(Vatican Radio) In his remarks following the Angelus on Sunday, Pope Francis had a special greeting for “all the women throughout the world who are seeking, every day, to build a more human and welcoming society.” Pope Francis continued with a “a fraternal ‘thank you’ for all those women who, in a thousand ways, bear witness to the Gospel and work in the Church.”
March 8th, celebrated around the world as International Women’s Day, is an occasion, he said, “to repeat the importance of women, and the necessity of their presence in life.” Pope Francis said, “A world where women are marginalized is a sterile world, because women don’t just bear life but transmit to us the ability to see otherwise, they see things differently. They transmit to us the ability to understand the world with different eyes, to understand things with hearts that are more creative, more patient, more tender.” The Pope then offered “a prayer, and a special blessing, for all the women present here in the Square, and for all women.”
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) On Saturday evening, Pope Francis celebrated Mass at the Roman church of “Ognissanti” – All Saints’ – in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the first Mass offered in Italian.
It was in the church of Ognissanti, fifty years ago, on the First Sunday of Lent, 1965, that Pope Paul VI offered the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass predominantly using the vernacular – the language of the people. Describing the event, Pope Paul said, “Across the world this date marks the first time a new way of praying, of celebrating Holy Mass has been inaugurated.”
In his homily on Saturday, Pope Francis recalled the Gospel account of the cleansing of the temple, and Jesus’ famous remark, “Do not make My Father’s house a marketplace!” This expression, the Pope said, did not just refer to those doing business in the temple; it refers to a certain type of religiosity. Jesus’ gesture is one of “cleansing, of purification.” God is not pleased with material offerings based on personal interests. Rather, Jesus is calling us to “authentic worship, to the correspondence between liturgy and life – a call that is true for every age, and also for us today.”
Recalling the Second Vatican Council’s constitution on the Liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium, Pope Francis said, “the Church is calling us to have and to promote an authentic liturgical life, so that there may be harmony between what the liturgy celebrates, and what we live in our daily existence.” The liturgy, he said, “is the privileged place to hear the voice of the Lord, who guides us on the path of righteousness and Christian perfection.”
The liturgy, he continued, invites us to a journey of conversion and penance, especially during Lent, “the time of interior renewal, of the remission of sins, the time in which we are called to rediscover the Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation, that makes us go from the darkness of sin to the light of grace and friendship with Jesus.” The Pope said we must never forget “the great strength that this Sacrament has for the Christian life: it makes us grow in union with God, makes us regain lost joy and experience the consolation of knowing we are personally welcomed by the merciful embrace of the Father.”
Pope Francis concluded his homily noting that the church of Ognissanti was built “thanks to the apostolic zeal of Saint Luigi Orione.” And he recalled that it was here, “in a certain sense,” that Blessed Paul VI “inaugurated the liturgical reform” with the celebration of the Mass “in the language of the people.” Pope Francis expressed his hope that this occasion would revive in everyone a great “love for the house of God.”
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis received members of the Communion and Liberation movement – at least 80 thousand of them, from nearly 50 nations – on Saturday, in St. Peter’s Square, to remember the group’s founder, Msgr. Luigi Giussani, and to mark the 60 th anniversary of the movement’s founding.
CL began in 1954 in Italy, at a secondary school in Milan that followed the classical curriculum, when Father Luigi Giussani started an initiative of Christian presence, to teach the basics of the faith to those who did not know them, primarily by lives of radical and radically authentic witness to the transformative power of Christ and the Good News of His resurrection in all areas of human endeavor, and down to the most intimate depths of each and every human soul.
The name, Communion and Liberation, appeared for the first time in 1969: it brings together the conviction that the Christian event, lived in communion, is the foundation of the authentic liberation of the human person.
In his remarks to the members of the movement in St Peter’s Square on Saturday, Pope Francis recalled that bringing those who most need it to an encounter with Christ is the central ethos of Communion and Liberation. “Centered on Christ and in the Gospel,” he said, “you can be the arms, the hands, the feet, the mind and the heart of a Church that is ‘out and about’.”
The Holy Father went on to say, “The way of the Church is that of going abroad in order to seek out those who are far off, in the peripheries, to serve Jesus in every person who is marginalized, abandoned, without faith, disappointed with the Church, a prisoner of his or her own selfishness.”
(from Vatican Radio)…
Vatican City, 3 July 2015 (VIS) – Yesterday afternoon Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin spoke at the high-level conference “People and planet first: the imperative to change course” (Rome, Augustinianum, 2-3 July), organised by the Pontifical Council “Justice and Peace” and CIDSE, an international network of Catholic non-governmental development organisations. The theme of the Cardinal’s address was “The Importance of the Encyclical Laudato Si’ for the Church and the World, in the Light of Major Political Events in 2015 and Beyond”. Three key United Nations conferences are scheduled to take place in the second half of 2015: the “Third International Conference on Financing for Development”, (Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 13 to 16 July); the “United Nations Summit to adopt the Post-2015 Development Agenda”, (New York, U.S.A., 25 to 27 September); and the “Twenty-First Session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations framework Convention on Climate Change” or “COP21” (Paris, France, 30 November to 11 December), for the purpose of adopting a new agreement on climate change. Cardinal Parolin affirmed that “the Encyclical will have a certain impact on these events, but its breadth and depth go well beyond its context in time”. The Secretary of State’s discourse focused on three sectors to help understand of “Laudato si’” – the international sphere, the national and local sphere, and the sphere of the Church – emphasising the two pressing requirements relevant to all three, namely “redirecting our steps” and promoting a “culture of care”. In the international framework, he said, there is a need for “an ever greater recognition that ‘everything is connected’ and that the environment, the earth and the climate are ‘a shared inheritance, whose fruits are meant to benefit everyone’. They are a common and collective good, belonging to all and meant for all, the patrimony of all humanity and the responsibility of everyone’. Recognising these truths is not, however, a foregone conclusion. It calls for a firm commitment to develop an authentic ethics of international relations, one that is genuinely capable of facing up to a variety of issues, such as commercial imbalances, and foreign and ecological debt, which are denounced in the Encyclical”. “Unfortunately, what has prevented the international community from assuming this perspective can be summed up in the following observations of the Pope: its ‘failure of conscience and responsibility’ and the consequent ‘meagre awareness of its own limitations’. We live, however, in a context where it is possible to ‘leave behind the modern myth of unlimited material progress… [and] to devise intelligent ways of directing, developing and limiting our power’; ‘we have the freedom needed to limit and direct technology; we can put it at the service of another type of progress, one which is healthier, more human, more social, more integral’”. The Cardinal remarked, “more than once I have had occasion to emphasise how the technological and operative base for promoting such progress is already available or within our reach. We must seize this great opportunity, given the real human capacity to initiate and forge ahead on a genuinely and properly virtuous course, one that irrigates the soil of economic and technological innovation, cultivating three interrelated objectives: to help human dignity flourish; to help eradicate poverty; and to help counter environmental decay”. “The forces at work in the international sphere are not sufficient on their own, however, but must also be focused by a clear national stimulus, according to the principle of subsidiarity. And here we enter into the second area of our reflection, that of national and local action. Laudato Si’ shows us that we can do much in this regard, and it offers some examples, such as: ‘modifying consumption, developing an economy of waste disposal and recycling… [the improvement of] agriculture in poorer regions… through investment in rural infrastructures, a better organisation of local [and] national markets, systems of irrigation, and the development of techniques of sustainable agriculture’, the promotion of a ‘circular model of production’, a clear response to the wasting of food, and the acceleration of an ‘energy transition’”. He added, “unfortunately, ‘there are too many special interests, and economic interests too easily end up trumping the common good and manipulating information so that their own plans will not be affected’”. The final area considered by the Secretary of State was the Catholic Church, who “finds nourishment in the example of St. Francis who, as indicated from the very opening pages of the Encyclical, ‘lived in simplicity and in wonderful harmony with God, with others, with nature and with himself. He shows us just how inseparable the bond is between concern for nature, justice for the poor, commitment to society, and interior peace”. He concluded, “Pope Francis states once again that ‘the Church does not presume to settle scientific questions or to replace politics’, but seems to be the bearer of the need to question the meaning and purpose of all human activity. What is well-known by now is the Encyclical’s call for us to reflect on ‘what kind of world we want to leave to those who come after us, to children who are now growing up’. The answer which the Pope offers to this question is quite revealing: ‘When we ask ourselves what kind of world we want to leave behind, we think in the first place of its general direction, its meaning and its values. … It is no longer enough, then, simply to state that we should be concerned for future generations. We need to see that what is at stake is our own dignity”….
(Vatican Radio) The Vatican will open its doors Sunday for the second year running to Voices of Faith , an event celebrating International Women’s Day by bringing to the Vatican women of faith whose intrepid but little-known work on the margins of society can be an inspiration for all Catholics.
Listen to Tracey McClure’s interview:
The brainchild of Catholic philanthropist Chantal Goetz and supported by the Fidel Goetz Foundation and Caritas Internationalis, Voices of Faith will be held at the Casina Pio IV in the Vatican Gardens and be broadcast around the world in live streaming on www.voicesoffaith.org .
During the course of Sunday’s event, Voices of Faith and Caritas Internationalis will present two € 10,000 prizes: ” Women: Sowers of Development. ” One will be awarded to Caritas Nicaragua for an agricultural development project and the other to Basmeh Zeitooneh,a cooperative in Lebanon that gives new hope to Syrian and Palestinian refugee women.
Asked if the initiative comes thanks to the “Pope Francis effect,” Goetz tells Vatican Radio, “I think that Pope Francis is doing or showing a lot when it comes to women.” “Pope Francis is saying we [women] should take more initiative in general on things and this is what we are trying to do and we are proud that [Voices of Faith can be held] in the Casina Pio.”
An international celebration of inspiring women
She says that differently from last year’s event held in the San Carlo cinema-film library in the Vatican, this year’s focus will be more “international,” bringing in women “from about ten different countries and four continents.”
Moreover, Goetz says she believes the choice of this year’s speakers more accurately reflects the interests of Pope Francis. “When it comes to education, we have a woman who is highlighting an online education system for refugee camps; we highlight a woman who developed a gender policy with the Indian bishops’ conference; we have a woman from Argentina who is fighting human trafficking – so it’s these kind of issues which I think is in the interest of Pope Francis and his papacy and I think in bringing in these women we can also help to strengthen this kind of mission the Pope is trying to achieve.”
Goetz highlights Turkish Sr. Hatune Dogan, a Syriac Orthodox nun who risks her life to save Christians persecuted in Iraq as one speaker who has personally impacted her own life. “Meeting people like Sr. Hatune and seeing what she is really doing and why she is risking her life for these Christian girls taken by this ISIS group – things like this affect your life and [I say to myself] ‘you have to do much more, Chantal!’”
Voices of Faith, Goetz stresses, especially wants to highlight women like these who are taking action on their faith and their convictions.
Not trying to change Church policy or doctrine
Asked if women in the priesthood is an issue forming part of the agenda of Voices of Faith, Goetz responds: “no, because we want just to highlight the different experiences of Catholic women and …put more focus on what they are doing for the poor and marginalized.” If the topic does come up, she adds, “this [is a conversation] somebody else has to pick up…we are not trying to change the policy of the Church or the doctrine.”
Putting women’s experience and expertise at the service of the Church
Goetz speaks proudly of the women chosen to speak at Voices of Faith as “leaders” who bring with them experience and decades of expertise in different social areas.
“When the Pope is talking about a more incisive female presence in the Church, you can discuss what that means,” reflects Goetz. “I am sure he does not want us to be taking just the minutes from a meeting or being more in the kitchen.” Goetz interprets the Pope’s comments on women as his desire to ensure “that there are a lot of women, also men, who bring in some expertise [in various fields]… and make this available [to the wider Church].”
At the end of the day, Goetz says, it does not matter whether an expert is a man or woman – what counts is “talent and capability” and that he or she “adds something to the mission of the Church.”
(from Vatican Radio)…