(Vatican Radio) Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican Secretary of State, on Tuesday expressed his sorrow for the terrorist attack which took place in Istanbul, Turkey. “What is happening [in Turkey] pains us. What is happening there, what continues to repeat itself, confirms that the best medicine in the face of these evils is always mercy.” At least 10 people were killed in a suicide bomb attack Tuesday morning in the Sultanahmet district of Istanbul, near the city’s famous Blue Mosque. His words came in response to a sideline question at the presentation of Pope Francis’ new book The Name of God is Mercy . (from Vatican Radio)…
The power of prayer, the true driving force
of the life of the Church, was the focus of Pope Francis’ homily for the Mass
at Santa Marta on Tuesday morning, 12 January. The
Pontiff’s reflection was inspired by the day’s reading from the First Book of
Samuel (1:9-20), which speaks of three protagonists: Hannah, Eli the priest,
and the Lord. The woman, explained the Pope, “with her family, with her
husband, went up to the Temple to worship God”. Hannah was a devout and pious
woman, full of faith; however, she “bore within her a cross that caused her a
great deal of suffering: she was barren. She wanted a son”. The
description of Hannah’s fervent prayer shows how she “struggled with God”, she
implored him at length, with “deep distress, weeping bitterly”. The prayer ends
with a vow: “O Lord of hosts, if you look with pity on the misery of your
handmaid, if you remember me and do not forget me, if you give your handmaid a
male child, I will give him to the Lord for as long as he lives”. With deep
humility, Francis explained, recognizing herself as “miserable” and as
“handmaid”, she “vowed to offer her son”. Therefore
Hannah, the Pope emphasized, “gave her all in order to attain what she wanted”.
Her entreaty was noticed by the elderly priest Eli, who “watched her mouth”.
Hannah “was praying silently”, only her lips were moving, and her voice could
not be heard. The image offered by the Scripture is extraordinary, because it
reflects “the courage of a woman of faith who, with her sorrow, with her tears,
asks for the Lord’s grace”. In
this regard the Pontiff commented that in the Church there are “many such good
women”, who “pray as if it were a challenge”, and as an example, he recalled
the figure of St Monica, Augustine’s mother, “who with her tears managed to
attain the grace of her son’s conversion”. The
Pope then analyzed the character of Eli, who was not wicked but was “a poor
man” for whom Francis feels “a certain fondness”, because “in myself too”, he
admitted, “I find defects that bring me close to him and enable me to really
understand him”. This
elderly priest “had become tepid, had lost his devotion” and “did not have the
strength to stop his two sons”, who were “delinquent” priests. Yes, they were
truly wicked men “who exploited people”. Eli is a “poor and feeble man”, and is
therefore incapable of “understanding this woman’s heart”. In seeing Hannah
moving her lips in anguish, he thinks: “This woman has drunk too much!”. The
episode holds a lesson for all of us: “how easily”, Francis said, “do we judge
people, how easily do we lack the respect to ask: ‘What must she have in her
heart? I don’t know, but I’m not saying anything’”. He then added: “When the
heart lacks pity, we also think badly, judge badly, perhaps to justify
ourselves”. Eli’s
misunderstanding is such that “finally he says to her: ‘How long will you make
a drunken show of yourself?’”. Hannah, in her humility, does not respond: “Old
man, what do you know about it?”. On the contrary, she says: “It isn’t that, my
lord”. And despite knowing all that Eli’s sons had done, she does not rebuke
Eli or point out: “What do your sons do?”. Instead she explains to him: “I am
an unhappy woman. I have had neither wine nor liquor; I was only pouring out my
troubles to the Lord. Do not think your handmaid a ne’er-do-well; my prayer has
been prompted by my deep sorrow and misery”. In
these words Pope Francis identified Hannah’s “prayer with sorrow and misery”.
She “entrusted that sorrow and misery to the Lord”. And in doing so, the
Pontiff added, Hannah reminds us of Christ. Indeed, “Jesus experienced this
prayer in the Garden of Olives, when his sorrow and misery were so great that
his sweat became blood, but he did not rebuke the Father: ‘Father, if you are
willing, remove this from me, but thy will be done’”. On the contrary, “Jesus
responded in the same way as this woman: meekness”. Pope Francis then observed
how at times “we pray, we ask the Lord, but so often we do know how to reach
that struggle with the Lord, to tears, to ask, to ask for grace”. In
this regard Francis described an event that happened in the Shrine of Luján, in
Buenos Aires, where there was a family with a nine-year-old daughter who was
very ill. “After weeks of treatment”, the Pope recalled, “she did not manage to
escape that illness, it had worsened and the doctors, at around six o’clock in
the evening” said that she had only a few hours left to live. So “the father, a
humble man, a labourer, immediately left the hospital and went to the shrine of
Our Lady in Luján”, 50 kilometres away. When “he arrived around 10 o’clock in
the evening, everything was closed, and he grabbed hold of the gate and prayed
to Our Lady and struggled in prayer”. This, Pope Francis continued, “is a fact
that really happened, at the time when I was there. And he remained like this
until five in the morning”. That
man “prayed, he wept for his daughter, struggled with God for his daughter
through the intercession of Our Lady. Then he returned. He arrived at the
hospital at about seven or eight, and went to find his wife. She was crying and
the man thought that the girl had died, but the wife said: ‘I don’t understand,
I don’t understand…. The doctors came and said that they don’t understand
what happened’. And the little girl went home”. Essentially,
the Pope observed, with “that faith, that prayer before God, convinced that he
is capable of all, because he is the Lord”, the father in Buenos Aires recalled
the woman from the biblical text. The one who not only obtained “the miracle of
having a son a year later and then, the Bible says, she had many others”, but
she also succeeded with the miracle of “awakening the tepid spirit of that
priest”. When Hannah “explains to that priest — who had completely lost all
spirituality, all piety — why she was weeping, he who had called her ‘drunk’,
says to her: ‘Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant you what you have
asked of him’. He released from under the ashes the little priestly flame that
was in the embers”. Here
then is the final lesson. “Prayer makes miracles”, Francis said. It even makes
them for those “Christians, whether they lay faithful, or priests, bishops who
have lost devotion”. Additionally,
he explained, “the prayers of the faithful change the Church: it is not we, the
Popes, the bishops, priests, nuns who bring the Church forward, it is the
saints! And the saints are these people”, like the woman in the Bible passage:
“Saints are those who have the courage to believe that God is the Lord and that
he can do all”. The Pope then prayed that the Father “give us the grace to
trust in prayer, to pray with courage and also to awaken piety, when we have
lost it, and to go forward with the People of God to the encounter with him”….
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Monday gave his annual address to the Holy See’s diplomatic corps, focusing especially on the migrant crisis facing Europe and other countries around the world. There are currently 180 nations with full diplomatic ties to the Vatican, as well as a representation of the European Union, the Sovereign Military Order of Malta and the Permanent Mission of the State of Palestine.
In the speech, sometimes called the Pope’s ‘state of the world’ address, the Holy Father spoke of the need to combat terrorism and fundamentalism, while promoting development and poverty alleviation in the poorest countries. In this Jubilee year of Mercy, inaugurated in the Central African Republic’s capital of Bangui, the Pope urged the diplomats to help promote a new culture of dialogue, justice and peace.
Among those listening to the Pope’s words was Britain’s ambassador to the Holy See, Nigel Baker, who spoke to Philippa Hitchen about his reactions to the encounter…..
Listen:
Ambassador Baker spoke about the central theme of migration, noting that the Pope not only identified it as a serious issue, but he recognized the impact it is having on all countries involved, including destination countries.
He said the Pope recognized the efforts that the international community has been making and reminded the diplomats that migration is not a new issue, since the Bible tells the story of a “humanity on the move.” He also reminded them that whenever we face new migration situations, new solutions, new creativity and new energy is needed.
The second area of interest the ambassador highlighted was the search for peace as the primary function of Holy See diplomacy. The Pope, he noted, stressed that the “authentic practice of religion cannot fail to promote peace” and he gave some examples from his own journeys as pontiff, showing that in fact mercy is something that can be put into practice.
Asked about the UK’s slow to response to the refugee crisis, the ambassador said the British government will respond positively to the Pope’s recognition of the complexity of these issues, particularly of integration and the need for longer term solutions, which is very much the British focus.
Secondly, he said, the Pope’s recognition of the generosity of the countries neighboring Syria ties in with a major conference that will be held in London on 4th February (which Archbishop Paul Gallagher will be attending) about how wealthier countries can support those nations in the immediate vicinity of Syria.
Asked whether he thought the UK Government was doing enough to promote dialogue and cooperation to combat terrorism and extremism, Ambassador Baker said his country is probably one of the global leaders, if only because of the UK’s experiences with multi-ethnic and multi-religious communities. He said there is extraordinary work being done in British cities by faith leaders who are working with local, regional and central government, both to tackle deep-seated issues and to respond in emergencies.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis addressed the members of the Corps of Diplomats accredited to the Holy See on Monday morning on the occasion of his traditional exchange of New Year’s greetings with the ambassadors. The US Ambassador to the Holy See, Kenneth Hackett, visited the studios of Vatican Radio to share his impressions of and first reflections on the Holy Father’s remarks, which this year focused strongly on the issue of migration – a critical global issue that is the cause of and occasion for serious political and social tension in many countries around the world.
Ambassador Hackett said Pope Francis challenged the diplomats as a pastor, rather than as a political leader. “Everything is obviously grounded in the Gospel message – and it is that, which is the touchstone, or the jumping-off point for any kind of issue: be it care of the earth, be it migration, be it poverty, sustainable development – it’s all there, with the Gospel as a ‘platform’ from which to move.”
Asked what, if anything, he thinks people at home in the US might find particularly challenging in the address, Ambassador Hackett said, “Once again – as he has done [often in the past] – [Pope Francis] talked about exclusion – last year he went into great depth about the ‘throw-away’ society, and how we treat certain people – the aged, the sickly, the mentally ill, migrants, [as though they don’t ‘matter’] – this year he didn’t go into [the same] depth there, but he did talk about people being pushed aside, and [about] poverty and exclusion.”
Ambassador Hackett went on to say, “[H]e is preaching all the time: he is not giving a ‘State of the Union’ per se , he is preaching still, even though he covers conflicts in parts of Africa and Syria, and [all throughout] the Middle East and elsewhere, he is still preaching.”
Click below to hear Ambassador Kenneth Hackett’s extended conversation with Chris Altieri
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Combatting terrorism, promoting peaceful co-existence among peoples and nations and above all responding to the migration crises in Europe and beyond: these themes were at the heart of Pope Francis’ words to the Holy See’s diplomatic corps, gathered in the Vatican on Monday for their annual encounter.
In the speech, often dubbed the Pope’s ‘state of the world’ address, the Holy Father spoke of worrying tensions which continue to plague the Gulf and Middle East regions, as well as the Korean peninsula. In this Jubilee year of Mercy, inaugurated in the Central African Republic’s capital of Bangui, the Pope urged the diplomats to help promote a new culture of dialogue, justice and peace.
English Archbishop Paul Gallagher is the Holy See’s foreign minister, or Secretary for Relations with States. Following the encounter, he sat down with Philippa Hitchen to discuss some of the central themes of the Pope’s message to the diplomatic corps…
Listen:
Commenting on the overall tone of the address, Archbishop Gallagher says the Pope wanted to reinforce the fact that the Holy See is aware of the challenges being faced by the international community, including the ongoing battle against terrorism and the refugee crisis. Pope Francis, he says, wants to encourage the international community to face up to these challenges and to seek solutions “for the good of humanity.”
Concerning the Pope’s denouncement of recent “brutal” terrorist attacks, and his call for dialogue with the Muslim world, Archbishop Gallagher said Pope Francis wants to highlight the complexity of the problem, and to emphasise that as well as dialogue between the West and the Muslim world, it is essential that there be dialogue amongst Muslims themselves, so that “the true voice of Islam may be heard in the world.”
Integration is difficult, he said, and it has not always been done well in Europe. In order to face this challenge, he stressed, the European community must look for common solutions. The Pope, he added, recognizes the complexity of the problems, but there is a danger of reducing it simply to a problem, and not seeing beyond it to the lives of people involved.
Asked how countries that have been slow to take up responsibility in the refugee crisis might respond to Pope Francis’ address, Archbishop Gallagher said “We have to be careful that fear doesn’t enter into our hearts,” but he also noted the migrants and refugees have a responsibility to integrate themselves into the societies in which they find themselves. It is a two-way process, he insisted, and as such the decision to simply close borders is “to some extent, kicking the can down the road.”
Asked about the forthcoming Apostolic visit to Mexico, Archbishop Gallagher said the Pope will return to the theme of migration during his visit since he is aware of the “terrible dangers which migrants consistently expose themselves to.”
Finally, commenting on the focus of the Holy See’s diplomacy over the coming months, Archbishop Gallagher said his office will continue to work on the whole question of the Middle East, the conflict in Syria and the neighbouring refugee problems in Jordan and Lebanon. He said he hoped that progress will also be made on resolving the conflict in Ukraine which is “bringing about a serious humanitarian crisis in that country this winter”.
(from Vatican Radio)…