(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has made changes to the public ceremony of investiture of the Pallium on Metropolitan Archbishops emphasizing that the investiture is an ecclesial event of the whole diocese, and not merely a juridical or ceremonial event.
Speaking to Vatican Radio, Monsignor Guido Marini, Master of Pontifical Liturgical Celebrations, says that from now on – starting from the 29th June this year – the ceremony of investiture of the Pallium will take place in the Metropolitan Archbishops home dioceses and not in the Vatican.
Listen to the report by Linda Bordoni :
Martini said the ceremony will thus be celebrated in two significant moments: the first during which the pallium will be blessed during the Mass on the feast of Saints Peter and Paul in the Vatican; the second when it will be placed on the Metropolitan Archbishop in his own diocese, by his representative, the Apostolic Nuncio.
It will be the responsibility of the Nuncio to determine with the Metropolitan Archbishops the most opportune date, circumstances and manner to publicly and officially invest him with the pallium by mandate of the Holy Father, and with the participation of the Suffragan Bishops of the Province.
Marini says that in this way the ceremony will continue to symbolize communion between the See of Peter and the Successor of the Apostle and those who are chosen to carry out the episcopal ministry as Metropolitan Archbishop of an Ecclesiastical Province, and it will favor the participation of the local Church in an important moment of its life and history.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis says ecclesial elites who form cliques and scorn others are privatizing the faith and not following the way of Jesus. His words came during his homily at morning Mass on Thursday (29th January) celebrated in the Santa Marta residence.
Listen to this report by Susy Hodges:
The Pope’s homily was a reflection on the need for Christians to follow Jesus in the way that He wants and not to follow incorrect models such as privatizing our faith.
“It’s true, Jesus has saved us all, but not in a general fashion. All of us, each one with their name and surname. And this is our personal salvation. I am truly saved, the Lord looked at me, gave his life for me, opened this door, this new life for me and each of us can say ‘For me.’ But there’s a danger of forgetting that He saved us individually but at the same time as part of his people or community. His people. The Lord always saves his people. From the moment he calls Abraham and promises to make them his people. And the Lord saves us as part of this community. That’s why the writer of this Letter (to the Hebrews) tells us: ‘Let us be concerned for each other.’ There is no salvation solely for me. If that’s the way I understand salvation, I’m mistaken and going along the wrong path. The privatization of salvation is the wrong path.”
Pope Francis explained that there are three criteria for not privatizing salvation: ‘faith in Jesus who purifies us,’ hope that ‘stirs us to look at his promises and go forward’ and charity: namely taking care of each other, to encourage us all to practice charity and good works.’
“And when I’m in a parish, in a community — or whatever it is – I am there, I can privatize salvation and be there only on a small social level. But in order not to privatize salvation, I need to ask myself if I speak and communicate the faith, speak and communicate hope, speak, practice and communicate charity. If within a particular community there is no communication between people and no encouragement is given to everybody to practice these three virtues, the members of that community have privatized their faith. Each of them is looking for his or her personal salvation, not the salvation of everybody, the salvation of their people. And Jesus saved all of us but as part of his people, within a Church.”
The Pope pointed out that the author of the Letter to the Hebrews gave some very important practical advice: ‘Do not absent yourself from your own assemblies, as some do.’ He said this happens when we’re at such assemblies, in the parish or community and we judge the others, when there’s this kind of scorn towards the others. This, Pope Francis stressed, is not the new and living way of Jesus.
“They scorn the others, they stay away from the community as a whole, they stay away from the people of God, they have privatized salvation: salvation is for me and my small group, but not for all the people of God. And this is a very serious mistake. It’s what we see and call: ‘the ecclesial elites.’ When these small groups are created within the community of God’s people, these people believe they are being good Christians and also are acting in good faith maybe, but they are small groups who have privatized salvation.”
Reiterating that God saves us as part of a people, not as part of an elite group, Pope Francis concluded his homily by urging us to consider whether we have a tendency to privatize our faith in this way instead of being close to the people of God and practicing the three virtues of faith, hope and charity.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) The cause for the beatification of Chiara Lubich, founder of the international Focolare Movement, was opened on Tuesday.
The official inauguration of the Diocesan Process of Inquiry into Lubich’s life, followed the praying of Vespers in the Cathedral of Frascati, near Rome.
While Lubich was born in the northern Italian region of Trento, she established the International Centre for the Focolare Movement, whose charism is the promotion of peace and the unity of all people, in Frascati.
In a written message for the gathering, Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin said Pope Francis turns his thoughts to the occasion and “hopes” that Chiara Lubich’s “luminous example” will inspire “renewed faithfulness to Christ and generous service to the unity of the Church” among those who have taken up her “precious spiritual legacy.”
Cardinal Parolin said the Pope exhorts that the life and works of Chiara Lubich be made known to the People of God. This consecrated laywoman, the Pope said, “ignited for the Church a new light on the path towards unity.”
Linda Bordoni spoke with Ray Asprer, a member of the general council of the Focolari Movement in Rome.
Listen to the interview:
Ray Asprer speaks of the gift of Chiara Lubich to the Universal Church as “a sanctity that can be lived out in ordinary life: in daily life where heroic virtues are not limited to moments of heroism but rather where heroism characterizes one’s day and one’s routine”.
“I think this is what she can offer today’s Church: the sanctity of the common person to be lived out in the midst of the world with many others in the footsteps of Jesus” he says.
Asper agrees that this vision is in line with what Pope Francis is asking us to do also by asking us to “look outwards, where there is discomfort, where we are called to go beyond our comfort zone”, reaching out towards the peripheries, “letting goodness flow”.
He says Chiara’s spiritual legacy can help ease the current tensions and conflicts in the world today, many of which are caused by tensions between religious groups.
It can do so – he says – by breaking down walls and divisions and by offering a path in which “the other is somebody whom I can be unity with” he says.
Asprer explains that Chiara Lubich’s legacy teaches us that precisely because “the other is different he is different, he can be a gift to me if I am open to him; and if I can be open to him and listen to him, I can offer to him that what I hold dearest in my heart”.
She offers – he says – “a kind of dialogue, a way of looking towards a horizon of unity in differences, not in uniformity: I think this is precisely what the world is asking for today.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis called on fathers to be present in the lives of their children pointing out that the absence of a ‘father figure’ can have grave consequences.
Listen to the report by Linda Bordoni :
Speaking on Wednesday during the weekly General Audience, the Pope continued in his catechesis on the family, choosing to focus on the dignity and role of fathers.
He said that teaching us to call God our Father, Jesus gave new depth and richness to this relationship, so fundamental to the life of society.
Sadly – Francis said – in our modern societies, we are experiencing a crisis of fatherhood. In the past it was common practice to perceive the image of the father as authoritarian and at times even repressive, today – he said – we now sense uncertainty and confusion about the role of the father.
Recalling his experience with the faithful when he was Bishop of Buenos Aires, Francis said that he was often struck by how caught up in their profession and self-realization so many contemporary fathers are. “Often” – he said – “I used to ask fathers whether they took the time to play with their children, whether they had the courage and the love to spend time with their children. And their answers were not good: I am too busy… I have too much work to do”.
And speaking of an “absence” of the father figure in society, the Pope said that “without father figures, young people often feel ‘orphaned’, left adrift at a critical moment in their growth and development.
Calling on fathers to be responsible, he said that fathers are necessary as examples and guides for our children in wisdom and virtue.
Society itself – he continued – has a similar responsibility not to leave the young as orphans, without ideals, sound values, hopes and possibilities for work and for authentic spiritual fulfilment.
Just as Jesus promised that he would not leave us orphans – Pope Francis concluded – let us ask him to deepen and renew our appreciation of fatherhood and to raise up good fathers for the benefit of our families, our Church and our world.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis called on fathers to be present in the lives of their children pointing out that the absence of a ‘father figure’ can have grave consequences.
Speaking on Wednesday during the weekly General Audience, the Pope continued in his catechesis on the family, choosing to focus on the dignity and role of fathers.
He said that teaching us to call God our Father, Jesus gave new depth and richness to this relationship, so fundamental to the life of society.
Sadly – Francis said – in our modern societies, we are experiencing a crisis of fatherhood. In the past it was common practice to perceive the image of the father as authoritarian and at times even repressive, today – he said – we now sense uncertainty and confusion about the role of the father.
And speaking of an “absence” of the father figure in society, the Pope said that “without father figures, young people often feel ‘orphaned’, left adrift at a critical moment in their growth and development.
Calling on fathers to be responsible, he said that fathers are necessary as examples and guides for our children in wisdom and virtue.
Society itself – he continued – has a similar responsibility not to leave the young as orphans, without ideals, sound values, hopes and possibilities for work and for authentic spiritual fulfilment.
Just as Jesus promised that he would not leave us orphans – Pope Francis concluded – let us ask him to deepen and renew our appreciation of fatherhood and to raise up good fathers for the benefit of our families, our Church and our world.
(from Vatican Radio)…