(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Friday met with the Bishops of Ukraine, who are in Rome for their ad limina visit. The Bishops were led by Major-Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk of Kyiv-Halych, the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church; and Archbishop Mieczyslaw Mokrzycki of Lviv of the Latins. In keeping with recent custom, the Holy Father’s prepared remarks…
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(Vatican Radio) Saying we must never use God as a cover for injustice, Pope Francis warned on Friday (February 20th) against those who follow all the outward signs of piety but then exploit or mistreat their employees. The Pope’s words came during his homily at his morning Mass celebrated in the Santa Marta residence.
Pope Francis used his homily to reflect on how Christians, especially during Lent, should not confine themselves to outside signs of piety like fasting and charity and instead must reach out to those in need.
He said Jesus wants from us a fasting that breaks the evil chains, frees those who are oppressed, clothes those who are naked and carries out justice. This, he explained, is a true fasting, a fasting which is not a just an outward appearance or observance but a fasting which comes from the heart.
Love of God and neighbour are one and the same
“And in the tablets of the law, there’s the law towards God and the law towards our neighbour and both of these go together. I can’t say: ‘But no, I follow the three commandments first and the others more or less.’ No, if you don’t follow one, you can’t follow the other and if you follow one you must follow the other. They are united: Love of God and love of our neighbour is one and the same thing and if you want to show genuine and not just formal penance, you must show it before God and also towards your brothers and towards your neighbour.”
Grave sin to use God as a cover for injustice
Pope Francis highlighted the example of somebody who goes to Mass every Sunday and receives communion but then asked: does that person pay his or her employees in cash under the table, maybe a salary below the going rate and without making the necessary social security contributions?
“So many men and women of faith, have faith but then divide the tablets of the laws. ‘Yes, I do this’ – ‘But do you practice charity?’ – Yes of course, I always send a cheque to the Church’ – ‘Ok, that’s good. But at your home, within your own Church, are you generous and are you fair with those who are your dependents – be they your children, your grandparents, your employees?’ You cannot make offerings to the Church on the shoulders of the injustice that you practice towards your dependents. This is a very serious sin: using God as a cover for injustice.”
At Lent make room in our hearts for those who have erred
The pope went on to explain how during Lent Christians should be reaching out to those who are less fortunate, be they children, old people without private health insurance who may have to wait eight hours to be seen by a doctor and those who have erred and who are now in prison.
“No, with those types of people I don’t (associate) ….’ He’s in prison: if you’re not in prison it’s because our Lord has helped you not to sin. Do you have room in your heart for prisoners in jail? Do you pray for them so that the Lord can help them to change their life?’ May the Lord accompany us on our Lenten journey so that our external observance becomes a profound renewal of the Spirit. That’s what we prayed for. That the Lord may give us this grace.”
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Saying we must never use God as a cover for injustice, Pope Francis warned on Friday (February 20th) against those who follow all the outward signs of piety but then exploit or mistreat their employees. The Pope’s words came during his homily at his morning Mass celebrated in the Santa Marta residence. Pope…
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(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis greeted Roman parish priests in an audience in the Vatican Thursday, reflecting on the theme ‘Ars celebrandi,’ especially on the homily. To prepare for the meeting, the priests received a copy of the 2005 statement that the then Cardinal Bergoglio delivered at the Congregation for Divine Worship on the issue. Sergio Centofanti of Vatican Radio’s Italian service spoke to Don Fabio Bartoli, pastor of the Church of St. Benedict in Rome.
R. – “I was very impressed first of all by a reference he made to the need to recover the sense of wonder in the Liturgy; I was struck by the idea that he emphasized: how the priest who celebrates the Liturgy in an automated way, attentive only to the rules, is not capable of wonder – but neither is the priest who celebrates in a sloppy manner. So both things: avoid automation and sloppiness, taking care to communicate the sense of wonder that we first must feel in the celebration.”
Q. – Pope Francis also speaks of having contact with the people…
R. – “Absolutely, because you cannot talk about abstract things that affect only you. It is clear that we must start from the experience of the people, from what is their experience, their suffering, their fatigue. However, we must guide them in precisely this sense of wonder. This too is important because if there is one thing that our people have lost, it is precisely this sense of wonder and the sacred. The key moment of the homily is just that: …to lead life in an encounter with the sacred, to experience and internalize the sacred…”
Q. – In what context do Roman parish priests work today?
R. – “I think in general this city suffers much of the evils suffered by any city: a life that is now perceived in a completely horizontal way, without any reference to the transcendent, without any reference to God. So I think that – regardless of the specific context, ie: the social and economic differences of the people, a common trait that we all must have is this very sense of the transcendent, of the primacy of God that each one of us must transmit in a way that his community can relate to…”
Q. – What is Pope Francis saying to his diocese?
R. – “I think above all, the Pope is urging us priests to ‘be’ deeply with our people; He has said it from the beginning: remember the famous speech of the shepherd who has to have the same smell of the sheep? He exhorts us to be close to our people to love, to love them and to lead them to Christ. I think from that initial intuition – now two years ago – everything he says explains further how to take us in this direction.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis greeted Roman parish priests in an audience in the Vatican Thursday, reflecting on the theme ‘Ars celebrandi,’ especially on the homily. To prepare for the meeting, the priests received a copy of the 2005 statement that the then Cardinal Bergoglio delivered at the Congregation for Divine Worship on the issue. Sergio…
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