(Vatican Radio) Inviting all faithful to practice Christian love every day, Pope Francis on Sunday canonized 35 new saints , nearly all of them martyrs, holding them up as models who “point the way”.
To the over 35,000 pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square for the Canonization Mass , he said “They did not say a fleeting ‘yes’ to love, they said ‘yes’ with their lives and to the very end”.
Those canonized included thirty martyrs, both priests and lay persons, who suffered anti-Catholic persecution in 1645 at the hands of Dutch Calvinists in Brazil, while three indigenous children in 16th century Mexico were martyred for refusing to renounce their Catholic faith and return to their ancient traditions. The other two new saints are a 20th-century priest from Spain and an Italian priest who died in 1739.
Please find below the full text of the Pope’s homily for the Mass of Canonization :
The parable we have just heard describes the Kingdom of God as a wedding feast (cf. Mt 22:1-14). The central character is the king’s son, the bridegroom, in whom we can easily see Jesus. The parable makes no mention of the bride, but only of the guests who were invited and expected, and those who wore the wedding garments. We are those guests, because the Lord wants “to celebrate the wedding” with us. The wedding inaugurates a lifelong fellowship, the communion God wants to enjoy with all of us. Our relationship with him, then, has to be more than that of devoted subjects with their king, faithful servants with their master, or dedicated students with their teacher. It is above all the relationship of a beloved bride with her bridegroom. In other words, the Lord wants us, he goes out to seek us and he invites us. For him, it is not enough that we should do our duty and obey his laws. He desires a true communion of life with us, a relationship based on dialogue, trust and forgiveness.
Such is the Christian life, a love story with God. The Lord freely takes the initiative and no one can claim to be the only one invited. No one has a better seat than anyone else, for all enjoy God’s favour. The Christian life is always born and reborn of this tender, special and privileged love. We can ask ourselves if at least once a day we tell the Lord that we love him; if we remember, among everything else we say, to tell him daily, “Lord, I love you; you are my life”. Because once love is lost, the Christian life becomes empty. It becomes a body without a soul, an impossible ethic, a collection of rules and laws to obey for no good reason. The God of life, however, awaits a response of life. The Lord of love awaits a response of love. Speaking to one of the Churches in the Book of Revelation, God makes an explicit reproach: “You have abandoned your first love” (cf. Rev 2:4). This is the danger – a Christian life that becomes routine, content with “normality”, without drive or enthusiasm, and with a short memory. Instead, let us fan into flame the memory of our first love. We are the beloved, the guests at the wedding, and our life is a gift, because every day is a wonderful opportunity to respond to God’s invitation.
The Gospel, however, warns us that the invitation can be refused. Many of the invited guests said no, because they were caught up in their own affairs. “They made light of it and went off, one to his farm, another to his business” (Mt 22:5). Each was concerned with his own affairs; this is the key to understanding why they refused the invitation. The guests did not think that the wedding feast would be dreary or boring; they simply “made light of it”. They were caught up in their own affairs. They were more interested in having something rather than in risking something, as love demands. This is how love grows cold, not out of malice but out of a preference for what is our own: our security, our self-affirmation, our comfort… We settle into the easy chair of profits, pleasures, or a hobby that brings us some happiness. And we end up aging badly and quickly, because we grow old inside. When our hearts do not expand, they become closed in on themselves. When everything depends on me – on what I like, on what serves me best, on what I want – then I become harsh and unbending. I lash out at people for no reason, like the guests in the Gospel, who treated shamefully and ultimately killed (cf. v. 6) those sent to deliver the invitation, simply because they were bothering them.
The Gospel asks us, then, where we stand: with ourselves or with God? Because God is the opposite of selfishness, of self-absorption. The Gospel tells us that, even before constant rejection and indifference on the part of those whom he invites, God does not cancel the wedding feast. He does not give up, but continues to invite. When he hears a “no”, he does not close the door, but broadens the invitation. In the face of wrongs, he responds with an even greater love. When we are hurt by the unfair treatment of others or their rejection, we frequently harbour grudges and resentment. God on the other hand, while hurt by our “no”, tries again; he keeps doing good even for those who do evil. Because this is what love does. Because this is the only way that evil is defeated. Today our God, who never abandons hope, tells us to do what he does, to live in true love, to overcome resignation and the whims of our peevish and lazy selves.
There is one last idea that the Gospel emphasizes: the mandatory garment of the invited guests. It is not enough to respond just once to the invitation, simply to say “yes” and then do nothing else. Day by day, we have to put on the wedding garment, the “habit” of practising love. We cannot say, “Lord, Lord”, without experiencing and putting into practice God’s will (cf. Mt 7:21). We need to put on God’s love and to renew our choice for him daily. The Saints who were canonized today, and especially the many martyrs, point the way. They did not say a fleeting “yes” to love; they said they “yes” with their lives and to the very end. The robe they wore daily was the love of Jesus, that “mad” love that loved us to the end and offered his forgiveness and his robe to those who crucified him. At baptism we received a white robe, the wedding garment for God. Let us ask him, through the intercession of the saints, our brothers and sisters, for the grace to decide daily to put on this garment and to keep it spotless. How can we do this? Above all, by approaching the Lord fearlessly in order to receive his forgiveness. This is the one step that counts, for entering into the wedding hall to celebrate with him the feast of love.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has announced a special assembly of the Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon region that will focus on the needs of its indigenous people, on new paths for evangelization and on the crisis of the rain forest.
The Pope’s announcement came on Sunday during the Angelus after a canonization Mass during which he canonized 35 new saints, including three indigenous children martyred in 16th century Mexico.
“Accepting the desire of some Catholic Bishops’ Conferences in Latin America, as well as the voice of various pastors and faithful from other parts of the world, I have decided to convene a Special Assembly of the Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon region, which will take place in Rome in the month October 2019” he said.
Evangelization, indigenous people, crisis of rain forest
The main purpose of the Amazon synod, the Pope explained, will be to “identify new paths for the evangelization of God’s people in that region”.
Special attention, he added, will be paid to the indigenous people who are “often forgotten and without the prospect of a serene future, also because of the crisis of the Amazonian rain forest, a ‘lung’ of primary importance for our planet.”
REPAM
In 2014 The Catholic Church in Pan-Amazonia founded a Pan-Amazon Ecclesial Network – REPAM – as “God’s answer to this heartfelt and urgent need to care for the life of people so they are able to live in harmony with nature, starting from the widespread and varied presence of members and structures of the Church in Pan-Amazonia”.
REPAM is constituted not only by the regional Bishops’ Conferences, but also by priests, missionaries of congregations who work in the Amazon jungle, national representatives of Caritas and laypeople belonging to various Church bodies in the region.
As reported on the REPAM website “The Amazon territory is the largest tropical forest in the world. It covers six million square kilometers and includes the territories of Guyana, Suriname and French Guyana, Venezuela, Ecuador, Colombia, Bolivia, Peru and Brazil. It is home to 2,779,478 indigenous people, comprising 390 indigenous tribes and 137 isolated (uncontacted) peoples with their valuable ancestral cultures, and 240 spoken languages belonging to 49 linguistic families”.
It is “a territory that is devastated and threatened by the concessions made by States to transnational corporations. Large-scale mining projects, monoculture and climate change place its lands and natural environment at great risk”, leading to the destruction of cultures, undermining the self-determination of peoples and above all affronting Christ incarnate in the people who live there (indigenous and riparian peoples, peasant farmers, afro-descendants and urban populations).
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis sent a video-message to pilgrims gathered in Fatima to mark the closing of the Centenary of the Fatima Apparitions .
“ Never be afraid, God is infinitely greater than all of our problems. He loves us very much. Go forward in your journey without losing sight of the Mother, like a child who feels safe when close to his mother, we too are safe when close to Our Lady ” he said.
In his message which was broadcast on giant screens at the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Fatima on 13 October , the Pope recalled his own pilgrimage to Fatima in May and the blessings received and he urged the faithful “never to put the Rosary aside, but to continue to recite it as She asked”.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis will declare 33 martyrs and 2 others from Brazil, Mexico, Spain and Italy, as the Catholic Church’s new saints on Sunday at a Canonization Mass in Rome’s St. Peter’s Square.
They include 30 so-called “ Matryrs of Natal ”, including priests and lay people, who were killed in 1645 in a wave of anti-Catholic persecution by Dutch Calvinists in Natal, Brazil.
Another group of 3 indigenous martyrs from Mexico – Cristobal, Antonio and Juan – known as the ” Child Martyrs of Tlaxcala ” will also be canonized. Aged between 12 and 13, the children were among the first indigenous Catholics of Mexico who were killed between 1527 and 1529 for refusing to renounce their faith and return to their ancient traditions.
Among the new saints will also be two European priests. One of them is Spanish Piarist Father, Manuel Míguez González , the founder of the Daughters of the Divine Shepherdess, or the Calasanzian Institute. He died in 1925. The other is Italian Cappuchin priest, Fr. Angelo da Acri , who died in 1739.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) A high-level forum of dialogue to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the “Treaty of Rome”, that established the European Community, will take place in the Vatican end of October, in which Pope Francis will participate. Organized by the Holy See and the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Community (COMECE), the October 27-29 congress on the theme, “(Re)thinking Europe” will see hundreds of high-level Church and European Union political representatives join other grassroots actors to contribute to a constructive reflection on the fundamental challenges facing the European project. Organizers said the meeting will be in the form of a dialogue, with workshops and debates, to facilitate a frank and open discussion between stakeholders of different geographic, cultural, religious and linguistic backgrounds, putting in practice the motto of the EU: “unity in diversity”. “Willing to work for the common good and to put human dignity at the center of public policies, the participants will be called to look for new ways to involve all actors in the society in their respective religious or political responsibilities,” organizers said. Pope Francis will address the participants on 28 October to reiterate his sincere engagement to a common reflection on the future of the EU and recall the commitment of the Church to this Peace project. What is the European Community today was born as the European Economic Community (EEC) with the signing of the “Treaty of Rome” on 25 March 1957 by Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and West Germany. It came into force on 1 January 1958. The Maastricht Treaty of 1992 established the European Community and introduced the European citizenship. The 2009 Treaty of Lisbon renamed it the “Treaty on the functioning of the European Union”. Since its inception, the EU has expanded to include new members. Today it has 28 member states with an estimated population of over 510 million. (from Vatican Radio)…