(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Saturday morning met with Evangelical leaders who are in Rome for the Vigil of Pentecost.
In a brief words of greeting, the Holy Father thanked them for their work for the unity of Christians, “which the Lord wants.” “Let us walk together,” he said, “let us help the poor together, let us perform acts of charity together, let us work for education together.” At the same time, he said, theologians can do their part and help in the effort for Christian unity. “But we are always on the journey, never stopping, never stopping… and together,” he said.
Pope Francis concluded his remarks by asking all those present to pray together, “as brothers,” the Our Father, each in his own language.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis received the participants in the Assembly of the Pontifical Mission Societies on Saturday.
A main focus of the week-long Assembly has been the Extraordinary Missionary Month scheduled for October 2019 to commemorate the centenary of the promulgation of the encyclical Maximum illud , by which Pope Benedict XV sought to give a new élan to Catholic missionary endeavor in the wake of World War I’s devastation.
The Missionary Month is also aimed at promoting the missionary commitment of the Church in line with Pope Francis’ own 2013 missionary Exhortation, Evangelii gaudium .
In remarks prepared for the occasion and delivered to the roughly 170 participants on Saturday morning in the Clementine Hall of the Apostolic Palace, Pope Francis focused on the need to cultivate personal habits of life conducive to holiness, and to practice an openness and docility toward the Holy Spirit, in order to discern new paths and channels by which the more efficaciously to communicate the Good News of our salvation in the One Divine Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.
“Renewal requires conversion,” said Pope Francis, “it requires living the mission as a permanent opportunity to proclaim Christ, to bring people to meet Him through [personal] witness and bringing others to participate in our personal encounter with Him.”
The Holy Father went on to express the hope that the spiritual and material assistance to the Churches that the Pontifical Mission Societies give will make those Churches ever more solidly founded on the Gospel and On the baptismal involvement of all the faithful – laymen and clergy alike – in the Church’s one and only mission: “[T]o make God’s love close to every man, especially to those most in need of His mercy.”
Pope Francis went on to pray that the Extraordinary Month of Prayer and Reflection on Mission as First Evangelization might serve this renewal of ecclesial faith, “that the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, the only Savior, Lord and Spouse of his Church, be ever at work in His Church.”
(from Vatican Radio)…
The Uganda Martyrs Day celebration has taken place at Uganda’s Namugongo shrine. According to Uganda’s Daily Monitor Newspaper, by 8 am all the pavilions where pilgrims sit were already full even though people were still trying to make the security clearances to get inside the shrine for the Mass.
Some pilgrims arrived at the shrine six days ago in order to have an assured place at the arena.
Uganda’s Bishop of Hoima Diocese, Vincent Kirabo whose Diocese is hosting this year’s Martyrs’ day was the principal celebrant at the Holy Mass.
Speaking during Mass, monitored on Uganda’s NTV Youtube live stream , the Bishop invited the faithful to be faithful witnesses to the message of Christ just as the martyrs were.
“The Uganda Martyrs were ordinary people with admirable human qualities … because of these qualities the were leaders at the Kabaka’s palace,” the Bishop said. He told the faithful that there is documented evidence that as Catechumens, the martyrs would sometimes forgo sleep at night to go the house of the White Father Missionaries to learn the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
The Bishop also announced that documents for the beatification of the White Father missionaries, that is Fr. ‘Mapeera’ Lourdel and Brother Amans who ministered to the Uganda Martyrs had been submitted to the Vatican.
The country’s Vice President Edward Ssekandi is the guest of honour and was expected to give a speech later in the day.
Uganda’s Martyrs Day, which falls on 3 June, every year commemorates the heroic faith of the 45 Martyrs, both Catholic and Anglican, who were burnt to death on the orders of Kabaka Mwanga II, then King of Buganda between 1885 and 1887. Twenty-two Catholic Martyrs were beatified on 6 June 1920, by Pope Benedict XV, and on 18 October 1964, Pope Paul VI canonised them as Saints.
(Emailo:engafrica@vatiradio.va)
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Why does God let children suffer? How can kids change the world? And how can they overcome their fear of growing up?
Those were the soul-searching questions that three children asked Pope Francis on Friday during a meeting with members of an organisation for middle school students called ‘I Cavalieri’ or The Knights.
The colourful encounter included young knights from all over Italy, along with groups from Spain, Portugal, France and Switzerland, plus others linked up online from Latin America.
Listen to Philippa Hitchen’s report:
After lots of lively singing and cheering, a young girl named Marta asked a first question about how to overcome her fear of moving to high school and saying goodbye to all her current friends.
The Pope told her that life is a continual round of big and small ‘hellos and goodbyes’. We grow up, he said, by making new friends and letting go of old ones. Don’t be frightened, he said, but try to see it as a challenge. Don’t worry about what’s behind the wall, but imagine instead a horizon you can see in the countryside and try to always move forward towards your new horizons .
A second child, Giulio, asked the Pope how young people can help change the world for the better .
Getting the kids to shout out answers, Pope Francis asked what happens if they have two sweets and a friend comes to call? And if they only have one sweet? Do you put it in your pocket and eat it later? Or do you share what you have with others? Show me your hands, he instructed the kids: are they closed and selfish, or open and generous? Our hands are a symbol for our hearts, he said, and only open, generous hearts can change the world .
If you have a friend at school that you don’t like, the Pope went on, don’t go and gossip about that person with others, because that shows you have a closed heart. If someone insults you, don’t insult them back, but try and change the world with small, every day, acts of generosity and solidarity . Jesus taught us to pray for our friends and our enemies, for those who make us suffer, he said, just as Our Father in heaven makes the sun shine upon good and bad people.
Finally a young Bulgarian boy, Tanio, told the Pope how he’d been abandoned in an orphanage and adopted by Italian parents at five years old. His new mum died a year later, leaving his dad and grandparents to look after him. Now his grandparents have died too, so he asked the Pope: How can we believe that God loves us when we lose people in this way?
Pope Francis confessed that he too asks the same question when he visits sick children in hospital. How can we believe in God’s love when we see kids suffer from hunger in some parts of the world, while so much food is wasted in other places? There are simply no words to answer these questions , he told his young audience. The only explanation you may find is in the love of those who support and care for you.
God doesn’t answer my questions either, he admitted, but when I look at the Cross and remember that God let his own Son suffer, I know that there must be a sense to it somewhere. I can’t explain it to you, he said, but you may find it on your own. Remember, he concluded, there are questions and situations in life which cannot be explained, yet the love of God is always there , and people around you can help you feel his presence in your life.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has released his video message accompanying his monthly prayer intention for June.
This month’s intention is for the elimination of the arms trade.
The text of the video message reads:
“It is an absurd contradiction to speak of peace, to negotiate peace, and at the same time, promote or permit the arms trade.
Is this war or that war really a war to solve problems or is it a commercial war for selling weapons in illegal trade and so that the merchants of death get rich?
Let us put an end to this situation. Let us pray all together that national leaders may firmly commit themselves to ending the arms trade which victimizes so many innocent people.”
The Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network of the Apostleship of Prayer developed the “Pope Video” initiative to assist in the worldwide dissemination of monthly intentions of the Holy Father in relation to the challenges facing humanity.
(from Vatican Radio)…