(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis says a good priest knows how to empathize and get involved in the life of his flock. He said God pardons us like a father and not like an official in a law court. The Pope’s words came during his homily at Mass on Friday at the Santa Marta residence that was given in Spanish.
The focus of Pope Francis’s homily was God’s compassion for each one of us and for the whole of humanity and how He sent His Son to “heal, regenerate and renew” the human race.
“It’s interesting that in the parable that we all know of the Prodigal Son, it’s said that when the father – who’s the figure of a forgiving God – sees his son arriving he feels compassion. God’s compassion isn’t about feeling pity: it’s nothing at all to do with that.”
“I can feel pity,” he explained, “for a dog that is dying,” but God’s compassion is different, it means “empathizing with another person’s problem, empathizing with that person’s situation.”
“Jesus healed people but he is not a healer. No! He healed people as a sign, as a sign of God’s compassion, to save that person, to bring back the lost sheep to the fold, the money that went missing from the woman’s purse. God has compassion. God loves us like a Father. He does this for each one of us. And when God forgives, he forgives like a Father and not like an official in the law court who reads out the verdict saying: ‘Acquitted for lack of evidence.’ He forgives us from within his heart. He forgives because he loved that person.”
Jesus, continued the Pope, was sent to bring the good news, “to free those who are oppressed” and “to enter the heart of each one of us, to free us from our sins and evil.”
“This is what a priest does: he feels empathy towards others and becomes involved in the life of people because he is a priest, like Jesus is a priest. How many times – and then we must go to confession – do we criticize those priests who are not interested in what is happening to those in their congregation, who don’t care about them. He is not a good priest! A good priest is one who empathizes.”
Pope Francis said a good priest is somebody who gets involved in all human problems. He concluded his homily by paying tribute to Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragan, who was present at the Mass, to celebrate his 60 years of priesthood. He praised the Cardinal’s work on behalf of the Church when he headed the Dicastery for Health Workers and said let us give thanks to God for these 60 years and for God’s compassion.
(from Vatican Radio)…
Vatican City, 30 October 2015 (VIS) – Pope Francis has sent a message to the Santa Marta Group, an initiative launched by the Holy Father in the battle against human trafficking, involving the security forces of various countries, episcopates, social organisations and representatives of various religious confessions. The group is currently gathered at the San Lorenzo del Escorial in Spain, a meeting inaugurated this Friday by Queen Sofia and attended by cardinals, bishops, social activists and around fifty heads of police from around the world.
In the short time of its existence, writes Francis, this worthy group has made significant achievements and is called upon to play a decisive role in the eradication of human trafficking and modern slavery. He recalls that during the last year there have been important institutional changes that have without doubt supported its activity, starting with the meeting of mayors in Vatican City on 21 July, in which key figures signed a declaration expressing their commitment to eliminating the new forms of slavery that constitute a crime against humanity.
He also mentions the recent approval of the Agenda 2030, with the new United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, which include the adoption of immediate and effective means for eradicating forced labour, putting an end to modern forms of slavery and human trafficking and ensuring the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labour, including the recruitment and deployment of child soldiers, with a view to putting an end to all forms of child labour by 2025.
The Pope also refers to his address to the United Nations in New York on 25 September, in which he affirmed that the world demands of government leaders “a will which is effective, practical and constant, concrete steps and immediate measures for preserving and improving the natural environment and thus putting an end as quickly as possible to the phenomenon of social and economic exclusion, with its baneful consequences. … Such is the magnitude of these situations and their toll in innocent lives, that we must avoid every temptation to fall into a declarationist nominalism which would assuage our consciences”. “Today the 193 states of the United Nations have a new moral imperative to combat human trafficking, a true crime against humanity. Collaboration between bishops and the civil authorities, each in accordance with his own mission and character and with the aim of discovering best practice for the fulfilment of this delicate task, is a decisive step to ensuring that the will of governments reaches the victims in a direct, immediate, constant, effective and concrete way”.
“For my part, I pray that God Almighty grant you the grace of carrying forward the delicate, humanitarian and Christian mission of healing the open and painful wounds of humanity, which are also Christ’s wounds. I assure you of all my support and my prayer, and the support and prayer of the faithful of the Catholic Church. With God’s help, and your collaboration, the indispensable service of the Santa Marta Group will be able to free the victims of new forms of slavery, rehabilitate them, along with the imprisoned and the marginalised, unmasking the traffickers and those who create this market, and provide effective assistance to cities and nations; a service for the common good and the promotion of human dignity, able to bring out the best in every person and every citizen”….
Vatican City, 30 October 2015 (VIS) – To commemorate 60 years of the Latin American Episcopal Council (CELAM), the Pope has written a message to the president Cardinal Ruben Salazar Gomez in which he expresses his gratitude for all the good the Lord has gradually sown there, and that has borne fruit through the service of God’s Church in Latin America.
“I hope that CELAM, making pastoral and missionary conversion its priority, may increasingly participate in, support and give momentum to this evangelising movement towards all environments and all frontiers. It is important that our communities are a ‘home and school of communion’, which attract by a surprising fraternity based on the recognition of the common father, and help always to keep alive in the Church in Latin America the passion for our peoples, the bearing of our sufferings and the capacity for Christian discernment of the vicissitudes of their recent history, to open up paths of greater equality, peace and justice”.
He also emphasises that the upcoming opening of the extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy “will be an event of grace in which CELAM must provide a fundamental service of inspiration, exchange and celebration”.
Finally, the Pope imparts his apostolic blessing to all members of CELAM, their collaborators, and the episcopate of Latin America and the Caribbean, placing all these intentions under the protection of the mantle of Our Lady of Guadalupe, patron of America, so that by her intercession “Our Lord Jesus Christ may inspire new and holier missionary disciples in our Churches, and more courageous builders of peace and justice in our nations”….
Vatican City, 30 October 2015 (VIS) – The Holy Father’s universal prayer intention for November is: “That we may be open to personal encounter and dialogue with all, even those whose convictions differ from our own”.
His intention for evangelisation is: “That pastors of the Church, with profound love for their flocks, may accompany them and enliven their hope”….
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis greeted pilgrims from El Salvador who came to the Vatican on Friday to thank the Holy Father for beatifying Archbishop Oscar Romero in May of this year.
Listen to Lydia O’Kane’s report
500 people including Bishops, priests, religious, lay people and seminarians from El Salvador came to the Vatican on Friday to say quite simply “Thank You” to Pope Francis for beatifying Archbishop Oscar Romero in May 2015. The Archbishop was shot dead as he celebrated Mass in a hospital chapel on 24 March 1980. Speaking to the pilgrims gathered, Pope Francis said Oscar Romero’s life was taken violently, while he was celebrating the Eucharist, a supreme sacrifice of love, sealing with his blood the announcement of the Gospel.
At the heart of his address was the theme of martyrdom. The Pope recalled the martyrs of the past and said that today too the blood of many Christian martyrs is still being dramatically shed in the world, but he added, with the certain hope that it will bear fruit “in a rich harvest of holiness, justice, reconciliation and love for God.”
He also underlined that no one is born a martyr, saying that it is a grace that the Lord gives. The Holy Father recalled the words of Archbishop Romero himself when he said, “We must be willing to die for our faith, even if the Lord does not give us this honour.”
Pope Francis went to say that the martyr is not someone who is relegated to the past, a beautiful image that adorns our churches and we remember with nostalgia.
No, he stressed, the martyr is a brother, a sister, who continues to accompany us in the mystery of the communion of saints, and that, “united to Christ, does not ignore our earthly pilgrimage, our sufferings, our agonies.”
People like Archbishop Romero, said the Pope, are a treasure and a hope for the Church and for Salvadoran society.
Concluding his address the Holy Father noted that the upcoming Jubilee of Mercy, and the example shown by Oscar Romero for his beloved nation was a stimulus for a renewed proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
The Pope added that “the holy people of God on pilgrimage in El Salvador who still face a series of difficult tasks, need like the rest of the world, the evangelizing announcement of the Gospel that will help to advance the promotion and development of a nation in search of true justice, genuine peace and the reconciliation of hearts.
(from Vatican Radio)…