(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis, in an audience with Vatican security personnel Friday, thanked officers and agents for their service, saying the new year brings many expectations and hopes. Speaking to officers and agents of the Inspectorate of Public Security, State Police and chaplains for the security services, Pope Francis observed the new year also brings…
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(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis told an ecumenical delegation from Finland Thursday that Catholics and Lutherans can do much together “to bear witness to God’s mercy.” The delegation’s visit to Rome coincides with the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity and the Feast of St. Henry, the patron saint of Finland. In his discourse to the…
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(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis told an ecumenical delegation from Finland Thursday that Catholics and Lutherans can do much together “to bear witness to God’s mercy.” The delegation’s visit to Rome coincides with the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity and the Feast of St. Henry, the patron saint of Finland.
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In his discourse to the Finnish delegates, Pope Francis applauded the progress achieved in ecumenical dialogue between the two Churches over the last thirty years and said, “a shared Christian witness is very much needed in the face of the mistrust, insecurity, persecution, pain and suffering experienced so widely in today’s world.”
Below, please find the text of Pope Francis’ discourse to the ecumenical delegation from Finland:
Dear Bishop Vikström,
Dear Bishop Sippo,
Dear Friends,
It is with joy that I welcome you, on the occasion of your annual ecumenical pilgrimage to Rome to celebrate the feast of Saint Henrik, the patron of your country. This annual event has proven to be a truly spiritual and ecumenical meeting between Catholics and Lutherans, a tradition dating back thirty years.
Saint Pope John Paul II addressed the members of the first Finnish ecumenical delegation which had come to Rome thirty years ago in these words: “The fact that you come here together is itself a witness to the importance of efforts for unity. The fact that you pray together is a witness to our belief that only through the grace of God can that unity be achieved. The fact that you recite the Creed together is a witness to the one common faith of the whole of Christianity”. At that time, the first important steps had already been taken on a common ecumenical journey towards full, visible unity of the Christians. In these intervening years much has been done and, I am certain, will continue to be done in Finland to make “the partial communion existing between Christians grow toward full communion in truth and charity” (John Paul II, Ut Unum Sint , 14).
Your visit comes within the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. This year our reflection is based on Christ’s words to the Samaritan woman at the well: «Give me to drink» ( Jn 4:1-42). We are reminded that the source of all grace is the Lord himself, and that his gifts transform those who receive them, making them witnesses to the true life that is in him alone (cf. Jn 4:39). As the Gospel tells us, many Samaritans believed in Jesus because of the woman’s testimony. As you, Bishop Vikstrom, have said, there is so much that Catholics and Lutherans can do together to bear witness to God’s mercy in our societies. A shared Christian witness is very much needed in the face of the mistrust, insecurity, persecution, pain and suffering experienced so widely in today’s world.
This common witness can be sustained and encouraged by progress in theological dialogue between the Churches. The Joint Declaration on the Doctrine on Justification, which was solemnly signed some fifteen years ago between the Lutheran World Federation and the Catholic Church, can produce further fruits of reconciliation and cooperation between us. The Nordic Lutheran–Catholic dialogue in Finland and Sweden, under the related theme Justification in the Life of the Church , has been reflecting on important questions deriving from the Joint Declaration. Let us hope that further convergence will emerge from that dialogue on the concept of the Church, the sign and instrument of the salvation brought to us in Jesus Christ.
It is my prayer that your visit to Rome will contribute to strengthening further the ecumenical relations between Lutherans and Catholics in Finland, which have been so positive for many years. May the Lord send upon us the Spirit of truth, to guide us towards ever greater love and unity.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Cardinal Fernando Filoni, the Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, is on a pastoral visit this week to Vietnam. On Tuesday, Cardinal Filoni, who was accompanied by the Archbishop of Hanoi Cardinal Nguyen Van Nhon, met with the Secretary of the Hanoi Party Committee Pham Quang Nghi, who is also a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam.
During the encounter, Nghi said the Party and State of Vietnam and municipal authorities respect freedom of religion and belief and acknowledge the tradition of solidarity of the nation and among religions.
He congratulated Archbishop Nguyen Van Nhon on his appointment as Cardinal by Pope Francis, saying it accurately reflects his contributions to the Vietnamese Catholic community, which he praised for their contributions to the development of the capital and the nation as a whole.
Cardinal Filoni told Vatican Radio the exchange was “very pleasant.”
“I [told Mr. Nghi] that dialogue is the fundamental element for mutual understanding, but that at the basis of dialogue is there has to be esteem,” Cardinal Filoni said.
“The esteem the Holy See has for the people of Vietnam also is transformed into love, so it is not only a purely formal esteem, but goes deeper and becomes affection, love,” he continued. “The Church has a profound affection, a deep love, for the people of Vietnam, especially its Christian community.”
Cardinal Filoni told Vatican Radio the Church in Vietnam as “very much alive,” which was carrying on the “missionary commitment of Pope Francis.”
During his trip, Cardinal Filoni has met with many of the civil authorities in the country. The day before his meeting with Nghi, he met with Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung.
The Cardinal told Vatican Radio he hopes these meetings will further relations between the Holy See and Vietnam.
“I found much openness, a great willingness to carry on the dialogue that has started, and that can progressively take steps forward,” he said.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis marked the Feast of St. Agnes with a centuries-old rite: the blessing of the lambs, from whose wool the Pallium will be made.
As per tradition, the small lambs, traditionally less than a year old, were carried to the Casa Santa Marta, where the Pope blessed them in the atrium, in baskets.
Come summer these same lambs will be shorn to supply the wool from which religious sisters will weave the Pallium.
Agnes means “lamb” in Latin. The saint of the same name was a martyr of the early 4th century, known for her consecrated virginity, she was killed as a young girl for refusing to worship pagan gods.
She is buried in the Basilica named for her, located on Rome’s Via Nomentana. To symbolize St. Agnes’ purity, when being blessed by the Pope one of the lambs wears a crown of white flowers, while the other wears a red floral wreath to recall her faithful witness even unto death.
The Pallium are white wool stoles, decorated with six black crosses worn by Metropolitan Archbishops around their necks as a symbol of their authority and unity with the Pope.
Once woven they are guarded in an urn at the tomb of St Peter until the Pope presents them to newly-appointed Metropolitan Archbishops on June 29, the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul.
(from Vatican Radio)…