(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)…
Bulletin for 8/07/2016
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis sent a message on Saturday to Cardinal Cláudio Hummes, O.F.M., the Holy Father’s Special Envoy to the XVII National Eucharistic Congress in Brazil. The Congress is set to be celebrated in the city of Belém on 15-21 August 2016, occurring during the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro . Cardinal Hummes is accompanied by two clerics of the Archdioces of Belém: 1. Fr. Vladian Silva Alves: Canon of the Cathedral Chapter and Rector of the São Pio X Major Seminary 2. Fr. Ronaldo De Souza Menezes, Parish Priest of the São Geraldo Magela Parish and Director of the Museum of Sacred Art The original Latin text of the Pope’s message is below: Venerabili Fratri Nostro Claudio S.R.E. Cardinali Hummes, O.F.M. Archiepiscopo Emerito Sancti Pauli in Brasilia Praefecto Emerito Congregationis pro Clericis Nostro quoque tempore obsequentes mandato Domini Iesu: “Euntes in mundum universum praedicate Evangelium omni creaturae; qui crediderit et baptizatus fuerit, salvus erit” (Mc 16,15-16), novam evangelizationem universum per orbem terrarum dum fovere studemus, libenter recordamur praeteriti temporis eventus ad Evangelium nuntiandum pertinentes. In iis enim gratiam Dei contemplari possumus, qui copiosus in misericordia per saecula tot homines ad salutem in Christo consequendam vocavit. Certiores ergo nuper facti de sollemni celebratione XVII Congressus Eucharistici Nationalis Brasiliae in urbe Belemensi, qua occasione memorantur etiam IV elapsa saecula ab urbe hac condita simulque ab inchoata regionis Amazoniae evangelizatione, Nos, summa cum animi consolatione, ibidem cum sacris pastoribus et christifidelibus coniuncti, Christo Iesu ante omnia debitas gratias agere cupimus atque iisdem animum addere Nostramque benevolentiam et spiritalem necessitudinem manifestare. Quamobrem libenter accepimus postulatum Venerabilis Fratris Alberti Taveira Corrêa, Archiepiscopi Metropolitae Belemensis de Pará, qui humaniter poposcit ut Patrem Purpuratum illuc mitteremus ad Personam Nostram gerendam. Nos autem censemus hanc Legationem te optime esse exsecuturum, Venerabilis Fratris Noster, praestantissimum Pastorem ex Ordine Fratrum Minorum, Brasilianae Patriae totiusque Ecclesiae insignem Filium. Ideo Nostrum Missum Extraordinarium hisce Litteris te constituimus ad XVII Congressum Eucharisticum Nationalem Brasiliae in urbe Belemensi diebus XV-XXI mensis Augusti devote et congrue celebrandum. Sacros Praesules, auctoritates civiles omnesque adstantes Nostro nomine comiter salutabis. In hac autem honorifica explenda missione sacris liturgicis ritibus praesidebis, sermone tuo Nostram ad mentem illustrabis praecipuorum eventuum momentum, caritatem pariter Nostram testaberis erga Amazoniae totiusque Brasiliae Pastores ac dilectas ecclesiales communitates. Fidem populi confirmans, de catechesi tradenda, oratione simul agenda et caritate cotidiana in vita exercenda recordans, magnum pondus extolles ecclesiae domesticae, id est familiae, ubi novae generationes christianorum et missionariorum nascuntur et educantur. Dum autem multi fideles, reconciliationis et Eucharistiae sacramentis receptis, Dominum Iesum in fractione panis agnoscentes (cfr Lc 24,31) pie adorabunt atque in processionibus Eum comitabuntur, cum fratribus in communione in unum mysticum Corpus Christi quod est Ecclesia coniuncti, Nos, in spiritu praesentes et magnopere laetantes, ad caritatem erga indigentiores enixe eos hortari cupimus: «ex mutuo etenim amore ac potissimum ex ipsa sollicitudine nostra erga egentes nos tamquam veri Christi discipuli agnoscemur» (S. Ioannes Paulus II, Mane nobiscum Domine, 28). Cum ergo grato animo maturos fructus fidei apostolatusque Evangelii praeconum, comitante profecto divina gratia, mirantes contemplemur, Spiritum Sanctum supplices invocamus ut similiter nostra aetate plurimos sacerdotes, religiosos viros mulieresque et christifideles laicos ad evangelizationis operam ibi ferventer prosequendam compellere dignetur, intercedentibus Beatissima Virgine Maria de Nazaré omnibusque Sanctis, potissimum iis qui in Brasilia fidem in Christum vita et operibus nuntiaverunt. Denique Benedictionem Nostram Apostolicam imo ex corde tibi impertimus, quam cum omnibus adstantibus et per media communicationis coniunctis copiose participabis. Ex Aedibus Vaticanis, die XV mensis Iulii, in die festo sancti Bonaventurae, anno MMXVI, Iubilaeo Misericordiae, Pontificatus Nostri quarto. FRANCISCUS (from Vatican Radio)…