Pope Francis addresses pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square for his Wednesday general audience on April 17, 2024, at the Vatican. / Credit: Vatican Media
Rome Newsroom, Apr 17, 2024 / 09:14 am (CNA).
Pope Francis on Wednesday presented the f… […]
Pope Francis addresses pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican after the recitation of the Regina Caeli prayer on April 14, 2024. / Credit: Vatican Media
Rome Newsroom, Apr 14, 2024 / 10:56 am (CNA).
Pope Francis expressed his co… […]
St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City. / Shutterstock
CNA Staff, Apr 13, 2024 / 14:41 pm (CNA).
The Holy See on Saturday confirmed that it had sent a diplomatic letter to the French embassy over a French court ruling involving a Canadian cardinal’s alleged wrongful dismissal of a nun.
A French court in Lorient, in Brittany, earlier this month had fined Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet, along with several other parties, for the October 2020 wrongful dismissal of Sabine Baudin de la Valette, whose religious name was Mother Marie Ferréol.
Baudin de la Valette, 57, had reportedly lived in the French monastery since 1987 without any significant incidents, but in 2011 she denounced “serious abuses and facts” happening in the community.
She was dismissed from the community after a visit from Ouellet. It was never made public what exactly the Vatican accused her of, though the former sister reportedly said the dismissal decree “accused her of having an evil spirit but gave no concrete reasons.”
On Saturday, meanwhile, Vatican News reported that Director of the Holy See Press Office Matteo Bruni confirmed to reporters the Vatican Secretariat of State’s transmission of a “Note Verbal,” or a diplomatic message, to the Embassy of France to the Holy See.
The letter addressed the “alleged decision of the Tribunal of Lorient in France in a civil dispute concerning the dismissal from a religious Institute of Ms. Sabine de la Valette (formerly Sister Marie Ferréol),” Bruni told reporters.
“A potential ruling from the Lorient Tribunal,” Bruni told journalists, “could raise not only significant issues concerning immunity, but if it ruled on internal discipline and membership in a religious institute, it might have constituted a serious violation of the fundamental rights to religious freedom and freedom of association of Catholic faithful.”
Ouellet, who previously served as prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, “never received any summons from the Lorient Tribunal,” Bruni said.
The Vatican learned of the tribunal’s decision “only from the press,” Bruni said on Saturday.
The court also accused the religious community, among other things, of not correctly following the dismissal procedure. There was no prior warning and no reason for the dismissal from the community.
In addition, the court said, the community breached its duty of care when dismissing Baudin de la Valette, who was not offered any financial compensation that would have enabled her to “enjoy appropriate civil living conditions after 34 years of religious life and service to her community in the spirit of justice and charity as set out in canon law.”
Pope Francis blesses an unborn baby during the Papal Foundation’s annual pilgrimage in Rome on Friday, April 12, 2024. / Credit: Vatican Media
CNA Staff, Apr 12, 2024 / 12:45 pm (CNA).
The Papal Foundation, a U.S.-based organization that provides funding for Catholic projects around the world, announced on Friday the distribution of nearly $15 million in grants, scholarships, and charitable aid “to care for those in need and grow the Catholic faith around the world.”
The group said in a press release that it would be distributing nearly $10 million in 2024 alone to more than 100 projects and recipients in several dozen countries. Among the beneficiaries include efforts at “providing for basic needs such as access to clean water,” “constructing schools and renovating classrooms,” and “translating Church teachings for evangelization.”
The money will also go toward “restoring Churches, convents, and seminaries in desperate need of repairs,” “providing students in remote areas with transportation to further their education,” and “building health care facilities.”
The foundation was founded 35 years ago in response to a wish from Pope John Paul II. Stewards with the organization donate their personal money to support projects specifically identified and requested by the pope, who is made aware of needs through his nuncios, or ambassadors, around the world.
The Papal Foundation describes itself as “the only charitable organization in the United States that is exclusively dedicated to fulfilling the requests of the Holy Father for the needs of the Catholic Church.” On Friday the organization said it would also be providing more than $800,000 via its St. John Paul II scholarship program, which “will enable more than 100 priests, women religious, and seminarians to study in Rome.”
The Holy Father met with the Papal Foundation on Friday during the group’s annual pilgrimage to Rome this week. The organization was scheduled to be in Rome from April 9–13.
During the audience at the Vatican’s Clementine Hall, Pope Francis told the group’s members that their work “enhances the integral development of so many, including the poor, refugees, immigrants, and nowadays the increasingly large numbers of those affected by war and violence.”
“Through these various worthy initiatives,” the pope said, “you continue to help the successors of Peter to build up many local Churches and care for large numbers of the less fortunate, thus fulfilling the mandates entrusted to the apostle by Our Lord.”
David Savage, the group’s executive director, on Friday described it as a “a blessing to support this mission of cooperation and collaboration, bringing together laity, clergy, and Church hierarchy to address priorities identified by the Holy Father and care for his flock around the globe.”
Cardinal Sean O’Malley, the chairman of the Papal Foundation’s board of trustees, on Friday quoted the Gospel of Luke, saying: “To whom much is given, much shall be required.”
“In a society where the divide between rich and poor continues to grow, stewards of St. Peter of the Papal Foundation recognize their responsibility to put the needs of the poor and vulnerable first,” the prelate said.
Pope Francis presides over Easter Sunday Mass in St. Peter’s Square on March 31, 2024. / Credit: Vatican Media
Rome Newsroom, Apr 12, 2024 / 09:50 am (CNA).
In the 2024 edition of the “Annuario Pontificio,” or Pontifical Yearbook, released this week, Pope Francis reinstated the ancient, honorary pontifical title of “Patriarch of the West,” reversing Pope Benedict XVI’s 2006 decision to suspend the title.
This honorific designation has reappeared among the list of “historical titles” used to designate the theological and temporal reality of the pontifical office. Those include Vicar of Jesus Christ, Successor of the Prince of the Apostles, Supreme Pontiff of the Universal Church, and Metropolitan Archbishop of the Province of Rome, among others.
Following Pope Benedict XVI’s decision to drop the title in 2006, the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity (then the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity) issued a statement noting that it had become “obsolete” and “no longer usable.”
The dicastery argued that the cultural and geographic understanding of the West had expanded from Western Europe to also cover North America, Australia, and New Zealand.
“The renunciation of this title is intended to express historical and theological realism and, at the same time, to be the renunciation of a claim, a renunciation that could be of benefit to ecumenical dialogue,” the dicastery said at the time.
The title “Patriarch of the West” was adopted in the year 642 by Pope Theodore and was used for centuries, though it was not until 1863, during the pontificate of Pope Pius IX, that the title first appeared in the Annuario Pontificio.
Aristomenis “Menios” Papadimitriou, a historian of religion at Fordham University specializing in modern Christianity, told CNA via email that any attempt to read into the decision would run the risk of being “mainly speculative” and “not grounded in a serious understanding of ecclesial administration.”
But Papadimitriou noted that “at the heart of it lies the question of the historic and contemporary meaning of the episcopal honorific of ‘patriarch’ and [the life] of that term through the vicissitudes of history.”
Neither the dicastery nor the Holy See Press Office has released a statement explaining Pope Francis’ decision to reinstate the title.
This is not the first time Pope Francis has made changes to the papal titles in the Annuario Pontificio, the more-than-2,400-page long official directory of the Catholic Church’s global leadership and structure.
The honorifics were previously published above the volume’s short papal biography, but as of 2020 they are listed below that biography in smaller font and identified as “Historical Titles.”
According to Matteo Bruni, the director of the Holy See Press Office, the 2020 decision was “intended to indicate the link with the history of the pope” rather than “historicizing” the titles themselves.
That same year, Cardinal Gerhard Mueller, the Vatican’s former doctrinal chief, rebuffed the move, calling it an act of “theological barbarism.”
He argued that the revised yearbook mixed the term “Vicar of Christ” with designations that “have nothing to do with primacy and have only grown historically but [have] no dogmatic meaning, such as ‘Sovereign of Vatican City State.’”
Nikos Tzoitis, an analyst in the press office of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople and former spokesperson for Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, argued in an April 6 article that the pope’s decision to reintroduce the honorific of Patriarch of the West “is part of the rediscovery of confraternity.”
“In this way, he wants to emphasize the importance of the lost synodality in the Lord’s Church, which expresses his Body and has synodality as a tool,” Tzoitis wrote.
Pope Francis has cemented ecumenical dialogue as one of the main priorities of his pontificate.
In 2014 Francis, during an apostolic visit to the Holy Land, met with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the historic meeting between Pope Paul VI and Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras I of Constantinople on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem in 1964.
That was the first formal meeting of a pope and ecumenical patriarch since 1438, marking a paradigm shift in the ecumenical relations between the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches.
“We need to believe that, just as the stone before the tomb was cast aside, so too every obstacle to our full communion will also be removed,” Pope Francis said during his 2014 address with the Ecumenical Patriarch.
Pope Francis greets pilgrims at the Wednesday general audience in St. Peter’s Square on March 22, 2023. / Daniel Ibanez/CNA
Vatican City, Apr 12, 2024 / 06:45 am (CNA).
Pope Francis will travel to the Southeast Asian countries of Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor, and Singapore later this year, the Vatican announced Friday.
The 11-day multi-country voyage from September 2 to 13 will be the longest international trip of Francis’ papacy.
The trip announcement comes after the 87-year-old pope has slowed down his travel schedule in recent months as health issues have forced him to cancel some public appearances. Francis, who often uses a wheelchair, has not traveled internationally since September 2023.
Indonesia
Pope Francis’ first stop will be Indonesia, home to the largest Muslim population in the world. The country’s 229 million Muslims make up more than 12% of the global Muslim population. Nearly all of Indonesia’s Muslims are Sunni.
Cardinal Ignatius Suharyo of Jakarta welcomed the news that the pope will visit Indonesia from Sept. 3 to 6.
“Catholics throughout Indonesia want to shake hands with the pope one by one, but we all know that is impossible,” Suharyo said in a video message announcing the visit.
More than 29 million Christians live in Indonesia, 7 million of which are Catholic. Pope St. Paul VI visited the country in 1970 and Pope St. John Paul II traveled there in 1989.
“Hopefully, with this visit, Indonesian Catholics will become more courageous in voicing the truth and become an example for people of other religions in terms of truly religious life, namely love above all, as the pope always emphasizes,” the Indonesian cardinal told UCA News.
Papua New Guinea
Pope Francis will be the second pope to visit Singapore, East Timor, and Papua New Guinea after John Paul II.
The pope will visit the cities of Port Moresby and Vanimo in Papua New Guinea from September 6 to 9.
Papua New Guinea is a country of nearly nine million people on the eastern half of the island of New Guinea. The other side of the island consists of two Indonesian provinces. Papua New Guinea is a nation of considerable cultural diversity, comprised of hundreds of ethnic groups indigenous to the island with 851 indigenous languages spoken in the country.
Nearly all Papua New Guinea citizens are Christians, and 26% of the population is Catholic.
East Timor
The pope’s next stop on his Southeast Asia tour will be Dili, the capital city of East Timor from September 9 to 11.
East Timor is a small country on the island of Timor. It gained independence from Indonesia in 1999, following decades of bloody conflict as the region vied for national sovereignty.
More than 97% of East Timor’s population of 1 million people are Catholic. It is one of only a few Catholic-majority countries in Southeast Asia.
A Catholic bishop from East Timor, Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo, received the Nobel Peace Prize together with the country’s second president, Jose Manuel Ramos-Horta, in 1996 for their efforts to reach a peaceful and just end to fighting in the country.
The Vatican confirmed in 2022 that Belo has been under disciplinary restrictions since September 2020 due to accusations of sexual abuse of minors.
Singapore
Pope Francis will conclude his trip with a visit to the island country of Singapore from September 11 to 13.
Singapore has the highest GDP per capita in Asia and the second-highest population density of any country in the world. The Archdiocese of Singapore has a diverse population of 395,000 Catholics, offering Masses predominantly in English, Chinese, Tamil, as well as other languages from Southeast Asia.
Nearly 75% of Singapore’s population is ethnic Chinese, according to the 2020 census, which also lists 13% of the population as ethnic Malay and 9% ethnic Indian.
The U.S. Report on International Religious Freedom states that among ethnic Indians in Singapore, 57.3% are Hindu, 23.4% Muslim, and 12.6% Christian. The ethnic Chinese population includes Buddhists (40.4%), Christians (21.6%), Taoists (11.6%), and 25.7% with no religion.
Pope Francis has long expressed interest in visiting Indonesia and other neighboring island nations in Southeast Asia. A papal trip to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and East Timor was canceled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said that the pope’s full schedule for this apostolic journey will be published at a later date.
Pope Francis addresses members of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences on April 11, 2024, at the Vatican. / Credit: Vatican Media
Rome Newsroom, Apr 11, 2024 / 11:15 am (CNA).
Pope Francis decried how “the unborn with disabilities are abor… […]
Vatican Secretary for Relations with States Archbishop Paul Gallagher (center) meets with Vietnamc’s Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son (unseen) and other officials at the Foreign Ministry in Hanoi on April 9, 2024. / Credit: NHAC NGUYEN/POOL/AFP vi… […]
Pope John Paul II’s helicopter flies over the huge crowd in Manila’s Luneta Park prior to celebrating an open-air mass for an estimated two-million people gathered for the 10th World Youth Day on Jan. 15, 1995. / Credit: JUN DAGMANG/AFP via Getty Images
ACI Prensa Staff, Apr 11, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).
Nearly 40 years ago, an event was held in Rome that laid the foundations for what today is World Youth Day (WYD). On April 14, 1984, Pope John Paul II met in Rome with 300,000 young people from all over the world who were hosted by some 6,000 Roman families.
WYD is an encounter of young people from all over the world with the pope that takes place every two or three years in different cities around the world. The first one took place in Rome in 1986. Since then, the fruits of each WYD have flowed: conversions, vocations discovered, and even alleged miracles.
The seminal event was part of the 1984 Holy Year of Redemption, held near Palm Sunday. On that occasion, the pope told the assembled young people that “the real problem of life is, in fact, that of verifying, first of all, what is the place of youth in the present world.”
St. John Paul II then addressed each of those present personally, explaining that young people are called to make the love and message of Jesus Christ present in each of their own lives.
“If you know how to look at the world with the new eyes that faith gives you, then you will know how to face it with your hands outstretched in a gesture of love. You will be able to discover in it, in the midst of so much misery and injustice, unsuspected presences of goodness, fascinating perspectives of beauty, well-founded reasons for hope in a better tomorrow,” he told them.
The Holy Father stressed that that this can only be achieved through a deeply rooted faith in Jesus.
“True strength lies in Christ, the redeemer of the world! This is the central point of the whole discourse. And this is the moment to ask the crucial question: This Jesus who was young like you, who lived in an exemplary family and knew the world of men in depth, who is he for you?” the pope asked.
At that time, St. John Paul II presented the famous “Youth Cross” to the organizers of the event, with the mission of taking it throughout the world “as a sign and reminder that only in the dead and risen Jesus is there salvation and redemption.”
This wooden cross has become a symbol of WYD, traveling throughout the dioceses of the world and in all the places where the event takes place.
The cross is kept today by the San Lorenzo International Youth Center (CSL), which together with the sponsorship of the Dicastery for the Laity, Family, and Life and the John Paul II Foundation for Youth, have organized a series of events to celebrate the 40th anniversary of this first encounter of the Polish pope with young people.
On April 13, the “Youth Cross” will go on a pilgrimage from St. Peter’s Square to the CSL and a Mass will be celebrated by Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça. The day will conclude with a prayer vigil and adoration of the cross, known as “Rise Up.”
On Sunday, April 14, Cardinal Lazarus You Heung-sik, prefect of the Dicastery for the Clergy, will offer the Mass and later there will be a time for young people to give their testimonies.
The San Lorenzo International Youth Center is a reception and information center for young pilgrims in Rome as well as a place of prayer. It also serves as headquarters for making preparations for World Youth Days.
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
Pope Francis greets pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square for his general audience on Wednesday, April 10, 2024. / Credit: Vatican Media
Rome Newsroom, Apr 10, 2024 / 09:00 am (CNA).
Pope Francis on Wednesday dedicated his general audience ca… […]
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