(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis’ prayer intention for April is dedicated to Youth : ‘For young people, that they might know how to respond generously to the vocation God has given them, and immerse themselves in the great causes of the world.’
The Apostleship of Praye r has produced the Pope’s Video on this prayer intention.
The full text of the Pope’s Video is below:
I know that you, young people, don’t want to be duped by a false freedom, always at the beck and call of momentary fashions and fads. I know that you aim high. Is that true, or am I wrong?
Don’t leave it to others to be the protagonists of change.
You, young people, are the ones who hold the future! I ask you to be builders of the world, to work for a better world. It is a challenge, yes it is a challenge. Do you accept it?
Pray with me that young people may respond generously to their own vocation and mobilize for the great causes of the world.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Tuesday told Christians not to wear the crucifix only as a symbol of belonging but to look to Jesus on the Cross as He who died for our salvation.
The Pope’s words came during morning Mass at the Casa Santa Marta .
Three times, Pope Francis said, in today’s liturgical reading Jesus says to the Pharisees: “You will die in your sins”. That’s because their hearts were closed and they did not understand the mystery of the Lord. “To die in your sins” he said, is a bad thing.
Reflecting on the First Reading in which the Lord tells Moses to make a saraph serpent and mount it on a pole and “whoever looks at it after being bitten will live,” the Pope said the serpent is “the symbol of the devil,” the father of lies, he who caused humanity to sin.
And he recalled that Jesus said “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I AM, and that I do nothing on my own.” This, Francis said, is the mystery of the Cross.
“The bronze serpent was the sign of two things: the sign of sin and of the seductive power of sin”, and it was a prophecy of the Cross, he said.
The Cross, he continued, is not only a symbol of belonging, but it is the memory of God who was made sin for love. As Saint Paul says: “For our sake he made him to be sin who did not know sin”.
Taking upon Himself all the filth of humanity, the Pope said, He was lifted so that all men wounded by sin would be able to see Him.
“Salvation comes only from the Cross, from this Cross that is God made flesh” he said.
And he pointed out: “There is no salvation in ideas, there is no salvation in good will, in the desire to be good … The only salvation is in the crucified Christ, because like the bronze serpent, He was able to take all the poison of sin and heal us.”
Then the Pope asked: “what is the Cross for you? Yes, it is the Christian symbol. We make the sign of the Cross, but often we do not do it well…”
For some, he said, the Cross is like a badge of belonging, they wear it to show they are Christians, or even in search of visibility, they wear it as an ornament decorated with precious gems.
But, he reminded the faithful: “God said to Moses “whoever looks at the serpent will live”; and Jesus said to his enemies “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I am the son of God”.
He who does not look to the Cross with faith, the Pope said, will die in his sins, will not receive salvation.
Today, Pope Francis said, the Church proposes “a dialogue with the Mystery of the Cross, with God who became sin for our sake”.
“Each of us can say He became sin ‘for love of me’” he said.
Inviting all faithful to think about how theywear the Cross, and how aware they are when making the sign of the cross, the Pope concluded asking each of us to look to this God who became sin so that we do not die in our sins, and to reflect on the questions just suggested.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) British heir to the throne, Prince Charles and Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, meet with Pope Francis on Tuesday afternoon as part of their five day visit to Italy.
The Prince will also hold talks with Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Holy See Secretary of State, and the Vatican ‘foreign minister’ Archbishop Paul Gallagher, as well as with other Vatican officials at the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue. Before the papal audience, the royal couple will be shown some of the rare documents contained in the Vatican library and secret archive..
Listen to Philippa Hitchen’s report:
The British heir to the throne began his Italian tour in the northern city of Vicenza, where he visited a Commonwealth cemetery, laying a wreath in memory of soldiers of different nationalities who died during the deployment of British forces to the Austrian front of the First World War one hundred years ago.
His wife, Camilla, meanwhile, spent the day in Naples, meeting with trafficked women and youngsters with learning difficulties at a former Mafia villa which was confiscated by the State. She also visited the ancient Roman town of Herculaneum which was destroyed by the eruption of nearby Mount Vesuvius in AD 79.
On Sunday Prince Charles toured the earthquake hit town of Amatrice in central Italy, walking amid the rubble and talking to some of the survivors of the quake that killed nearly 300 people and left thousands of others homeless.
The Duchess of Cornwall spent Sunday in Florence, visiting the Uffizi Gallery but also St Mark’s Anglican church in the city centre and revealing that her great-grandmother had lived in the city during the last years of her life.
The royal couple stayed in Florence on Monday, visiting the Caritas-run Casa San Paolino which cares for around 80 people, including single mothers with children, homeless immigrants and the elderly. They also toured an internationally renowned art restoration workshop and visited an organic food market with the founder of Italy’s Slow Food movement Carlo Petrini.
Later Prince Charles was presented with a Renaissance Man of the Year award, recognizing his achievements in the fields of philanthropy and the arts. In his acceptance speech, he highlighted the vital contribution of the UK and Italy to global peacekeeping, but also focused on the interdependence of human beings with the natural world.
The royal couple’s last engagements in Italy include a meeting with President Sergio Mattarella and an encounter at the Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organisation. They fly on to Austria on Wednesday afternoon for the final leg of their nine-day European tour.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Tuesday received participants attending an International Conference marking the 50th anniversary of Blessed Paul VI social encyclical ‘Populorum progressio’ telling them that only the path of integration between peoples can bring about a future of peace and hope.
Listen to this report:
50 years ago Blessed Paul VI promulgated his social encyclical ‘Populorum progressio’ on the development of peoples. In it the Pope calls for all nations to initiate dialogue and collaboration so developing countries no longer risk being overwhelmed by debt. It also expresses the principle of solidarity.
To mark the milestone anniversary of this document an International Conference has been taking place this week aimed at studying the theological anthropological and pastoral perspectives of the encyclical and formulate guidelines for the activity of the new Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development.
And it was on this subject of Integral Human Development that Pope Francis addressed participants who have been attending this meeting.
He asked those present what does this phrase means today and in the near future?
The Holy Father answered that Integral Human Development meant “to integrate the different peoples of the earth.”
The duty of solidarity, he continued, “requires us to seek a fair sharing mode, because there is a dramatic inequality between those who have too much and those who have nothing, including those who discard and who are discarded. Only the path of integration between peoples can bring about a future of peace and hope.”
Integral Human Development, the Pope went on to say, “is to offer viable models of social integration. “Everyone has a contribution to make to the whole of society, everyone has a feature that can be used to live together, no one is excluded from making something for the good of all. This is both a right and a duty”, he said
Quoting his predecessor Blessed Paul VI, the Pope said that “development is not reduced to a mere economic growth. It does not consist in having more and more goods…”
The development of the human person, explained the Holy Father at the end of the day means the integration of body and soul. But he noted, that this integration also means that “no development work can really achieve its purpose if it does not respect the place where God is present to us and speaks to our hearts.”
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) The Holy See has established new provisions for the celebration of the Sacrament of Matrimony by members of the faithful who are attached to the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX).
Listen to Christopher Wells’ report:
In a letter approved by Pope Francis, Cardinal Gerhard Müller says, “The Holy Father . . . has decided to authorize Local Ordinaries the possibility to grant faculties for the celebration of marriages of faithful who follow the pastoral activity of the Society.” The Pope’s decision adopts a proposal by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, both of which are headed by Cardinal Müller.
The new provisions are part of a number of ongoing meetings and initiatives aimed at bringing the Society into full communion; Cardinal Müller’s letter mentions specifically the recent decision of Pope Francis to grant all priests of the Society the faculty to validly administer the Sacrament of Penance to the faithful in order “to ensure the validity and liceity of the Sacrament and allay any concerns on the part of the faithful.”
The grant of faculties for the celebration of marriage is subject to several provisions: “Insofar as possible, the Local Ordinary [that is, normally the local Diocesan Bishop] is to grant the delegation to assist at the marriage to a priest of the Diocese (or in any event, to a fully regular priest), such that the priest may receive the consent of the parties during the marriage rite, followed, in keeping with the liturgy of the Vetus ordo, by the celebration of Mass, which may be celebrated by a priest of the Society.” That is, a priest in good standing is to preside at the celebration of the marriage itself, which in the extraordinary form takes place before the nuptial Mass. The Mass itself may then be celebrated by a priest of the SSPX.
The letter also foresees that circumstances may exist where those provisions are not possible, or where no Diocesan priest is able to receive the consent of the parties. In such cases, the Pope allows the Ordinary to grant faculties to the priest who will celebrate the nuptial Mass.
Cardinal Müller closes his letter expressing his conviction that “in this way any uneasiness of conscience on the part of the faithful who adhere to the Society of St. Pius X as well as any uncertainty regarding the validity of the sacrament of marriage may be alleviated, and at the same time that the process towards full institutional regularization may be facilitated”; and that, to that end, the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei “relies” on the cooperation of the prelates of the Episcopal Conferences concerned in this matter.
Below, please find the full text of Cardinal Gerhard Müller’s letter:
Your Eminence,
Your Excellency,
As you are aware, for some time various meetings and other initiatives have been ongoing in order to bring the Society of St. Pius X into full communion. Recently, the Holy Father decided, for example, to grant all priests of said Society the faculty to validly administer the Sacrament of Penance to the faithful (Letter Misericordia et misera , n.12), such as to ensure the validity and liceity of the Sacrament and allay any concerns on the part of the faithful.
Following the same pastoral outlook which seeks to reassure the conscience of the faithful, despite the objective persistence of the canonical irregularity in which for the time being the Society of St. Pius X finds itself, the Holy Father, following a proposal by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei , has decided to authorize Local Ordinaries the possibility to grant faculties for the celebration of marriages of faithful who follow the pastoral activity of the Society, according to the following provisions.
Insofar as possible, the Local Ordinary is to grant the delegation to assist at the marriage to a priest of the Diocese (or in any event, to a fully regular priest), such that the priest may receive the consent of the parties during the marriage rite, followed, in keeping with the liturgy of the Vetus ordo , by the celebration of Mass, which may be celebrated by a priest of the Society.
Where the above is not possible, or if there are no priests in the Diocese able to receive the consent of the parties, the Ordinary may grant the necessary faculties to the priest of the Society who is also to celebrate the Holy Mass, reminding him of the duty to forward the relevant documents to the Diocesan Curia as soon as possible.
Certain that in this way any uneasiness of conscience on the part of the faithful who adhere to the Society of St. Pius X as well as any uncertainty regarding the validity of the sacrament of marriage may be alleviated, and at the same time that the process towards full institutional regularization may be facilitated, this Dicastery relies on Your cooperation.
The Sovereign Pontiff Francis, at the Audience granted to the undersigned Cardinal President of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei on 24 March 2017, confirmed his approval of the present letter and ordered its publication.
Rome, from the Offices of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, 27 March 2017.
Gerhard Card. L. Müller
President
+ Guido Pozzo
Secretary
Titular Archbishop of Bagnoregio
(from Vatican Radio)…