(Vatican Radio) Father Federico Lombardi SJ highlights some of the events that have made 2014 an extremely busy and significant year for Pope Francis.
In a long interview with Vatican Radio, the Director of the Vatican Press Office lists an impressive number of events, speeches, journeys and appeals pronounced by Pope Francis in the year gone by, and says that perhaps the most powerful images to linger in our minds are those of the Pope amongst the people: his reaching out to the faithful in every circumstance, the warmth of his embrace in particular towards children, people with disabilities or ill health.
Listing the five international apostolic journeys undertaken by Pope Francis this year, Lombardi says that each of them carried within a particular message that places the Church at the center of all the current issues of our times. During 2014 the Pope travelled to the Holy Land, to Korea, to Albania, to Strasbourg and to Turkey, and Lombardi has words for each of these visits.
He is happy, he says, that the Pope travelled to the Holy Land because it is like a journey to the roots of our faith, to the roots of Christianity, to the very places of the history of Salvation, and this he says “has a strong symbolic and spiritual power”. And pointing out the ecumenical aspect of his Holy Land visit, Lombardi speaks in particular of the strong personal relationship Pope Francis has interwoven with the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople and of how this is so important for the achievement of full Christian Unity.
And speaking of the Pope’s journey to Korea, Lombardi points out that in a couple of weeks Pope Francis will again return to the Asian continent when he journeys to Sri Lanka and to the Philippines. These visits – Lombardi points out – signal a renewed attention of the Church towards a “predominant portion of today’s and tomorrow’s humanity, both from a demographic point of view” and because of its incredible diversity: “a borderless land for evangelization in social, cultural and political situations of all kinds”.
Regarding Europe, Lombardi says that the Pope’s short journey to Albania was meaningful also for his desire to start from the periphery before going to the heart of the Continent – represented by his trip to Strasbourg when he addressed the European Parliament and the Council of Europe; a particularly powerful and wide-ranging speech with the added weight of his own non-European provenance and viewpoint.
And finally Turkey, where the significance of ecumenism was again highlighted together with interfaith dialogue and his forceful “reaching out” to the Christians (and other minorities) in the Middle East who are pouring across borders to flee persecution and death.
Another important feature of 2014 mentioned by Father Lombardi pertained to the canonizations of Saint John XXIII, Saint John Paul II and the beatification of the Blessed Paul VI. He points out that the common denominator of these great events is the message of the Second Vatican Council which was at the heart of the ministry of these three Popes, a message of an “open Church” that deeply marks the ministry of Francis himself.
The Synod for the Family, Lombardi says, provides another important theme for the year as does the Pope’s unwavering attention for justice and peace, for the poor, for those who are exploited, for human trafficking, for those persecuted for their faith.
Father Lombardi recalls the innumerable appeals Pope Francis made this year to not turn away from the dramatic situation in Syria and in Iraq, for the need to protect and support migrants and refugees, for attention towards the terrible reality of new forms of slavery including human trafficking. The Pope – Lombardi says – has mobilized the Church and all men and women of goodwill on each of these pressing issues.
Not to be forgotten is Pope Francis’s clear wish to bring reform to the Church itself and to the Curia, which Lombardi says, is part of a wide ranging project that he formulated in his Apostolic Exhortation “Evangelii Gaudium”.
Concluding, Father Lombardi says there is a concept we could use to sum up and characterize Pope Francis’ 2014 and that is: his “culture of encounter”. The Pope’s attitude, the way he relates to people, the way he always offers his personality, his personal experience, his friendship as well as this thoughts and ideas really does bring about “the encounter between people,” just as both the American and Cuban Presidents pointed out when they thanked him for providing them with a new dimension in which to start building a bridge between their peoples.
(from Vatican Radio)…
Pope’s condolences for death of Archbishop Giuseppe Pittau SJ
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has expressed his sorrow and sent his condolences to his Jesuit brothers for the death of Archbishop Giuseppe Pittau, SJ, who passed away on the night of December 26 in Kamishakujii, Tokyo.
Describing Archbishop Pittau as an “exemplary minister of God,” in his telegramme addressed to Father Adolfo Nicolas Pachon, Superior General of the Jesuit Order, the Pope recalls Pittau’s “generous missionary apostleship in Japan” and thanks God for the service he rendered to the Apostolic See and for how he dedicated himself to the Company of Jesus.
Please find below the translation of the text of the telegramme:
Reverend Father, having been informed to the passing away of His Excellency Monsignor Giuseppe Pittau, I wish to express my sincere condolences to you, to all his Jesuit brothers and to all those who grieve the death of an exemplary minister of God who lived for the cause of the Gospel. Recalling his generous missionary apostleship in Japan, where he ended his earthly life, I give thanks to the Lord for the service he rendered to the Apostolic See as Secretary of the Congregation for Catholic Education and for his work as President of Tokyo’s Sophia University as well as Rector of the Gregorian University in Rome and for his dedication to the Society of Jesus. Entrusting his soul to the maternal intercession of Our Lady I impart my Apostolic Blessing in the light of the Resurrection of Christ.
Franciscus P.P.
Born on the Italian Island of Sardinia in 1928, Giuseppe Pittau entered the Society of Jesus in 1945 and was ordained a priest in 1959. He arrived in Japan in 1952 as a Jesuit missionary, and spent most of his academic life at Sophia University.
In the words of those who knew him and worked with him he was an “intellectual, administrative, and spiritual giant”.
He played a very important role in the development of Sophia University. Among his lasting contributions were the democratic process of electing a President (voted not only by the faculty, but also by the staff), the increase in the number of students (from about 5,000 to 10,000), the addition or re-arrangement of several departments and faculties. Most admirable, according to many, was his foresight, arising from his dream of making Sophia a university that can significantly contribute to Japan by remaining faithful to its Jesuit/Catholic calling. He was especially interested in making Sophia an international university, bringing in not only European, Australian, and American professors but also Asian ones from countries like India, the Philippines, South Korea, and Sri Lanka.
After serving as President of Sophia University, Pittau moved on to become the Jesuit Provincial Superior of Japan, and it was in that capacity that he welcomed Saint Pope John Paul II to Japan in February 1981. When the hardworking Jesuit General Pedro Arrupe became incapacitated, the Pope personally requested Pittau to take over the reins of governing the Society of Jesus (together with the visually challenged Fr. Dezza). Pittau served the Church and the Society in several capacities, traveling to several countries and continents. He was bestowed the ecclesiastical rank of “Titular Archbishop of Castro di Sardegna” on July 11, 1998 and received the episcopal ordination on September 26, 1998.
After his international labors outside Japan were over, Archbishop Pittau returned to Sophia University and stayed at S. J. House, occasionally lecturing.
(from Vatican Radio)…
Pope Francis will mark the feast of the Holy Family of Nazareth on Sunday meeting some 7000 people belonging to large families of Italy. Before his midday ‘Angelus’ prayer from his studio window overlooking St. Peter’s Square, he will meet the group in Vatican’s audience hall. The meeting with the Pope is being organized by Italy’s National Association of Large Families (ANFN), which is is marking its 10th anniversary with a national assembly on the theme, “The Family, Our Goal”, Dec. 26-28. The Italian Association of Large Families is a member of the European Large Families Confederation (ELFAC), which was constituted in 2004 and represents more than 50 million European citizens making up nearly 9 million large families. Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, the president of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for the Family, will celebrate a Mass for the families in the audience hall, before the meeting with the Pope.
The feast of the Holy Family is celebrated in the Catholic Church on the Sunday between Christmas and New Year, or on Dec. 30. This year the feast falls on Dec. 28, when the Church also marks the feast of the Holy Innocents, in commemoration of the massacre of young male children in Bethlehem by King Herod, to avoid the loss of his throne to Jesus, the newborn King of the Jews.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Father Federico Lombardi SJ highlights some of the events that have made 2014 an extremely busy and significant year for Pope Francis. In a long interview with Vatican Radio, the Director of the Vatican Press Office lists an impressive number of events, speeches, journeys and appeals pronounced by Pope Francis in the year…
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Pope’s condolences for death of Archbishop Giuseppe Pittau SJ (Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has expressed his sorrow and sent his condolences to his Jesuit brothers for the death of Archbishop Giuseppe Pittau, SJ, who passed away on the night of December 26 in Kamishakujii, Tokyo. Describing Archbishop Pittau as an “exemplary minister of God,” in…
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