(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Wednesday joined with the Church in Poland in marking the 1050th anniversary of the “baptism of the nation.”
Speaking to Polish pilgrims during the Wednesday general audience , Pope Francis asked God to bless the Polish people both at home and abroad.
“Together with the pastors and faithful, I give thanks to God for this historic event, which over the centuries has formed the faith, the spirituality, and the culture of your country, in the community of peoples whom Christ has invited to participate in the mystery of His death and resurrection,” Pope Francis said.
“Give thanks to the Lord – according to the words of Saint John Paul II – for the gift of having been – over 1000 years ago – baptized in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit; to be baptized in the water which, through grace, perfect in us the image of the living God; the water which is a wave of eternity: a spring of water welling up to eternal life (Jn 4:14),” the Holy Father continued.
“I ask God that the present generation and future generations of Poles remain faithful to the grace of baptism, giving witness to the love of Christ and the Church,” Pope Francis said.
A joint session of both chambers of the Polish Parliament will meet in Poznań on Friday to mark the acceptance by Polish ruler Mieszko I of Christianity in 966, which is considered the foundational event of the nation.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) In his weekly general audience in Peter’s Square on Wednesday, Pope Francis reflected how Jesus came to call not the righteous, but the sinners. The Pope drew from the Gospel account of Christ calling Matthew – a tax-collector and public sinner – to follow him.
Below, find the official English language summary of Pope Francis’ 13 April catechesis, which was originally delivered in Italian:
Dear Brothers and Sisters: In our catechesis for this Holy Year of Mercy, we now consider the Gospel account of the calling of Saint Matthew. Jesus not only invites a tax-collector, a public sinner, to be his disciple, but also sits at table with him, thus scandalizing the Pharisees. The Lord then explains that he has come to call not the righteous but sinners. The calling of Matthew reminds us that when Christ makes us his disciples, he does not look to our past but to the future. We need but respond to his call with a humble and sincere heart. Jesus invites us to sit with him at the table of the Eucharist, in which he purifies us by the power of his word and by the sacrament unites us ever more deeply to himself. Citing the prophet Hosea, he tells us that what God desires is “mercy, not sacrifice”, true conversion of heart and not merely formal acts of religion. May all of us, acknowledging our sins, respond more generously to the Lord’s invitation to sit at table with him, and with one another, with immense gratitude for his infinite mercy and saving love.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Caritas Internationalis’ special advisor on HIV/Aids said tens of thousands of HIV positive children are dying each year because of a lack of access to antiretroviral treatment. An estimated 3.2 million children are living with HIV but only a third of those children are diagnosed and put on antiretroviral treatment to keep them healthy.
Father Bob Vitillo was among the participants at a meeting of faith-based groups in Rome discussing how to strengthen their engagement in diagnosing and treating children living with HIV, the virus that causes Aids. Caritas has joined efforts with UNAIDS, the U.S. President’s Plan for Aids relief (PEPAR) and the Vatican’s Paediatric Hospital, Bambino Gesù to plan a roadmap for achieving this aim.
Listen to the interview with Father Bob Vitillo, Special Advisor on HIV/Aids for Caritas Internationalis:
Speaking with Susy Hodges, Father Vitillo explained how we need to find the children who could have been exposed to the virus through their mothers and test them as soon as possible so they can begin treatment. He said it’s a difficult process because it is more complicated to test very young babies than it is adults as sometime the results are not accurate and need to be repeated.
“Life-saving treatment”
Father Vitillo reminded his listeners that the antiretroviral treatment is vital to help keep these babies alive.
“A third of them (babies who are living with HIV) die before their first birthday if they’re not on the treatment and half of them die before their second birthday, so it is life-saving.”
Asked for the reasons why two thirds of children with HIV do not receive this life-saving treatment, Father Vitillo explained that it’s a twin problem of lack of funds in poor countries and the distance from health centres. He said governments in many of these poor sub-Saharan countries “do not have the money to buy all the antiretroviral treatments” whose cost is often way over their health budgets.
When it comes to the issue of distance and accessibility, Father Vitillo explained how surveys have shown that a greater decentralization of health services often leads to “a much better adherence” in terms of following the treatment as local community health service workers can play a more effective role here than staff at a distant hospital.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) One charity organization welcoming Pope Francis’ visit to the Greek island of Lesbos is Caritas Internationalis, the helping hand of the Catholic Church with its confederation of local aid agencies present on the ground with emergency operations, development and advocacy in more than 150 nations across the world.
A delegation from Caritas Internationalis and the local Caritas Hellas Office will be in Lesbos to greet the Pope to be with him together with the refugees and migrants waiting to be relocated.
A statement says that “Caritas has been providing emergency aid on the island through Caritas Hellas and in other hotspots in Greece since the start of the crisis last year”.
It also runs a hospitality centre in Lesbos for the most vulnerable.
“Over a million people crossed to Greece last year and 150,000 in 2016. Nearly half came to Lesbos. Most were fleeing war and poverty. Over 55 percent were women and children” it reads.
“The refugees and migrants are very excited about the visit of Pope Francis. They’re making bouquets of flowers and they want to meet him,” said Tonia Patrikiadou, Caritas Hellas Field Manager for a Caritas run hotel on Lesbos.
She said “The pope’s visit is a symbol of hope and solidarity for the refugees. It’s a sign that the world has not forgotten them and help is a possibility.”
(from Vatican Radio)…
There are two types of persecution against
Christians, the Pope said on Tuesday morning, 12 April, during Mass at Santa
Marta. There is the explicit kind — to which he related the martyrs killed at
Easter in Pakistan — and the sort of persecution that is “polite, disguised as
culture, modernity and progress”, and ends up taking away man’s freedom and
even the right to conscientious objection. But in the very suffering of
persecution Christians know that that the Lord is always at their side, Francis
recalled. For
his meditation the Pontiff drew inspiration from the first reading, taken from
the Acts of the Apostles (7:51-8:1). We heard about “the martyrdom of Stephen”,
he explained. “The tradition of the Church calls him the Protomartyr, the first
martyr of the Christian community”. However, even “before him there had been
little martyrs” who suffered persecution under Herod. “From that time until
today there have been martyrs in the Church, there have been and there are”.
There are “men and women persecuted only for confessing and for saying that
Jesus Christ is Lord: this is prohibited!”. Indeed, this confession “at certain
times, in certain places, provokes persecution”. This
is clearly manifest, the Pope stated, “in the passage of the Acts of the
Apostles that we will read tomorrow: after the martyrdom of Stephen, a great
persecution breaks out in Jerusalem”. Then, “all the Christians fled, only the
Apostles remained”. Thus, persecution, Francis said, “is the daily bread of the
Church: after all, Jesus said so”. When
we are tourists in Rome, the Pope continued, “and we go to the Colosseum, we
think that the martyrs were those who were killed with the lions”. However,
martyrs are not limited to those in the Colosseum. In reality, martyrs “are men
and women of every day: today, with Easter Sunday just three weeks ago”.
Francis’ thought went to “those Christians who were celebrating Easter in
Pakistan”. They were “martyred just for celebrating the Risen Christ”. And
“thus the history of the Church continues with her martyrs”. Because “the
Church is the community of believers, the community of confessors, of those who
profess that Jesus is Christ: she is the community of martyrs”. Persecution,
the Pope noted, “is one of the characteristics, one of the traits of Church,
which pervades her entire history”. And “persecution is cruel, like that of
Stephen, like that of our Pakistani brothers and sisters three weeks ago”. It
is cruel “like what Saul did, who was present at the death of Stephen, the
martyrdom of Stephen”. Saul “went into houses, seized Christians and took them
away to be judged”. There
is, however, also “another kind of persecution that is not often spoken about”,
Francis noted. The first form of persecution “is due to confessing the name of
Christ” and it is thus “a clear, explicit type of persecution”. The other kind
of persecution is “disguised as culture, disguised as modernity, disguised as
progress: it is a kind of — I would say somewhat ironically — polite
persecution”. You can recognize “when someone is persecuted not for confessing
Christ’s name, but for wanting to demonstrate the values of the Son of God”.
Thus, it is a kind of “persecution against God the Creator in the person of his
children”. In
this way “we see every day that the powerful make laws that force people to
take this path, and a nation that does not follow this modern collection of
laws, or at least that does not want to have them in its legislation, is
accused, is politely persecuted”. This is a form of “persecution that takes
away man’s freedom”, and even the right to “conscientious objection! God made
us free, but this kind of persecution takes away freedom!”. Thus, “if you don’t
do this, you will be punished: you’ll lose your job and many things or you’ll
be set aside”. “This
is the persecution of the world”, the Pontiff continued. And “this persecution
even has a leader”. In the persecution of Stephen, “the leaders were the
scribes, doctors of the law, the high priests”. On the other hand, “Jesus named
the leader of polite persecution: the prince of this world”. We see him “when
the powerful want to impose attitudes, laws against the dignity of the children
of God, persecute them and oppose God the Creator: it is the great apostasy”.
Thus, “Christian life continues with these two kinds of persecution”, but also
with the certainty that “the Lord promised not to distance himself from us: ‘Be
careful, be careful! Don’t fall into the worldly spirit. Be careful! But go
forward, I will be with you”. In
his concluding prayer, Francis asked the Lord for “the grace to understand that
a Christian’s path must always continue forward amid two kinds of persecution:
a Christian is a martyr, that is, a witness, one who must bear witness to Christ
who has saved us”. This means “on the journey of life, bearing witness to God
the Father, who created us”. On this path a Christian “must suffer many times:
this brings so much suffering”. But “such is our life: Jesus is always beside
us, with the consolation of the Holy Spirit”. And “this is our strength”….