Vatican City, Jul 24, 2019 / 02:00 pm (CNA).- In an unscripted video message that appears to have been recorded on a cell phone, Pope Francis spoke of the need for an “apostolate of prevention” to protect minors from abuse.
“Prevention. Prevention. Because you never know where a child will be abused, where the child will be misled, where someone will teach him to smoke drugs, a form of corruption. Let us not think that only sexual abuse is the only type of abuse. Any type of corruption is an abuse of a child,” Pope Francis said in Spanish in a YouTube video published on July 18 by the Pontifical University of Mexico.
The pope sent the video message to participants in a July 1-26 course on the protection of minors organized by CEPROME, the Center for Interdisciplinary Research and Formation for the Protection of Minors.
Pope Francis said that courses on abuse protection are important “for all children so that no one abuses them, no one prevents them from reaching Jesus.”
In the video, Francis stressed the importance of preventing abuse, pointing to the examples of St. John Bosco’s education of children and modern drug-use prevention.
“I’ll make a comparison how to take care of a person to prevent from using drugs,” Pope Francis said, implying that preventing drug abuse is usually simpler than trying to help someone with a drug problem to recover. Similarly, the pope said, the Church must focus attention on the prevention of abuse, so that no children suffer the devastating effects of sexual abuse.
“Now in this case it’s how to prevent the abuse of minors,” Pope Francis said.
“The apostolate of prevention, Don Bosco intuited this. Don Bosco instituted a form of education called a preventive system,” he said, adding that while this system was criticized at the time, “later, it was recognized that there was a great value of the preventive system.”
St. John Bosco, also known as Don Bosco, was a 19th century Italian priest who reached out to young people in the city of Turin to remedy their lack of education, opportunities, and faith.
The Director of CEPROME Fr. Daniel Portillo told ACI Prensa that the pope’s message was an encouragement to the participants in this month’s course.
“Above all, because he comes to ask us, to ask what our commitment to prevention really is,” Portillo said.
“If the intervention does not go hand in hand with prevention, things do not work with the clarity with which a security code for the protection of our children should advance,” he said.
In the fall, CEPROME will also organize the first Latin American Congress on the Prevention of Child Abuse Nov. 6-8.
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Pope Francis prayed before a relic of St. Therese of Lisieux at the beginning of his general audience in St. Peter’s Square, and shortly before going to the hospital for an abdominal surgery, on June 7, 2023. / Daniel Ibanez/CNA
Vatican City, Jun 7, 2023 / 04:37 am (CNA).
One of Pope Francis’ last gestures before undergoing abdominal surgery on Wednesday was to pray before a relic of St. Therese of Lisieux.
A relic of the French Carmelite nun, also known as St. Therese of the Child Jesus, was present on the platform in front of St. Peter’s Basilica during the pope’s weekly general audience June 7.
Before beginning the audience, Francis venerated the relics of St. Therese in a moment of silent prayer. He also placed a single, white rose on the table in front of the reliquary.
Pope Francis was taken to Rome’s Gemelli Hospital for abdominal surgery under general anesthesia at the end of the morning audience, shortly after 11:00 a.m. Rome time, the Vatican said.
Relics of St. Therese’s parents, Sts. Louis and Zélie Guérin Martin, were also present at the meeting with the public June 7. The relics of all three saints will visit different churches in Rome through June 16.
Relics of St. Therese of Lisieux and her parents, Sts. Louis and Zelie Guerin Martin, were on the platform in front of St. Peter’s Basilica during Pope Francis’ general audience June 7, 2023. The relics made a pilgrimage to Rome June 6-16, 2023. Daniel Ibanez/CNA
Pope Francis said Wednesday he intends to publish an apostolic letter on St. Therese of Lisieux, “patroness of the missions,” to mark the 150th anniversary of her birth.
“She was a Carmelite nun who lived her life according to the way of littleness and weakness: she defined herself as ‘a small grain of sand,’” he said in St. Peter’s Square.
“Having poor health, she died at the age of only 24,” he added. “But though her body was sickly, her heart was vibrant, missionary.”
“Here before us are the relics of St. Therese of the Child Jesus, universal patroness of missions,” he said. “It is good that this happens while we are reflecting on the passion for evangelization, on apostolic zeal. Today, then, let us allow the witness of St. Therese to help us. She was born 150 years ago, and I plan to dedicate an apostolic letter to her on this anniversary.”
🎥HIGHLIGHTS | Before commencing the General Audience in St. Peter’s Square, Pope Francis shared a beautiful moment of prayer before the sacred relics of St. Therese of Lisieux, Doctor of the Church and Patroness of the Missions. As a symbol of his devotion, the Holy Father… pic.twitter.com/lRJeWuSx8n
St. Therese of Lisieux was born on Jan. 2, 1873, in Alençon, France. Her mother died when she was four, leaving her father and older sisters to raise her. She received papal permission to enter the Carmelite Monastery at the young age of 15, where she lived until her death from Tuberculosis at the age of 24.
She was proclaimed a Doctor of the Church by St. Pope John Paul II in 1997 and is the patron saint of missions.
Pope Francis reflected on the saint’s life as part of a series of lessons on evangelical zeal.
“She is patroness of the missions, but she was never sent on mission,” Francis explained in his catechesis. “She recounts in her ‘diary’ that her desire was that of being a missionary, and that she wanted to be one not just for a few years, but for the rest of her life, even until the end of the world.”
St. Therese did this, he said, by becoming a spiritual sister to several missionaries, whom she accompanied through her prayers, letters, and sacrifices from within the monastery walls.
“Without being visible, she interceded for the missions, like an engine that, although hidden, gives a vehicle the power to move forward,” the pope said.
“Missionaries, in fact — of whom Therese is patroness — are not only those who travel long distances, learn new languages, do good works, and are good at proclamation,” he added. “No, a missionary is anyone who lives as an instrument of God’s love where they are.”
Pope Francis spoke about St. Therese of Lisieux, the patroness of missions, during his general audience June 7, 2023. Relics of St. Therese and her parents, Sts. Louis and Zelie Guerin Martin, were present on the platform beside the pope for the audience. Daniel Ibanez/CNA
Pope Francis recounted two episodes from St. Therese’s life that help to explain the source of her zeal and missionary strength.
The first happened during Christmas 1886, when Therese was almost 14 years old.
St. Therese was pampered as the youngest child of the family, he explained. But her father was tired after midnight Mass for Christmas and did not feel like being present when his daughter opened her gifts, so he said he was glad it was the last year she would receive gifts.
“Therese, who was very sensitive and easily moved to tears, was hurt, and went up to her room and cried,” the pope said.
“But she quickly suppressed her tears, went downstairs and, full of joy, she was the one who cheered her father,” he said. “What had happened? On that night, when Jesus had made himself weak out of love, her soul became strong: in just a few moments, she had come out of the prison of her selfishness and self-pity; she began to feel that ‘charity entered her heart’ — so she said — ‘with the need to forget herself’ (cf. Manuscript A, 133-134).”
“From then on, she directed her zeal toward others, that they might find God…”
The second event happened after St. Therese became a Carmelite. Pope Francis said the nun became aware of a hardened criminal, Enrico Pranzini, who was sentenced to death by guillotine for having murdered three people.
Therese had a special zeal for saving sinners, and so “she took him into her heart and did all she could: she prayed in every way for his conversion, so that he, whom, with brotherly compassion she called ‘poor wretched Pranzini,’ might demonstrate a small sign of repentance and make room for God’s mercy,” Francis said.
The day after his execution, she read in the newspaper that before laying his head on the chopping block, Pranzini had, “‘all of a sudden, seized by a sudden inspiration, turned around, grabbed a Crucifix that the priest handed to him and kissed three times the sacred wounds’ of Jesus,” he continued.
“Then his soul,” St. Therese wrote, “went to receive the merciful sentence of the One who declared that in Heaven there will be more joy for a single sinner who repents than for the ninety-nine righteous who have no need of repentance!”
Pope Francis said: “With so many means, methods, and structures available, which sometimes distract from what is essential, the Church needs hearts like Therese’s, hearts that draw people to love and bring people closer to God.”
“Let us today ask this saint, whose relics we have here,” he added, “let us ask this saint for the grace to overcome our selfishness and for the passion to intercede that Jesus might be known and loved.”
Vatican City, Feb 10, 2021 / 11:00 am (CNA).- At a hearing on Wednesday in a trial for alleged abuse and cover-up at a Vatican youth seminary, a defendant asserted his innocence, imputing abuse accusations to jealousy and divisions within the inst… […]
Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Basilica on Oct. 29, 2023. / Daniel Ibanez/CNA
Vatican City, Nov 21, 2023 / 08:25 am (CNA).
Pope Francis has written a letter to four German Catholic laywomen expressing his “concerns” about the direction of the Cath… […]
3 Comments
Did Bergoglio spell out clearly that Don Bosco’s “preventive system” did not involve “accompanying” boys involved with sexual impurity and impure literature, boys who exerted a bad influence…except to the door?
Don Bosco tossed out the bad apples…he didn’t reassign them…or promote them to positions of leadership/prominence.
Accompaniment takes many forms. No one knows exactly what had been said to boys steeped various forms of iniquity on their way to the exit. Maybe something on the order of we can’t allow the other boys here to be adversely influenced; however we would love to have you return with firm resolve to turn away from sin. Nonetheless, “every saint has a history; every sinner has future” says nothing about the attainment of perfection of any saint. God Bless Pope Francis and the entire Body of Christ on Earth.
Did Bergoglio spell out clearly that Don Bosco’s “preventive system” did not involve “accompanying” boys involved with sexual impurity and impure literature, boys who exerted a bad influence…except to the door?
Don Bosco tossed out the bad apples…he didn’t reassign them…or promote them to positions of leadership/prominence.
St. John Bosco – Pray for us.
Accompaniment takes many forms. No one knows exactly what had been said to boys steeped various forms of iniquity on their way to the exit. Maybe something on the order of we can’t allow the other boys here to be adversely influenced; however we would love to have you return with firm resolve to turn away from sin. Nonetheless, “every saint has a history; every sinner has future” says nothing about the attainment of perfection of any saint. God Bless Pope Francis and the entire Body of Christ on Earth.