(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has asked for prayers for the victims of the “inhuman terror attacks perpetrated in the past days in Sydney, Australia and in Peshawar, Pakistan”.
Listen to the report by Linda Bordoni :
Concluding his address to pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square for the weekly General Audience, the Pope asked those present to join him in his prayers to the Lord to receive the deceased in peace, to bring comfort to their families and to convert the hearts of the violent who do not hold back even before children. ”
Taliban militants in Pakistan killed at least 132 children and 9 staff members at a school in Peshawar on Tuesday, whilst an Islamist militant killed 2 people during a siege on a Café in Sydney on Monday.
The Pope’s appeal came after his second catechesis in preparation for next October’s Ordinary Synod of Bishops.
He said that the Extraordinary Synod that took place last October represented the first step of a journey which will conclude next year with another Synodal Assembly on the theme “Vocation and Mission of the Family in the Church and in the World”.
Francis said that his weekly Wednesday prayers and meditations are part of that common journey, and that is why he has chosen to reflect, this year, on the family: “this great gift of the Lord to the world, right from the beginning, when he entrusted Adam and Eve with the mission to “be fruitful, increase in number and fill the earth” (Genesis 1, 28). A gift – the Pope said – that Jesus confirmed and put his seal on in the Gospel.
And the Pope pointed out that Christmas brings much light to this mystery. The incarnation of the Son of God – he said – opens a whole new chapter in the universal history of man and woman. This new beginning – he pointed out – took place within a little family, in Nazareth.
The Son of God – he said – chose to be born into a human family in an obscure town on the periphery of the Roman Empire. Not in Rome, not in a great city, but in an almost invisible – even rough – periphery, as described by the Gospels “Nazareth, can anything good come from there?” (John 1, 46).
Perhaps, the Pope said, in many parts of the world we too use that kind of language when we hear talk of some of the urban peripheries of our own cities: “Well, that’s exactly where the most holy of stories began, that of Jesus amongst mankind!”
Jesus – he said – stayed in that periphery for over 30 years as narrated by Luke (2, 51 – 52). There is no talk of miracles or preaching, but of a very normal family life.
And Pope Francis spoke of the tenderness aroused by the descriptions of Jesus’s life as an adolescent who was raised in an atmosphere of religious devotion, learning from the words and examples of Mary and Joseph, and growing in wisdom, age and grace.
In imitation of the Holy Family, the Pope said, every Christian family must make a place for Jesus in its home, for it is through the love of such “normal” families, even in the peripheries of the world, that God’s Son quietly comes to dwell among us bringing Salvation to our world.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Over one hundred bishops, priests, deacons and seminarians will meet in Rome in January 2015 for the Second International Conference of the English-speaking Confraternities of Catholic Clergy.
The conference brings together clergy from the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom and Ireland. Each of these countries has an active confraternity which assists its members to grow in zeal, learning and holiness.
The 2015 conference takes up Pope Francis’ call for the Church to contemplate Jesus Christ, and to go out from itself toward its existential peripheries. It is entitled: ‘Quo vadis, Domine? The Church, Priests and Mission in the twenty-first century.’
Conference speakers include Cardinal George Pell who heads the Secretariat for the Economy, Cardinal Angelo Amato who heads the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints, and Archbishop Joseph Di Noia, who is Assistant Secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
The conference will join the Holy Father for Mass in St Peter’s Basilica on the Feast of the Epiphany.
The US and Australian Confraternities organised their first international clergy conference in 2010, in response to Pope Benedict’s declaration of a Year for Priests. That conference proved so successful that it inspired newly-founded Confraternities in Britain and Ireland.
A highlight of the 2015 conference is the opportunity to celebrate the sacred liturgy in Rome’s major basilicas, assisted by Dublin’s, Lassus Scholars, who excel at choral masterpieces sung in their authentic liturgical setting.
Although booking is now closed, the conference was not restricted to confraternity members. An invitation was extended to all English-speaking clergy; with seminarians enjoying a generous subsidy, which expressed one of the Confraternities’ particular concerns: the promotion of priestly vocations.
For timetable details, and real-time coverage, visit www.ccc2015.com.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Over one hundred bishops, priests, deacons and seminarians will meet in Rome in January 2015 for the Second International Conference of the English-speaking Confraternities of Catholic Clergy. The conference brings together clergy from the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom and Ireland. Each of these countries has an active confraternity which assists its members…
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(Vatican Radio) Over one hundred bishops, priests, deacons and seminarians will meet in Rome in January 2015 for the Second International Conference of the English-speaking Confraternities of Catholic Clergy. The conference brings together clergy from the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom and Ireland. Each of these countries has an active confraternity which assists its members…
Read more
(Vatican Radio) Six years after the Vatican’s Congregation for religious life ordered an investigation or ‘Apostolic Visitation’ of all female religious institutes in the United States, the Holy See on Tuesday released its final report, reaffirming the vital role that sisters play in evangelisation within the wider Church.
At a press conference that was streamed live online, American Sr Mary Clare Millea, charged with organising the visitation, shared her positive impressions of the report, alongside the heads of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious and the Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious. Also taking part were the president and secretary of the Vatican’s Congregation for religious, Cardinal Joao Braz de Aviz and Archbishop José Rodriquez Carballo.
Philippa Hitchen reports…
Listen:
Altogether some 50.000 sisters, belonging to 341 religious institutes were involved in the four-phase investigation, which the report notes, was initially met with “apprehension and suspicion” on the part of many religious. Some refused to cooperate fully with Sr Mary Clare and her team, but the vast majority, she said, came to see this unprecedented operation as a great opportunity for reflection, dialogue and communion among women religious in the U.S. today…
“ The Visitation has given us a priceless opportunity to renew our commitment to the consecrated life and to place our unique gifts at the service of the Church, as together we confront new and emerging threats to human dignity, religious freedom and conscience protection. .”
On-site visits were carried out at 90 different religious institutes, resulting in a report that the sisters say accurately reflects both common trends and the great diversity of female congregations today. The relatively short report covers everything from declining vocations to problems of financial management, from the particular identity of different congregations to calls by some sisters for greater recognition of women’s contribution on the part of the male hierarchy.
Above all, Cardinal Braz de Aviz said the report is an opportunity for his Congregation to express gratitude for all that women religious contribute to the evangelising work of the Church…
“ Since the early days of the Catholic Church in their country, women religious have courageously been in the forefront of her evangelising mission, selflessly tending to the spiritual, moral, educational, physical and social needs of countless individuals, especially the poor and marginalised .”
But what of those who still feel the investigation amounts to a criticism and an attempt to clamp down on women seen as moving too far away from the teachings of the Catholic Church. A separate investigation is currently underway, instigated by the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, into the Leadership Conference of Women Religious which represents around 80% of America’s female religious institutes and some fear that may be more critical than the current report. Sr Sharon Holland is president of the LCWR and she believes it’s vital to listen to those who are still angry about the way they feel the Vatican has treated them…
“I need to listen to those people before I try to answer them….I think we’ll have to look at the call in the document, in this year of consecrated life, to move towards greater forgiveness and reconciliation….we have to listen to each other and understand where people are coming from, and sometimes even being heard helps a person let go of negative things ”.
Moderating the Vatican press conference was Canadian Father Tom Rosica, one of the very few men who worked closely with Sr Mary Clare and her team. He says men in the Catholic Church today have a lot to learn from the professional skills and faithful spirit of their female counterparts
“I found myself with some of the most intelligent, competent, faithful women I’ve ever met….for the four of us, in a very small minority, we were astounded and enriched by the experience….my hope is that men in the Church would learn from the process put in place by this visitation…..it taught us about dialogue, about professionalism, about faithfulness to the Church, but most especially about listening ”.
(from Vatican Radio)…