(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis sent a telegramme on Monday expressing his condolences and prayers for the victims of Hurricane Earl in Central America.
Hurricane Earl is estimated to have caused damages in excess of US$50 million and left 13 people dead in the Dominican Republic and at least 45 others in Mexico.
The telegramme – dated 8 August and signed by the Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin – was addressed to the Mexican Episcopal Conference.
A Vatican Radio English translation of the telegramme is below:
In the face of the grave damage caused by the hurricane which affected several areas of the country – causing numerous victims and extensive material damage – the Holy Father expresses his affection for the beloved Mexican people, offering his prayers for those who lost their lives and desiring to show his closeness to their families and the victims. At the same time, His Holiness asks the Lord to sustain the will of the authorities and people of Mexico and to awaken in all a spirit of solidarity. He also imparts his Apostolic Blessing.
Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Secretary of State of His Holiness
(from Vatican Radio)…
“One who knows Jesus Christ can never be a
fundamentalist. The great Gospel narratives, such as the parable of the Good
Samaritan or the Beatitudes, are stories that belong to the cultural history of
Europe, not just to Christians. But the modern culture of freedom has no
guarantee of existence. What we have created must not be called into question
by a new era of passions” that we are likely experiencing. This is one of the
most significant passages of the address given by Cardinal Reinhard Marx,
Archbishop of Munich and Freising, President of the German Bishops’ Conference,
who spoke on Sunday, 7 August, on the final day of the 85 th “Week of the University of Salzburg”. The
event held in the Austrian city was dedicated to the topic of “Passions”. The
cardinal expressed his concern for the spread of “passions” – aggression –
in Europe. “It concerns me that what is emerging is not freedom or human
dignity but exclusion and fear, as well as new nationalisms. What meaning does
the culture of responsibility have today, which, even at the time of the cold
war, represented a prospect for the future?”, the Cardinal asked….
(Vatican Radio) After twenty weeks and 143 posts, including a number of videos, Pope Francis’ Instragram account has now reached more than three million followers. Unlike the Pope’s Twitter account, which goes out in nine different languages, there is only one official Instagram account. Each post, though, is subtitled in numerous languages.
Followers of @franciscus can follow, day by day, the activities of the Holy Father thanks to photos of official events produced by the photography team of L’Osservatore Romano.
Speaking at the launch of the Pope’s Twitter account earlier this year, the Prefect of the Secretariat for Communications, Monsignor Dario Viganò said the decision to open an Instagram account arises from the Pope’s conviction that pictures can reveal many things that words can’t. The aim of this papal Instagram account, he said, is to tell the story of the Pontificate of Pope Francis through images.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis prayed the Angelus on Sunday with people gathered in a sun-drenched St. Peter’s Square, beneath the window of the Papal apartments in the Apostolic Palace.
In remarks to the pilgrims and tourists on hand, which he delivered ahead of the traditional noonday prayer of Marian devotion, the Holy Father focused on the Gospel reading of the day, which on this Sunday was from the Holy Gospel according to St. Luke (Lk. 12:32-48), in which Jesus tells the disciples once again not to mind the things of the world, but to work for the kingdom of God and store up treasure in heaven. “For,” he tells them, “where your treasure is, there also will your heart be.”
Jesus goes on in the passage to relate three short parables regarding the Second Coming, the unifying theme of which is vigilance.
The unexpected return of the Master of the House, the thief in the night, and the behavior of the steward in the wake of his Master’s departure each in its own way point us to the need for sober watchfulness, keen awareness, and careful attention to our duty under justice and tireless solicitude for our fellows in charity, as we await the Lord, whose coming is certain, but whose hour we cannot know.
“Jesus,” said Pope Francis, “today reminds us that the expectation of eternal beatitude does not dispense us from our responsibility to work for a more just and more habitable world. Indeed, it is precisely this, our hope of possessing the Kingdom in eternity, which encourages us to work towards improving the conditions of life on earth, especially those of our weakest brothers and sisters.”
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis renewed his condemnation of violence and his call for peace in Syria on Sunday. The Holy Father’s appeals came following the Angelus prayer with the faithful gathered beneath the window of the Papal apartments in the Apostolic Palace.
“Dear brothers and sisters,” said Pope Francis, “sadly, news continues to reach us from Syria, of civilian victims of the war there, in particular from the city of Aleppo.” The Holy Father went on to say, “It is unacceptable that so many defenseless persons – among them many small children – must pay the price for conflict – for the closure of the hearts and the want of a will for peace among the powerful.”
The Pope renewed his promise of spiritual closeness to all those suffering in Syria, along with his call for prayerful and effective concrete action to aid the sorely tried people of that war-torn land. “Let us draw near to our Syrian brothers and sisters with prayer and solidarity,” he said, “and let us entrust them to the maternal protection of the Virgin Mary,” before inviting the gathered faithful to a moment of silent prayer followed by a Hail Mary.
Rebels have been trying to break through a thin strip of government-controlled territory to reconnect insurgent areas in western Syria with their encircled sector of eastern Aleppo, in effect breaking a government siege begun last month.
Fighting has been extremely intense since Friday, when rebels began a major push.
There have been reports throughout the weekend of civilian casualties and non-combatant facilities being hit by artillery and possibly even targeted. Those reports include one of an air strike near a hospital in northwestern Syria on Saturday that killed 10 people including children, and caused damage to the hospital facility.
At least one medical charity has reported the month of July as the worst to date for attacks on medical care centres in Syria, with 43 attacks on healthcare facilities recorded in their count.
(from Vatican Radio)…