Vatican extends lockdown measures through Easter Monday

Vatican City, Jan 22, 2018 / 08:31 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Aboard the papal plane from Lima to Rome Sunday, Pope Francis said that comments made to Chilean journalists Jan. 18 were not intended to cause pain for victims of clerical sexual abuse.

Francis said that he had meant to explain to Chileans that because he has not seen evidence that Chilean Bishop Juan Barros helped to cover up acts of sexual abuse, it would be unjust to condemn him.

The pontiff said that his use of “the word ‘proof’ was not the best in order to draw near to a suffering heart.”

He also explained that he is aware that victims may not have brought forward evidence because it is unavailable, or because they are otherwise ashamed or afraid.

“Barros’ case was studied, it was re-studied, and there is no evidence,” Francis told journalists Jan. 21. “That is what I wanted to say. I have no evidence to condemn him. And if I condemn him without evidence or without moral certainty, I would commit the crime of a bad judge.”

“If a person comes and gives me evidence,” he continued, “I am the first to listen to him. We should be just.”

Barros is accused by four victims of clerical sexual abuse of colluding to cover up the crimes of his longtime friend, Fr. Fernando Karadima.  Francis has long defended Barros, who claims to be innocent. Barros has been a subject of controversy since his 2015 appointment to lead the Diocese of Osorno.

Karadima, who once led a lay movement from his parish in El Bosque, was convicted of sexually abusing minors in a 2011 Vatican trial, and at the age of 84, he was sentenced to a life of prayer and solitude.

During his Jan. 15-18 visit to Chile, Pope Francis met with abuse survivors, but when questioned about Barros by journalists on his last day in the country, he said, “the day they bring me proof against Bishop Barros, I’ll speak. There is not one shred of proof against him. It’s all calumny. Is that clear?”

The Pope’s comment was met with fierce opposition, as critics said he was insensitive to abuse victims.

Cardinal Sean O’Malley, Archbishop of Boston and one of nine members of the Pope’s Council of Cardinals, issued a statement Jan. 20 voicing criticism of the Pope’s remarks.

“It is understandable that Pope Francis’ statements yesterday in Santiago, Chile were a source of great pain for survivors of sexual abuse by clergy or any other perpetrator,” O’Malley said.

“Words that convey the message ‘if you cannot prove your claims then you will not be believed’ abandon those who have suffered reprehensible criminal violations of their human dignity and relegate survivors to discredited exile,” he said.

Since he was not personally involved in the Chilean cases, O’Malley said he couldn’t speak as to why the Pope chose to use the specific words he did when responding to reporters.

“What I do know, however, is that Pope Francis fully recognizes the egregious failures of the Church and its clergy who abused children and the devastating impact those crimes have had on survivors and their loved ones.”

“Accompanying the Holy Father at numerous meetings with survivors I have witnessed his pain of knowing the depth and breadth of the wounds inflicted on those who were abused and that the process of recovery can take a lifetime,” O’Malley said, adding that Francis’ many statements insisting on a “zero-tolerance” policy for abuse in the Church “are genuine and they are his commitment.”

During the press conference, the Pope said that he had seen O’Malley’s statement and that he has appreciation for the cardinal: “I thank him for his statement because it was very just.”

“[O’Malley] said all that I did and that I do, that the Church does, and then he spoke of the sorrow of victims” in general, Francis said. “Because many victims feel that they are not able to bring [forward] a document or a testimonial.”

O’Malley is also the head of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, which just concluded a 3-year mandate in December. The Vatican has not issued any statements on the the commission since its expiration, causing some to speculate on the future of its existence.

However, in the most recent meetings of the Council of Cardinals, O’Malley spoke on the commission’s continued work, explaining that it is in the Pope’s hands to decide whether to reconfirm current members and whom to appoint as new members.

In the presser, Francis said that before the start of his trip, he had received a list of recommendations for new members, which he is now studying.  The Pope did not say whether O’Malley would be reappointed.

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Vatican City, Dec 8, 2020 / 06:20 am (CNA).- The Immaculate Conception is “one of the wonders of the story of salvation,” Pope Francis said in his Angelus address Tuesday.

Speaking from a window overlooking St. Peter’s Square Dec. 8, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, the pope encouraged Catholics to entrust themselves to Mary, seeking purity and holiness.

He said: “The uncontaminated beauty of our Mother is incomparable, but at the same time it attracts us. Let us entrust ourselves to her and say ‘no’ to sin and ‘yes’ to Grace once and for all.”

It is customary for the pope to lead the Angelus prayer not only on Sundays, but also on Marian solemnities. In his address, the pope reflected on the meaning of the Immaculate Conception. 

“Today’s liturgical feast celebrates one of the wonders of the story of salvation: the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary. Even she was saved by Christ, but in an extraordinary way, because God wanted that the mother of His Son not be touched by the misery of sin from the moment of her conception,” he said.

“And so, for the entire course of her earthly life, Mary was free from any stain of sin, she was the ‘full of grace’ (Luke 1:28), as the angel called her. She was favored by a singular action of the Holy Spirit so as to always remain in perfect relationship with her Son, Jesus. Rather, she was Jesus’s disciple: His Mother and disciple. But there was no sin in her.”

Citing the hymn that opens St. Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians, the pope said that we too are created by God for the “fullness of holiness” granted to Mary from the beginning. 

“And what Mary had from the beginning will be ours in the end, after we have passed through the purifying ‘bath’ of God’s grace,” he said. 

“What opens the gates of paradise to us is God’s grace, received by us with faithfulness.” 

Yet even the most innocent person is marked by original sin, he said, and therefore must engage in a lifelong struggle against its consequences. Lest we be discouraged, we should remember that the thief who was crucified beside Jesus “is the first person we are sure entered paradise,” the pope noted.

He continued: “But be careful. It does not pay to be clever — to continually postpone a serious evaluation of one’s own life, taking advantage of the Lord’s patience. He is patient. He waits for us, He is always ready to give us grace. We may be able to deceive people, but not God; He knows our hearts better than we ourselves do.” 

“Let us take advantage of the present moment! This, yes, is the Christian sense of seizing the day. To not enjoy life in each passing moment — no, this is the worldly sense. But to seize today, to say ‘no’ to evil and ‘yes’ to God, to open oneself to His grace.”

The pope said that the “journey of conversion” begins with seeking God’s forgiveness in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. We must then seek to repair the harm we have done to others.

“And this, for us, is the path for becoming ‘holy and immaculate,’” he explained. 

After the Angelus, the Holy Father greeted pilgrims in the square below, which was wet following a rainy morning. He singled out an Italian group holding a banner proclaiming “L’Immacolata vincerà” (“The Immaculate will triumph”). The group, inspired by the spirituality of St. Maximilian Kolbe, has brought the banner to St. Peter’s Square for the Angelus since the 1990s. 

“They are great, they are always here!” the pope commented.

He continued: “As you know, this afternoon the traditional veneration of the Immaculate Conception in Piazza di Spagna will not take place, to avoid the risk of a crowd gathering, as disposed by the civil authorities, whom we need to obey.” 

“But this does not keep us from offering our Mother the flowers that she enjoys the most: prayer, penance, a heart open to grace.”

The pope recalled that that morning he had made a private visit to the statue of the Immaculate Conception in Rome’s Piazza di Spagna and then celebrated Mass at the Basilica of St. Mary Major.

“I wish everyone a happy feast day. And, please do not forget to pray for me,” he said.

[…]

Pope Francis greets Kiko Argüello during a meeting with the Neocatechumenal Way in the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall, June 27, 2022. / Vatican Media

Vatican City, Jun 27, 2022 / 10:30 am (CNA).

Pope Francis on Monday met and ratified the assignments of families, priests, and seminarians of the Neocatechumenal Way preparing to become missionaries in foreign countries.

“Do not forget the gaze of Jesus, who sent each of you to preach and obey the Church,” Pope Francis said on June 27.

“We have heard Jesus’ mission, ‘Go, bear witness, preach the Gospel,’” he said. “And from that day the Apostles, the disciples, the people all went forth with the same strength as Jesus had given them: it is the strength that comes from the Spirit: ‘Go and preach, baptize.’” 

The pope’s brief remarks were made during the Neocatechumenal Way missionary confirmation and sending, a meeting which included prayer and song, in the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall.

The Neocatechumenal Way is an ecclesial movement which draws its inspiration from the practices of the early Church, providing post-baptismal Christian formation in some 40,000 small, parish-based communities.

The movement is present all over the world, and says it has an estimated membership of more than 1 million people. It was founded by Kiko Argüello and Carmen Hernández in Spain in 1964.

Argüello introduced the gathering and announced that the first stage of the cause of beatification of Hernández, who died in 2016 at the age of 85, will soon be opened.

The 83-year-old movement leader also listed the missionary families’ countries of destination, which spanned Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, and the Americas.

Several students of Neocatechumenal Way seminaries will be doing missionary work in China, Argüello said.

Pope Francis encouraged the new missionaries to let a Christian community grow “in its own ways, in its own culture.”

“This is the story of evangelization,” he continued. “All are equal in terms of faith: I believe in God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the Son who became incarnate, died and rose again for us, the Spirit who helps us and makes us grow: the same faith. But all with the mode of their own culture or the culture of the place where the faith was preached.”

He said the multi-cultural richness of the Gospel is the story of the Church: “So many cultures but the same Gospel. So many peoples, the same Jesus Christ.”

The pope thanked the families for their willingness to share the Gospel as missionaries, and encouraged them to be docile to the Holy Spirit and obedient to Christ and his Church through the local bishop.

“This is the spirituality that must accompany us always: to preach Jesus Christ by the power of the Spirit in the Church and with the Church,” Francis said.

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