(Vatican Radio) The 51 st International Eucharistic Congress is taking place in Cebu, Philippines drawing thousands of delegates from around the globe to reflect on the central role of the Eucharist in the life of the Church.
Among those attending the week-long event is the Vatican’s top diplomat at the United Nations in New York, Archbishop Bernardito Auza . Archbishop Auza, the Holy See’s Permanent Observer at the UN in New York, is Filipino himself so his visit to Cebu is a return home.
He tells our correspondent in Cebu, Sean Patrick Lovett, that the centrality of the Eucharist in the Catholic faith is directly related to issues of international political concern such as hunger, poverty and human rights.
Listen to Sean Patrick Lovett’s interview with Archbishop Auza:
Archbishop Auza says he has been pleasantly surprised to hear so many of the week’s discussions centre on hunger and cultural and interreligious dialogue to name a few of the social justice themes on the agenda. “The question of justice, the question of the environment, all of these things are the biggest themes which are also discussed at the United Nations,” he adds.
The Holy See and the Catholic Church, he observes, have much to contribute to the International community and to the United Nations by way of offering a unique religious perspective, and new points of view to dialogue on issues of global concern.
He stresses that all these universal concerns are coming “into our reflection on the Eucharist” in Cebu.
Hunger, interfaith dialogue, social justice “from the perspective of the Eucharist”
Viewing hunger and cultural and interfaith dialogue “from the perspective of the Eucharist,” he notes, “could be very, very interesting and surprising at the same time but indeed for us, [the Eucharist] is …the source, also the inspiration of our participation in the international community. And it is from that particular perspective – our religious perspective – that the international community is also very interested in our participation, in our point of view. That’s why the Holy Father practically opened the [UN] Summit this year on the 2030 Development Agenda where the number one goal is to eradicate hunger and eliminate extreme poverty.”
Bringing love for the Eucharist into dialogue with other faiths
The Vatican Nuncio recounts how the Eucharist “is always available to people” in the Philippines where almost every church, he says, offers 24/7 Eucharistic adoration or other alternatives for veneration if a chapel should be closed. “So bringing this great love of the Eucharist also to the social justice concern to eradicate hunger, eradicate extreme poverty – to bring this love for the Eucharist into the question of dialogue with culture, dialogue with other religions, is something that really expands our vision and also expands our love and our own idea of the Eucharist. So we see the Eucharist as the source also of all these dialogues: that we have to go out into the world and try to be useful, try to be friendly, try to live with others in a harmonious manner.”
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Let us pray to God that the weakness that leads us to sin will never lead to corruption. This was the theme of Pope Francis homily at daily Mass on Friday morning, a theme he has taken up many times. Beginning with the first reading, which tells the story of David and Bathsheba, the Pope distinguished between regular sinners and those who are corrupt. Unlike regular sinners, the corrupt do not feel the need for forgiveness.
Listen to Christopher Wells’ report:
One can sin often, and always return to God seeking forgiveness, never doubting that it will be obtained. It is especially when one becomes corrupt – when one no longer sees the need to be forgiven – that problems begin.
The corrupt feel they don’t need God
This is the attitude King David assumes when he becomes enamoured with Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah, an army officer fighting on the frontlines. The Pope outlined the story narrated in the Scripture. After David seduced Bathsheba, he found out that she was pregnant, and he hatched a plot to cover-up his adultery. He recalled Uriah from the front and encouraged him to visit his wife. Uriah, though, did not go to his wife, but stayed with the other officers in the king’s palace. David then tried to get him drunk, but this plan also fails.
“This puts David in a difficult position,” the Pope said. “But he says to himself, ‘I can do it.’ He sends a letter, as we read: ‘Place Uriah up front, where the fighting is fierce. Then pull back and leave him to be struck down dead.’ He condemns him to death. This man, this faithful man [Uriah] – faithful to the law, faithful to his people, faithful to his king – carries his own death sentence.”
The security of corruption
“David is a saint, but also a sinner.” He falls on account of lust, the Pope said, and yet God still loves him very much. However, the Pope notes, “the great, the noble David” feels so secure – “because the kingdom was strong” – that after having committed adultery he does everything in his power to arrange the death of a loyal man, falsely passing it off as an accidental death in battle:
“This is a moment in David’s life that makes us see a moment through which we all can pass in our life: it is the passage from sin to corruption. This is where David begins, taking the first step towards corruption. He has the power, he has the strength. And for this reason, corruption is a very easy sin for all of us who have some power, whether it be ecclesiastical, religious, economic, political… Because the devil makes us feel certain: ‘I can do it’.”
Sinners, yes; but not corrupt
Corruption – from which David was saved by the grace of God – had wounded the heart of that “courageous youth” who had faced the Philistine with a sling and five small stones. “Today I want to emphasize only one thing,” the Pope concluded. “There is a moment where the attitude of sin, or a moment where our situation is so secure and we see well and we have so much power” that sin “stops” and becomes “corruption.” And “one of the ugliest things” about corruption is that the one who becomes corrupt thinks he has “no need for forgiveness.”
“Today, let us offer a prayer for the Church, beginning with ourselves, for the Pope, for the Bishops, for the priests, for consecrated men and women, for the lay faithful: ‘Lord, save us, save us from corruption. We are sinners, yes, O Lord, all of us, but [let us] never [become] corrupt!’ Let us ask for this grace.”
(from Vatican Radio)…
Click to download bulletin for Feb. 7, 2016
(Vatican Radio) “It is very likely that Pope Francis will visit the concentration camp at Auschwitz,” during his visit to Kraków, according to Father Federico Lombardi, S.J., the head of the Holy See Press Office. He noted that every Pope who has gone to Kraków has later travelled to the notorious World War II death camp.
Father Lombardi was speaking at the offices of Vatican Radio at on Holocaust Memorial Day. Vatican Radio was hosting a presentation of the book, “We were Jews: That was our only crime,” (Eravamo ebrei: Questa era la nostra unica colpa, published by Marsilio Editore) by Ester and Alberto Mieli. In the book, Ester Mieli, a Holocaust survivor, relates to Alberto, her nephew, the terrible experience of her deportation.
During the event, Fr Lombardi expressed his deep emotion at the fact that the International Holocaust Day could be experienced at the Vatican, with one of the few living survivors of the concentration camps. He recalled the visits of St John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Pope Francis to the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem, and the speeches of John Paul and Benedict at Auschwitz. Father Lombardi said he thought it would not be long before Pope Francis would also have a chance to speak there.
Pope Francis will be visiting the Polish city of Kraków – about 70 km away from Auschwitz – in July of 2016 for the upcoming World Youth Day.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Thursday met with actor and environmental activist Leonardo DiCaprio.
The actor gave the Pope a book of art from the Dutch Renaissance painter, Hieronymus Bosch, and at the end of the encounter, DiCaprio kissed the Pope’s ring, and, in Italian, thanked the Holy Father for meeting with him.
DiCaprio addressed the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, earlier this month, calling on business leaders to do more to fight global warming, and announcing The Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation is donating $15 million to environmental projects.
(from Vatican Radio)…