NEWS ABOUT THE CHURCH & THE VATICAN

Pope tells students: learn to be magnanimous

Vatican Radio
June 7, 2013

Pope Francis met with hundreds of students from Italian and Albanian Jesuit grade schools and high schools in an audience in the Paul VI Hall on Friday. Below, is Vatican Radio’s translation of the Pope’s official text for the meeting. At the sight of the enthusiastic young people, the Pope spontaneously decided to enter into a question-and-answer session with the students. A report will follow.

Dear children, dear young people!

I am happy to receive you with your families, the educators and friends of the big family of the Jesuit schools of Italy and Albania. To all of you, my affectionate greeting: welcome! With all of you, I feel truly that I am “with family”. And it brings special joy that our meeting coincides with the solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

I would like you tell you first of all one thing in reference to St. Ignatius of Loyola, our founder. In the autumn of 1537, going to Rome with a group of his first companions, he asked himself: if they ask us who we are, what will we respond? Spontaneously, the response came: “We’ll say that we are the ‘Society of Jesus’!” (Fontes Narrativi Societatis Iesu, vol. 1, pp. 320-322). A challenging name, which indicated a relationship of very close friendship, of total affection for Jesus, whose footsteps they wanted to follow. Why did I recount this fact to you? Because St. Ignatius and his companions had understood that Jesus taught them how to live well, how to create a life that would have profound meaning, joy and hope; they understood that Jesus is a great master of life and a model for life, and that he not only taught them, but was also inviting them to follow him on this path.

Dear children, if I were to ask you the question now: why do you go to school, what would you answer me? Probably there would be many responses according to each of your feelings. But I think it could all be summarized saying that school is one of the educational environments in which we grow to learn to live, to become adult and mature men and women, capable of walking, of going along the road of life. How does school help you to grow? It helps you not only in the development of your intelligence, but with an integral formation of all of the components of your personality.

Following that which St. Ignatius teaches us, the principle element of school is to learn to be magnanimous. Magnanimity: this virtue of the great and of the small (Non coerceri maximo contineri minimo, divinum est), that makes us always look to the horizon. What does it mean to be magnanimous? It means to have a big heart, to have a great spirit; it means to have great ideals, the desire to do great things to respond to that which God asks of us, and exactly this doing of daily things well, all of the daily acts, obligations, encounters with people; doing everyday small things with a big heart open to God and to others. It is important, therefore, to tend to human formation aimed at magnanimity. School not only expands your intellectual dimension, but also the human (dimension). And I think in a particular way, Jesuit schools are attentive to developing human virtues: loyalty, respect, faithfulness, commitment. I would like to pause on two fundamental values: freedom and service.

Firstly, be people who are free! What do I mean? Perhaps we think freedom is doing everything we want; or venturing into high-risk activities to experience a thrill or to overcome boredom. This is not freedom. Freedom means knowing how to reflect on that which we do, to know how to evaluate that which is good and that which is bad, those behaviours that make us grow, it means always choosing good. We have freedom for the good. And, in this, do not be afraid to go against the current, even if it is not easy! To be free to always choose the good is challenging, but it will make you people who have backbone, who know how to face life, (and) people with courage and patience (parresia e ypomoné). The second word is service. In your schools, you participate in various activities that habituate you to not be closed in on yourselves and in your little world, but to open yourselves to others, especially the poorest and neediest, to work to better the world in which we live. Be men and women with others and for others, true champions in the service of others.

To be magnanimous with interior freedom and in a spirit of service is necessary for spiritual formation. Dear children, dear young people, always love Jesus Christ more! Our lives are a response to his call and you will be happy and you will build your lives well if you will know how to respond to this call. Feel the presence of the Lord in your lives. He is close to each of you as your companion, as a friend, who knows how to help you and to understand you, who encourages you in difficult moments and never abandons you. In prayer, in dialogue with him, in the reading of the Bible, you will discover that he is truly close to you. And learn, as well, to read the signs of God in your lives. He always speaks to us, even through the facts of our age and of our daily existence; it is up to us to listen to him.

I do not want to be too long, but I would like to address a specific word also to the educators: the Jesuits, teachers, school staff and parents. Do not be discouraged before the difficulties that the educational challenge presents! Educating is not a job but an attitude, a way of being; to educate we need to step out of ourselves and stay among young people, to accompany them in the stages of their growth, placing ourselves at their side. Give them hope, optimism for their journey in the world. Teach them to see the beauty and the goodness of creation and of humanity, which always retain the imprint of the Creator. But most of all, be witnesses with your lives of that which you communicate. An educator – a Jesuit, teacher, school staff, parent – transmits knowledge and values with his words, but he will be incisive on the children if he accompanies his words with his witness, with the coherence of his life. Without coherence, it is not possible to educate! You are all educators, there are no proxies in this field. Therefore, collaboration in a spirit of unity and community among the different educational components is essential and must be encouraged and nourished. The school can and must be a catalyst, the place of encounter and convergence for the entire educating community, with the sole objective of forming (youth), helping (them) to grow as mature persons, simple, competent and honest, and who know how to love with fidelity, who know how to live life as a response to the vocation of God and their future profession as a service to society. To Jesuits, then, I would like to say that it is important to nourish their commitment in the field of education. Schools are a precious instrument that make a contribution to the journey of the Church and of all of society. The educational field, then, is not limited to conventional schools. Encourage each other to seek new non-conventional forms of education, according to “the need of the places, times and people”.

Finally, a greeting to all of the alumni present, to the representatives of the Italian schools in the Fe y Alegria network, which I know well for the great work it does in South America, especially among the poorest classes. And a special greeting to the delegation of the Albanian College of Scutari which, after the long years of repression of religious institutions, in 1994 took up its activities once again, welcoming and educating Catholic, Orthodox and Muslim children and also some students born in agnostic families. In this way, school becomes a place of dialogue and serene encounter that promotes attitudes of respect, listening, friendship and a spirit of collaboration.

Dear friends, I thank you all for this meeting. I entrust you to the maternal intercession of Mary and I accompany you with my blessing: the Lord be always near you, pick you up from your falls and urge you to grow and to make always greater choices “with great courage and generosity”, with magnanimity. Ad Maiorem Dei Gloriam.


***********


Pope launches into spontaneous Q&A with students


In a style that seems to have almost become signature of the current pontificate, Pope Francis stepped out of yet another scripted session to engage in a spontaneous question-and-answer period with hundreds of children and teens.

The papal audience in the Paul VI Hall with students, teachers and staff of Jesuit grade schools and high schools on Friday became a friendly dialogue between the 76-year-old pontiff and the young people.

The students, who had come from six Italian cities and one school in Albania, were passing the time singing a Christian rap song, when the Pope entered the hall unannounced. At his sighting, they immediately erupted into cheers and applause.

In response, it seems, Pope Francis decided to put his five-page written message aside.

“I prepared a text, but it’s five pages! A little boring,” he said to the young people, who responded with laughter.

He proposed to give short summary and then take questions from the students instead.

With sensitivity and humour, the Pope answered 10 frank questions, that ranged from his priestly vocation to his decision to forego the usual papal apartment.

When asked if it was a difficult to leave his family and friends and become a priest, the pope said it was. “It is not easy but there are beautiful moments and Jesus helps you and gives you some joy.”

When asked why he wanted to join the Jesuits, he said he wanted to be a missionary and he was attracted by the religious order’s missionary zeal and activity.

When asked why he decided to renounce the usual papal apartment, he said it was a question of personality, not of luxury.

“I have a need to live among people.” he said. “If I were to live alone, perhaps a little isolate, it would not be good for me. … It is my personality. … It is not an issue of personal virtue, it is only that I cannot live alone.”

He added that the poverty in the world today is a scandal. “All of us today must think about how we can become a little poorer,” he said, so as to resemble Jesus.

The Pope addressed more serious concerns as well.

When a student doubting his faith asked for words of encouragement, he likened the faith a long walk. “To walk is an art,” he said, “To walk is the art of looking at the horizon, thinking about where I want to go but also enduring the fatigue. And many times, the walk is difficult, it is not easy… There is darkness… even days of failure… one falls…

"But always think this: do not be afraid of failure. Do not be afraid of falling. In the art of walking, what is important is not avoiding the fall but not remaining fallen," he said. "Get up quickly, continue on, and go. … But it is also terrible to walk alone, terrible and boring. Walking in community with friends, with those who love us, this helps us and helps us get to the end.”

Three students from different grades also read letters to the Pope. They complemented him on his pontificate to date and expressed appreciation for his simplicity and his ability to reach out to young people with his poignant messages.

“You’re like a child,” said young Gugliemo in his letter. “You smile a lot, you are very good and kind.”

“If you have difficult moments, remember that god gave you this responsibility and he believes in you,” he encouraged.

“We know the work of a pope is difficult, but you’re getting on okay," the grade schooler joked.

Earlier, in the summary of his text, the Pope told the students that the purpose of education is to learn magnanimity.

“We need to be magnanimous, with big hearts and without fear,” he said. “Always bet on great ideals. But also magnanimity in small things and daily things.... Magnanimity means walking with Jesus, attentive to that which Jesus tells us.”

In his message to educators, he said education requires an equilibrium between security and risk. He also urged educators to find new non-conventional forms of education, according to the needs of the context.

The Pope concluded the meeting with a blessing.

Pope at Mass: Learning from Mary to keep the Word of God

Vatican Radio
June 8, 2013

Like Mary, we must learn to receive and keep the Word of God safe in our hearts. Marking the Feast of the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary at morning Mass Saturday, Pope Francis pointed out that Mary assimilated the Word of God into her life, by meditating it and pondering what message the Lord had for her through His Word and that this is what safekeeping means.

Astonishment and safekeeping: Pope Francis developed his homily around these two themes starting from the Gospel of the day, which recounts the astonishment of the teachers in the Temple listening to Jesus and Mary’s keeping the Word of God safe in her heart. Astonishment, the Pope observed, "is more than joy: it is a moment in which the Word of God comes, is sown in our hearts. " But, he warned, "we cannot always live in wonder", this should be “kept in our hearts” throughout our lives. And this is precisely what Mary does, when she is "astonished" and keeps the "Word of God" in her heart:

"Keeping the Word of God: what does this mean? I receive the Word, and then I take a bottle, I put the word in the bottle and I keep it? No. Keeping the Word of God means that our heart opens, it is open to that Word just like the earth opens to receive the seed. The Word of God is a seed and is sown. And Jesus told us what happens with the seeds: some fall along the path, and the birds come and eat them; this word is not kept, these hearts do not know how to receive it”.

Others, he said, fall into a stony soil and the seed dies. Jesus says that they "do not know how to keep the Word of God because they are not constant: When a tribulation comes they forget." The Pope repeated that the Word of God falls into a soil that is unprepared, not kept, full of thorns. And what are the thorns? Jesus pointed them out, when He speaks of '"attachment to riches, vices”. Pope Francis said “keeping the Word of God means constantly meditating on what this Word says to us and what happens in our life." And this “is what Mary did”, she “pondered and questioned” it. This, said Pope Francis, "is a truly great spiritual work":

“John Paul II said that, because of this work, Mary had a particular heaviness in her heart, she had a fatigued heart. But this is not the same as tired, it is fatigue, this comes from effort. This is the effort of keeping the Word of God : the work of trying to find what this means at this moment, what the Lord wants to say to me at this time, this situation of questioning the [meaning of ]the Word of God is how we understand. This is reading our life with the Word of God and this it means to keep".

Pope Francis added that memory also safeguards God's Word. “It helps us to preserve it, to remember everything the Lord has done in my life". He continued : “it reminds us of all the wonders of salvation in His people and in my heart. Memory safeguards the Word of God. " The Pope concluded his homily urging everyone to think "about how to keep the Word of God in our hearts, how to safeguard this astonishment, so that it is not eaten by the birds, suffocated by vices":

"We would do well to ask ourselves: 'With the things that happen in life, I ask myself the question: what is the Lord saying to me with His Word, right now?'. This is called keeping the Word of God, because the Word of God is precisely the message that the Lord gives us in every moment. Let us safeguard it with this: safeguard it with our memory. And safeguard it with our hope. We ask the Lord for the grace to receive the Word of God and keep it, and also the grace to have a heart that is fatigued in this effort. So be it. "

Saturday morning Mass was attended by staff from Caritas Internationalis, accompanied by the secretary general, Michel Roy.

Pope Francis: Sunday Angelus (full text)

Vatican Radio
June 9, 2013

Pope Francis prayed the Angelus with thousands of pilgrims gathered in St Peter's Square this Sunday. In his remarks to the gathered faithful, the Holy Father reflected on the mercy of Our Lord, which is the focus of the Church's prayerful attention during the month of June, traditionally dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Below, please find Vatican Radio's English translation of the Holy Father's remarks ahead of the traditional prayer of Marian devotion.

**************************************

Dear brothers and sisters!

The month of June is traditionally dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the highest human expression of divine love. Just this past Friday, in fact, we celebrated the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus: the feast that sets the tone for the whole month. Popular piety highly prizes symbols, and the Heart of Jesus is the ultimate symbol of God's mercy – but it is not an imaginary symbol, it is a real symbol, which represents the center, the source from which salvation for all humanity gushed forth.

In the Gospels we find several references to the Heart of Jesus, for example, in the passage where Christ says, “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart. (Mt 11:28-29)” Then there is the key story of the death of Christ according to John. This evangelist in fact testifies to what he saw on Calvary: that a soldier, when Jesus was already dead, pierced his side with a spear, and from the wound flowed blood and water (cf. Jn 19.33-34). John recognized in that – apparently random – sign, the fulfillment of prophecies: from the heart of Jesus, the Lamb slain on the cross, flow forgiveness and life for all men.

But the mercy of Jesus is not just sentiment: indeed it is a force that gives life, that raises man up! [This Sunday]’s Gospel tells us this as well, in the episode of the widow of Nain (Luke 7:11-17). Jesus, with his disciples, is just arrived in Nain, a village in Galilee, at the very moment in which a funeral is taking place. a boy is buried, the only son of a widow. Jesus’ gaze immediately fixes itself on the weeping mother. The evangelist Luke says: “Seeing her, the Lord was moved with great compassion for her (v. 13).” This “compassion” is the love of God for man, it is mercy, i.e. the attitude of God in contact with human misery, with our poverty, our suffering, our anguish. The biblical term “compassion” recalls the maternal viscera: a mother, in fact, experiences a reaction all her own, to the pain of her children. In this way does God love us, the Scripture says.

And what is the fruit of this love? It is life! Jesus said to the widow of Nain, “Do not weep,” and then called the dead boy and awoke him as from a sleep (cf. vv. 13-15). The mercy of God gives life to man, it raises him from the dead. The Lord is always watching us with mercy, [always] awaits us with mercy. Let us be not afraid to approach him! He has a merciful heart! If we show our inner wounds, our sins, He always forgives us. He is pure mercy! Let us never forget this: He is pure mercy! Let us go to Jesus!

Let us turn to the Virgin Mary: her immaculate heart – a mother’s heart – has shared the “compassion” of God to the full, especially at the hour of the passion and death of Jesus. May Mary help us to be meek, humble and compassionate with our brethren.

After the Angelus, Pope Francis spoke these words to Pilgrims:

Dear brothers and sisters!

Today in Krakow are proclaimed Blessed two Polish women religious: Zofia Czeska Maciejowska, who, in the first half of the 17th century, founded the Congregation of the Virgins of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary; Margaret Lucia Szewczyk, who in the 19th century founded the Congregation of the Daughters of Our Lady of Sorrows. With the Church in Krakow we give thanks to the Lord!

I affectionately greet all the pilgrims present today: church groups, families, schools, associations, movements.

I greet the faithful from Mumbai, India.

I greet the Family Love Movement of Rome, the confraternities and volunteers of the Sanctuary of Mongiovino, near Perugia, Umbria, the Young Franciscans of Umbria, the "House of Charity" in Lecce, the faithful of the province of Modena, whom I encourage [in their work of] reconstruction [the region was hard-hit by an earthquake in 2012], and those of Ceprano. I greet the pilgrims of Ortona, where we venerate the relics of the Apostle Thomas, who made ​​a journey “from Thomas to Peter”! Thank you!

I wish you all a good Sunday, and a good lunch!

Pope at Mass: Christian consolation and the law of the truly free

Vatican Radio
June 10, 2013

The Beatitudes are 'new commandments', but they are not just a simple do gooders list. They cannot be understood with the mind, only with the heart, so if our hearts are closed to God we will never know true freedom. Christian consolation is the presence of God in our hearts which teaches us to understand the Beatitudes as the law of the truly free. This was the main focus of Pope Francis’ homily Monday morning at Mass in the Casa Santa Marta residence.

Reflecting on the daily readings the Pope began by noting that, at the beginning of the Second Letter to the Corinthians, St. Paul uses the word consolation several times. The Apostle to the Gentiles, he added, "speaks to Christians who are young in the faith," people who "have recently begun to follow the path of Jesus", he insists on this, even if "they were not all persecuted." They were normal people, "but they had found Jesus." The Pope said this "was such a life-changing experience that a special strength from God was needed" and this strength is consolation. Consolation, he said again, "is the presence of God in our hearts." But, Pope Francis warned, in order for the Lord "to be present in our hearts, we must open the door”. His presence requires our "conversion":

"This is salvation: to live in the consolation of the Holy Spirit, not the consolation of the spirit of this world. No, that is not salvation, that is sin. Salvation is moving forward and opening our hearts so they can receive the Holy Spirit’s consolation, which is salvation. This is non-negotiable, you can’t take a bit from here and a bit from there? We cannot pick and mix, no? A bit of the Holy Spirit, a bit of the spirit of this world ... No! It’s one thing or the other. "

Pope Francis continued, the Lord clearly states: "You cannot serve two masters: or you serve teh Lord or you serve the spirit of this world." You cannot ‘mix them up’. It is precisely when we are open to the Spirit of the Lord, that we are able to understand the "new law that the Lord brings us": the Beatitudes, of which the Gospel speaks today. The Pope added that we can only understand these Beatitudes " if we have an open heart, from the consolation of the Holy Spirit". They "cannot be understood with human intelligence alone":

"They are the new commandments. But if we do not have a heart open to the Holy Spirit, they will seem silly. ‘Just look, being poor, being meek, being merciful will hardly lead us to success'. If we do not have an open heart and if we have not experienced the consolation of the Holy Spirit, which is salvation, we cannot understand this. This is the law for those who have been saved and have opened their hearts to salvation. This is the law of the free, with the freedom of the Holy Spirit. "

Pope Francis continued, "we can regulate ourlife, according to a list of commands or procedures," but it is a "merely human” list. In the end this “does not lead us to salvation”. The Pope recalled that many were interested in "examining", "this new doctrine and then arguing with Jesus." And this was because they "their hearts were closed in on their own concerns", "concerns that God wanted to change." Pope Francis asked; Why do people "have their hearts closed to salvation?". The Pope said it is because “we are afraid of salvation. We need it, but we are afraid" because when the Lord comes "to save us we have to give everything. He is in charge! And we are afraid of this" because "we want control of ourselves". He added that in order to understand "these new commandments," we need the freedom that "is born of the Holy Spirit, who saves us, who comforts us" and is "the giver of life":

"Today we can now ask the Lord for the grace to follow Him, but with this freedom. Because if we want to follow him with our human freedom alone, in the end we become hypocrites like the Pharisees and Sadducees, those who quarreled with him. This is hypocrisy: not allowing the Spirit to change our hearts with His salvation. The freedom of the Spirit, which the Spirit gives us, is also a kind of slavery, of being ‘enslaved’ to the Lord which makes us free, it is another freedom. Instead, our freedom is only slavery, but not to the Lord, but to the spirit of the world. Let us ask for the grace to open our hearts to the consolation of the Holy Spirit, so that this consolation, which is salvation, allows us to understand these commandments. So be it! "

Mass was concelebrated by the President and undersecretary of the Pontifical Council for the Laity, Cardinal Stanislaw Rylko and Bishops Josef Clemens and Indian Archbishop George Valiamattam, of Tellicherry. It was attended by a group of priests and collaborators of the Pontifical Council for the Laity.

Pope at Mass: Poverty and praise of God

Vatican Radio
June 11, 2013

The Gospel should be generously and simply proclaimed said Pope Francis during morning Mass Tuesday in the Casa Santa Marta chapel. Poverty and praise of God, he said are the two key signs of an evangelical and missionary Church. Instead a rich Church becomes an old, lifeless Church, it becomes an NGO that neglects the true treasure of God's free grace.

Pope Francis began his homily quoting Jesus exhortation to the Apostles, sent to proclaim the Kingdom of God: "Provide yourselves with no gold or silver, not even with coppers for your purses" (M 10:9). He said the Lord wants us to proclaim the Gospel with simplicity, a simplicity "that gives way to the power of the Word of God," because if the Apostles had not had "confidence in the Word of God," "they would probably have done something else”. Pope Francis went on to identify the "key word" in the mandate given by Jesus: "Freely you have received, freely give." He said everything is grace and when we leave grace “a little to one side” in our proclamation, the Gospel “is not effective".

"Evangelical preaching flows from gratuitousness, from the wonder of the salvation that comes and that which I have freely received I must freely give. This is what they were like at the beginning. St. Peter did not have a bank account, and when he had to pay taxes, the Lord sent him to the sea to catch fish and find the money in the fish, to pay. Philip, when he met Queen Candace’s finance minister, did not think, 'Ah, good, let’s set up an organization to support the Gospel ...' No! He did not strike a ‘deal’ with him: he preached, baptized and left".

Pope Francis said the Kingdom of God, "is a free gift”, but he also added that from the beginning of the Christian community, this attitude has been subjected to temptation. "There is the temptation to seek strength", he said, “ elsewhere than in gratuity”. This temptation creates "a little 'confusion," he warned, where “proclamation becomes proselytizing”. Instead "our strength is the gratuitousness of the Gospel." The Lord, "has invited us to preach, not to proselytize." Citing Benedict XVI, Pope Francis stated that "the Church does not grow through proselytizing but by drawing people to her". And this attraction, he said, comes from the testimony of "those who freely proclaim the gratuity of salvation".

"Everything is grace. Everything. And what are the signs of when an apostle lives this gratuity? There are so many, but I will underline only two: First, poverty. The proclamation of the Gospel must follow the path of poverty. The testimony of this poverty: I have no wealth, my wealth is the gift I received, God: this gratuity is our wealth! And this poverty saves us from becoming managers, entrepreneurs ... The works of the Church must be brought forward, and some are a little complex, but with a heart of poverty, not with the heart of an investment broker or an entrepreneur…"

Pope Francis continued, "The Church is not an NGO: it is something else, something more important, and this is the result of gratuity. Received and proclaimed". Poverty "is one of the signs of this gratuity." The other sign "is the ability of praise: when an apostle does not live this gratuity, he or she loses the ability to praise the Lord." Praising the Lord, in fact, "is essentially gratuitous, it is a gratuitous prayer: we do not ask, we only praise"

"These two are the signs of an apostle who lives this gratuity: poverty and the ability to praise the Lord. And when we find the apostles who want to build a rich Church and a Church without the gratuitousness of praise, the Church becomes old, the Church becomes an NGO, the Church becomes lifeless. Today we ask the Lord for the grace to acknowledge this generosity: 'Freely you have received, freely give'. Recognizing this gratuity, this gift of God . Let us move forward in preaching of Gospel".

Tuesday morning Mass was concelebrated by Archbishop Gerhard Ludwig Müller Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and was attended by Congregation Staff.

Pope Francis: `Gay lobby' exists inside Vatican

By Daniel Burke
CNN Belief Blog Co-Editor
June 11, 2013

(CNN) – Pope Francis said a “gay lobby” exists inside the Vatican, a surprising disclosure from a pope who has already delivered his share of stunners, and a resurrection of church conflicts that had bedeviled his predecessor's papacy.

“In the Curia,” Francis said, referring to Catholicism’s central bureaucracy, “there are holy people. But there is also a stream of corruption.”

“The 'gay lobby' is mentioned, and it is true, it is there,” Francis continued. “We need to see what we can do.”

Hints that the Holy See contained a network of gay clergy surfaced last year in reports about a series of embarrassing leaks to Italian journalists.

The "Vatileaks" scandal factored in Pope Emeritus Benedict XIV's shocking decision to resign earlier this year, according to some church experts, as it impressed upon the 86-year-old pontiff that the modern papacy requires a vigorous and watchful presence.

Francis' enigmatic comments came during a meeting Sunday with CLAR, the Latin American and Caribbean Confederation of Religious Men and Women, who head Catholic communities of priests, sisters and monks. The Chilean website Reflection and Liberation, which focuses on liberation theology, first reported Francis’ remarks.

A Vatican spokesman told CNN, "The Holy See Press Office has no official comment on the private meeting."

Gay and lesbian Catholic groups did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests said, "structure, not sexuality, is the real issue."

"The church is a monarchy. Monarchs are unaccountable. So many monarchs are corrupt. This is true in both secular and religious institutions," SNAP said in a statement.

Other Catholics counseled caution about reading too much into the pope's remarks.

"We don't have any explanation of what 'gay lobby' means," said Rocco Palmo, a Vatican watcher who runs Whispers in the Loggia, a website on Catholic news and church politics.

"Naturally, some in the church will try to polarize or interpret this, but as the rest of us aren't pope, we still have to get further explanation," Palmo added.

Church experts say the Chilean report rings true since the wide-ranging conversation centers on concerns that Francis has made touchstones of his nascent papacy.

In contrast to the buttoned-up Benedict, Francis has earned an early reputation for speaking off the cuff, often ditching prepared remarks in favor of more informal conversations.

On Friday, Francis nixed his “boring” speech and instead took questions from young Catholic students. Asked by a little girl if he wanted to be pope, Francis laughed and said that only someone who “doesn’t love himself” would want the position.

"He has said some things that would turn Benedict whiter than the papal vestments," Palmo joked.

Francis told the Catholic leaders on Sunday to focus on the poor, that the Vatican must be reformed, and joked that whoever wagered on his long-shot election as pope “won a lot, of course.”

But his comments on the "gay lobby" are likely to gain the most attention, especially in the West, where Catholic leaders have been mounting a fierce fight against same-sex marriage.

After Benedict announced his resignation in February, reports circulated that a “gay lobby” had forced his hand.

Cardinals appointed by the former pope to find the source of the leaks investigated high-level Vatican clergy involved in homosexual affairs who might have been vulnerable to blackmail, according to La Repubblica, a leading Italian newspaper.

La Repubblica reported that the cardinals found evidence of a “gay lobby” within the Vatican but gave few details about it.

"Some high level clergy are exposed to the `external influence' – what we would call blackmail – of lay people to whom they are connected through ties of a `worldly nature,'" La Repubblica wrote.

The Vatican blasted the newspaper reports as “unverified, unverifiable and completely false.”

Francis is one of the few Catholic leaders to have seen the Vatican report.

The so-called Vatileaks scandal led to Benedict's butler, Paolo Gabriele, being convicted on charges last year of leaking private papers from the the pope's private office. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison.

John Allen, CNN’s senior Vatican analyst, has said it would have been odd if the Vatican report had not considered the possibility that "insiders leading a double life," including sexually active clergy, might be vulnerable to pressure to betray the pope.

“It seems a stretch, however, to suggest this is the real reason," behind Benedict's resignation, Allen said.

In one of his first actions as pope, Francis created a council of eight cardinals, including Cardinal Sean O'Malley of Boston, to offer suggestions on reforming the Vatican.

“The reform of the Roman Curia is something that almost all Cardinals asked for in the congregations preceding the Conclave,” Francis said, referring to the meetings that led up to his election in March. “I also asked for it.”

But Francis said that he cannot promote the reform himself. “I am very disorganized,” he said “I have never been good at this.”

Instead, the pope said, he is relying on his eight appointed cardinals to move the reforms forward.

Pope at Mass: True progress is in trusting the Spirit

Vatican Radio
June 12, 2013

Pope Francis spoke about how fear can stop the Church moving forward and a culture of ‘adolescent progressivism’ risks ‘de-railing’ the true progress of believers in carrying out God’s law. Instead they must follow the path to Christian maturity by trusting in the Holy Spirit.

The Pope’s homily at Wednesday morning Mass centered around Jesus’ words in the Gospel of the day, (MT 5:17) " Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets." He said this Gospel passage which follows the Beatitudes is "an expression of the new law" which is more demanding than that of Moses. This law, the Pope added, is "the fruit of the Covenant" and cannot be understood without it. "This Alliance, this law is sacred because it brought the people to God." Pope Francis likened the "maturity of this law" to a " bursting bud that reveals a flower." Jesus "is the expression of the maturity of the law". The Pope noted that Paul speaks of two times "without breaking continuity" between the law of history and the law of the Spirit:

"The hour of the law’s fulfillment, is when the law reaches its maturity when it becomes the law of the Spirit. Moving forward on this road is somewhat risky, but it is the only road to maturity, to leave behind the times in which we are not mature. Part of the law’s journey to maturity, which comes with preaching Jesus, always involves fear; fear of the freedom that the Spirit gives us. The law of the Spirit makes us free! This freedom frightens us a little, because we are afraid we will confuse the freedom of the Spirit with human freedom. "

Pope Francis continued, the law of the Spirit, "takes us on a path of continuous discernment to do the will of God” and this can frighten us. The Pope warned that this fear "brings two temptations with it." The first, is to "go backwards" to say that "it’s possible up to this point, but impossible beyond this point" which ends up becoming "let’s stay here". This, he warned, "is the temptation of fear of freedom, fear of the Holy Spirit." A fear that "it is better to play it safe." Pope Francis then told a story about a superior general who, in the 1930’s, went around compiling a list of regulations for his religious, "a work that took years." Then he travelled to Rome to meet a Benedictine abbot, who, upon hearing all he had done, replied that in doing so he "had killed his Congregation’s charism", "he had killed its freedom" since "this charism bears fruit in freedom and he had stopped the charism”.

"This is the temptation to go backwards, because we are 'safer' going back: but total security is in the Holy Spirit that brings you forward, which gives us this trust - as Paul says - which is more demanding because Jesus tells us: “Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter will pass from the law”. It is more demanding! But it does not give us that human security. We cannot control the Holy Spirit: that is the problem! This is a temptation. "

Pope Francis noted that there is another temptation: that of “adolescent progressivism”, that de-rails us. This temptation lies in seeing a culture and “not detaching ourselves from it”.

"We take the values of this culture a little bit from here, a little bit from there , ... They want to make this law? Alright let’s go ahead and make this law. Let’s broaden the boundaries here a little. In the end, let me tell you, this is not true progress. It is adolescent progressivism: just like teenagers who in their enthusiasm want to have everything and in the end? You slip up ... It’s like when the road is covered in ice and the car slips and go off track... This is the other temptation at the moment! We, at this moment in the history of the Church, we cannot go backwards or go off the track! "

Pope Francis concluded : the track "is that of freedom in the Holy Spirit that makes us free, in continuous discernment of God's will to move forward on this path, without going back and without going off-track". Let us ask the Lord for "the grace that the Holy Spirit gives us to go forward."

Mass was concelebrated by Cardinal João Braz de Aviz, accompanied by priests, religious and lay staff of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life.

Pope: we are all invited to be members of the People of God

Vatican Radio
June 12, 2013

Pope Francis on Wednesday addressed the crowds of pilgrims gathered in St. Peter's Square for the weekly General Audience.

Please find below Vatican Radio's full translation of his address.

Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!

Today I would like to touch briefly on another of the terms with which the Second Vatican Council defined the Church, that of “People of God" (cf. Dogmatic Constitution. Lumen Gentium, 9; Catechism of the Catholic Church, 782). I shall do so with a few questions upon which we can all reflect.

1. What does it mean to be "People of God"? First of all, it means that God does not really belong to any people; for it is He who calls us, who summons us, who invites us to be part of his people, and this invitation is open to all, without distinction, because God’s mercy “desires all people to be saved "(1 Tim 2:4). Jesus does not tell the Apostles and us to form an exclusive group, an elite group. Jesus says: Go and make disciples of all nations (cf. Mt 28:19). St Paul says that within the people of God, in the Church, "there is neither Jew nor Gentile ... for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Gal 3:28). I would like to say to those who feel far from God and the Church, to those who are fearful or indifferent, to those who think they can no longer change: the Lord is calling you too to be part of his people and he does it with great respect and love! He invites us to be a part of this people, the people of God

2. How do you become a member of this people? It is not through physical birth, but through a new birth. In the Gospel, Jesus tells Nicodemus that one must be born from above, of water and of spirit to enter the Kingdom of God (cf. John 3:3-5). It is through Baptism that we are introduced to this people, through faith in Christ, the gift of God which must be nurtured and tended to throughout our whole life. Let us ask ourselves: how can I grow in the faith that I received in my Baptism? How do tend to this faith that I have received and that the people of God has? How do I make it grow? And another question.

3. What is the law of the People of God? It is the law of love, love for God and love for our neighbor according to the new commandment that the Lord left us (cf. Jn 13:34). It is a love, however, that is not sterile sentimentality or something vague, it is recognizing God as the only Lord of life and, at the same time, accepting the other as a true brother, overcoming divisions, rivalry, misunderstandings, selfishness; the two things go together. We have still so far to go to be able to live concretely according to this new law, the law of the Holy Spirit working within us, the law of charity, of love! When we see in the many wars between Christians in the newspapers or on TV, how can the people of God understand this? Within the people of God there are so many wars! And in neighborhoods, in workplaces, so many wars due to envy, jealousy. Even within the same family, there are so many internal wars. We must ask the Lord to help us understand this law of love. How good, how nice it is to love each other as true brothers. How nice that is! Let's do something today: perhaps we all have our likes and dislikes, and perhaps many of us are angry with others. But at least let’s say to the Lord: "Lord, I am angry with him or with her. I pray for him and for her. I pray to you". To pray for those with whom we are angry. It's a big step in this law of love. Let's do it today!

4. What mission does this people have? To bring to the world the hope and the salvation of God: to be a sign of the love of God who calls all to be friends of His; to be the yeast that ferments the dough, the salt that gives flavour and preserves from decay, the light that brightens. Just as I said, it is enough to open a newspaper, and we see that around us there is the presence of evil, the Devil is at work. But I would like to say in a loud voice: God is stronger! Do you believe this? That God is stronger? Let’s say it in a loud voice: God is stronger! Do you believe this? That God is stronger? Let’s say it all together. God is stronger! All of us! And you know why He is stronger? Because He is the Lord, the only Lord. God is stronger! Good! And I would like to add that reality which is sometimes dark and marked by evil can change, if we are the first to bring the light of the Gospel especially with our lives. If in a stadium, let’s think of the Olympic Stadium in Rome, or that of San Lorenzo in Buenos Aires, if on a dark night one person lights up a lamp, you can barely see it, but if each of over seventy thousand spectators switches on his own light, the whole Stadium lights up. Let's make our lives a light of Christ; and together we will bring the light of the Gospel to the whole world.

5. What is the goal of this people? Its end is the kingdom of God, which has been begun by God Himself on earth, and which is to be further extended until it is brought to perfection by Him at the end of time, when Christ, our life, shall appear (cf. Lumen Gentium, 9). The goal then is full communion with the Lord; it’s to enter into his divine life where we will live the joy of his love without measure. That full joy.

Dear brothers and sisters, to be Church, is to be God's people, according to the Father’s great plan of love, it means to be the yeast of God in this humanity of ours, it means to proclaim and to bring God's salvation into this world, which is often lost, in need of encouraging answers, answers that give hope, that give new vigour in the journey. May the Church be a place of mercy and of hope in God, where everyone can feel welcomed, loved, forgiven and encouraged to live the good life of the Gospel. And to feel welcomed, loved, forgiven, encouraged, the Church’s doors must be open, so that all may come and that we can go out of those doors and proclaim the Gospel. Thank you so much.

Pope at Mass: The grace not to speak ill of others

Vatican Radio
June 13, 2013

May the Lord grant us the grace to watch our tongues and be careful of what we say of others, because through our weakness and sin, we often find it easier to insult and denigrate than say or do good. This was the lesson at the heart of Pope Francis’ homily Thursday morning at Mass, which he celebrated in his native Spanish. Greeting the men and women who work at Argentina’s embassies and consulates to Italy and the UN Food and Agricultural Organization in Rome, Pope Francis noted “It’s the first time I have celebrated Mass in Spanish since February 26th!, adding “it feels good!”.

As is tradition, Pope Francis’ homily was inspired by the Gospel of the day, in particular Christ’s words to his disciples "unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter into the Kingdom of heaven."

The Pope noted how this Gospel follows the Gospel of the Beatitudes and Jesus promise that He had not come to dissolve the law but to fulfill it. Pope Francis said that Christ wants “reform in continuity: from the [planting of the ] seed up to the fruit”.

Pope Francis warned that anyone who "enters Christian life" will have “greater demands made of them than others" and not “greater advantages". He said Jesus mentions some of these demands, in particular the problem of “bad relations among brethren". If our heart harbors “bad feelings” towards our brothers, the Pope said, "something is not working and we must convert, we must change." Pope Francis noted that "anger towards a brother is an insult, it’s something almost deathly ", "it kills him." He then observed that, especially in the Latin tradition, there is a "wonderful creativity" in inventing epithets. But, he cautioned, "when this epithet is friendly this is fine, the problem is when there is another kind of epithet”, when the "mechanism of insult" comes into play, which is "a form of denigration of others."

Pope Francis continued: “There is no need to go to a psychologist to know that when we denigrates another person it is because we are unable to grow up and need to belittle others, to feel more important." This, he said, is "an ugly mechanism". Jesus, "with all the simplicity says: "Do not speak ill of one another. Do not denigrate one another. Do not belittle one another”. The Pope noted, "in the end we are all travelling on the same road", "we are all travelling on that road that will take us to the very end." Therefore "if we do not choose a fraternal path, it will end badly, for the person who insults and the insulted". The Pope noted that "if we are not able to keep our tongues in check, we lose”. “Natural aggression, that of Cain toward Abel, repeats itself throughout history." Pope Francis observed that it is not that we are bad, rather "we are weak and sinners." That's why it is "much easier", to "resolve a situation with an insult, with slander, defamation instead of resolving it with good means".

Pope Francis concluded: “I would ask the Lord to give us all the grace to watch our tongues, to watch what we say about others." “It is a small penance - he added - but it bears a lot of fruit." "Sometimes, we go hungry and think, ‘What a pity I didn’t taste the fruit of a tasty comment against another person." But, he said, "that hunger bears fruit in the long run is good for us." That's why we ask the Lord for this grace: to adapt our lives "to this new law, which is the law of meekness, the law of love, the law of peace, and at least 'prune' our tongues a little, ‘prune’ the comments that we make of others and outbursts that lead us to an easy anger or insult. May the Lord grant us all this grace".

Pope Francis: Friday Mass at Santa Marta

Vatican Radio
June 14, 2013

The only way truly to receive the gift of salvation in Christ is with sincerity to recognize oneself as weak and sinful, and to avoid any form of self-justification. This was the focus of Pope Francis’ remarks at Mass Friday morning in the chapel of the Domus Sanctae Marthae residence in the Vatican.

Aware of being a weak vessel of clay, yet the guardian of a great treasure that was given to him in a totally free way: this is the follower of Christ before the Lord. Pope Francis took the point of reflection from the day’s readings, specifically from the 2nd Letter of St Paul to the Corinthians, which explains that the "extraordinary power" of faith is God's work, that it has been poured out into sinful men, into "earthen vessels", in fact. Nevertheless, explained Pope Francis, it is precisely from the relationship "between the grace and power of Jesus Christ" and ourselves, poor sinners as we are, that "the dialogue of salvation" springs. This dialogue, moreover, must avoid any "self-justification", and be between God and “ourselves as we are.”:

“Paul has spoken many times - it's like a refrain, no? - of his sins. 'But I tell you this: I've been a persecutor of the Church, I pursued ...' it always comes back to his memory of sin. He feels sinful. – but even then he does not say: 'I was [a sinner], but now I am holy', no. Even now, a thorn of Satan in my flesh. He shows us his own weakness, his own sin. He is a sinner who accepts Jesus Christ, who dialogues with Jesus Christ.”

The key, says Pope Francis, is therefore humility. Paul himself proves it. He publicly acknowledges "his track record of service," i.e. all he had done as an Apostle of Jesus, but he does not hide or gloss over what the Pope calls "his handbook", i.e. his sins:

"This is the model of humility for us priests – for us priests, too. If we only pride ourselves on our [service record] and nothing more, we end up [going] wrong. We cannot proclaim Jesus Christ the Saviour because we do not feel Him [present and at work] deep down. We have to be humble, but with real humility, [from head to toe]: 'I am a sinner for this, for this, for this', as Paul did: 'I persecuted the Church, " - as he did, [recognizing ourselves] concrete sinners: not sinners with that [kind of ] humility, which seems more a put-on face, no? Oh no, strong humility. "

"The humility of the priest, the humility of a Christian is concrete," said Pope Francis, for which, therefore, if a Christian fails, "to make this confession to himself and to the Church, then something is wrong," and the first thing to fail will be our ability "understand the beauty of salvation that Jesus brings us."

"Brothers, we have a treasure: that of Jesus Christ the Saviour. The Cross of Jesus Christ, this treasure of which we pride ourselves - but we have it in a clay vessel. Let us vaunt also our ‘handbook’ of our sins. Thus is the dialogue Christian and Catholic: concrete, because the salvation of Jesus Christ is concrete. Jesus Christ has not saved us with an idea, an intellectual program, no. He saved with His flesh, with the concreteness of flesh. He is lowered, made man, made flesh until the end. This is a gift that we can only understand, only receive, in earthen vessels. "

The Samaritan woman, as well, who met Jesus and after speaking to him told her countrymen first of her sin and then about having met the Lord, behaved in a similar way to Paul. "I believe,” said Pope Francis, “that this woman is in heaven, sure," because, as [the Italian author Alessandro] Manzoni once said, 'I have never found that the Lord began a miracle without finishing it well' and this miracle that He began definitely ended well in heaven." The Pope concluded saying, let us ask her, "to help us to be vessels of clay in order to carry and understand the glorious mystery of Jesus Christ."

The prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy, Cardinal Mauro Piacenza concelebrated the Mass, accompanied by priests and staff of the dicastery.

Pope Francis and Archbishop of Canterbury pledge to work together towards reconciliation and unity

Vatican Radio
June 14, 2013

Pope Francis met on Friday with the new Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, stressing the need to work and worship together in the search for reconciliation and unity between the Catholic and Anglican communities. Philippa Hitchen was on hand in the library of the Apostolic Palace to hear what the Pope and the Archbishop had to say....

The promotion of common Christian values, the need for greater social justice and a commitment to reconciliation and conflict resolution: those were three key areas of cooperation that Pope Francis highlighted during his first meeting with the new Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, who began his own ministry just two days after the papal inauguration in March this year. Stressing especially the need to find a peaceful solution to the Syrian crisis, the Pope said Christians can bring peace to the world – but only when they themselves live and work together in harmony.

The history of relations between the Church of England and the Catholic Church, the Pope said, is “ complex and not without pain” But he said the theological dialogue, through the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission, and the growth of friendships at every level, “have enabled us to remain on course even when great difficulties have arisen”. The Pope noted with gratitude the efforts of the Church of England to “understand the reasons” why Pope Benedict set up the Ordinariate for former Anglicans – a move which strained relations when the surprise announcement was made back in 2009.

In his words to the Pope Francis, Archbishop Welby spoke of the legacy of the previous pontiffs since the Second Vatican Council to the journey towards full Christian Unity.

Wearing the episcopal ring, given by Paul VI to Archbishop Michael Ramsey back in 1966, the leader of the worldwide Anglican Communion said “it is only as the world sees Christians growing visibly in unity” that it will accept the divine message of peace and reconciliation.

After a half hour private conversation and a shared moment of prayer in the chapel of the Apostolic Palace, the two leaders set off, relaxed and smiling together, for lunch at the Santa Martha guesthouse in the Vatican where Pope Francis resides. It certainly seemed, in this first brief encounter at least, that there is much shared ground for growing together in service to the common good.


Below, please find the complete translation of Pope Francis' discourse at the meeting, followed by the complete text of Archbishop Welby's address:

Your Grace, Dear Friends,

On the happy occasion of our first meeting, I make my own the words of Pope Paul VI, when he addressed Archbishop Michael Ramsey during his historic visit in 1966: “Your steps have not brought you to a foreign dwelling ... we are pleased to open the doors to you, and with the doors, our heart, pleased and honoured as we are ... to welcome you ‘not as a guest or a stranger, but as a fellow citizen of the Saints and the Family of God’” (cf. Eph 2:19-20).

I know that during Your Grace’s installation in Canterbury Cathedral you remembered in prayer the new Bishop of Rome. I am deeply grateful to you – and since we began our respective ministries within days of each other, I think we will always have a particular reason to support one another in prayer.

The history of relations between the Church of England and the Catholic Church is long and complex, and not without pain. Recent decades, however, have been marked by a journey of rapprochement and fraternity, and for this we give heartfelt thanks to God. This journey has been brought about both via theological dialogue, through the work of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission, and via the growth of cordial relations at every level through shared daily lives in a spirit of profound mutual respect and sincere cooperation. In this regard, I am very pleased to welcome alongside you Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Westminster. These firm bonds of friendship have enabled us to remain on course even when difficulties have arisen in our theological dialogue that were greater than we could have foreseen at the start of our journey.

I am grateful, too, for the sincere efforts the Church of England has made to understand the reasons that led my Predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, to provide a canonical structure able to respond to the wishes of those groups of Anglicans who have asked to be received collectively into the Catholic Church: I am sure this will enable the spiritual, liturgical and pastoral traditions that form the Anglican patrimony to be better known and appreciated in the Catholic world.

Today’s meeting is an opportunity to remind ourselves that the search for unity among Christians is prompted not by practical considerations, but by the will of the Lord Jesus Christ himself, who made us his brothers and sisters, children of the One Father. Hence the prayer that we make today is of fundamental importance.

This prayer gives a fresh impulse to our daily efforts to grow towards unity, which are concretely expressed in our cooperation in various areas of daily life. Particularly important among these is our witness to the reference to God and the promotion of Christian values in a world that seems at times to call into question some of the foundations of society, such as respect for the sacredness of human life or the importance of the institution of the family built on marriage, a value that you yourself have had occasion to recall recently.

Then there is the effort to achieve greater social justice, to build an economic system that is at the service of man and promotes the common good. Among our tasks as witnesses to the love of Christ is that of giving a voice to the cry of the poor, so that they are not abandoned to the laws of an economy that seems at times to treat people as mere consumers.

I know that Your Grace is especially sensitive to all these questions, in which we share many ideas, and I am also aware of your commitment to foster reconciliation and resolution of conflicts between nations. In this regard, together with Archbishop Nichols, you have urged the authorities to find a peaceful solution to the Syrian conflict such as would guarantee the security of the entire population, including the minorities, not least among whom are the ancient local Christian communities. As you yourself have observed, we Christians bring peace and grace as a treasure to be offered to the world, but these gifts can bear fruit only when Christians live and work together in harmony. This makes it easier to contribute to building relations of respect and peaceful coexistence with those who belong to other religious traditions, and with non-believers.

The unity we so earnestly long for is a gift that comes from above and it is rooted in our communion of love with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. As Christ himself promised, “where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them” (Mt 18:20). Let us travel the path towards unity, fraternally united in charity and with Jesus Christ as our constant point of reference. In our worship of Jesus Christ we will find the foundation and raison d’être of our journey. May the merciful Father hear and grant the prayers that we make to him together. Let us place all our hope in him who “is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think” (Eph 3:20).



Below, please find the complete text of Archbishop Justin Welby’s address to Pope Francis, which was delivered in English:

Your Holiness,
Dear Friends:

I am full of love and gratitude to be here. In the last few days we have been remembering the death of Blessed Pope John XXIII in the midst of the Second Vatican Council. At the Requiem said at Lambeth Palace fifty years ago this weekend by Archbishop Michael Ramsey, my much-loved predecessor said of him: ‘Pope John has shown us again the power of being, by being a man who touches human hearts with charity. So there has come to many a new longing for the unity of all Christians, and a new knowledge that however long the road may be, charity already makes all the difference to it.’

Having for many years found inspiration in the great corpus of Catholic social teaching, and worked on its implications with Catholic groups; having spent retreats in new orders of the Church in France, and being accompanied by the Prior of another new order; I do indeed feel that I am (in the words of Pope Paul VI to Archbishop Michael) coming to a place where I can feel myself at home.

Your Holiness, we are called by the Holy Spirit of God, through our fraternal love, to continue the work that has been the precious gift to popes and archbishops of Canterbury for these past fifty years, and of which this famous ring is the enduring token. I pray that the nearness of our two inaugurations may serve the reconciliation of the world and the Church.

As you have stressed, we must promote the fruits of our dialogue; and, with our fellow bishops, we must give expression to our unity in faith through prayer and evangelisation. It is only as the world sees Christians growing visibly in unity that it will accept through us the divine message of peace and reconciliation.

However, the journey is testing and we cannot be unaware that differences exist about how we bring the Christian faith to bear on the challenges thrown up by modern society. But our ‘goal is great enough to justify the effort of the journey’ (Benedict XVI, Spe salvi 1), and we can trust in the prayer of Christ, ‘ut omnes unum sint’ (Jn 17.21). A firm foundation of friendship will enable us to be hopeful in speaking to one another about those differences, to bear one another’s burdens, and to be open to sharing the discernment of a way forward that is faithful to the mind of Christ pressed upon us as disciples.

That way forward must reflect the self-giving love of Christ, our bearing of his Cross, and our dying to ourselves so as to live with Christ, which will show itself in hospitality and love for the poor. We must love those who seek to oppose us, and love above all those tossed aside—even whole nations—by the present crises around the world. Also, even as we speak, our brothers and sisters in Christ suffer terribly from violence, oppression and war, from bad government and unjust economic systems. If we are not their advocates in the name of Christ, who will be?

Your Holiness, dear brother, I assure you of the love, respect and prayer of the bishops, clergy and people of the Anglican Communion.

Pope: The Christian life proclaims the road to reconcilation with God

Vatican Radio
June 15, 2013

Christian life is not a spa therapy "to be at peace until Heaven," but it calls us to go out into the world to proclaim that Jesus "became the sinner" to reconcile men with the Father. These were Pope Francis’ words during his homily at Mass Saturday at the Casa Santa Martha.

The Christian life is not staying in a corner to carve a road which takes you into heaven, but it's a dynamic that encourages one to stay "on the road" to proclaim that Christ has reconciled us to God, by becoming sin for us. In his usual profound and direct way, Pope Francis focuses on a passage from the Letter to the Corinthians, from today's liturgy, in which St. Paul very insistent, almost "in a hurry", uses the term "reconciliation"five times.

"What is reconciliation? Taking one from this side, taking another one for that side and uniting them: no, that’s part of it but it's not it ... True reconciliation means that God in Christ took on our sins and He became the sinner for us. When we go to confession, for example, it isn’t that we say our sin and God forgives us. No, not that! We look for Jesus Christ and say: 'This is your sin, and I will sin again'. And Jesus likes that, because it was his mission: to become the sinner for us, to liberate us. "

It is the beauty and the "scandal" of the redemption brought by Jesus and it is also the "mystery, says Pope Francis, from which Paul draws" zeal "that spurs him to" move forward " telling everyone" something so wonderful "the love of a God" who gave up his Son to death for me. " Yet, explains Pope Francis, there is a risk of "never arriving at this truth" in the moment when "we 'devalue a little the Christian life", reducing it to a list of things to observe and thus losing the ardor, the force of the '"love that is inside" of it:

"But philosophers say that peace is a certain ordered tranquility: everything is tidy and quiet ... That is not the Christian peace! Christian peace is an uneasy peace, not a quiet peace: it is an uneasy peace, which goes on to carry this message of reconciliation. The Christian Peace pushes us to move forward. This is the beginning, the root of apostolic zeal. Apostolic zeal is not to go forward to persuade and make statistics: this year Christians in this country have grown, in this movement ... Statistics are good, they help, but that is not what God wants from us ,is to persuade... What the Lord wants from us is to announce this reconciliation, which is his own core message . "

Concluding his homily the Pope recalls the inner anxiety of Paul. Pope Francis underlines that which defines the "pillar" of Christian life, namely, that "Christ became sin for me! And my sins are there in his body, in his soul! This - says the Pope - it's crazy, but it's beautiful, it's true! This is the scandal of the Cross! "

"We ask the Lord to give us this concern to proclaim Jesus, to give us a bit of 'that Christian wisdom that was born from His pierced side of love. Just a little to convince us that the Christian life is not a spa therapy: to be at peace until Heaven ... No, the Christian life is the road in life with this concern of Paul. The love of Christ urges us on, it pushes us on, with this emotion that one feels when one sees that God loves us. We ask this grace. "

Pope: Homily at Mass for Evangelium Vitae Day [full text]

Vatican Radio
June 16, 2013

Below please find the Homily of the Holy Father XI Sunday of Ordinary Time “Evangelium Vitae” (Sunday, 16 June 2013)


Dear Brothers and Sisters,

This celebration has a very beautiful name: “Evangelium Vitae”, the Gospel of Life. In this Eucharist, in the Year of Faith, let us thank the Lord for the gift of life in all its forms, and at the same time let us proclaim the Gospel of Life.

On the basis of the word of God which we have heard, I would like to offer you three simple points of meditation for our faith: first, the Bible reveals to us the Living God, the God who is life and the source of life; second, Jesus Christ bestows life and the Holy Spirit maintains us in life; and third, following God’s way leads to life, whereas following idols leads to death.

1. The first reading, taken from the Second Book of Samuel, speaks to us of life and death. King David wants to hide the act of adultery which he committed with the wife of Uriah the Hittite, a soldier in his army. To do so, he gives the order that Uriah be placed on the front lines and so be killed in battle. The Bible shows us the human drama in all its reality: good and evil, passion, sin and its consequences. Whenever we want to assert ourselves, when we become wrapped up in our own selfishness and put ourselves in the place of God, we end up spawning death. King David’s adultery is one example of this. Selfishness leads to lies, as we attempt to deceive ourselves and those around us. But God cannot be deceived. We heard how the prophet says to David: “Why have you done evil in the Lord’s sight? (cf. 2 Sam 12:9). The King is forced to face his deadly deeds; he recognizes them and he begs forgiveness: “I have sinned against the Lord!” (v. 13). The God of mercy, who desires life, then forgives David, restores him to life. The prophet tells him: “The Lord has put away your sin; you shall not die”.

What is the image we have of God? Perhaps he appears to us as a severe judge, as someone who curtails our freedom and the way we live our lives. But the Scriptures everywhere tell us that God is the Living One, the one who bestows life and points the way to fullness of life. I think of the beginning of the Book of Genesis: God fashions man out of the dust of the earth; he breathes in his nostrils the breath of life, and man becomes a living being (cf. 2:7). God is the source of life; thanks to his breath, man has life. God’s breath sustains the entire journey of our life on earth. I also think of the calling of Moses, where the Lord says that he is the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob, the God of the living. When he sends Moses to Pharaoh to set his people free, he reveals his name: “I am who I am”, the God who enters into our history, sets us free from slavery and death, and brings life to his people because he is the Living One. I also think of the gift of the Ten Commandments: a path God points out to us towards a life which is truly free and fulfilling. The commandments are not a litany of prohibitions, but a great “Yes!”: a yes to God, to Love, to life. Dear friends, our lives are fulfilled in God alone. He is the Living One!

2. Today’s Gospel brings us another step forward. Jesus allows a woman who was a sinner to approach him during a meal in the house of a Pharisee, scandalizing those present. Not only does he let the woman approach but he even forgives her sins, saying: “Her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much; but he who is forgiven little, loves little” (Lk 7:47). Jesus is the incarnation of the Living God, the one who brings life amid deeds of death, sin, selfishness and self-absorption. Jesus accepts, loves, uplifts, encourages, forgives, restores the ability to walk, gives back life. Throughout the Gospels we see how Jesus by his words and actions brings the transforming life of God. This was the experience of the woman who anointed the feet of the Lord with ointment: she felt understood, loved, and she responded by a gesture of love: she let herself be touched by God’s mercy, she obtained forgiveness and she started a new life.

This was also the experience of the Apostle Paul, as we heard in the second reading: “The life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal 2:20). What is this life? It is God’s own life. And who brings us this life? It is the Holy Spirit, the gift of the risen Christ. The Spirit leads us into the divine life as true children of God, as sons and daughters in the only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ. Are we open to the Holy Spirit? Do we let ourselves be guided by him? Christians are “spiritual”. This does not mean that we are people who live “in the clouds”, far removed from real life, as if it were some kind of mirage. No! The Christian is someone who thinks and acts in everyday life according to God’s will, someone who allows his or her life to be guided and nourished by the Holy Spirit, to be a full life, a life worthy of true sons and daughters. And this entails realism and fruitfulness. Those who let themselves be led by the Holy Spirit are realists, they know how to survey and assess reality. They are also fruitful; their lives bring new life to birth all around them.

3. God is the Living One; Jesus brings us the life of God; the Holy Spirit gives and keeps us in our new life as true sons and daughters of God. But all too often, people do not choose life, they do not accept the “Gospel of Life” but let themselves be led by ideologies and ways of thinking that block life, that do not respect life, because they are dictated by selfishness, self-interest, profit, power and pleasure, and not by love, by concern for the good of others. It is the eternal dream of wanting to build the city of man without God, without God’s life and love – a new Tower of Babel. It is the idea that rejecting God, the message of Christ, the Gospel of Life, will somehow lead to freedom, to complete human fulfilment. As a result, the Living God is replaced by fleeting human idols which offer the intoxication of a flash of freedom, but in the end bring new forms of slavery and death. The wisdom of the Psalmist says: “The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes” (Ps 19:8).

Dear brothers and sisters, let us look to God as the God of Life, let us look to his law, to the Gospel message, as the way to freedom and life. The Living God sets us free! Let us say “Yes” to love and not selfishness. Let us say “Yes” to life and not death. Let us say “Yes” to freedom and not enslavement to the many idols of our time. In a word, let us say “Yes” to the God who is love, life and freedom, and who never disappoints (cf. 1 Jn 4:8; Jn 11:2; Jn 8:32). Only faith in the Living God saves us: in the God who in Jesus Christ has given us his own life, and by the gift of the Holy Spirit has enabled us to live as true sons and daughters of God. This faith brings us freedom and happiness. Let us ask Mary, Mother of Life, to help.

Angelus: Celebrating the Gospel of Life

Vatican Radio
June 16, 2013

Following Mass on Sunday morning, celebrated on the occasion of Evangelium Vitae Day, Pope Francis recited the Angelus and bestowed his Apostolic blessing upon those gathered in Saint Peter’s Square.


Below is Vatican Radio’s English translation of the Holy Father’s Angelus address.

Dear brothers and sisters,

At the conclusion of this Eucharistic celebration dedicated to the Gospel of life, I am pleased to recall that yesterday, in Carpi, Oduardo Focherini, husband and father of seven, journalist, was proclaimed Blessed. Captured and imprisoned because of hatred against his Catholic faith, he died in the concentration camp of Hersbruck in 1944 at the age of 37. He rescued many Jews from the Nazi persecution. Together with the Church in Carpi, we give thanks to God for this witness to the Gospel of Life!

I offer my sincere thanks to all of you who have come from Rome and from many other places in Italy and the world, particularly families and those who work directly for the promotion and protection of life.

I cordially greet the 150 members of the “Grávida” Association – Argentina, gathered in the city of Pilar. Many thanks for what you have done! Be courageous, and go forward!
Finally, I greet the many participants of the Harley-Davidson motorcycle rally, and also those of the State Police Motorbike club.

We turn now to Our Lady, entrusting every human life, especially the most fragile, defenceless, and weak, to her maternal protection.

Pope Francis: Jesus is the secret of a Christian’s benevolence

Vatican Radio
June 17, 2013

For a Christian, Jesus is “all”, and this is the source of his or her benevolence.

This was the focus of Pope Francis’s message during Mass on Monday morning at the Domus Sanctae Marthae. The Pope also affirmed that the righteousness of Jesus exceeds the righteousness of the scribes, that it is superior to the “eye for eye, tooth for tooth” kind of justice.

Amongst those present at the Mass, which was concelebrated by Cardinal Attilio Nicora, was a group of collaborators of the Vatican’s Financial Information Authority and a group of Vatican Museums collaborators accompanied by the Museum administrative director, Fr Paolo Nicolini. The Archbishop of Manila, Cardinal Luis Tagle, was also present.

“If someone slaps you on the right cheek, offer the other cheek also”. Pope Francis focused his homily on Jesus’ earth-shaking words to his disciples. The slap of the cheek – he said - has become a classic take used by some to laugh about Christians. In life, he explained, everyday logic teaches us to “fight to defend our place” and if we receive a slap “we react and return two slaps in order to defend ourselves”. On the other hand, the Pope said, when I advise parents to scold their children I always say: “never slap their cheek”, because “the cheek is dignity”. And Jesus, he continued, after the slap on the cheek goes further and invites us to hand over our coat as well, to undress ourselves completely.

The righteousness that He brings – the Pope affirmed – is another kind of justice that is totally different from “eye for eye, tooth for tooth”. It’s another justice. This is clear when St. Paul speaks of Christians as “people who have nothing in themselves but possess all things in Christ”. So, Christian security is exactly this “all” that is in Christ. “All” - he added – is Jesus Christ. Other things are “nothing” for a Christian. Instead, the Pope warned, “for the spirit of the world “all” means things: riches, vanities”, it means “to be well placed in society” where “Jesus is nothing”. Thus, if a Christian can walk 100 kilometres when he is asked to walk 10, “it’s because for him or for her this is “nothing”. And with serenity, “he or she can give his or her coat when asked for his or her tunic”. This is the secret of Christian benevolence that always goes together with meekness”: it is “all”, it is Jesus Christ:

“A Christian is a person who opens up his or her heart with this spirit of benevolence, because he or she has “all”: Jesus Christ. The other things are “nothing”. Some are good, they have a purpose, but in the moment of choice he or she always chooses “all”, with that meekness, that Christian meekness that is the sign of Jesus’ disciples: meekness and benevolence. To live like this is not easy, because you really do receive slaps! And on both cheeks! But a Christian is meek, a Christian is benevolent: he or she opens up his or her heart. Sometimes we come across these Christians with little hearts, with shrunken hearts…. This is not Christianity: this is selfishness, masked as Christianity”.

“A true Christian” – the Pope continued – “knows how to solve this bi-polar opposition, this tension that exists between “all” and “nothing”, just as Jesus has taught us: “First search for God’s Kingdom and its justice, the rest comes afterwards”.

“God’s Kingdom is “all”, the other is secondary. And all Christian errors, all the Church’s errors, all our errors stem from when we say “nothing” is “all”, and to “all” we say it does not count… Following Jesus is not easy, but it’s not difficult either, because on the path of love the Lord does things in such a way that we can go forward; it is the Lord himself who opens up our heart”.

This is what we must pray for – the Pope said – “when we are confronted with the choice of the slap, the coat, the 100 kilometres”, we must pray the Lord to “open up our heart” so that “we are benevolent and meek” . We must pray so that we do not “fight for small things, for the “nothings” of daily life”.

“When one takes on an option for “nothing”, it is from that option that conflicts arise in families, in friendships, between friends, in society. Conflicts that end in war: for “nothing”! “Nothing” is always the seed of wars. Because it is the seed of selfishness. “All” is Jesus. Let us ask the Lord to open up our heart, to make us humble, meek and benevolent because we have “all” in Him; and let’s ask him to help us avoid creating everyday problems stemming from “nothing”.

Pope at Mass: The hard lesson of loving our enemies

Vatican Radio
June 18, 2013

It is hard to love our enemies, but that is exactly what God is asking us to do, said Pope Francis at Mass Tuesday morning. He said we must pray for those who hate us and have done us wrong, ‘that their heart of stone be turned to flesh, that they may feel relief and love’. God lets sun shine and rain fall on the good and the bad, on the just and the unjust and, the Pope added, we must do the same or else we are not being Christian.

Pope Francis began his homily, with a series of questions that encompassed some of the most pressing dramas of humanity. How can we love our enemies? The Pope asked, how can we love those who decide to “bomb and kill so many people?" And again, how can we "love those who out of their for love money prevent the elderly from accessing the necessary medicine and leave them to die"? Or those who only seek "their own best interests, power for themselves and do so much evil?" "It seems hard to love your enemy," he noted, but Jesus asks it of us. This current liturgy, he said, proposes "Jesus’ updating of the law", of the law of Mount Sinai with the Law of the Mount of Beatitudes. The Pope also pointed out that we all have enemies, but deep down we too we can become enemies of others:

"We too often we become enemies of others: we do not wish them well. And Jesus tells us to love our enemies! And this is not easy! It is not easy ... we even think that Jesus is asking too much of us! We leave this to the cloistered nuns, who are holy, we leave this for some holy soul, but this is not right for everyday life. But it must be right! Jesus says: 'No, we must do this! Because otherwise you will be like the tax collectors, like pagans. Not Christians. '"

So how can we love our enemies? Pope Francis noted that Jesus, "tells us two things": first look to the Father who "makes the sun rise on evil and good" and "rain fall on the just and unjust”. God "loves everyone." And then he continued, Jesus tells us to be "perfect as the Heavenly Father is perfect", "imitate the Father with that perfection of love." He added Jesus "forgive his enemies", "does everything to forgive them”. He warned that taking revenge is not Christian. The Pope asks But how can we succeed in loving our enemies? By praying. "When we pray for what makes us suffer - the Pope said - it is as if the Lord comes with oil and prepares our hearts for peace":

"Pray! This is what Jesus advises us:' Pray for your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! Pray! '. And say to God: 'Change their hearts. They have a heart of stone, but change it, give them a heart of flesh, so that they may feel relief and love '. Let me just ask this question and let each of us answer it in our own heart: 'Do I pray for my enemies? Do I pray for those who do not love me? 'If we say' yes', I will say, 'Go on, pray more, you are on the right path! If the answer is' no ', the Lord says:' Poor thing. You too are an enemy of others! '. Pray that the Lord may change the hearts of those. We could say: 'But this person really wronged me', or they have done bad things and this impoverishes people, impoverishes humanity. And following this libe of thought we want to take revenge or that eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth".

Pope Francis reaffirmed, it’s true that love for our enemies "impoverishes us”, because it makes us poor "like Jesus", who, when he came to us, lowered himself and became poor" for us. The Pope noted that some could argue this was not a good deal "if the enemy makes me poorer" and of course, "according to the criteria of this world, it is not a good deal." But this, he said, is "the path Jesus travelled" who from rich became poor for us. In this poverty, "in this Jesus’ lowering of himself – he said - there is the grace that has justified us all, made us all rich." It is the "mystery of salvation":

"With forgiveness, with love for our enemy, we become poorer: love impoverishes us, but that poverty is the seed of fertility and love for others. Just as the poverty of Jesus became the grace of salvation for all of us, great wealth ... Let us think today at Mass, let us think of our enemies those who do not wish us well: it would be nice if we offered the Mass for them: Jesus, Jesus' sacrifice, for them, for those who do not love us. And for us too, so that the Lord teaches us this wisdom which is so hard, but so beautiful, because it makes us look like the Father, like our Father: it brings out the sun for everyone, good and bad. It makes us more like the Son, Jesus, who in his humiliation became poor to enrich us, with his poverty. "

Pope Francis condemns hypocrisy

Vatican Radio
June 19, 2013

Christianity is not simply the study of laws or commands: this is an impediment to understanding and living the truth that God is joy and generosity. This was the message of Pope Francis at Mass celebrated this morning in Casa Santa Marta.

The hypocrites who “lead the people of God down a dead-end street” Pope Francis said, are the subject of today’s Gospel. The Pope reflected on the famous passage of Matthew’s Gospel that contrasts the behaviour of the scribes and Pharisees – who make a show of praying, fasting, and almsgiving – with the path indicated by Jesus, Who points out to His disciples the proper attitude to assume in the same circumstances: giving alms and praying “in secret.” “And your Father, Who sees in secret, will reward you.”

Pope Francis criticized not only the vanity of the scribes and Pharisees, but also those who impose “so many precepts on the faithful.” He called them “hypocrites of casuistry,” “intellectuals without talent” who “don’t have the intelligence to find God, to explain God with understanding,” and so prevent themselves and others from entering into the Kingdom of God:

“Jesus says: ‘You do not enter yourselves, nor do you allow entrance to others.’ They are ethicists without goodness, they do not know what goodness is. But they are ethicists, aren’t they? ‘You have to do this, and this, and this . . .’ They fill you with precepts, but without goodness. And those are some of the phylacteries, of the tassels they lengthen, so many things, to make a pretence of being majestic, perfect, they have no sense of beauty. They have no sense of beauty. They achieve only the beauty of a museum. They are intellectuals without talent, ethicists without goodness, the bearers of museum beauty. These are the hypocrites that Jesus rebukes so strongly.

“But He doesn’t stop there,” Pope Francis continued. “In today’s Gospel, the Lord speaks about another class of hypocrites, ‘holy rollers’ [It: quelli che vanno sul sacro]:

“The Lord speaks about fasting, about prayer, about almsgiving: the three pillars of Christian piety, of interior conversion, that the Church proposes to us all in Lent. There are even hypocrites along this path, who make a show of fasting, of giving alms, of praying. I think that when hypocrisy reaches this point in the relation with God, we are coming very close to the sin against the Holy Spirit. These do not know beauty, they do not know love, these do not know the truth: they are small, cowardly.”

“We think about the hypocrisy in the Church: how bad it makes all of us,” Pope Francis said candidly. Instead he pointed out another “icon” for imitation, a person described in another passage of the Gospel: the publican who prayed with humble simplicity, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, a sinner.” This, the Pope said, “is the prayer we should say every day, knowing that we are sinners” but “with concrete sins, not theoretical [sin].” And this prayer, he concluded, “will help us to take the opposite road,” the road opposed to the hypocrisy that we are all tempted to:

“But all of us also have grace, the grace that comes from Jesus Christ: the grace of joy; the grace of magnanimity, of largesse. Hypocrites do not know what joy is, what largesse is, what magnanimity is.”

The Holy Father concelebrated Mass with Cardinal Marc Ouellet and Archbishop Lorenzo Baldisseri, the prefect and secretary of the Congregation for Bishops; and with Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia and Bishop Jean Lafitte, the president and secretary of the Pontifical Council of the Family. Members of the Congregation of Bishops and of the Pontifical Council of the Family were in attendance at the Mass.

Audience: Unity in the Body of Christ

Vatican Radio
June 19, 2013

“The Church is not an charitable, cultural or political association, but a living Body, that walks and acts in history. And this Body has a head, Jesus, who guides, nourishes and supports it”, said Pope Francis Wednesday as he continued his series of lessons on the Creed during his General Audience.

A boiling summer sun brought temperatures to a high of 29°s, but despite this St Peter’s square was packed by tens of thousands of pilgrims. In his catechesis he told them we must remain united to the Church lamenting the divisions among Christians which he says ‘wounds this Body’. He said differences in the Church can enrich us and help us grow, but “a Body must be united to survive."

In off-the-cuff remarks Pope Francis revealed how earlier Wednesday morning he had spent almost 40 minutes in prayer with an evangelical pastor, praying for unity in the Church.

Below a Vatican Radio translation of the Holy Father’s Catechesis, Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Dear brothers and sisters, good day!

Today I will focus upon another expression with which the Second Vatican Council indicates the nature of the Church: that of the body, the Council says that the Church is the Body of Christ (cf. Lumen Gentium, 7).

I would like to start from a text of the Acts of the Apostles which we know well: the conversion of Saul, who will then be called Paul, one of the greatest evangelists (cf. Acts 9:4-5). Saul was a persecutor of Christians, but while he is on the road leading to the city of Damascus, suddenly a light envelops him, he falls to the ground and hears a voice saying "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? '. He asks: "Who are you, Lord?", And the voice answers: "I am Jesus whom you are persecuting" (v. 3-5). This experience of St. Paul tells us how deep the union between we Christians and Christ Himself. When Jesus ascended into heaven he did not leave us orphans, but with the gift of the Holy Spirit, our union with Him has become even more intense. The Second Vatican Council says that Jesus " communicating His Spirit, Christ made His brothers, called together from all nations, mystically the components of His own Body" (Dogmatic Constitution. Lumen Gentium, 7).

The image of the body helps us to understand this deep Church-Christ bond, which St. Paul has developed especially in the First Letter to the Corinthians (cf. chap. 12). First, the body brings our attention to a living reality. The Church is not an charitable, cultural or political association, but a living body, that walks and acts in history. And this body has a head, Jesus, who guides, feeds and supports it. This is a point I want to emphasize: if the head is separated from the rest of the body, the whole person cannot survive. So it is in the Church, we must remain bound ever more deeply to Jesus. But not only that: just as the body needs the lifeblood to keep it alive, so we must allow Jesus to work in us, that His Word guide us, that His presence in the Eucharist nourish us, animate us, that His love gives strength to our love of neighbor. And this always! Dear brothers and sisters, let us remain united to Jesus, let us trust in Him, direct our life according to His Gospel, nourish ourselves with daily prayer, listening to the Word of God, participation in the Sacraments.

And here I come to a second aspect of the Church as the Body of Christ. St Paul says that as members of the human body, although different and many, we form one body, as we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body (cf. 1 Cor 12:12-13). In the Church, therefore, there is a variety, a diversity of tasks and functions, there is no dull uniformity, but the richness of the gifts that the Holy Spirit distributes. But there is communion and unity: we are all in a relation to each other and we all come together to form one living body, deeply connected to Christ. Let us remember this well: being part of the Church means being united to Christ and receiving from Him the divine life that makes us live as Christians; it means remaining united to the Pope and the Bishops who are instruments of unity and communion, and also means overcoming personal interests and divisions, in order to understand each other better, to harmonize the variety and richness of each member; in a word, to love God and the people who are next to us more, in the family, in the parish, in the associations. In order to live a Body and its limbs must be united! Unity is beyond all conflict. Always! Conflicts, when they don’t end well, separate us from each other, they separate us from God. Conflict can help us to grow but can also divide us. We must not travel the path of division, of conflict among us, no we must all be united – with our differences – but united because that is the path of Jesus!

Unity is beyond all conflict. Unity is a grace that we must ask of the Lord so he may save us from the temptations of the division, from internal struggles and selfishness, from gossip. How much damage gossip does! How much damage! Never gossip about others, never!. How much damage divisions among Christians, being partisan, narrow interests causes to the Church,! Divisions among us, but also divisions among the communities: evangelical Christians, orthodox Christians, Catholic Christians, but why divided? We must try to bring about unity. Let me tell you something, today, before leaving home, I spent 40 minutes more or less, half an hour, with an evangelical pastor. And we prayed together, seeking unity. But we Catholics must pray with each other and other Christians. Pray that the Lord gift us unity! Unity among ourselves! How will we ever have unity among Christians if we are not capable of having it among us Catholics,...in the family, how many families fight and split up? Seek unity, unity builds the Church and comes from Jesus Christ. He sends us the Holy Spirit to build unity!

Dear brothers and sisters, let us ask God to help us to be members of the Body of the Church always deeply united to Christ, help us not to hurt the Body of the Church with our conflicts, our divisions, selfishness: help us to be living members bound to each other by a single power, that of love, which the Holy Spirit pours into our hearts (cf. Rom 5:5).


Below the English language summary


Dear Brothers and Sisters: In our catechesis on the Creed, today we consider the Church as the Body of Christ. Through the gift of the Holy Spirit, received in Baptism, we are mystically united to the Lord as members of one body, of which he is the head. The image of the mystical body makes us realize the importance of strengthening our union with Christ through daily prayer, the study of God’s word and participation in the sacraments. Saint Paul tells the Corinthians that the Body of Christ, while one, is made up of a variety of members. Within the communion of the Church, and in union with the Pope and Bishops, each of us has a part to play, a gift to share, a service to offer, for building up the Body of Christ in love. Let us ask the Lord to help us reject every form of divisiveness and conflict in our families, parishes and local Churches. At the same time, let us ask for the grace to open our hearts to others, to promote unity and to live in harmony as members of the one Body of Christ, inspired by the gift of love which the Holy Spirit pours into our hearts.

Pope at Mass: How to pray the Our Father

Vatican Radio
June 20, 2013

To pray the Our Father we have to have a heart at peace with our brothers. We don't pray "my Father," but "our Father," because "we are not an only child, none of us are”. This was the focus of Pope Francis' homily at Mass Thursday morning in Casa Santa Marta. The Pope emphasized that we believe in a God who is a Father, who is "very close" to us, who is not anonymous, not "a cosmic God."

Prayer is not magic, rather it is entrusting ourselves to the Father’s embrace. Pope Francis centered his homily on the prayer of the "Our Father" taught by Jesus to His disciples, of which the Gospel speaks today. Jesus, he said, immediately gives us a piece of advice in prayer: "In praying, do not babble", do not make "worldly noises, vain noises”. And he warned that "prayer is not a magical thing, there is no magic with prayer." Someone once told me that when he went to a "witch doctor" they said a lot of words to heal him. But that "is pagan." Jesus teaches us, "we should not turn to Him with so many words," because "He knows everything." He adds, the first word is "Father," this "is the key of prayer." "Without saying, without feeling, that word – he warned - you cannot pray":

"To whom do I pray? To the Almighty God? He is too far off. Ah, I can’t hear Him. Neither did Jesus. To whom do I pray? To a cosmic God? That’s quite normal these days, is it not? ... praying to the cosmic God, right? This polytheistic model that comes from a rather light culture ... You must pray to the Father! It is a strong word, 'Father '. You must pray to Him who generated you, who gave you life. Not to everyone: everyone is too anonymous. To you. To me. To the person who accompanies you on your journey: He knows all about your life. Everything: what is good and what is not so good. He knows everything. If we do not start the prayer with this word, not just with our lips but with our hearts, we cannot pray in a Christian language".

"Father," he reiterated, "is a strong word" but "opens the door". At the time of sacrifice, the Pope said, Isaac realized that "something was wrong" because "he was missing a sheep," but he trusted his father and “confided his worries to his father’s heart" . "Father" is the word that "the son" who left with his legacy "and then wanted to return home" thought of. And that father "sees him come and goes running" to him, "he threw himself in his arms", "to cover him with love." "Father, I have sinned:" this is, the Pope said, "the key of every prayer, to feel loved by a father":

"We have a Father. Very close to us, eh! Who embraces us ... All these worries, concerns that we have, let's leave them to the Father, He knows what we need. But, Father, what? My father? No: Our Father! Because I am not an only child, none of us are, and if I cannot be a brother, I can hardly become a child of the Father, because He is a Father to all. Mine, sure, but also of others, of my brothers. And if I am not at peace with my brothers, I cannot say 'Father' to Him."

This, he added, explains the fact that Jesus, after having taught us the Our Father, stresses that if we do not forgive others, neither will the Father forgive us our sins. "It's so hard to forgive others – said the Pope - it is really difficult, because we always have that regret inside." We think, "You did this to me, you wait '... and I’ll repay him the favour ":

"No, you cannot pray with enemies in your heart, with brothers and enemies in your heart, you cannot pray. This is difficult, yes, it is difficult, not easy. 'Father, I cannot say Father, I cannot'. It’s true, I understand. 'I cannot say our, because he did this to me and this ...' I cannot! 'They must go to hell, right? I will have nothing to do with them'. It’s true, it is not easy. But Jesus has promised us the Holy Spirit: it is He who teaches us, from within, from the heart, how to say 'Father' and how to say 'our'. Today we ask the Holy Spirit to teach us to say 'Father' and to be able to say 'our', and thus make peace with all our enemies. "

Pope Francis: treasures we can take with us

Vatican Radio
June 21, 2013

Ask God for the grace of a heart that knows how to love; and do not let yourself be led away by useless treasures. That was Pope Francis’ message in his homily Friday morning at his daily Mass.

The search for the only treasure that you can take with you into the next life is the raison d'être of a Christian. It is the raison d'être that Jesus explains to His disciples, in the passage quoted in the Gospel of Matthew: “Where your treasure is, there also will your heart be.” But, he says, we must be careful not to be confused about true richness. There are “risky treasures” that threaten to seduce us, but “must be left behind,” – treasures gathered in life that are destroyed by death. The Pope said, with a hint of irony: “I have never seen a moving van following a funeral procession.” But there is a treasure “we can take with us,” a treasure that no one can take away, – not “those things you’ve kept for yourself,” but “those you have given to others”:

“The treasures we have given to others, that we take with us. And that will be our merit – in quotation marks, but it is our ‘merit’ of Jesus Christ in us! And that we must bring with us. And that is what the Lord lets us bring. Love, charity, service, patience, goodness, tenderness are very beautiful treasures: these we bring with us. The other things, no.”

So, as the Gospel assures us, the treasure that has value in God’s sight is that which in this life is accumulated in heaven. But Jesus, Pope Francis says, goes a step further: He joins the treasure to the “heart,” He creates a relationship between the two terms. This, he adds, is because we have “a restless heart,” which the Lord made this way to seek Him out:

“The Lord has made us restless to seek Him, to find Him, to grow. But if the treasure is a treasure that is not close to the Lord, that is not from the Lord, our heart becomes restless for things that simply don’t work, for these treasures . . . So many people, even we ourselves, are restless . . . To have this, to arrive at this in the end, our heart is tired, it is never filled: it gets tired, it becomes sluggish, it becomes a heart without love. The weariness of the heart. Let’s think about that. What do I have: a tired heart, that only wants to settle itself, three, four things, a good bank account, this or that thing? This restlessness of the heart always has to be cured.”

At this point, Pope Francis continues, Jesus speaks about the “eye,” a symbol “of the intentions of the heart” that are reflected in the body: a “heart that loves” makes the body luminous; a “wicked heart” makes it dark. “Our ability to judge things,” the Pope says, depends on this contrast between light and darkness, as is shown also by the fact that from a “heart of stone . . . attached to worldly treasures, to “selfish treasure,” can also become a treasure “of hatred,” come wars . . . Instead – this was the final prayer of the Pope – through the intercession of Saint Aloysius Gonzaga, whom the Church remembers today – let us ask for the grace of “a new heart . . . a heart of flesh”:

“All these pieces of the heart that are of stone, may the Lord make them human, with that restlessness, with that good anxiety to go forward, seeking Him and allowing ourselves to be sought by Him. That the Lord might change our hearts! And so He will save us. He will save us from the treasures that cannot help us in the encounter with Him, in service to others, and also will give us the light to understand and judge according to the true treasure: His truth. May the Lord change our heart in order to seek the true treasure and so become people of light, and not of darkness.”

Pope Francis concelebrated Mass with Cardinal Francis Coccopalmerio, the president of the Pontifical Council for the Interpretation of Legislative texts, along with Bishop Juan Ignacio Arrieta and auxiliary Bishop José Aparecido Gonzalves de Almeida, secretary and undersecretary respectively of the Council. Members of the Council were in attendance at the Mass. Also present were personnel from the Fabric of the Basilica of Saint John Lateran, led by Msgr. James Ceretto, as well as employees of the “Domus Sanctae Marthae.”

Pope Francis: serve the Word of God, not the idolatry of riches and worldly cares

Vatican Radio
June 22, 2013

The riches and the cares of the world “choke the Word of God,” said Pope Francis at Mass this morning at the Casa Santa Marta. The Pope pointed out that our life is set on three pillars: election, covenant, and promise, adding that we must trust the Father in living in the present without worrying about what will happen.

“No one can serve two masters.” Pope Francis began his homily with the words of Christ in today’s Gospel, where He focuses on the theme of riches and cares. Jesus, the Pope said, “has a clear idea on this subject”: they are “the riches and cares of the world” that choke the Word of God, they are the thorns spoken of in the Parable of the Sower, that choke the seed that has fallen on the ground:

“The riches and cares of the world choke the Word of God and do not allow it to grow. And the Word dies, because it is not cared for: it is choked. In that case you serve riches or you serve cares, but you don’t serve the Word of God. And this also has a temporal sense, because the Parable is somewhat constructed – the discourse of Jesus in the Parable – in time, is it not? Don’t worry about tomorrow, about what you will do tomorrow. . . . And also the Parable of the Sower is built on time: he sows, then the rain comes and it grows. Simply, we remove from time.”

The Pope emphasised that our life is founded on three pillars: the past, the present and the future. The pillar of the past, he explained, “is that of the election of the Lord.” Every one of us can say “the Lord has chosen me, has loved me,” “He has said to me ‘come’,” and with Baptism “he has chosen me to go along a road, the Christian road.” The future, on the other hand, concerns “walking towards a promise”, the Lord “has made us a promise.” Finally, the present “is our response to the God Who is so good that He has chosen me.” The Pope said, “He makes a promise, he proposes a covenant with me, and I make a covenant with Him.” So these are the three pillars: “election, covenant, and promise”:

“The three pillars of the whole story of the Salvation. But when our heart enters into what Jesus explains to us, it takes away time: it takes away the past, it takes away the future, and one is confused in the present. For one who is attached to riches, neither the past nor the future is important; he has everything here. Wealth is an idol. I don’t need a past, a promise, an election: nothing. He who is worried about what will happen, takes away his relation with the future – “but can one do this?” – and the future becomes futuristic, but no, it doesn’t direct you to any promise: you remain confused, you remain alone.”

This is why Jesus tells us we must either follow the Kingdom of God or the riches and cares of the world. The Pope said with Baptism “we are chosen in love” by Him, we have “a Father that has sent us along a road.” And so “even the future is joyful,” because “we are walking towards a promise.” The Lord “is faithful, He does not disappoint” and so we too are called to do “what we can” without disappointment, “without forgetting that we have a Father who chose us in the past.” Riches and cares, he warned, are the two things “that make us forget our past,” that make us live as if we didn’t have a Father. And even our present is a present that doesn’t work”:

“Forgetting the past, not accepting the present, disfiguring the future: that’s what riches and cares do. The Lord tells us: “But be calm! Seek the Kingdom of God, and everything else will come.’ Let us ask the Lord for the grace not to fool ourselves with worries, with the idolatry of riches, and to always remember that we have a Father Who has chosen us; to remember that this Father promises us a good thing, which is walking towards that promise and having courage to take the present as it comes. Let us ask this grace from the Lord.”

Pope Angelus: Those who serve the truth serve Christ

Vatican Radio
June 23, 2013

On a hot sunny day in Rome, Pope Francis greeted thousands of pilgrims and tourists from the window of the Papal apartments above St Peter’s Square who had come to hear the recitation of the Sunday Angelus.

Reflecting on Sunday’s Gospel the Pope recalled some of the most incisive words that Jesus spoke, “"Whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it"

The Holy Father said that this phrase is really a summary of Christ’s message which almost makes us hear his voice.

Explaining the meaning of Jesus’ words Pope Francis said that the martyrs offer the best example of losing one's life for Christ. Both in the past and today, he continued, in many parts of the world, there are martyrs both men and women who are imprisoned, or killed for the sole reason of being Christian.

But the Pope also noted that there is also the daily martyrdom, which do not result in death but is also as he put it, a "loss of life" for Christ, people doing their duty with love, according to the logic of Jesus.

These people the Holy Father said are the fathers and mothers who every day put into practice their faith by devoting their lives for the good of the family.

Pope Francis also recalled the “many priests, monks, nuns who give generously their service to the kingdom of God”. And the young people who give up their interests to devote their time to children, the disabled, and the elderly.

The Pope then spoke of the Christians and non-Christians who "lose their life" for the truth, adding “those who serve the truth serve Christ.”

Before reciting the Marian prayer the Holy Father focused his attention on one great man who gave his life for the truth, John the Baptist whose feast day is celebrated on June 24th. He said John was chosen by God to prepare the way before Jesus. John devoted himself entirely to God and his messenger. But it was Jesus who eventually died for the cause of truth.

During the Angelus the Pope also stressed ,especially to the young people present, the importance of having the courage to go against the tide of current values that do not conform to the path of Jesus.

Pope at Mass: John the Baptist a model for the Church

Vatican Radio
June 24. 2013

The church exists for courageously proclaiming -until martyrdom- Christ, to serve and "take nothing for herself". In his homily at morning Mass on Monday, Pope Francis pointed to St. John the Baptist as model for Church: he didn't claim the Truth, the Word as his own; he diminished himself so Christ could shine.

June 24th is the Solemnity of the Birth of the Saint, whom the Gospels indicate as the forerunner or precursor of Jesus. Dedicating his homily to him Pope Francis said the Church is called to proclaim the Word of God, even to martyrdom.

Pope Francis began his homily by addressing best wishes to all who bear the name John. The figure of John the Baptist, the Pope said, is not always easy to understand. "When we think of his life - he observed – we think of a prophet," a "man who was great and then ends up as a poor man." Who is John? The Pope said john himself explains: "I am a voice, a voice in the wilderness," but "it is a voice without the Word, because the Word is not him, it is an Other." Here then is the mystery of John: "He never takes over the Word," John "is the one who indicates, who marks". The "meaning of John's life - he added - is to indicate another." Pope Francis then spoke of being struck by the fact that the "Church chooses to mark John’s feast day” at a time when the days are at their longest in the year, when they "have more light." And John really "was the man of light, he brought light, but it was not his own light, it was a reflected light." John is "like a moon" and when Jesus began to preach, the light of John "began to decline, to set". "Voice not Word - the Pope said - light, but not his own"

"John seems to be nothing. That is John’s vocation: he negates himself. And when we contemplate the life of this man, so great, so powerful - all believed that he was the Messiah - when we contemplate this life, how it is nullified to the point of the darkness of a prison, we behold a great mystery. We do not know what John’s last days were like. We do not know. We only know that he was killed, his head was put on a platter, as a great gift from a dancer to an adulteress. I don’t think you can lower yourself much more than this, negate yourself much more. That was the end that John met".

Pope Francis noted that in prison John experienced doubts, anguish and he called on his disciples to go to Jesus and ask him, "Are you You, or should we expect someone else?". His life is one of “pain and darkness”. John “was not even spared this”, said the Pope, who added: "the figure of John makes me think so much about the Church":

"The Church exists to proclaim, to be the voice of a Word, her husband, who is the Word. The Church exists to proclaim this Word until martyrdom. Martyrdom precisely in the hands of the proud, the proudest of the Earth. John could have made himself important, he could have said something about himself. 'But I never think', only this: he indicated, he felt himself to be the voice, not the Word. This is John’s secret. Why is John holy and without sin? Because he never, never took a truth as his own. He would not be an ideologue. The man who negated himself so that the Word could come to the fore. And we, as a Church, we can now ask for the grace not to become an ideological Church ... "

The Church, he added, must hear the Word of Jesus and raise her voice, proclaim it boldly. "That - he said - is the Church without ideologies, without a life of its own: the Church which is the mysterium lunae which has light from her Bridegroom and diminish herself so that He may grow"

"This is the model that John offers us today, for us and for the Church. A Church that is always at the service of the Word. A Church that never takes anything for herself. Today in prayer we asked for the grace of joy, we asked the Lord to cheer this Church in her service to the Word, to be the voice of this Word, preach this Word. We ask for the grace, the dignity of John, with no ideas of their own, without a Gospel taken as property, only one Church that indicates the Word, and this even to martyrdom. So be it! "

Mass was concelebrated by Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, and attended by a group of priests and collaborators of the Pontifical Council for Culture, a group of employees of the Pontifical Commission for Sacred Archaeology and the Vatican’s Philatelic and Numismatic Office.

Pope Francis at morning Mass: no one is Christian by chance

Vatican Radio
June 25, 2013

Being Christian is a response to the voice of love, to a call to become children of God. This was the central theme of Pope Francis’ remarks at Mass on Tuesday morning in the chapel of the Domus Sanctae Marthae residence in the Vatican. The Holy Father also spoke of the Christian certainty that God never leaves us alone and asks us to go forward, even in the midst of difficulties.

Pope Francis focused his homily on the first reading of the day, from the Book of Genesis, which tells of the discussion between Abram and Lot his cousin for the division of the earth. “When I read this,” he said, “I think of the Middle East and so I ask the Lord [intensely] that He give wisdom to all of us, the wisdom [to say] let’s not fight, [you and I], I from here and you from there... the wisdom for peace.” Abram, the Pope observed, “keeps walking.” He said, “[Abram] had left his land to go he knew not where, but wherever the Lord would tell him.” He kept on walking, then, because he believed in the Word of God, which, “had invited him to go out of his land.” This man, perhaps ninety years old, said the Pope, looked upon the land that the Lord had shown him and believed:

"Abram departed his land [carrying] a promise: his entire journey is a going toward this promise. The way he walked his path is a model for how we [ought to walk our own]. God called Abram, a [single] person, and that one person makes an entire people. If we go to the Book of Genesis, to the beginning, to the creation, we find that God creates the stars, creates the plants, creates the animals, creates the these and the that’s and the others ... But He creates Man in the singular, one. God always speaks in the singular to us, because He has created in his image and likeness. And God speaks in the singular. He spoke to Abram and gave him a promise and invited him to come out of his land. We Christians have been called one-by-one: none of us is Christian by pure chance. No one.”

There is a call, “by name, and with a promise,” the Pope said, “Go ahead, I am with you! I walk beside you.” This, he said, Jesus knew as well: “Even in the most difficult moments He turns to the Father”:

"God accompanies us, God calls us by name, God promises [there will be] a line of heirs. This is something of ‘the surety of the Christian. It is not a coincidence, it is a call - a call that keeps us going. Being a Christian is a call of love, friendship, a call to become a child of God, brother of Jesus, to become fruitful in the transmission of this call to others, to become instruments of this call. There are so many problems, so many problems, there are difficult times, Jesus had many of His own! But always with that confidence: ‘The Lord has called me. The Lord is like me. The Lord has promised me.”

The Lord, he reiterated, "is faithful, for He can never deny Himself: He is faithfulness.” Thinking of the passage in which Abram, “is anointed father, for the first time, the father of peoples,” we also think of ouseveles – we, who have been anointed in Baptism, and we think of our Christian life.”:

"Someone will say, ‘Father, I am a sinner’, but we all are, as everyone knows. The problem is: sinners, go forward with the Lord, go forward with that promise that He has made us, with the promise of fruitfulness, and tell others, recount to others that the Lord is with us, that the Lord has chosen us and that He does not leave us alone, not ever! That certainty of the Christian will do us good. May the Lord give us, all of us, this desire to move forward, which Abram had, in the midst of all his problems: to go forward with the confidence that He who called me, who promised me so many beautiful things, is with me.”

The Mass was concelebrated by Cardinal Robert Sarah of the Pontifical Council cor unum and by the emeritus vicar-general of the Rome diocese, Cardinal Camillo Ruini. It was attended by staff from cor unum as well as of the Pontifical Academy for Life and the Vatican Observatory, accompanied by the Observatory’s director, Fr. José Gabriel Funes, SJ.

METROPOLITAN ARCHBISHOPS WHO WILL RECEIVE THE PALLIUM

Vatican City, 25 June 2013 (VIS) – Pope Francis will impose the pallium upon the following metropolitan archbishops in this year's ceremony on 29 June, the Solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul:

1. Patriarch Manuel Jose Macario do Nascimento Clemente, patriarch of Lisbon, Portugal

2. Archbishop Dieudonne Nzapalainga, C.S.Sp., of Bangui, Central African Republic

3. Archbishop Carlo Roberto Maria Redaelli of Gorizia, Italy

4. Archbishop Claudio Dalla Zuanna, S.C.I., of Beira, Mozambique

5. Archbishop Prakash Mallavarapu of Visakhapatnam, India

6. Archbishop Antonio Carlos Altieri, S.D.B., of Passo Fundo, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

7. Archbishop Marek Jedraszewski of Lodz, Poland

8. Archbishop Philip Tartaglia of Glasgow, Scotland, Great Britain

9. Archbishop Salvatore Joseph Cordileone of San Francisco, California, USA

10. Archbishop Rolando Joven Tria Tirona, O.C.D., of Caceres, Philippines

11. Archbishop Rogelio Cabrera Lopez of Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico

12. Archbishop Joseph William Tobin, C.Ss.R., of Indianapolis, Indiana, USA

13. Archbishop Carlos Maria Franzini of Mendoza, Argentina

14. Archbishop Lorenzo Ghizzoni of Ravenna-Cervia, Italy

15. Archbishop George Antonysamy of Madras and Mylapore, India

16. Archbishop Anil Joseph Thomas Couto of Delhi, India

17. Archbishop John Wong Soo Kau of Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia

18. Archbishop Murray Chatlain of Keewatin-Le Pas, Manitoba, Canada

19. Archbishop Sérgio Eduardo Castriani, C.S.Sp., of Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil

20. Archbishop Peter Loy Chong of Suva, Fiji Islands

21. Archbishop Alfonso Cortes Contreras of Leon, Guanajuato, Mexico

22. Archbishop Alexander King Sample of Portland in Oregon, USA

23. Archbishop Joseph Effiong Ekuwem of Calabar, Nigeria

24. Archbishop Jesus Juarez Parraga, S.D.B., of Sucre, Bolivia

25. Archbishop Fabio Martinez Castilla of Tuxtla Gutierrez, Chiapas, Mexico

26. Archbishop Ramon Alfredo Dus of Resistencia, Argentina

27. Archbishop Mario Aurelio Poli of Buenos Aires, Argentina

28. Archbishop Gintaras Linas Grusas of Vilnius, Lithuania

29. Archbishop Michael Owen Jackels of Dubuque, Iowa, USA

30. Archbishop Duro Hranic of Dakovo-Osijek, Croatia

31. Archbishop Moacir Silva of Ribeirao Preto, Sao Paulo, Brazil

32. Archbishop Jozef Piotr Kupny of Wroclaw, Poland

33. Archbishop Sergio Alfredo Gualberti Calandrina of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia

34. Archbishop Giuseppe Petrocchi of L’Aquila, Italy

The following archbishop will receive the pallium in his Metropolitan See:

35. Archbishop Francois Xavier Le Van Hong of Hue, Vietnam.


***************


POPE TO RECEIVE ITALIAN PRIME MINISTER

Vatican City, 25 June 2013 (VIS) – The Director of the Holy See Press Office, Fr. Federico Lombardi, S.J., has issued a communique with the information that next Thursday, 4 July, at 11:00am, the Holy Father will receive Mr. Enrico Letta, Prime Minister of Italy. After their talk the prime minister will meet with Cardinal Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone, S.D.B.

Pope at Mass: The joy of fatherhood

Vatican Radio
June 26, 2013

The desire to be a father is ingrained in all men, even priests, who are called to give life, care, protection to their spiritual children entrusted to them. This was the focus of Pope Francis homily at morning Mass Wednesday, in the chapel of Casa Santa Marta. Mass was concelebrated by the Cardinal Archbishop Emeritus of Palermo, Salvatore De Giorgi, who was celebrating the 60th anniversary of his priestly ordination.

"When a man does not have this desire, something is missing in this man. Something is wrong. All of us, to exist, to become complete, in order to be mature, we need to feel the joy of fatherhood: even those of us who are celibate. Fatherhood is giving life to others, giving life, giving life… For us, it is pastoral paternity, spiritual fatherhood, but this is still giving life, this is still becoming fathers. "

Pope Francis was inspired by Wednesday's passage from Genesis, in which God promises an elderly Abram the joy of a child, along with descendants as numerous as the stars of heaven. To seal this covenant, Abram follows God's directions and prepares a sacrifice of animals which he then defends from attack by birds of prey. "It moves me - said the Pope – to picture this ninety year old man with a stick in his hand", defending his sacrifice. "It makes me think of a father defending his family, his children":

"A father who knows what it means to protect his children. And this is a grace that we priests must ask for ourselves: to be a father, to be a father. The grace of fatherhood, of pastoral paternity, of spiritual paternity. We may have many sins, but this is commune sanctorum: We all have sins. But not having children, never becoming a father, it like an incomplete life: a life that stops half way. And therefore we have to be fathers. But it is a grace that the Lord gives. People say to us: 'Father, Father, Father ...'. They want us to be this, fathers, by the grace of pastoral fatherhood. "

Pope Francis then turned to Cardinal De Giorgi, who is marking the 60 the anniversary of his priestly ordination. "I do not know what our dear Savlvatore did," but "I'm sure that he was a father." "And this is a sign," he says pointing to the many priests who accompanied the cardinal. “Now it's up to you” he said, adding: every tree "bears its own fruit, and if it is good, the fruit must be good, right?". So, the Pope concluded lightheartedly , "do not let him look bad ..."

"We thank God for this grace of fatherhood in the Church, which is passed from father to son, and so on ... And I think, finally, these two icons and one more: the icon of Abram who asks for a child, the icon of Abraham with a stick in his hand, defending his family, and the icon of the elderly Simeon in the Temple, when he receives the new life : this is a spontaneous liturgy, the liturgy of joy , in Him. And to you, the Lord today gifts great joy. "

Pope Francis: weekly General Audience (full text)

Vatican Radio
June 26, 2013

Pope Francis received pilgrims and visitors in St Peter's Square on Wednesday morning for his weekly General Audience. In his catechetical remarks, the Holy Father concentrated on the image of the Church as living temple and People of God. Below, please find Vatican Radio's translation of his remarks.

************************************************************

Dear brothers and sisters,

Today I would like briefly to refer to one more picture that helps us to illustrate the mystery of the Church: that of the temple (cf. Lumen Gentium, 6).

What does the word, ‘temple’ call to mind? It makes us think of a building, a construction. In particular, it recalls to many minds the history of the People of Israel narrated in the Old Testament. In Jerusalem, the great Temple of Solomon was the locus of the encounter with God in prayer. Within the Temple was the Ark of the Covenant, a sign of God's presence among the people, and inside the Ark were the Tablets of the Law, the manna and the rod of Aaron, a reminder that God had always been in the history of his people, had always been with them on their journey, always directed their stride – and the Temple recalls this story. We, too, when we go to the temple, must remember this story – my story – the story of each one of us – of how Jesus encountered me, of how he walked with me, how Jesus loves and blesses me.

That, which was prefigured in the ancient Temple, is realized in the Church, by the power of the Holy Spirit: the Church is the “house of God”, the place of His presence, where we can find and meet the Lord, the Church is the temple in which dwells the Holy Spirit, who animates, guides and sustains her. If we ask ourselves, “Where we can meet God? Where can we enter into communion with Him through Christ? Where can we find the light of the Holy Spirit to enlighten our lives?” the answer is, “in the People of God, among us, for we are Church – among us, within the People of God, in the Church – there we shall meet Jesus, we shall meet the Holy Spirit, we shall meet the Father.

The ancient temple was built by the hands of men: they wanted to “give a home” to God, to have a visible sign of His presence among the people. With the Incarnation of the Son of God, the prophecy of Nathan to King David is fulfilled (cf. 2 Sam 7.1 to 29): it is not the king, it is not we, who are to “give a home to God,” but God Himself who “builds his house” to come and dwell among us, as St. John writes in the Prologue of his Gospel (cf. 1:14). Christ is the living Temple of the Father, and Christ himself builds His “spiritual home”, the Church, made not of stone materials, but of “living stones” – of us, our very selves. The Apostle Paul says to the Christians of Ephesus: you are “Built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone: in whom all the building, being framed together, groweth up into an holy temple in the Lord.(Eph 2:20-22)” How beautiful this is! We are the living stones of God, profoundly united to Christ, who is the rock of support, and among ourselves. What then, does this mean? It means that we are the Temple – the Church, but, us, living – we are Church, we are [the] living temple, and within us, when we are together, there is the Holy Spirit, who helps us grow as Church. We are not isolated, we are People of God – and this is the Church: People of God.

It is, moreover, the Holy Spirit with His gifts, who designs the variety – and this is important – what does the Holy Spirit do in our midst? He designs the variety – the variety, which is the richness of the Church and unites everything and everyone, so as to constitute a spiritual temple, in which we offer not material sacrifices, but us ourselves, our life (cf. 1 Pt 2:4-5). The Church is not a weave of things and interests, it is rather the Temple of the Holy Spirit, the Temple in which God works, the Temple in which each of us with the gift of Baptism is living stone. This tells us that no one is useless in the Church – no on is useless in the Church! – and should anyone chance to say, some one of you, “Get home with you, you’re useless!” that is not true. No one is useless in the Church. We are all needed in order to build this temple. No one is secondary: “Ah, I am the most important one in the Church!” No! We are all equal in the eyes of God. But, one of you might say, “Mr. Pope, sir, you are not equal to us.” But I am just like each of you. We are all equal. We are all brothers and sisters. No one is anonymous: all form and build the Church. Nevertheless, it also invites us to reflect on the fact that the Temple wants the brick of our Christian life, that something is wanting in the beauty of the Church.

So I would like for us to ask ourselves: how do we live our being Church? We are living stones? Are we rather, so to speak, tired stones, bored, indifferent? Have any of you ever noticed how ugly a tired, bored, indifferent Christian is? It’s an ugly sight. A Christian has to be lively, joyous, he has to live this beautiful thing that is the People of God, the Church. Do we open ourselves to the Holy Spirit, so as to be an active part of our communities, or do we close in on ourselves, saying, “I have so many things to do, that’s not my job.”?

May the Lord grant us His grace, His strength, so that we can be deeply united to Christ, the cornerstone, stone of support for all of our lives and the life of the Church. Let us pray that, animated by His Spirit, we might always be living stones of the Church.

Pope at Mass: Resting our faith on the rock of Christ

Vatican Radio
June 27, 2013

There are people who "masquerade as Christians," and sin by being excessively superficial or overly rigid, forgetting that a true Christian is a person of joy who rests their faith on the rock of Christ. Some think they can be Christian without Christ; others think being Christian means being in a perpetual state mourning. This was the focus of Pope Francis’ homily at morning Mass on Thursday.

Rigid and sad. Or happy but with no idea of ​​Christian joy. These are two - in a sense opposite - "houses", in which two categories of believers live and which are both seriously flawed: they are grounded in a Christianity made of words and fail to rely on the "rock" of the Word of Christ. Pope Francis identified both groups in his comments on the Gospel of the day, the famous passage from Matthew of the houses built on sand and rock.

"In the history of the Church there have been two classes of Christians: Christians of words - those" Lord, Lord, Lord "- and Christians of action, in truth. There has always been the temptation to live our Christianity not on the rock that is Christ. The only one who gives us the freedom to say 'Father' to God is Christ, our rock. He is the only one who sustains us in difficult times, no? As Jesus said: the rain falls, rivers overflow, winds blow, but the rock is safe, words, the words take flight, they are not needed. But this is the temptation of these Christians of words, of a Christianity without Jesus, a Christianity without Christ. And this has happened and is happening today in the Church: being Christians without Christ. "

Pope Francis went on to analyze these "Christians of words," revealing their specific characteristics. There is a first type – which he defined as "gnostic -"who instead of loving the rock, loves beautiful words "and therefore lives floating on the surface of the Christian life. And then there's the other, who Pope Francis called "pelagian", who leads a staid and starched lifestyle. Christians, the Pope ironically added, who “stare at their feet” :

"And this temptation exists today. Superficial Christians who believe, yes, God, yes Christ, but not ‘everywhere’: Jesus Christ is not the one who gives them their foundation. They are the modern gnostics. The temptation of gnosticism. A 'liquid' Christianity. On the other hand, there are those who believe that the Christian life should be taken so seriously that they end up confusing solidity, firmness, with rigidity. They are rigid! This think that being Christian means being in perpetual mourning. "

Pope Francis continued that the fact is that there “are so many” of these Christians. But, he argued, "they are not Christians, they disguise themselves as Christians." "They do not know – he added - what the Lord is, they do not know what the rock is, do not have the freedom of Christians. To put it simply ‘they have no joy ":

"The former have a ‘superficial’ happiness. The others live in perpetual state of mourning, but do not know what Christian joy is. They do not know how to enjoy the life that Jesus gives us, for they know not to talk to Jesus. They do not feel that they rest on Jesus, with that firmness which the presence of Jesus gives. And they not only have no joy, they have no freedom either. They are the slaves of superficiality, of this life widespread, and the slaves of rigidity, they are not free. The Holy Spirit has no place in their lives,. It is the Spirit who gives us the freedom! Today, the Lord calls us to build our Christian life on Him, the rock, the One who gives us freedom, the One who sends us the Spirit, that keeps us going with joy, on His journey, following His proposals. "

Pope at Mass: The Mystery of God’s patience

Vatican Radio
June 28, 2013

The Lord asks us to be patient, after all He is always patient with us. Moreover there is no "set protocol" for how God intervenes in our lives; sometimes it's immediate, sometimes we just have to have a little patience. This was the lesson drawn by Pope Francis from the daily readings at Mass Friday morning in Casa Santa Marta.

The Lord slowly enters the life of Abraham, who is 99 years old when He promises him a son. Instead He immediately enters the life of the leper, Jesus listens to his prayer, touches him and preforms a miracle. Pope Francis went on to speak of how the Lord chooses to become involved "in our lives, in the lives of His people." The lives of Abraham and the leper. "When the Lord intervenes - said the Pope– He does not always do so in the same way. There is no ‘set protocol’ of action of God in our life", "it does not exist ". Once, he added, "He intervenes is one way, another time in a different way” but He always intervenes. There is "always - he said - this meeting between us and the Lord".

"The Lord always chooses His way to enter into our lives. Often He does so slowly, so much so, we are in danger of losing our 'patience', a little. But Lord, when? 'And we pray, we pray ... And He doesn’t intervene in our lives. Other times, when we think of what the Lord has promised us, that it such a huge thing, we don’t believe it, we are a little skeptical, like Abraham – and we smile a little to ourselves ... This is what it says in the First Reading, Abraham hid his face and smiled ... A bit 'of skepticism:' What? Me? I am almost a hundred years old, I will have a son and my wife at 90 will have a son? '.

Sarah is equally skeptical, the Pope recalled, at the Oaks of Mamre, when the three angels say the same thing to Abraham. "How often, when the Lord does not intervene, does not perform a miracle, does not do what we want Him to do, do we become impatient or skeptical?"

"But He does not, He cannot for skeptics. The Lord takes his time. But even He, in this relationship with us, has a lot of patience. Not only do we have to have patience: He has! He waits for us! And He waits for us until the end of life! Think of the good thief, right at the end, at the very end, he acknowledged God. The Lord walks with us, but often does not reveal Himself, as in the case of the disciples of Emmaus. The Lord is involved in our lives - that's for sure! - But often we do not see. This demands our patience. But the Lord who walks with us, He also has a lot of patience with us. "

The Pope turned his thoughts to "the mystery of God's patience, who in walking, walks at our pace." Sometimes in life, he noted, "things become so dark, there is so much darkness, that we want - if we are in trouble - to come down from the cross." This, he said, "is the precise moment: the night is at its darkest, when dawn is about to break. And when we come down from the Cross, we always do so just five minutes before our liberation comes, at the very moment when our impatience is greatest ".

"Jesus on the Cross, heard them challenging him: 'Come down, come down! Come '. Patience until the end, because He has patience with us. He always enters, He is involved with us, but He does so in His own way and when He thinks it's best. He tells us exactly what He told Abraham: Walk in my presence and be blameless', be above reproach, this is exactly the right word. Walk in my presence and try to be above reproach. This is the journey with the Lord and He intervenes, but we have to wait, wait for the moment, walking always in His presence and trying to be beyond reproach. We ask this grace from the Lord, to always walk in His presence, trying to be blameless'.

Pope Francis: Mass and Angelus on Sts Peter and Paul

Vatican Radio
June 29, 2013

Pope Francis marked the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul with Mass in St Peter’s Basilica, during which he imposed the pallium on thirty-four of the metropolitan archbishops installed over the past year. The pallium is the white, shawl-like woolen liturgical vestment worn over the shoulders of a metropolitan archbishop, which is the peculiar sign of a metropolitan’s office: it specifically symbolizes authority and union with the Holy See. Each year on the feast, the Metropolitan archbishops installed during the course of the preceding year travel to Rome to receive the vestment. The solemnity is also one of the two days in the liturgical year in which the ancient bronze statue of St Peter in the basilica is symbolically vested in an ornate red silk cope and crowned with the triple tiara.

After processing into the basilica with the thirty-four new metropolitans and hearing the readings, Pope Francis delivered a homily in which he focused on the mystery of the Petrine ministry as one particularly ordered to confirming all Christians everywhere in faith, love and unity. “Faith in Christ,” said Pope Francis, “is the light of our life as Christians.“ Addressing himself to the new metropolitans, the Pope said, “To confess the Lord by letting oneself be taught by God; to be consumed by love for Christ and his Gospel; to be servants of unity. These, dear brother bishops, are the tasks which the holy apostles Peter and Paul entrust to each of us, so that they can be lived by every Christian.”

This was a theme to which the Holy Father returned after Mass, in remarks to the faithful gathered in St Peter's square for the Angelus prayer. “What a joy it is to believe in a God who is all Love, all Grace,” he said. Also at the Angelus, Pope Francis also greeted the delegation from the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, led by Metropolitan Ioannis Zizoulas. “Let us not forget that Peter had a brother, Andrew,” said Pope Francis, “who met Jesus first, spoke of Him to Peter and took Peter to meet [the Lord].”

Then Pope Francis asked all the gathered faithful to join him in praying a Hail Mary for Patriarch Bartholomew.

In conclusion, the Holy Father greeted all the pilgrim faithful who, from every part of the world, were come to celebrate the feast in Rome.


Below, please find a list of the thirty-four metropolitans to receive the pallium:

Patriarch Manuel Jose Macario do Nascimento Clemente of Lisbon, Portugal;
Archbishop Dieudonne Nzapalainga of Bangui, Central African Republic;
Archbishop Carlo Roberto Maria Redaelli of Gorizia, Italy;
Archbishop Claudio Dalla Zuanna of Beira, Mozambique;
Archbishop Prakash Mallavarapu of Visakhapatnam, India;
Archbishop Antonio Carlos Altieri of Passo Fundo, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil;
Archbishop Marek Jedraszewski of Lodz, Poland;
Archbishop Philip Tartaglia of Glasgow, Scotland;
Archbishop Salvatore Joseph Cordileone of San Francisco, California;
Archbishop Rolando Joven Tria Tirona of Caceres, Philippines;
Archbishop Rogelio Cabrera Lopez of Monterrey, Mexico;
Archbishop Joseph William Tobin of Indianapolis, Indiana;
Archbishop Carlos Maria Franzini of Mendoza, Argentina;
Archbishop Lorenzo Ghizzoni of Ravenna-Cervia, Italy;
Archbishop George Antonysamy of Madras and Mylapore, India;
Archbishop Anil Joseph Thomas Couto of Delhi, India;
Archbishop John Wong Soo Kau of Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia;
Archbishop Murray Chatlain of Keewatin-Le Pas, Manitoba;
Archbishop Sérgio Eduardo Castriani of Manaus, Brazil;
Archbishop Peter Loy Chong of Suva, Fiji Islands;
Archbishop Alfonso Cortes Contreras of Leon, Mexico;
Archbishop Alexander King Sample of Portland, Oregon;
Archbishop Joseph Effiong Ekuwem of Calabar, Nigeria;
Archbishop Jesus Juarez Parraga of Sucre, Bolivia;
Archbishop Fabio Martinez Castilla of Tuxtla Gutierrez, Mexico;
Archbishop Ramon Alfredo Dus of Resistencia, Argentina;
Archbishop Mario Aurelio Poli of Buenos Aires, Argentina;
Archbishop Gintaras Linas Grusas of Vilnius, Lithuania;
Archbishop Michael Owen Jackels of Dubuque, Iowa;
Archbishop Duro Hranic of Dakovo-Osijek, Croatia;
Archbishop Moacir Silva of Ribeirao Preto, Brazil;
Archbishop Jozef Piotr Kupny of Wroclaw, Poland;
Archbishop Sergio Alfredo Gualberti Calandrina of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia;
Archbishop Giuseppe Petrocchi of L’Aquila, Italy.

In addition, Archbishop Francois Xavier Le Van Hong of Hue, in Vietnam, was unable to make the trip. He is to receive the pallium in his archdiocese.

Below, please find the English text of his homily.

****************************************

Homily of the Holy Father
Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, Apostles
(Saturday, 29 June 2013)


Your Eminences,
My Brother Bishops and Priests,
Dear Brothers and Sisters,

We are celebrating the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, Apostles, principal patrons of the Church of Rome: a celebration made all the more joyful by the presence of bishops from throughout the world. A great wealth, which makes us in some sense relive the event of Pentecost. Today, as then, the faith of the Church speaks in every tongue and desire to unite all peoples in one family.

I offer a heartfelt and grateful greeting to the Delegation of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, led by Metropolitan Ioannis. I thank Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomaios I for this renewed gesture of fraternity. I greet the distinguished ambassadors and civil authorities. And in a special way I thank the Thomanerchor, the Choir of the Thomaskirche of Leipzig – Bach’s own church – which is contributing to today’s liturgical celebration and represents an additional ecumenical presence.

I would like to offer three thoughts on the Petrine ministry, guided by the word “confirm”. What has the Bishop of Rome been called to confirm?

1. First, to confirm in faith. The Gospel speaks of the confession of Peter: “You are Christ, the Son of the living God” (Mt 16:16), a confession which does not come from him but from our Father in heaven. Because of this confession, Jesus replies: “You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church” (v. 18). The role, the ecclesial service of Peter, is founded upon his confession of faith in Jesus, the Son of the living God, made possible by a grace granted from on high. In the second part of today’s Gospel we see the peril of thinking in worldly terms. When Jesus speaks of his death and resurrection, of the path of God which does not correspond to the human path of power, flesh and blood re-emerge in Peter: “He took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him ... This must never happen to you” (16:22). Jesus’ response is harsh: “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me” (v. 23). Whenever we let our thoughts, our feelings or the logic of human power prevail, and we do not let ourselves be taught and guided by faith, by God, we become stumbling blocks. Faith in Christ is the light of our life as Christians and as ministers in the Church!

2. To confirm in love. In the second reading we heard the moving words of Saint Paul: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” (2 Tm 4:7). But what is this fight? It is not one of those fights fought with human weapons which sadly continue to cause bloodshed throughout the world; rather, it is the fight of martyrdom. Saint Paul has but one weapon: the message of Christ and the gift of his entire life for Christ and for others. It is precisely this readiness to lay himself open, personally, to be consumed for the sake of the Gospel, to make himself all things to all people, unstintingly, that gives him credibility and builds up the Church. The Bishop of Rome is called himself to live and to confirm his brothers and sisters in this love for Christ and for all others, without distinction, limits or barriers.

3. To confirm in unity. Here I would like to reflect for a moment on the rite which we have carried out. The pallium is a symbol of communion with the Successor of Peter, “the lasting and visible source and foundation of the unity both of faith and of communion” (Lumen Gentium, 18). And your presence today, dear brothers, is the sign that the Church’s communion does not mean uniformity. The Second Vatican Council, in speaking of the hierarchical structure of the Church, states that the Lord “established the apostles as college or permanent assembly, at the head of which he placed Peter, chosen from their number” (ibid., 19). And it continues, “this college, in so far as it is composed of many members, is the expression of the variety and universality of the people of God” (ibid., 22). In the Church, variety, which is itself a great treasure, is always grounded in the harmony of unity, like a great mosaic in which every small piece joins with others as part of God’s one great plan. This should inspire us to work always to overcome every conflict which wounds the body of the Church. United in our differences: this is the way of Jesus! The pallium, while being a sign of communion with the Bishop of Rome and with the universal church, also commits each of you to being a servant of communion.

To confess the Lord by letting oneself be taught by God; to be consumed by love for Christ and his Gospel; to be servants of unity. These, dear brother bishops, are the tasks which the holy apostles Peter and Paul entrust to each of us, so that they can be lived by every Christian. May the holy Mother of God guide us and accompany us always with her intercession. Queen of Apostles, pray for us! Amen.