(Vatican Radio) On Holy Thursday 2 April, Pope Francis will visit Rome’s Casa Circondariale New Prison Complex Rebibbia to meet detainees and staff. He will celebrate the “in Cena Domini” or Lord’s Supper Mass in the church, “Padre Nostro” at 5:30 pm Rome time. During the rite, he will wash the feet of a group of detainees and female inmates from the nearby women’s penitentiary. Vatican Radio’s Sergio Centofanti spoke to Rebibbia chaplain, Don Sandro Spriano:
A. – We are super happy, because the Pope has accepted the invitation I gave him when we met at a Mass in the Santa Marta guesthouse in September. He told us that if possible, he would come on Holy Thursday. The fact that he kept this promise makes us very, very happy: it is a beautiful thing. We will repeat the experience of three years ago, with Pope Ratzinger, but in a different context and with a different person.
Q. – For the inmates, what does this visit mean?
A. – Clearly it shows how much importance the Church of Rome in particular places on their condition. We always say that they are the most unfortunate. In this case, showing that they are children of God, loved by the Church and in particular by the Pope, is for them very, very important. Among other things, it will be the first time when we will celebrate with men and women prisoners, bringing inmates of the women’s prison to join us: it will be a very nice thing.
Q. – What do you remember most of Benedict XVI’s visit?
A. –I recall it vividly, because then it was a dialogue of questions and answers with the Pope, and he opened up and shared some personal stories so it was something truly fraternal. In this case, the celebration certainly has a different solemnity but the gesture of the “Washing of the Feet” of male and female detainees, will be not only a liturgically significant moment but also emotionally, a very nice moment.
Q. – What is the situation today at Rebibbia?
A. – It’s a situation with a little less overcrowding, but the people there continue to have the same problems as before because unfortunately the prison issue – a part from some measures that have brought down the numbers – nothing new has happened.
Q. – What are your expectations for the Pope’s visit?
A. – This is a strictly pastoral visit. We need someone to embrace us, who makes us feel part of society, who makes us feel part of the wider Christian Church and not segregated. The Pope will do this and it is what we hope for.
Q. – What are you calling politicians to do?
A. – What we are really asking is that prison is not simply punishment and society’s revenge on those who commit crimes, in trouble with the law. We want to see that prison – as described in the Constitution – is a place of recovery, a place of re-socialization, a place where you can also build some basis on which to return to live – better! When you leave.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis will visit inmates and staff of a Rome prison on Holy Thursday, April 2. The Prefecture of the Papal Household reports that the Pope will visit the new complex of the Casa Circondariale Rebibbia in the Rome suburbs, and celebrate the liturgy of the Lord’s Supper at the “Padre Nostro” church at 5:30 pm Rome time. The Pope will wash the feet of a group of male prisoners and female inmates from the nearby women’s penitentiary.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has urged the Church to challenge the current throwaway culture by fostering a joyful embrace and a fruitful dialogue between the young and the old.
Speaking to the crowds gathered in St. Peter’s Square for the weekly General Audience, the Pope continued in his catechesis on the family, focusing for the second week in a row, on grandparents.
I too – Francis said – belong to this age group, and I speak putting myself into their shoes. It is important to highlight – he said – that although society tends to discard us, the Lord certainly does not.
In fact – he continued – He calls us to follow Him in every moment of our lives including old-age which contains a special grace and mission.
It is not a time – he said – “to give up” and be marginalized.
The Gospel, Pope Francis pointed out, offers us the image of Simeon and Anna, two older persons who hope in the Lord’s promises, and at the end of their lives see them fulfilled.
Simeon and Anna, the Pope said, are models of spirituality for the elderly, they point to the centrality of prayer.
And Pope Francis reiterated that the prayer of grandparents is a great grace and a great gift for families and for the Church.
“In prayer, they thank the Lord for his blessings, otherwise so often unacknowledged; they intercede for the hopes and needs of the young; they lift up to God the memory and sacrifices of past generations” he said.
The Pope also spoke of how prayer helps us to find the wisest way to teach the young that the true meaning of life is found in self-sacrificing love and concern for others.
“Young people listen to their grandparents” he said.
And delving into his own memories, Francis said “I still treasure the words my grandmother wrote to me on the day of my ordination. I carry them with me to this day inside my breviary”.
“How I would like” – he concluded – a Church that challenges today’s throwaway culture with a joyful new embrace between the young and the old”.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis denounces the triumphalism of drug traffickers and also said he aims to visit his home country in 2016. He was speaking in a wide-ranging interview with an Argentinian newspaper, La Carcova News, a publication recently set up by young people living in a shantytown area of Buenos Aires. The Pope was answering a series of questions put to him by young people on topics that included drug trafficking, faith, wasted lives, the virtual world and plans to visit Argentina.
PERIPHERIES:
Asked first about his emphasis on going to the peripheries, Pope Francis replied that it’s only by going outside the centre to the peripheries we discover new things. “We see reality better from the peripheries than we do from being in the centre.”
DRUG TRAFFICKING:
Some of the Pope’s strongest words in the interview came when he answered a question about the ever advancing drug problem and how young people can defend themselves from this scourge. Pope Francis acknowledged the seriousness of the drugs problem saying: “What worries me even more is the triumphalism of drug traffickers. These people sing their victory out loud, they feel that they have won, that they have triumphed. And this is a reality. There are countries or regions that are now totally in thrall to the drug trade.”
FAITH:
Several of the questions put to Pope Francis were about faith. He said: “I find it so sad when I see children who don’t know how to make the sign of the cross. It means the child has not been given the most important gift a father and a mother can give their child: faith.”
Pope Francis said we need to get used to the fact that faith is not a feeling. Sometimes the Lord grants us the grace of this feeling, but faith is more than that. Faith is my relationship with Jesus Christ. I believe that He has saved me.This is really what faith is about. Look back at those moments in your life when you were down, when you were lost and when nothing seemed to go right and observe how Christ saved you.” “After all,” the Pope repeated, “faith is a gift, it’s not a psychological state. When you are presented with a gift, you take it don’t you?”
STARTING OVER AGAIN:
In answer to a question about what makes it possible for people as individuals or within groups to get back on their feet, even when everything seems lost, Francis responded that “everyone can change, even people facing very trying situations, everyone. I know some people who had let themselves go, who were throwing their lives away and are now married with a family. This is not optimism. It is certainty in two things: in man and in the person. A person is made in the image of God and God does not look down on his own image, he saves it somehow, he always finds a way to retrieve it when it obscured. Secondly, it is the strength of the Holy Spirit that changes the conscience. God does not abandon His children.
THE IMPORTANCE OF LISTENING:
In answer to another question, the Pope said he was aware he is surrounded by many people who do not agree with what he says and does but he added that “listening to people has never done me any harm. Every time I have listened to people, it’s always worked out well for me. On the occasions I haven’t listened to them, things haven’t worked out so well. Because even if you don’t agree with someone, they always – always! – give you something or place you in a situation that pushes you to rethink your position. And this makes you a better person.”
VIRTUAL REALITY:
Asked about the tendency for young people in today’s world to embrace virtual relationships, the Pope reflected in his answer on the dangers of the virtual reality and the flow of information and content via the social media networks. “We have a great capacity to gather information and this can turn young people into “museums”, into collectors of images and data that dull and weaken their ability to be critical. “In real life, fertility does not just come from the accumulation of information or simply through virtual communication. Virtual love does not exist. The declaration of virtual love exists, but real love requires physical, concrete contact.”
AVOIDING A USELESS LIFE:
Pope Francis admitted that there were times in his life when it was not particularly rich or intense. “I am a sinner like everybody else. It’s just that the Lord leads me to do things that are visible, but how often we see people who are doing so much good without being seen!”
FINANCIAL LOBBYING/POLITICS
When asked whether he could give suggestions for Argentinian politicians in view of this year’s elections, Pope Francis limited himself to giving some generalised methodological tips. He called for a “clear electoral platform, where each individual says: if we win, we are going to do this and this. Very concrete!” Above all, the Pope said he hoped that the “election campaign will be free and not financed. Because when election campaigns are financed there are many interests involved and you have to take these into account later on.” Pope Francis admitted that this was wishful thinking on his part as in reality” money is always needed for manifestos and television coverage.” Nevertheless, he insisted: “There must be transparency in fundraising for election campaigns. As a citizen I should know that I am financing this candidate with this precise sum of money. There must be transparency and honesty in all areas.”
PAPAL VISIT TO ARGENTINA:
The final question which Pope Francis was asked by his interviewers was when he would be visiting his home country. In his answer, the Pope confirmed that he should be travellingto Argentina in 2016 but said “it will need to be fitted in with visits to other countries.” Asked then about the reports on television about “fanatics” who want to kill him, the Pope responded by saying that “our life is in God’s hands. I say to the Lord: You take care of me. But if it is your will that I should die or that someone should do something to me, I ask you only this: that it won’t hurt me because I’m very much a wimp when it comes to physical pain.”
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Parishes across the world year after year take up the traditional annual Good Friday Collection for the Church in the Holy Land.
This year is no different and the Prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches, Cardinal Leandro Sandri, has written a letter to all pastors of the Universal Church in which he expresses the gratitude of Pope Francis, of his Dicastery and of all the Churches “in the land of Christ” for their attention and generous response to the Collection.
The proceeds from the Good Friday Collection go to the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land.
The Franciscans have been caring for the holy sites there since 1209. They also assist the poor, run schools, provide scholarships, and conduct pastoral ministries to keep Christianity alive in the land where it originated.
The Collection is still today the principal source which sustains the life and works of the region’s Christians. It helps Christians of many denominations remain in the region as living witnesses to Christ.
In his appeal to Catholics to donate generously this Good Friday, Cardinal Sandri noted that “there are millions of refugees fleeing Syria and Iraq, where the roar of arms does not cease and the way of dialogue and concord seems completely lost”.
This year – he continued – “presents a still more precious opportunity to become pilgrims of faith after the example of the Holy Father, who in May last year visited this patch of land, so dear to Christians, Jews and Muslims alike. It is a chance to become promoters of dialogue through peace, prayer and sharing of burdens”.
Please find below the letter written by Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, dated February 18 2015 :
Your Excellency,
At the invitation of the Supreme Pontiffs, the Catholic Church, gathering on Good Friday for the memorial of the sorrowful Passion of Christ, expresses by prayer and by this Collection its support for the faith communities and the sacred places in the Holy Land. The need is particularly felt in this time of crisis, through which the entire region of the Middle East is passing.
The season of Lent favors a meditation full of love for the Holy Places which were present at the origin of our faith and in which the first Christian communities, following Christ, Salus Mundi, were gathered. Already St Paul remembers them, when he warmly exhorts his audience to “to make some contribution for the poor…” (cf. Rm 15:25-26; Gal 2:10; 1 Cor 16; 2 Cor 8-9).
Like the Apostle, so also Pope Francis has particularly at heart the sufferings of so many of our brothers and sisters in this corner of the world, a place made sacred by the Blood of the Lamb. “[Their suffering] aggravated in the past months because of the continuing hostilities in the region … cries out to God and it calls for our commitment to prayer and concrete efforts to help in any way possible.” (Pope Francis, Letter to the Christians in the Middle East, 21 December 2014).
Presently, there are millions of refugees fleeing Syria and Iraq, where the roar of arms does not cease and the way of dialogue and concord seems to be completely lost. Senseless hatred seems to prevail instead, along with the helpless desperation of those who have lost everything and have been expulsed from the land of their ancestors.
If the Christians of the Holy Land are encouraged to resist, to the degree possible, the understandable temptation to flee, the faithful throughout the world are asked to take their plight to heart. Also involved are brothers in Christ who belong to various confessions: an ecumenism of blood which points toward the triumph of unity: “ut unum sint”! (Jn 17:21).
This year presents a still more precious opportunity to become pilgrims in faith after the example of the Holy Father, who in May of last year visited this patch of land, so dear to Christians, Jews and Muslims alike. It is a chance to become promoters of dialogue through peace, prayer and sharing of burdens, because “the way of peace is strengthened if we realize that we are all of the same stock and members of the one human family; if we never forget that we have the same Father in heaven and that we are all his children, made in his image and likeness.” (Homily of Pope Francis during the Holy Mass at the International Stadium of Amman, 24 May 2014).
The little flock of Christians, spread throughout the Middle East is called “to promote dialogue, to build bridges in the spirit of the Beatitudes (cf. Mt 5:3:12), and to proclaim the Gospel of peace…” (Ibid., Letter to Christians in the Middle East).
Only in the unity of the Spirit and in fraternal charity with all disciples of Christ, can the Church, His Spouse, bear witness to hope before her children who daily live the same sufferings of the Lord, humiliated and abandoned.
I trust that the Good Friday Collection will be welcomed by all of the local Churches, resulting in an ever greater participation in the solidarity coordinated by our Congregation in order to guarantee the Holy Land with necessary support, both for the demands of ordinary ecclesial life and for particular necessities.
To You, to your closest Collaborators, particularly priests and religious men and women, as well as to all the faithful, I express the deepest gratitude of the Holy Father Francis and of this Dicastery, together with that of the Churches in the Land of Christ, for your generous attention and heartfelt response which will make successful this year’s Collecta pro Terra Sancta.
With my fraternal best regards in the Lord Jesus,
Leonardo Card. Sandri
Prefect
✠ Cyril Vasil’, S.J.
Archbishop Secretary
(from Vatican Radio)…