Pope Francis meets members of the First Nations at the Vatican on March 31, 2022. / Vatican Media
Vatican City, Jul 17, 2022 / 06:00 am (CNA).
The papal trip to Canada next week will be a “penitential pilgrimage” to bring healing and reconciliation, Pope Francis said Sunday.
The pope is scheduled to travel to the Canadian cities of Edmonton, Quebec City, and Iqaluit from July 24-29. There he will meet members of Canadian indigenous groups, residential school abuse survivors, and Catholics.
“Next Sunday, God willing, I will leave for Canada; therefore, I wish now to address all the people of that country,” Francis said after the Angelus on July 17.
“As you know,” he said, “I will come among you especially in the name of Jesus to meet and embrace the indigenous peoples.”
He thanked all those who are preparing the trip and asked for prayers.
“I am about to make a penitential pilgrimage,” he said, “which I hope, with God’s grace, will contribute to the journey of healing and reconciliation already undertaken.”
The pope recalled his private meetings with representatives of the Métis, Inuit, and First Nations peoples at the Vatican at the end of March and beginning of April, and the sorrow and solidarity he expressed for the harm they have suffered.
“Unfortunately, in Canada, many Christians, including some members of religious institutes, have contributed to the policies of cultural assimilation that, in the past, have severely harmed native communities in various ways,” he said.
Pope Francis is expected to issue an apology in Canada on behalf of the Catholic Church for the abuses committed against indigenous students in Catholic-run residential schools.
The Canadian bishops said last year that they would welcome Francis’ visit as a “pilgrimage of healing and reconciliation.”
The 85-year-old pope was also scheduled to visit the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan July 2-7, but postponed the trip “at the request of his doctors.”
He has been suffering from a knee injury for several months.
The decision to postpone the Africa trip came after doctors said he needed 20 more days of therapy and rest for his knee before he travels to Canada.
In an interview with Reuters at the beginning of July, Francis said the fracture was “slowly getting better” with the help of laser and magnet therapy.
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Pope Francis presides at the Vatican’s chrism Mass on Holy Thursday, March 28, 2024. / Credit: Daniel Ibanez/CNA
Vatican City, Mar 28, 2024 / 09:30 am (CNA).
On Holy Thursday, Pope Francis presided over a chrism Mass at which more than 1,880 priests, bishops, and cardinals renewed the promises made at their ordinations.
Pope Francis encouraged the priests to turn their gaze upon the crucified Lord and to weep over their sins in repentance, saying that tears can “purify and heal the heart.”
“Once we recognize our sin, our hearts can be opened to the working of the Holy Spirit, the source of living water that wells up within us and brings tears to our eyes,” Francis said on March 28.
Pope Francis speaks at the Vatican’s chrism Mass on Holy Thursday, March 28, 2024. Credit: Daniel Ibanez/CNA
“The Lord seeks, especially in those consecrated to him, men and women who weep for the sins of the Church and the world and become intercessors on behalf of all,” he added.
Forty-two cardinals, 42 bishops, and 1,800 priests living in Rome concelebrated the Mass with the pope in St. Peter’s Basilica.
Holy Thursday marks the institution of the Eucharist and institution of the sacrament of the priesthood at the Last Supper. Pope Francis will also preside over a Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Thursday evening at a women’s prison in Rome.
The 87-year-old pope arrived in St. Peter’s Basilica on Thursday morning in a wheelchair. Before giving his more than 20-minute homily, the pope took a sip of water and put on his reading glasses.
Pope Francis reflected in his homily on Peter’s tears after denying the Lord three times as recorded in the Gospel of Luke: “Peter remembered the word of the Lord … and went out and wept bitterly.”
Cardinal Angelo De Donatis presides at the altar during the Vatican’s chrism Mass on Holy Thursday, March 28, 2024. Credit: Daniel Ibanez/CNA
“Dear brother priests, the healing of the heart of Peter, the healing of the apostle, the healing of the pastor, came about when, grief-stricken and repentant, he allowed himself to be forgiven by Jesus. That healing took place amid tears, bitter weeping, and the sorrow that leads to renewed love,” he said.
Compunction
Pope Francis said that he wanted to speak to the priests about the importance of compunction — an awareness of guilt due to sin — which the pope admitted is a “somewhat old-fashioned” term and “an aspect of the spiritual life that has been somewhat neglected, yet remains essential.”
The pope added that compunction “is not a sense of guilt that makes us discouraged or obsessed with our unworthiness, but a beneficial ‘piercing’ that purifies and heals the heart.”
“Compunction demands effort but bestows peace. It is not a source of anxiety but of healing for the soul, since it acts as a balm upon the wounds of sin, preparing us to receive the caress of the heavenly physician, who transforms the ‘broken, contrite heart,’” Pope Francis said.
Clergy assembled at the Vatican’s Chrism Mass on Holy Thursday, March 28, 2024. Credit: Daniel Ibanez/CNA
The pope said that through compunction “the natural tendency to be indulgent with ourselves and inflexible with others is overturned and, by God’s grace, we become strict with ourselves and merciful toward others.”
“Weeping for ourselves … means seriously repenting for saddening God by our sins … It means looking within and repenting of our ingratitude and inconstancy, and acknowledging with sorrow our duplicity, dishonesty, and hypocrisy — clerical hypocrisy, dear brothers, that hypocrisy which we slip into so much — beware of clerical hypocrisy,” Francis said.
“How greatly we need to be set free from harshness and recrimination, selfishness and ambition, rigidity and frustration, in order to entrust ourselves completely to God and to find in him the calm that shields us from the storms raging all around us,” he added.
“Let us pray, intercede, and shed tears for others; in this way, we will allow the Lord to work his miracles. And let us not fear, for he will surely surprise us.”
During the Vatican’s chrism Mass, the pope, as the bishop of Rome, blessed the oil of the sick, the oil of catechumens, and the chrism oil, which will be used in the diocese during the coming year. Cardinal Angelo De Donatis served as the celebrant at the altar.
The oils were processed up the main altar of St. Peter’s in large silver urns as the hymns of the Sistine Chapel Choir filled the basilica.
Urns of oil are displayed at the Vatican’s Chrism Mass on Holy Thursday, March 28, 2024. Credit: Daniel Ibanez/CNA
Pope Francis prayed over the oil of the sick: “O God, Father of all consolation, who through your Son have willed to heal the infirmities of the sick, listen favorably to this prayer of faith: Send down from heaven, we pray, your Holy Spirit, the Paraclete, upon the rich substance of this oil, which you were pleased to bring forth from vigorous green trees to restore our bodies, so that by your holy blessing this oil may be for anyone who is anointed with it a safeguard for body, mind, and spirit, to take away every pain, every infirmity, and every sickness.”
The blessed oil will be used for the anointing of the sick in Rome throughout the year.
Pope Francis thanked the priests gathered in St. Peter’s Basilica for all they do to bring “the miracle of God’s mercy” to the world today.
“Dear priests, thank you for your open and docile hearts; thank you for your labors and thank you for your tears; thank you because you bring the miracle of mercy … you bring God to the brothers and sisters of our time,” he said. “Dear priests, may the Lord console you, confirm you, and reward you.”
Rome Newsroom, Jun 4, 2021 / 05:15 am (CNA).
The celebrations in northern Italy for the beatification of Sr. Maria Laura Mainetti began Thursday night with Eucharistic adoration at a church in her home… […]
9 Comments
Why would the Pope give credence to the false narrative?
True. We now know that the accusations against those schools were false. It is the government, not the nuns who should be held accountable for any suffering.
The Pope scandalizes the Catholic faith and the faithful. He has repeatedly demonstrated an inability or desire not to discern and not to speak Truth.
The Church of Jesus Christ owes no apology to anyone. Sinners within the church should beg forgiveness of God and from man. What right does Francis grant himself to speak on behalf of sinners in the Church? Francis owes apologies to all the Catholic faithful for presuming his ego to speak on behalf of the faithful.
A penance rather for those who will have to observe this exercise in self-promotion while providing credence to a lie. When will the Church once again find itself in the hands of mature faithful leadership which does not fall prostrate before the world and its mendacity?
Thank you – for the fresh and good news about the healing of the fracture , with laser and magnet therapy – 🙂 omitting the more radical means of surgery ..willing to respect the treating doctors , within the confines of also using his wisdom in choosing to avoid what he knew could be harmful ..
The trip would coincide with the newly given blessing of celebrating Grandparents ,
cherishing family roots and relationships in the role and place of grandparents , whose blessed memory can be an effective means to counter the fractures that have not spared Canada …
Providential that as a G.son from Italy , with its role in bringing the faith to the New lands that had old cultures , he comes both as a g. son to mend the broken ties of all neglects and wounds of whatever source , not just of The Church ..
as well as a Grand Father to bring blessings – to all peoples and to all those who are related to the old native cultures – a people whose roots extend far and wide to places and lands that he would love to go in person bearing blessings , yet where he would not be welcome , due to the old unhealed fratures …
The varied manifestations of the fratures afflicting our times – a popular magnetic author promoting such … the middle name – ‘Bernt ‘ .. born on 6/12 …
May the visit of the Holy Father help to bring The Light sharper than lasers to heal addictions to falsehoods … – for The Milk of Divine Will of The Mother, The
The Precius Blood serve as the antidote for all the envies and hatreds as brokeneness and generational wounds .
‘ Aerial photography and historical documents show that the site where the graves were alleged to have been discovered has been subject to decades of archeological digs and other excavation activity which did not turn up any human remains.
The most significant of these digs took place in 1958 when a plot of over 100,000 square feet or 30% of an apple orchard just outside of the residential school was excavated for a sewage retention pond. ‘
I am tired of people “apologizing” for things that happened 100 years ago. The Pope is all but wearing a sign that says “kick me”. I believe it is a bad thing for society overall to encourage a victimization mentality.
Why would the Pope give credence to the false narrative?
True. We now know that the accusations against those schools were false. It is the government, not the nuns who should be held accountable for any suffering.
The Pope scandalizes the Catholic faith and the faithful. He has repeatedly demonstrated an inability or desire not to discern and not to speak Truth.
The Church of Jesus Christ owes no apology to anyone. Sinners within the church should beg forgiveness of God and from man. What right does Francis grant himself to speak on behalf of sinners in the Church? Francis owes apologies to all the Catholic faithful for presuming his ego to speak on behalf of the faithful.
A penance rather for those who will have to observe this exercise in self-promotion while providing credence to a lie. When will the Church once again find itself in the hands of mature faithful leadership which does not fall prostrate before the world and its mendacity?
I am going to have a t-shirt made, SAINT JEAN DE BREBEUF, PRAY FOR US.
Is Pope Francis even really aware of the whole story here?
Thank you – for the fresh and good news about the healing of the fracture , with laser and magnet therapy – 🙂 omitting the more radical means of surgery ..willing to respect the treating doctors , within the confines of also using his wisdom in choosing to avoid what he knew could be harmful ..
The trip would coincide with the newly given blessing of celebrating Grandparents ,
cherishing family roots and relationships in the role and place of grandparents , whose blessed memory can be an effective means to counter the fractures that have not spared Canada …
Providential that as a G.son from Italy , with its role in bringing the faith to the New lands that had old cultures , he comes both as a g. son to mend the broken ties of all neglects and wounds of whatever source , not just of The Church ..
as well as a Grand Father to bring blessings – to all peoples and to all those who are related to the old native cultures – a people whose roots extend far and wide to places and lands that he would love to go in person bearing blessings , yet where he would not be welcome , due to the old unhealed fratures …
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/250395/vatican-unveils-theme-for-2nd-world-day-for-grandparents-and-elderly
The varied manifestations of the fratures afflicting our times – a popular magnetic author promoting such … the middle name – ‘Bernt ‘ .. born on 6/12 …
May the visit of the Holy Father help to bring The Light sharper than lasers to heal addictions to falsehoods … – for The Milk of Divine Will of The Mother, The
The Precius Blood serve as the antidote for all the envies and hatreds as brokeneness and generational wounds .
https://www.ncregister.com/commentaries/how-jordan-peterson-and-dave-rubin-are-erasing-women .
The request of the Holy Father for prayers in connection with the trip – may same be taken well into many hearts .
‘ Aerial photography and historical documents show that the site where the graves were alleged to have been discovered has been subject to decades of archeological digs and other excavation activity which did not turn up any human remains.
The most significant of these digs took place in 1958 when a plot of over 100,000 square feet or 30% of an apple orchard just outside of the residential school was excavated for a sewage retention pond. ‘
https://tnc.news/2022/07/14/evidence-unmarked-graves/
an “event” of, by, and for Fake News (aka The Ministry of Information).
Gawd, this movie is getting old.
I am tired of people “apologizing” for things that happened 100 years ago. The Pope is all but wearing a sign that says “kick me”. I believe it is a bad thing for society overall to encourage a victimization mentality.