(Vatican Radio) At the conclusion of his Wednesday General Audience , Pope Francis delivered his message for the upcoming Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro , urging Brazilians to work for a more just and safe country.
Listen to Devin Watkins’ report:
With the Olympic Games 2016 getting underway in Rio on Saturday, August 6th, Pope Francis told all those involved to ‘fight the good fight’ and finish the race together.
He said “in a world thirsting for peace, tolerance, and reconciliation”, the prize for all participants and spectators of the Games consisted in something much more precious than a medal.
Their prize, he said, is “the construction of a civilization in which solidarity reigns and is based upon the recognition that we are all members of the same human family, regardless of the differences of culture, skin color, or religion.”
The Holy Father also expressed his desire that all Brazilians, “who with their joy and characteristic hospitality have organized the ‘Feast of Sport’, … that this will be an opportunity to overcome difficult moments and commit themselves to working as a team to build a more just and safe country, betting all on a future full of hope and joy.”
A Vatican Radio English translation of Pope Francis’ message for the Olympics is below:
I would like to send an especially warm greeting to the Brazilian people, in particular to the city of Rio de Janeiro, which is hosting the athletes and passionate fans from all over the world on the occasion of the Olympics. In a world thirsting for peace, tolerance, and reconciliation, I hope that the spirit of the Olympic Games inspires all – participants and spectators – to “fight the good fight” and finish the race together (cf. 2 Tim 4,7-8), desiring to obtain as a prize, not a medal, but something much more precious: the construction of a civilization in which solidarity reigns and is based upon the recognition that we are all members of the same human family, regardless of the differences of culture, skin color, or religion. And for all Brazilians, who with their joy and characteristic hospitality have organized the ‘Feast of Sport’, I hope that this will be an opportunity to overcome difficult moments and commit themselves to working as a team to build a more just and safe country, betting all on a future full of hope and joy. May God bless you all!
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis met with a group of 65 child refugees from Syria and Eritrea on Wednesday during his General Audience.
The children are staying in the small town of Castelnuovo di Porto, located 25 kilometres north of Rome.
The children were wearing shirts saying “Grazie Papa Francesco” [Thank you, Pope Francis], and gave the Holy Father a large teddy bear. They also held up a sign saying “Our house is where peace resides.”
Pope Francis washed the feet of refugees from the Centre for Asylum Seekers at Castelnuovo di Porto on Holy Thursday in March.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis this week embarks on a short pilgrimage to mark the 8 th centenary of the “Pardon of Assisi,” a feast which commemorates the establishment of a plenary indulgence for all who pass through the chapel where the Franciscan order was founded.
During his Aug. 4 pilgrimage , the Pope will visit the Porziuncola – a small chapel, located inside the larger Basilica of St Mary of the Angels.
In an interview with Vatican Radio, Minister General of the Order of Friars Minor, Fr Michael Anthony Perry, who will meet with the Holy Father during the pilgrimage, explained the meaning behind this feast .
Listen to Blandine Hugonnet’s interview with Fr Michael Perry, OFM:
“It was his own discovery of God forgiving him for his own sins,” he said. “And as he began to forgive himself and allowed God to forgive him, he found himself wanting to forgive others, and wanting to extend that to all people, even to his enemies.”
This message, which echoes out “from the Porziuncola,” Fr Perry said, invites “everyone to stop, take a moment, listen to God saying: I forgive you. I love you. Come back to me.”
The Franciscan priest added that while the significance of the message remains unchanged between the time of St Francis and today, what has changed is “our ability to heal or not to listen.”
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis renewed his condemnation of the holocaust on Wednesday, and decried once again the persistent violence in the world as a “piecemeal” world war. The Holy Father’s remarks came during the course of the General Audience on Wednesday – the first since suspending the weekly appointment with pilgrims and tourists for the month of July, and the first since his return from Poland and the 2016 edition of World Youth Day.
While in Poland, Pope Francis visited the extermination camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau, where German National Socialists murdered a million European Jews (one in every six victims of Shoah perished at Auschwitz) as part of their programme of Jewish extermination.
“The great silence of the visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau,” said Pope Francis, “was more eloquent than any word spoken could have been. In that silence I listened: I felt the presence of all the souls who passed through that place; I felt the compassion, the mercy of God, which a few holy souls were been able to bring even into that abyss. In that great silence, I prayed for all the victims of violence and war: and there, in that place, I realized more than ever how precious is memory; not only as a record of past events, but as a warning, and a responsibility for today and tomorrow, that the seed of hatred and violence not be allowed to take root in the furrows of history.”
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Departing from his prepared text, Pope Francis went on to recall the countless people – men and women, young and old – who still today suffer as a result of war. “Looking upon that cruelty, in that concentration camp,” he said, “I thought immediately of the cruelties of today, which are similar: not as concentrated as in that place, but everywhere in the world; this world that is sick with cruelty, pain, war, hatred, sadness; and this is why I always ask you for the prayer: that the Lord give us peace.”
Pope Francis’ visit to Poland also coincided with the twenty-fifth anniversary of the historic visit of Pope Saint John Paul II following the fall of the Iron Curtain.
“Poland, Europe and the world have changed greatly since then, but the young continue to be a prophetic sign of hope for the future.” Describing the scene of hundreds of thousands of young people from every corner of the globe waving the flags of their respective countries, Pope Francis said that the young people formed a mosaic of fraternity and a joyful response to the challenge of the Gospel. “Poland, with its rich cultural and spiritual heritage,” he continued, “today reminds us that Europe has no future apart from its founding values, centred on the Christian vision of man and including the message of mercy expressed so eloquently in the last century by Saints John Paul and Faustina Kowalska.”
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Wednesday asked for prayers for his upcoming trip to Assisi.
The Holy Father will travel to the Umbrian town on Thursday, to mark the eight centenary of the “Pardon of Assisi.” This is an indulgence granted to those who on 2 August visit the “Porziuncola,” the small church located within the Papal Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli (“St. Mary of the Angels”) which is where is where St. Francis of Assisi began the Franciscan Order.
The “Pardon of Assisi” was established by Pope Honorius III at the request of St. Francis in 1216.
It will be a very simple pilgrimage, but very significant in this Holy Year of Mercy,” – Pope Francis said – “I ask everyone to accompany me with prayer, invoking the light and the strength of the Holy Spirit and the heavenly intercession of Saint Francis.”
Pope Francis visited Assisi in 2013, a few months after his election to the See of Peter.
(from Vatican Radio)…