(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis’ recent visit to Poland for the 31 st World Youth Day was the subject of his Wednesday General Audience, his first after the summer break.
During the Aug. 3 audience, which was held in the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall, the Pope described the international youth gathering as a “mosaic of fraternity and a joyful response to the challenge of the Gospel.”
He also reflected on the Europe’s Christian heritage, as exemplified by the cultural and spirituality of Poland.
Below, please find the official English-language summary of Pope Francis’ catechesis, which was delivered in Italian.
Dear Brothers and Sisters: My recent Pastoral Visit to Poland for World Youth Day took place twenty-five years after the historic visit of 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. Waving the flags of their respective countries, they formed a mosaic of fraternity and a joyful response to the challenge of the Gospel. Poland, with its rich cultural and spiritual heritage, 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. At Auschwitz-Birkenau, in silence, I pondered all that happened there, remembered the victims, and sensed the mercy of God that made itself felt even in that abyss of evil. Remembrance serves as a warning and a charge for our own time, so torn by conflicts, hatred and violence. I thank all those who made possible this visit, which offered a sign of fraternity and peace to Poland, Europe and the world.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis released on Tuesday a video message on his universal prayer intentions for August where he speaks of his desire that sports may build a culture of encounter among everyone for a world of peace.
Watch the Pope’s video message which was delivered in his native Spanish:
English translation of his message:
Sports, a culture of encounter
Sports make it possible to build a culture of encounter among everyone for a world of peace. I dream of sports as the practice of human dignity, turned into a vehicle of fraternity. Do we exercise together this prayer intention? That sports may be an opportunity for friendly encounters between people and may contribute to peace in the world.
Pope Francis’ prayer intention in August for evangelization was entitled: Living the Gospel – That Christians may live the Gospel, giving witness to faith, honesty, and love of neighbor….
Pope Francis expressed deep sorrow over the
death of Cardinal Franciszek Macharski, Archbishop emeritus of Krakow, who died
on Tuesday, 2 August, at 9:37 am. In a telegram addressed to his successor,
Cardinal Stanisław Dziwisz, the Pontiff recalled that the episcopal motto of
the deceased prelate – Jesus, I trust in you! – which guided his life and his
ministry, “today, in the Jubilee Year of Mercy, it has become an eloquent
invocation which proclaims the fulfillment of the work that the Lord had
entrusted to him in Baptism, introducing him into the ranks of the sealed with
His Redeeming Blood, and later together with the gift of priesthood, when he
sent him with the task of sanctifying the People with the word and with the
grace of the sacraments”. Cardinal
Macharkki “carried out this mission zealously”, the Pope emphasized, “as
pastor, professor, rector of the Seminary, until the day in which the Lord
asked him to assume the task of the legacy St Stanislaw and of his immediate
predecessor Karol Wojtyla, today St John Paul II,
in the episcopal see of Krakow. With trust in the Divine Mercy he carried out
this work as father for the priests and for the faithful entrusted to his care.
He guided the Church in Krakow in the difficult period of political and social
transformation, with wisdom, with a healthy separation from reality, concerning
himself with respect for each person, for the good of the community of the
Church, and above all to keep faith alive in the hearts of mankind”. Referring
to his travels for World Youth Day, the Pope expressed gratitude “to
Providence, that I was able to visit him during my recent journey to Krakow. In
the last phase of life he was greatly tried by suffering which he accepted with
peace of mind. Even in this trial”, Francis contniued, “he remained a faithful
witness to confidence in the goodness and the mercy of God. He will thus remain
in my memory and prayers. May the Lord welcome him into his glory!”. During
his meeting with the Polish episcopate during his visit to Krakow for World
Youth Day, the Pontiff remembered Cardinal Macharski and asked the bishops to
pray for him. Franciszek Macharski was
born on 20 May 1927 in Krakow. He was ordained a priest on 2 April 1950 and was
appointed Archbishop of Krakow on 29 December 1978, as the direct successor of
Karol Wojtyła, who as John Paul II ordained him bishop on 6
January 1979 and created him Cardinal in the Consistory of 30 June 1979,
assigning him the Title of San Giovanni a Porta Latina. Cardinal Macharski
resigned from his office as Archbishop of Krakow on 3 June 2005….
(Vatican Radio) In the course of a dialogue during a meeting with the participants in the Plenary Assembly of Superiors General, which took place in May, Pope Francis expressed his intention to “establish an official commission that could study the question” of the diaconate of women, “especially with regard to the first ages of the Church.”
After intense prayer and mature reflection, Pope Francis has decided to institute the Commission for the Study of the Diaconate of Women. As president of the Commission, Pope Francis has appointed Archbishop Luis Francisco Ladaria Ferrer, SJ. In addition to Archbishop Ladaria, the commission is composed of six women and six men from academic institutions around the world.
Below, please find the complete list of the members of the Commission for the Study of the Diaconate of Women:
President:
Abp Luis Francisco Ladaria Ferrer, S.J., Secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
Members:
Sr. Nuria Calduch‑Benages, M.H.S.F.N., member of the Pontifical Biblical Commission;
Prof. Francesca Cocchini, of the «La Sapienza» University, and of the Patristic Institute “Augustinianum,” Rome;
Msgr. Piero Coda, President of the University Institute «Sophia», Loppiano, and member of the International Theological Commission;
Fr Robert Dodaro, O.S.A., President of the Patristic Institute “Augustinianum,” Rome and professor of patrology;
Fr Santiago Madrigal Terrazas, S.J., professor of ecclesiology at the Pontifical University “Comillas,” Madrid;
Sr Mary Melone, S.F.A., Rector of the Pontifical University “Anonianum,” Rome;
Fr Karl‑Heinz Menke, professor emeritus of dogmatic theology at the University of Bonn and member of the International Theological Commission;
Fr Aimable Musoni, S.D.B., professor of ecclesiology at the Pontifical Salesian University, Rome;
Fr Bernard Pottier, S.J., professor at the “Institut d’Etudes Théologiques,” Brussels, and member of the International Theological Commission;
Prof. Marianne Schlosser, professor of spiritual theology at the University of Vienana, and member of the International Theological Commission;
Prof. Michelina Tenace, professor of fundamental theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome;
Prof. Phyllis Zagano, professor at Hofstra University, Hempstead, New York.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vadio Radio) Polish Cardinal Franciszek Macharski, formerly the Archbishop of Krakow and the immediated successor of Karol Wojtyla in the Chair of St Stanislaus, passed away on Tuesday morning. He was 89 years old. Last Thursday, during the Apostolic Voyage to Poland, Pope Francis was able to visit the gravely ill Cardinal in the Krakow Hospital.
With the death of Cardinal Macharski, there are now 112 Cardinal eligible to vote in a conclave, and 99 Cardinals over 80, and thus unable to vote.
Biography of Cardinal Franciszek Macharski
Cardinal Franciszek Macharski, Archbishop emeritus of Kraków (Poland), was born on 20 May 1927 in the city of Krakow. During the war, under German occupation, he was a labourer. Following the liberation in 1945, he entered the metropolitan major seminary of Kraków. At the same time he studied theology at the Jagiellonian University. After finishing his studies in theology and philosophy, he was ordained a priest on 2 April 1950 by the then Archbishop of Kraków, Cardinal Sapieha.
For six years, the young priest served as vicar in the parish of Kozy, near Bielsko-Biała. In 1956 he transferred to Switzerland, Fribourg, to continue his theological studies at the local Catholic University where in 1960 he received a doctorate in pastoral theology. Returning to Krakow, he was named spiritual director of the metropolitan seminary and dedicated himself to teaching pastoral theology at the Pontifical Faculty of Theology at Kraków. Ten years later, in 1970, he was nominated rector of the same seminary, which is one of the most frequented and important major seminaries in Poland. In 1977 he was nominated canon of the metropolitan chapter of the cathedral of Wawel by the then Archbishop of Kraków, Cardinal Karol Wojtyła. Cardinal Macharski has also been at the Pope’s side during such trips abroad to Canada, USA, France, Germany and Italy.
John Paul II nominated him as his successor to the Metropolitan See of Kraków on 29 December 1978. He personally conferred episcopal ordination on 6 January 1979 in St. Peter’s Basilica in the presence of many Cardinals, Bishops and a multitude of pilgrims, many of whom came from Kraków for the occasion.
Cardinal Macharski is noted as a man of culture, scholar and writer. He has dedicated particular care to promoting priestly and religious vocations and to the theological-spiritual formation of future priests. Within the Polish episcopate, even prior to his nomination as archbishop, he contributed his thought and experience by participating in the various commissions. During the plenary assembly of the Polish bishops held in Warsaw 6-8 February 1979, he was made president of the commission of lay ministry; the same commission of which the Holy Father, the then Archbishop of Kraków was president from 1966 to 1978, while Macharski was secretary.
President Delegate of the Second Special Assembly for Europe of the Synod of Bishops (1-23 October 1999).
Archbishop emeritus of Kraków, 3 June 2005.
He participated in the conclave of April 2005, which elected Pope Benedict XVI.
Created and proclaimed Cardinal by St. John Paul II in the consistory of 30 June 1979, of the Title of S. Giovanni a Porta Latina (St. John at the Latin Gate).
(from Vatican Radio)…