(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has expressed his “affection and emotion” at the situation of Charlie Gard and “his own closeness to his parents”.
A statement from Greg Burke, Director of the Holy See Press Office, on Sunday said the Pope prays for 10-month old Charlie Gard’s parents and hopes “that their desire to accompany and care for their own child to the end is not ignored.”
Charlie was born with a rare genetic condition called mitochondrial depletion syndrome, which causes progressive muscle weakness and brain damage.
The European Court of Human Rights last week rejected a plea from the baby’s parents to be allowed to move him to the United States for experimental medical treatment.
Please find below a Vatican Radio English translation of the full statement:
“The Holy Father follows with affection and emotion the case of little Charlie Gard and expresses his own closeness to his parents. For them he prays, hoping that their desire to accompany and care for their own child to the end is not ignored.”
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis used his remarks ahead of the traditional Sunday Angelus prayer to reflect on the essential characteristics of Christian missionary discipleship, which he identified as being bound to Our Lord Jesus Christ and being bearers of Him – ambassadors of Christ, as St. Paul says – who put on Christ and bring Him to others, forsaking themselves and all others and everything else in the world for His sake.
“Not,” explained Pope Francis, “because He wants us to be heartless and ungrateful – not hardly, not at all.”
“On the contrary,” he continued, “because the condition of the disciple requires that one’s relationship with the Master take precedence over all others.”
Departing from his prepared text, the Holy Father said, “Any and every disciple, whether he be a lay man, a lay woman, a priest, a bishop: the relationship [with Christ, the Divine Teacher] takes precedence.”
Pope Francis concluded, saying, “The Virgin Mary felt in her own person what it means to love Jesus, detaching oneself from oneself, giving new meaning to family ties, beginning with faith in Him: may she help us, with her maternal intercession, to be free and cheerful missionaries of the Gospel.”
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis appealed for peace and reconciliation in Venezuela on Sunday. Addressing pilgrims and tourists gathered in St. Peter’s Square to pray the traditional noonday Angelus with him on Sunday, the Holy Father renewed his call for prayerful solidarity with the people of Venezuela, just a few days ahead of the nation’s Independence Day on July 5 th . “I promise my own prayers for this beloved nation [Venezuela] and express my closeness to the families who have lost their children in the streets,” Pope Francis said, referring to the often violent – protests in the country that began in March in the wake of a constitutional crisis and subsequent political stalemate that has yet to be broken. Nearly one hundred people have been killed in the ongoing civil unrest. “I call for end to violence and a peaceful and democratic solution to the crisis,” the Holy Father said, before imploring the intercession of Our Lady of Coromoto – Patroness of Venezuela – and leading the faithful gathered beneath the window of the Papal apartments in the recitation of the Hail Mary. (from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Saturday named Archbishop Luis Ladaria, SJ, to replace Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller as the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, at the end of Cardinal Müller’s five-year term.
Archbishop Ladaria is a Spanish Jesuit and theologian who spent many years teaching at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, before being called to serve as Secretary of CDF in 2008.
A note from the Press Office of the Holy See released Saturday says the Holy Father thanks Cardinal Müller at the end his quinquennial mandate as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and President of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, the Pontifical Biblical Commission and the International Theological Commission, and now calls the former Secretary, Archbishop Ladaria, to take on those roles.
Cardinal Müller’s term as Prefect officially expires on July 2 nd .
(from Vatican Radio)…
Bulletin for 07/02/2017