(Vatican Radio) After celebrating Mass to mark All Souls Day at the Nettuno American War Cemetery on Thursday, Pope Francis travelled to the Ardeatine Caves where he spent time in prayer at the memorial to victims of a Second World War massacre.
The Ardeatine caves, or Fosse Ardeatine as they’re called in Italian, are located on the south-eastern outskirts of Rome, on the site of a disused volcanic ash quarry.
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It was there on March 24th 1944 that German occupying troops carried out a massacre of 335 Italian men of all ages and backgrounds. They were shot at close range, in retaliation for a partisan attack in the city centre the previous day that had killed 33 German policemen.
Reprisal killings
Hitler himself authorized the reprisal, which called for 10 Italians to be rounded up and shot for each victim of the attack in the central Via Rasella. Those killed in the caves represented a cross section of Italian society, some already in jail, including 57 Jews, others rounded up by security police in the vicinity of the attack. The youngest was a teenage boy, while the oldest was a man in his late 70s.
Massacre site discovered
The victims were forced to kneel in groups of five and shot with a bullet to the back of the head. Their bodies were piled up and covered with rocks inside the caves, which were then sealed with explosives.
It was not the war was over, more than a year later, that the massacre site was uncovered and the victims were exhumed for burial. Subsequently, the caves were declared a memorial cemetery and national monument.
Annual commemoration
Every year, on the anniversary of the killings, a solemn State commemoration is held at the monument. Popes Paul VI, John Paul II, Benedict XVI and now Pope Francis have also visited the site to pay tribute to these innocent victims of war.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis celebrated the Feast of All Souls Day on Thursday commemorating all those who have died in war, reminding humanity not to forget past lessons and warning that the only fruit yielded by conflict is death. His words of warning and his powerful condemnation of warmongers came during his homily at the Sicily-Rome American War Cemetery some 50 kilometers south of Rome. Taking the occasion to reiterate his deep conviction that “wars produce nothing more than cemeteries and death” the Pope said he chose to visit a war cemetery as a sign “in a moment when our humanity seems not to have learned the lesson, or doesn’t want to learn it.” The Nettuno US War Cemetery and Memorial is the final resting place for thousands of men who died during military operations carried out to liberate Italy – from Sicily to Rome – from Nazi Germany. Its chapel contains a list of the 3095 missing. Pope Francis arrived at the War Cemetery early in the afternoon so that he could spend time reflecting and paying his personal respects to the 7,860 – mostly young – soldiers who gave their lives in the name of freedom and respect for humanity. Walking in poignant silence between the rows and rows of tombstones, Pope Francis bowed to read some of the names and dates inscribed in the white marble: stark reminders of the fact – as he stated during his homily – that the only fruit of war is death. To the somber congregation gathered on this holy day to honour all those who have died, Pope Francis said he chose to come to a place where thousands died in bloody combat, to appeal to the Lord – yet again “Please God: stop them. No more war. No more useless carnage.” The Pope delivered his off-the-cuff homily with an emotion charged by the dramatic setting provided by hundreds of thousands of graves of young men whose hopes – he said – were cruelly severed, at a time in which the world is again at war and is even preparing to step-up war. “Please God – he prayed – everything is lost with war” “There are men, Francis said, who are doing everything to declare war and to enter into conflict. They end up destroying themselves and everything.” Remarking on the fact that today is a day of hope, but also of tears, he said that the tears wept by those who have lost husbands, sons and friends at war should never be forgotten. “But humanity, the Pope continued, has not learnt the lesson and seems not to want to learn the lesson”. Let us pray, he said, in a special way for all those young people caught up in conflict, “many of whom are dying every day in this piecemeal war”. And he remembered the thousands of innocent children who are also paying the price of war. “Let us ask the Lord, Pope Francis concluded, to give us the grace to weep”. (from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis during the Angelus on Wednesday marked the feast of All Saints, telling the faithful in St Peter’s Square that it was a celebration of the many simple and hidden people who help God to push the world forward.
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“Saints are not perfect models, but people marked by God. We can compare them to church stained-glass windows, which bring light into different shades of color.”
Those were Pope Francis’ words on Wednesday on the Solemnity of All Saints, during his Angelus address from St Peter’s Square.
The Pope explained that “Saints are our brothers and sisters who have received the light of God in their hearts and have transmitted it to the world , each according to their own “tonality”. This is the purpose of life, continued Pope Francis, to pass on the light of God; and also the purpose of our lives….”
Referring to Tuesday’s Gospel reading, the Holy Father said, “Jesus speaks to his own, to all of us, saying “Blessed”.
“Whoever is with Jesus is blessed, he is happy, noted the Pope, adding that happiness is not in having something or becoming someone, “no, the real happiness is to be with the Lord and to live for love, he said.”
The Beatitudes
The Pope told those gathered in St Peter’s Square that, “the ingredients for a happy life are called the beatitudes”.
They do not require tremendous gestures, he said, “they are not for supermen, but for those who live through daily trials and struggles. They are for us.”
Returning to the Saints, the Holy Father described how “they too have breathed in all the air polluted by the evil that is in the world, but on the journey they never lose sight of the path of Jesus, that is indicated in the beatitudes, which, he said, are like the map of Christian life.
Saints of Today
The Pope went on to say that the feast of All Saints is a celebration of all those who have “reached the goal indicated by this map: not only the saints of the calendar, but so many brothers and sisters “next door” that we may have met and known.”
This day, Pope Francis said, “is a family celebration of many simple and hidden people who actually help God to push the world forward.”
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis, during his Angelus address on the feast of All Saints on Wednesday, expressed his deep sorrow following recent terrorist attacks in Somalia, Afghanistan and on Tuesday in New York. Speaking from the window of his studio in the Apostolic Palace, the Holy Father deplored such acts of violence, adding, “I pray for the deceased, for the wounded and their family members. We ask the Lord to convert the hearts of terrorists and free the world from hatred and homicidal folly that abuses the name of God spreading death.” Following the recitation of the Marian Prayer, the Pope had a special greeting for participants of the Race of the Saints mini marathon which was run in celebration of this feast day. Before concluding his address, the Pope reminded the faithful that he would be travelling to the American Cemetery of Nettuno, South of Rome and then to the Fosse Ardeatine National Monument on November 2nd to mark the feast on Feast of all Souls. Pope Francis, said,” I ask you to accompany me with prayer in these two stages of memory and suffrage for the victims of war and violence. Wars produce nothing but cemeteries and death: that is why I wanted to give this sign at a time when our humanity seems not to have learned the lesson or does not want to learn it.” (from Vatican Radio)…
To help the Kingdom of God grow, courage is needed to sow the mustard seed and mix the yeast, in the face of many who prefer a “pastoral care of conservation” without dirtying their hands. Pope Francis made the point in his homily at Mass, Tuesday morning, in the chapel of the Vatican’s Casa Santa Marta. The Pope took his cue from Luke’s Gospel where Jesus compares the Kingdom of God to a mustard seed and yeast , which though small, “have a power within” to grow.
Suffering to glory
In his Letter to the Romans, the Pope said, St. Paul speaks about the many anxieties of life that are nothing compared to the glory that awaits us. Commenting on the struggle between suffering and glory, the Pope said, in our sufferings there is in fact “an ardent expectation” for a “great revelation of the Kingdom of God”. It is an expectation that belongs not only to us but also to creation, that is frail like us whoa are yearning for the “revelation of the children of God”. This inner strength that leads us to hope for the fullness of the Kingdom of God, the Pope pointed out, is the Holy Spirit.
Holy Spirit brings hope, growth
The Pope said it is this hope that leads us to fullness, the hope of coming out of this prison, this limitation, this slavery, this corruption, and reaching glory, is a journey of hope. And hope, the Pope said, is the gift of the Holy Spirit who is in us and leads us to liberation, to great glory. This is why Jesus says that inside this tiny mustard seed there is the force that “unleashes an unimaginable growth’ “. It is the same within us and in creation, the Pope pointed out. It is the the Holy Spirit that bursts forth and gives us hope.
Getting hands dirty rather than being museum custodians
The Pope noted that in the Church one can see both the courage and the fear to sow the seed and mix the yeast. There are those who feel secure with a “pastoral care of conservation,” that denies the Kingdom of God to grow. The Pope admitted there is always some loss in sowing the Kingdom of God. One loses the seed and gets hands dirty. He warned those who preach the Kingdom of God with the illusion of not getting dirty. Comparing them to museum custodians, he said they prefer beautiful things without sowing that allows the inner force to burst forth, and without mixing the yeast that triggers growth.
The Pope said that both Jesus and Paul point to this passing from the slavery of sin to the fullness of glory. It speaks of hope that does not disappoint, because like a mustard seed and yeast, hope is small and humble like a servant but where there is hope, there is the Holy Ghost, who carries forward the Kingdom of God, the Pope added.
(from Vatican Radio)…