(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis spoke about the refugee crisis during an interview with Portugal’s Radio Renascença which aired on Monday, calling it the “tip of an iceberg.”
“These poor people are fleeing war, hunger, but that is the tip of the iceberg. Because underneath that is the cause; and the cause is a bad and unjust socioeconomic system, in everything, in the world – speaking of the environmental problem –, in the socioeconomic society, in politics, the person always has to be in the centre,” Pope Francis said.
The Holy Father said the world must work to help people not feel the need to emigrate.
“Where the causes are hunger, we have to create work, investments. Where the cause is war, search for peace, work for peace,” he said. “Nowadays the world is at war against itself, that is, the world is at war, as I say, in instalments, bit by bit, but it is also at war against the land, because it is destroying the land, our common house, the environment.”
The Pope did, however, admit welcoming refugees is not a riskless proposition.
“I recognize that, nowadays, border safety conditions are not what they once were,” Pope Francis said. “The truth is that just 400 kilometres from Sicily there is an incredibly cruel terrorist group. So there is a danger of infiltration, this is true.”
The Pope said Rome itself would not be immune from this this threat.
“But you can take precautions, and put these people to work,” he said. “But then there is another problem, that Europe is going through a very big labour crisis.”
The Holy Father pointed out immigration is an international and timeless phenomenon, and added the low birthrate in Europe is creating “empty spaces,” which others will try to fill.
“If a country has no children, immigrants come in and take their place,” he said.
“I believe Europe’s greatest challenge is to go back to being a mother Europe,” Pope Francis said, as opposed to a “grandmother Europe.”
Later in the interview, the Pope mentioned this was also his concern for the Church – “become too much of a grandmother, instead of a mother, incapable of generating life” – and he said he hoped the Jubilee of Mercy will allow people to “experience the Church as mother.”
Pope Francis also used the interview to ask people to “pray a lot” for the upcoming Synod on the Family.
“We have high expectations because, obviously, the family is in crisis,” he said. “Young people no longer get married. They don’t get married.”
He also said the Synod would look at ways to help those families living in situations contrary to Church teaching.
“At the synod we will be speaking about all the possible ways to help these families,” Pope Francis said. “But one thing should be very clear – something Pope Benedict left quite clear: people who are in a second union are not excommunicated and should be integrated into Church life. This was made crystal clear. I also said this quite clearly: Drawing closer to the mass, to catechesis, their children’s education, charity… There are so many different options.”
Pope Francis admitted his life after becoming Pope has been an adventure, but said “I did not lose the peace.”
An English translation of the full interview can be found here .
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) In his first interview with an independent radio station with no connection to a religious organization, Pope Francis spoke about friendship, encounter, dialogue, and the defense of Creation, saying “You, an Evangelist, I, a Catholic, let us work together for Jesus”.
Listen to Devin Watkins’ report:
Pope Francis granted the interview to his personal friend and journalist, Marcelo Figueroa, at the Argentinian radio station, FM Milenium 106.7 out of Buenos Aires. It aired on Sunday afternoon, September 13th.
The interview seems like a conversation between two friends – indeed, they have been for many years – so the theme of friendship takes a central place in the discussion.
Pope Francis emphasized the holiness of true friendship, saying “Friendship is something very sacred. The Bible says ‘keep one or two friends’. Before considering someone your friend, let time test him, to see how he reacts in your regard.”
At this point, Pope Francis introduces a more painful, personal note about false friends, saying that he has been used, or instrumentalized, by some who have claimed to be his ‘friends’. “But the utilitarian sense of friendship – to see what I can get out of being close to this person and making myself his friend – this pains me. I have felt used by some people who have presented themselves as ‘friends’ with whom I may not have seen more than once or twice in my lifetime, and they used this for their own gain. But this is an experience which we have all undergone: utilitarian friendship.”
The Holy Father also went on to point out the dangers of religious fundamentalism which distances one from God, saying that fundamentalism in any religion “is a transversal darkness which robs us of an horizon, which closes us in convictions”.
“No religion is immune from its own fundamentalisms. In any confession there will be a small group of fundamentalists, whose work is to destroy in the interests of an idea, not of a reality. Reality is superior to an idea. God, whether in Judaism, in Christianity, or in Islam, in the faith of those three peoples, accompanies God’s people with His presence. In the Bible we see it, Muslims in the Koran. Our God is a God of nearness, which accompanies. Fundamentalists push God away from the companionship of His people; they dis-Incarnate Him, they transform Him into an ideology. Therefore, in the name of this ideological God, they kill, attack, destroy, and calumniate. Practically, they transform this God into a Baal, into an idol,” Pope Francis said.
The Holy Father also spoke of friendship towards Creation, underlining the dangers of deforestation and the hydroelectric installations in the Amazon rainforest.
(from Vatican Radio)…
Pope Francis has declared 1 February as the feast day of Blessed Benedict Daswa beatified 13 September 2015 in South Africa.
Cardinal Angelo Amato, the Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints presided over the beatification ceremony of Tshimangadzo Samuel Bendict Daswa in Tshitanini, Thohoyandou, Limpopo, South Africa.
Cardinal Amato read out the decree from Pope Francis describing Daswa as a layman, a family man and an educator who gave heroic witness of the Gospel.
“We grant that the venerable servant of God, Tshimangadzo Samuel Benedict Daswa, a layman and family man,… a zealous Catechist, all-round educator who gave heroic witness to the gospel, even to the shedding of blood, from now on be called ‘Blessed’ read the decree from Pope Francis. The crowd applauded and blew traditional horns.
A significant announcement at the ceremony was the Church’s declaration of 1 February as the feast day of Blessed Benedict Daswa. The announcement was made at Daswa’s beatification ceremony.
The local Ordinary, Bishop of Tzaneen, Joao Rodrigues also addressed the faithful. He said that Daswa’s death “makes him a hero for all Christians in Africa and elsewhere who are struggling to break free from the enslavement of the world of witchcraft…By his courage and his fidelity to the Catholic faith, Tshimangadzo Samuel Benedict Daswa is a model for all the people in Africa,” Bishop Rodrigues said.
South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma described the beatification of Benedict Daswa as a significant moment for South Africa and the continent as a whole. President Zuma spoke through his spokesperson, Bongani Majola.
The Government of South Africa was represented at the ceremony by Vice President, Cyril Ramaphosa who told the pilgrims in Thohoyandou that this was an occasion in which all South Africans shared with deep faith and affection.
“This is the first time in the history of the Catholic Church of Southern Africa that a South African man is being recognised as a Blessed martyr of Christ,” He added, “This is, therefore, a special honour for the Church in this region. But it is also an extraordinary honour for the Daswa Family, who tragically lost a 43-year-old son and father on the 2 February 1990,” The South African Vice President said.
The beatification Mass was punctuated with a traditional flavor by attire and song.
Apart from the 30 000 people who gathered at Thohoyandou, millions of other Catholics in Africa were expected to have followed the beatification ceremony of Benedict Daswa via digital satellite television, DSTV on the SABC’s news channel 404 that is widely followed on the continent.
Daswa, born on 16 June 1946, was married with eight children. He was killed by a group of men who attacked him not far from his home because of his anti-witchcraft stance. He was praying on his knees when his executioners killed him. His fame as a martyr soon spread throughout the province and each year, on the anniversary of his death, a growing number of people would make a pilgrimage to his grave which is currently located in a small cemetery near his home.
e-mail: engafrica@vatiradio.va
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) In his Angelus address on Sunday from his studio above St Peter’s Square, Pope Francis reflected on the Gospel reading from Mark in which Jesus asks the disciples “Who do people say I am?”
The Pope recalled how they responded, saying that some people thought he was John the Baptist restored to life, others Elijah or one of the great prophets, but couldn’t quite believe he was the Messiah.
The Holy Father noted how Jesus then asks a very important question “But who do you say that I am?” in order to test their faith.
Jesus, said Pope Francis is impressed by the faith of Peter who says “you are the Christ”.
But Jesus also rebukes Peter for thinking the way men think and not as God thinks when he tells the disciples “the Son of Man must suffer many things … and be killed, and after three days rise again”.
For Peter, explained the Pope, these words are scandalous. The Holy Father also explained that in announcing that he must suffer and be put to death and then resurrected, Jesus wants to make it clear to those who follow him that as the Messiah he is a humble servant. What Jesus is also saying, said Pope Francis is that “anyone who wants to be his disciple must accept being a servant.”
Following Jesus, continued the Pope, means taking up one’s own cross to accompany him on his journey, a path that ultimately leads to true freedom, freedom from selfishness and sin. The Holy Father also underlined that accompanying the Lord means rejecting the worldly mentality that puts the “self” at the centre of existence, instead following what is renewed and authentic.
Then speaking to the young people present in St Peter’s Square, Pope Francis asked, “Have you felt the need to become closer to Jesus?” “Reflect and pray,” the Pope advised, and let the Lord speak to you.
Following the recitation of the Marian prayer, the Holy Father remembered a new Blessed being proclaimed in South Africa. Samuel Benedict Daswa was a family man killed in 1990 because of his fidelity to the Gospel.
Pope Francis said that in his life Daswa always showed “great consistency, courageously taking on Christian attitudes and refusing worldly and pagan habits. His testimony, the Pope added, helps especially families to spread the truth and charity of Christ.”
(from Vatican Radio)…
The apostolic visit to Cuba and the United States starting next weekend, the Synod on the Family and a canonization ceremony next month and the commemoration of the dead and his first pastoral visit to Africa in Nov. are the highlights of the schedule of Pope Francis in the coming days and two months. Msgr. Guido Marini, the Pope’s master of liturgical ceremonies on Saturday released the schedule of the Holy Father for the rest of September until November. The Pope will be on a busy apostolic visit September 19-28 to Cuba and the US. On Oct. 3, the eve of the 14th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops in the Vatican, the Pope will lead a prayer service in St. Peter’s Square. The Oct. 4-25 Synod will be on the “the vocation and the mission of the family in the church and in the contemporary world.” During the synod, the Pope will also celebrate a canonization Mass in St. Peter’s Square on Oct. 18, to declare two men and two women saints. Among them are Ludovico Martin and Maria Azelia Guerin, the parents of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, also known as Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus and the Little Flower of Jesus. The Pope will conclude the synod with a Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on Oct. 25. The Holy Father will observe the various liturgies to commemorate the dead, Nov. 1-5. And he will conclude the month of November with a pastoral visit to Kenya, Uganda and the Central African Republic, Nov. 25-30. (from Vatican Radio)…