Vatican City, Mar 15, 2017 / 03:01 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis greeted and blessed a group of pilgrims from China who broke protocol and approached him during the Wednesday general audience.
The group of faithful, some of whom approached the Holy Father on their knees, held Chinese flags and amid sobs, asked for him to bless a statue of Our Lady of Fatima they had carried into Saint Peter's Square.
At first, some Swiss Guards tried to prevent the pilgrims from approaching the pontiff, but Francis quickly stopped them and shared a few moments with the pilgrims.
Among the pilgrims there were some children whom the Pope spent a few minutes with.
China only allows Catholic worship services for the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association, which is subordinate to the Chinese Communist Party, and rejects the authority of the Vatican to appoint bishops or to govern them.
The Catholic Church faithful to the Pope is not completely clandestine, although it faces constant opposition.
Diplomatic relations between China and the Vatican were broken in 1951, two years after the communists came to power and expelled foreign clerics.
For some years the Holy See has been working on an accord for the reestablishment of diplomatic relations with China, a rapprochement encouraged by Pope Francis.
In August 2014, while he was on his way to South Korea, the Holy Father sent a telegram to the President of China to express his best wishes when his plane was over Chinese airspace.
The fact that the Pope had received permission to fly over Chinese airspace was considered a small step forward. Pope John Paul II had to avoid the airspace of this country during his trips to Asia.
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Vatican City, Jan 9, 2018 / 06:34 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Earlier this week the Vatican published Pope Francis’ liturgical schedule for the months of January and February, which include his lineup of celebrations for the start of Lent, which this year begins Feb. 14.
With his trip to Chile and Peru taking place Jan. 15-22, the Pope’s usual schedule of morning Masses at Santa Marta and his Wednesday general audience Jan. 17 will be suspended.
Following his return to Rome, Francis will celebrate Second Vespers at the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls Thursday, Jan. 25. The prayer service will mark the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul, as well as the 51st annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.
The following Sunday, Jan. 28, Pope Francis will celebrate a special Mass at the Basilica of St. Mary Major for the Feast of the transfer of the icon of Salus Populi Romani.
Salus Populi Romani (Protectress of the Roman People) is the title of an ancient Byzantine icon of Mary and the Child Jesus, traditionally held to be painted by St. Luke the Evangelist and to have arrived in Rome in the 6th century.
It was first canonically crowned in 1838 by Pope Gregory XVI and a second time in 1954 by Pope Pius XII. It has a long history of devotion by the Roman people, as well as by popes. It resides in the Pauline, also called Borghese, Chapel in St. Mary Major.
Francis has a special devotion to the image. His first visit as pontiff was to the Basilica of St. Mary Major to pray before the image following his election.
On Feb. 2, Pope Francis will celebrate Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica for the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord.
As it will also be the 22nd World Day of Consecrated Life, the Mass will be celebrated with the members of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, the Vatican department which oversees religious orders and congregations and secular institutes.
As is tradition, on Ash Wednesday, which falls this year on Feb. 14, Pope Francis will pray the Stations of the Cross at St. Anselm Church on Rome’s Aventine Hill, before processing the short way to the Basilica of Santa Sabina for the celebration of Mass, benediction, and the imposition of ashes.
The following Sunday, Feb. 18, he will begin his annual Lenten retreat with members of the Roman Curia. The week of spiritual exercises will take place at the Casa Divin Maestro in Ariccia, a town just 16 miles outside of Rome.
Located on Lake Albano, the retreat house is just a short way from the papal summer residence in Castel Gandolfo. It will be the fifth consecutive year the Pope and members of the Curia have held their Lenten retreat at the house in Ariccia.
While the practice of the Roman Pontiff going on retreat with the heads of Vatican dicasteries each Lent began some 80 years ago under the pontificate of Pius XI, it was customary for them to follow the spiritual exercises on Vatican ground. Beginning in Lent 2014, Pope Francis chose to hold the retreat outside of Rome.
Father Gabriel Romanelli, pastor of Holy Family Parish in Gaza, leads Eucharistic adoration at the parish in December 2024. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Father Gabriel Romanelli
Vatican City, Feb 26, 2025 / 15:35 pm (CNA).
Father Gabriel Romanel… […]
Bishops process into St. Peter’s Basilica for the closing Mass of the first assembly of the Synod on Synodality on Oct. 29, 2023. / Vatican Media
Vatican City, Oct 29, 2023 / 07:30 am (CNA).
At the Synod on Synodality’s closing Mass, Pope Francis said that God’s love cannot be confined “to our own agenda” and that those who truly want to reform the Catholic Church should follow Jesus’ greatest commandment: to adore God and love others with his love.
“We may have plenty of good ideas on how to reform the Church, but let us remember: to adore God and to love our brothers and sisters with his love, that is the great and perennial reform,” Pope Francis said in St. Peter’s Basilica on Oct. 29.
“We are always at risk of thinking that we can ‘control God,’ that we can confine his love to our own agenda. Instead, the way he acts is always unpredictable, it goes beyond, and consequently, this action of God demands amazement and adoration,” he added.
Pope Francis at the Synod on Synodality’s closing Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on Oct. 29, 2023. Vatican Media
The pope underlined that worship of Jesus in the tabernacle “in every diocese, in every parish, in every community” is necessary in the “struggle against all types of idolatry” in today’s world.
“Let us be vigilant, lest we find that we are putting ourselves at the center rather than him. And let us return to worship. May worship be central for those of us who are pastors: let us devote time every day to intimacy with Jesus the Good Shepherd in the tabernacle. Adoration,” he said.
“Only in this way will we turn to Jesus and not to ourselves. For only through silent adoration will the Word of God live in our words; only in his presence will we be purified, transformed, and renewed by the fire of his Spirit. Brothers and sisters, let us adore the Lord Jesus!”
Pope Francis at the Synod on Synodality’s closing Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on Oct. 29, 2023. Vatican Media
“Brothers and Sisters, the General Assembly of the Synod has now concluded,” he said. “In this ‘conversation of the Spirit,’ we have experienced the loving presence of the Lord and discovered the beauty of fraternity.”
“Today we do not see the full fruit of this process, but with farsightedness, we look to the horizon opening up before us. The Lord will guide us and help us to be a more synodal and more missionary Church, a Church that adores God and serves the women and men of our time, going forth to bring to everyone the consoling joy of the Gospel,” Francis added.
Pope Francis at the Synod on Synodality’s closing Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on Oct. 29, 2023. Daniel Ibanez/CNA
In his homily, Pope Francis said that he believed that the conclusion of this stage in the Synod “it is important to look at the ‘principle and foundation’ from which everything begins ever anew: loving God with our whole life and loving our neighbors as ourselves.”
“Not our strategies, our human calculations, the ways of the world, but love of God and neighbor: that is the heart of everything,” he said.
Pope Francis emphasized that adoration and worship are “essential in the life of the Church.”
Patriarchs of the Eastern Catholic Churches at the Synod on Synodality’s closing Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on Oct. 29, 2023. Daniel Ibanez/CNA
“To adore God means to acknowledge in faith that he alone is Lord and that our individual lives, the Church’s pilgrim way, and the ultimate outcome of history all depend on the tenderness of his love. He gives meaning to our lives,” he said.
“Those who worship God reject idols because whereas God liberates, idols enslave,” he added.
“We must constantly struggle against all types of idolatry; not only the worldly kinds, which often stem from vainglory, such as lust for success, self-centredness, greed for money — the devil enters through our pockets let us not forget — the enticements of careerism; but also those forms of idolatry disguised as spirituality: my own spirituality, my religious ideas, my pastoral skills.”
Pope Francis at the Synod on Synodality’s closing Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on Oct. 29, 2023. Daniel Ibanez/CNA
Pope Francis said that being “a worshiping Church and a Church of service” entails “washing the feet of wounded humanity, accompanying those who are frail, weak and cast aside, going out lovingly to encounter the poor.”
Quoting St. John Chrysostom, he said: “The merciful man is as a harbor to those who are in need; and the harbor receives all who are escaping shipwreck, and frees them from danger, whether they be evil or good; whatsoever kind of men they be that are in peril, it receives them into its shelter. You also, when you see a man suffering shipwreck on land through poverty, do not sit in judgment on him, nor require explanations, but relieve his distress.”
Pope Francis at the Synod on Synodality’s closing Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on Oct. 29, 2023. Vatican Media
About 5,000 people attended the closing Mass for the Synod on Synodality’s 2023 assembly, according to the Vatican. The Mass concluded with the congregation singing the Marian hymn “Salve Regina.”
Pope Francis thanked all of the cardinals, bishops, priests, religious, and lay people from around the world who traveled to Rome to participate in the Synod. Next year, the delegates will return to the Vatican in October 2024 to take part in the second assembly to advise the pope on the theme: “For a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation, Mission.”
“In expressing my gratitude, I would also like to offer a prayer for all of us: may we grow in our worship of God and in our service to our neighbor. Worship and Service. May the Lord accompany us. Let us go forward with joy,” Pope Francis said.
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