(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis marked World Communications Day with a Message and with words of encouragement to Catholic communicators during his Regina coeli remarks.
He also used his Twitter and Instagram accounts to spread the word, which he composed by hand and photographed digitally for worldwide sharing.
The text of the Holy Father’s handwritten note says, ” To you, who from the great digital community, ask for my prayers and blessing, I wish to say that you will be the precious gift in my prayer to the Father. And you, don’t forget to pray for me so that I may be a servant of the Gospel of Mercy.”
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis prayed the Regina coeli with pilgrims and tourists gathered under a hazy Roman sky in St Peter’s Square on Sunday, the 7 th Sunday of Easter and in many countries – including Italy – the day on which the Church marks the Ascension of Our Lord.
“Before parting from his friends,” said Pope Francis, “Jesus, referring to the event of his death and resurrection, told them, ‘You are my witnesses’: that is, the disciples, the Apostles are witnesses of the death and resurrection of Christ, on that day, even at the Ascension of Christ.”
The Holy Father went on to say, “In fact, after seeing their Lord ascending into heaven, the disciples returned to the city as witnesses who joyfully announced to everyone the new life that comes from the Risen Christ, in whose name ‘they would preach to all nations repentance and forgiveness of sins.’
“This,” he continued, “is the witness – not only with words but also with everyday life – the testimony that every Sunday should go out of our churches in order to enter throughout the whole week into our homes, our offices, our schools, our gathering places and entertainment venues, our hospitals, prisons, and homes for the elderly, into places crowded with immigrants, on the outskirts of the city. We must carry this witness every week: Christ is with us; Jesus is ascended to heaven; He is with us; Christ is alive!”
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Sunday is the 50 th World Day for Social Communications , an annual recurrence begun by Bl. Paul VI in the wake of the II Vatican Council as a way of setting in relief the importance the Council Fathers put on recovering the genius of the Church for proclaiming the Gospel, especially in a world ever more signed by the spread and growth of communications technology and ever more starved for truth.
Pope Francis ’ Message for the 50 th World Communications Day focuses on the need to foster fruitful human encounters by communicating with mercy . “In a broken, fragmented and polarized world,” writes Pope Francis , “to communicate with mercy means to help create a healthy, free and fraternal closeness between the children of God and all our brothers and sisters in the one human family.”
You can find out more about the the 50 th World Communications Day by visiting the dedicated website space created by the new Secretariat for Communication at this link .
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis used his remarks to the faithful at Sunday’s Regina coeli to mark the 50 th annual recurrence of World Communications Day , recalling the fundamental mission of the Church to proclaim the Good News of Christ’s victory over death, and the duty of all the baptized faithful of every age and in every state of life within the Church to make themselves protagonists of that mission.
“The [II Vatican] Council Fathers,” he said, drawing on his Message for the occasion, published earlier this year, “reflecting on the Church in the contemporary world, understood the crucial importance of communications, which ‘are capable of building bridges among persons, families, social groups, and peoples – and this both in physical and in digital environments.’”
The Holy Father went on to say, “I offer cordial greetings to everyone working the field of communications, and I hope that our way of communicating in the Church will always have a clear Gospel style, [conducted in] a manner that unites truth and mercy.”
Readers can find out more about the 50 th World Communications Day by visiting the dedicated website space created by the new Secretariat for Communication at this link .
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) “Beginning the pilgrimmage this year with the Eucharistic celebration in the Basilica of Saint Peter, presided at by His Eminence Cardinal Angelo Comastri, should be for all of you the occasion of desiring to respond ever more generously to the needs of the little ones, the sick, and those who have hearts broken by moral and physical illnesses.”
That was the message of Pope Francis in a letter sent to representatives of the Rome-Lazio section of UNITALSI (Unione Nazionale Italiana Trasporto Ammalati a Lourdes e Santuari Internazionali) on the occasion of the pilgrimage to Loretto of the whole UNITALSI family for the 80th anniversary of the first pilgrimage to the Marian sanctuary.
UNITALSI is an Italian organization that accompanies the sick and the disabled on pilgrimages to Lourdes and to other international Marian sanctuaries. In 2013, UNITALSI celebrated the 100th anniversary of its founding.
Pope Francis noted that, in the 80 years since the UNITALSIs first pilgrimage to Loretto, the group has accompanied thousands of people entrusted to their care and their Christian testimony – which, the Pope said, must always base itself “on the model of the Holy Family of Nazareth, in reciprocal care and tenderness and mercy.”
The Blessed Virgin Mary, the Holy Father said to the group, “who, in the Sanctuary of Loretto has always welcomed everyone, but above all so many people who live with difficulties of every kind, helps you so that all can find in you companions by the way to accompany, discern, and integrate every weakness, and to restore confidence and hope, as a beacon of light at a port, or a torch borne in the midst of the people to illuminate those who have lost the path and found themselves in the midst of the tempest. Your service,” he continued, “in our own times, should always become more like a field hospital.”
(from Vatican Radio)…