(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis invoked Saint Francis of Paola during his weekly General Audience on Wednesday. The Holy Father greeted devotees of the saint, who are marking the sixth centenary of his birth.
Saint Francis of Paula was born in Calabria in 1416, and as a young man entered the Franciscan Order. Seeking a more austere spirituality, he later founded the Hermits of Saint Francis of Assisi, which was afterward renamed the Minim friars.
After greeting the saint’s devotees, the Holy Father called on young people to “learn from Saint Francis of Paola that humility is a strength, not a weakness.”
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Anglican and Catholic theologians, meeting in Toronto, Canada this week, have agreed on the publication of their first ARCIC III document on the theme “Towards a Church fully reconciled”. The volume, which is likely to be published in the autumn, uses the ‘Receptive Ecumenism’ approach to look at the limitations within each communion and see how one Church can help the other grow towards the fullness of faith.
The third Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC III) is holding its sixth annual meeting from May 11th to 19th, hosted by the Anglican sisters of St John the Divine in Toronto. The 18 members of the Commission have completed work on the first part of their mandate, exploring tensions between the local and Universal Church within the two communions, and are continuing discussions on a second volume, looking at how Anglicans and Catholics make difficult moral and ethical decisions.
To find out more about the meeting, Philippa Hitchen spoke with the two co-chairs, Archbishop David Moxon from New Zealand who heads Rome’s Anglican Centre and Catholic Archbishop Bernard Longley of Birmingham in the UK .
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Archbishop David confirms the Commission is set to publish its first book, “Towards a Church fully reconciled” and is now working on its second volume on ecclesiology and ethics. He says it’s been “quite exciting to see already how user-friendly and readable it’ll be”. He notes the group has been very encouraged by feedback from local young Canadians from different cultural backgrounds who’ve helped to make it “a more third millennium book”.
Converted by each other
The Anglican co-chair says the book clearly states that we need to be “converted by each other”, showing each other “our wounds, our limitations, our weaknesses” in order to help each other to grow. He notes that there is still a long journey ahead towards the goal of organic union, but says the group is encouraged by the “inch-by-inch progress that we see around us”.
Receptive Ecumenism
Archbishop Bernard says that everyone in the Commission is “on board with the approach of this document which contrasts somewhat with the previous agreed statements of ARCIC’s first two phases”. He says the new approach uses the lens of Receptive Ecumenism, which allows Anglicans and Catholics “to look at the reality of life within each of our two communions, looking with a critical eye too at where we fall short”.
50th anniversary of ARCIC
Archbishop David speaks of the forthcoming 50th anniversary of the Anglican Centre and the setting up of the ARCIC group by Pope Paul VI and Archbishop Michael Ramsey. He notes that during the October 5th-7th celebration, 36 Anglican and Catholic bishops will pray together with Pope Francis and Archbishop Justin Welby in the Rome church of St Gregorio al Celio. In pairs from different countries, they will be mandated and blessed “to go out and demonstrate partnerships that are possible” in mission and common worship, to show that “no one of us has got it all together, but together each one of us can share it all”.
Ecumenism in Canada
Archbishop Bernard also speaks of the very positive experience of the local Canadian Anglican-Roman Catholic Commission which has helped ensure that the reception process of ARCIC’s work “doesn’t remain there on the shelf” but allows people to engage with it and bring it into their daily lives.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has given an exclusive interview to the French Catholic La Croix newspaper. In the broad-ranging conversation with journalists Guillaume Goubert and Sébastien Maillard for La Croix , Pope Francis discussed matters ranging from healthy secularism and the right way to understand and live according to the Church’s universal missionary mandate, to the idea of Europe in relation to the migration crisis and the possibility of peaceful coexistence among Muslims and Christians.
He also addressed the clergy sex abuse crisis, offering considerations about an ongoing investigation – widely covered in France – involving the Archbishop of Lyon, Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, whose handling of the case of one pedophile priest in particular has been subject to scrutiny and criticism. La Croix has now published an English translation of the interview, available here .
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has sent a telegram expressing his condolences for the death of Cardinal Giovanni Coppa, a long-serving diplomat and official of the Roman Curia. Cardinal Coppa was one of the chief Latinists of the II Vatican Council. He wrote several volumes on St. Ambrose of Milan, the Gospels, and the Fathers of the Church.
As Nuncio, he served in Czechloslovakia (later the Czech Republic).
In his telegram, addressed to the Dean of the College of Cardinals, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, Pope Francis remembers Cardinal Coppa as a dedicated and pastorally sensitive servant of the Church and the Papacy. “As Assessor of the Secretariat of State and as Delegate for the Pontifical Diplomatic Representations,” writes Pope Francis, “he showed pastoral wisdom and careful attention to the needs of others.” The Holy Father goes on to say, “When he was sent as Pontifical Representative to the Nunciature in Prague, he gave witness to a particularly intense and fruitful commitment to the spiritual good of that nation.”
The Holy Father concludes with promises of “fervent prayers of suffrage, so that, by the intercession of the Virgin Mary and of St. Ambrose, of whose works he was among the foremost students, the Lord might welcome the Cardinal – sorely missed – in joy and peace eternal,” and imparts his Apostolic Blessing on all those who share in suffering at the loss of so zealous a Pastor.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Saying Jesus’ path is serving others, Pope Francis urged Christians on Tuesday to overcome the lure of worldliness and human ambition and warned against social climbers who are tempted to destroy the other in order to reach the top. His remarks came during his homily at the morning Mass celebrated in the Santa Marta residence.
The gospel reading where Jesus’ disciples were arguing among themselves over who was the greatest was used by the Pope for his reflections about the dangers of power, money, ambition and vanity. He noted that whereas Jesus was warning his disciples about his coming humiliation and death, they were concerned with worldly matters such as who would become the most powerful among them.
Christians must overcome the temptation to be social climbers, seeking power
In response to the apostles’ arguments, Pope Francis reminded of Jesus’ warning to his disciples that “if anyone wishes to be first he shall be the last of all and the servant of all.”
“Along the path where Jesus shows us to journey, the guiding principle is service. The greatest is the person who serves most, who serves others most, not the person who boasts, who seeks power, money… vanity, pride. No, these people are not the greatest. And this is what happened here with the apostles, even with the mother of John and James, it’s an event that happens every day in the Church, in every community. ‘But which of us is the greatest? Who’s in charge?’ Ambitions: there is always this desire to be a social climber, to have power, in every community, parish or institution.”
No to bad mouthing others in order to rule
Pope Francis went on to stress how service is still the Church’s message to us nowadays. Whilst the world speaks about who has more power to be in charge, Jesus reminds us that He came amongst us “to serve” and not “to be served.”
“Vanity and power … and how and when I have this worldly desire to seek power, not to serve but to be served and spare no efforts to get there: gossiping, speaking ill of others… Envy and jealousy create this path and they both destroy. And we all know this. This occurs in every institution of the Church: parishes, colleges, other institutions, even in the dioceses … everywhere. There’s this desire for worldliness and this is all about wealth, vanity and pride.”
Worldliness is the enemy of God and divides the Church
Reiterating that Jesus came to serve, the Pope said Christ has showed us the true path of Christian life: service, humility. He explained that when the great saints spoke of being very sinful,the reason for this was was because they had this worldliness inside them and they had many worldly temptations. None of us, he stressed, can say ‘I am a holy and pure person.’
“All of us are tempted by these things, we are tempted to destroy the other person in order to climb higher. This is a worldly temptation but one that divides and destroys the Church. It is not the spirit of Jesus. It’s wonderful, we can imagine the scene: Jesus who says these words and his disciples who say ‘no, better to not question (Him) too much, let’s go ahead,’ his disciples who prefer to argue among themselves over who will be the greatest. We’d do well to think about the many times that we have seen this in the Church and about the many times that we ourselves have done this and ask our Lord to show us the way, to understand that love of this world, namely worldliness, is an enemy of God.”
(from Vatican Radio)…