to combatting global warming, the Pope who spoke in Spanish, regretted that “unfortunately some are distancing themselves from it.”
He noted that negligence and greed over the world's limited resources are harming the planet and its most vulnerable people, forcing many to abandon their homes in search of work and food. He called for a change in lifestyle and the use of resources, adding it cannot be left for others to do.
World hunger
A UN report in September pointed out that the number of chronically hungry people in the world was growing once more after a decade of decline because of ongoing conflicts and floods and droughts triggered by climate change. While the 815 million chronically undernourished people last year is still below the 900 million registered in 2000, the UN warned that the increase is cause for great concern.
Love, fraternity, solidarity
Describing population control as a “false solution” to tackling hunger and malnutrition in the world, Pope Francis said what is needed instead is a better management of the earth’s abundant resources and prevention of waste in food and resources. What is needed, he said, is a new model of international cooperation based on love, fraternity and solidarity that respond to the needs of the poorest. Pity, he pointed out, is limited to emergency aid, but love inspires justice that is needed to bring about a just social order.
As a token of his visit and message, Pope Francis gifted to the UN food agency a marble sculpture of Aylan, the three-year-old Syrian toddler of Kurdish origin, whose image in the media made global headlines after his body washed up on a Turkish beach in September 2015 after he drowned in the Mediterranean Sea. The Vatican explained that the sculpture featuring a weeping angel over the little boy's corpse, symbolized the tragedy of migration.
(from Vatican Radio)
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Sunday, October 15, 2017
Pope Francis: Do not distance yourself from South Sudan
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has called on the international community not to forget South Sudan and in particular the serious humanitarian emergency unfolding there.
The Pope made the call on South Sudan in a Preface he wrote to a new book on South Sudan. The book, published in Italian, is authored by Comboni Missionary, Father Daniele Moschetti. It was launched over the weekend, in Italy, Rome.
“Usually Missionaries are the ones to tell (the world) about lives lived on the periphery on behalf of the poor. So too is this testimony of Father Daniele Moschetti, a Comboni missionary, who offers a compelling account of the generous and passionate commitment of so many missionaries living side by side with those in need and, above all, of those who suffer because of ongoing conflicts that cause death and destruction,” Pope Francis wrote in the Preface.
Pope Francis has implored the international community, and everyone who believes in the Gospel not to give-up on South Sudan because to do so would be to betray the lesson of the Gospel.
“I feel the importance and need of raising this kind of awareness in the international community on a silent drama, which requires everyone's commitment to a solution that would end the ongoing conflict. To distance one’ self from the problems of humanity, especially in a context such as that which afflicts South Sudan, would be to "forget the lesson from the Gospel about the love of neighbour suffering and in need," the Holy Father emphasised.
The book, “South Sudan: The Long and Sorrowful Path towards Peace, Justice, and Dignity,” published in Italian as “Sud Sudan: Il lungo e sofferto cammino verso pace, giustizia e dignità” is a collection of Moschetti’s personal experiences of a land in which he lived and one to which he is still attached. It is part diary; part missionary chronicle and commentary. The book is a rich account of information which tackles a very complicated conflict while avoiding a patronising or know-it-all attitude.
Moschetti provides much-needed context often lacking in the usual 140 twitter character headline. More importantly, the book is an attempt to break through, in a personal way, and draw attention to a forgotten but real humanitarian emergency taking place right under our averted gaze. Moschetti is concerned that, in mainstream Western media, migration and African conflicts are often portrayed in a distorted or simplistic manner.
An Italian Comboni Missionary priest, Fr. Moschetti studied Theology in Nairobi and worked for 11 years, as a missionary, in the Kenyan slums of Kibera and Korogocho. Between 2009 to 2016 Fr. Moschetti was assigned to South Sudan.
During Moschetti’s book launch, at Radio Vatican, another Comboni Missionary and renowned journalist, Fr. Giulio Albanese described South Sudan as a forgotten nation. His hope is that one day Pope Francis visits South Sudan and perhaps help focus the world’s attention on this troubled country –just as he did for the Central African Republic in 2015. In an unprecedented move, Pope Francis launched the Jubilee Year of Mercy in Bangui, Central African Republic, in November 2015.
Notwithstanding the odds in South Sudan, Fr. Albanese spoke of a civil society that actually exists there is trying to make a difference. He said civil society activists there need the support of the international community.
Present at the book launch was Ethiopian national, Fr. Tesfaye Tadesse Gebresilasie, the Superior General of Comboni Missionaries.
During the Wednesday Papal audience of 11 October, in Saint Peter's Square, Moschetti gave Pope Francis a copy of his book. The Pope told Moschetti: “I really would like to go to this country (South Sudan). I would like to go there as soon as it is possible.”
“Sud Sudan: Il lungo e sofferto cammino verso pace, giustizia e dignità,” 250 pp., 14 Euro, is published by Dissensi. In the meantime, Fr. Moschetti has taken up an advocacy appointment in New York and Washington.
(Fr. Paul Samasumo, Vatican Radio)
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Pope Francis canonizes 35 new saints
(Vatican Radio) Inviting all faithful to practice Christian love every day, Pope Francis on Sunday canonized 35 new saints, nearly all of them martyrs, holding them up as models who “point the way”.
To the over 35,000 pilgrims gathered in St. Peter's Square for the Canonization Mass, he said “They did not say a fleeting ‘yes’ to love, they said ‘yes’ with their lives and to the very end”.
Those canonized included thirty martyrs, both priests and lay persons, who suffered anti-Catholic persecution in 1645 at the hands of Dutch Calvinists in Brazil, while three indigenous children in 16th century Mexico were martyred for refusing to renounce their Catholic faith and return to their ancient traditions. The other two new saints are a 20th-century priest from Spain and an Italian priest who died in 1739.
Please find below the full text of the Pope’s homily for the Mass of Canonization:
The parable we have just heard describes the Kingdom of God as a wedding feast (cf. Mt 22:1-14). The central character is the king’s son, the bridegroom, in whom we can easily see Jesus. The parable makes no mention of the bride, but only of the guests who were invited and expected, and those who wore the wedding garments. We are those guests, because the Lord wants “to celebrate the wedding” with us. The wedding inaugurates a lifelong fellowship, the communion God wants to enjoy with all of us. Our relationship with him, then, has to be more than that of devoted subjects with their king, faithful servants with their master, or dedicated students with their teacher. It is above all the relationship of a beloved bride with her bridegroom. In other words, the Lord wants us, he goes out to seek us and he invites us. For him, it is not enough that we should do our duty and obey his laws. He desires a true communion of life with us, a relationship based on dialogue, trust and forgiveness.
Such is the Christian life, a love story with God. The Lord freely takes the initiative and no one can claim to be the only one invited. No one has a better seat than anyone else, for all enjoy God’s favour. The Christian life is always born and reborn of this tender, special and privileged love. We can ask ourselves if at least once a day we tell the Lord that we love him; if we remember, among everything else we say, to tell him daily, “Lord, I love you; you are my life”. Because once love is lost, the Christian life becomes empty. It becomes a body without a soul, an impossible ethic, a collection of rules and laws to obey for no good reason. The God of life, however, awaits a response of life. The Lord of love awaits a response of love. Speaking to one of the Churches in the Book of Revelation, God makes an explicit reproach: “You have abandoned your first love” (cf. Rev 2:4). This is the danger – a Christian life that becomes routine, content with “normality”, without drive or enthusiasm, and with a short memory. Instead, let us fan into flame the memory of our first love. We are the beloved, the guests at the wedding, and our life is a gift, because every day is a wonderful opportunity to respond to God’s invitation.
The Gospel, however, warns us that the invitation can be refused. Many of the invited guests said no, because they were caught up in their own affairs. “They made light of it and went off, one to his farm, another to his business” (Mt 22:5). Each was concerned with his own affairs; this is the key to understanding why they refused the invitation. The guests did not think that the wedding feast would be dreary or boring; they simply “made light of it”. They were caught up in their own affairs. They were more interested in having something rather than in risking something, as love demands. This is how love grows cold, not out of malice but out of a preference for what is our own: our security, our self-affirmation, our comfort… We settle into the easy chair of profits, pleasures, or a hobby that brings us some happiness. And we end up aging badly and quickly, because we grow old inside. When our hearts do not expand, they become closed in on themselves. When everything depends on me – on what I like, on what serves me best, on what I want – then I become harsh and unbending. I lash out at people for no reason, like the guests in the Gospel, who treated shamefully and ultimately killed (cf. v. 6) those sent to deliver the invitation, simply because they were bothering them.
The Gospel asks us, then, where we stand: with ourselves or with God? Because God is the opposite of selfishness, of self-absorption. The Gospel tells us that, even before constant rejection and indifference on the part of those whom he invites, God does not cancel the wedding feast. He does not give up, but continues to invite. When he hears a “no”, he does not close the door, but broadens the invitation. In the face of wrongs, he responds with an even greater love. When we are hurt by the unfair treatment of others or their rejection, we frequently harbour grudges and resentment. God on the other hand, while hurt by our “no”, tries again; he keeps doing good even for those who do evil. Because this is what love does. Because this is the only way that evil is defeated. Today our God, who never abandons hope, tells us to do what he does, to live in true love, to overcome resignation and the whims of our peevish and lazy selves.
There is one last idea that the Gospel emphasizes: the mandatory garment of the invited guests. It is not enough to respond just once to the invitation, simply to say “yes” and then do nothing else. Day by day, we have to put on the wedding garment, the “habit” of practising love. We cannot say, “Lord, Lord”, without experiencing and putting into practice God’s will (cf. Mt 7:21). We need to put on God’s love and to renew our choice for him daily. The Saints who were canonized today, and especially the many martyrs, point the way. They did not say a fleeting “yes” to love; they said they “yes” with their lives and to the very end. The robe they wore daily was the love of Jesus, that “mad” love that loved us to the end and offered his forgiveness and his robe to those who crucified him. At baptism we received a white robe, the wedding garment for God. Let us ask him, through the intercession of the saints, our brothers and sisters, for the grace to decide daily to put on this garment and to keep it spotless. How can we do this? Above all, by approaching the Lord fearlessly in order to receive his forgiveness. This is the one step that counts, for entering into the wedding hall to celebrate with him the feast of love.
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Pope announces Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon region
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has announced a special assembly of the Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon region that will focus on the needs of its indigenous people, on new paths for evangelization and on the crisis of the rain forest.
The Pope’s announcement came on Sunday during the Angelus after a canonization Mass during which he canonized 35 new saints, including three indigenous children martyred in 16th century Mexico.
“Accepting the desire of some Catholic Bishops’ Conferences in Latin America, as well as the voice of various pastors and faithful from other parts of the world, I have decided to convene a Special Assembly of the Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon region, which will take place in Rome in the month October 2019” he said.
Evangelization, indigenous people, crisis of rain forest
The main purpose of the Amazon synod, the Pope explained, will be to “identify new paths for the evangelization of God’s people in that region”.
Special attention, he added, will be paid to the indigenous people who are “often forgotten and without the prospect of a serene future, also because of the crisis of the Amazonian rain forest, a ‘lung’ of primary importance for our planet.”
REPAM
In 2014 The Catholic Church in Pan-Amazonia founded a Pan-Amazon Ecclesial Network – REPAM - as “God's answer to this heartfelt and urgent need to care for the life of people so they are able to live in harmony with nature, starting from the widespread and varied presence of members and structures of the Church in Pan-Amazonia”.
REPAM is constituted not only by the regional Bishops’ Conferences, but also by priests, missionaries of congregations who work in the Amazon jungle, national representatives of Caritas and laypeople belonging to various Church bodies in the region.
As reported on the REPAM website “The Amazon territory is the largest tropical forest in the world. It covers six million square kilometers and includes the territories of Guyana, Suriname and French Guyana, Venezuela, Ecuador, Colombia, Bolivia, Peru and Brazil. It is home to 2,779,478 indigenous people, comprising 390 indigenous tribes and 137 isolated (uncontacted) peoples with their valuable ancestral cultures, and 240 spoken languages belonging to 49 linguistic families”.
It is “a territory that is devastated and threatened by the concessions made by States to transnational corporations. Large-scale mining projects, monoculture and climate change place its lands and natural environment at great risk”, leading to the destruction of cultures, undermining the self-determination of peoples and above all affronting Christ incarnate in the people who live there (indigenous and riparian peoples, peasant farmers, afro-descendants and urban populations).
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Pope sends video-message to pilgrims in Fatima for end of Centenary celebrations
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis sent a video-message to pilgrims gathered in Fatima to mark the closing of the Centenary of the Fatima Apparitions.
“Never be afraid, God is infinitely greater than all of our problems. He loves us very much. Go forward in your journey without losing sight of the Mother, like a child who feels safe when close to his mother, we too are safe when close to Our Lady” he said.
In his message which was broadcast on giant screens at the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Fatima on 13 October, the Pope recalled his own pilgrimage to Fatima in May and the blessings received and he urged the faithful “never to put the Rosary aside, but to continue to recite it as She asked”.
(from Vatican Radio)
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Pope to declare 35 new saints on Sunday
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis will declare 33 martyrs and 2 others from Brazil, Mexico, Spain and Italy, as the Catholic Church’s new saints on Sunday at a Canonization Mass in Rome’s St. Peter’s Square.
They include 30 so-called “Matryrs of Natal”, including priests and lay people, who were killed in 1645 in a wave of anti-Catholic persecution by Dutch Calvinists in Natal, Brazil.
Another group of 3 indigenous martyrs from Mexico - Cristobal, Antonio and Juan – known as the "Child Martyrs of Tlaxcala" will also be canonized. Aged between 12 and 13, the children were among the first indigenous Catholics of Mexico who were killed between 1527 and 1529 for refusing to renounce their faith and return to their ancient traditions.
Among the new saints will also be two European priests. One of them is Spanish Piarist Father, Manuel Míguez González, the founder of the Daughters of the Divine Shepherdess, or the Calasanzian Institute. He died in 1925. The other is Italian Cappuchin priest, Fr. Angelo da Acri, who died in 1739.
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Pope to attend high-level forum on 60 years of EU
(Vatican Radio) A high-level forum of dialogue to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the “Treaty of Rome”, that established the European Community, will take place in the Vatican end of October, in which Pope Francis will participate. Organized by the Holy See and the Commission of the Bishops' Conferences of the European Community (COMECE), the October 27-29 congress on the theme, “(Re)thinking Europe” will see hundreds of high-level Church and European Union political representatives join other grassroots actors to contribute to a constructive reflection on the fundamental challenges facing the European project.
Organizers said the meeting will be in the form of a dialogue, with workshops and debates, to facilitate a frank and open discussion between stakeholders of different geographic, cultural, religious and linguistic backgrounds, putting in practice the motto of the EU: “unity in diversity”. “Willing to work for the common good and to put human dignity at the center of public policies, the participants will be called to look for new ways to involve all actors in the society in their respective religious or political responsibilities,” organizers said.
Pope Francis will address the participants on 28 October to reiterate his sincere engagement to a common reflection on the future of the EU and recall the commitment of the Church to this Peace project.
What is the European Community today was born as the European Economic Community (EEC) with the signing of the “Treaty of Rome” on 25 March 1957 by Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and West Germany. It came into force on 1 January 1958. The Maastricht Treaty of 1992 established the European Community and introduced the European citizenship. The 2009 Treaty of Lisbon renamed it the "Treaty on the functioning of the European Union". Since its inception, the EU has expanded to include new members. Today it has 28 member states with an estimated population of over 510 million.
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Saturday, October 14, 2017
Pope addresses Emperor Karl League of Prayer
(Vatican Radio) The challenges of our times demand the collaboration of all people of good will, especially with prayer and sacrifice. Pope Francis made the exhortation in a brief address to some 130 members of the Emperor Karl League of Prayer, who are in Rome for their annual general assembly.
The League promotes the cause of canonization of Karl I (1887-1922), the last ruler of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the last Emperor of Austria, the last King of Hungary, and the last monarch of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine. Church leaders have praised Karl for adopting Christian faith in making political decisions and for his peace efforts during World War I. The Catholic Church has recognized Karl’s heroic virtues and a miracle through his intercession, following which St. Pope John Paul II declared him Blessed on 3 October 2004.
Peace initiatives
Pope Francis noted that the general assembly of Emperor Karl League of Prayer was taking place in Rome in the context of the centenary of the peace initiatives of Pope Benedict XV, a contemporary of the Austrian Emperor, in trying to avert the disaster of WWI.
The Holy Father drew attention to the three objectives of the League – namely, seeking and observing God’s will, committing oneself to peace and justice and expiating for the injustice of history, saying they were, so to say, a recurring feature of the life of Blessed Karl as a statesman, as a husband and father of a family, and as a son of the Church. “By giving himself to the will of God,” the Pope said, “he accepted the suffering and offered his life as a sacrifice for peace, always sustained by the love and faith of his wife, the Servant of God Zita.”
Pope Francis invited the Emperor Karl League of Prayer to maintain their promise of participating in the numerous efforts of the Pope on behalf of peace with their prayers and personal sacrifices. He said he counted on them, as the Successor of Peter cannot carry out his mission in the world without the support of the prayers of the faithful.
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