(Vatican Radio) “The whole world is at war,” and the rejection of the “path of peace” means that God Himself, that Jesus Himself, weeps. This was the message of Pope Francis to the faithful following the readings of the day at Mass on Thursday morning in the Casa Santa Marta.
“Jesus wept.” These were the words with which the Holy Father’s remarks following the readings of the day on Thursday in the chapel of the Santa Marta residence in the Vatican, echoing the words of St. Luke the Evangelist, from whose Gospel the Gospel reading was taken.
A world festively bedecked
Jesus approaches Jerusalem, and seeing the city on a hill from a distance, weeps, and says, “If this day you only knew what makes for peace–but now it is hidden from your eyes.” Pope Francis repeated the words of Our Lord to the Holy City, and then added:
“Today Jesus weeps as well: because we have chosen the way of war, the way of hatred, the way of enmities. We are close to Christmas: there will be lights, there will be parties, bright trees, even Nativity scenes – all decked out – while the world continues to wage war. The world has not understood the way of peace.”
War to line the pockets of the traffickers
Pope Francis went on to recall the recent commemorations of the Second World War, the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, his visit to Redipuglia last year on the anniversary of the Great War: “Useless slaughters,” he called them, repeating the words of Pope Benedict XV. “Everywhere there is war today, there is hatred,” he said. Then he asked, “What shall remain in the wake of this war, in the midst of which we are living now?”:
“What shall remain? Ruins, thousands of children without education, so many innocent victims: and lots of money in the pockets of arms dealers. Jesus once said: ‘You can not serve two masters: either God or riches.’ War is the right choice for him, who would serve wealth: ‘Let us build weapons, so that the economy will right itself somewhat, and let us go forward in pursuit of our interests. There is an ugly word the Lord spoke: ‘Cursed!’ Because He said: ‘Blessed are the peacemakers!.’ The men who work war, who make war, are cursed, they are criminals. A war can be justified – so to speak – with many, many reasons, but when all the world as it is today, at war – piecemeal though that war may be – a little here, a little there, and everywhere – there is no justification – and God weeps. Jesus weeps.”
The world weeps over its crimes
The Holy Father went on to say that, while the arms dealers go about their business, there are the poor peacemakers who, perforce to help another person, and another and another, spend themselves utterly, and even give their lives – as did Bl. Mother Teresa of Calcutta, against whom the powerful, worldy cynic might say, “But what did she ever accomplish? She wasted her life helping others on their way to death?” He repeated, “We do not understand the way of peace.”:
“It will do us well to ask the for the grace of tears, for this world that does not recognize the path of peace, this world that lives for war, and cynically says not to make it. Let us pray for conversion of heart. Here before the door of this Jubilee of Mercy, let us ask that our joy, our jubilation, be this grace: that the world discover the ability to weep for its crimes, for what the world does with war.”
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) The official inauguration of the Library Biblioteca Romana Joseph Ratzinger – Benedetto XVI – dedicated to the life and the thought of the Pope Emeritus as a scholar and a Pontiff – was held on Wednesday evening at the Pontifical Teutonic College.
Before becoming Pope, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger celebrated Mass every week at the College, which serves the German-speaking community and is located on the Vatican grounds.
The library is a collection of more than 1000 books in 36 languages provided by Pope emeritus Benedict XVI, by the Libreria Editrice Vaticana, by the Vatican Foundation, and by the Papst Benedikt XVI Institute of Regensburg.
Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, the President of the Pontifical Council of Culture, began the evening with an academic lecture at the nearby Augustinian Patristic Institute, entitled “From the Bible to the Library – Benedict XVI and the Culture of the Word of God.”
Click below to hear our report
Cardinal Ravasi said even as the pastor of the universal Church, Benedict XVI never stopped being a lover of books.
“The current collection of writings by him and about him attests precisely to his impressive resume as a scholar, theologian, and reader,” Cardinal Ravasi said.
He noted the wide breadth of his knowledge, not only of the classics to theology, but also modern authors such as Bernanos, Buber, Camus, Hölderlin, Nietzsche, Sartre and others.
After the lecture, the attendees walked to the new Library, which is expected to be a centre for the study of the theology of Benedict XVI, both before and after he became Pope. The library’s goal is to have a copy of all his works, in every language possible, as well as the important volumes about the Pope emeritus and his thought.
The Library Biblioteca Romana Joseph Ratzinger – Benedetto XVI has been supported by the Roman Institute of the Society of Görres and by the Joseph Ratzinger-Benedict XVI Vatican Foundation.
(from Vatican Radio)…
Vatican City, 18 November 2015 (VIS) – The Office of Liturgical Celebrations of the Supreme Pontiff has published the following calendar of liturgical celebrations at which the Holy Father will preside in the months of December 2015 and January 2016: DECEMBER Tuesday 8: Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. At 9.30 a.m. in St. Peter’s Basilica, Holy Mass and opening of the Holy Door. Tuesday 8: Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. At 4 p.m. in Piazza di Spagna, veneration of the image of Mary Immaculate. Saturday 12: Feast of Blessed Virgin Mary of Guadalupe. At 6 p.m. in the Vatican Basilica, Holy Mass. Sunday 13: “Gaudete Sunday” Third of Advent. At 9.30 a.m. in the Basilica of St. John Lateran, Holy Mass and opening of the Holy Door. Sunday 13: “Gaudete Sunday” Third of Advent. At 10.30 a.m. in the Basilica of St. Paul Outside-the-Walls, Holy Mass and opening of the Holy Door, presided by Cardinal James Harvey. Thursday 24: Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord. At 9.30 p.m. in the Vatican Basilica, Holy Mass. Friday 25: Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord. Central loggia of the Vatican Basilica, at 12 p.m., “Urbi et Orbi” blessing. Sunday 27: Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. At 10 a.m. in the Vatican Basilica, Holy Mass for Families. Thursday 31: Solemnity of Mary Most Holy, Mother of God. At 5 p.m. in the Vatican Basilica, First Vespers and Te Deum, in Thanksgiving for the past year. JANUARY Friday 1: Solemnity of Mary Most Holy, Mother of God. 49th World Peace Day. At 10 a.m. in the Vatican Basilica, Holy Mass. Friday 1: Solemnity of Mary Most Holy, Mother of God. At 5 p.m. in the Basilica of St. Mary Major, Holy Mass and opening of the Holy Door. Wednesday 6: Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord. At 10 a.m. in the Vatican Basilica, Holy Mass. Sunday 10: Sunday after the Epiphany: Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. At 9.30 a.m. in the Sistine Chapel. Holy Mass and baptism of babies….
(Vatican Radio) Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican Secretary of State, on Monday (Nov. 16) addressed the XVIII National Theological-Pastoral Convention of the Opera Romana pellegrinaggi (ORP) on the theme of ‘Pilgrimage and mercy in the three great monotheistic religions’.
ORP is an institutional activity of the Vicariate of Rome under the Holy See, which organizes pilgrimages to the principal Christian sites, including Rome, Lourdes, Fatima, Santiago de Compostela, and the Holy Land.
Cardinal Parolin recalled the ancient roots of pilgrimage, especially after Emperor Constantine’s Edict of Milan in 313, when the faithful began to visit the tombs of early Christian martyrs.
In Medieval times, the pilgrimage took on a penitential aspect, to be lived as a trial of love, in order to receive mercy. Gradually, he said, this journey to obtain mercy was concretized in the “Jubilee of pardon”, that is, the first Holy Year celebrated in the year 1300, though the existence of periodic jubilee years can be found in the Old Testament.
“The common denominator”, Cardinal Parolin said, “is mercy, which constitutes the foundation upon which a true pilgrimage rests. With the decision to visit a holy place, in fact, the pilgrimage is characterized by a removal from day-to-day life in search of an encounter with the invisible and transcendent God, … in the certainty that the encounter can make fecund and provide meaning to the comings-and-goings of daily life, mediated by the ecclesial community.”
He concluded by saying, “In the Church, the pilgrim – as Pope Francis has written – acquires the awareness that ‘the beam which holds up the life of the Church is mercy. All her pastoral action should be turned toward the tenderness with which she encounters the faithful; nothing of her message and witness directed to the world may be deprived of mercy’.”
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Wednesday greeted members of Poland’s Independent Self-governing Trade Union Solidarność (“Solidarity”), praising it for its 35-year commitment to the world of labour – “both physical and intellectual” – as well as it work for the protection of the fundamental rights of the person and society.
Founded in 1980, it was the first non-Communist trade union in the countries belonging to the Soviet-dominated Warsaw Pact. The activities of Solidarność helped lead to the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989.
“Be faithful to this commitment, so that political or economic interests do not prevail over the values which constitute the essence of human solidarity,” Pope Francis told them while greeting pilgrims from Poland during his general audience .
“ I commend you and all members of the Union to the protection of your patron, Blessed Father Jerzy Popieluszko” – continued the Holy Father – “and I cordially bless you. Praised be Jesus Christ!”
Blessed Father Jerzy Popieluszko was murdered by agents of the communist regime in 1984 at the age of 37, after speaking out for human rights and religious freedom. He was Beatified in 2010.
(from Vatican Radio)…