(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Friday met a group of young men who have left the priesthood during the past years to show his closeness and affection towards them. His surprise visit to an apartment in the outskirts of Rome to meet with the group made up of five Italians, a Spaniard and a man from Latin America, came as part of his traditional gestures of Mercy on one Friday a month during this Jubilee Year.
A Vatican statement said the young men in question took the difficult decision to leave the priesthood despite opposition in many cases from their fellow priests or their families after serving for several years in parishes where loneliness, misunderstanding, fatigue arising from their many responsibilities prompted them to rethink their choice. It said the men spent months and years wrestling with uncertainty and doubts before coming to the decision they had made a mistake by becoming priests and therefore decided to leave and form a family.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Friday welcomed to Rome more than 6000 people, men and women from various European nations, who have lived, or are even now, living on the street.
The Jubilee for Socially Excluded Persons embraced not only the homeless, but also disadvantaged persons and people living in poverty.
The event was made possible with the help of “Fratello”, an association which organizes and hosts events with and for people in situations of exclusion, in partnership with associations assisting such people.
Following testimonies from two of the participants, Pope Francis addressed the crowd, thanking them for coming to Rome to meet with him and to pray for him. The Holy Father reflected on some of the ideas brought up by the two men who spoke before him.
The first was that human beings do not differ from the “great people” of the world. All men and women, the great and the small, have their own passions and dreams. “Don’t stop dreaming!” the Pope insisted. The poor, he continued, are at the heart of the Gospel; they came to Jesus precisely because they dreamed that the Lord would help and heal them.
Pope Francis then turned to another expression, “Life becomes beautiful.” This signifies dignity, he said. “The ability to encounter beauty, even in things that involve the most sadness and suffering, is something that only men and women who have dignity can have.” He emphasized the virtue of solidarity, when people – especially those whose lives are difficult – are able to have compassion for others who are suffering even more. And he thank those present for their example of solidarity, asking them to teach solidarity to the world.
Finally, Pope Francis spoke on the theme of peace, calling on everyone to continue to work in favour of peace in the world. “The greatest poverty is war!” he said. “It is the poverty that destroys… We need of peace in the world! We need peace in the Church!”
Following his address, a group of the poor and disadvantaged, who had joined Pope Francis on the stage, gathered round the Pope, placing their hands on him, and praying for him.
Listen to Christopher Wells’ report:
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) The plenary of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity concluded on Friday after four days of discussions around the question ‘What model for full communion?’ As well as exploring the theological progress of recent years, participants have been discussing the newer shared practical challenges of recovering from the sexual abuse scandals, or providing pastoral care for families that do not conform to traditional Church teaching.
Pope Francis met with participants on Thursday stressing that Christian unity is an essential requirement of faith for all the baptized and a personal priority for him.
New Zealand Cardinal John Dew is a member of the Pontifical Council and was one of the pairs of Catholic and Anglican bishops in Rome last month for the meeting of the International Anglican Catholic Commission on Unity and Mission (IARCCUM).
He talked to Philippa Hitchen about the many way Christians of different denominations can and must work and worship more closely together.
Listen:
Cardinal Dew says that although there doesn’t always seem to be as much ecumenical progress as there was in the wake of the Second Vatican Council, “many things are happening at the practical level”.
He reflects on the Pope’s description of families in ‘Amoris Laetitia’, where he points out that “no family drops down from heaven perfectly formed” and questions how we can apply this concept to the Christian family too.
Following on from the IARCCUM meeting, when pairs of Anglican and Catholic bishops were sent out on mission together by the Pope and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Cardinal Dew asks whether bishops in each diocese can be encouraged to adopt this model, followed by Catholic and Anglican priests with their local communities.
It’s everybody’s task, he stresses, to build up relationships that can help us towards the goal of full, visible communion. Anglican and catholic parishes in NZ are working together in many practical ways, the cardinal says, including support for refugees coming into the country.
Another area of discussion at the plenary has been what the cardinal calls the ‘ecumenism of humiliation’ for Churches dealing with the effects of clerical abuse scandals. By facing such difficulties together and being “united in the cross”, he says, we ask how it can enable us to journey more closely together.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis warned Christians on Friday against ideologies on love and intellectual theories, saying these strip away the Flesh of the Church and ruin it. He was speaking during his Mass celebrated on Friday morning at the Santa Marta residence.
Taking his cue from the day’s gospel reading coming from the second Letter of St. John, the Pope’s homily was a reflection on the nature of Christian love and how the word ‘love’ is used nowadays to describe many different things. He stressed that the true criterion of Christian love is the Incarnation of the Word, saying whoever denies or does not recognize this is “the antichrist.”
“A love that does not recognize that Jesus came in the Flesh is not the love that God is asking of us.This is a worldly love, a philosophical love, an abstract love, a love that has flagged, a ‘soft’ or weak love. No! The criterion of Christian love is the Incarnation of the Word. Whoever says that Christian love is something else is the antichrist! Who does not recognize that the Word became Flesh. This is our truth: God sent his Son, who became flesh and who lived like us. To love as Jesus loved (us), to love as Jesus taught us, to love by following the example of Jesus; to love, journeying along the path of Jesus. It is the path of Jesus that gives life.”
Pope Francis went on to explain how the only way to love in the way Jesus loved us is to cast aside our own selfishness and go out to help others because Christian love is a concrete love.
“Going beyond is a mystery: coming out from the Mystery of the Incarnation of the Word, of the Mystery of the Church. Because the Church is the community around the presence of Christ and it goes beyond this. That is a really strong word, isn’t it? …. proagon , whoever walks beyond. And it’s from this that all the ideologies spring: the ideologies on love, the ideologies on the Church, the ideologies that strip the Flesh of Christ from the Church. These ideologies strip away the Flesh of the Church! ‘Yes, I’m a Catholic, yes I’m a Christian, I love the whole world with a universal love’… But this is so ethereal. Love is always interior, concrete and does not go beyond the doctrine of the Incarnation of the Word.”
The Pope wrapped up his homily by stressing that whoever does not love in the same selfless way as Christ did, loves in an ideological manner. He also warned against those who put forward theories on love or intellectualize it, saying they ruin the Church and lead to a situation where we have a God without Christ, a Christ without the Church and a Church without people.
“Let us pray to the Lord so that our walk in love never ever becomes for us an abstract love. May our love be concrete with works of mercy whereby we touch the Flesh of Christ, the Incarnate Christ. It is for this reason that the deacon Lawrence said ‘The poor are the treasure of the Church!’ Why? Because they are the suffering flesh of Christ! Let us ask for this grace to not go beyond and not enter into this process, that possibly seduces so many people, of intellectualizing and ideologizing this love, stripping away the Flesh of the Church, stripping away Christian love. And let’s not arrive at the sad spectacle of a God without Christ, of a Christ without the Church and a Church without its people.”
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis says his main concern, at this moment of political upheaval in the United States, is for the suffering of refugees and immigrants. In an interview with the Italian daily newspaper La Repubblica , the Pope says he doesn’t judge individual politicians, but he wants to see how their policies may affect the poor and most marginalized people.
In the interview, Pope Francis notes that, alongside the refugees fleeing from poverty and conflicts, there are also many poor people suffering in rich countries too and they fear the arrival of these new immigrants. We must stop this vicious cycle, the Pope says, by breaking down the walls of inequality and building bridges to allow greater liberty and human rights for all. Inequality, he insists, is the greatest evil in the world today.
Speaking on Monday, ahead of Donald Trump’s surprise victory in the U.S. presidential elections, Pope Francis talked of his admiration for civil rights leader Martin Luther King, saying that love alone is capable of breaking the cycle of hatred and evil. Christians in the world today, he notes, number some two and a half billion people who must share their faith by following the example of Christ himself.
The Pope also mentions the many Christian martyrs who have died at the hands of so-called Islamic State terrorists, saying that wars of religion only occur when people put political power in the place of faith and mercy.
Finally, when questioned about opponents within the Catholic Church, the Pope replies that faith unites all, while individuals may see things from a variety of different perspectives.
(from Vatican Radio)…