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Day: April 1, 2015

Pope prepares to wash feet of inmates at Rebibbia prison

(Vatican Radio) On Holy Thursday, Pope Francis travels across Rome to meet with detainees at the Rebibbia Prison and celebrate the Mass of Our Lord’s Supper with them. During the liturgy, which recalls Jesus’ last supper with his disciples on the day before his Crucifixion, the Pope will wash the feet of 12 inmates selected from Rebibbia’s male and female detention centres.
It’s not the first time that Pope Francis has performed this gesture of service outside the traditional setting of a church or basilica: on Holy Thursday 2013, shortly after his election, he went to Rome’s Casal del Marmo juvenile detention centre, where he washed the feet of young male and female offenders Last year, he presided over the Mass and foot-washing ritual at a rehabilitation facility for the elderly and people with disabilities on the outskirts of the city.
To find out more about the inmates who’ll be greeting the Pope and attending Mass in Rebibbia’ chapel, Philippa Hitchen spoke with a longtime volunteer at the prison, Maria Ponce de Leon…
Listen: 

Maria says she began volunteering in 1998 as part of the Italian Caritas ‘volunteers in prison’ association. There are over 100 volunteers who visit inmates in the three male and one female institutes that make up the Rebibbia complex….
A listening ministry
The volunteers offer different kinds of support, from providing clothing, to contacting lawyers or helping the elderly to get their pensions, but the most important part is just listening to the prisoners’ stories….
Maria has visited sick inmates in the infirmary, as well as transsexuals and those in the high security section of the prison, while her current focus is on foreign detainees, especially from North African countries. They are serving sentences for all sorts of crimes, from drug trafficking to simply having an expired residence permit. In prison, she says, you find the poorest people, including the homeless, those with mental disabilities and those who have no one else to care for them…
Preparations for the papal visit
Maria says right now “the whole prison is fizzling with excitement and enthusiasm” as inmates prepare for Pope Francis to visit them. About 150 male prisoners and a similar number of female detainees will be inside the chapel with the Pope, while another 400 will be outside with volunteers and prison staff watching the Mass on several maxi screens….
Those taking part in the liturgy have been selected from amongst the regular attendants of Sunday Mass in prison and Maria says they are people of different faiths or none. The chapel, she notes, is called the ‘Our Father’ chapel, as it is open to everybody. Anyone from outside who visits the prison brings life to those inside, she concludes, and that is the most important thing for them.
 
 
(from Vatican Radio)…

Pope prepares to wash feet of inmates at Rebibbia prison

(Vatican Radio) On Holy Thursday, Pope Francis travels across Rome to meet with detainees at the Rebibbia Prison and celebrate the Mass of Our Lord’s Supper with them. During the liturgy, which recalls Jesus’ last supper with his disciples on the day before his Crucifixion, the Pope will wash the feet of 12 inmates selected…
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Pope: The Easter Triduum is the apex of our Christian life

(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has urged the faithful to see the signs of the Risen Lord and open their hearts to a “present that is full of the future”.
Speaking on Wednesday during the weekly General Audience, the Pope reflected at length on the celebration of the Sacred Triduum which begins on Holy Thursday, and during which we commemorate Jesus’ passion, death and resurrection.
The Easter Triduum – the Pope said – is the apex of our liturgical year and it is also the apex of our lives as Christians.
We begin the Triduum – he continued – by celebrating the Mass of the Lord’s Supper, as we recall Christ’s offering of his body and blood to the Father, which he gave to the Apostles as food for their nourishment, with the command that they perpetually celebrate these mysteries in his memory. 
He said we also recall the Lord washing the Apostles’ feet, through which he showed that the “purpose of his life and passion was to serve God and neighbour, a service which we are called to imitate by loving one another as he loved us”.
This purpose – Pope Francis explained – is expressed also during our Baptism, when the Lord’s grace cleansed us from sin and we “put on the new self” in the image of Christ (Col 3, 10). And it happens each time we partake in the Eucharist and enter into Communion with Christ to obey his commandment to love Him as he loved us. If we take Communion without being sincerely ready to wash each other’s feet – Francis said – we do not acknowledge the Lord’s Body: “Jesus’ service is to give of himself, totally”.
On Good Friday – the Pope continued – we will meditate on the mystery of Christ’s death and we will adore the Cross. 
During the last instants of his life, “before handing over the spirit” – he said – Jesus said “it is finished” (John 19, 30), meaning – the Pope explained – that Salvation has taken place; “that with his sacrifice Jesus has transformed the greatest injustice into the greatest love.”   
By his sacrifice – Francis said – sin has been overcome through love, an immense love which we are called to live and transmit.
Throughout the centuries – he continued – many men and women have borne witness to this perfect, uncontaminated love, with their very existence.
“I like to remember a heroic witness of our days, Don Antonio Santoro, a priest of the Diocese of Rome and a missionary in Turkey” the Pope said.
Just a couple of days before being assassinated  in Trebizond he wrote: ‘I am here to live amongst the people and to allow Jesus to be here lending him my flesh (…) One becomes capable of salvation only when offering one’s flesh. The evils of the world must be carried and shared, one must allow them to be absorbed into one’s flesh, as Jesus did’.
Pope Francis said that Don Santoro is a man of our time, and he said there are many other true martyrs today “who offer their lives with Jesus to confess their faith”.
How beautiful it will be – the Pope said – if at the end of our lives, with all of our errors and our sins as well as our works of charity and our love for our neighbour, we will be able to say: ‘it is finished’. And not with the perfection with which Jesus said it, but knowing that we did what we could.
Let us ask the Lord for the grace – the Pope said – to be able to say: “Father, I did what I could. It is finished”.   
On Holy Saturday – he continued – we will contemplate Jesus’ lying in the tomb, and with Mary, the Church will keep alive the flame of faith, hoping against every hope in Christ’s resurrection.
Then, at the Easter Vigil, when the Alleluia resounds again, we will celebrate the Risen Christ, the centre and fulfilment of the universe and history. 
And pointing out that “at times the darkness of the night seems to penetrate into our souls; and that at times we think ‘there is nothing left to do’ and our heart seems to have lost the strength to love…”, Pope Francis said that it is in that very darkness that “Christ lights up the fire of God’s love: a flash of light breaks the darkness and announces a new beginning”.
It is in that darkness – he said – that Christ wins and lights the flame of love.
And urging the faithful to open their hearts to a “present which is full of future”, the Pope said “our life does not end before a tomb stone, our life continues with the hope of Christ who arose from the tomb”.
In these days – Pope Francis continued – may we not only observe the Lord’s Passion, but truly enter into its mystery, making our own the sentiments of Christ.  In this way, our Easter will indeed be blessed.
 
 
(from Vatican Radio)…

Tax agreement between the Holy See and the Italian Republic

Vatican City, 1 April 2015 (VIS) – This morning, in the Secretariat of State, an agreement on fiscal matters was signed by the Holy See and the Italian Republic. It was signed on behalf of the Holy See by Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, secretary for Relations with States, and for the Italian Republic by Pier Carlo Padoan, minister of Economics and Finance, with full powers. The reforms introduced in 2010 and the creation by the Holy See of institutions with specific experience in economics and finance now enable full administrative cooperation, also with regard to fiscal matters. Within the framework of the special importance of bilateral relations, Italy is the first country with which the Holy See has signed an agreement governing the exchange of information. In accordance with the current process of establishing transparency in the field of financial relations at a global level, the Convention transposes the most up to date international standard in terms of the exchange of information (article 26 of the OSCE Model) to regulate cooperation between the competent authorities of the two contracting Parties. The exchange of information relates to the fiscal year starting 1 January 2009. The Convention, from the date on which it enters into force, will enable full compliance, with simplified procedures, with the tax obligations relating to financial assets held by institutions engaging in financial activities in the Holy See by various physical and legal persons resident in Italy. The same persons will be able to have access to a procedure for the regularisation of these activities, with the same effects as established by Law 186/2014. The Convention will also implement the provisions of the Lateran Treaty regarding tax exemption for property belonging to the Holy See, indicated in the same Treaty. Finally, the Convention incorporates the Exchange of notes between the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the Secretariat of State in July 2007, which provides for the notification of tax acts to the Holy See authorities via diplomatic channels….

Pope: The Easter Triduum is the apex of our Christian life

(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has urged the faithful to see the signs of the Risen Lord and open their hearts to a “present that is full of the future”. Speaking on Wednesday during the weekly General Audience, the Pope reflected at length on the celebration of the Sacred Triduum which begins on Holy Thursday, and…
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