Pope Francis presides over a penitential service at St. Pius V Parish in Rome on March 8, 2024. / Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNA
Rome, Italy, Mar 8, 2024 / 14:35 pm (CNA).
On Friday evening Pope Francis traveled out of the Vatican to hear confessions and preside over a penitential service at St. Pius V Parish in Rome.
Choosing the theme “Walking in the New Life,” the pope stressed that the Lenten journey is a moment of interior reflection and transformation and that God never tires of forgiving.
The pope punctuated his homily several times with off-the-cuff remarks. At one point he turned to the faithful and asked them to repeat in unison: “God never tires of forgiving.”
Pope Francis addresses the faithful at a penitential service at St. Pius V Parish in Rome on March 8, 2024. Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNA
The Holy Father implored the assembly to not “renounce God’s forgiveness, the sacrament of reconciliation,” stressing that it is “not a practice of devotion but the foundation of Christian existence.”
“It is not a question of knowing how to express sins well but of recognizing ourselves as sinners and throwing ourselves into the arms of Jesus crucified to be freed. It is not a moralistic gesture but the resurrection of the heart,” the pope continued.
Friday’s homily was the first public address in recent weeks, besides the past two Sunday Angeluses, that the pope delivered without having to rely on an aide to read. The 87-year-old pontiff spoke for more than 15 minutes and seemed to be in better form nearly two weeks after the Holy See Press Office first announced that he was recovering from “mild flu” symptoms.
Pope Francis presides over a penitential service at St. Pius V Parish in Rome on March 8, 2024. Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNA
The pope’s visit to St. Pius V Parish, which sits about two miles from the Vatican, opened the 11th edition of the Lenten initiative “24 Hours for the Lord.” This annual celebration, which the pope established in 2014, is promoted by the Dicastery for Evangelization and is held on the eve of the fourth Sunday in Lent, or Laetare Sunday.
This year is the second time the pope will preside over the event outside of the Vatican.
“This new life,” the pope explained in his homily on Friday, “is the life that carries us forward in our truest identity, that of being beloved children of the Father, so that every sadness and obstacle, every effort and tribulation cannot prevail over this wonderful reality that grounds us.”
Pope Francis presides over a penitential service at St. Pius V Parish in Rome on March 8, 2024. Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNA
Highlighting the frenzy of modern life and the multitude of responsibilities that come with it, the pope observed the ease with which we can become distracted and led astray, forgetting “that there is already a new life that flows within us and that, like embers under the ashes, waits to blaze up and shed light on everything.”
“With the face of God clouded, those of our brothers clouded, the greatness we carry within us blurred, we remain on the path, but we need new signs, a change of pace, a direction that helps us find the way back to baptism, our original beauty, the sense of moving forward,” the pontiff continued.
Pope Francis greets pilgrims at a penitential service at St. Pius V Parish in Rome on March 8, 2024. Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNA
Lent, the pope explained, is the best way to get recalibrated and to get back on a path of spiritual renewal. He observed that this task is contingent upon a willingness to connect with God and to seek his forgiveness.
It is “divine forgiveness” that “makes us new again,” the pope said, and “cleans us inside, making us return to the condition of baptismal rebirth. It makes the fresh waters of grace flow again in the heart, dried up by sadness and dusty by sins.”
Pope Francis hears confessions after a penitential service at St. Pius V Parish in Rome on March 8, 2024. Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNA
Pope Francis closed his homily by asking the faithful to “welcome this new life,” after which the faithful joined the pontiff in repeating seven times aloud: “Jesus, if you want, you can purify me.”
Following the homily, the celebration continued with Eucharistic adoration while the pope moved from the sanctuary to the right aisle of the mid-20th-century church to hear confessions.
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A young woman holds a pro-life sign during a rally in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., on June 24, 2023, marking the first anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade. / Joseph Portolano/CNA
Washington D.C., Jun 25, 2023 / 06:40 am (CNA).
Marking the first anniversary of Roe being overturned, a group of pro-life leaders rallied hundreds to the steps of the Lincoln Memorial Saturday with the message that they were united around the fight for full, legal protection for the unborn from the moment of conception in all 50 states.
Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America, told those gathered on a sunny, hot summer day that while she celebrated the 25 states that have passed strong pro-life laws, “we are in fact living in a divided states of America” where “a person’s location determines if they will survive the abortion gauntlet as we did.”
Hawkins said the country must become “an America where every human being is recognized as the unrepeatable person as they are with equal rights and equal protection under the Fourteenth Amendment guaranteed, not because of what state their mother resides in or if they are perceived to be convenient or the circumstances of their conception.”
Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America, addresses the crowd at a pro-life rally in front of the Lincoln Memorial on June 24, 2023, marking the first anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade. Joseph Portolano/CNA
Hawkins told CNA that pro-life leaders are uniting around the belief “that every human being is a human person at conception” and that the Fourteenth Amendment’s equal justice clauses should be equally applied to persons in the womb.
“At a very minimum if you’re running for federal office, you should be able to acknowledge that abortion is a federal issue,” she said. “We want to see every presidential contender join with us to acknowledge what is so clearly written in the Fourteenth Amendment: that all human beings are human persons and deserve equal protection of our laws.”
Lila Rose, president of the pro-life group Live Action, called the Fourteenth Amendment “one of the most beautiful notes in our national song” and lamented that “when it comes to preborn children we have failed to extend these protections.”
Speaking at a rally in front of of the Lincoln Memorial on June 24, 2023, Lila Rose, president of the pro-life group Live Action, called it a “tragic contradiction” that “while our society celebrates advancements in prenatal care and technology, we simultaneously deny personhood and rights, the personhood and rights of these very same children.”. Joseph Portolano/CNA
Rose called it a “tragic contradiction” that “while our society celebrates advancements in prenatal care and technology, we simultaneously deny personhood and rights, the personhood and rights of these very same children. It is inconceivable that we would selectively deny these rights to one group of human beings solely based on their location: the womb.”
Republican presidential candidate and former Vice President Mike Pence, who recently called on his fellow GOP presidential candidates to join him in backing a “minimum” nationwide 15-week abortion limit, made an appearance at the rally.
“As we celebrate this anniversary, let us here resolve that we will work and we will pray as never before to advance the cause of life in the laws of the land in every state in America. That we will support women in crisis pregnancies with resources and support for their care, for the unborn, and for the newborn as never before,” Pence said.
Former Vice President Mike Pence, a 2024 GOP presidential candidate, addresses the crowd at a pro-life rally in front of the Lincoln Memorial on June 24, 2023, marking the first anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade. Joseph Portolano/CNA
“We stand for the babies and their unalienable right to life,” he said, pledging that he and his family “will never rest and never relent until we restore the sanctity of life to the center of American law in every state in the land.”
Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of SBA Pro-life America, shared words of advice for the growing list of 2024 presidential candidates: “Get your act together. Figure out what you’re for and advance it. Don’t wait,” she urged.
“We have consensus in this country,” she added. “Start with that and be the president you’re called to be in justice and love for moms and justice and love for their babies.” Consistent Gallup polling shows that the majority of Americans would prefer to limit abortion to the first three months of pregnancy.
There were many young people in the crowd at the Lincoln Memorial, including Katriel Nyman, a 17-year-old from Washington state who is with Students for Life Tri-Cities. She told CNA that it was “really encouraging to see a bunch of people who believe in rights from conception.”
She said she’d “like to see more pro-lifers continue to persevere through this” post-Dobbs fight because “even if abortion isn’t legal in your state, you should be fighting for the rights of infants that are soon to be born in other states.”
Sameerah Munshi, a recent graduate of Brown University who is interning with the Religious Freedom Institute, holds a sign with a verse from the Quran about the sanctity of life that reads “We have dignified the children of Adam,” at a pro-life rally at the Lincoln Memorial on June 24, 2023. Lauretta Brown/CNA
Sameerah Munshi, a recent graduate of Brown University who is interning with the Religious Freedom Institute, held a sign with a verse from the Quran about the sanctity of life that read “We have dignified the children of Adam.”
She told CNA that she wanted to make her voice heard as a Muslim who believes, based on her faith, that abortion is wrong in most cases. She said many Muslims followers feel, as she does, that life begins “in the first couple weeks after conception.”
Munshi said that in the year since the Dobbs decision, “a lot of people that I know who don’t have strong opinions on abortion have been coming out either in favor or against” abortion. She sees it as valuable that there’s more discourse about the abortion issue and people are “coming to more conclusions for themselves as opposed to maybe rhetoric that they’ve seen in the news or rhetoric that they feel has been a part of their political platform.”
Jessica Newell, a Catholic student who is interning with Live Action and entering her third year at Coastal Carolina University, told CNA that “it’s so important for people who are indoctrinated by this culture to learn the truth about biology and the truth about God and that they’re made in the image of God.”
She emphasized that the pro-life movement still has so much to do and part of that work is “letting people know that they’re loved, that is a big step in changing the culture to a culture of life.”
Melissa Ohden, who survived a saline-infusion abortion at 31 weeks gestation, stands alongside her oldest daughter Olivia, 15, at a pro-life rally at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., on June 24, 2023. Joseph Portolano/CNA
Melissa Ohden, who survived a saline-infusion abortion at 31 weeks gestation, stood at the rally alongside her oldest daughter Olivia, 15, and a sign which read “Babies survive abortions. I am one of them.”
“This was a very personal thing for Roe to be overturned,” she told CNA, “It is a day that we can celebrate, but it has not been a chance to pause, take our breath, it has been a time of continuing to hit the ground running.”
In her work heading the Abortion Survivors Network, Ohden said that since the Dobbs decision she’s heard from “more women than ever reaching out to us after their chemical abortions have failed.” She said it’s important to reach moms who are vulnerable to chemical abortions which make up the majority of abortions in the country.
Ohden said that since Dobbs the pro-life movement “has continued to be the side that is providing resources and support whether it’s in communities, at the state level, pushing for federal policy that supports mothers and children and families in a greater way.”
Her daughter Olivia said it was “amazing” to be at the rally with her mom and called the issue an emotional one because “people like my mom should be protected no matter who they are, where they are.”
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“Forgiveness is above all a personal choice, a decision of the heart to go against natural instinct to pay back evil with evil.” – Saint JP II