(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis during his Angelus address on Sunday told pilgrims in St Peter’s Square that the great novelty of Christianity is a God who, though disappointed by our sins, is merciful.
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“God continues to put in place the “new wine” of his vineyard, that is, mercy. There is only one impediment to the tenacious and tender will of God: our arrogance and our presumption, which sometimes can becomes violence.”
Those were Pope Francis’ words to pilgrims in St Peter’s Square during his Angelus address , as he reflected on this Sunday’s liturgy, the parable of the vine-growers.
The Pope recounted the story of the vine growers who are put in charge of the vineyard by their Master, but abuse their position to the point of killing the owner’s son.
The Holy Father described this Gospel passage as a love story which had both positive and negative moments.
A God who does not avenge
Pope Francis said that in order to understand how God the Father responds to those opposed to his love, the Gospel passage proposes the question, “when will the master of the vineyard arrive and what will he do to those growers?” This question, the Pope noted, “stresses that the disappointment of God for the wicked behaviour of men is not the last word. Here is the great novelty of Christianity : a God who, though disappointed by our mistakes and our sins, does not fail in his word, does not stop and above all it does not avenge”.
The Holy Father went on to say that, faced with these attitudes and where no fruit is produced, the Word of God warns that, “the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will bear fruit”.
The urgency of responding with good fruits to the call of the Lord, who calls us to become his vineyard, explained Pope Francis, “helps us to understand what is new and original in Christianity. It is an invitation to enter this love story, becoming a lively and open vine, rich in fruit and hope for everyone.”
At the end of the Angelus, the Pope recalled the Beatification on Saturday in Milan of Father Arsenio da Trigolo, a priest of the Capuchin Friars Minor saying, “we praise the Lord for this humble disciple, who even in adversity and trials never lost hope.”
(from Vatican Radio)…
Bulletin for 10/08/2017
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis received the Prime Minister of the Republic of Lithuania , Saulius Skvernelis , on Friday. A communiqué from the Press Office of the Holy See issued following the meeting says the Pope and the Prime Minister had cordial discussions, during which appreciation was expressed for the good state of bilateral relations and the positive contribution of the Catholic Church in Lithuanian society throughout the centuries. The communiqué goes on to say that it was in this context, that mention was made of the recent beatification of the martyr to Soviet imperial Communism, Archbishop Teofilius Matulionis , which took place this past June. The Press Office of the Holy See also reports that themes of common interest, such as the prospects for the future development of European integration, the emigration of the young and the reception of migrants, and peace and security at regional and international level, were also part of the conversation. Skvernelis subsequently met with His Eminence Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin , accompanied by Msgr. Antoine Camilleri, Under-Secretary for Relations with States. (from Vatican Radio)…
Vatican Radio) “No one can say, ‘I’m right’ or ‘I’m not like him or her.’ I’m a sinner, I’d say it’s almost the first name we all have – sinners.” Pope Francis focused on man’s sinfulness and the need for remorse in his homily at Mass, Friday morning at the Casa Santa Marta residence in the Vatican. He was commenting on the first reading from Prophet Baruch who said, ”Justice is with the Lord, our God; and we today are flushed with shame.” All are sinners “Priests, king, leaders and fathers,” all of us are sinners, the Pope said citing Baruch. “ We are sinners because God has asked to do one thing and we have done the contrary. He has talked to parents, the family, the catechist, in the church, in the sermons, and he has spoken to us in our hearts. The Pope explained that sin is a rebellion, an obstinacy that consists in giving into the ” perverse inclinations of our heart” in “small idolatries of every day” such as cupidity, envy, hate, and especially slander , which he described as a “war of the heart destroying the other.” According to Baruch, it is because of sin that there are so many evils. Sin, the Pope said, ruins the heart, life and the soul by weakening and making it ill. Sin is always in relationship to God. Shame opens the door to healing Sin, the Pope further explained, is not like a stain that one gets rid of at the dry cleaner’s. It is an ugly rebellion against God who is all good. If one regards sin this way, then instead of getting into a depression if one has the great sentiment of shame , it is the grace of God , according to Baruch the Pope said. It is shame that “opens the door to healing”, the Holy Father said, and invited all to feel ashamed before the Lord for our sins and ask for healing. And when the almighty Lord sees us ashamed of what we have done, and we humbly ask pardon, He embraces and forgives us. The Pope urged all to be grateful to the Lord for manifesting His might in His mercy and forgiveness . (from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis received the participants in the first-ever World Congress on Child Dignity in the Digital World on Friday. The Centre for Child Protection at the Pontifical Gregorian University hosted the four-day event, which brought experts in child care, internet security, law enforcement, education, and a host of other fields together to share experiences and best practices, with a view to addressing the problem of the effective protection of the dignity of minors in the digital world. Click below to hear our report
Child dignity – a crisis and a response in context In remarks prepared for the participants and delivered to them in the Clementine Hall of the Apostolic Palace shortly after noon on Friday, Pope Francis placed the challenges facing individuals and whole societies the world, over, in the context of the struggle not only to articulate, but effectively to guarantee, the rights and dignity of every person – especially the weakest and most vulnerable, and chief among these, children and young people – on which the human family has embarked and in which the Church has been engaged especially since the drafting of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the 1959 Declaration on the Rights of the Child . “As representatives of various scientific disciplines and the fields of digital communications, law and political life,” Pope Francis said, “you [participants in the World Congress] have come together precisely because you realize the gravity of these challenges linked to scientific and technical progress.” He went on to say, “With great foresight, you have concentrated on what is probably the most crucial challenge for the future of the human family: the protection of young people’s dignity, their healthy development, their joy and their hope.” Speaking specifically of the danger the proliferation of pornographic material poses in the digital age, Pope Francis said, “The spread of printed pornography in the past was a relatively small phenomenon compared to the proliferation of pornography on the net.” He went on to say, “[W]e must not let ourselves be overcome by fear, which is always a poor counsellor, nor let ourselves be paralyzed by the sense of powerlessness that overwhelms us before the difficulty of the task,” at hand. “Rather,” he said, “we are called to join forces, realizing that we need one another in order to seek and find the right means and approaches needed for effective responses.” Painful lessons – profound commitment Pope Francis also spoke of the painful lessons the Church has learned through her recent experience with clerical sex abuse , saying that the Church has come to acknowledge her own failures in providing for the protection of children. “[E]xtremely grave facts have come to light,” he said, “for which we have to accept our responsibility before God, before the victims and before public opinion.” The Pope went on to say, “For this very reason, as a result of these painful experiences and the skills gained in the process of conversion and purification, the Church today feels especially bound to work strenuously and with foresight for the protection of minors and their dignity, not only within her own ranks, but in society as a whole and throughout the world.” The pernicious effects of mainstreaming pornography The Holy Father also discussed the pernicious effects that the so-called “mainstreaming” of pornography – not only its broad and ready availability, but also the acceptance of it by society – on adults. “We rightly insist on the gravity of these problems for minors,” he said, “but we can also underestimate or overlook the extent that they are also problems for adults.” The Pope noted that the spread of ever more extreme pornography and other improper uses of the internet not only causes disorders, dependencies and grave harm among adults, but also has a real impact on the way we view love and relations between the sexes. “We would be seriously deluding ourselves,” he said, “were we to think that a society where an abnormal consumption of internet sex is rampant among adults could be capable of effectively protecting minors.” Warning against a “technocratic” approach to the problem “The second mistaken approach would be to think that automatic technical solutions, filters devised by ever more refined algorithms in order to identify and block the spread of abusive and harmful images, are sufficient to deal with these problems,” he said. “But there is also an urgent need, as part of the process of technological growth itself, for all those involved to acknowledge and address the ethical concerns that this growth raises, in all its breadth and its various consequences.” What the internet is, and is not A third risk of which we must be aware in our approach to the digital world is the deluded notion that “the net” is or should be a realm of unlimited freedom. While the internet and other technologies that are part of the contours, content, and structures of this new digital world have opened vast new fora for free expression and free exchange of ideas and information, it has also offered new means for engaging in heinous illicit activities , including the abuse of minors and offences against their dignity, the corruption of their minds and violence against their bodies. “This,” said Pope Francis , “has nothing to do with the exercise of freedom: it has to do with crimes that need to be fought with intelligence and determination, through a broader cooperation among governments and law enforcement agencies on the global level, even as the net itself is now global.” Final Declaration Toward this end, the participants produced a final document , The Declaration of Rome , which includes its own urgent call to action . Pope Francis received the Declaration from a young girl participating in the Congress, who gave it to him “on behalf of millions of young people around the world who need information and far more protection from the risks of sexual and other forms of abuse on the internet.” (from Vatican Radio)…