(Vatican Radio) On Saturday, Pope Francis welcomed to the Vatican a number of young children from the towns Norcia, Cascia, Accumoli, Amatrice, Arquata del Tronto, and Acquasanta – communities that were devastated by a series of earthquakes that struck central Italy last year.
The children had come to Rome aboard a special “Children’s Train” especially to meet with the Holy Father.
In the Paul VI Hall, Pope Francis conversed familiarly with the children. “They tell me I have to speak, but I like to listen!” he said, inviting them to tell him their stories. He called several of the children to himself so he could ask them questions and listen to their responses. The Pope asked them about the effects of the earthquake, and how the children were responding in the wake of the catastrophe.
After speaking individually with more than a dozen boys and girls, Pope Francis offered a word of instruction. “What you’ve gone through is truly ugly,” he said, “because it’s a disaster, and disasters wound the soul.” But, he told them, “the Lord helps us to start again!”:
“Do you trust in the Lord?” the Pope asked them.
“Yes!” they replied.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes!”
“And also in the Madonna?”
“Yes!”
“And now, if we have faith, let us thank the Madonna for the good things she has given us in this disaster: Hail Mary…”
After leading the children in the Hail Mary, the Holy Father told the children, ‘One of the things that Jesus likes best, one of the words that the Lord likes best, is the word “thank you very much.’” He thanked them for their visit.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Saturday morning met with Evangelical leaders who are in Rome for the Vigil of Pentecost.
In a brief words of greeting, the Holy Father thanked them for their work for the unity of Christians, “which the Lord wants.” “Let us walk together,” he said, “let us help the poor together, let us perform acts of charity together, let us work for education together.” At the same time, he said, theologians can do their part and help in the effort for Christian unity. “But we are always on the journey, never stopping, never stopping… and together,” he said.
Pope Francis concluded his remarks by asking all those present to pray together, “as brothers,” the Our Father, each in his own language.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis received the participants in the Assembly of the Pontifical Mission Societies on Saturday.
A main focus of the week-long Assembly has been the Extraordinary Missionary Month scheduled for October 2019 to commemorate the centenary of the promulgation of the encyclical Maximum illud , by which Pope Benedict XV sought to give a new élan to Catholic missionary endeavor in the wake of World War I’s devastation.
The Missionary Month is also aimed at promoting the missionary commitment of the Church in line with Pope Francis’ own 2013 missionary Exhortation, Evangelii gaudium .
In remarks prepared for the occasion and delivered to the roughly 170 participants on Saturday morning in the Clementine Hall of the Apostolic Palace, Pope Francis focused on the need to cultivate personal habits of life conducive to holiness, and to practice an openness and docility toward the Holy Spirit, in order to discern new paths and channels by which the more efficaciously to communicate the Good News of our salvation in the One Divine Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.
“Renewal requires conversion,” said Pope Francis, “it requires living the mission as a permanent opportunity to proclaim Christ, to bring people to meet Him through [personal] witness and bringing others to participate in our personal encounter with Him.”
The Holy Father went on to express the hope that the spiritual and material assistance to the Churches that the Pontifical Mission Societies give will make those Churches ever more solidly founded on the Gospel and On the baptismal involvement of all the faithful – laymen and clergy alike – in the Church’s one and only mission: “[T]o make God’s love close to every man, especially to those most in need of His mercy.”
Pope Francis went on to pray that the Extraordinary Month of Prayer and Reflection on Mission as First Evangelization might serve this renewal of ecclesial faith, “that the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, the only Savior, Lord and Spouse of his Church, be ever at work in His Church.”
(from Vatican Radio)…
The Uganda Martyrs Day celebration has taken place at Uganda’s Namugongo shrine. According to Uganda’s Daily Monitor Newspaper, by 8 am all the pavilions where pilgrims sit were already full even though people were still trying to make the security clearances to get inside the shrine for the Mass.
Some pilgrims arrived at the shrine six days ago in order to have an assured place at the arena.
Uganda’s Bishop of Hoima Diocese, Vincent Kirabo whose Diocese is hosting this year’s Martyrs’ day was the principal celebrant at the Holy Mass.
Speaking during Mass, monitored on Uganda’s NTV Youtube live stream , the Bishop invited the faithful to be faithful witnesses to the message of Christ just as the martyrs were.
“The Uganda Martyrs were ordinary people with admirable human qualities … because of these qualities the were leaders at the Kabaka’s palace,” the Bishop said. He told the faithful that there is documented evidence that as Catechumens, the martyrs would sometimes forgo sleep at night to go the house of the White Father Missionaries to learn the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
The Bishop also announced that documents for the beatification of the White Father missionaries, that is Fr. ‘Mapeera’ Lourdel and Brother Amans who ministered to the Uganda Martyrs had been submitted to the Vatican.
The country’s Vice President Edward Ssekandi is the guest of honour and was expected to give a speech later in the day.
Uganda’s Martyrs Day, which falls on 3 June, every year commemorates the heroic faith of the 45 Martyrs, both Catholic and Anglican, who were burnt to death on the orders of Kabaka Mwanga II, then King of Buganda between 1885 and 1887. Twenty-two Catholic Martyrs were beatified on 6 June 1920, by Pope Benedict XV, and on 18 October 1964, Pope Paul VI canonised them as Saints.
(Emailo:engafrica@vatiradio.va)
(from Vatican Radio)…
Bulletin for 06/04/2017