Pope Francis welcomes members of the Italian Association of Leather Chemists during an audience in the Clementine Hall of the Vatican Apostolic Palace on January 29, 2022. / Vatican Media
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jan 29, 2022 / 12:16 pm (CNA).
Pope Francis encouraged workers to turn to St. Joseph for guidance during the Covid-19 pandemic, during an audience at the Vatican on Saturday.
“[T]he crisis can be approached as an opportunity to grow together in solidarity and quality of work,” he said as he met with members of the Italian Association of Leather Chemists. “May the example and intercession of St. Joseph help you not to give in to discouragement, to make creative use of your talents and your great experience in order to move forward and open up new paths.”
Pope Francis expressed his closeness — and that of the Catholic Church — to workers during what he called a “very complex economic and social crisis.”
“Many men and women workers and families are living in difficult situations, aggravated by the pandemic,” he said. “But the pandemic cannot and must not become an alibi to justify omissions in justice or security.”
He recommended concrete action: to join “the wisdom of the elderly and the enthusiasm of the young.”
“I can imagine young people who are passionate about an original field such as yours, and they need to find ‘old hands in the field’ who have so much to teach, and not only on a technical level, but also on a human level,” he said. “For me, the challenge of this moment is the meeting between grandparents and grandchildren, bypassing parents perhaps, but that is a key meeting and we need to work for the young to meet the old.”
Pope Francis welcomes members of the Italian Association of Leather Chemists during an audience in the Clementine Hall of the Vatican Apostolic Palace on January 29, 2022. Vatican Media
Pope Francis opened his remarks by acknowledging the young who were present.
“I like to see the mothers there, cuddling the children. It is nice when they come with the children,” he said. “If they want to walk, let them, let them do what they want; and if they are hungry, let them eat! They are the kings.”
The pontiff emphasized a more personal connection to the members.
“Your profession applies scientific and technical knowledge to a craft activity that has an ancient tradition, both in Italy and in other countries, including my own, Argentina,” he said. “When I was young, I studied in a technical institute with a chemical address, and this brings me a little closer to your category.”
Because of the members’ line of work, the pontiff also brought up the environment and the impact of using chemicals to treat materials.
“You too, then, are called to make your own specific contribution to the care of the common home; and you can do so precisely in the way you set up your own work,” he said. “For this purpose, being an association is very valuable, because you share your knowledge, experience, as well as legal and technical updates; and so you help each other to grow together in a style of social and ecological responsibility.”
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Rome, Italy, May 20, 2017 / 11:15 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Held this year on May 20, Rome’s seventh annual March for Life was a chance for pro-life advocates of any faith to share their convictions about the sanctity of life and how it is founded in a love of life and family.
“It is the seventh edition of the March and as in the past years, we expect thousands of people to come and create a joyful atmosphere,” Alessandro Elia, one of the event’s organizers, told CNA ahead of Saturday’s event.
“In fact, we are against abortion because we love life and we love the family, a natural institution which is fundamental for every human society.”
This year was Rome’s sixth – and Italy’s seventh – annual March for Life. The event’s tagline was “For life without compromise.”
Pope Francis gave his apostolic blessing to participants in the pro-life event. In a written message signed by Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Pope Francis voiced his hope that the March for Life would promote the dignity of human life in Italy.
More than 6 million babies have been aborted in Italy since abortion on demand was legalized in the country in 1978. Since that time, “it seems like being contrary to abortion is not permitted,” Elia said.
“Many Catholics and non-Catholics are very determined to end abortion and the March for Life is an annual occasion to prove that we exist and that our requests need to be taken into account by the civil and political world.”
First held in Rome on Mother’s Day in 2012 – previously held in another part of the country on one other occasion – the annual event was modeled after the U.S. March for Life held each year in Washington D.C.
Over the past four years, thousands of people have traveled from around the world to take part.
This year’s March for Life began its peaceful demonstration at the Piazza della Repubblica, marching down Via Cavour, a major thoroughfare of the city, to arrive at the Piazza della Madonna di Loreto, located next to the busy Piazza Venezia of the well-known Altare della Patria national monument.
Thought open to people of all faiths, the night before the March Eucharistic Adoration was held at the Basilica of Sant’Andrea delle Fratte to pray for the reparation of the crime of abortion.
Though there were heavy rain showers off-and-on the morning and early afternoon of the day of the March, by the time it began in the afternoon blue skies and sunshine prevailed.
Euthanasia is a current pro-life issue in Italy at the moment, as the Italian Chamber has voted in favor of a bill that would effectively force doctors to follow directives from patients or their trustees – no matter made how many years earlier – to even include the withholding of food and water.
Next the bill to be passed by the Italian Senate. The law, on advanced healthcare directives (in Italian called DAT), “requires the doctor to be bound by an anticipated declaration of a patient who requests the suspension of nutrition and hydration,” Elia explained.
In this case, he said, the so-called “‘right to die’ for the patient equals the duty to kill for the doctor. This is unacceptable.”
Besides forcing doctors to participate in what is essentially a form of assisted suicide, “the death of patients by starvation and dehydration is extremely cruel,” he said.
Former Federal Bureau of Investigation agent Nicole Parker (left) testifies during the first hearing of the Weaponization of the Federal Government Subcommittee in the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill on Feb. 9, 2023, in Washington,… […]
Pope Francis meets with the Order of Malta’s Fra’ Marco Luzzago on June 25, 2021. / Vatican Media
Vatican City, Mar 7, 2022 / 09:35 am (CNA).
The Order of Malta’s future is in Pope Francis’ hands. After a meeting with senior members on Feb. 26, the pope will take time to ponder the proposals for renewal and eventually decide on a path of reform.
Cardinal Silvano Maria Tomasi, the papal delegate to the organization, reported on the meeting in a letter to confreres of the order.
Tomasi stressed that “we explained to the Holy Father that the reform under study keeps and better frames the order as a lay religious order and at the same time consents to the continuation of its charitable, diplomatic and humanitarian action for ‘our lords the sick’ and at the service of the Church.”
The Italian cardinal added that the pope had “decided to keep listening to us, and granted us another hearing. After the meetings, the pope will rule about the projects presented to him.”
Also present at the papal meeting were Fra’ Marco Luzzago, Lieutenant of the Grand Master, members of Tomasi’s working group for the reform, and a delegation representing the order’s members.
In a Feb. 27 press release, the 1,000-year-old institution stressed that “the focus of the meeting was the Order of Malta’s reform.”
It said that “in a letter sent to the Order of Malta’s leaders worldwide, Marwan Sehnaoui, chairman of the steering committee for the constitutional reform process, expressed his gratitude to ‘His Holiness for having dedicated two hours of his valuable time to the Order of Malta.’”
Sehnaoui said: “The Holy Father began and ended the audience by stating that he had taken himself the final decision-making of the critical issues regarding the order’s constitutional reform.”
“Pope Francis listened carefully to the presentations and interventions of both sides. After exchanging views, the Holy Father said there is no urgency in making a final decision. His Holiness also said that he wishes to gather and review more information and that he would probably convene another audience.”
These statements require a close reading. First, by explaining that the order’s diplomatic and humanitarian work will not be affected by the reform, Tomasi implicitly addressed a criticism raised after the circulation of a draft reform text, which described the Order of Malta as “subject to the Holy See.” This triggered concern that the new statutes would dilute the order’s sovereignty.
Cardinal Silvano Maria Tomasi. Martin Micallef/Maltese Association Order of Malta via Flickr.
Although it possesses no real territory, the order has the hallmarks of sovereignty, such as its own official currency, postage stamps, and vehicle registration plates. It has diplomatic relations with more than 100 states and permanent observer status at the United Nations. It also oversees a flourishing humanitarian network that is currently delivering aid to refugees fleeing Ukraine.
Speaking with the National Catholic Register on Jan, 23, Tomasi stressed that in a subsequent draft, the order was no longer described as subject to the Holy See.
“We didn’t keep that expression,” he said, “and it’s not going to be in the text of the constitution that we’re going to circulate.”
He continued: “In a letter to the order, I said that, when we would be finished with the work under the constitution, government, and working group of the special delegate, we would send the text to the ‘fras’ — the religious — to the presidents of the associations, to the sovereign council and the members of the government so that we have everybody’s input and objections — if there were aspects of the constitution or the text that weren’t acceptable or considered objectionable.”
The most important reform is, in the end, that of fras, who are known as first-class knights. Only first-class knights who descend from a family of four quarters of nobility are eligible to be elected as the Grand Master, the order’s religious superior and sovereign. This provision means that fewer than 40 people in the order are able to be considered for the role.
Pope Francis took over the reform process after a fierce debate within the order.
The working group entrusted to draft the new statutes was composed of the canon law expert Father Gianfranco Ghirlanda, Msgr. Brian Ferme, secretary of the Vatican’s Council for the Economy, Maurizio Tagliaferri, Federico Marti, and Gualtiero Ventura.
Albrecht von Boeselager. Daniel Ibáñez/CNA.
The group was later enlarged with the addition of a few senior members of the order, including the Grand Chancellor Albrecht von Boeselager. But Boeselager announced in January that he was stepping down from the expanded group. Sehnaoui, president of the order’s Lebanese association, was appointed to take Boeselager’s place, assisted by Péter Szabadhegÿ.
Tomasi refused to recognize the Sehnaoui appointment, and so he could not attend the two-day meeting to discuss the draft text.
It is particularly significant, then, that Sehnaoui was included in the group that met with the pope on Feb. 26. Sehnaoui’s presence might be considered a gesture of detente.
Tomasi sent a letter to the knights after a private meeting with the pope on Jan 29, after the two-day reform meeting, held on Jan. 25-26.
The cardinal said that “the pope has decided that he wants to meet the mixed working group with some members representing the professed, the government of the order, the procurators of the priories and the presidents of the associations, to present to him concrete reform projects.”
So, Tomasi wrote, “the Holy Father, therefore, decided to suspend all other activities until this meeting is taking place, following which he will make a final decision.”
“Therefore, the meeting of the mixed working group of Feb. 22-23 is suspended, and the meetings of the steering committee chaired by President Marwan Sehnaoui are also suspended.”
The Magistral Villa of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta in Rome. Lalupa via Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Tomasi stressed that “any other activity before the meeting with the pope will be considered an act of disobedience to the Holy Father.”
It was a notably harsh statement which indicated that the pope would be taking responsibility for the process.
Knights who took part in the papal meeting told CNA that “they had a positive feeling” and that the pope “listened carefully to their issues.”
Members of the order must now wait to see what the pope decides. It will eventually become clear whether he has chosen to treat the order principally as a religious order or will also consider the vast humanitarian network overseen by this sovereign entity with no territory.
More empty talk from someone who fully endorsed the destructive and cruel lockdown policies that have caused the chaos and misery that he insincerely decries. When he shows some remorse and apologizes for the role he has played in perpetrating this fraud, may it will be worth paying attention to his words. Finally, if you think the economic and social upheaval caused by the response to Covid is bad, just wait for what additional measures the globalist cabal will try to impose to combat the “climate change crisis.” If he is still around, the high priest of World Economic Forum will waste no time to offer his full support.
“But the pandemic cannot and must not become an alibi to justify omissions in justice or security”
…
Er…still no jab no job at the Vatican
More empty talk from someone who fully endorsed the destructive and cruel lockdown policies that have caused the chaos and misery that he insincerely decries. When he shows some remorse and apologizes for the role he has played in perpetrating this fraud, may it will be worth paying attention to his words. Finally, if you think the economic and social upheaval caused by the response to Covid is bad, just wait for what additional measures the globalist cabal will try to impose to combat the “climate change crisis.” If he is still around, the high priest of World Economic Forum will waste no time to offer his full support.