Pope Francis accepts resignation of Knoxville Bishop Rick Stika

Pope Francis led the Angelus for All Saints’ Day from a window above St. Peter’s Square. / Daniel Ibanez/CNA

Vatican City, Nov 1, 2021 / 06:05 am (CNA).

On All Saints’ Day, Pope Francis said true happiness does not come from being young, rich, or successful, as the world thinks, but from the counter-cultural idea to follow Jesus Christ.

“The world says that in order to have happiness you must be rich, powerful, always young and strong, and enjoy fame and success. Jesus overturns these criteria and makes a prophetic proclamation – and this is the prophetic dimension of holiness – true fullness of life is achieved by following him, by putting his Word into practice,” the pope said Nov. 1.

Pope Francis gave a special Angelus address for the Solemnity of All Saints, celebrated by the Catholic Church on Nov. 1. This year, the holy day, which has the obligation to attend Mass, was transferred to Sunday in the United States.

In his message before the traditional Marian prayer on Monday, Pope Francis spoke about the road we should walk to become saints: The Beatitudes.

The Beatitudes, he said, “show us the path that leads to the Kingdom of God and to happiness: the path of humility, compassion, meekness, justice and peace.”

He also noted that the Beatitudes are addressed “to the poor, the afflicted, those who hunger for justice.”

“And this means being poor inside, hollowing oneself to make room for God,” he advised. “Those who believe themselves to be rich, successful and secure base everything on themselves and close themselves off from God and their brothers and sisters, while those who know that they are poor and not self-sufficient remain open to God and to their neighbor.”

The poor in spirit find joy, he said, explaining what Christian joy is and is not.

“The joy of the Christian,” Francis said, “is not a fleeting emotion or a simple human optimism, but the certainty of being able to face every situation under God’s loving gaze, with the courage and strength that come from him.”

He said this is the joy the saints give witness to, a joy experienced even in the midst of trials and suffering.

The pope also emphasized the importance of joy for the Church, because without it the faith becomes “a rigorous and oppressive exercise.”

“A desert Father said that sadness is ‘a worm that burrows into the heart,’ which corrodes life,” Pope Francis said, encouraging everyone to ask themselves if they are a joyful Christian or if they are “dull, sad people, with a funeral face?”

“Let us remember: there is no holiness without joy,” he underlined.

Francis also explained that holiness is not “a life plan” which people can create themselves based only on effort and renunciation, but that it consists “above all in the joyful discovery of being God’s beloved sons and daughters.”

“It is not a human achievement, it is a gift we receive: we are holy because God, who is the Holy One, comes to dwell in our lives,” he said. “For this we are blessed.”

After the Angelus, Pope Francis greeted the participants of Rome’s annual “Saints’ Run,” a 10km race which starts and ends on the road in front of St. Peter’s Basilica.

He also noted that on Nov. 2 he will celebrate Mass for the Feast of All Souls’ Day at the French Military Cemetery in Rome.

“I wish you all a happy feast of the saints, in the spiritual company of all the saints,” he said.

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Archbishop Lyke students in the school library in 2022. / Credit: Leila Sutton/Partnership Schools

CNA Staff, Jun 23, 2024 / 07:00 am (CNA).
When historic Catholic schools started closing across the nation, an organization that manages Catholic… […]

Pope Francis greets members of the international Catholic movement Communion and Liberation in St. Peter’s Square Oct. 15, 2022. / Credit: Daniel Ibanez/CNA

CNA Staff, Jun 19, 2024 / 14:57 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis in an audience last week with the president of Communion and Liberation (CL) reportedly told the leader not to “look at your navel” but to share their movement with the whole Church.

Communion and Liberation is an ecclesial movement founded in the 1950s by Italian priest Father Luigi Giussani, a theologian and public intellectual. It received papal recognition in 1982 and today is present in 90 countries worldwide, with its members — clerical and lay — primarily focusing on community, culture, and Catholic education and faith formation. Its members meet weekly in small discussion groups that they call the “School of Community.”

In a June 15 audience, the pope received Davide Prosperi, president of CL, and Father Andrea D’Auria, director of CL’s International Center.

As reported by Prosperi, the pope spoke of “the need to share the charism and for a co-responsibility in the leadership of the movement.” He also stressed, Prosperi said, that every charism must conceive of itself as being at the service of the whole Church.

Prosperi said Pope Francis said several times during the audience: “Do not look at your navel, go outside, go outside! The whole Church needs this.”

“A movement, the Holy Father reminded us, must remain faithful to its charism by communicating itself creatively in every place around the world where it is present,” Prosperi said.

Pope Francis has previously warned representatives of Catholic movements that the desire for power and recognition are temptations that hinder their call to serve the Church, saying it is “treachery” when a leader “wants to serve the Lord but also serves other things that are not the Lord.”

CL has faced dissension among some members in recent years over its governance. The Holy See in September 2021 appointed a special delegate to oversee Memores Domini, the lay-consecrated branch of CL. Two months later, Father Julián Carrón announced his resignation as president of CL, and Prosperi succeeded him.

Pope Francis spoke to thousands of CL members at a 2022 event marking the 100th anniversary of the birth of Giussani. Giussani died in 2005 and his cause for beatification was opened in 2012.

“Times of crisis are times of recapitulation of your extraordinary history of charity, culture, and mission; they are times of critical discernment of what has limited the fruitful potential of Father Giussani’s charism,” the pope said. “They are times of renewal and missionary relaunch in light of the current ecclesial moment as well as the needs, sufferings, and hopes of contemporary humanity.”

He encouraged the movement to foster unity amid diversity and to not waste any time with “gossip, mistrust, and opposition.” He added: “Please, do not waste time.”

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