(Vatican Radio) As part of ongoing celebrations for the Jubilee Year of Mercy, Pope Francis on Friday evening delivered the homily at a special “Penitential Celebration” in St Peter’s Basilica.
Below, please find the full text of Pope Francis’ prepared homily for the Celebration
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Homily of His Holiness Pope Francis
Penitential Celebration
Saint Peter’s Basilica
Friday, 4 March 2016
“I want to see again” (Mk 10:51). This is what we ask of the Lord today. To see again, because our sins have made us lose sight of all that is good, and have robbed us of the beauty of our calling, leading us instead far away from our journey’s end.
This Gospel passage has great symbolic value for our lives, because we all find ourselves in the same situation as Bartimaeus. His blindness led him to poverty and to living on the outskirts of the city, dependent on others for everything he needed. Sin also has this effect: it impoverishes and isolates us. It is a blindness of the spirit, which prevents us from seeing what is most important, from fixing our gaze on the love that gives us life. This blindness leads us little by little to dwell on what is superficial, until we are indifferent to others and to what is good. How many temptations have the power to cloud the heart’s vision and to make it myopic! How easy and misguided it is to believe that life depends on what we have, on our successes and on the approval we receive; to believe that the economy is only for profit and consumption; that personal desires are more important than social responsibility! When we only look to ourselves, we become blind, lifeless and self-centred, devoid of joy and true freedom.
But Jesus is passing by; he is passing by, and he halts: the Gospel tells us that “he stopped” (v. 49). Our hearts race, because we realize that the Light is gazing upon us, that kindly Light which invites us to come out of our dark blindness. Jesus’ closeness to us makes us see that when we are far from him there is something important missing from our lives. His presence makes us feel in need of salvation, and this begins the healing of our heart. Then, when our desire to be healed becomes more courageous, it leads to prayer, to crying out fervently and persistently for help, as did Bartimaeus: “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” (v. 47).
Unfortunately, like the “many” in the Gospel, there is always someone who does not want to stop, who does not want to be bothered by someone else crying out in pain, preferring instead to silence and rebuke the person in need who is only a nuisance (cf. v. 48). There is the temptation to move on as if it were nothing, but then we would remain far from the Lord and we would also keep others away from Jesus. May we realize that we are all begging for God’s love, and not allow ourselves to miss the Lord as he passes by. “Timeo transeuntem Dominum” (Saint Augustine). Let us voice our truest desire: “[Jesus], let me receive my sight!” (v. 51). This Jubilee of Mercy is the favourable time to welcome God’s presence, to experience his love and to return to him with all our heart. Like Bartimaeus, let us cast off our cloak and rise to our feet (cf. v. 50): that is, let us cast aside all that prevents us from racing towards him, unafraid of leaving behind those things which make us feel safe and to which we are attached. Let us not remain sedentary, but let us get up and find our spiritual worth again, our dignity as loved sons and daughters who stand before the Lord so that we can be seen by him, forgiven and recreated.
Today more than ever, we Pastors are especially called to hear the cry, perhaps hidden, of all those who wish to encounter the Lord. We need to re-examine those behaviours of ours which at times do not help others to draw close to Jesus; the schedules and programmes which do not meet the real needs of those who may approach the confessional; human regulations, if they are more important than the desire for forgiveness; our own inflexibility which may keep others away from God’s tenderness. We must certainly not water down the demands of the Gospel, but we cannot risk frustrating the desire of the sinner to be reconciled with the Father. For what the Father awaits more than anything is for his sons and daughters to return home (cf. Lk 15:20-32).
May our words be those of the disciples who, echoing Jesus, said to Bartimaeus: “Take heart; rise, he is calling you” (Mk 10:49). We have been sent to inspire courage, to support and to lead others to Jesus. Our ministry is one of accompaniment, so that the encounter with the Lord may be personal and intimate, and the heart may open itself to the Saviour in honesty and without fear. May we not forget: it is God alone who is at work in every person. In the Gospel it is he who stops and speaks to the blind man; it is he who orders the man to be brought to him, and who listens to him and heals him. We have been chosen to awaken the desire for conversion, to be instruments that facilitate this encounter, to stretch out our hand and to absolve, thus making his mercy visible and effective.
The conclusion of the Gospel story is significant: Bartimaeus “immediately received his sight and followed him on the way” (v. 52). When we draw near to Jesus, we too see once more the light which enables us to look to the future with confidence. We find anew the strength and the courage to set out on the way. “Those who believe, see” (Lumen Fidei, 1) and they go forth in hope, because they know that the Lord is present, that he is sustaining and guiding them. Let us follow him, as faithful disciples, so that we can lead all those we encounter to experience the joy of his merciful love.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Archbishop Paul Gallagher, the Holy See’s Secretary for Relations with States, has concluded a visit to the UK where he discussed issues ranging from migration and modern slavery to climate change and international cooperation with British government ministers.
During the March 1st to 4th visit the Liverpool-born archbishop met with the Minister for Europe, David Lidington, and Baroness Anelay, Foreign Office Minister in the House of Lords. He discussed with them common concerns including the situation facing Christian communities in the Middle East, Ukraine, Kosovo and Cyprus. Mr Lidington also shared the British government’s position on remaining in the European Union, ahead of the national referendum on June 23rd.
In a meeting with Britain’s Home Secretary, Theresa May, the archbishop talked about the current migration crisis and efforts to combat slavery and trafficking. He also met with the Secretary of State for International Development, Justine Greening, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Theresa Villiers and with Lord Borne of Aberystwyth, the Climate Change Minister.
The Vatican foreign minister was welcomed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, at Lambeth Palace and had the opportunity to discuss potential cooperation with the Commonwealth in talks with its Secretary-General elect, Baroness Scotland of Asthal.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) On the afternoon of 3 March 2016, the Holy Father received in audience the Prefect of the Congregation of the Causes of Saints, Cardinal Angelo Amato, S.D.B. In the course of the Audience, Pope Francis authorized the Congregation to promulgate degrees regarding:
the miracle, attributed to the intercession of Blessed Manuel González García, Bishop of Palencia, Founder of the Children of Reparation and of the Eucharistic Missionaries of Nazareth; born 25 February 1877 and died 4 January 1940;
the miracle, attributed to the intercession of Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity (born Élizabeth Catez), professed religious of the Discalced Carmelites; born 18 July 1880 and died 9 November 1906;
the miracle, attributed to the intercession of the Venerable Servant of God Marie-Eugene of the Child Jesus (born: Henri Grialou), professed Priest of the Order of Discalced Carmelites, Founder of the Secular Institute of Notre-Dame de Vie; born 2 December 1894 and died 27 March 1967;
the miracle, attributed to the intercession of the Venerable Servant of God María Antonia of Saint Joseph (born: María Antonia de Paz y Figueroa), Founder of the Beaterio of the Spiritual Exercises of Buenos Aires in Argentina; born 1730 and died 7 marzo 1799;
the heroic virtue of the Servant of God Stefano Ferrando, of the Salesian Society of St John Bosco, Titular Archbishop of Toyna, later Bishop of Shillong, Founder of Congregation of the Missionary Sisters of Mary Help of Christians; born 28 September 1895 and died 20 June 1978;
the heroic virtue of the Servant of God Henri Stanislaus Verjus, of the Congregation of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Titular Bishop of Limyra, Coadjutor of the Apostolic Vicariate of New Guinea; born 26 May 1860 and died 13 November 1892;
the heroic virtue of the Servant of God Giovanni Battista Quilici, Diocesan Priest, Pastor, Founder of the Congregation of the Daughters of the Crucified, born 26 April 1791 and died 10 June 1844;
the heroic virtue of the Servant of God Bernardo Mattio, Diocesan Priest, Pastor; born 2 January 1845 and died 11 April 1914;
the heroic virtue of the Servant of God Quirico Pignalberi, professed Priest of the Order of Friars Minor Conventual; born 11 July 1891 and died 18 July 1982;
the heroic virtue of the Servant of God Teodora Campostrini, Foundress of the Congregation of the Minim Sisters of the Charity of the Sorrowful Mary; born 26 October 1788 and died 22 May 1860;
the heroic virtue of the Servant of God Bianca Piccolomini Clementini, Foundress of the Society of Saint Angela Merici; born 7 April 1875 and died 14 August 1959;
the heroic virtue of the Servant of God Maria Nieves Sánchez y Fernández (in religion: Maria Nieves of the Holy Family), professed religious of the Daughters of Mary of the Pious Schools; born 2 May 1900 and died 1 May 1978.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) The Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors issued a statement on Friday in response to Cardinal George Pell’s hearings via video link with Australia’s Royal Commission investigating institutional responses to child sexual abuse.
Philippa Hitchen reports:
The statement says that a member of the Pontifical Commission, Jesuit Fr Hans Zollner, has met with survivors of clerical sex abuse who had come over from Australia for the hearings that took place this week at Rome’s Hotel Quirinale. The three victim/survivors from Ballarat, north west of Melbourne, requested the meeting in order to share ideas about healing and about how to protect children from abuse in the future.
While acknowledging that the problem is not limited to the Catholic Church, the three men said they were keen to develop links with the Vatican Commission established by Pope Francis in March 2014. They spoke in particular about models of educating children, parents and teachers to effect structural change within the Church and to safeguard vulnerable people.
The Ballarat survivors also met with students attending a diploma-programme in Safeguarding of Minors at the Gregorian University, where Fr Hans serves as president of the Psychology Institute’s Centre for Child Protection.
Progress in child protection
Meanwhile a note from the director of the Holy See press office, Fr Federico Lombardi, set out the many steps that have been taken by Vatican and by local Churches over the past two and a half decades to combat the problems of clerical sex abuse. He said some media coverage of this week’s Royal Commission hearings and reviews of the Oscar-winning film Spotlight have ignored the important progress made towards supporting victims and ensuring the protection of vulnerable people in all churches and religious institutions.
Father Lombardi stressed the Church’s desire to put its child protection expertise, acquired over the past decades, at the service of wider society, which often struggles to acknowledge and combat extensive sexual abuse. He welcomed the Australian survivors’ willingness to establish a constructive dialogue with Cardinal Pell and with the Vatican Commission in order to support and intensify efforts to stamp out child abuse in the Church and throughout the world today.
Please see below the full statement from the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors
Over the past two days, Fr. Hans Zollner SJ, a member of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, met in two occasions with Mr David Ridsdale, Mr Andrew Collins and Mr Peter Blenkiron, victims/survivors of clergy sexual abuse from Ballarat, Australia, who have come to Rome for Cardinal George Pell’s hearing by the Royal Commission. Cardinal Pell had asked to arrange this meeting after these gentlemen requested to meet with a member of the Pontifical Commission. These gentlemen explained the reason for wanting to meet with a member of the Pontifical Commission is that, “We would like to discuss ideas we have had about healing and the future to protect children from institutional abuse. We know this problem had been wider than the Catholic Church but our experiences have been in this environment. We are keen to develop links with your group as it is a world-wide issue.”
The victims/survivors spoke of models of educating children, parents and teachers so as to effect structural change within the Church and society concerning the effective safeguarding of children and adolescents. This discussion comes at a time when the Pontifical Commission decided at their 2016 February Plenary Assembly to have one strategic focus on safeguarding of minors in Catholic schools at their September 2016 Assembly.
Fr. Hans appreciated very much the victims’/survivors’ concerns and their proposals for preventive measures, and he will report back to the other members of the Pontifical Commission, so that all can learn from the victims’/survivors’ experience to improve the Commission’s work in healing in the present, and better understand how to prevent sexual abuse by those in service to the Church from happening again in the future.
During the meeting, Fr. Hans explained to the victims/survivors the purpose of the Commission and also talked, in particular, about his work and initiatives in prevention from abuse within and outside the Church as President of the “Centre for Child Protection” of the Institute of Psychology of the Pontifical Gregorian University. The Ballarat survivors met also with some of the students of the Diploma-programme in Safeguarding of Minors, offered at the Gregorian University.
The Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors was created by Pope Francis in March of 2014. The Chirograph of His Holiness Pope Francis states specifically, “The Commission’s specific task is to propose to me the most opportune initiatives for protecting minors and vulnerable adults, in order that we may do everything possible to ensure that crimes such as those which have occurred are no longer repeated in the Church. The Commission is to promote local responsibility in the particular Churches, uniting their efforts to those of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, for the protection of all children and vulnerable adults.”
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Friday addressed the participants of a course on the internal forum organized by the Apostolic Penitentiary, calling them to become ‘channels of mercy’.
The yearly week-long course prepares new priests and seminarians for the correct administration of the Sacrament of Reconciliation and traditionally concludes in an audience with the Holy Father.
Listen to Devin Watkins’ report:
In remarks prepared for the occasion, Pope Francis reminded the priests and seminarians of the importance of “an adequate and updated preparation” for confessors, “so that all who come to confess their sins may ‘touch the grandeur of God’s mercy with their own hands, the source of true inner peace’ (Bull, Misericordiae Vultus, 17)”.
“Mercy”, the Holy Father said, “before being an attitude or human virtue, is a unfailing choice by God in favor of every human being for their eternal salvation, a choice sealed with the blood of the Son of God.”
Pope Francis went on to remind the young priests and seminarians that the door of divine mercy are always wide open. “The mercy of the Father can reach every person in many ways: through the openness of a sincere conscience; by reading the Word of God which converts hearts; through an encounter with a merciful sister or brother; in the experiences of a life lived with wounds, sins, forgiveness, and mercy.”
Of these ways which God’s mercy can reach us, the Pope said the most certain of all is Jesus himself, “who has the power on earth to forgive sins (Luke 5,24) and has entrusted this mission to the Church (John 20,21-23). The Sacrament of Reconciliation is therefore the privileged place to experience the mercy of God.”
For this reason, the Holy Father said, “it is important that the confessor also be a ‘channel of joy’ and that the penitent faithful, after having received absolution, not feel the weight of his or her sins. They need to taste the work of God which freed them, live in thanksgiving, and be ready to repair the damage of their sins, going out to their brothers and sisters with an open and welcoming heart.”
Pope Francis concluded his speech by mentioning two confessors who expressed the love and mercy of God with zeal in the confessional: Sts. Leopold Mandic and Padre Pio of Pietrelcina.
St. Leopold, he said, “often told those who were suffering: ‘We have in heaven the heart of a Mother. The Virgin, our Mother, who at the foot of the Cross experienced all suffering possible for a human being, she understands our difficulties and she consoles us’. May Mary, Refuge of sinners and Mother of Mercy, always guide and sustain the important ministry of Reconciliation.”
(from Vatican Radio)…