(Vatican Radio) Perhaps it was a sign from heaven: a rainbow appeared in the sky above New York City on Friday as Pope Francis rode through Central Park, giving tens of thousands of people the chance to see him before he celebrated Mass in Madison Square Garden. Organisers made 80,000 tickets available for the last-minute event, which was added to the Papal schedule when it was realised not enough New Yorkers were getting a chance to see the Holy Father. The Holy Father, visible sitting in the Popemobile, smiled and waved to the screaming crowd.
After his ride in the park, he switched to his now-famous black Fiat 500L, and was driven to Madison Square Garden for Mass. The mass was attended by thousands of people who included the lay faithful, bishops, priests, religious, and the archbishop of New York, Cardinal Timothy Michael Dolan. In his homily, delivered in Spanish, the Pope made an urgent reminder for the Catholics of New York City, inviting them to proclaim the joy of God because they have seen the “great light” of Jesus Christ and to remember to care for all those who go unnoticed in their city.
Listen to Chris Altieri’s report:
Just to get to the Garden – located at the lower end of “midtown” Manhattan between 31st and 33rd Streets and 7th Avenue and 8th Avenue – from Our Lady Queen of Angels School on 112th St. in the Harlem neighborhood – Pope Francis traveled through Central Park, the wayside packed dozens-deep with well-wishers.
The Garden itself – not a real garden, mind, but an indoor arena that can seat upward of 20 thousand people – was filled from floor to ceiling, and the exuberance of the gathered crowd gave way to quiet recollection as the announcement was made that Pope Francis had arrived and the liturgy would begin shortly.
Dressed in the green vestments of Ordinary Time, flanked by his Masters of Ceremony and deacons ministrant, and preceded by the Cardinals, bishops and priests concelebrant, Pope Francis processed at a slow pace to the sound of trumpets and the singing of “All Creatures of our God and King”.
The readings were specially chosen to fit the theme of peace: Isaiah 9:1-3, 5-6; Psalm 85; Matthew 5:38-48.
In his homily, Pope Francis spoke of our duty to serve peace by being witnesses to and artificers of peace, by proving in our lives and example the Lordship of Christ, whom Isaiah heralded as Prince of Peace. “Go out to others and share the good news that God, our Father, walks at our side,” Pope Francis told the thousands of mostly young people in the congregation. “He frees us from anonymity, from a life of emptiness and selfishness, and brings us to the school of encounter. He removes us from the fray of competition and self-absorption, and he opens before us the path of peace. That peace which is born of accepting others, that peace which fills our hearts whenever we look upon those in need as our brothers and sisters.”
“God,” said Pope Francis, “is living in our cities: the Church is living in our cities, and she wants to be like yeast in the dough. She wants to relate to everyone, to stand at everyone’s side, as she proclaims the marvels of the Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Eternal Father, the Prince of Peace.”
“The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light,” said Pope Francis, quoting the Prophet, Isaiah, “ – and we ourselves are witnesses of that light.”
Please find below an English translation of the Pope’s homily during Mass at Madison Square Garden in New York:
Homily of Pope Francis
Mass at Madison Square Garden, New York
Friday 25 September 2015
We are in Madison Square Garden, a place synonymous with this city. This is the site of important athletic, artistic and musical events attracting people not only from this city, but from the whole world. In this place, which represents both the variety and the common interests of so many different people, we have listened to the words: “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light” (Is 9:1).
The people who walked – caught up in their activities and routines, amid their successes and failures, their worries and expectations – have seen a great light. The people who walked – with all their joys and hopes, their disappointments and regrets – have seen a great light.
In every age, the People of God are called to contemplate this light. A light for the nations, as the elderly Simeon joyfully expressed it. A light meant to shine on every corner of this city, on our fellow citizens, on every part of our lives.
“The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light”. One special quality of God’s people is their ability to see, to contemplate, even in “moments of darkness”, the light which Christ brings. God’s faithful people can see, discern and contemplate his living presence in the midst of life, in the midst of the city. Together with the prophet Isaiah, we can say: The people who walk, breathe and live in the midst of smog, have seen a great light, have experienced a breath of fresh air.
Living in a big city is not always easy. A multicultural context presents many complex challenges. Yet big cities are a reminder of the hidden riches present in our world: in the diversity of its cultures, traditions and historical experiences. In the variety of its languages, costumes and cuisine. Big cities bring together all the different ways which we human beings have discovered to express the meaning of life, wherever we may be.
But big cities also conceal the faces of all those people who don’t appear to belong, or are second-class citizens. In big cities, beneath the roar of traffic, beneath “the rapid pace of change”, so many faces pass by unnoticed because they have no “right” to be there, no right to be part of the city. They are the foreigners, the children who go without schooling, those deprived of medical insurance, the homeless, the forgotten elderly. These people stand at the edges of our great avenues, in our streets, in deafening anonymity. They become part of an urban landscape which is more and more taken for granted, in our eyes, and especially in our hearts.
Knowing that Jesus still walks our streets, that he is part of the lives of his people, that he is involved with us in one vast history of salvation, fills us with hope. A hope which liberates us from the forces pushing us to isolation and lack of concern for the lives of others, for the life of our city. A hope which frees us from empty “connections”, from abstract analyses, or sensationalist routines. A hope which is unafraid of involvement, which acts as a leaven wherever we happen to live and work. A hope which makes us see, even in the midst of smog, the presence of God as he continues to walk the streets of our city.
What is it like, this light travelling through our streets? How do we encounter God, who lives with us amid the smog of our cities? How do we encounter Jesus, alive and at work in the daily life of our multicultural cities?
The prophet Isaiah can guide us in this process of “learning to see”. He presents Jesus to us as “Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace”. In this way, he introduces us to the life of the Son, so that his life can be our life.
Wonderful Counselor. The Gospels tell us how many people came up to Jesus to ask: “Master, what must we do?” The first thing that Jesus does in response is to propose, to encourage, to motivate. He keeps telling his disciples to go, to go out. He urges them to go out and meet others where they really are, not where we think they should be. Go out, again and again, go out without fear, without hesitation. Go out and proclaim this joy which is for all the people.
The Mighty God. In Jesus, God himself became Emmanuel, God-with-us, the God who walks alongside us, who gets involved in our lives, in our homes, in the midst of our “pots and pans”, as Saint Teresa of Jesus liked to say.
The Everlasting Father. No one or anything can separate us from his Love. Go out and proclaim, go out and show that God is in your midst as a merciful Father who himself goes out, morning and evening, to see if his son has returned home and, as soon as he sees him coming, runs out to embrace him. An embrace which wants to take up, purify and elevate the dignity of his children. A Father who, in his embrace, is “glad tidings to the poor, healing to the afflicted, liberty to captives, comfort to those who mourn” (Is 61:1-2).
Prince of Peace. Go out to others and share the good news that God, our Father, walks at our side. He frees us from anonymity, from a life of emptiness and selfishness, and brings us to the school of encounter. He removes us from the fray of competition and self-absorption, and he opens before us the path of peace. That peace which is born of accepting others, that peace which fills our hearts whenever we look upon those in need as our brothers and sisters.
God is living in our cities. The Church is living in our cities, and she wants to be like yeast in the dough. She wants to relate to everyone, to stand at everyone’s side, as she proclaims the marvels of the Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Eternal Father, the Prince of Peace.
“The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light”. And we ourselves are witnesses of that light.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis continued his visit to New York by meeting on Friday (25th September) with children and immigrant families at Our Lady Queen of Angels School in Harlem. In his brief address to the school children, the Pope encouraged them to have dreams, just like Martin Luther King, and “not lose the hope of a better world with greater possibilities.” “Wherever there are dreams,” he said, “there is joy and Jesus is always present.”
Our Lady Queen of Angels School is a Catholic school, set amid public housing in the heavily Hispanic neighbourhood of East Harlem and more than two third of its students come from Latin America. With around 300 students ranging from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade, the school was once part of the church of Our Lady Queen of Angels, which closed in 2007 as part of a large number of church closures by the Archdiocese of New York due to a lack of funds and diminishing vocations to the priesthood.
Vatican Radio’s Seán-Patrick Lovett is travelling with Pope Francis during his Apostolic Journey. He was present during the Pope’s address and sent us this report:
If you were to believe everything you hear, you might think that Catholic education in America is in crisis. You might, quite understandably, be influenced by the figures: since 2005 over 1,700 Catholic schools in the United States have had to close their classrooms. And the reasons are not always financial either. The fall in vocations to the religious life has taken a heavy toll in this field – fewer dedicated, unpaid, nuns working for the glory of God alone.
But if you’d accompanied Pope Francis on his visit to Our Lady of Angels school in Harlem, in New York’s upper east side, you might have had to change your mind: namely, that Catholic education in America is not only alive and well – it’s singing and dancing too.
Usually I don’t like facts and figures but, in this case, I think they help provide context:
64% of the children the Pope met in Harlem on Friday live below the poverty line, a third of them are not Catholic, over half are being raised by a single parent, and most of them represent minority groups and immigrant families. But the best figure of all is the graduation rate – an impressive 97%.
Alright, enough of the numbers and back to the stories.
Pope Francis arrived at the school in a playful mood. Greeted by a classroom of children who were so awed by his presence (or so exhausted by waiting so long), their shy little voices could barely be heard above the clicking of the photographers’ cameras. “So?” – asked Pope Francis – “Are you singing or sleeping?” Anxious to show him they were wide awake, the young students became teachers, illustrating their various projects that range from designing a more ecologically-friendly school environment to raising money for children with cancer in Latin America. They even gave the Pope a lesson on how to use a smart-board.
But Pope Francis also had a lesson for the children and young people present. “You have a right to dream”, he told them. In fact, “It is beautiful to have dreams and to be able to fight for them”. And then he game their homework: “Pray for me”, he said.
One little girl I spoke to promised she would. Another said that Pope Francis’ visit had made her feel “special”. “Because now”, she added confidently, “I’m going to be famous!”.
Traveling with Pope Francis in the United States – I’m Seán-Patrick Lovett
Please find below an English translation of Pope Francis’ prepared remarks to the children at Our Lady, Queen of Angels School:
Dear Children,
I am very happy to be with you today, along with this big family which surrounds you. I see your teachers, your parents and your family members. Thank you for letting me come, and I ask pardon from your teachers for “stealing” a few minutes of their class time!
They tell me that one of the nice things about this school is that some of its students come from other places, even from other countries. That is nice! Even though I know that it is not easy to have to move and find a new home, new neighbors and new friends. It is not easy. At the beginning it can be hard, right? Often you have to learn a new language, adjust to a new culture, even a new climate. There is so much to learn! And not just at school.
The good thing is that we also make new friends, we meet people who open doors for us, who are kind to us. They offer us friendship and understanding, and they try to help us not to feel like strangers. To feel at home. How nice it is to feel that school is a second home. This is not only important for you, but also for your families. School then ends up being one big family. One where, together with our mothers and fathers, our grandparents, our teachers and friends, we learn to help one another, to share our good qualities, to give the best of ourselves, to work as a team and to pursue our dreams.
Very near here is a very important street named after a man who did a lot for other people. I want to talk a little bit about him. He was the Reverend Martin Luther King. One day he said, “I have a dream”. His dream was that many children, many people could have equal opportunities. His dream was that many children like you could get an education. It is beautiful to have dreams and to be able to fight for them.
Today we want to keep dreaming. We celebrate all the opportunities which enable you, and us adults, not to lose the hope of a better world with greater possibilities. I know that one of the dreams of your parents and teachers is that you can grow up and be happy. It is always good to see children smiling. Here I see you smiling. Keep smiling and help bring joy to everyone you meet.
Dear children, you have a right to dream and I am very happy that here in this school, in your friends and your teachers, you can find the support you need. Wherever there are dreams, there is joy, Jesus is always present. Because Jesus is joy, and he wants to help us to feel that joy every day of our lives.
Before going, I want to give you some homework. Can I? It is just a little request, but a very important one. Please don’t forget to pray for me, so that I can share with many people the joy of Jesus. And let us also pray so that many other people can share the joy like yours.
May God bless you today and Our Lady protect you.
(from Vatican Radio)…
Perhaps it was a sign from heaven: A rainbow appeared in the sky above New York City on Friday as Pope Francis rode through Central Park, giving tens of thousands of people the chance to see him before he celebrated Mass in Madison Square Garden. Organisers made 80,000 tickets available for the last-minute event, which was added to the Papal schedule when it was realised not enough New Yorkers were getting a chance to see the Holy Father. Security was tight, and spectators had to go through metal detectors before being allowed into the park to see Pope Francis. Pope Francis, visible sitting in the Popemobile, smiled and waved to the screaming crowd.
After his ride in the park, he switched to his now famous black Fiat 500L, and was driven to Madison Square Garden for Mass. The mass was attended by thousands of people who included the lay faithful, bishops, priests, religious and the archbishop of New York, Cardinal Timothy Michael Dolan. In his Homily, delivered in Spanish, the Pope made an urgent reminder for the Catholics of New York City. He invited them to proclaim the joy of God because they have seen the “great light” of Jesus Christ and to remember to care for all those who go unnoticed in their city.
Chris Altieri filed the following report.
Below is the English translation of the Homily
We are in Madison Square Garden, a place synonymous with this city. This is the site of important athletic, artistic and musical events attracting people not only from this city, but from the whole world. In this place, which represents both the variety and the common interests of so many different people, we have listened to the words: “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light” (Is 9:1).
The people who walked – caught up in their activities and routines, amid their successes and failures, their worries and expectations – have seen a great light. The people who walked – with all their joys and hopes, their disappointments and regrets – have seen a great light.
In every age, the People of God are called to contemplate this light. A light for the nations, as the elderly Simeon joyfully expressed it. A light meant to shine on every corner of this city, on our fellow citizens, on every part of our lives.
“The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light”. One special quality of God’s people is their ability to see, to contemplate, even in “moments of darkness”, the light which Christ brings. God’s faithful people can see, discern and contemplate his living presence in the midst of life, in the midst of the city. Together with the prophet Isaiah, we can say: The people who walk, breathe and live in the midst of smog, have seen a great light, have experienced a breath of fresh air.
Living in a big city is not always easy. A multicultural context presents many complex challenges. Yet big cities are a reminder of the hidden riches present in our world: in the diversity of its cultures, traditions and historical experiences. In the variety of its languages, costumes and cuisine. Big cities bring together all the different ways which we human beings have discovered to express the meaning of life, wherever we may be.
But big cities also conceal the faces of all those people who don’t appear to belong, or are second-class citizens. In big cities, beneath the roar of traffic, beneath “the rapid pace of change”, so many faces pass by unnoticed because they have no “right” to be there, no right to be part of the city. They are the foreigners, the children who go without schooling, those deprived of medical insurance, the homeless, the forgotten elderly. These people stand at the edges of our great avenues, in our streets, in deafening anonymity. They become part of an urban landscape which is more and more taken for granted, in our eyes, and especially in our hearts.
Knowing that Jesus still walks our streets, that he is part of the lives of his people, that he is involved with us in one vast history of salvation, fills us with hope. A hope which liberates us from the forces pushing us to isolation and lack of concern for the lives of others, for the life of our city. A hope which frees us from empty “connections”, from abstract analyses, or sensationalist routines. A hope which is unafraid of involvement, which acts as a leaven wherever we happen to live and work. A hope which makes us see, even in the midst of smog, the presence of God as he continues to walk the streets of our city.
What is it like, this light travelling through our streets? How do we encounter God, who lives with us amid the smog of our cities? How do we encounter Jesus, alive and at work in the daily life of our multicultural cities?
The prophet Isaiah can guide us in this process of “learning to see”. He presents Jesus to us as “Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace”. In this way, he introduces us to the life of the Son, so that his life can be our life.
Wonderful Counselor. The Gospels tell us how many people came up to Jesus to ask: “Master, what must we do?” The first thing that Jesus does in response is to propose, to encourage, to motivate. He keeps telling his disciples to go, to go out. He urges them to go out and meet others where they really are, not where we think they should be. Go out, again and again, go out without fear, without hesitation. Go out and proclaim this joy which is for all the people.
The Mighty God. In Jesus, God himself became Emmanuel, God-with-us, the God who walks alongside us, who gets involved in our lives, in our homes, in the midst of our “pots and pans”, as Saint Teresa of Jesus liked to say.
The Everlasting Father. No one or anything can separate us from his Love. Go out and proclaim, go out and show that God is in your midst as a merciful Father who himself goes out, morning and evening, to see if his son has returned home and, as soon as he sees him coming, runs out to embrace him. An embrace which wants to take up, purify and elevate the dignity of his children. A Father who, in his embrace, is “glad tidings to the poor, healing to the afflicted, liberty to captives, comfort to those who mourn” (Is 61:1-2).
Prince of Peace. Go out to others and share the good news that God, our Father, walks at our side. He frees us from anonymity, from a life of emptiness and selfishness, and brings us to the school of encounter. He removes us from the fray of competition and self-absorption, and he opens before us the path of peace. That peace which is born of accepting others, that peace which fills our hearts whenever we look upon those in need as our brothers and sisters.
God is living in our cities. The Church is living in our cities, and she wants to be like yeast in the dough. She wants to relate to everyone, to stand at everyone’s side, as she proclaims the marvels of the Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Eternal Father, the Prince of Peace.
“The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light”. And we ourselves are witnesses of that light.
(from Vatican Radio)…
“You have a right to dream….. Wherever there are dreams, there is joy, Jesus is always present.” This was the message by Pope Francis to children when on Friday he visited Our Lady, Queen of Angels School, in the district of Harlem in New York. The largely catholic school is attended by children from poor families, of mainly migrants and African Americans. It has about 300 students ranging from pre-kindergarten through the eighth grade. It was once part of the church of Our Lady Queen of Angels, which was closed in 2007 as part of a large number of church closures by the Archdiocese of New York due to lack of funds and diminishing vocations to the priesthood. Pope Francis encouraged the children to use the opportunities provided by education to realise the dream of a future with greater possibilities.
Here below is the full speech in English.
Dear Children,
I am very happy to be with you today, along with this big family which surrounds you. I see your teachers, your parents and your family members. Thank you for letting me come, and I ask pardon from your teachers for “stealing” a few minutes of their class time!
They tell me that one of the nice things about this school is that some of its students come from other places, even from other countries. That is nice! Even though I know that it is not easy to have to move and find a new home, new neighbors and new friends. It is not easy. At the beginning it can be hard, right? Often you have to learn a new language, adjust to a new culture, even a new climate. There is so much to learn! And not just at school.
The good thing is that we also make new friends, we meet people who open doors for us, who are kind to us. They offer us friendship and understanding, and they try to help us not to feel like strangers. To feel at home. How nice it is to feel that school is a second home. This is not only important for you, but also for your families. School then ends up being one big family. One where, together with our mothers and fathers, our grandparents, our teachers and friends, we learn to help one another, to share our good qualities, to give the best of ourselves, to work as a team and to pursue our dreams.
Very near here is a very important street named after a man who did a lot for other people. I want to talk a little bit about him. He was the Reverend Martin Luther King. One day he said, “I have a dream”. His dream was that many children, many people could have equal opportunities. His dream was that many children like you could get an education. It is beautiful to have dreams and to be able to fight for them.
Today we want to keep dreaming. We celebrate all the opportunities which enable you, and us adults, not to lose the hope of a better world with greater possibilities. I know that one of the dreams of your parents and teachers is that you can grow up and be happy. It is always good to see children smiling. Here I see you smiling. Keep smiling and help bring joy to everyone you meet.
Dear children, you have a right to dream and I am very happy that here in this school, in your friends and your teachers, you can find the support you need. Wherever there are dreams, there is joy, Jesus is always present. Because Jesus is joy, and he wants to help us to feel that joy every day of our lives.
Before going, I want to give you some homework. Can I? It is just a little request, but a very important one. Please don’t forget to pray for me, so that I can share with many people the joy of Jesus. And let us also pray so that many other people can share the joy like yours.
May God bless you today and Our Lady protect you.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis addressed the General Assembly of the United Nations on Friday morning at UN headquarters in New York. Though it was the 5th time a reigning Pontiff addressed the body, it was the first time in history that a Pope has done so during the annual “heads of state and government” session that opens the work of the Assembly each year in the Fall. So, it was another historical first.
Christopher Altieri reports from New York:
Pope Francis’ speech to the UN was, like the other of his addresses, which he has already delivered during the course of this visit, remarkable for its content, tone, and structure: neither shying away from frank recognition of serious problems both within the UN body and in the present order of international affairs, nor striking a scolding or heavily didactic tone, the Holy Father’s address was once again in essence a word of encouragement.
Delivered in Spanish, the Holy Father’s public address followed a private meeting with the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon. The Pope’s remarks dealt briefly and efficiently with the protocol of greetings, salutations, anniversary mentions and establishments of historical context. Even when he was going about that necessary work, however, he was already preparing his audience for the real radical labor of thought, in which he engaged and to which he called his audience – which included dozens of heads-of-state and/or government .
The characteristic of Pope Francis’ thinking on display in his UN discourse was its rootedness in the quintessentially Catholic intellectual tension of et-et (both-and), which eschews the straits of dichotomy and explodes the shackles of binary categorization. At perhaps no point was this characteristically Catholic tension in thinking on display, than in Pope Francis’ daring assertion of the natural environment as the subject of proper rights in the created order – rights which demand to be respected in positive law. “First,” said Pope Francis, “a true ‘right of the environment’ does exist,” and he went on to articulate the twofold reason that compels us to recognize the truth of the claim. “We human beings are part of the environment,” he explained. “We live in communion with it, since the environment itself entails ethical limits which human activity must acknowledge and respect.”
“Man,” Pope Francis continued, “for all his remarkable gifts, which ‘are signs of a uniqueness which transcends the spheres of physics and biology’ (Laudato Si’, 81), is at the same time a part of these spheres.” Both physical and spiritual: the Greeks knew this and had two words for life – bios and zoé – both of which flow into and out of human nature as constitutive elements. “Second,” he continued to explain, “every creature, particularly a living creature, has an intrinsic value, in its existence, its life, its beauty and its interdependence with other creatures: we Christians, together with the other monotheistic religions, believe that the universe is the fruit of a loving decision by the Creator, who permits man respectfully to use creation for the good of his fellow men and for the glory of the Creator; he is not authorized to abuse it, much less to destroy it.”
A conviction grounded in reason that is also an article of faith: this is the basic pattern at work – and though it is quintessentially Catholic, there is nothing in this way of thinking that requires an assent of supernatural faith in order to appreciate it, to recognize its merits as a way of thinking, or even to be compelled by the strength of the arguments it allows the one who adopts it to deploy in controversy.
First, last, and always a Pastor, Pope Francis was not telling the members of his audience what to think: he was showing them how, and he was inviting them to think with him – and so with a view to concerted action in service and pursuit of the genuine good. He had their attention because the authority of his office commanded it: he used the opportunity to demonstrate the Church’s expertise in humanity, and of what one can do – what we could do together – if only we were willing to avail ourselves of it.
(from Vatican Radio)…