The
Egyptian Armed Forces have announced that pieces of the wreckage of the
Egyptair plane which disappeared yesterday have been found. According to
spokesperson, Brigadier General Mohamed
Samir: “on Friday military aircraft and the Egyptian Navy found wreckage of the airplane and passenger
items in the area north of Alexandria, 295 km” from the coast. Human remains,
two seats and luggage were found in the sea where the search continues. A
telegram, signed by Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, was sent by the
Pope to the President of Egypt Abdel Fattah Al Sisi. The commission created to
investigate the cause of the crash “will go immediately to the site to examine
the wreckage and the two black boxes upon their detection”, according to
airport sources in Cairo. The commission is led by Ayman El Mokadem, head of
the investigative commission for the Ministry for Civil Aviation who also led
the investigation of the Russian charter which
exploded in Sinai in October. These experts “will hold meetings with
French investigators of Airbus”. The creation of the Committee was announced
yesterday by the Office of the President of Egypt. Three
experts of the France’s investigative agency BEA and an Airbus technician
arrived this morning in Cairo to assist the team already on the group in Egypt.
The head of diplomacy announced that tomorrow he will receive the victims
families at the Quai d’Orsay….
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has issued a binding clarification of a question arising under Canon Law with regard to the proper procedure for the creation of new diocesan Institutes of Consecrated Life. Specifically, the Holy Father has, by way of Papal Rescript, established that prior consultation by the local Ordinary who desires to erect a new Institute of Consecrated Life within his jurisdiction and under his authority, must have prior consultation with the Holy See before deciding to erect any such new Institute.
The Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts, Bishop Juan Ignacio Arrieta, told Vatican Radio the Rescript does not require local Ordinaries to obtain permission, per se , but only to consult with and hear from the Holy See (through the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life ) before proceeding.
“The bishop is always responsible in his diocese – but he has to evaluate the answer, the opinion, of the Congregation [ for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life ]: after [hearing] the opinion of the Congregation, he remains free to act in one sense or in the other; but he has to balance, to think about, the opinion – the very high[ly regarded] opinion – of the Congregation, and that is important – very important – even in diocesan governance.”
Click below to hear our report
The Rescript followed a request from the Congregation for Consecrated Life, and came from the Holy Father through the Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin. The operative sentences – which clarify the meaning of Canon 579 of the Code of Canon Law – read: In the Audience granted to the undersigned Secretary of State on April 4, 2016, the Holy Father ruled that the prior consultation of the Holy See is to be understood as being necessary ad validitatem for the erection of a diocesan Institute of consecrated life, on pain of nullity of the decree of erection of the same Institute. This rescript will be promulgated by publication in L’Osservatore Romano , entering into force on 1 June 2016, and then published in the Acta Apostolicae Sedis .
(from Vatican Radio)…
Br Francesco Patton is the new Custos of
the Holy Land, succeeding Br Pierbattista Pizzaballa, who led the Custody for
the past ten years. The nomination by the General Council of the Order of
Friars Minor was ratified by the Holy See, according to the Pontifical Statutes
dealing with this entity of the Franciscan Order. The
new Custos was born in Vigo Meano, Italy in the Archdiocese of Trent on 23
December 1963, and belongs to the Province of St Anthony of the Friars Minor of
northern Italy. He made his first
religious profession on 7 September 1983 and his solemn profession on 4 October
1986. He was ordained a priest on 26 May 1989. In 1993 he earned a Licentiate
in Communication Sciences at the Pontifical Salesian University in Rome. He
has served in various capacities in his province and also within the Order. He
was twice Secretary General of the General Chapters in 2003 and 2009; Visitator
General in 2003; Minister Provincial of St Vigilium of Trent from 2008 to 2016;
and President of the Conference of Provincial Ministers of Italy and Albania (COMPI) from 2010 to 2013. Br
Francesco has also served in many capacities outside of the Order, including:
as member of the Diocesan Presbyteral Council and secretary of the Diocesan
Pastoral Council of the Archdiocese of Trent; professor of Social
Communications at the Studio Teologico Accademico Tridentino; collaborator of
the Diocesan Weekly, of Diocesan Radio and of Telepace Trento. He has also been
enrolled with the journalists of Trentino-Alto Adige as a publicist since 1991….
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Friday urged Italian football (soccer) players to not just be champions in their sport but above all champions in their lives, by displaying key moral values such as brotherhood, mutual respect, understanding and forgiveness. His remarks came during an audience at the Vatican with top representatives of Italy’s Seria A Football League as well as players from the Juventus and AC Milan teams. The two Seria A teams play each other at the weekend in the final of the Italian cup (Coppa Italia) in Rome’s Olympic Stadium.
A keen football fan himself, Pope Francis reminded the players, that as role models for many fans, especially the young, their behaviour should always reflect “the authentic values of sport.” He said the success of a team depends on a fusion of human and moral virtues such as “harmony, loyalty, friendship, dialogue and solidarity.” By being a witness of those moral virtues, he continued, you can emphasize even more the real purpose of the world of sport that is “sometimes marred by negative episodes.”
The Pope reminded the players that they are not just footballers but first and foremost a human being, each with their own conscience, and urged them to always show “brotherhood, mutual respect, understanding and forgiveness.” “Be champions in sport but above all champions in your life,” he stressed.
Pope Francis concluded by encouraging the players to always highlight whatever is “truly good and beautiful” and to not be afraid to share and display with their fans “the moral and religious principles” on which they wish to base their life.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Announcing the word of God should never be dissociated from the understanding of human weakness. That was Pope Francis’ message during the daily Mass at the Casa Santa Marta. Commenting on the Gospel passage in which Christ speaks with the Pharisees about adultery, he said the Lord overcomes the human vision which would reduce the vision of God to a casuistic equation.
The Gospel, the Pope said, is full of examples of the Pharisees and the doctors of the law attempting to trap Jesus by catching Him off guard, seeking to undermine the authority and favour he enjoys with the people. One of those attempts is related in the day’s Gospel, in which the Pharisees tempt Him by asking if it is licit for a man to put away his wife.
Truth, not casuistry
Pope Francis speaks of the “trap” of “casuistry,” concocted by “a small group of enlightened theologians,” convinced that they “have all the knowledge and wisdom of the people of God.” It is a snare from which Jesus escapes, he says, by going “beyond,” “to the fullness of matrimony.” The Lord had already done so with the Sadducees, the Pope recalled, when they had questioned Him about the woman who had had seven husbands. At the resurrection, Jesus affirmed, she would not be the wife of any of them, because in heaven “they neither marry nor are given in marriage.”
In that case, the Pope said, Christ looked to the “eschatological fullness” of marriage. With the Pharisees, on the other hand, He referred to “the fullness of the harmony of creation.” “God created them male and female,” and “the two became one flesh.”
“ They are no longer two, but one flesh,” and so “no human must separate what God has joined. Both in the case of the levirate marriage and in this case, Jesus responds with the overwhelming truth, with the blunt truth: This is the truth! Always from the fullness. And Jesus never negotiates with the truth. And these people, this small group of enlightened theologians, always negotiate with the truth, reducing it to casuistry. And Jesus never negotiates with the truth. And this is the truth about marriage, there is no other.
Truth and understanding
“But Jesus,” Pope Francis continued, “so merciful, He is so great, that he never, never, never, closes the door to sinners.” And so He does not limit Himself to proclaiming the truth of God, but goes on to ask the Pharisees what Moses had established in the Law. And when the Pharisees responded that Moses permitted a husband to write a bill of divorce, Jesus replied that this was permitted “because of the hardness of your hearts.” That is, the Pope explained, Jesus always distinguished between the truth and “human weakness” without “twisting words.”
In the world in which we live, with this culture of the provisional, this reality of sin is so strong. But Jesus, recalling Moses, tells us: “But there is hardness of heart, there is sin, something can be done: forgiveness, understanding, accompaniment, integration, discernment of these cases… But always… But the truth is never sold. And Jesus is capable of stating this very great truth, and at the same time being so understanding with sinners, with the weak.
Forgiveness is not an equation
And so, Pope Francis emphasized, these are “the two things that Jesus teaches us: truth and understanding.” This is what the “enlightened theologians” fail to do, because they are closed in the trap of “a mathematical equation” of “Can it be done? Can it not be done?” and so they are “incapable both of great horizons, and of love” for human weakness. It is enough to see, the Pope concluded, the “delicacy” with which Jesus treated the adulteress woman who was about to be stoned: “Neither do I condemn you: Go forth, and sin no more.”
May Jesus teach us to have at heart a great adhesion to the truth, and also at heart a great understanding and accompaniment for all our brothers who are in difficulty. And this is a gift, this is what the Holy Spirit teaches us, not these enlightened doctors, who to teach us need to reduce the fullness of God to a casuistic equation. May the Lord give us this grace.
Listen:
(from Vatican Radio)…