(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Saturday greeted members of the Sixt Family encouraging them to pursue their work which is aimed at helping children in various situations of need.
Headed by Regine Sixt, the main purpose of the Regine Sixt Children’s Aid Foundation is the worldwide improvement of humane living conditions for children through program areas that include health, care, education and emergency aid.
Please find below the Pope’s address below:
Dear Members of the Sixt Family,
Dear Friends,
I offer a warm welcome to you, the representatives of the Sixt company from throughout the world. I thank Mrs Regina Sixt for her introduction, which spoke of your shared commitment to works of charity, carried out through the Drying Little Tears Foundation and aimed above all at helping children in various situations of need.
These efforts allow you the opportunity to make your professional activity a noble vocation, by recognizing a greater meaning in life. Beyond personal and financial success, you are striving to serve the common good by working to increase the goods of this world and to make them more available to all (cf. Evangelii Gaudium, 203).
You have assembled here in Rome to meet the Successor of Peter, who has a special place in his heart for the least and the most vulnerable of our brothers and sisters. Such are our children. Drying their tears through concrete projects of assistance is a way of combatting the culture of waste and helping to build a more humane society.
I encourage you to pursue your work in the conviction that God’s tender love can be seen in a particular way on the faces of innocent children in need of care and support. May the Lord reward you with his many gifts.
I ask your prayers for my mission in the service of the Church, and to you, your dear grandchildren and all your families, I cordially impart my Apostolic Blessing.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Saturday addressed members of the International Federation of Catholic Universities at the conclusion of their conference entitled, “Refugees and Migrants in a Globalized World: Responsibilities and Responses of Universities”.
Listen to our report:
Addressing the International Conference participants on Saturday in the Vatican the Pope, congratulating them on their work, also pointed out the importance of their contribution in three areas: research, teaching and social promotion in order, he said, to bring about “the construction of a more just and humane world.”
Studying migration
Reflecting on the theme of their conference “Refugees and Migrants in a Globalized World: Responsibilities and Responses of Universities”, the Holy Father spoke about the need “to do further studies into the root causes of forced migration with the aim of identifying viable solutions…” He also added, that it was equally important to reflect on the negative, sometimes discriminatory, and xenophobic reactions that migrants face in countries of ancient Christian traditions and look also to creating more awareness of this issue.
Promoting education initiatives for refugees
Pope Francis underlined the contributions that migrants and refugees can make to the societies that welcome them and expressed the hope that Catholic universities would develop programmes that “promote refugee education at various levels, both through the provision of distance courses for those living in camps and reception centres, and through the granting of scholarships that allow for their relocation.”
During his address, the Pope invited Catholic universities to educate their students, some of whom, he said, would be political leaders of the future, entrepreneurs and artists of culture, to study carefully the migratory phenomenon, in a justice, and global co-responsibility perspective.
With regard to the complex world of migration, said Pope Francis, the Migration and Refugee Section of the Dicastery for Integrated Human Development has suggested “20 Action Points” as a contribution to the process that will lead to the adoption by the international community of two Global Pacts , one on migrants and one on refugees in the second half of 2018.
In this and in other areas, he concluded, universities can play their part as privileged actors including the social field, “such as in incentives for student volunteering in programs of assistance to refugees, asylum seekers and newly arrived migrants.”
(from Vatican Radio)…
Port au Prince – – 180 Catholic lay faithful from all the dioceses of Haiti took part in the National Congress of Laity held in Port au Prince from 31 October to 3 November. The meeting, promoted by the Church of Haiti in collaboration with the Social School of CELAM, tried to outline the mission of lay baptized in the Church and in society, called to animate temporal realities in the light of the Church’s social doctrine. The Congress’s work highlighted the urgency of deepening the knowledge of the Church’s social doctrine among the laity. The Congress was presided by Francisco Niño, Colombian Priest and vice secretary of CELAM’s General Secretariat. Haiti, the poorest Country in America, is trying to regain social stability. The Church supports the Haitian people and its admirable and moving desire to start again. …
The nation is going through a deep crisis: it is ranked second among the most violent countries in the world, with over 91 violent deaths per 100,000 inhabitants. The State seems to have handed over the control of security to criminal gangs and seems to have abandoned the respect for the rule of law. The country cries out justice, while poverty and food insecurity overwhelm the population. Human rights activists call the international community for urgent action. Link correlati : Continue to read news analysis-Omnis Terra…
Jakarta – The Rosary, the Marian prayer par excellence, is today a support for national unity and inter-religious harmony in Indonesia. And it is a prayer also appreciated by Muslims, “especially because, as Indonesian Catholics, we have invented a special Rosary that symbolizes the unity of the nation, thanks to its two colors, white and red. This Rosary, which we prayed every day , incessantly, in October, reminds us to be 100% Catholic and 100% Indonesian. It is one of our expressions of love for our country and a sign of our concern and our desire to put the Pancasila continuously into practice”, says the Archbishop of Jakarta, Ignazio Suharyo, in a note sent to Fides. The Archbishop participated recently in a meeting with the President of the “Asian Muslim Action Network” , prof. Azyumardi Azra, a well-known Muslim professor and former rector of the Islamic University Syarif Hidayatullah in Jakarta and with Shafii Maarif, “noble father” of Indonesian Islam, founder of the Maarif Institute and former president of the Muhammadiyah Islamic organization. During the meeting, leaders recalled the “oath” of young Indonesians from different religions on 28 October 1928 who, in their youth congress, had proclaimed three ideals that would then lay the foundations for the nation’s independence: a homeland , a nation and only one language. Then prof. Azyumardi took the Rosary with respect and veneration from Archbishop Suharyo and handed it over to Shafii Maarif. Suharyo described the meaning of the prayer, speaking of the colors, red and white, which recall the Indonesian flag. “White recalls holiness and sacredness, pure and sincere love towards God. Red symbolizes the will to defend, with love, truth based on faith”, said Archbishop Suharyo. The chain ends with the “medal of mercy” and the logo of the Archdiocese of Jakarta. The Archdiocese inaugurated the special Rosary, prayed for the unity of the nation, in the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption in Jakarta and donated to the 65 parishes of the city on May 1, 2016. Since then, the Catholics of the capital pray with the red and white Rosary every day during the Mass in the months of May and October. And, in this historic moment, marked by the rise of radical Islamic movements that intend to divide the nation, prayer has an even deeper meaning. The Church of Jakarta has recommended every Catholic family, associations and communities to pray with that Rosary, for the special intention of national unity. The Liturgical Commission of the Archdiocese, that promoted and launched the initiative, states that the Rosary expresses the commitment of the Archdiocese to strengthen the love of the nation among the faithful and their sincere contribution to unity and social and religious harmony. …