Laocoön and His Sons, Vatican Museums. / Shutterstock
Rome Newsroom, Mar 9, 2023 / 08:11 am (CNA).
The Vatican held a hearing Thursday to try three climate activists for criminal damage to a famous statue in the Vatican Museums.
Guido Viero, 61, and Ester Goffi, 26, were ordered to appear before the Vatican City State’s tribunal on March 9.
Viero and Goffi superglued their hands to the marble base holding Laocoön and His Sons, an ancient marble sculpture on display in the Vatican Museums, on the morning of Aug. 18, 2022.
They are accused of damaging the base of the statue through the use of “particularly tough and corrosive synthetic adhesive.”
Laura, who video recorded the demonstration in the Vatican Museums, and whose last name is not public, has also been charged by the Vatican.
The three are part of Ultima Generazione (“Last Generation”), an Italian group that encourages nonviolent civil disobedience to “raise the alarm on the climate emergency.”
Charges of resisting a public official were dropped.
The climate activism group claims that after Viero and Goffi glued themselves to the statue base, that area of the Vatican Museums was cleared of museum guests by staff. It also said the cell phones of those recording the action were confiscated and video or photo footage of the stunt was deleted before the phones were returned to their owners.
If you value the news and views Catholic World Report provides, please consider donating to support our efforts. Your contribution will help us continue to make CWR available to all readers worldwide for free, without a subscription. Thank you for your generosity!
Click here for more information on donating to CWR. Click here to sign up for our newsletter.
Pope Francis at the General Audience in St. Peter’s Square, March 14, 2018. / Daniel Ibanez/CNA.
Denver Newsroom, May 25, 2022 / 11:24 am (CNA).
A telegram sent to the Archbishop of San Antonio on Wednesday conveyed Pope Francis’ deep sadness over the deaths of 21 people at a school shooting in Texas the previous day.
“Assuring those affected by this attack of his spiritual closeness, His Holiness joins the entire community in commending the souls of those children and teachers who died to almighty God’s loving mercy and he implores the divine gifts of healing and consolation upon the injured and bereaved,” reads the May 25 telegram sent on the pope’s behalf.
“With firm faith in the risen Christ, through whome every evil will be overcome by good, he prays that those tempted to violence will choose instead the path of fraternal solidarity and love,” it continued.
A gunman opened fire at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, about 90 miles west of San Antonio, May 24, killing 19 children and two adults.
A Border Patrol officer killed the shooter, a local 18-year-old identified as Salvador Ramos. Two police officers were injured by rounds from Ramos.
Earlier on Wednesday, Pope Francis had addressed the tragedy after his General Audience address.
“My heart is broken for the massacre at the elementary school in Texas. I am praying for the children and the adults killed and their families,” he said in St. Peter’s Square.
“It is time to say enough to the indiscriminate trafficking of weapons. Let us all work hard so that such tragedies can never happen again.”
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said May 24 that the country was facing an “epidemic of evil and violence.”
“There have been too many school shootings, too much killing of the innocent,” the USCCB’s public affairs director Chieko Noguchi said in a statement.
“Our Catholic faith calls us to pray for those who have died and to bind the wounds of others, and we join our prayers along with the community in Uvalde and Archbishop Gustavo García-Siller.”
“As we do so, each of us also needs to search our souls for ways that we can do more to understand this epidemic of evil and violence and implore our elected officials to help us take action.”
Hours before the general audience, Archbishop Garcia-Siller appealed to Pope Francis to pray for the victims of the shooting in his San Antonio archdiocese.
He tweeted: “Holy Father Pope Francis, say some prayers for the souls of our little ones killed today and two teachers. Uvalde is in mourning. The families are having a very dark time. Your prayer will do good to them.”
He added in Spanish: “Gracias por ayudarnos. Queremos ser como Jesús. Cuente con nuestra oración” (“Thank you for helping us. We want to be like Jesus. Count on our prayers”).
Pope Francis waves to pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square for his Angelus reflection on Oct. 6, 2024. / Credit: Vatican Media
Vatican City, Oct 6, 2024 / 10:43 am (CNA).
“Be open to the gift of life,” Pope Francis urged married couples in his Sunday Angelus address, in which the pope described a recent encounter with a father of eight children as “a great consolation.”
Speaking from the window of the Apostolic Palace on Oct. 6, Pope Francis asked couples to reflect on whether their married life is fully open to the gift of children.
“For spouses, it’s essential to be open to the gift of life, to the gift of children. They are the most beautiful fruit of love, the greatest blessing from God, a source of joy and hope for every home and all of society. Have children!” Pope Francis said.
“Dear brothers and sisters, love is demanding, yes, but it is beautiful, and the more we allow ourselves to be involved by it, the more we discover true happiness in it,” he added.
The pope recounted how a member of the Vatican’s Gendarmerie Corps brought his eight children to a Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica that the pope presided over on Saturday. Pope Francis described seeing the family as “a great consolation.”
“It was beautiful to see them,” he said. “Please, be open to life, to what God may send you.”
Francis encouraged married Catholics to “ask themselves: How is my love? Is it faithful? Is it generous? Is it creative?”
“How are our families?” Pope Francis added. “Are they open to life, to the gift of children?”
The Catholic Church teaches that all forms of artificial birth control are illicit and forbidden to married couples. This teaching was formalized in 1968 by St. Paul VI, who in his encyclical Humanae Vitae declared that “any action … specifically intended to prevent procreation” was “absolutely excluded” as a lawful means of regulating the number of children in a Catholic marriage.
However, recent data from the federally administered National Survey of Family Growth shows large majorities of Catholics in the United States report using at least one form of artificial contraception — with over 90% having used condoms and more than 60% having used the hormonal birth control pill.
In his Angelus address, the pope offered a reflection on Sunday’s Gospel from the Gospel of Mark in which the Pharisees asked Jesus about whether the law permits divorce.
Pope Francis noted that the Lord’s reply to the Pharisees reminded them of “the demands of love.”
“He reminds them that woman and man were willed by the Creator as equal in dignity and complementary in diversity,” the pope said.
Francis emphasized that the mutual gift of married love is “destined to last not ‘as long as everything goes well’ but forever, accepting each other and living united as ‘one flesh.’”
“Of course, this is not easy,” the pope added. “This requires fidelity, even in difficulties, it requires respect, honesty, simplicity. It requires being open to confrontation … when it is necessary, but also to be always ready to forgive and to be reconciled to the other.”
At the end of his Gospel reflection, Pope Francis asked the Virgin Mary to intercede for Christian spouses, noting the upcoming feast of Our Lady of the Rosary.
An appeal for peace in the Holy Land
Pope Francis noted that he will soon go to the Basilica of St. Mary Major to pray the rosary for peace on the vigil of the anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel.
“Tomorrow marks one year since the terror attack on the population in Israel, to whom I once again express my closeness. Let us not forget that there are still many hostages in Gaza. I ask for them to be released immediately,” Pope Francis said.
“Since that day, the Middle East has been plunged into a condition marked by increasing suffering, with destructive military actions continuing to strike the Palestinian people. The people are suffering very much in Gaza and in other territories. Most of them are innocent civilians, all of them are people who must receive all necessary humanitarian aid. I call for an immediate cease-fire on all fronts, including Lebanon. Let us pray for the Lebanese, especially for those who live in the south, who are forced to leave their villages,” he added.
Appealing to the international community to stop “the spiral of revenge” and to prevent attacks “like the one recently carried out by Iran,” Pope Francis underlined the right of all nationals to exist in peace and security.
“Let us unite with the power of good against the diabolical plots of war,” the pope said.
Pilgrims gather in St. Peter’s Square for Pope Francis’ Angelus reflection on Oct. 6, 2024. Credit: Vatican Media
21 new cardinals announced
At the end of his Angelus address, Pope Francis surprised the crowd by announcing that he plans to create 21 new cardinals, including the archbishops of Tehran, Tokyo, and Toronto, in a consistory on Dec. 8.
The pope noted that the cardinals-elect reflect “the universality of the Church that continues to announce God’s merciful love to all people.”
“Let us pray for the new cardinals, that in confirming their commitment to Christ, the merciful and faithful high priest, they may assist me in my ministry as the bishop of Rome for the good of the holy people of God.”
ACI Prensa Staff, Nov 4, 2022 / 14:36 pm (CNA).
The national coordinator of the Christian Liberation Movement (MCL) in Cuba, Eduardo Cardet Concepción, called “unacceptable” the sinking of a boat that was carr… […]
Leave a Reply