(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has urged bishops and pastoral care workers to take up the challenge of bringing the Gospel into big cities with a profound change of attitude and renewed committment. In a message to participants of the International Pastoral Congress on the World’s Big Cities, held in Barcelona this week, the Pope issued…
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(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Thursday met with members of the Pauline Family, on the occasion of their 100 th anniversary, telling them that Christians have a duty to proclaim the Gospel without exception.
Listen to Lydia O’Kane’s report
One hundred years ago and against the background of the 1 st World War, Blessed James Alberione an Italian priest founded a number of Institutes between 1914 and 1959 which were known as the Pauline Family.
All are linked to one another by the same spirituality and by a profound bond of communion and use the media to proclaim the truth of the Gospel.
The Pauline Family is made up of five religious Congregations, a Lay Association and four Secular Institutes, including the Society of Saint Paul.
On the occasion of their centennial anniversary, Pope Francis received the Family on Thursday telling them that this milestone year offered them the opportunity to renew their commitment to live the faith and to communicate, particularly through publishing and multimedia tools typical of their charism.
In prepared remarks, the Pope stressed the importance of evangelization, telling those present that they must never forget that evangelization is essentially connected with the proclamation of the Gospel to those who do not know Jesus Christ or have always refused to know him.
He added that Christians have a duty to proclaim the Good News without exception.
As Catholics, the Pope said, we have this push to evangelize, and you as the Pauline Family, he continued, already have it in your blood, in your DNA by the fact that “your founder was inspired by the figure and the mission of the Apostle Paul.”
The Holy Father noted how Blessed James Alberione saw the proclamation of Christ and the Gospel to the masses as a most authentic love and necessary for men and women thirsty for truth and justice.
During his speech the Pope also called for renewal of love for the unity of the Church, even in the world of communication.
He said “All your work, apostolic zeal, must be full of this love for unity. Never encourage conflicts, never mimic those communication outlets that only seek the spectacle of the conflict and provoke scandal in souls. Always favour the unity of the Church, the Holy Father continued, the unity that Jesus asked from the Father as a gift for his bride. ”
The Pope concluded by saying that many are still waiting to know Jesus Christ and this urgent mission to evangelize requires continual personal and community conversion.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis received the participants in the plenary assembly of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life on Thursday in the Clementine Hall of the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican. From the 25 th to the 29 th of November, the participants in the plenary session are gathered to reflect on the image of new wine in new wineskins, taken from the Gospel according to St. Mark (2:22), with a focus on fostering creative fidelity to their specific callings and to their particular charisms within the broad vocation to consecrated life.
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In remarks prepared for the occasion, Pope Francis said, “In the demanding task that brings you together – that of assessing the new wine and testing the quality of the skins which must contain it – may you be guided by the criteria of originality in evangelical choices, charismatic faithfulness, the primacy of service, attention to the smallest and most fragile, respect for the dignity of each person.”
The plenary session is also taking place with a view toward the Year for Consecrated Life, which officially opens this coming Sunday, Nov. 30 th , with the first Sunday of Advent and the beginning of the new liturgical year. “We must not be afraid to leave the ‘old wineskins’, that is, to renew those habits and structures which, in the life of the Church and therefore also in the consecrated life, we recognize as no longer responsive to what God asks of us today in order to further His Kingdom in the world,” said Pope Francis, “structures that give us false protection and put a drag on the dynamism of charity; habits that distance us from the flock to which we are sent and prevent us from listening to the cry of those who await the Good News of Jesus Christ.”
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Reality can be ugly, but despite the suffering, corruption and indifference in today’s world as Christians we must hold our heads high in hope said Pope Francis at Mass Thursday morning in Casa Santa Marta.
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Basing his reflections on the Readings of the Day, Pope Francis spoke of the fate of the two cities of Babylon and Jerusalem. The Pope pointed out that both the First Reading from Revelation and the Gospel from St Luke Chapter 21, draw our attention to the end of this world.
He noted that they speak of the fall of two cities that refused to welcome the Lord and that drifted away from Him. These two cities fall for different reasons, he said. Babylon is the “symbol of evil, of sin” and “falls because of its corruption,” the city believed itself to be “the mistress of the world and of itself”. When ” sin accumulates – he warned – you lose the ability to react and you start to rot”. This also happens with “corrupt people, who do not have the strength to react”:
“Because corruption gives you some happiness, it gives you power and also makes you feel satisfied with yourself. But it leaves no room for the Lord, for conversion. The city is corrupt … this word ‘corruption’ says a lot to us today: not only economic corruption, but corruption with many different sins; the corruption of that pagan spirit, that worldly spirit. The worst [form of ] corruption is the spirit of worldliness!”.
This “corrupt culture”, he added, “makes you feel as if you were in Heaven, right here” but “within, the corrupt culture is a rotten culture”. Babylon is a symbol for “every society, every culture, every person who has distanced themselves from God, who has distanced themselves from love of neighbor, which eventually leads to rot”.
Jerusalem, however, Pope Francis said, “falls for another reason”. Jerusalem is the bride of the Lord, but is not aware of her Bridegroom’s visit, “she made the Lord weep”:
“Babylon falls because of its corruption; Jerusalem because of its distraction, its failing to welcome the Lord who comes to her rescue. She did not feel in need of salvation. She had the writings of the prophets, Moses, and this was enough. But sealed writings! She left no room for salvation: her door was closed to the Lord! The Lord was knocking at her door, but there was no willingness to receive Him, to listen, to be rescued by Him. And so she falls … ”
Pope Francis noted that these two examples, “make us ponder our own lives”: are we like “corrupt and self- sufficient Babylon” or “distracted” Jerusalem?
The Pope went on to stress that “the message of the Church in these days does not end with destruction: in both texts, there is a promise of hope”. Jesus urges us to lift up our heads, not to be “frightened by the pagans.” These, “have their time and we have to bear it with patience, as the Lord endured his Passion”:
“When we think of the end of time, with all of our sins, with our history, let us think of the banquet which will be freely offered us and let us lift up our heads. Do not give way to depression: Hope! Reality is ugly: there are many, many people, cities and people, so many people who are suffering; many wars, so much hatred, so much envy, so much spiritual worldliness and so much corruption. Yes, it’s true! All of this will fall! Let us ask the Lord for the grace to be prepared for the banquet that awaits us, always with our heads held high”.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis received the participants in the plenary assembly of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life on Thursday in the Clementine Hall of the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican. From the 25th to the 29th of November, the participants in the plenary session are gathered to reflect…
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