(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has sent a letter to the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land marking the 800th anniversary of their presence as guardians of the holy sites in modern day Israel and Palestine.
In the letter, published on Tuesday, the pope praises the Franciscans for their vital contribution to life in the Holy Land , in particular their work to accompany pilgrims coming from all over the world.
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The Pope recalls the way that Saint Francis, in May 1217 during the chapter of his recently founded order, decided to send the friars out on mission. The first missionaries to the Holy Land arrived that summer in the town of Acre, near Haifa, in northern Israel and just over a hundred years later, Pope Clement VI confirmed them as the custodians of the holy places.
Sowing peace, fraternity, respect
In the message, Pope Francis notes how the Franciscans live alongside people of different cultures and religions, sowing seeds of “peace, fraternity and respect”. As well as their work as guides for pilgrims, the Pope recalls, they are also committed to biblical and archaeological studies. Franciscans also work closely with the local Churches taking care of the poor, the sick, the elderly and the young people who find it hard to keep up hope amidst the ongoing conflict.
Collection for the Holy Land
The Pope says that the Franciscans are ambassadors for the whole people of God, who support them through the traditional Good Friday collection for the Holy Land and through the Vatican’s Congregation for Oriental Churches, which is currently marking the centenary of its foundation.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Monday appealed to the international community not only to guarantee enough production and fair distribution of food for all but also to ensure the right of every human being to feed himself according to his needs without being forced to leave his home and loved ones.
He made the call at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization ( FAO ) in Rome, where he marked World Food Day , which this year has as its theme, “Change the future of migration. Invest in Food Security and rural development.” ( Click here for the video of the Pope’s FAO visit )
Conflicts and climate-change
Addressing the UN’s specialized agency that leads the international community’s fight against hunger and malnutrition in the world, the Pope urged governments to work together to end the conflicts and climate-change related disasters that force people to leave their homes in search of their daily bread. Citing the 2016 Paris climate accord in which governments committed themselves to combatting global warming, the Pope who spoke in Spanish, regretted that “unfortunately some are distancing themselves from it.”
He noted that negligence and greed over the world’s limited resources are harming the planet and its most vulnerable people, forcing many to abandon their homes in search of work and food. He called for a change in lifestyle and the use of resources, adding it cannot be left for others to do.
World hunger
A UN report in September pointed out that the number of chronically hungry people in the world was growing once more after a decade of decline because of ongoing conflicts and floods and droughts triggered by climate change. While the 815 million chronically undernourished people last year is still below the 900 million registered in 2000, the UN warned that the increase is cause for great concern.
Love, fraternity, solidarity
Describing population control as a “false solution” to tackling hunger and malnutrition in the world, Pope Francis said what is needed instead is a better management of the earth’s abundant resources and prevention of waste in food and resources. What is needed, he said, is a new model of international cooperation based on love, fraternity and solidarity that respond to the needs of the poorest. Pity, he pointed out, is limited to emergency aid, but love inspires justice that is needed to bring about a just social order.
As a token of his visit and message, Pope Francis gifted to the UN food agency a marble sculpture of Aylan , the three-year-old Syrian toddler of Kurdish origin, whose image in the media made global headlines after his body washed up on a Turkish beach in September 2015 after he drowned in the Mediterranean Sea. The Vatican explained that the sculpture featuring a weeping angel over the little boy’s corpse, symbolized the tragedy of migration.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Bishop Emmanuel Lafont of Cayenne in French Guyana reacted with joy when he heard Pope Francis ’s announcement of a Special Assembly of the Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon region.
French Guyana and Suriname are part of the Amazon territory together with Guyana, Venezuela, Ecuador, Colombia, Bolivia, Peru and Brazil.
As well as being an essential ‘lung’ for the entire planet as Pope Francis said when he made the announcement, the six million square kilometers that define the region are home to indigenous tribes and even uncontacted peoples whose cultures and whose very existences are threatened by large-scale logging, mining and other industrial projects as well as by pollution and climate change
Speaking to Vatican Radio Bishop Lafont said he is very grateful to Pope Francis for having called this Synod.
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“I am very happy, grateful to the Holy Father for having called this Synod which is most important” he said.
For the benefit of the indigenous peoples
First of all, Bishop Lafont continued “for the benefit of the indigenous people – the First Nations – of the Amazonian region, because they have a long history, for the past 500 years of submission, of exploitation, of misunderstanding.”
For the protection of Creation
The second reason for which he is grateful, the Bishop said, that “the Amazon is one of the most important regions in the world for the protection of Creation” and it is currently facing many challenges.
“The Church, he said, ought to speak even more loudly for the protection of the region, and for the sake of the protection of the whole world”.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has called on the international community not to forget South Sudan and in particular the serious humanitarian emergency unfolding there.
The Pope made the call on South Sudan in a Preface he wrote to a new book on South Sudan. The book, published in Italian, is authored by Comboni Missionary, Father Daniele Moschetti. It was launched over the weekend, in Italy, Rome.
“Usually Missionaries are the ones to tell (the world) about lives lived on the periphery on behalf of the poor. So too is this testimony of Father Daniele Moschetti, a Comboni missionary, who offers a compelling account of the generous and passionate commitment of so many missionaries living side by side with those in need and, above all, of those who suffer because of ongoing conflicts that cause death and destruction,” Pope Francis wrote in the Preface.
Pope Francis has implored the international community, and everyone who believes in the Gospel not to give-up on South Sudan because to do so would be to betray the lesson of the Gospel.
“I feel the importance and need of raising this kind of awareness in the international community on a silent drama, which requires everyone’s commitment to a solution that would end the ongoing conflict. To distance one’ self from the problems of humanity, especially in a context such as that which afflicts South Sudan, would be to “forget the lesson from the Gospel about the love of neighbour suffering and in need,” the Holy Father emphasised.
The book, “South Sudan: The Long and Sorrowful Path towards Peace, Justice, and Dignity,” published in Italian as “Sud Sudan: Il lungo e sofferto cammino verso pace, giustizia e dignità” is a collection of Moschetti’s personal experiences of a land in which he lived and one to which he is still attached. It is part diary; part missionary chronicle and commentary. The book is a rich account of information which tackles a very complicated conflict while avoiding a patronising or know-it-all attitude.
Moschetti provides much-needed context often lacking in the usual 140 twitter character headline. More importantly, the book is an attempt to break through, in a personal way, and draw attention to a forgotten but real humanitarian emergency taking place right under our averted gaze. Moschetti is concerned that, in mainstream Western media, migration and African conflicts are often portrayed in a distorted or simplistic manner.
An Italian Comboni Missionary priest, Fr. Moschetti studied Theology in Nairobi and worked for 11 years, as a missionary, in the Kenyan slums of Kibera and Korogocho. Between 2009 to 2016 Fr. Moschetti was assigned to South Sudan.
During Moschetti’s book launch, at Radio Vatican, another Comboni Missionary and renowned journalist, Fr. Giulio Albanese described South Sudan as a forgotten nation. His hope is that one day Pope Francis visits South Sudan and perhaps help focus the world’s attention on this troubled country –just as he did for the Central African Republic in 2015. In an unprecedented move, Pope Francis launched the Jubilee Year of Mercy in Bangui, Central African Republic, in November 2015.
Notwithstanding the odds in South Sudan, Fr. Albanese spoke of a civil society that actually exists there is trying to make a difference. He said civil society activists there need the support of the international community.
Present at the book launch was Ethiopian national, Fr. Tesfaye Tadesse Gebresilasie, the Superior General of Comboni Missionaries.
During the Wednesday Papal audience of 11 October, in Saint Peter’s Square, Moschetti gave Pope Francis a copy of his book. The Pope told Moschetti: “I really would like to go to this country (South Sudan). I would like to go there as soon as it is possible.”
“Sud Sudan: Il lungo e sofferto cammino verso pace, giustizia e dignità,” 250 pp., 14 Euro, is published by Dissensi. In the meantime, Fr. Moschetti has taken up an advocacy appointment in New York and Washington.
(Fr. Paul Samasumo, Vatican Radio)
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis will travel to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Headquarters in Rome on Monday to attend a ceremony marking World Food Day.
This year’s theme is “ Change the future of migration ”.
The Holy Father will be joined by the Director-General of FAO, José Graziano da Silva and G7 Agriculture Ministers.
George Rapsomanikis is a Senior Economist at FAO and spoke to Lydia O’Kane about the Pope’s upcoming visit.
Listen to the interview:
Speaking about expectations for the Pope’s visit, Mr Rapsomanikis noted that World Food Day was a very important occasion for FAO as the organization was founded on the 16th of October 1945. The theme for this year’s World Food Day highlights the issue of migration and the FAO economist said that, “the presence of Pope Francis links directly with migration…” He added, Pope Francis will strengthen the message to promote safe and regular migration and will uplift it; he is committed to the poor and migration is an issue which is very close to his heart.”
Asked about some of the common concerns that the Holy See and FAO share in the world today, one of the issues Mr Rapsomanikis noted was the care for the environment and climate change . He went on to say the Papal Encyclical on the care for creation, Laudato Si , “has contributed to the debate on climate change and sustainability and these are key factors in achieving food security and relate directly to FAO’s work and mandate.”
In the world today, underlined, Mr Rapsomanikis, “we have an unprecedented situation, conflict, political instability that are exacerbated by extreme climatic events like drought; they have resulted in severe food insecurity in South Sudan, in Somalia, in Northeastern Nigeria and Yemen.
The Pope, commented the FAO economist, “is a spiritual leader of more than 1 billion people, but his views on peace and on social justice are shared by many more people of different nationality, faith and colour.
(from Vatican Radio)…