During fundraiser, priest makes ‘longest shot ever by a priest on a playground’

Pope Francis prayed the Regina Caeli in St. Peter’s Square on April 23, 2023. / Vatican Media

Vatican City, Apr 23, 2023 / 05:10 am (CNA).

Pope Francis recommended making an examination of conscience at the end of each day as a way to invite Jesus into the joys and struggles of daily life.

“Indeed, for us to it is important to reread our history together with Jesus: the story of our life, of a certain period, of our days, with its disappointments and hopes,” the pope said April 23.

“There is a good way of doing this, and today I would like to propose it to you: it consists of dedicating time, every evening, to a brief examination of conscience,” he said. “What happened inside of me today? That is the question. It means rereading the day with Jesus.”

Pope Francis addressed a crowd of around 30,000 people on Sunday from a window overlooking St. Peter’s Square.

After his brief message, he prayed the Regina Caeli, a Latin antiphon honoring the Virgin Mary which is usually prayed during the Easter Season.

Francis said making an examination of conscience is a way of “rereading my day, opening the heart, bringing to him people, choices, fears, falls, hopes, and all of the things that took place; to learn gradually to look at things with different eyes, with his eyes and not only our own.”

A nightly examination of conscience is also sometimes known as a daily examen, a part of the spirituality developed by St. Ignatius of Loyola.

The pope spoke about the spiritual practice in the context of the Gospel passage for the Third Sunday of Easter, which recounts Jesus’ appearance to two of his disciples while they were walking from Jerusalem to the village of Emmaus.

At first, the disciples did not recognize the resurrected Lord, who asked them to explain what had happened to make them so sad.

Jesus, the pope said, “wants to listen to their account. Then, while they are walking, he helps them reinterpret the facts in a different way, in the light of prophecy, in the light of the Word of God.”

“We too, like those disciples, faced with what happens to us, can find ourselves lost in the face of these events, alone and uncertain, with many questions and worries, disappointments, many things,” he explained.

“Today’s Gospel invites us to tell Jesus everything,” he continued, “sincerely, without worrying about bothering him — he listens — without fear of saying something wrong, without being ashamed of our struggle to understand.”

Pope Francis explained that the Lord is happy when we open ourselves to him, because he wants to accompany us, and to make our hearts burn within us, like happened with the disciples on the road to Emmaus.

By making an examen, we are able to reread our day and life in the light of Christ’s love, he said.

“Even that which seems wearisome and unsuccessful,” he explained, “can appear in another light: a difficult cross to embrace, the decision to forgive an offense, a lost opportunity, the toil of work, the sincerity that comes at a price, and the trials of family life can appear to us in a new light, the light of the Crucified and Risen, who knows how to turn every fall into a step forward.”

But, he added, we have to drop our defenses and leave space for Jesus.

“We can begin today, to dedicate this evening a moment of prayer during which we ask ourselves: how was my day?” he said.

“What joys, what sadnesses, what monotonies, how was it, what happened?” are some of the questions we can ask ourselves, he said, together with “what were its pearls, possibly hidden, to be thankful for? Was there a little love in what I did? And what are the falls, the sadness, the doubts and fears to bring to Jesus so that he can open new ways to me, to lift me up and encourage me?”

“May Mary, wise Virgin, help us to recognize Jesus who walks with us and to reread, ‘reread’ is the word, every day of our life in front of him,” he said.

[…]

Denver Newsroom, Sep 3, 2020 / 11:26 am (CNA).-  

A New York priest said his parish added a “pledge for racial justice” to Masses as part of its anti-racism initiatives, and that no one at the parish is required to participate in it. While video of the pledge has been the subject of criticism in the media and from some Catholics, the Archdiocese of New York has not commented on the matter.

“Under the sponsorship of the Pastoral Council, we held a prayer service for the victims of racism and commissioned our Sacred Space ministry to produce a display so that there would be heightened awareness. In that context, someone found a version of the pledge from a Unitarian Church in Texas,” Fr. Kenneth Boller, SJ, pastor of St. Francis Xavier Parish in New York City, told CNA Sept. 2.

“We invite people to take the pledge after the post communion prayer and before the final blessing-a time when many churches have announcements. People are invited to respond yes to each question. Some choose not to. That’s fine,” Boller added.

Liturgical law prohibits the addition of any components to Mass that are not prescribed by Church rubrics.

The General Instruction for the Roman Missal directs that each priest “must remember that he is the servant of the sacred Liturgy and that he himself is not permitted, on his own initiative, to add, to remove, or to change anything in the celebration of Mass.”

Similarly, the Second Vatican Council’s apostolic constitution on the liturgy, Sacrosanctum concilium, says that no person, “even if he be a priest, may add, remove, or change anything in the liturgy on his own authority.”

For his part, Boller told CNA that the pledge is part of a broader effort in the parish to be attentive to racial justice.

“After the death of George Floyd our parish wished to be more pro-actively anti-racist.  There had been a book discussion group on racism  for 18 months and there was a recent history of dialog with an African-American Catholic parish in Harlem,” the priest said.

The pledge asks whether Catholics “support justice, equity, and compassion,” and affirm that “white privilege and the culture of white supremacy must be dismantled wherever it is present.” It also asks whether Catholics commit “to help transform our church culture to one that is actively engaged in seeking racial justice and equity for everyone,” and affirm “the inherent worth and dignity of every person.”

The pledge gained attention earlier this week, when a redacted video of its recitation began circulating online. On Sept. 2, Fox News television host Tucker Carlson erroneously reported that the pledge, which he called “talking points from BLM” had “replaced the Nicene Creed” at the parish. In the same segment, commentator Eric Metaxas said that if the parish “had a swastika on the altar, it would be no different.”

“The people who are using these new terms — systemic racism or white privilege — these are Marxists,” Metaxas added. “If you do not reject this with everything you have, you are bringing about the death of Christian faith in America,” he said.

The U.S. bishops’ conference 2018 pastoral letter on racism, “Open Wide our Hearts” laments “years of systemic racism working in how resources are allocated to communities that remain de facto segregated.”

In June, Deacon Harold Burke-Sivers, who is Black, wrote that “Prejudiced and racist attitudes of individuals also infiltrate institutional structures and organizations, thus forming the foundation for systemic racism….The residual effects of these attitudes are still felt by many Catholics of color today.”

The Archdiocese of New York told CNA it had no comment on the pledge and the controversy that surrounded its recitation during Mass.

[…]

The Sanctuary of Our Lady of Fatima in Portugal. / Kate Veik/CNA.

Fatima, Portugal, Nov 12, 2021 / 03:30 am (CNA).
Portugal’s Catholic bishops said on Thursday that they have approved the creation of an independent commission to investigate cle… […]