(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis sent a video message to the thousands of teenagers gathered in Rome’s Olympic Stadium on Saturday evening to celebrate the Jubilee for Teens.
In the message, he called them to be merciful like the Father and compared their relationship with Jesus to mobile phone coverage.
Listen to Devin Watkins’ report:
In his video message, the Holy Father apologized to the teenage pilgrims for not being able to make it for the event in Rome’s Olympic Stadium, but thanked them for their joyful presence.
Making reference to their Saturday morning pilgrimage to St. Peter’s Basilica, the Pope reminded the teens that the Holy Door represents their encounter with Christ, who he said, “introduces us to the love of the Father and invites us to become merciful, just as He is merciful.”
“Being merciful means being able to forgive. And this is not easy, is it? Sometimes it happens that, in my family, at school, in the parish, at the gym, or while we’re having fun, someone does something and we feel offended; or maybe in a nervous moment we offend someone. Let us not remain in that state of anger or desire for revenge! It serves nothing! It’s like a woodworm which eats our soul and doesn’t allow us to be happy. Let us forgive! Let us forgive and forget the offence we’ve received, so that we may understand Jesus’ teaching and be his disciples and witnesses of mercy,” the Pope said.
The Holy Father concluded his video message with an analogy to which the teens could easily relate. He compared their relationship with Jesus to mobile phone coverage.
“How often it happens to me to have to call a friend but I can’t get through because there is no service. I’m sure this also happens to you, that you’re cell phone doesn’t connect in some places… Well, remember that if Jesus is not in your life, it’s as if there is no [phone] service! You can’t get in contact with someone and you close yourself off. Let us be where there is service! In your family, parish, or school, so that we will always have something good and true to say in this world.”
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) The Jubilee for teens got underway Saturday as part of the celebrations for the Extraordinary Year of Mercy. The theme for this three day event is “Growing merciful as the Father”, and brings together 70 thousand teenagers from here in Italy and all over the world.
The event kicked off with a pilgrimage to the Holy Door, followed by confessions which were heard by the priests present and by Pope Francis himself, in the colonnade of St Peter’s Basilica.
Later on Saturday the teens will travel to Rome’s Olympic Stadium where there will be a video message from the Holy Father.
Meanwhile, on Sunday morning the 13 to 16 year olds will be back in St Peter’s Square for a Mass presided over by Pope Francis.
Among those who have traveled to Rome to be at this event is the Sullivan family from North Carolina in the United States.
Ryan and Emily Sullivan along with their parents Susan and Matt dropped into the studios of Vatican Radio to talk about the Teen Jubilee with Lydia O’Kane.
Listen to the interview
Both Emily and Ryan spoke of their excitement at being in Rome for such a significant gathering with Emily adding that it was “cool” that this weekend’s Jubilee was for their age group.
“It’s exciting as a youth to be thought of and focused on”, she said.
Parents Matt and Susan are hoping that this experience with resonate with their children and will be an opportunity for them to “explore their faith”.
For Susan having a Teen Jubilee is extremely important, remarking that they are “they future of our Church.”
The Teen Jubilee runs until Monday 25 th .
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis surprised thousands of teenagers in St. Peter’s Square by personally hearing confessions for more than an hour Saturday morning.
The Holy Father administered the Sacrament of Reconciliation to 16 teenage boys and girls gathered in St. Peter’s Square for the Jubilee for Teens.
Listen to Seàn-Patrick Lovett’s report:
Most people celebrate their feast day eating cake.
Not Pope Francis.
Saturday, April 23rd is the feast of St. George, and Pope Giorgio Bergoglio spent a good slice of the morning listening to confessions…in St Peter’s Square.
That’s because Saturday also marks the Jubilee for Teens, an opportunity for 13 to 16 year-olds all over the world to reflect on the theme “Merciful like the Father”.
Several thousand of them have come to Rome for the event and were in St Peter’s Square Saturday morning when the Pope unexpectedly turned up to hear confessions, along with another 150 priests, beneath the colonnade in front of St Peter’s Basilica.
Sixteen teenage boys and girls were chosen randomly from among the throngs of banner-waving, rucksack-carrying young people who were participating in the Sacrament of Reconciliation before making their way through the Holy Door.
In a message published earlier this year in preparation for the Jubilee for Teens, Pope Francis wrote: “Don’t just prepare your rucksacks and your banners – but your hearts and minds as well”.
The Pope will address those hearts and minds personally tomorrow when he celebrates Mass for the teens in St Peter’s Square.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) The President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, Cardinal Peter Turkson, told the United Nations to realize the 2030 Development Agenda, we are called “to care”, even when dealing with finance.
The Vatican official was on Thursday speaking at a High-Level Thematic Debate on Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals in New York.
“Ethically irresponsible financial activity produces social inequalities,” – Cardinal Turkson said – “By caring, we are inspired to practice responsible finance and promote value-based investing in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda.”
Cardinal Turkson called “our conflict-ridden world” the greatest challenge to the realization of the 2030 Agenda.
“For war is the negation of all rights and all development,” he said.
“Thus good governance and all the political instruments for the maintenance of peace and security for all are indispensable for the successful realization of the 2030 Agenda,” Cardinal Turkson concluded.
The full text of Cardinal Turkson’s speech is below
Statement of the HOLY SEE by
HIS EMINENCE CARD. PETER K.A. TURKSON
President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace
High-Level Thematic Debate on Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals
New York, 21 April 2016
Mr. President, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I bring you the warm greetings of Pope Francis, and his prayerful wishes for a successful discussion on the means for achieving the SDGs. When Pope Francis addressed this Assembly on September 25 last, he referred to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development as “an important sign of hope”. This hope, he went on, will come to concrete fruition only if the Agenda is truly, fairly and effectively realized, and even more importantly, if its framework is sustainable. Thus its realization calls for all stakeholders to exercise an effective, practical and constant will.
The Holy See believes that the realization of the 2030 Agenda requires more than public financing; it also requires financing and investment in accordance with value-based criteria of private investors, as a necessary complement to public finance. Indeed, it is necessary that Non-State Actors, such as faith-based groups, lead multi-stakeholder engagements in ethical financial activity to eliminate social inequality and to develop an ambitious new agenda to better “care for our common home”.
In his Encyclical “Laudato Si’”, Pope Francis talks about “care” and “caring”. For, if one cares, one is connected, one is involved and touched. To care is to allow oneself to be affected by another, so much that one’s path and priorities change. With caring, then, the hard line between self and other softens, blurs, even disappears. So when we cast aside anything precious in the world, we destroy part of ourselves too, beca use we are completely connected.
To realize the 2030 Development Agenda, we are called “to care”, even when dealing with finance. Ethically irresponsible financial activity produces social inequalities. By caring, we are inspired to practice responsible finance and promote value-based investing in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda.
Finally, Mr. President, as Pope Paul VI affirmed in 1967 in his Encyclical “Populorum Progressio,” development is the new name of peace. Peace is the necessary condition and environment for any true and lasting development. Accordingly, our conflict-ridden world is probably the greatest challenge to the realization of the 2030 Agenda. Peaceful and caring societies are more fundamental than the availability of financing and funding.
For war is the negation of all rights and all development. Thus good governance and all the political instruments for the maintenance of peace and security for all are indispensable for the successful realization of the 2030 Agenda.
(from Vatican Radio)…