Vatican News

CNA Staff, Sep 9, 2024 / 14:10 pm (CNA).

In a letter to the director-general of UNESCO on Monday on the occasion of International Literacy Day 2024, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state, conveyed a message from the Holy Father to all those involved in the event.

“The Holy See gladly renews its appreciation of the contribution made by UNESCO in promoting linguistic and cultural diversity, and indeed multilingualism,” Parolin said in his letter. 

International Literacy Day 2024 is being celebrated in Yaoundé, Cameroon, Sept. 9–10. The global event is sponsored by UNESCO in cooperation with the government of Cameroon and has been celebrated yearly since 1967 to help combat illiteracy and encourage all those who promote literacy and education. 

Much of Parolin’s letter was dedicated to the increasingly important role multilingualism plays in “expanding knowledge and fostering openness to other peoples and different cultures, but also by encouraging dialogue, listening, and mediation.”

“Polyglots are often in demand precisely because, in addition to their ability to understand and speak several languages, they tend to have finer analytical abilities, better communication and social skills, and a greater aptitude for discernment. In this sense, they are better equipped to appreciate the richness of other cultures, including those far removed from their own,” the letter said.

Parolin relayed in the letter the Holy Father’s call to “political decision-makers, educators, and the general public to appreciate more deeply the vital role played by literacy in the building of a more educated, fraternal, supportive, and peaceful society.”

The cardinal also sent “prayerful good wishes” on behalf of the pope “upon you and your co-workers, and upon all the members of the networks involved in promoting literacy, intercultural dialogue, and mutual understanding between peoples.”

The letter was sent while the Holy Father continues his 12-day trip in Southeast Asia and Oceania, where he is visiting four countries.

CNA Staff, Sep 3, 2024 / 14:07 pm (CNA).

Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, 79, president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, has written a new book titled “Destinati alla Vita,” which translates to “Destiny for Life.” The book is a reflection on old age and highlights how this time of life can serve as a time for inner growth. 

In an excerpt published by , Paglia praises Pope Francis’ work throughout his papacy to honor the elderly and their importance in our lives, especially in the establishment of the World Day of Grandparents and the Elderly.

“Pope Francis has taken up the spiritual challenge of old age … As a pope he developed his teaching even more, to the point of establishing a special liturgical feast to celebrate his grandparents,” Paglia wrote. “But it is through the specific catechesis on the subject that he proposed a more articulated and comprehensive help to the elderly — in particular the believers, but not only — so that they face this last age of life as a time of grace, an appropriate time, a time of growth even if the body becomes fragile.”

He continued: “The years of old age lead to the fulfillment of every personal existence. We do not walk in the void and aimlessly at the mercy of fate,” he said.

Speaking about the COVID-19 pandemic, Paglia emphasized that the experience people endured served as a reminder that we are all fragile — not just the elderly.

He also touched on an “anti-age ideology” that “has led to a deep fracture between generations.”

“The ties have weakened, they have no duration, they have no history, they have no destination,” he said. “The effect is a sort of endless adolescence that empties affections and bonds. The change is sending the traditional humanistic parameters of training out of the axis.”

The archbishop went on to ask: “How can you educate the new generations to the values of life that are not consumed over time if the time of old age is assimilated to that of an expired product?”

In his book, Paglia urged that a “new alliance between generations” be formed, “especially among the elderly and the young.”

Vatican City, Sep 3, 2024 / 10:15 am (CNA).

Pope Francis sent a telegram of condolence on Tuesday to Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin following the death of the Italian prelate’s mother.

After landing in Jakarta, Indonesia — the first destination of the Holy Father’s 45th apostolic journey in Southeast Asia and Oceania — Pope Francis assured Parolin of his closeness with him and his extended family during their “moment of human suffering.”

“I raise my prayer to the Lord that he may welcome her into eternal joy, and for all of you relatives who mourn her departure, I invoke consolation in faith in the risen Christ,” the Holy Father’s telegram reads.

Parolin presided over the funeral Mass of his 96-year-old mother on Tuesday morning at the Church of Schiavon in the northeastern Italian diocese of Vicenza. 

Though postponing his Sept. 2 departure from Rome to be with his family during their time of mourning, the Vatican state secretary is soon expected to join and accompany Pope Francis on his 45th apostolic journey.

During his 12-day journey, the pope will meet with both Catholic and civil leaders and communities in Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste (East Timor), and Singapore.    

On Wednesday, Pope Francis will meet with Indonesian President Joko Widodo at the Istana Merdeka Presidential Palace and give an address to the country’s leaders and diplomatic corps. 

Parolin has served as the Vatican’s secretary of state since October 2013, after Francis chose him for the position shortly after being elected pope in March of the same year. 

He has worked with the diplomatic service of the Holy See since 1986.

Vatican City, Sep 2, 2024 / 08:18 am (CNA).

Pope Francis departed Rome on Monday to commence his 45th apostolic journey, one that will take him to Southeast Asia and Oceania over the course of nearly two weeks.

During his — the longest trip of his papacy to date — the 87-year-old pontiff will visit Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste (East Timor), and Singapore from Sept. 2–13.  

Prior to commencing his trip, the pope paid a visit to Salus Populi Romani (the Byzantine icon depicting the Blessed Virgin as the health and protector of the Roman people) at the Basilica of St. Mary Major on Sunday to entrust his journey to the Mother of God. 

On Sept. 3, the Holy Father will first land in Jakarta, Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation, to promote religious harmony and interfaith dialogue between Christians and Muslims in the country.

During his visit the pope will meet with Catholic bishops, priests, religious brothers and sisters, seminarians, and catechists at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption in the Archdiocese of Jakarta.

Francis will also meet with the country’s President Joko Widodo on Sept. 4 and deliver a speech to political leaders at the Istana Merdeka Presidential Palace. 

The Holy Father will also participate in an interreligious meeting at Istiqlal Mosque, the largest mosque in Southeast Asia, located directly opposite the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption. 

Following Indonesia, the pope will travel to Port Moresby, the capital city of Papua New Guinea, on Sept. 6. Approximately 4 million Catholics live in the country, representing the largest denomination in the majority-Christian nation.

The pope will meet with the country’s civil and religious leaders as well as visit a number of communities involved with Catholic ministries aimed at promoting the spiritual and social welfare for the people of the Oceania nation.

The motto chosen by the bishops of Papua New Guinea for Pope Francis’ apostolic visit — the second papal visit in the country’s young history — is “Pray,” inspired by the passage in the Gospel of Luke “Lord, teach us to pray” (Lk 11:1).

From Sept. 9–11, the Holy Father will visit Timor-Leste (East Timor) and meet with Catholic leaders and faithful at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in the country’s capital, Dili. The Holy Father will also meet with the country’s leaders and deliver a speech at the Presidential Palace. 

The pontiff will also preside over Mass in Esplanade of Tasitolu, which is expected to attract the attendance of thousands of Catholics from around the country. 

Pope Francis’ visit will mark the first visit by a pontiff to the 97%-majority Catholic country. 

Singapore is the last country in the pope’s itinerary of his apostolic journey to Southeast Asia and Oceania. 

Between Sept. 11–13, Pope Francis will meet with both civil and religious leaders in the Asian city-nation before presiding over the Holy Mass at the National Stadium. 

The elderly, sick, and the youth are a priority for the Holy Father in his first visit to Singapore. 

He will visit residents of St. Theresa’s Home, a nursing home founded by the Little Sisters of the Poor in 1935, as well as participate in a youth-led interreligious meeting at Catholic Junior College before returning to Rome at the conclusion of the journey.

On Monday, meanwhile, Vatican News that Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin would not be leaving with the pope on his Monday flight due to the death of the prelate’s mother, Ada, who died on Aug. 31.

Parolin will celebrate the funeral of his mother in Schiavon, in the Italian province of Vicenza, on Sept. 3.

Vatican City, Sep 1, 2024 / 13:15 pm (CNA).

After the bodies of six hostages killed by Hamas were recovered by Israeli forces this weekend, Pope Francis made an impassioned plea for peace in the Holy Land, urging the release of the remaining hostages and humanitarian aid for the polio outbreak in Gaza.

Speaking to pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square for the Sunday Angelus prayer, the pope expressed deep concern at the risk of the war between Israel and Hamas “spreading to other Palestinian cities.”

“I appeal for the negotiations to continue, for an immediate cease-fire, the release of hostages, and relief to the people of Gaza, where many diseases are also spreading, such as polio,” Pope Francis said on Sept. 1.

“May there be peace in the Holy Land!” he urged. “May there be peace in Jerusalem. May the Holy City be a place of encounter where Christians, Jews, and Muslims feel they are respected and welcomed, and no one questions the status quo in the respective Holy Places.”

The pope’s comments come just hours after Israel announced on Sunday that it had recovered the bodies of six hostages killed by Hamas from a subterranean tunnel in the Gazan city of Rafah shortly before the arrival of Israeli Defense Forces and as a humanitarian polio vaccination campaign began in Gaza. 

Among the hostages killed was 23-year-old Israeli American , whose to appeal for the hostages’ release and spoke at the Democratic National Convention in August. According to the Associated Press, Israel believes that 101 hostages remain captive by Hamas in Gaza, including 35 who are believed to be dead.

Israel and Hamas have agreed to a “humanitarian pause” for three consecutive days to allow aid workers to begin the campaign, which aims to vaccinate more than 640,000 Palestinian children under the age of 10 against polio.

The humanitarian situation in Gaza has deteriorated rapidly as the conflict drags on. Aid agencies’ officials in the territory have warned of a potential public health disaster if immediate action is not taken.

During his Angelus address, the pope also prayed for the hundreds of people who were killed in a terrorist attack in on Aug. 24. An Al Qaeda-linked terrorist group in West Africa known as Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimin (JNIM) claimed responsibility for the attack.

“In condemning these heinous attacks against human life, I express my closeness to the nation as a whole and my heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims. May the Virgin Mary help the beloved people of Burkina Faso to regain peace and security,” Pope Francis said.

The pope also expressed his concern that over a million people have been left without electricity and water after attacks on energy infrastructure in the war between Russia and Ukraine.

“I am always close to the tormented Ukrainian people, hard hit by attacks on the energy infrastructure. Besides causing deaths and injuries, they have left over a million people without electricity and water,” he said.

“Let us remember that the voice of the innocent is always heard by God, who does not remain indifferent to their suffering,” Francis added.

In his reflection on , Pope Francis warned against the temptation of hypocrisy and underlined the importance of having genuine purity of heart.

“Purity, Jesus says, is not linked to external rites but is first and foremost linked to inner dispositions, interior dispositions,” the pope said, citing chapter 7 of the Gospel of Mark.

“To be pure, therefore, it is no use washing one’s hands several times if one then, within the heart, harbors evil feelings such as greed, envy, or pride, or evil intentions such as deceit, theft, betrayal, and slander.”

Pope Francis added that Christians should take care not to live a “double life” in which they appear “pious in prayer but then treat one’s own relatives at home with coldness and detachment, or neglect their elderly parents, who are in need of help and company” or “gossip wickedly” in front of the church after Mass. 

“Let us ask ourselves, then: Do I live my faith in a consistent manner, that is, what I do in Church, do I try to do outside in the same spirit?” he said.

“And may Mary, Mother most pure, help us to make our life, in heartfelt and practiced love, worship pleasing to God,” Pope Francis prayed.

The 87-year-old pope also asked for prayers for his apostolic journey to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor, and Singapore Sept. 2–13, which will be the longest international trip of his pontificate. 

Vatican City, Aug 30, 2024 / 16:32 pm (CNA).

The Vatican has affirmed that there are no objections to the 19th-century apparitions of Our Lady of Mercy at the Shrine of Pellevoisin in France and the faithful “are authorized to give to it their adherence in a prudent manner.”

On Aug. 22, the Holy See issued a “nihil obstat” (no objection) to the miraculous visions and physical healing of French woman Estelle Faguette following the request of Archbishop Jérôme Daniel Beau of Bourges, France, for the decree.  

“Estelle’s accounts are striking for their simplicity, clarity, and humility,” reads the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) . “It is very valuable to note how the merciful Mother treats Estelle.”

Struggling with an incurable illness, Faguette said she was often visited and consoled through Our Lady’s presence, “serene gaze,” and “words of mercy,” particularly during times of spiritual anguish at the thought of her parents being left in a state of poverty and missing her.

According to the DDF, Faguette’s “generous dedication to others” is what touched the motherly heart of Mary.  

“Life that is used to taking care of others is what touched the Mother’s heart the most,” reads the Aug. 22 letter. “The Mother knows how to recognize all the good that is hidden behind our words.”

Following her healing that “surpassed all natural explanations,” Faguette emphasized that it was not by her own merits that she obtained the miracle from the Son of God through Mary’s intercession.

“Be convinced of one thing: that it was not for my own merits that the Blessed Virgin obtained my cure from her Son; on the contrary, it was to show many people that, despite our sins, we have a good mother who spoils us and intercedes for us,” she stated.

In the letter, the DDF also noted that the merciful Mother always gave exhortations, as well as reprimands, with a “reassuring gentless” that inspired Faguette and continues to inspire visitors to the sanctuary dedicated to the All-Merciful Mother in central France.    

“When Estelle says that she would rather die, the Virgin responds with a smile: ‘O, you of little gratitude! If my Son gives you life, it is because you need it. What has he given to man on earth that is more precious than life?’” the letter reads.    

Other messages the Blessed Mother conveyed to Faguette during her apparitions include the desire to bring peace in the Church, as “there is not that calm I desire,” and to lead people toward the heart of Christ particularly through the devotion of wearing the scapular — which shows the open heart of Jesus.

“The treasures of my Son have been open for a long time ... I love this devotion [of the scapular],” Our Lady shared with Faguette.

According to the DDF, the All-Merciful Mother also expressed to the visionary her sorrow for “the lack of love for Christ reflected in those who receive the Eucharist coldly or distractedly.”

CNA Staff, Aug 30, 2024 / 14:12 pm (CNA).

A representative of Pope Francis recently reaffirmed the Vatican’s opposition to lethal autonomous weapons systems, known popularly as “killer robots,” with the Vatican stressing that “no machine should ever choose to take the life of a human being.”

Archbishop Ettore Balestrero, the Holy See’s permanent observer to the United Nations in Geneva since 2023, spoke at in Geneva this week, the Second Session of the 2024 Group of Governmental Experts on Emerging Technologies in the Area of Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems (LAWS).

Balestrero strongly urged countries to consider the ethical implications of new weapons and lamented the fact that new and more sophisticated armaments are often tested on real battlefields.

“For the Holy See, given the pace of technological advancements and the research on weaponization of artificial intelligence, it is of the utmost urgency to deliver concrete results in the form of a solid legally binding instrument and in the meantime to establish an immediate moratorium on their development and use,” Balestrero said in .

“In this regard, it is profoundly distressing that, adding to the suffering caused by armed conflicts, the battlefields are also becoming testing grounds for more and more sophisticated weapons.”

No universally agreed-upon definition of LAWS exists, but numerous countries around the world — including Israel, China, Russia, and the United States — are in weapons with autonomous capabilities. These systems have the ability to navigate on their own and select targets without human input. 

The Vatican and Pope Francis have with the Holy See questioning whether such weapons systems could irreversibly alter the nature of warfare, create detachment from human agency, and call into question the humanity of societies. 

“For the Holy See, autonomous weapons systems cannot be considered as morally responsible entities,” Balestrero continued. 

“The human person, endowed with reason, possesses a unique capacity for moral judgment and ethical decision-making that cannot be replicated by any set of algorithms, no matter how complex.”

“In conclusion, the development of ever more sophisticated weapons is certainly not the solution,” the archbishop said. 

“The undoubted benefits that humanity will be able to draw from the current technological progress will depend on the degree to which such progress is accompanied by an adequate development of responsibility and values that place technological advancements at the service of integral human development and of the common good.”

In 2021, in light of reports of development of swarms of “kamikaze” mini-drones in modern warfare, the Holy See it was critical to maintain “meaningful human control over weapon systems.”

“The unique human capacity for moral judgment and ethical decision-making is more than a complex collection of algorithms, and such a capacity cannot be replaced by, or programmed into, a machine,” the Vatican’s then-U.N. Geneva ambassador said.

Pope Francis himself had urged leaders to reconsider the development of lethal autonomous weapons and to ban their use. The pope himself made a similar call

Vatican City, Aug 30, 2024 / 13:40 pm (CNA).

The Synod of Bishops of the Syro-Malabar Church, an Eastern Catholic rite in full communion with Rome, appointed two new bishops for Changanacherry and Shamshabad in India on Friday.

The appointments come after years of internal tensions among Syro-Malabar Church leaders regarding a of the ancient Oriental Church.

In May, that division comes from the work of “the devil, the divider” and that unity of the Eastern Church with Rome is essential.

“Apart from Peter, apart from the major archbishop, there is no Church,” stated the Holy Father in the May meeting with leaders and members of the Syro-Malabar Church at the Vatican.

On the July 3 feast day of St. Thomas the Apostle, the patron of the Syro-Malabar Church, a compromise was reached to resolve the liturgical feud sharply dividing leaders and the faithful of the Eastern-rite Church.

“The Holy Qurbana [Mass] should not be the reason for division in the Church,” Syro-Malabar Church spokesman Father Antony Vadakkekara . “That is why the synod made the compromise proposal to say at least one synodal Mass in each of the parishes [in India].”

Approximately 5 million people belong to the Syro-Malabar Church worldwide across eparchies (dioceses) in India, the U.S., the U.K., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

Auxiliary Bishop Major Thomas Tharayil will soon become the major archbishop of Changanacherry following the resignation of major archbishop Joseph Perumthottam. He has served as auxiliary bishop in the archeparchy since 2017.

Tharayil was ordained to the priesthood on Jan. 1, 2000, and served as a deputy parish priest for various parishes in Changanacherry after completing his psychology doctorate at the Pontifical Gregorian University of Rome.

Major Antony Prince Panengaden, bishop-elect of Shamshabad chosen by the Syro-Malabar Synod of Bishops, was ordained a priest in 2007 after completing studies in philosophy at Dharmaram Vidya Kshetram Institute in Bangalore and in theology at the Ruhalaya Major Seminary in Ujjain.

During his 17-year pastoral ministry, Panengaden served as a priest in parishes in Goa and Adilabad and also obtained a doctorate in biblical theology from the Pontifical Urbaniana University in Rome. In 2015, he was elected and installed as bishop of the Adilabad eparchy.

The Syro-Malabar Church dates its historical origins to the evangelizing mission of St. Thomas the Apostle to southern India in the first century.

Vatican City, Aug 30, 2024 / 09:08 am (CNA).

Pope Francis expressed disagreement on Friday with a proposal to absorb a 400-year-old missionary-focused university in Rome into other pontifical universities.

Members of the Dicastery for Evangelization are meeting in an extraordinary plenary assembly Aug. 29–30 to discuss the future of the Pontifical Urban University, which educates priests and religious from the Catholic Church’s mission territories.

“There is some plan to ‘dissolve’ [the university] with the other universities: No, this will not do,” Francis said in his address Aug. 30 to the cardinals, bishops, priests, and religious gathered for the plenary.

According to Agenzia Fides, a missionary-focused news agency under the Dicastery for Evangelization, the Rome assembly is an intermediate step in discussions about “the present and future” of the Pontifical Urban University.

Also known as the “Urbaniana,” the missionary university was founded as the Urban College in 1627 by Pope Urban VIII, part of the educational aspect of the then-Sacred Congregation of Propaganda Fide. 

In 1962, it was elevated to a pontifical university. Its mission is to train and educate the priests, religious, and laypeople who help spread the Gospel in places without a strong Christian presence or where the Church has few financial resources.

Earlier this year, the Vatican’s publishing house signed an agreement with the pontifical university’s press to help with the editorial production of some of its publications.

The Libreria Editrice Vaticana will assist the Urbaniana University Press with “the editorial management of the scientific production” of the university’s historic publishing service, according to a July 18 press release.

The change is part of an overall restructuring to increase operational cooperation between the Urban University and other pontifical universities in Rome.

The reconfiguration comes with a reduction in teaching staff. For the 2024-2025 academic year, the university will have 47 full and 40 adjunct and visiting professors, reduced from 62 full and 113 adjunct and visiting professors during the prior academic year.  

Financially supported by the Dicastery for Evangelization, the university is also aiming to reduce costs by a projected 1.5 million euros ($1.66 million) in 2025.

In his speech on Friday, Pope Francis thanked the dicastery’s members for traveling to Rome “to reflect on the identity, mission, expectations, and future of the Pontifical Urbaniana University.”

“I, too, would like to offer some thoughts on this,” he added, underlining that the Urbaniana “has its own identity.”

The pope reflected on the still-relevant missionary vocation of the Urban University and the need to balance that identity with the issues faced by the Church and world today.

He also said the need to raise the quality of educational and research offerings must be balanced with a necessary rationing of human and economic resources. 

“Making good use of resources,” Francis said, “means unifying equal paths, sharing faculty from the six [pontifical] institutions, eliminating waste, planning activities wisely, and abandoning outdated practices and projects.”

“In the specific case of the Urbaniana, it is important that, in the quality of the educational offerings, its missionary and intercultural specificity emerges even more, so that those who are being trained are able to mediate with originality the Christian message in the relationship with other cultures and religions,” he said.

Madrid, Spain, Aug 30, 2024 / 07:00 am (CNA).

“Eternity Between Space and Time: From Consciousness to the Cosmos” is the title of an upcoming report to be released by the , where “unpublished reflections” on eternity studied from different disciplines will be presented.

The University of Padua in Italy together with the Vatican Observatory have investigated eternity from new scientific perspectives thanks to 24 contributions from some of the world's greatest scholars in different disciplines such as physics, psychology, philosophy, and theology.

Contributors include Nobel Prize winners Gerard ‘t Hooft and Roger Penrose, joined by Federico Faggin, Mauro D’Ariano, Gabriele Veneziano, Massimo Cacciari, Giulio Goggi, and Kurt Appel.

Questions about God and consciousness are addressed alongside quantum theory, black holes, cosmic inflation, and the Big Bang and string theory, considering the contributions of neuroscience and artificial intelligence.

The report, which will be released on Sept. 6, is the result of the international conference on the theme of eternity held in May 2022 at the University of Padua.

The conference was attended by the world’s leading scholars in the fields of physics, philosophy, theology, and psychology.

The presentation of the report will take place at the headquarters of the Curia General of the Society of Jesus in Rome and will be attended by Father Gabriele Gionti, a member of the Vatican Observatory Research Group; Fabio Scardigli, Polytechnic University of Milan; Ines Testoni, University of Padua; and Father Andrea Toniolo, faculty of theology of Triveneto, Padua, Italy.

CNA Staff, Aug 30, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Pope Francis will embark on on Sept. 2 that will bring him to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste (East Timor), and Singapore. 

During this longest journey of his pontificate so far — which includes numerous events in the largest majority-Muslim country on earth, Indonesia — the pope is expected to emphasize themes of interreligious dialogue, solidarity, and peace.

Here’s a closer look at all the destinations the pope will visit during his apostolic journey, but first, a broader look at the seven flights he will embark on, carrying him approximately 20,000 miles (over 32,000 km) in total:

Leaving Rome’s Fiumicino International Airport in the early evening, the pope’s plane will cross over the Middle East and India en route to Jakarta Soekarno-Hatta International Airport. Jakarta is a sprawling metropolis and the capital of Indonesia, the largest Muslim-majority nation in the world in terms of population. 

Indonesia, an archipelago with nearly 1,000 inhabited islands, is about 7.5% Protestant and 3% Catholic. Many of the country’s Catholics live on Flores, an island that was r by the government. 

The pope will be officially welcomed in Jakarta when he arrives on Sept. 3 and will take the rest of the day to rest. The following day, Sept. 4, there will be a welcome ceremony outside the Istana Merdeka Presidential Palace before the pope visits with President Joko Widodo.

Francis will be the third pope to visit Indonesia after St. Paul IV and St. John Paul II. 

The pope’s second full day in Jakarta begins with an interreligious meeting in the Istiqlal Mosque, the ninth-largest mosque in the world.

Security in Indonesia for the pope’s visit is expected to be high; Indonesia has seen that have targeted the country’s Christian minority. 

Pope Francis will conclude his time in Indonesia with a Mass on the evening of Sept. 5 in Jakarta’s Gelora Bung Karno Stadium, which has a seating capacity of 77,000, after meeting with beneficiaries from local charitable organizations.

On Sept. 6, Pope Francis will fly to Papua New Guinea’s capital of Port Moresby, making him the second pope to visit after St. John Paul II, who visited twice. 

Despite being extremely diverse, more than 98% of Papua New Guinea citizens identify as Christian and the Church plays a crucial role in education, health care, and social services. 

Catholicism represents the largest Christian denomination in the country with an estimated 4 million people — about 25% of the total population. The country suffered violence from rioting earlier this year in a spate of unrest on Jan. 10 now dubbed “.”

Pope Francis will visit local ministries that care for street children and persons with disabilities on his first full day in Papua New Guinea on Sept. 7, which also includes a speech to the local political authorities and an address to the local clergy at the Shrine of Mary Help of Christians.

The following day, the pope will meet with Papua New Guinea’s prime minister, James Marape, before presiding over Sunday Mass in Port Moresby’s Sir John Guise Stadium. He will then head to Vanimo for the remainder of the day.

Vanimo is a city in the northwesternmost province of Papua New Guinea, where Pope Francis will greet local missionaries and address local Catholics in front of the Holy Cross Cathedral before departing.

Pope Francis will return to the capital city on Sunday night. On Monday, Sept. 9, there will be a farewell ceremony for the pope before he leaves for East Timor.

Pope Francis will travel on Sept. 9 to the small country of East Timor, which has a population that is more than 97% Catholic and whose most prominent archbishop Francis

In Dili, the country’s capital, Pope Francis will visit children with disabilities, meet local clergy and religious in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, give a speech at the Presidential Palace, and preside over Mass in the Esplanade of Tasitolu over the course of two days.

The pope’s final stop before returning to Rome will be the island of Singapore, the country with the highest GDP per capita in Asia and the second-highest population density of any country in the world. Despite the relative stability of Singapore itself, observers have that anti-Israel Malaysian militant groups (Singapore is Malaysia’s immediate neighbor) may stage rallies in Malaysia to protest the pope’s visit.

Pope Francis will be welcomed to Singapore’s world-renowned Changi International Airport on Sept. 11. He will meet President Tharman Shanmugaratnam and Prime Minister Lawrence Wong on Sept. 12 before presiding over Mass in Singapore’s Sports Hub National Stadium, the third stadium Mass of the trip.

On his last day in Asia, the pope will preside over an interreligious meeting with young people in Singapore’s Catholic Junior College and visit a group of elderly people. 

Pope Francis will make the 6,000-mile journey back to Italy on a chartered Singapore Airlines flight scheduled to land in Rome at 6:25 p.m. on Sept. 13.

Vatican City, Aug 29, 2024 / 11:18 am (CNA).

The Vatican Museums this summer introduced a new family-friendly excursion through the papal gardens, an experience designed to teach children how to “contemplate and appreciate nature,” according to the tour’s originator.

Whether skipping down a tree-lined path, sitting on a tree stump, or spotting turtles in a fountain, children and their families now have the chance to encounter the Vatican Gardens in a way tailored to capture the attention of some of its youngest visitors.

“There was a desire to give families something to actually do together in the museum. There’s such a wealth of possibilities. And so we wanted to, for the first time, dedicate an actual tour to families,” Sister Emanuela Edwards of the Missionaries of Divine Revelation told CNA during an Aug. 23 preview of the tour.

Edwards, who designed the tour as part of her role heading the Vatican Museums’ office of educational activities, said one of the first activities on the walk is to listen to the sounds of nature in the English Garden.

“We start by identifying all the different sounds from the natural world,” she said. “But of course, what can be more joyful and more natural than to hear children laughing and enjoying themselves as well? And so to the natural world, we also add this wonderful and essential human element, which is the joy of being together in the family.”

The roughly two-hour “Capture Nature” tour is currently offered on Saturday mornings in English and Italian to groups of about 20 people. It is fully accessible to children with intellectual or physical disabilities — something Edwards said was very important to them when designing the visit.

On a recent tour with two families, CNA followed 5-year-old twins Francesco and Chiara Salvatori and 7-year-old Margherita Scavetta as they played games inviting them to use their senses in various areas of the gardens.

A highlight for all the children was trying to count the number of turtles living in the fountain next to the Casina Pio IV, the home of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences.

Another game asked the kids to work together with their parents to find and identify certain plants from the Bible in the Scripture garden.

With the cupola of St. Peter’s Basilica as a backdrop, the three children were asked to spot particular plants or features of fountains and buildings.

During one stop in the walk — which passes statues of Mary, including a replica of the Marian grotto at the Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes in France — the children got to create their own “masterpieces” with leaves, bird feathers, and twigs collected along the way. 

Edwards, whose religious order is sometimes called by the nickname “the green sisters” for the unusual color of their habits, explained that the tour also takes some of its inspiration from Pope Francis’ environmental encyclical .

“A few steps away there’s the Vatican Museums, where there are the masterpieces of art,” she said. “But in the garden, we’re able to teach the young children that the trees are also the masterpieces of the garden. And so they learn how to care for those masterpieces as well.”

Guide Isabella Salandri, one of several tour guides handpicked by Edwards to lead the family tours, interacted with Francesco, Chiara, and Margherita in an engaging way, telling them in lively tones about features of the Vatican Gardens, especially those involving animals, like the monumental Aquilone Fountain, which features a large eagle, the personification of the north wind in Roman mythology.

“The opportunity for the children to do something very interactive we found quite original and fun,” Margherita’s mom, Paola Nuccetelli, said. “Even we are having fun getting to see something we don’t usually see in the city. ... And then, who expects to see woods in the heart of Rome?”

Near the end of the tour, the families were surprised by an appearance from Vatican gardener Augusto Minosse, who drove up to the group in his little work van. He asked the kids about their visit and posed for a selfie with Margherita.

“It was really an immense joy to see [our childrens’] wonder at nature, at creation,” the twins’ dad, Daniele Salvatori, said.

“Certainly for us, and I think also for others, when one is immersed in nature, you become closer to God,” his wife, Romina Zicca, added.

As the tour wrapped up under the hot, noonday sun, guide Salandri asked the three children: “Are you ready for the last game?”

“Does it have to be the last?” Margherita asked.

Vatican City, Aug 28, 2024 / 14:37 pm (CNA).

Cardinal Ignatius Suharyo, the archbishop of Jakarta, has decried how the poor in Indonesia ultimately pay the price for the country’s endemic corruption.

In an interview with “EWTN News In Depth” in Jakarta ahead of Pope Francis’ upcoming visit to Indonesia, the cardinal emphasized that despite the country’s abundant natural resources, widespread corruption continues to undermine its potential.

“If there is no corruption, Indonesia would have become a prosperous country,” Suharyo said.

“We have everything,” he said. “Natural resources — we have plenty. … But corruption destroys the ideal of becoming a prosperous nation.”

Indonesia, the largest economy in Southeast Asia, has long struggled with corruption in both the public and private sectors. Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index consistently ranks Indonesia poorly, indicating that more than 1 in 3 Indonesians said they had paid a bribe for public services in the past year.

The cardinal pointed out that corruption in Indonesia has broader social consequences. “The corruption is so huge,” he said. “Human trafficking is becoming more widespread.” 

“Social justice for all is written in the five principles,” Suharyo added, referencing Pancasila, the foundational philosophy of Indonesia. He lamented how corruption in the country’s governance is an obstacle to achieving that ideal.

Yanuar Nugroho, an expert in sustainable development with Indonesia’s Ministry of National Development Planning, echoed Suharyo’s concerns. 

Corruption is rampant, Nugroho told EWTN. “Every case here in Indonesia, if you trace back, then you will find corruption. The root cause … is the absence of accountability, the absence of integrity.”

Nugroho, a Catholic, reflected the need for good governance, particularly in times of crisis, pointing to the Asian financial crisis of 1998, which nearly brought the country to its knees. “When the economic crisis hit the country… it basically crumbled, as if it was built on the sands, with a very weak foundation. This is where I think the understanding about good governance slowly emerged,” he explained.

Despite these challenges, both Suharyo and Nugroho acknowledged that there is a growing awareness in Indonesia of the need to fight corruption.

The cardinal noted that while freedom of speech allows for open criticism of corruption, significant obstacles remain.

“Professors teaching in the university, they speak loudly against the corruption. But corruption continues,” he noted. “Sometimes the corruption is used for political purposes.”

According to data from the World Bank, 26 million people in Indonesia lived below the national poverty line in 2022. Corruption also exacerbates the existing inequalities between Indonesia’s rural and urban centers, diverting resources that could otherwise be used to improve infrastructure, health care, and education for the poor.

Suharyo, who regularly visits the poor rural areas within his archdiocese, has advocated for the incoming Indonesian government to make it more of a priority to address the infrastructure gaps to help the poor have better access to education and health services.

The cardinal is busy as Indonesia prepares to welcome Pope Francis. Jakarta is the first stop in the pope’s four-country visit to Southeast Asia and Oceania Sept. 2–13.

Suharyo said that Indonesians are touched by Pope Francis’ generosity in making the long trip at the age of 87. He expressed hope that Pope Francis’ visit will inspire a renewed commitment to brotherhood and compassion among Indonesians of all faiths.

A full preview of Pope Francis’ trip to Southeast Asia, including the interview with Suharyo and other Catholic leaders in the region, will air on “” on Aug. 30 at 8 p.m. ET.

Vatican City, Aug 28, 2024 / 12:50 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis met Wednesday with the Latin-rite Catholic leaders of some of the Middle Eastern and Arabic-speaking countries amid fears of an escalation of the Israel-Hamas war.

He encouraged the bishops to “bear witness to faith in [the Lord], also through respectful and sincere dialogue with everyone.”

The Aug. 28 meeting took place as part of the plenary assembly of the Conference of the Latin Bishops of the Arab Regions (CELRA), which covers Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Cyprus, Djibouti, Somalia, and the countries of the Arabian Peninsula.

CELRA is headed by Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, OFM, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, responsible for Latin Catholics in Israel, Palestine, Jordan, and Cyprus.

The vice president is Bishop Cesar Essayan, OFM Conv, apostolic vicar for Latin Catholics in Beirut, Lebanon.

The bishops’ meeting with Pope Francis took place amid growing worries in the region about a broader war as the Lebanese militia Hezbollah and Iran, its regional patron, appeared to escalate hostilities over the past weekend.

During the meeting at the Vatican, the pope noted the “very strong tension” in the Middle East region, “which in some contexts lead to open clashes and outbursts of war.”

“The conflict, instead of finding an equitable solution, seems to be becoming chronic, with the risk that it will spread to ignite the entire region,” he said. 

“This situation has caused thousands and thousands of deaths, enormous destruction, immense suffering, and the spread of feelings of hatred and resentment, which prepare the ground for new tragedies.”

Francis in his address conveyed his closeness to the prelates and to the Catholics in their flocks. 

“May you keep hope alight,” he added. “Be yourselves, for everyone, signs of hope, a presence that fosters words and gestures of peace, brotherhood, and respect. A presence that, in itself, invites reason, reconciliation, overcoming with goodwill the divisions and enmities stratified and hardened over time, which are becoming increasingly inextricable.”

The pontiff also asked the Latin-rite Catholic leaders to ensure students in public schools receive a good Christian formation, especially where Christians are a minority.

“This formation is of great importance, so that the content of faith may be known and accompanied by reflection and so that faith, in confrontation with culture, may thus be strengthened and have the means to give reasons for Christian hope,” he said.

Vatican City, Aug 28, 2024 / 12:20 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis this week congratulated Catholics and Orthodox Christians for collaborating together for the XVII Inter-Christian Symposium taking place Aug. 28–30 in Italy. 

This year’s symposium, titled “What Is Man? In the Time of Anthropological Mutation” and taking place in Trani, Italy, seeks to reflect upon the challenges that all Christians face in upholding the dignity of each person during a time of a cultural “revolution.”

In the sent to Cardinal Kurt Koch, prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, to be shared with organizers and participants of the symposium, the Holy Father said rapid technological developments have profoundly shaped how society understands what it means to be human in our world today.

“What is happening nowadays could be defined as a real revolution,” the pope wrote. “The development of artificial intelligence and the incredible developments in the field of science force today’s men and women to rethink their identity, their role in the world and in society, and their vocation to transcendence.” 

“In fact, the specificity of the human being in the whole of creation, its uniqueness compared to other animals, and even its relationship with machines, are constantly being questioned,” he added.

Participants of this year’s symposium, organized by the Franciscan Institute of Spirituality of the Pontifical University Antonianum and the Department of Theology of the Orthodox Theological Faculty of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, were encouraged by the pope to have a spirit of openness and inclusivity so as to properly address the anthropological questions raised during the three-day conference.

“It is not possible to react only with denial and criticism. Rather, a profound reflection is needed, capable of renewing the thinking and choices to be made,” the pope asserted. 

“In light of the teaching of sacred Scripture and Christian tradition, it is necessary to reiterate that every human being is entitled to dignity by the mere fact of existing, as a spiritual being, created by God,” he added.

In his letter, Pope Francis stated that a person’s decision on whether or not to “act in accordance” with his or her dignity, as well as their socio-cultural, political or economic circumstances, should not deter Christian churches from working together to uphold the dignity of every person.

“The defense of this dignity in the face of very concrete threats such as poverty, war, exploitation, and others represents a common commitment for all the churches, on which we must work together,” the pope exhorted in his letter.

In April, the Vatican released (Infinite Dignity), in which the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith stressed Catholic teaching on the importance of the human person and condemned “grave and current violations of human dignity” in our time.

The declaration outlined specific concrete violations against human dignity recognized by the Church including human trafficking, sexual abuse, abortion, and surrogacy as well as “digital violence.”

The document echoes Pope Francis’ call to all Christians to “defend human dignity in every cultural context and every moment of human existence.”

Vatican City, Aug 28, 2024 / 11:06 am (CNA).

Pope Francis said Wednesday those who knowingly and intentionally “repel” migrants are committing a grave sin.

Breaking from the current theme of his general audiences Aug. 28, the pope spoke at length about the poor conditions of migrants who attempt to cross a sea or desert to reach safety but who sometimes lose their lives in the process.

“The tragedy is that many, the majority of these deaths, could have been prevented,” Francis underlined in his speech to thousands in St. Peter’s Square.

“It must be said clearly: There are those who work systematically and with every means possible to repel migrants,” he said. “And this, when done with awareness and responsibility, is a grave sin.”

Departing from his prepared remarks, the pontiff recalled seeing the heartbreaking viral photo of the wife and child of Pato Crepin, who died in the desert in the summer of 2023 while trying to cross the border into Tunisia on their way to Europe.

Last year, Tunisian authorities were clamping down on irregular immigration by taking people who entered the country to remote areas on the borders with Libya and Algeria.

The country’s leader also signed an agreement with the European Union to receive 1 billion euros (about $1.1 billion) in order to stem the area’s highly profitable business of smuggling people from Tunisia into Europea via the Mediterranean Sea.

“We all remember the photo of the wife and daughter of Pato, dead from hunger, thirst, in the desert,” Pope Francis said. “In the time of satellites and drones, there are migrant men, women, and children that no one must see. They hide them. Only God sees them and hears their cry. This is a cruelty of our civilization.”

The Missing Migrants Project, run by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), records that since 2014, an estimated 47,000 people have either died or gone missing while attempting to migrate in Africa, Europe, and the Mediterranean areas. 

Most deaths were caused by drowning, usually while attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea in unsafe and overcrowded boating vessels.

In his general audience on Wednesday, Pope Francis also waded into political arguments about immigration and borders.

“We can all agree on one thing: Migrants should not be in those seas and in those lethal deserts,” he said. “But it is not through more restrictive laws, it is not with the militarization of borders, it is not with rejection that we will obtain this result.”

The solution, according to the pope, is to extend safe and legal access routes for migrants so that those who are fleeing war, violence, persecution, and natural disasters can find refuge.

Migrants will stop risking their lives to cross the sea or deserts, he continued, if we promote “a global governance of migration based on justice, fraternity, and solidarity.”

In numerous past statements on refugees and migrants, Pope Francis has asked countries to be as welcoming to immigrants as they are able while also acknowledging their right to control their borders and to determine how many migrants and refugees they can safely integrate into their societies.

Paragraph 2241 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church also affirms that “the more prosperous nations are obliged, to the extent they are able, to welcome the foreigner in search of the security and the means of livelihood which he cannot find in his country of origin.”

“Political authorities,” the catechism continues, “for the sake of the common good for which they are responsible, may make the exercise of the right to immigrate subject to various juridical conditions, especially with regard to the immigrants’ duties toward their country of adoption.”

In his Wednesday audience, Pope Francis recalled a lesson from the Book of Exodus: “You shall not wrong a stranger or oppress him.”

“The orphan, the widow, and the stranger are the quintessential poor whom God always defends and asks to be defended,” he emphasized. 

“There is a Psalm which says to the Lord: ‘Thy way was through the sea / Thy path through the great waters’ (Ps 77:19). And another says that he ‘led his people through the wilderness / for his steadfast love endures forever’ (Ps 136:16),” the pope quoted.

“These holy words tell us that, to accompany the people on their journey to freedom, God himself crosses the sea and the desert,” Pope Francis said. “[God] does not remain at a distance, no; he shares in the migrants’ tragedy, God is there with them, with the migrants, he suffers with them, with the migrants, he weeps and hopes with them, with the migrants.”

The pontiff said that while most of us are unable to be on the front lines with the courageous people who, acting as good Samaritans, “do their utmost to rescue and save injured and abandoned migrants on the routes of desperate hope,” there are still ways to help — “first and foremost, prayer.”

“And I ask you: Do you pray for migrants, for those who come to our lands to save their lives?” he said. 

He also urged cooperation to combat human trafficking and the criminal traffickers who “mercilessly exploit the misery of others” for money.

“Let us join our hearts and forces so that the seas and deserts are not cemeteries but spaces where God may open up roads to freedom and fraternity,” he said.

Vatican City, Aug 27, 2024 / 15:45 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis received at the Vatican on Aug. 26 Ecuador’s new ambassador to the Holy See, Edmundo Uribe Pérez.

The South American country’s new representative to the Vatican presented his credentials to the Holy Father Monday during a private audience at the Apostolic Palace.

Uribe was appointed ambassador by Ecuador’s president, Daniel Noboa, on May 22, replacing Alicia de Jesús Crespo Vega.

The audience between Uribe and Pope Francis, of which the Holy See did not share details, took place less than two weeks before the start of, which will be held Sept. 8–15 in Quito, the capital of Ecuador, and for which Pope Francis named Venezuelan Cardinal Baltazar Porras as his pontifical legate.

Jorge Edmundo Uribe Pérez was born on Sept. 7, 1952. He is married and has a daughter.

He completed his primary and secondary studies at Holy Spirit School in Guayaquil run by the Claretian Fathers and studied law for two years at the Catholic University of Guayaquil.

He studied world history, with an emphasis on the philosophy of history, and took a senior management course at the IDE Business School in 2017.

He has also been president of the Foundation of the Ecuadorian Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family, and Property and director of the Association of Banana Exporters of Ecuador (2018–2023).

From 1985–2006 he developed several projects with partners in Ecuador. He was founder and executive president of Tropical Fruit Export S.A. from 2018–2023 and is an active member of the Pontifical Institute Heralds of the Gospel.

Vatican City, Aug 27, 2024 / 13:00 pm (CNA).

The Vatican announced Tuesday its “satisfaction” that China has officially recognized Bishop Melchior Shi Hongzhen as bishop of Tianjin.   

“This provision is a positive fruit of the dialogue established over the years between the Holy See and the Chinese government,” reads a Holy See statement released Aug. 27.

According to Reuters, 95-year-old Shi had once been placed under house arrest after refusing to join the church officially backed by the Chinese government.

Shi was ordained a priest in the Catholic Church on July 4, 1954, and consecrated coadjutor bishop of Tianjin on June 15, 1982. He was ordained bishop of the Diocese of Tianjin on June 8, 2019.

According to the Holy See statement, 56,000 Catholic faithful — distributed across 21 parishes served by 62 priests — belong to the Diocese of Tianjin.

Under Pope Francis, the Holy See has expanded dialogue with China and engaged in talks regarding provisional agreements on the appointment of bishops in the Asian nation.

The controversial Sino-Vatican Agreement, first signed in 2018, which has never been made public, is said to stipulate that the Catholic Church is allowed to have bishops in communion with Rome who are at the same time recognized by Chinese authorities in the country. It was renewed in 2020 and 2022.

In 2021, the Holy See sent a delegation led by a member of the then-Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples (now known as the Dicastery for Evangelization), Archbishop Claudio Maria Celli, to meet with Chinese authorities and negotiate the two-year renewal of the Sino-Vatican Agreement before it expires. 

Negotiations between the Vatican and China resumed Aug. 28–Sept. 2, 2022, when a Holy See delegation was sent to meet with local authorities in Tianjin.

During the Tianjin visit, the delegation also , signaling the pope’s concern for the Catholic faithful in the communist country.

Vatican City, Aug 27, 2024 / 12:15 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis made a surprise visit to the Basilica of St. Augustine on Tuesday to pray at the tomb of St. Monica.

During his visit to the basilica near Piazza Navona in Rome’s historic center, the pope prayed in the side chapel containing the tomb of St. Monica on her feast day, Aug. 27.

St. Monica is honored in the Church for her holy example and dedicated prayerful intercession for her son, St. Augustine, before his conversion. Today Catholics turn to St. Monica as an intercessor for family members who are distant from the Church. She is the patron saint of mothers, wives, widows, difficult marriages, and victims of abuse.

Born into a Christian family in North Africa in 332, Monica was given in marriage to Patricius, a pagan who had a disdain for his wife’s religion. She dealt patiently with her husband’s bad temper and infidelity to their marriage vows, and her long-suffering patience and prayers were rewarded when Patricius was baptized into the Church a year before his death. 

When Augustine, the eldest of three children, became a Manichean, Monica went tearfully to the bishop to ask for his help, to which he famously responded: “The child of those tears shall never perish.”

She went on to witness Augustine’s conversion and baptism by St. Ambrose 17 years later, and Augustine became a bishop and doctor of the Church. 

Augustine recorded his conversion story and details of his mother’s role in his autobiography “Confessions.” He wrote, addressing God: “My mother, your faithful one, wept before you on my behalf more than mothers are wont to weep the bodily death of their children.”

St. Monica died soon after her son’s baptism in Ostia, near Rome, in 387. Her relics were moved from Ostia to the Basilica of St. Augustine in Rome in 1424.

After visiting St. Monica’s tomb, Pope Francis also paused to pray in front of the basilica’s Caravaggio painting,  also known as Our Lady of the Pilgrims.

The Basilica of St. Augustine is located near the Pantheon and just around the corner from Rome’s Piazza Navona. The basilica also contains a 16th-century statue of the Virgin Mary known as the Madonna del Parto, or the Madonna of Safe Delivery, where many women have prayed for a safe childbirth.

This was not the first time that Pope Francis has made a surprise visit to the Basilica of St. Augustine. The pope also visited St. Monica’s tomb on her feast day in 2020 and offered Mass at the basilica on St. Augustine’s feast day on Aug. 28, 2013.

In his , the pope quoted the first line of Augustine’s Confessions”: You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.” 

Pope Francis added: In Augustine it was this very restlessness in his heart which brought him to a personal encounter with Christ, brought him to understand that the remote God he was seeking was the God who is close to every human being, the God close to our heart, who was ‘more inward than my innermost self.’”

“Here I cannot but look at the mother: this Monica! How many tears did that holy woman shed for her son’s conversion! And today too how many mothers shed tears so that their children will return to Christ! Do not lose hope in God’s grace,” the pope said.

Rome, Italy, Aug 26, 2024 / 17:50 pm (CNA).

In an Italian-language book published in April 2023, “” (“Exorcists against Satan”), journalist Fabio Marchese Ragona revealed how St. John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI, and Pope Francis have confronted the devil throughout their pontificates, promoting the ministry of exorcism or even practicing it.

“Father Gabriele Amorth already decried that in the Church, in the 1980s, there were many bishops who did not believe in exorcisms or in the devil. John Paul II, but also Benedict XVI and Francis, supported this deliverance ministry through their speeches against the action of the evil one,” Marchese explained in an interview with ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner.

In his homilies, Pope Francis has repeatedly mentioned that “the devil enters through the pockets” in reference to the power of corruption.

Speaking with ACI Prensa, Marchese recalled his meeting with the pontiff in preparation for his book on exorcism. “Never dialogue with the devil, because he will win,” the Holy Father warned him.

“He makes you believe that everything is good, that you will be successful, and then he traps you, you fall into the abyss and then it’s difficult to get up again,” the expert recalled the pope saying. 

Marchese, a Vatican journalist with Mediaset (Italian television) with more than 10 years of experience, wrote the book full of stories of victims of possession and testimonies of exorcists who fight against the devil, including a previously unpublished interview with Pope Francis in which he describes how the devil always “tries to attack everyone and sows discord, also in the Church, trying to pit one against another.”

The pope admits in this interview that he too has been attacked by the devil, Marchese said. “The devil attacks everyone, but above all those in the hierarchy of the Church. He tempted Jesus and he also does the same with the popes and bishops.”

Indeed, in the first chapter of the book, Marchese tells the story of a nun who was freed from diabolic possession and who, during the exorcisms, with a demonic voice, indicated that the devil hated Pope Francis: “Have you seen everything I put that Argentine through?” the devil said to the priest. “But he doesn’t go away, he is strong, too much for me.”

“I asked the pope,” Marchese recalled, “did you know that the devil says that about you? And he answered me: ‘Perhaps because I annoy him with prayer and I follow the Gospel.’ At the same time, he is certainly pleased when I commit some sin. He seeks the downfall of man, but he has no hope when prayer is present.”

In some dioceses in northern Europe there are no exorcists despite the warnings of recent popes, Marchese noted in the interview with ACI Prensa. “Yes, unfortunately it’s like that, and I have to agree with Father Gabriele Amorth (1925–2016), who was a great exorcist.”

Although some popes have performed remote exorcisms, such as Pius XII and St. John Paul II, there is no evidence that other contemporary pontiffs have done so. Even in times when the devil has manifested himself, such as when Benedict XVI blessed three demoniac youths from a distance after a general audience in 2009, popes have not carried out exorcisms.

St. John XXIII never performed exorcisms and neither did St. Paul VI, who in 1972 commented how “the smoke of Satan had entered through some crack” into the Church. Nor has Pope Francis performed an exorcism, as confirmed with Marchese, since he prefers that specialized priests do it.

His approach is focused on preventing and combating evil temptations through faith and prayer. The pontiff has not only openly preached against the devil, he also recognized the International Association of Exorcists in June 2014, Marchese noted.

In 2019, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) published the book ” which compiles Pope Francis’ most important teachings on the prince of lies, “his empty promises and works, and how he can be actively combated.”

“The pope tells us how to use powerful spiritual weapons against the devil, including the word of God and the adoration of the Blessed Sacrament,” wrote Bishop Michael F. Burbidge of the Diocese of Arlington, Virginia, at the presentation of the book.

CNA Staff, Aug 26, 2024 / 11:09 am (CNA).

Pope Francis on Sunday sharply denounced the Ukrainian government’s recently enacted ban on Russian Orthodox Church worship, arguing that the faithful should not be barred from worshipping as they please.

The new Ukrainian law, which passed the country’s Parliament on Aug. 20, bans the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukrainian territory. The measure comes roughly two-and-a-half years after Russia invaded Ukraine in a major escalation of the two countries’ ongoing conflict. 

The new law further encourages religious organizations in Ukraine, including the Moscow-aligned Ukrainian Orthodox Church, “to break the existing ties with the Russian state,” according to the parliamentary news agency.

In the Holy Father said he has been “thinking about the laws recently adopted in Ukraine,” which he said causes him to “fear for the freedom of those who pray.”

“[T]hose who truly pray always pray for all,” the pope said. “A person does not commit evil because of praying. If someone commits evil against his people, he will be guilty for it, but he cannot have committed evil because he prayed.” 

“So let those who want to pray be allowed to pray in what they consider their Church. Please, let no Christian church be abolished directly or indirectly,” Francis said. 

“Churches are not to be touched!” he added.

The Ukrainian Parliament’s news agency alleged last week that the Russian Orthodox Church has “become a de facto part of the state apparatus of Putin’s criminal totalitarian regime.”

The church “is used by Russia to justify and support aggression against Ukraine and Putin’s insane policies in general,” the state agency claimed. 

Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, last week , arguing that the Russian government has used the Orthodox Church “as a tool of militarization.”

The new law aims to offer protection against ideology and narratives being pushed about Ukraine being part of the “Russian world,” the archbishop argued.

Vatican City, Aug 26, 2024 / 10:39 am (CNA).

Pope Francis met with 30 relatives of victims of the Port of Beirut explosion in a private audience at the Vatican on Monday, expressing his sorrow and closeness with families suffering due to the ongoing political turmoil in Lebanon.  

“I continue to keep you and your loved ones in my prayers, and I join my tears to your own,” the Holy Father shared. “Together with you, I think of all those whose lives were taken by that enormous explosion.”

Four years since the deadly blast that killed more than 220 people and injured some 6,500 people in the country’s capital, investigations into the actual cause of the explosion remain stalled due to political wrangling.

“Together with you, I ask for truth and justice. All of us know that the issues are complex and difficult and that opposing powers and interests make their influence felt. Yet truth and justice must prevail over all else,” the pope expressed to the families present at the private audience. 

“Four years have now gone by. The Lebanese people, and you above all, have a right to words and actions that manifest responsibility and transparency,” he added.

The Holy Father praised the “dignity of faith” and the “nobility of hope” of the families he met Monday morning, likening their spirit to that of the cedar tree — the symbol of Lebanon. 

“Cedars invite us to lift our gaze on high, to heaven, to God, who is our hope, a hope that does not disappoint,” he said.

He also encouraged them to uphold and live their vocation to be people of peace in the Middle East.

“Lebanon is, and must remain, a project for peace. Its vocation is to be a land where diverse communities live together in concord, setting the common good above individual advantage, a land where different religions and confessions encounter one another in a spirit of fraternity,” he said.

The pope also reminded the families present that the local and universal Church is not indifferent to their sufferings but is united to them in action and in prayer.

“I know that your bishops and priests, your men and women religious, are close to you. I thank them from the bottom of my heart for all that they have done and continue to do,” he conveyed. 

“You are not alone, and we will never abandon you but express our solidarity with you through prayer and concrete works of charity.”

At the conclusion of the meeting, Pope Francis imparted his paternal blessings and entrusted the care of the families to Our Lady of Lebanon.

“May the Virgin Mary from her shrine in Harissa continue to watch over you and all the Lebanese people. I cordially impart my blessing. I assure you of my prayers, and I ask you, please, to pray for me. Thank you.”

Vatican City, Aug 25, 2024 / 10:08 am (CNA).

Pope Francis prayed Sunday for a renewed hope for the people of Nicaragua, where the Catholic Church is experiencing harsh persecution under the regime of President Daniel Ortega.

“To the beloved people of Nicaragua: I encourage you to renew your hope in Jesus. Remember that the Holy Spirit always guides history toward higher designs,” Pope Francis said at the end of his  on Aug. 25.

The pope entrusted Nicaragua to the protection and intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

“May the Immaculate Virgin protect you in times of trial and make you feel her maternal tenderness,” he said. “May Our Lady accompany the beloved people of Nicaragua.”

Persecution of the Church in Nicaragua has intensified in recent years. The government has expelled nuns, taken over ecclesiastical institutions, seized Church assets, shut down Catholic media outlets, and sent priests and bishops to prison or into exile.

The pope’s prayer comes just days after the Ortega dictatorship canceled the legal status of 1,500 nonprofit organizations, including hundreds of Catholic organizations, and exiled two more priests to Rome.

According to the newspaper , Father Denis Martínez García and Father Leonel Balmaceda from the Dioceses of Matagalpa and Estelí, respectively, were arrested earlier this month and then expelled by the government to Rome. 

Both priests come from dioceses that are administered by the formerly imprisoned Bishop Rolando Álvarez, who was exiled to Rome in January.

In his Angelus address, the pope reflected on St. Peter’s words to Jesus recorded in the Gospel of John: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life” (Jn 6:68).

Pope Francis pointed out that the disciples did not always understand what Jesus said and did, but even when it was not easy for them to understand, they remained faithful because they had experienced that Jesus was “the answer to the thirst for life, the thirst for joy, and the thirst for love.”

“Brothers and sisters … For us, too, it is not easy to follow the Lord, to understand his way of acting, to make his criteria and his examples our own,” he said.

“However, the more we stay close to him — the more we adhere to his Gospel, receive his grace in the sacraments, stay in his company in prayer, imitate him in humility and charity — the more we experience the beauty of having him as a friend, and we realize that only he has ‘the words of eternal life,’” Pope Francis said.

After praying the Angelus prayer in Latin with the crowd gathered in St. Peter’s Square, the pope offered prayers for people suffering from war, particularly in Ukraine and the Holy Land, and for people experiencing health challenges.

Pope Francis expressed his solidarity in particular with the thousands of people affected by mpox, also called monkeypox, a disease rapidly spreading in parts of Africa that has been declared a global health emergency.

“I pray for all those infected, especially the people of the Democratic Republic of Congo who are so tried,” he said. “I express my sympathy to the local Churches in the countries most affected by this disease and encourage governments and private industries to share available technology and treatments so that no one lacks adequate medical care.”

The pope offered greetings to young people with physical and mental disabilities who are currently participating in the “Relay for Inclusion” in Italy.

Pope Francis also greeted new seminarians from the North American College present in St. Peter’s Square, encouraging them to live their vocations with joy “because true prayer gives us joy.”

“May Mary, who welcomed Jesus, the Word of God … help us to listen to him and never abandon him,” the pope prayed.

Vatican City, Aug 24, 2024 / 11:00 am (CNA).

Pope Francis called the heart of war an “abyss of evil” during a meeting with Catholic politicians and legislators at the Vatican on Saturday.

“Our consciences cannot fail to be moved by the scenes of death and destruction daily before our eyes,” the pope said Aug. 24 about the many violent conflicts taking place around the globe.

“We need to hear the cry of the poor, the ‘widows and orphans’ of which the Bible speaks,” he continued, “in order to see the abyss of evil at the heart of war and to resolve by every means possible to choose peace.”

Francis addressed the topic of war in an audience with members of the International Catholic Legislators Network (ICLN) in the Clementine Hall of the Apostolic Palace.

He said it is imperative to renounce war as a suitable way of resolving international conflicts and establishing peace, urging the Catholic legislators and all men and women of goodwill “to build a world — to cultivate a garden — marked by fraternity, justice, and peace.”

ICLN met the pope as it holds its 15th annual meeting in the Italian cities of Rome and Frascati (on the southeast outskirts of Rome), from Aug. 22–25. The theme of the gathering is “The World at War: Permanent Crises and Conflicts — What Does It Mean for Us?”

is to help Christians in public office exercise “virtuous and effective leadership that is committed to the dignity of every human being.”

St. Thomas More is the patron of the group, whose members must uphold the social doctrine of the Catholic Church in political life. The archbishop of Vienna, Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, is an honorary patron of the network.

In his remarks, the pontiff quoted from his 2020 encyclical on fraternity, , which says that “war is a failure of politics and of humanity, a shameful capitulation, a stinging defeat before the forces of evil.”

He also lamented an increasing lack of distinction between military and civilian targets and the enormous destructive capacity of contemporary weapons.

The ongoing crisis of “a third world war fought piecemeal,” Francis continued, “seriously jeopardizes the patient efforts made by the international community, above all through multilateral diplomacy, to encourage cooperation in addressing the grave injustices and the pressing social, economic, and environmental challenges facing our human family.”

He noted a need for patience and perseverance “in pursuing the path of peace, in season and out of season, through negotiation, mediation, and arbitration.”

The pope also pointed out that, as Christians, we see that the roots of conflict in a society can be found “in a deeper conflict present in the human heart.”

“Conflicts may sometimes be unavoidable, yet they can only be resolved fruitfully in a spirit of dialogue and sensitivity to others and their reasons, and in shared commitment to justice in the pursuit of the common good,” the pontiff said.

He asked Catholic legislators to be witnesses of hope to a “war-weary world,” especially the next generation.

“May your commitment to the common good, buoyed by trust in Christ’s promises, serve as an example for our young people,” he encouraged. “How important it is for them to see models of hope and idealism that counter the messages of pessimism and cynicism to which they are so often exposed.”

Vatican City, Aug 23, 2024 / 16:45 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis had a private meeting at the Vatican on Friday with an Italian man who was wrongly imprisoned for 33 years after being falsely accused of the triple homicide of three shepherds in 1991.

Beniamino Zuncheddu, now in his 60s, was released from prison in January after his murder conviction was overturned.

The only eyewitness to the crime, which took place in the mountains at night on the Italian island of Sardinia, first said he couldn’t identify the killer but later accused Zuncheddu, a fellow sheepherder.

Zuncheddu’s conviction was overturned at the end of 2023 for insufficient proof after it was revealed the witness may have been told to name Zuncheddu by a police officer.

During their meeting in the library of the Apostolic Palace on Aug. 23, the exonerated man gave Pope Francis a copy of a book he wrote with his lawyer that was published in May, “Io Sono Innocente” (“I Am Innocent”).

According to Vatican News, Zuncheddu found the strength to endure decades of unjust imprisonment by trusting in God, and he has forgiven the person whose accusations put him in prison for over 30 years. 

Vatican City, Aug 23, 2024 / 16:00 pm (CNA).

In a message for pilgrims participating in the third National Eucharistic Congress in Madagascar from Aug. 23–26, Pope Francis said each person should be a missionary of God’s love to others.

“Once you’ve met Christ in adoration, once you’ve touched him and received him in the Eucharistic celebration, you can no longer keep him to yourself but become a missionary of his love to others,” the pope shared in a message released on Aug. 23. The message was read by the apostolic nuncio of Madagascar, Archbishop Tomasz Grysa.

According to, CNA’s news partner in Africa, an estimated 40,000 pilgrims are anticipated to take part in this year’s four-day congress organized by the Archdiocese of Antsiranana.

Pope Francis praised the archdiocesan initiative aimed at helping Catholic communities in the southeastern African country to “get back to basics” by deepening their understanding of the Eucharist as the foundation of their Christian life.

“I encourage this initiative, which aims to bring the sons and daughters of your Christian communities back to basics, helping them to rediscover the meaning of Eucharistic adoration and the taste for spending time with Christ,” the Holy Father said.

During a time when faith in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist is a “great challenge,” the pope particularly called upon members of the Mouvement Eucharistique des Jeunes (Eucharistic Youth Movement), who are celebrating their centenary this year, to draw their friends closer to Jesus Christ.

“Help your brothers and sisters experience Jesus in the Eucharist. Help them, too, to make their own lives an offering to God, united to that of Jesus on the altar, so as to make him ever better known, loved, and served,” the 87-year-old pontiff urged.

The pope also stressed the need for Madagascar’s National Eucharistic Congress pilgrims to be witnesses of hope and joy in a world in which skepticism and pessimism are widespread.

“May this Eucharistic congress help each and every one of you to cultivate feelings of charity and solidarity toward all, and especially toward those in trial, for whom the path of life becomes more difficult every day,” he said. “Bring them the Lord’s hope, be witnesses to his compassion and merciful love.”

At the conclusion of his message, Pope Francis invoked the protection and blessing of Our Lady for all pilgrims and asked them to continue to pray for him.

“Wishing you a fruitful congress, I entrust each of you to the maternal protection of the Virgin Mary. May she intercede for you so that you may deepen your relationship with Christ every day.”

Vatican City, Aug 23, 2024 / 12:15 pm (CNA).

The Vatican has accepted the decree of an archbishop approving the spiritual activities of the Catholic Shrine of Chandavila in the town of La Codosera in Badajoz, Spain, where Our Lady of Sorrows is alleged to have appeared to two young girls at the end of World War II.

An from the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) called Our Lady of Sorrows of Chandavila a “beautiful devotion” with “many positive aspects,” including conversions, healing, and other visible signs of the action of the Holy Spirit in the pilgrims who visit the shrine. 

The letter, signed by DDF prefect Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández and approved by Pope Francis in an Aug. 22 audience, said the shrine “may continue to offer to the faithful who wish to approach it a place of interior peace, consolation, and conversion.”

Devotion to Our Lady of Sorrows of Chandavila springs from several alleged appearances of Our Lady of Sorrows to two young Spanish girls, 10-year-old Marcelina Barroso Expósito and 17-year-old Afra Brígido Blanco, close to the border with Portugal shortly before the end of World War II in 1945.

The DDF noted that “after the alleged visions, the two girls led a discreet and inconspicuous life. Both dedicated themselves to works of charity, especially to caring for the sick, the elderly, and orphans, thereby transmitting to those who are suffering the sweet consolation of the Virgin’s love that they had experienced.”

“There is nothing one can object to in this beautiful devotion,” the letter added.

The Vatican’s doctrinal office confirmed the “nihil obstat” judgment of the diocesan bishop, Archbishop José Rodríguez Carballo, OFM. In accordance with new norms on the discernment of “alleged supernatural phenomena,” the local bishop must consult and receive final approval from the Vatican after investigating and judging alleged apparitions and connected devotions.

According to the May 17 norms, a “nihil obstat” judgment means: “Without expressing any certainty about the supernatural authenticity of the phenomenon itself, many signs of the action of the Holy Spirit are acknowledged ‘in the midst’ of a given spiritual experience, and no aspects that are particularly critical or risky have been detected, at least so far.”

CNA Newsroom, Aug 22, 2024 / 14:15 pm (CNA).

On the occasion of the International Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Violence Based on Religion or Belief (Aug.22), a European watchdog warned of serious anti-Christian violence in Europe and called on governments to protect converts from Islam in particular. 

The Vienna-based Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians in Europe (OIDAC Europe) has in anti-Christian hate crimes by 44%. 

Though the OIDAC Europe reports the majority of the 749 cases of anti-Christian hate crimes were acts of vandalism or arson, the religious freedom watchdog noted a marked increase in violent attacks against individual people.     

Executive Director of OIDAC Europe, Anja Hoffmann, said the rising threats against Christians in countries across Europe are alarming and should not be overlooked, reported CNA’s German-language news partner.

Since the beginning of 2024, OIDAC Europe has documented 25 cases of violence, threats and attempted murder against Christians in Great Britain, France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Austria, Poland and Serbia.

In some cases, entire communities have been attacked. 

In June this year, there was an attack on a Seventh-day Adventist congregation in Dijon during a church service. The tear gas attack sparked panic and left nine people injured, the watchdog’s statement said.

Hoffmann also highlighted the need to protect and support Christian converts from Islam who are viewed as “apostates.” 

The watchdog cited the example of a British court case that sentenced a man to life in prison for Javed Nouri, a Muslim convert to Christianity. According to the prosecutor, Alid considered Nouri an apostate and “therefore somebody who deserved to die.”

Hoffmann called on European governments to act: “The right to convert is an essential element of religious freedom. European governments must therefore do everything in their power to protect Christian converts with a Muslim background in particular, who are at high risk.”

In an Aug. 22, the German Bishops Conference deplored the steady increase of violence against Christians and people of other faiths. 

Bishop Bertram Meier of Augsburg in Bavaria, chairman of the German bishops’ Commission for the Universal Church, governments and religious communities have to take on more responsibility and work together to curb the rise of religious violence. 

“All states have the responsibility to counteract violations of human rights and thus also religious freedom. Where this does not happen, or where the state itself attacks these rights, discrimination and ultimately violence, especially against religious minorities, are not far away,” insisted Meier. 

The International Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Acts of Violence Based on Religion or Belief was instituted by the United Nations General Assembly in 2019. 

Vatican City, Aug 22, 2024 / 05:30 am (CNA).

Around the world, bishops together with the Catholic faithful of their dioceses in Europe, Asia, Latin America, and Africa are gearing up for the second session of the 2021-2024 Synod on Synodality to take place Oct.2-27 in Vatican City. 

The worldwide process launched by Pope Francis for the Catholic Church is centered on the theological concept of “synodality” or “journeying together” as the People of God. Synodality places particular emphasis on renewing the call of each baptized person to actively participate in the mission Jesus Christ entrusted to his church. 

As part of this global process of listening, dialogue, and discernment, regional bishops' conferences — in collaboration with clergy, religious men and women, and laypeople — have spearheaded continental-wide workshops to discuss key theological and pastoral considerations raised in the , the Vatican’s working document for the second and last global session of the Synod on Synodality released on July 9.  

This month, 42 representatives from local churches across Europe will be divided into small focus groups at an Aug. 29-31 conference in Linz, Austria, to discuss the themes outlined in the Vatican’s working document for the second session of the Synod. 

Members of the Council of the Bishops' Conferences of Europe (CCEE), including the presidents of the bishops' conferences of Italy, Austria, and Switzerland, will attend the three-day meeting, together with European experts in theology and canon law as well as Vatican representatives. 

Pastoral theologian Klara-Antonia Csiszar, who took part in the first session of the Synod on Synodality last year, will also be present at the Linz meeting. She has said that diversity at all levels within the Catholic Church will be a key focus area of the meeting led by the CCEE.   

“We have attached importance to how diversity can be perceived in Europe,” Csiszar said in an interview with Kathpress. “What message does this diversity have for the Church in Europe, what does it mean for our local churches, [and] what voice does the Church in Europe play in the symphony of the universal Church?” 

In Asia, the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences (FABC) held its regional workshop Aug. 5-8 in Bangkok and identified the necessity for unity and harmony for the growth of the Catholic church in a largely non-Christian region. The meeting was attended by 38 delegates from local churches spread across 17 countries.

“Asia has nurtured a diversity of cultures and religions, and by embracing harmony, mutual appreciation, and respect for differences, we can help the universal Church understand more about the experience of walking together amidst diversity,” Cardinal Stephen Chow said in the Sunday Examiner.  

In association with its social communications office, the FABC have recently launched the “” website to engage the Catholic faithful to engage with the synodal path of Asia.

In South America, the Episcopal Council of Latin America and the Caribbean (CELAM) held a three-day congress in Bogota, Colombia, attended by nearly 2,000 people. Approximately 200 people attended workshops in person while an additional 1,200 people participated online in the Aug. 9-11 congress to discuss topics including church structures, the role of women, and the meaning of mission.

Referring to the 2023 synthesis report of the first session of the Synod on Synodality, Archbishop of Caracas in Venezuela, Monsignor Raúl Biord, said “the poverty of the proposals [on the key synod theme of mission] in the report is striking” and therefore challenged participants to consider more profoundly the relationship between synodality and mission as outlined by the Vatican in the . 

“Reducing mission to a missionary pastoral care as proposed in many of our diocesan organizational charts is unfocused and impoverishing,” the archbishop said at the congress. “The true goal of synodality is the mission to which we are called (by the mandate of the Risen One), in which we are involved (from the Trinitarian dynamic) and committed (by baptism and the sacraments of Christian initiation).” 

Prior to the release of the , the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM) together with the African Synodal Initiative (ASI), convened a two-day meeting in Nairobi, Kenya in April. 

Fifty delegates from local churches came together to explore the ways and means of being “a synodal church in mission” and discussed the unique experience and distinct contribution of the peoples of Africa in the evangelization of the continent. 

Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo, president of SECAM and archbishop of Kinshasa, said the meeting recognized the importance of fortifying the Christian identity in the region.    

“There was consensus among delegates that Africa must embrace the experience of Small Christian Communities (SCCs); and the rich philosophical principles of Ubuntu, which highlight the values of family, fraternity and solidarity. These discussions highlighted the need to integrate these distinct cultural and community forces into the broader mission of our Church,” Ambongo said in a press briefing following the April 23-26 conference. 

The Oct. 2-27 meeting to be held in the Vatican with Pope Francis will close the discernment phase of the Synod on Synodality. The conclusions of both the 2023 and 2024 global sessions — as accepted and approved by the pope — are then expected to be implemented in all local churches with the purpose of creating a listening and more participative Catholic Church worldwide. 

Vatican City, Aug 21, 2024 / 07:00 am (CNA).

Pope Francis said Wednesday the person who lives with joy his anointing in the sacrament of confirmation cannot help but spread the fragrance of holiness in the Church and the world.

“We know that, unfortunately, sometimes Christians do not spread the fragrance of Christ, but the bad odor of their own sin,” the pope also warned during the general audience Aug. 21, adding that “sin turns us into bad oil.”

During his weekly public audience in the Vatican’s Pope Paul VI Hall, Pope Francis continued a series of , focusing on the fruits of being anointed with the blessed oil called Chrism in the sacraments of baptism and confirmation.

The audience hall brimmed over with thousands of pilgrims from around the world, some of whom held flags from their countries or waved colored bandanas, eager to catch a sight of the pope.

At the end of the meeting, before praying the “Our Father” and giving his blessing, the pontiff remembered certain countries and territories experiencing war, including Ukraine, Myanmar, South Sudan, and the North Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

“Let us pray for peace,” he said, “and let’s not forget Palestine and Israel, that there will be peace there.”

In his catechesis, Pope Francis recalled the baptism of Christ, when “the very Spirit descended on Jesus.”

Christians, he explained, are “anointed in imitation of Christ,” as St. Cyril of Jerusalem wrote in his .

The pope recited the prayer said by the bishop when he consecrates the chrism oil on Holy Thursday: “May those formed into a temple of your majesty by the holiness infused through this anointing and by the cleansing of the stain of their first birth be made fragrant with the innocence of a life pleasing to you.”

“A person who lives his anointing with joy gives fragrance to the Church, gives fragrance to the community, gives fragrance to his family,” the pontiff said.

Quoting from St. Paul’s Letter to the Galatians, Francis said, “the fragrance of Christ emanates from the ‘fruits of the Spirit,’ which are ‘love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.’”

“It’s beautiful to find a good person, a faithful person, a meek person, not proud,” he commented.

Sin, the pope emphasized, “must not distract us from the commitment of realizing, as far as we are able and each in their own environment, this sublime vocation of being the good fragrance of Christ in the world.”

“Let us ask the Holy Spirit to make us more conscious [of being] anointed, anointed by him,” he concluded.

Rome Newsroom, Aug 20, 2024 / 14:36 pm (CNA).

The theme of peace took center stage at the Rimini Meeting this week as Pope Francis offered a message of encouragement in the face of the reality of war to the hundreds of thousands of attendees gathered on the opening day of the annual festival organized by the lay Catholic movement Communion and Liberation.

Pope Francis urged the meeting’s participants not to be discouraged by war and the challenges of today but to search out “the beauty of life” with passion in an Aug. 19 message sent to the Catholic festival through Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin.

Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, OFM, the leader of the Catholic Church in the Holy Land,  for his part, discussed prospects for peace in the Israel-Hamas war Tuesday in a conversation with Bernhard Scholz, president of the Meeting for Friendship Amongst Peoples Foundation.

He emphasized the importance of the current negotiations as possibly a last chance for peace before the situation becomes “really tragic.”

“I have to say that the impact this war has had on both the Israeli and Palestinian populations is unparalleled, unprecedented,” said Pizzaballa, who is head of Latin-rite Catholics in the Holy Land. 

“Everything depends on the coming days,” the Latin patriarch said. “That’s why I said that it’s important to pray: It’s the only thing that is left for us to do.”

The Rimini Meeting, formally named the Meeting for Friendship Amongst Peoples, is taking place Aug. 20–25 around the theme “If We Are Not After the Essential, Then What Are We After?” in the northeastern Italian city that gives it its name.

More than half a million people are expected to attend; approximately 800,000 participated in the festival in 2022.

Now in its 45th year, the event includes 140 panels and discussions with about 450 Italian and international speakers, 16 exhibitions, 18 theatrical performances, and a number of sports activities and literary events. An estimated 3,000 volunteers are participating in the meeting.

An estimated 17,000 children and teenagers took part in the 2023 meeting, and this year’s children’s workshops are also expected to be well attended.

In his message to the gathering, the pope urged attendees to take an active role in the Church’s mission.

“As the icy winds of war blow, adding to recurring phenomena of injustice, violence, and inequality ... it is imperative to stop and ask: Is there anything worth living for and hoping for?” the pontiff’s message said.

“In the face of the temptation of discouragement, the complexity of the current crisis and, in particular, the challenge of a peace that seems impossible,” Parolin wrote, “the Holy Father urges everyone to become responsible protagonists of change, actively collaborating in the Church’s mission, in order to give life together to places where Christ’s presence can be seen and touched.”

In the papal message sent on the eve of the weeklong meeting, Parolin wrote that Pope Francis wants everyone to search for the most essential, necessary part of life, which is faith in Jesus Christ, and “for what gives meaning to our lives, first of all by stripping ourselves of what weighs down our daily lives…”

“In doing so, we discover that the value of human existence does not consist in things, in successes achieved, in the race of competition, but first and foremost in that relationship of love that sustains us, rooting our journey in trust and hope: It is friendship with God, which is then reflected in all other human relationships, that grounds the joy that will never fail,” it continued.

During his onstage interview Aug. 20, Pizzaballa said “interreligious dialogue is in crisis” because of the war in Israel and Palestine.

“This situation is a watershed. There are no public meetings. At the institutional level, we have difficulty speaking to one another, we can’t manage to meet,” he said.

The cardinal noted that the war, for everyone, has brought forth “feelings that were already there but now have become the common language: hatred, resentment, revenge, justice understood as vengeance, deep distrust, inability to recognize the essence of the other.”

“The war will finish one way or another,” but it will be difficult to rebuild after this division, he added.

Other events at the Rimini Meeting will also address the theme of peace in the Middle East, including a talk Aug. 21 on the preservation of holy sites and how to foster dialogue in the Holy Land.

On Aug. 23, Pope Francis’ envoy for peace in Ukraine, Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, will participate in a roundtable on “Educating for Reconciliation” with the secretary-general of the Muslim World League, Muhammad Bin Abdul Karim Al-Issa. 

Bishop Aldo Berardi, OSST, apostolic vicar of northern Arabia and Kuwait, and Bishop Paolo Martinelli, OFM Cap, apostolic vicar of southern Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, will also participate.

ACI Prensa Staff, Aug 19, 2024 / 14:45 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis received Jeff Bezos, the billionaire founder of Amazon — who was accompanied by his fiancée, Lauren Sanchez — at the Vatican last week.

The Vatican Press Office made no mention of the meeting in its bulletin where it generally reports on the meetings that the Holy Father holds on a daily basis.

According to the, Pope Francis’ meeting with Bezos and Sanchez took place on Thursday, Aug. 15, the day the Catholic Church celebrates the Assumption of the Virgin Mary.

On her Instagram account, Sanchez said that “it was an honor for Jeff and I to spend time with His Holiness, @franciscus at his home in the Vatican.”

“His wisdom, warmth, and humor were deeply touching. He reminded us not to take life too seriously, a simple yet powerful reminder to keep lightness in our hearts,” she commented.

Bezos’ fiancée related that “we also discussed the urgent need for climate action, something he’s passionate about, as are all of us at the Bezos Earth Fund.”

Sanchez also noted that what Pope Francis believes about “finding beauty and meaning in everything we do resonated deeply with me. I love that he encourages priests to read poetry and literature to stay connected with the human spirit.”

In closing, the 54-year-old said she was “grateful for this incredible blessing and for the gentle wisdom he shared with us.”

Vatican City, Aug 19, 2024 / 14:15 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis commended an American chaplain’s work with death row inmates as a ministry that reflects the “deepest reality of the Gospel” in a new book preface on the death penalty.

The pope personally penned the introduction to “A Christian on Death Row: My Commitment to Those Condemned” by Dale Recinella, a lawyer who has ministered to death row inmates in Florida as a lay Catholic chaplain for more than 25 years.

Pope Francis calls Recinella’s work as a chaplain on death row a “passionate adherence to the deepest reality of the Gospel of Jesus, which is the mercy of God.”

“Dale Racinella has truly understood and testifies with his life, every time he crosses the threshold of a prison, especially the one he calls ‘the house of death,’ that God’s love is boundless and immeasurable,” Pope Francis wrote in the of the book to be published Aug. 27.

“And that even the most heinous of our sins does not mar our identity in God’s eyes: We remain his children, loved by him, cared for by him, and considered precious by him.”

Recinella had been working as a high-powered lawyer in the 1980s when he began reassessing how he had been using his gifts and his skills up to that point, identifying a strong desire to give back. 

Together with his wife, Susan, Recinella got involved in a ministry helping the homeless and AIDS patients, where the organizer of the ministry approached Recinella to see if he’d be willing to go even deeper.

“He asked if I would be willing to come to his prison and start seeing men that were terminal with cancer and AIDS,” Recinella recalled, speaking to CNA in in 2020.

“And what I didn’t have the courage to tell him was I’d never been in a prison; I had financed prisons on Wall Street all over the country, huge prisons, but I’d never been in one and had no desire to go in one.”

Recinella’s family helped to convince him that he should take the plunge in the early 1990s.

“It was Susan and the kids quoting Jesus from the Gospel in Matthew 25 that convinced me that if my faith was really guiding my life, that Jesus had said when we visited the least in prison, we visited him, but when we didn’t, we had refused to visit him. And so I figured I’d give it a shot,” he said.

It would be a couple of years before the idea of death row specifically really crossed Recinella’s mind, when he and his family ended up moving to the small town of Macclenny, Florida. That town just happened to be the home of the state’s death row prison.

Recinella was shocked at the harsh conditions he encountered when he first set foot in a death row prison.

“The very first thing that struck me, my first experience was, ‘I can’t believe we’re still doing this in the 20th century,’” he recalled, noting that despite the Florida heat, the inmates were not given air conditioning.

Recinella eventually decided to give up the practice of the law so that he could minister to the death row inmates.

Ministering to condemned criminals has not proven easy. Recinella recalls being assigned to a serial killer who had killed young women of a similar age to Recinella’s daughter.

“I was not ready to handle the spiritual challenges of dealing with the level of human suffering that we’ve experienced in street ministry, AIDS ministry, prison, ministry, and death row ministry,” he said.

Recinella found the strength to do it through conversations with a trusted priest and through the sacraments, he said.

In addition to spending several days a week visiting inmates himself, he has also trained other people to do prison ministry and has acted as a witness for nearly two dozen executions.

Recinella told “EWTN News In Depth” in 2021 that among the people he has ministered to when they are dying — whether they are homeless, lawyers, politicians, or inmates — everyone has asked for mercy in their dying moments.

“I’ve never had anyone ask me to pray for God to give them justice,” he said. “Everyone, even if they didn’t think they had faith, when they’re facing the end of the tunnel, everyone has asked me to pray with them for God’s mercy.”

Pope Francis revised the Catechism of the Catholic Church in 2018 to state that the death penalty is “inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person” (CCC, 2267). 

In the preface to Recinella’s book, Pope Francis underlined his strong opposition to capital punishment, saying that “the death penalty is in no way a solution to the violence that can strike innocent people.”

“Capital executions, far from bringing justice, fuel a sense of revenge that becomes a dangerous poison for the body of our civil societies,” the pope said.

Pope Francis emphasized how he wants the Catholic Church’s 2025 Jubilee Year to be a time for “all believers to collectively call for the abolition of the death penalty.”

The death penalty has been abolished within the European Union and more than 140 countries. 

Iran, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, and the United States were the countries with the most confirmed executions in 2023, according to Amnesty International.

“States should focus on allowing prisoners the opportunity to truly change their lives rather than investing money and resources in their execution, as if they were human beings no longer worthy of living and to be disposed of,” Francis wrote.

Pope Francis met Recinella and his wife in a private audience at the Vatican in 2019. The Vatican’s Pontifical Academy for Life bestowed on Recinella its first Guardian of Life Award in 2021 in honor of his decades of service and ministry to death row inmates.

Recinella’s new book will be published by the Vatican Publishing House on Aug. 27. He is also the author of “When We Visit Jesus in Prison: A Guide for Catholic Ministry.”

Vatican City, Aug 18, 2024 / 10:20 am (CNA).

Pope Francis said Sunday that the Eucharist is a “miracle” in which Jesus nourishes us with his life and satisfies the hunger in our hearts. 

“All of us need the Eucharist,” Pope Francis said in his on Aug. 18.

“The heavenly bread, which comes from the Father, is the Son made flesh for us. This food is more than necessary because it satisfies the hunger for hope, the hunger for truth, and the hunger for salvation that we all feel not in our stomachs but in our hearts.”

Speaking from the window of the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace, the pope encouraged people to reflect with “wonder and gratitude” on the “miracle of the Eucharist” in which Jesus “makes himself present for us and with us.”

“The bread from heaven is a gift that exceeds all expectations,” the pope said.

“Jesus takes care of the greatest need: He saves us, nourishing our lives with his, forever. Thanks to him, we can live in communion with God and among ourselves.”

The pope’s reflection centered on Jesus’ words recorded in Chapter 6 of the : “I am the living bread that came down from heaven.” 

Pope Francis said: “Let us ask ourselves … When I receive the Eucharist, which is the miracle of mercy, do I stand in awe before the body of the Lord, who died and rose again for us?”

After leading the crowd in the Angelus prayer in Latin, the pope urged people to continue to pray for “pathways to peace” to open in the Middle East, in Palestine and Israel, as well as in Ukraine, Myanmar, and every place affected by war.

The pope also expressed joy that four 20th-century martyrs were beatified on Sunday in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Thousands attended the beatification Mass of Father Luigi Carrara, Father Giovanni Didonè, and Father Vittorio Faccin — all Xaverian missionary priests from Italy serving in the Democratic Republic of Congo who were in 1964. Father Albert Joubert, a martyred diocesan priest born to a French father and African mother, was also beatified with them.

“Their martyrdom was the crowning achievement of a life spent for the Lord and for their brothers and sisters,” Pope Francis said.

“May their example and intercession foster paths of reconciliation and peace for the good of the Congolese people.”

Rome Newsroom, Aug 16, 2024 / 13:32 pm (CNA).

Despite calls from abuse victims and their advocates to stop displaying artwork by the disgraced former Jesuit priest Father Marko Ivan Rupnik, the Vatican has again used one of the artist’s images to illustrate an online article. 

In addition, last week, a video was published by Argentine public TV channel Canal de la Cuidad that shows a Rupnik image hanging in Pope Francis’ personal apartment inside the Vatican’s Santa Marta residence.

On the Vatican website, the Holy See’s communications department used a picture of a Rupnik mosaic of the dormition of Mary at the top of  on Aug. 15.

Vatican News articles about Catholic feast days  after public abuse accusations were made against the Slovenian priest at the end of 2022.

Accused of sexually abusing women, Rupnik is currently under investigation by the Vatican’s doctrinal office after Pope Francis waived a statute of limitations. 

In June, Cardinal Seán O’Malley, head of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors and the newly retired archbishop of Boston, sent a letter to the heads of Vatican offices asking them to display “pastoral prudence” by not displaying artwork that could imply either an exoneration or defense of those accused of abuse.

“We must avoid sending a message that the Holy See is oblivious to the psychological distress that so many are suffering,” O’Malley wrote in a letter sent June 26, according to the commission he heads.

The video depicting Pope Francis’ apartment shows an image of a sleeping St. Joseph with an angel above him. It can be seen hanging on the wall next to a door while Pope Francis met on Aug. 8 with Anita Fernández, the granddaughter of one of the victims murdered in the so-called “death flights” of the last military dictatorship in Argentina.

The image looks to be a detail from a larger 2008 Rupnik mosaic installation in a chapel in a religious house in Croatia. Images and a description of the work can be found , Rupnik’s art school and theology center in Rome.

It is believed to be at least the second Rupnik artwork hanging in the pope’s personal quarters. The other is a mosaic of Mary and the Child Jesus, which the pope spoke about in a video message he sent to a Marian congress in Aparecida, Brazil, in 2023.

 posted to the Vatican News Portuguese channel on YouTube, now showing as “unlisted,” the Marian artwork is seen hanging over a wooden table in what appears to be a sitting room. Videos categorized as “unlisted” do not appear in searches.

Other artwork is visible on the walls, including a cross and a portrait of St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits.

The Vatican’s press office did not respond by time of publication to a request for comment Friday about the use of Rupnik’s art on the Vatican News website or its display in Pope Francis’ private apartment.

The Shrine of Our Lady of Aparecida in Brazil is one of the latest of hundreds of Catholic churches and chapels to be decorated by Rupnik’s style of artwork. According to the Centro Aletti, the massive installations, covering almost 25,000 square feet on the basilica’s north facade, were completed between August and November 2021 by the center’s “Art Atelier.”

Rome Newsroom, Aug 16, 2024 / 09:27 am (CNA).

Vatican peace envoy Cardinal Matteo Zuppi spoke this week with a Chinese government official about the Russia-Ukraine war.

The phone conversation was the most recent step in the Vatican’s continued diplomatic efforts to promote lasting peace in the region.

Zuppi’s Aug. 14 phone call with Li Hui, China’s special representative for Eurasian affairs, followed a meeting between the two in Beijing in September 2023, one of several diplomatic visits the papal delegate has taken to advance peace between Russia and Ukraine.

The cardinal has also traveled to Kyiv, Ukraine; Moscow; and Washington, D.C., as part of his remit as peace envoy.

According to a brief statement from the Vatican on Thursday, Zuppi’s conversation with Hui included a discussion of “the need to foster dialogue” and “adequate international guarantees for a just and lasting peace.”

Hui began his role as the Chinese government’s special representative for Eurasian affairs in August 2019 after 10 years as the Chinese ambassador to Russia following a stint as vice minister of foreign affairs.

The special representative is highly regarded in Russia, where he was awarded an Order of Friendship by Russian President Vladimir Putin in May 2019. The career diplomat also worked in the Chinese Embassy in the U.S.S.R. in the 1980s, later serving as first secretary of the Chinese Embassy during the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.

On other diplomatic fronts, the Catholic Church is also in dialogue with China as it continues to work for improvements to the application of the provisional agreement on the appointment of Catholic bishops in China. The Vatican-China deal, the contents of which are not public, was first signed in 2018 and will be up for its third renewal in October. 

between the Chinese government and the Holy See, presided over by Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, meets twice per year to discuss bishop appointments in the communist country, where there is both a government-sanctioned Catholic association and an underground Catholic Church.

Pope Francis has also recently expressed in order to meet with bishops and Catholics in the country.

In an interview at the Vatican conducted in May and published Aug. 9, the pope said he would really like to one day visit the Basilica of Holy Mary, the Help of Christians, in Shanghai, China.

CNA Staff, Aug 16, 2024 / 07:00 am (CNA).

After the Pontifical Academy for Life (PAFL) last month the section on “artificial nutrition and hydration” (ANH) has some observers concerned about what they see as a departure from previous Church teaching. 

The Pontifical Academy for Life was founded in 1994 by St. John Paul II to study and provide formation on bioethical issues for the promotion and defense of life. Published only in Italian on July 2, says it has “the aim of clearing up confusion” about the Church’s teaching on a number of bioethical issues. 

In the English-speaking world, however, the booklet has garnered scrutiny for on the importance of providing food and water to patients in a vegetative state. 

The Church’s teaching on this issue was recently in the news in the United States because of a disabled Texas woman whose parents, who are Catholic, announced last month that they had decided to allow Margo to die by starvation in hospice. They were prevented from doing so after a judge intervened. 

Over the years, Church leaders at the Vatican and in the U.S. have specifically addressed the question of denying food and water to a patient who is in a vegetative state. 

, St. John Paul II clarified the Church’s teaching that “the administration of water and food, even when provided by artificial means, always represents a natural means of preserving life, not a medical act.”

“Even our brothers and sisters who find themselves in the clinical condition of a ‘vegetative state’ retain their human dignity in all its fullness. The loving gaze of God the Father continues to fall upon them, acknowledging them as his sons and daughters especially in need of help,” the saint noted. 

The pope explained that “waning hopes” that a person in a vegetative state will recover “cannot ethically justify the cessation or interruption of minimal care for the patient, including nutrition and hydration.”

“Death by starvation or dehydration is, in fact, the only possible outcome as a result of their withdrawal. In this sense it ends up becoming, if done knowingly and willingly, true and proper by omission,” John Paul II said.

A from the Vatican’s Congregation (now Dicastery) for the Doctrine of the Faith addressed two questions from the U.S. bishops about whether a patient in a “vegetative state” can ever be denied food and water. 

The congregation, under Pope Benedict XVI, clearly affirmed that a person in a vegetative state must be supplied with food and water even if he or she seems to have no chance of recovery. The dicastery left open the possibility that the only exceptions would be instances where food and water “cannot be assimilated by the patient’s body or cannot be administered to the patient without causing significant physical discomfort.”

Those responses helped the U.S. bishops craft a 2009 revision to their “” which states in Directive 58 that “there is an obligation to provide patients with food and water” at Catholic hospitals, an obligation that “extends to patients in chronic and presumably irreversible conditions.”

The directives leave room for the patient to choose to reject extraordinary means, however. 

“Medically assisted nutrition and hydration become morally optional when they cannot reasonably be expected to prolong life or when they would be ‘excessively burdensome for the patient or [would] cause significant physical discomfort, for example resulting from complications in the use of the means employed,’” Directive 58 continues.

“For instance, as a patient draws close to inevitable death from an underlying progressive and fatal condition, certain measures to provide nutrition and hydration may become excessively burdensome and therefore not obligatory in light of their very limited ability to prolong life or provide comfort.”

While reiterating the Church’s long-standing teaching against euthanasia and assisted suicide in several sections, the July booklet has garnered the most attention for its section on “Artificial Nutrition and Hydration,” Section 13. (An official English translation of the booklet is not yet available, so excerpts here come from an unofficial translation generated by Google.) 

Catholic teaching allows for the possibility of stopping “burdensome, dangerous, extraordinary, or disproportionate” medical care — such as removing ventilators from patients who are unable to breathe on their own and allowing them to die naturally — and this is not the same as euthanasia.

In Section 13, the PAFL affirmed that for those in a permanent vegetative state — i.e., not actively dying — suspending food and water is different from removing a ventilator because “death is not caused by the disease that continues its course but rather by the action of those who suspend them.” 

“Upon closer inspection, however, this topic is the victim of a reductive conception of the disease, which is understood as an alteration of a particular function of the organism, losing sight of the totality of the person,” the document continues. 

“This reductive way of interpreting the disease then leads to an equally reductive conception of treatment, which ends up focusing on individual functions of the organism rather than on the overall good of the person. The individual functions of the organism, including nutrition — especially if affected in a stable and irreversible way — must be considered in the overall picture of the person[.]”

The PAFL continued by saying that because a person in a vegetative state has to consume food that is “prepared in the laboratory and administered through technical devices,” such interventions are “not simple health care procedures.” 

“[T]he doctor is required to respect the will of the patient who refuses them with a conscious and informed decision, also expressed in advance in anticipation of the possible loss of the ability to express himself and choose,” the PAFL wrote. 

The PAFL noted that Pope Francis has emphasized the importance of considering the whole person, not just individual bodily functions, when making medical decisions. 

Father Tad Pacholczyk, senior ethicist at the National Catholic Bioethics Center, told CNA that in his reading, the PAFL document “does not significantly depart” from what the Church has said on the topic of ANH in the past. 

The Church has traditionally taught that “medically assisted nutrition and hydration become morally ‘extraordinary’ if they cannot reasonably be expected to prolong life or would cause significant physical discomfort or complications in the use of the means employed,” he said. 

In light of this, the text emphasizes the “perennial need for careful assessment and discernment in terms of the benefits and burdens that may be associated with the administration of artificial nutrition and hydration (ANH) to each particular patient.”

Further, he said, the text seems to imply that such careful assessment and discernment does not always happen, but that some people rely on problematic generalizations like “ANH is always required” or “ANH is always aggressive therapy” — both of which, he said, are incorrect.

“The circumstances and particulars will be important, so that in some instances, here or there, ANH may indeed be able to be categorized as ‘aggressive therapy,’ while in many others, it clearly cannot, but must instead be understood as a proportionate, and thus an obligatory means of caring for our loved ones,” Pacholczyk said.

Taking a different view in Catholic ethicist Charlie Camosy warned that the PAFL’s statements could be misunderstood in the context of what Pope Francis calls a “throwaway culture” — a culture in which numerous jurisdictions around the world allow, and even promote, euthanasia and assisted suicide and which “tries to hide the value of disabled people with consciousness disorders[,] making it easier to aim at their deaths.”

“[T]he pontifical academy’s new text appears to suggest that, because the food and hydration given to disabled, so-called ‘vegetative’ patients is prepared in a laboratory and administered through technology, offering them to such patients does not amount to ‘simple care procedures.’ It could therefore be thought of as a medical treatment which could, in principle, be withdrawn, rather than the kind of basic care which can never be withheld,” Camosy  

“From a bioethical perspective, this would strike many ethicists as an odd framing of the issue, to say the least,” he continued.

“The nutrition given to such disabled human beings is no more made in a laboratory than a protein shake powder. And feeding tubes are extremely simple devices that don’t require any machine or other special technology. Many Catholic bioethicists would see feeding a disabled person through a tube as little different from feeding them with a spoon.”

Section 13 of the PAFL’s document is germane to an ongoing bioethical case in the U.S., that of Margo Naranjo. 

Naranjo, 28, suffered severe brain damage in a 2020 car accident. Though not technically on “life support” and able to breathe without the use of a ventilator, she is today profoundly disabled and not able to speak, eat, or drink on her own.

Naranjo’s parents, Mike and Cathy, are Catholic and have frequently called for prayers for Margo’s healing and their family since the car accident. But in a now-deleted Cathy announced on July 7 that she and Mike — in accordance with what they believe to be Margo’s pre-accident wishes — had decided to allow Margo to die by starvation in hospice.

show that a Denton County Probate Court judge appointed a temporary guardian for Margo and issued a temporary restraining order against her parents on July 19, precluding them from stopping her food and water. 

Naranjo’s situation has to that of a Florida woman who was left severely brain-damaged from oxygen deprivation after suffering a heart attack and lived for a decade and a half in a persistent vegetative state. In 2005, Schiavo died of starvation after her husband insisted he was complying with her wishes by removing her feeding tube, despite a protracted and very public court battle and the pleading of her family.

Vatican City, Aug 15, 2024 / 09:31 am (CNA).

During his Angelus address on the solemnity of the Assumption, Pope Francis reminded Catholics that the Blessed Virgin Mary always “goes before us on the journey.”

Reflecting on the first chapter of the Gospel St. Luke, which recounts the encounter between the Virgin Mary and her cousin Elizabeth, the pope reminded pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square that the Mother of God is not a “motionless wax statue” but a “woman on the move following Jesus as a disciple of the kingdom.”

“In her we can see a sister with worn-out sandals and with so much weariness in her veins for having followed the Lord and meeting brothers and sisters, concluding her journey in the glory of heaven,” the Holy Father contemplated.

The pope said Mary, the young woman from Nazareth, is an example for all Christians who share her same desire to announce the joy of Jesus Christ with those around us.

“This expression of the Gospel is beautiful: "Mary set out and went (Lk 1:39). It means that Mary does not consider the news that she received from the angel as a privilege but, on the contrary, she leaves home and sets out with haste,” he said.    

During his address, Pope Francis also emphasized the reality that each person’s life on earth is a continuous journey toward the final encounter with God, in which we are not alone but accompanied by the Mother of God, who ended her earthly pilgrimage with her Assumption into heaven, where “together with her Son, she enjoys the joy of eternal life forever.”

“The Blessed Virgin is she who goes before us on the journey, reminding us all that our life is also a continuous journey toward the horizon of the final encounter with the Lord,” he said. 

“For this reason, the Blessed Virgin can help us on our journey toward the Lord,” the pope added.

After praying the Angelus in Latin together with groups of pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square, Pope Francis prayed for people suffering violence throughout the world, particularly for those in Ukraine, the Middle East, Palestine, Israel, Sudan, and Myanmar.

The Holy Father again renewed his call for world leaders to pursue the path of peace in negotiations and immediately end conflicts causing so much destruction and hardship for vulnerable communities. 

“I continue to follow with concern the very serious humanitarian situation in Gaza, and I call once again for a cease-fire on all fronts, for the release of hostages, and for aid to the exhausted population,” the pope insisted.

“I encourage everyone to make every effort to ensure that the conflict does not escalate and to pursue paths of negotiation so that this tragedy ends soon!” 

The Holy Father also expressed his particular closeness to the victims of wildfires in Greece on the feast of the Assumption and prayed for the solidarity of the affected communities to support one another during this time of tragedy.

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 14, 2024 / 14:06 pm (CNA).

The Vatican’s secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, is expressing concerns about Ukraine’s recent military advances inside Russian territory, warning that the actions could further escalate the war.

“These are very worrying developments because it means opening new fronts,” Parolin told journalists in Assisi, Italy, on Sunday, Aug. 11, according to the Holy See’s official news outlet .

“In this sense, the chances for peace could become increasingly distant,” Parolin warned.

The cardinal secretary of state made the comments at the Basilica of St. Clare of Assisi, where he concelebrated Mass in honor of the saint’s feast day. He also spoke about war during his homily, highlighting a need for love “in a world increasingly lacking in love and which at the same time hungers for love,” according to Vatican News.

“From Assisi, I want to launch a strong appeal for peace throughout the world,“ Parolin said. “As the Holy Father has reiterated several times, war is a defeat for everyone and benefits no one.”

Ukrainian forces launched a military incursion into the Kursk Oblast in western Russia on Aug. 6. On Aug. 13, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that the military had taken control of 74 Russian settlements in the region.

“Despite the difficult and intense battles, our forces continue to advance in the Kursk region,” Zelenskyy .

reported on Aug. 12 that Kursk Oblast acting governor Alexei Smirnov said Ukrainian forces had only taken control of 28 settlements — fewer than what Ukrainian officials are claiming.

The military advancement into Kursk is the first major Ukrainian incursion into Russian territory since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. 

Parolin in late July during a diplomatic visit to Ukraine. The cardinal said he “reiterated the pope’s closeness and commitment to finding a just and lasting peace.” Zelenskyy said after the meeting that he is “grateful for [the] cardinal’s support of our country and people.”

The Vatican has provided Ukraine with humanitarian aid throughout the war. The most recent truckloads of food, clothing, hygiene products, and medicine arrived in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region on Monday, Aug. 12, .

CNA Staff, Aug 12, 2024 / 12:19 pm (CNA).

Archbishop Noël Treanor, the Irish prelate who had served as apostolic nuncio to the European Union since 2023, died of a heart attack on Sunday at age 73. 

Before being appointed nuncio in late 2022, Treanor served as bishop of the Diocese of Down and Connor. With his new role, Pope Francis also conferred upon him the personal title of archbishop.

Down and Connor Bishop Alan McGuckian  that Treanor “continuously dedicated and devoted his life to the proclamation of the Gospel, to the pastoral care of the vulnerable, and to the social mission of the Church.” 

“As we give thanks to God for the years of ministry and service of Archbishop Noël Treanor, we entrust him to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. I commend his soul into the hands of God and pray that he may enjoy eternal rest,” the bishop said. 

Treanor was born on Christmas Day 1950 in County Monaghan. He studied at St. Patrick’s College, Maynooth, and was ordained on June 13, 1976.

He served numerous roles in the succeeding decades including as curate and hospital chaplain in Monaghan and as coordinator of the Clogher diocesan assembly of clergy. 

He was appointed to the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Union in 1989; in 1993 he was appointed secretary-general. 

He was consecrated as bishop of Down and Connor by Cardinal Seán Brady in 2008. He held that title until Pope Francis appointed him apostolic nuncio on Nov. 26, 2022.

McGuckian said on Monday that Treanor “will be remembered as a tremendously gifted academic, a proficient modern linguist, and a highly skilled diplomat.” 

“Throughout his ministry, Archbishop Noël exhibited a wonderful capacity to situate the concerns and challenges faced by the Church within a broader European and global context,” the bishop said. 

The prelate will also “be fondly remembered within the Diocese of Down and Connor,” McGuckian said. 

“He opened his heart to the people of this diocese and they warmly welcomed him in return,” he said.

The bishop leaves behind a brother and sister as well as other family members. 

Rome Newsroom, Aug 12, 2024 / 10:25 am (CNA).

The Vatican has urged Iran to avoid escalating “in any way” the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.

Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s secretary of state, spoke on the phone on Monday morning with Iran’s new president, Masoud Pezeshkian, in a conversation that underlined the need for dialogue, negotiation, and peace. 

According to Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni, the cardinal “expressed the Holy See’s serious concern about what is happening in the Middle East, reiterating the need to avoid in any way the widening of the very serious ongoing conflict and preferring instead dialogue, negotiation, and peace.”

The Aug. 12 phone call by the Vatican secretary of state to congratulate the Iranian president on beginning his term in office occurred as the threat of a retaliatory attack by Iran looms.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has ordered a guided missile submarine to the Middle East amid reports that Iran may attack within days, The Guardian reported Monday.

Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has said in a statement on his official website that revenge is “our duty” following the assassination of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on July 31.

Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Sunday that it is on high alert for potential retaliation from Iran and its proxies.

The United States, Qatar, and Egypt have been working to broker an agreement to end the Israel-Hamas war.

Pezeshkian assumed office in Tehran at the end of July after winning Iran’s runoff presidential election as a reformist candidate promising to reach out to the West. As president, Pezeshkian is the top elected official and second in rank to Iran’s supreme leader, who wields power as commander-in-chief and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Iran is one of the least Catholic countries in the world. Conversion from Islam to Christianity can be a crime meriting a sentence of more than 10 years of imprisonment. 

The Latin Catholic Archdiocese of Tehran-Isfahan has six parishes and approximately 2,000 Catholics.

At Pope Francis’ most recent general audience, the Holy Father said he was following the situation in the Middle East with great concern.

“I reiterate my appeal to all the parties involved that the conflict does not spread and that there may be an immediate cease-fire on all fronts, starting with Gaza, where the humanitarian situation is very serious and unsustainable,” Pope Francis said Aug. 7.

“I pray that the sincere search for peace will extinguish strife, love will overcome hatred, and vengeance will be disarmed by forgiveness.”

Vatican City, Aug 11, 2024 / 08:45 am (CNA).

Pope Francis urged people to truly listen to God’s voice rather than looking to the Lord for a confirmation of their own ideas in his on Sunday.

“Brothers and sisters, when faith and prayer are true, they open the mind and the heart; they do not close them,” Pope Francis said on Aug. 11.

Speaking from the window of the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace, the pope asked people to be aware of the temptation of looking to God “for a confirmation of what we think” rather than “truly listening to what the Lord has to say to us.”

“This way of addressing God does not help us to truly encounter him, nor to open ourselves up to the gift of his light and his grace, in order to grow in goodness, to do his will and to overcome failings and difficulties,” he said.

“Let us ask ourselves, then: In my life of faith, am I capable of being truly silent within myself and listening to God? Am I willing to welcome his voice beyond my own mindset and also with his help to overcome my fears?”

Pope Francis asked the Virgin Mary for her intercession to help Christians to listen with faith to the Lord’s voice and “to do his will courageously.”

The pope offered this reflection in his meditation on , in which the Judeans murmured about Jesus because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.”

Francis said: “They are convinced that Jesus cannot have come from heaven, because he is the son of a carpenter and because his mother and his relatives are common people, familiar, normal people, like many others.”

“They are obstructed in their faith by their preconception of his humble origins and the presumption, therefore, that they have nothing to learn from him. … Beware of preconceptions and presumption,” he warned. 

After leading the crowd gathered in St. Peter’s Square in the , the pope offered his greetings to a group of students who walked more than 100 miles from the Italian town of Assisi in pilgrimage to the Vatican. 

Pope Francis asked people to pray especially for the victims of a plane crash in Brazil on Friday that left 62 people dead.

The pope also marked this week’s 79th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima, which killed 70,000 people and 140,000 people respectively and brought an end to World War II.

“As we continue to commend to the Lord the victims of these events and of all wars, we renew our intense prayer for peace, especially for the tormented Ukraine, the Middle East, Palestine, Israel, Sudan, and Myanmar,” Pope Francis said.

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 9, 2024 / 15:07 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis conveyed a “message of hope” to Chinese Catholics and expressed his desire to one day visit the Basilica of Holy Mary, the Help of Christians, in Shanghai, China, during an interview released on Friday.

In  with Father Pedro Chia, the director of the press office of the Chinese Province of the Society of Jesus, the pontiff said he would “really want to” conduct an apostolic visit to China to visit the shrine and meet with bishops and Catholics in the country. 

“[The Chinese people] are indeed a faithful people who have gone through so much and remained faithful,” Francis said.

The pope added that the Chinese people are descendants of a “great people” and encouraged them not to “waste this heritage” but instead “pass it on with patience.” He further expressed a “message of hope” to the faithful in China.

“It seems tautological to send a message of hope to people who are masters of waiting,” Francis said. “The Chinese are masters of patience, masters of waiting. … It’s a very beautiful thing.”

The pope, who is a Jesuit, also provided advice to Jesuit clergy in China. 

“Show the way to God through the spiritual exercises and discernment,” Francis said in his message to Chinese Jesuits. “... Walk with the poor [and with] those whose dignity has been violated in a mission of reconciliation and justice and … accompany young people in the creation of a hope-filled future and … take care of our common home.”

At the end of the interview, Francis bestowed a blessing on the Chinese people and prayed for the intercession of Our Lady of Sheshan. 

The interview was conducted on May 24, , but not released until Aug. 9. 

No pope has ever visited China, but Francis was the first pope , which borders China, in September 2023. 

In 2018, the Vatican signed a confidential agreement with the CCP that would require the regime to consult with the Holy See about the appointment of bishops. That deal was renewed in 2020 and again in 2022.

According to a recent Pew study, the number of Christians in China has leveled after increasing in the 1980s and 1990s, which some observers attribute to a “crackdown” by the communist regime.

Nina Shea, senior fellow and director of the Center for Religious Freedom at the Hudson Institute, told CNA that the declining numbers of China’s Christians are “no surprise.”

“They correlate with Xi’s [Jiping’s] crackdown on Christianity, his so-called ‘Sinicization’ campaign,” she said. For the past five years, “the state has strictly banned all children from any exposure to religion, churches have been blanketed with facial-recognition surveillance and linked to social credit scores.”

During that time, Bibles have been restricted and censored, Beijing has detained Christian bishops and pastors, and their sermons have been censored to “be on Xi’s ‘thought,’” Shea said.

During the interview with Chia, Francis also commented on criticism he has faced during his papacy.

“Critics are always helpful,” the pope said. “Even if they are not constructive, they are always helpful because they make one reflect on one’s actions.”

“Well, many times you know that you have to wait, to endure and often correct oneself because behind some resistances there can be good criticism,” Francis continued. “And sometimes also with pain, because the resistances, as they happen at these moments, are not only against me personally, they are against the Church.”

The pontiff also referenced difficulties faced by St. Ignatius of Loyola, who founded the Jesuits. 

“The difficulties and resistances that St. Ignatius faced at the beginning were conflicts with people who looked inward and lost their missionary spirit,” he said.

The pope also urged Catholics to avoid worldliness and clericalism when reflecting on the future of the Church. He noted that 20th-century Jesuit theologian Father Henri de Lubac warned that worldliness was “the worst evil that can befall the Church” and “even worse than the time of the concubinary popes.”

“Some say it will be a smaller, more reduced Church,” the pontiff said. “I think the Church must be careful not to fall into the plague of clericalism and the plague of spiritual worldliness.”

When asked whether he had any words of advice for the person who succeeds him as pope, Francis gave a simple response: “Pray … because the Lord speaks in the prayer.”

ACI Prensa Staff, Aug 8, 2024 / 15:46 pm (CNA).

The Vatican Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development has announced the theme chosen by Pope Francis for the 58th World Day of Peace 2025, which will be celebrated on Jan. 1: “Forgive Us Our Trespasses, Grant Us Your Peace.”

The theme, the dicastery explained, “manifests a natural consonance with the biblical and ecclesial meaning of the jubilee year and is inspired in particular by the encyclical letters and , especially around the concepts of hope and forgiveness, the heart of the jubilee” called by Pope Francis for the year 2025.

According to the Vatican office, the theme represents “a call to conversion, not oriented toward condemnation but toward reconciling and being reconciled.”

The dicastery noted that by “considering the reality of conflicts and social sins afflicting humanity today in light of the hope inherent in the jubilee tradition of the forgiveness of sins ... concrete principles emerge that can lead to a much-needed spiritual, social, economic, ecological, and cultural change.”

“Only through a true conversion, personal, communal, and international, can true peace flourish, which is not manifested only in the end of conflicts but in a new reality in which wounds are healed and the dignity of each person is recognized,” the dicastery stated.

In previous years, the themes proposed by Pope Francis for this day have focused on artificial intelligence, dialogue between generations, the culture of care, or good politics.

The call to observe this day was first made by St. Paul VI, who established that on Jan. 1, 1968, the Day of Peace, now the World Day of Peace, would be held.

In , the pontiff expressed his belief that “this proposal interprets the aspirations of peoples, of their governments, of international organisms which strive to preserve peace in the world, of those religious institutions so interested in the promotion of peace, of cultural, political, and social movements which make peace their ideal; of youth, whose perspicacity regarding the new paths of civilization, dutifully oriented toward its peaceful developments is more lively; of wise men who see how much, today, peace is both necessary and threatened.”

The pope’s initiative preceded that of the United Nations, which in 1981 designated Sept. 21 as the International Day of Peace. In 2001, the General Assembly voted unanimously to designate the day as a period of nonviolence and cease-fire.

Vatican City, Aug 8, 2024 / 11:34 am (CNA).

The Vatican has approved devotion at the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Good Health in Vailankanni, India, the site of reported apparitions of the Virgin Mary in the 16th century.  

One month before the Sept. 8 feast day of Our Lady of Good Health in India, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) confirmed in a to Bishop Sagayaraj Thamburaj of Thanjavur that the action of God is present at the shrine.

“Through the centuries, Mary has continued to act in this place,” DDF prefect Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández wrote. “The millions of pilgrims who travel here out of faith, and the many spiritual fruits that are produced at this shrine, make us recognize the constant action of the Holy Spirit in this place.

According to a Thanjavur tourism website, approximately 20 million pilgrims from India and abroad visit the shrine each year, 3 million of whom visit during the 11-day festival held Aug. 29 to Sept. 8 in honor of Our Lady of Good Health. 

Devotion to Our Lady of Good Health began in the late 16th century following three different oral of the Virgin Mary in Vailankanni, a town in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. 

The first apparition account of the Virgin Mary acknowledged by the DDF is that of a local shepherd boy who, upon seeing the beautiful woman, offered the milk he was carrying with him for the child in her arms.

“This was an expression of the generosity of those who are willing to give something to others, in their own poverty. You do not need to have much in order to be generous. May this call to share, to assist, to be close to those who need us always resonate in this place,” the Aug. 1 letter reads. 

The DDF also specifically recognized the account of Portuguese merchant sailors who landed safely in Vailankanni after a violent storm at sea on Sept. 8, 1650. That day, which was also the feast of the Nativity of Mary, the sailors vowed to build a church in thanksgiving to Our Lady of Good Health.

More than 300 years after the construction of the original church, St. John XXIII raised the Marian shrine to the status of basilica on Nov. 3, 1962.

In 2002, Pope John Paul II celebrated the annual World Day of the Sick at the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Good Health.

In the letter to the bishop of Thanjavur, Fernández said Pope Francis “extends his paternal blessings to all pilgrims” ahead of the shrine’s Sept. 8 feast day. 

“The Holy Father cares a lot about the popular piety of the faithful pilgrims, because they reflect the beauty of the Church on the move, which seeks Jesus in the arms of Mary and entrusts its pain and hope to the heart of his mother,” Fernández wrote.

ACI Prensa Staff, Aug 8, 2024 / 07:00 am (CNA).

On Aug. 7, Pope Francis resumed general audiences at the Vatican after a brief and normal pause during the month of July. The following is an explanation of the nature and purpose of these encounters with the Holy Father.

An important weekly event, the general audience takes place every Wednesday. Together with the Sunday Angelus and the principal celebrations of the liturgical year, they represent the spiritual heart of Pope Francis’ Petrine teaching.

The audiences draw people from all over the world, including non-Catholics, and give the pope the opportunity to share an often simple but profound catechesis on the Christian faith. They typically take place in St. Peter’s Square or in the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall.

Since 2013, the first year of his pontificate, Pope Francis has given more than 300 of these short catechetical talks in which he proposes in a simple way the fundamental teachings of the Catholic Church.

The themes of the catechesis have included the sacraments, the gifts of the Holy Spirit, the Church, the family, mercy, Christian hope, Mass, baptism, confirmation, the commandments, the Lord’s Prayer, the Acts of the Apostles, the Beatitudes, and prayer, among others.

At the end of the catechesis, the pope usually dedicates a few minutes to making appeals to humanity. In these appeals, he often calls for peace in places ravaged by war; asks for prayers for Christians in the world, in particular for those suffering persecution; and for peoples struck by natural disasters, epidemics, or incidents as well as for migrants.

Vatican City, Aug 7, 2024 / 14:38 pm (CNA).

Two animal rights activists connected to PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) temporarily interrupted Pope Francis’ Wednesday audience in Vatican City, calling on the 87-year-old pontiff to take action against bullfighting.

The female activists, wearing white shirts with the slogan “Stop blessing corridas,” jumped over a barrier that separated a seating area from the central walkway within the Paul VI Hall and waved banners that read “la corrida e peccato” (“bullfighting is a sin”) before the pope and approximately 6,000 pilgrims.

PETA claims that tens of thousands of bulls are killed each year in a sport it describes as a “bloodbath” that celebrates animal cruelty.

A reported the two women, who belong to the U.K. branch of the organization, were arrested and later released by Vatican authorities. The article said the organization hopes the women’s “powerful message” will spur the Holy Father to join its cause and condemn bullfighting.

“PETA is putting our faith in Pope Francis to condemn the despicable practice and cut the Catholic Church’s shameful ties with the bullfighting industry,” the article says.

“His Holiness Pope Francis wrote in his encyclical that ‘every act of cruelty toward any creature is “contrary to human dignity.”’”

The international animal rights group believes bullfighting is “a stark contrast to Christ’s teaching on compassion and mercy” and condemns the connection of the sport to celebrations held in honor of Catholic saints.

The organization also mentions in its article published Wednesday that St. Pius V had condemned bullfights and those who participated in the sport because of its cruel nature, as he considered it to be contrary to “Christian piety and charity.” 

Before Easter celebrations took place in Rome this year, PETA plastered an image of Jesus between a bull and a matador with the message “Bullfighting is a sin. Ask your priest to condemn it” on buses and 100 billboards around the city to promote its worldwide campaign to end the sport.

The elaborate advertising campaign was launched in Rome and near Vatican City ahead of the First Meeting of Bullfighting Chaplains and Priests held in early April in Spain. 

On Jan. 25, two other PETA U.K. activists protested their cause to end bullfighting before Pope Francis while he was attending vespers for the solemnity of the Conversion of St. Paul at the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls.

Vatican City, Aug 7, 2024 / 11:51 am (CNA).

Pope Francis held his first general audience after a monthlong summer break Wednesday, reminding pilgrims gathered in Paul VI Hall that, as the Gospel of Luke emphasizes, “with God all things are possible” when we invite Jesus into our lives as the Virgin Mary did.

The Holy Father’s reflections marked his fifth catechesis on the theme “The Spirit and the Bride: The Holy Spirit Guides the People of God toward Jesus Our Hope.”

The Holy Father encouraged his listeners to imitate the faith of Mary, who listened to God and invited the Holy Spirit into her life.

“How is it possible to proclaim Jesus Christ and his salvation to a world that seems to only seek well-being in this world?” the Holy Father asked.

“‘With God nothing will be impossible,’” he repeated. “If we believe this, we will perform miracles. With God nothing will be impossible.”

At one point, activists from PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), donned in shirts and waving banners that read “stop blessing corridas” and “la corrida e peccato” (“bullfighting is a sin”), temporarily interrupted the catechesis.

During his address, the Holy Father said the incarnation of Jesus Christ is a historical fact central to the Catholic faith.

“The Church took up this revealed fact and very soon positioned it at the heart of her symbol of faith,” the pope said.

Pope Francis added that the Nicene Creed, which is recited during Mass, is also an “ecumenical fact of faith” as all Christians share the same belief on the divinity and humanity of Jesus Christ.

“In the Ecumenical Council of Constantinople, in 381 — which defined the divinity of the Holy Spirit — this article enters into the formula of the creed, which is indeed referred to as the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed. It affirms that the Son of God was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and was made man,” the pope explained.

Throughout the meeting, several pilgrims waved country flags as well as fans as they tried to keep cool during the hourlong midsummer indoor papal audience.

After his catechesis on the incarnation of Jesus the Holy Father urged those present to meditate upon the Gospel accounts of the feast days of the Transfiguration (Aug. 6) and the Assumption (Aug. 15).

The pope also asked for prayers for peace on behalf of those suffering conflict and violence in the Middle East, Ukraine, Myanmar, and Pakistan.

ACI Prensa Staff, Aug 6, 2024 / 17:35 pm (CNA).

The president of the Vatican Court, Giuseppe Pignatone, is under investigation by the Italian judiciary for allegedly collaborating with the Mafia in the early 1990s.

Pignatone, 75, is known for his extensive career in the justice system. He was also deputy prosecutor for Palermo (Sicily) and Rome’s prosecutor. Since October 2019 he has been president of the Vatican Court.

On July 31, Pignatone was summoned to testify in court in Caltanissetta, Sicily, for alleged complicity and cover-up of the Italian Mafia organization La Cosa Nostra (“Our Thing”).

The events date back to 1992, when the Sicilian Mafia killed judges Paolo Borsellino and Giovanni Falcone.

On May 23 of that year, both anti-Mafia judges, along with their wives and several members of their escort, were killed when a bomb placed in their cars by the criminal organization’s hitmen exploded.

These judges were leading the fight against La Cosa Nostra, responsible for attacks, extortion, drug trafficking, and money laundering during the 1990s in Italy.

At the time, Pignatone was deputy prosecutor in Palermo and allegedly intervened to force the end of an investigation against the organization.

According to the Italian press, in his July 31 statement he claimed to be innocent of all charges and promised to cooperate with the justice system.

On Sept. 15, 1993, the Sicilian mob also took the life of , a Sicilian priest who, despite threats, had carried out a quiet fight against organized crime by educating young people in the impoverished area of ​​Palermo, where he carried out his pastoral work.

Puglisi also preached against the Mafia, prohibited them from leading religious processions, and even gave hidden clues to the authorities about their latest activities in his homilies. After his death it was revealed that his life had been threatened on numerous occasions.

On Sept. 15, 1993, he was stopped on the street and shot in the neck at point-blank range by hitmen sent by local Mafia bosses Filippo and Giuseppe Graviano. He died from his wounds. Puglisi was declared a martyr by Pope Benedict XVI in 2012 and beatified in 2013.

Rome Newsroom, Aug 6, 2024 / 11:18 am (CNA).

In his during second vespers on the solemnity of Our Lady of the Snows at the Basilica of St. Mary Major on Monday evening, Pope Francis meditated upon the significance of grace in the life of the Mother of God and in the life of every Catholic.

“I suggest, then, that we allow ourselves to be guided by a verse from the book of Sirach, which says the following about the snow that God causes to fall from the sky: ‘The eye marvels at the beauty of its whiteness, and the mind is amazed at its falling’ (Sir 43:18),” the Holy Father said in his vespers homily for the solemnity.

“Just like a midsummer snowfall in Rome. Indeed, grace arouses marvel and amazement. Let us not forget these two words. We cannot lose the ability to marvel and the ability to be amazed, as they are part of our experience of faith,” he added.

Every year, Romans celebrate the solemnity dedicated to the Virgin Mary with a shower of white rose petals that fall from the ceiling of the Basilica of St. Mary Major to represent the miraculous midsummer snowfall that occurred almost 1,700 years ago. 

In his contemplation of the gem of the basilica — the ancient icon of Salus Populi Romani (Our Lady Savior of the People) — the pope said the miracle of the snow is symbolic of Mary, who is the only woman created who is full of grace, conceived without original sin, and immaculate.    

“Here, grace fully acquires its Christian form in the image of the Virgin Mother with Child, the holy Mother of God. Grace appears in its concreteness, stripped of every mythological, magical, and spiritualistic vesture always lurking in religion,” he said at vespers. 

The pope said grace is essential in the faith journey of every believer and a gift that cannot be bought but only received, and conveyed his hope that Christians not lose a sense of wonder to the action of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

“Indeed, grace arouses marvel and amazement. Let us not forget these two words. We cannot lose the ability to marvel and the ability to be amazed, as they are part of our experience of faith,” the Holy Father reflected.

Before concluding his homily with praises and prayers of invocation to the Mother of God, Pope Francis asked the Catholic faithful — especially those planning to visit St. Mary Major in the 2025 Jubilee Year — to ask for blessings, forgiveness, and the peace of Jesus Christ for the whole world.   

“That peace which is true and lasting only when it flows from repentant and forgiven hearts,” he said. “Forgiveness brings about peace because to forgive is the noble approach of the Lord; that peace which comes from the cross of Christ, and from his blood that he took from Mary and shed for the remission of sins.”