(Vatican Radio) The Catholic Church will open the Year for Consecrated Life on the first Sunday of Advent, with a Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica.
Cardinal João Braz de Aviz, prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, will preside in the name of Pope Francis, who will be still on his apostolic trip to Turkey that day.
The first Sunday of Advent, which this year falls on 30 November, marks the start of the Church’s liturgical year. The Mass to inaugurate the Year for Consecrated Life will begin at 10 a.m.
(from Vatican Radio)…
Manila – “The papal visit will surely bring much blessing to the Filipinos, especially to the poor, the survivors of recent natural and human-caused calamities, and the victims of injustices. The concern and solidarity of Jesus the Good Shepherd will be palpable in the person and in the presence of Pope Francis”: says the Archbishop of Manila, Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, in a note sent to Agenzia Fides after the publication of the program of the papal visit, who will be in Sri Lanka from January 13 to 15 and then in the Philippines until 19 January 2015. Cardinal Tagle remarks: “The Pope’s visit draws all Christians to personal and social responsibility. As disciples of Jesus Christ driven by the Holy Spirit, we will be challenged to reach out with love to the neglected and abandoned, to help heal the wounds inflicted on children, women and families, to respect who differ from us, to form the youth in responsible freedom, to value life and creation, and to imbue our culture and society with mercy and compassion. With the Pope let us spread the Gospel of hope with joy”. Since the visit to the Philippines will be on the theme “mercy and compassion”, the Archbishop calls the faithful to live these values which need to be “purified and strengthened by constantly listening to the Word of God, by frequently participating in the Eucharist”, reconciling with God and with others, doing acts of justice and love….
(Vatican Radio) On Friday, Pope Francis met with a group of accountants and accounting experts, who are in Rome for their World Congress. Listent to Christopher Wells’ report: In his address to the group, the Holy Father drew attention to the question of employment. “From your professional observation,” he said, “you are well aware of…
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(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has commissioned three showers to be built for use by the homeless in the area under St. Peter’s colonnades. The showers will be installed in an existing lavatory block used by pilgrims and tourists and the building works are set to begin on November 17th. The initiative was inspired by the…
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Vatican City, 14 November 2014 (VIS) – This morning, in the Holy See Press Office, a conference was held to present the Third World Congress of Ecclesial Movements and new communities. Promoted and organised by the Pontifical Council for the Laity on the theme “The Joy of the Gospel: a missionary joy”, the Congress will be held from 20 to 22 November in the Maria Mater Ecclesiae Pontifical College, Rome. The speakers in the conference were Cardinal Stanislaw Rylko, president of the Pontifical Council for the Laity; Bishop Josef Clemens, secretary of the same dicastery; Maria Voce, president of the Focolare Movement; and Jean-Luc Moens, president of Fidesco, young volunteers in evangelisation and development projects, and member of the Pontifical Council “Cor Unum”. Cardinal Rylko remarked that the Pontifical Magisterium has perceived in the phenomenon of movements “a current of grace, a gift and a timely response from the Holy Spirit to the serious challenges that today’s world poses to the mission of the Church”. He recalled that, for St. John Paul II, movements constituted a “reason for hope for the Church and for mankind”, and were seen by Pope Benedict XVI as “new incursions of the Holy Spirit in the life of the Church, powerful ways of living faith, a healthy provocation, of which the Church is always in need, and ‘creative minorities’, decisive for the future of humanity”. He added that Pope Francis, in this respect, is in perfect harmony with his predecessors. The Congress will be attended by approximately three hundred laypersons – founders, moderators and general delegates – representing around a hundred movements and new communities, with a broad international dimension. They will be joined by a large number of pastors, bishops and priests. The prelate explained that the novelty of this Congress derives from the fact that it originated from the great meeting with the Pope that took place at Pentecost in 2013 in the context of the Year of Faith, and added that the theme of the congress clearly expresses that “our work is guided by the Apostolic Exhortation ‘Evangelii gaudium’. This is the great challenge that Pope Francis presents to us. … He wants an ‘outbound’ Church, that reaches out to the geographical and existential peripheries of our world, a Church that is particularly attentive and close to all the poor, suffering and excluded, the bitter product of the ‘throwaway culture’ that dominates nowadays. … And it is precisely this that is the great and fundamental challenge that the movements wish to accept during this third world Congress’”….