(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has expressed his “spiritual closeness” to the victims of a bus accident in Spain.
On Saturday, a bus carrying pilgrims home from a day trip to Madrid ran off the road and tumbled down a 15 meter dirt embankment. Fourteen people, including a young priest, were killed, and 38 others were injured. Twenty-three people remain hospitalized.
In the telegram of condolence, addressed to the Bishop of Cartagena, Pope Francis’ Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, said the Holy Father was praying that God might “grant eternal rest to the deceased, total recovery to the injured, and comfort to those who mourn the loss of their loved ones.”
Below, please find the English translation of the telegram of condolence (original text in Spanish):
To his Excellency José Manuel Lorca Planes
Bishop of Cartagena [Spain]
Pope Francis, deeply saddened to learn of the serious traffic accident that occurred in Cieza, which has caused numerous deaths, including that of the young pastor of Bullas, Reverend Miguel Conesa Andujar, prays Your Excellency to kindly convey his spiritual closeness to all those affected in such unfortunate tragedy. In his prayer, His Holiness asks beseeches God to grant eternal rest to the deceased, total recovery to the injured, and comfort to those who mourn the loss of their loved ones.
In this time of great sadness and dismay, the Holy Father, while invoking upon the children of those noble lands the maternal protection of Mary most holy, encourages them to find in the faith the inspiration and strength of spirit to overcome these painful circumstances, and he willingly imparts upon them the comforting Apostolic Benediction as a sign of hope in the Risen Christ.
[Signed] Cardinal Pietro Parolin
Secretary of State of His Holiness
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) On Saturday Pope Francis appointed Liverpool native Archbishop Paul Gallagher to the post of Secretary for Relations with States, thus making him the first native English speaker to hold the position that is to all intents and purposes the Vatican’s Foreign Minister.
In an interview with Emer McCarthy, Archbishop Gallagher says he is “honored and humbled” that the Holy Father chose him, but at the same time “inevitably a little fearful” at taking on such major responsibilities.
Listen:
These responsibilities include overseeing the Second Section of the Secretariat, which has the specific duty of attending to matters which involve civil governments and international organisms. Archbishop Gallagher will work directly under the presidency of the Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin. Traditionally the Secretaries for Relations with States are chosen from the Holy See’s diplomatic corps, drawing from their experience as papal representatives to nations around the world.
In this, Archbishop Gallagher is uniquely placed. In a ministry that has spanned thirty years he has served in Nunciatures in Tanzania, Uruguay and the Philippines and as Nuncio to Burundi, Guatemala and most recently Australia.
In fact, Archbishop Gallagher credits the “many people I have worked with, the Nuncios who I served with years ago” as having inspired him in his life. “Obviously”, he says “when I went to Burundi in 2004 I followed Archbishop Michael Courtney who had been assassinated. To follow a man who had made the ultimate sacrifice that indeed was very significant”.
The Archbishop continued: “As you work around the world in the Nunciatures – whether it’s as a priest or a Nuncio – you see a microcosm of these problems that the world is facing [and that they] are inter-related. Certainly right now we have an enormous problem in terms of the development of peoples and societies, their aspirations, where they are going. We have a number of conflicts that are emerging because of poverty and under-development. The world is becoming increasingly polarized and therefore they feel that their ambitions are thwarted and this therefore leads people into desperate situations”.
Archbishop Gallagher has also served as an Observer at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, which Pope Francis is due to address next week . Moreover he has Curia experience, having worked in its Second Section, from 1995 to 2000 at the same time as the present Secretary of State Card. Parolin. “I also was very much encouraged by the many of the people I worked with in the Secretariat of State when I was there” he says. “You do get the occasional careerist, but I felt the majority of the people I was working with were very highly motivated indeed”.
All of these experiences he says have convinced him that the role of Papal Diplomat is “a valid ministry and contribution”. “I’m not sure that I go along with the idea that to be a papal diplomat is a vocation because I think that you have to jealously preserve your priestly vocation in the midst of this if you are going to do something really positive. But certainly it’s a calling within the Church that is extremely valid and can make a great contribution both to the Church in terms of communications, representations, explaining the local Church to Rome and explaining Rome to the local Church as I frequently say”.
This Archbishop Gallagher concludes is a question of building on the rich History of the Church in the diplomatic field: “My experience is that there is very little hostility towards the Holy See as an entity, rather they do see a value in it. We work to make a contribution that is obviously grounded in our faith but also in the experience and history of our Church”.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) On Saturday Pope Francis appointed Liverpool native Archbishop Paul Gallagher to the post of Secretary for Relations with States, thus making him the first native English speaker to hold the position that is to all intents and purposes the Vatican’s Foreign Minister. In an interview with Emer McCarthy, Archbishop Gallagher says he is…
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(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis greeted a group of Italian adult scouts today at Paul VI Hall, encouraging them on their “path” of formation. In his message, the Holy Father encouraged them to continue on the “path” of scouting, a term that describes the formative dimension of the movement. He outlined three paths: family, creation, and the city.…
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(Vatican Radio) “Where there is a wall, there is closure of the heart. We need bridges, not walls!” Those were the Pope’s words on Sunday from the window of the Papal studio above St Peter’s Square where he recalled the Fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9 th 1989.
Following the recitation of the Angelus prayer and on the 25 th anniversary of this momentous event in history, Pope Francis described the wall as a symbol of the ideological division of Europe and the world which for so long had cut the city of Berlin in two.
Listen to Lydia O’Kane’s report
The Holy Father went on to say that “the fall happened suddenly, but it was made possible by the long and arduous efforts of many people who had fought for this, prayed and suffered, some even sacrificing their lives. “These include”, he added, “ a leading role played by Saint Pope John Paul II.
Pope Francis then prayed that, with God’s help, all men and women of good will would continue to spread a culture of encounter, with the aim of bringing down all the walls that still divide the world. He also prayed that there would be no more killing and persecution of the innocent and of those killed because of religious beliefs.
Before the Angelus the Pope remembered the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica, saying, “it is the cathedral of Rome, the one that tradition calls “the mother of all the churches of the city and the world.”
Every time we celebrate the dedication of a church, the Pope stressed, we recall the essential truth that this material temple made of bricks is a sign of a Church that is alive and active, that of a “spiritual temple,”…
He added, “this spiritual edifice, the church community of men sanctified by the blood of Christ and by the Spirit of the Risen Lord asks each of us to be consistent with the gift of faith and take a journey of Christian witness.” This, the Pope said “is not easy.”
Pope Francis concluded that this feast invites us “to meditate on the communion of all the Churches,” and that this Christian community, by its similarity encourages us to strive so that mankind can overcome barriers of hostility and indifference to build bridges of understanding and dialogue, to make the world a whole family of peoples reconciled with each other, and fraternal solidarity.
(from Vatican Radio)…