Pope Francis delivers his Angelus address via a video livestream from his Casa Santa Marta residence within the Vatican due to a cold on Sunday, Dec. 22, 2024. / Credit: Vatican Media
Vatican City, Dec 22, 2024 / 11:50 am (CNA).
Pope Francis on Sunday lamented the ongoing war and violence affecting families in Gaza and other parts of the world in the lead-up to Christmas and called for a “ceasefire on all war fronts.”
“With sorrow I think of Gaza, of so much cruelty; of the children machine-gunned, the bombing of schools and hospitals… So much cruelty!” the pope remarked during his Angelus address, which he gave via a video livestream from his Casa Santa Marta residence within the Vatican due to a cold.
More than 28 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed — including four children at the Musa Bin Nusayr school repurposed as a shelter for displaced families — after Israeli airstrikes hit the city overnight and early Sunday morning, The Guardian reported.
“Let us pray for a ceasefire on all war fronts, in Ukraine, the Holy Land, in all the Middle East and the entire world, at Christmas,” the Holy Father urged.
Pope Francis decried all violent attacks in “tortured Ukraine, particularly those that have damaged schools, hospitals, and churches throughout the Eastern European nation since it was invaded by Russia in 2022.
“May the weapons be silenced and Christmas carols resound!” he insisted on Sunday.
At least 147 Ukrainian prisoners of war have been killed since February 2022, 127 of whom were killed in 2024 alone, according to a BBC report.
Since the escalation of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Pope Francis has repeated calls to free prisoners of war and assured the Holy See’s readiness to assist in such efforts.
In September, Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin met with Russia’s Commissioner for Human Rights Tatyana Moskalkova via video conference to discuss matters including the mutual exchange of soldiers detained in Russia and Ukraine.
Since the 2022 Russian invasion, Pope Francis has met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on four separate occasions, three of which took place in the Vatican.
During the Angelus address, the pope also expressed his concern and closeness for the people of Mozambique who are this month expecting a formal ruling on the outcome of the country’s contested Oct. 9 elections.
“I wish to reiterate my message of hope, peace, and reconciliation to that beloved people,” Francis said. “I pray that dialogue and the quest for the common good, supported by faith and goodwill, may prevail over mistrust and discord.”
Since October, dozens of people have been killed in violent protests in the East African nation. Amnesty International reported more than 30 people were killed in a single week earlier this month.
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Pope Francis waves during the weekly general audience in the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall on Dec. 28, 2022. / Credit: Vatican Media.
Vatican City, Dec 28, 2022 / 10:30 am (CNA).
Pope Francis Wednesday published a message on St. Francis de Sales, a saint who teaches us that “devotion [to God] is meant for everyone, in every situation.”
The pope’s apostolic letter, titled Totum amoris est, or “Everything Pertains to Love,” was published on Dec. 28, the 400th anniversary of St. Francis de Sales’ death in 1622.
The title comes from the preface of the Swiss saint’s book “Treatise on the Love of God,” in which he wrote that “In Holy Church, everything pertains to love, lives in love, is done for love and comes from love.”
St. Francis de Sales was a priest and bishop who taught against Protestant heresies and encouraged holiness in all people, no matter their vocation. He is known for his spiritual writings, including two books that are still widely read today: “An Introduction to the Devout Life” and “Treatise on the Love of God.” In 1877, he was proclaimed a Doctor of the Church.
“On this anniversary of the fourth centenary of his death, I have given much thought to the legacy of Saint Francis de Sales for our time,” Pope Francis said in his apostolic letter. “I find that his flexibility and his far-sighted vision have much to say to us.”
“Today he bids us set aside undue concern for ourselves, for our structures and for what society thinks about us, and consider instead the real spiritual needs and expectations of our people,” the pope noted.
Saint Francis de Sales, painted by Francisco Bayeu y Subías. Wikimedia (CC0)
Commenting on St. Francis de Sales’ teachings, Pope Francis said “devotion is meant for everyone, in every situation, and each of us can practice it in accordance with our own vocation.”
“As Saint Paul VI wrote on the fourth centenary of the birth of Francis de Sales, ‘Holiness is not the prerogative of any one group, but an urgent summons addressed to every Christian: “Friend, come up higher” (Lk 14:10). All of us are called to ascend the mountain of God, albeit not each by the same path.’”
“Devotion,” Paul VI said, quoting St. Francis, “must be practiced differently by the gentleman, the craftsman, the chamberlain, the prince, the widow, the young woman, the wife. Moreover, the practice of devotion must be adapted to the abilities, affairs and duties of each.”
False Devotion
In his letter, Pope Francis reflected on what St. Francis de Sales called “false devotion” and its relevance for our spiritual lives today.
Saint Francis de Sales. Kelson / Wikimedia (CC0)
“Francis’ description of false devotion is delightful and ever timely. Everyone can relate to it, since he salts it with good humor,” the pope explained.
De Sales wrote: “Someone attached to fasting will consider himself devout because he doesn’t eat, even though his heart is filled with bitterness; and while, out of love for sobriety, he will not let a drop of wine, or even water, touch his tongue, he will not scruple to drench it in the blood of his neighbor through gossip and slander. Another will consider himself devout because all day long he mumbles a string of prayers, yet remains heedless of the evil, arrogant and hurtful words that his tongue hurls at his servants and neighbors. Yet another will readily open his purse to give alms to the poor, but cannot wring an ounce of mercy from his heart in order to forgive his enemies. Another still will pardon his enemies, yet never even think of paying his debts; it will take a lawsuit to make him do so.”
“All these,” Pope Francis said, “of course, are perennial vices and struggles, and they lead the saint to conclude that ‘all these fine people, commonly considered devout, most surely are not.’”
True Devotion
The pope explained that St. Francis de Sales taught that true devotion, instead, is found in “God’s life dwelling within our hearts.”
“True and lively devotion presupposes the love of God; indeed, it is none other than a genuine, and not generic, love of God,” the saint said.
Saint Francis de Sales giving Saint Jeanne de Chantal the rule of the order of the Visitation /. null
Pope Francis said: “In Francis’ lively language, devotion is ‘a sort of spiritual alertness and energy whereby charity acts within us or, we act by means of it, with promptness and affection.’ For this reason, devotion does not exist alongside charity, but is one of its manifestations, while at the same time leading back to it.”
“Devotion is like a flame with regard to fire: it increases the intensity of charity without altering its quality,” the pope said, adding a quote from St. Francis de Sales, who said: “Charity is a spiritual fire that, when fanned into flame, is called devotion. Devotion thus adds nothing to the fire of charity but the flame that makes charity prompt, active and diligent, not only in the observance of God’s commandments but also in the exercise of his divine counsels and inspirations.”
“Understood in this way, devotion is far from something abstract,” the pope said. “Rather, it becomes a style of life, a way of living immersed in our concrete daily existence. It embraces and discovers meaning in the little things: food and dress, work and relaxation, love and parenthood, conscientiousness in the fulfillment of our duties. In a word, it sheds light on the vocation of each individual.”
Love
Pope Francis also reflected on St. Francis de Sales’ teachings on love as “the first act and principle of our devout or spiritual life.”
Mosaic of Sales on the exterior of St. Francis de Sales Oratory in St. Louis, Missouri. RickMorais / Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
“The source of this love that attracts the heart is the life of Jesus Christ,” he explained. “‘Nothing sways the human heart as much as love,’ and this is most evident in the fact that ‘Jesus Christ died for us; he gave us life through his death. We live only because he died, and died for us, as ours and in us.’”
“These words are profoundly moving; they reveal not only a clear and insightful understanding of the relationship between God and humanity, but also the deep bond of affection between Francis de Sales and the Lord Jesus,” the pope said. “The ecstasy of life and action is no abstract reality, but shines forth in the charity of Christ that culminates on the cross. That love, far from mortifying our existence, makes it radiate with extraordinary brightness.”
Planet Earth and humankind with its companion species are thirsting for peace, here, there, and everywhere. May the Prince of Peace fill our hearts and minds with love and peace.
We must surely hope and pray, but if only we now weren’t living through the real Dark Ages…Three points:
FIRST, back in the so-called “Dark Ages” (our “chronological snobbery,” C.S. Lewis), Europe practiced the civilizing and religious Truce of God between combatants. Dating from a Church council in France in 975, the Truce of God restricted warfare, with holidays assigned to several dates and seasons of the year having Christian religious significance like Christmas or Easter. In 1139 the Second Council of the Lateran imposed the penalty of excommunication for breaking the Truce. While the medieval Truce was to be applied only between Christian combatants, it surfaces in crusader history in the Holy Land. The opposing armies often found interludes for gift exchanges and tournaments.
SECOND, the Christian Truce of God finds a counterpart in ancient Arabia. Following the peaceful era of the Elephant, recorded later in the Qur’an (“The Elephant” is Q 105).
“ . . . it was an ancient Constitution through all Arabia [the pre-Islamic “Age of Ignorance”], to hold four months of the Year sacred, in which all War was to cease . . . as soon as any of those Sacred Months began, they all immediately desisted, and taking off the heads from their Spears, and laying aside all other Weapons of War, had intercourse, and intermingled together, as if there had been perfect Peace and Friendship between them, without any fear of each other; so that if a Man should meet on those Months him that had slain his Father, or his Brother, he dusrt not meddle with him, how violent soever his Hatred or Revenge might prompt him to it” (Humphrey Prideaux, “The Life of Mahomet,” London, 1695/1718, with reprints).
THIRD, sadly, in today’s Dark Ages (drones and laser guided missiles rather than long bows and trebuchets), the conflicted world is remotely likely to respond more to the political demands of a secular president-elect than to even a prayerful pope; and, possibly (?), the imam of el-Azhar who might also appeal more to universal and inborn Natural Law (the Hadith’s “fitrah”?), than to a “pluralism” of significantly incongruent and not-inborn world religions.
Planet Earth and humankind with its companion species are thirsting for peace, here, there, and everywhere. May the Prince of Peace fill our hearts and minds with love and peace.
We must surely hope and pray, but if only we now weren’t living through the real Dark Ages…Three points:
FIRST, back in the so-called “Dark Ages” (our “chronological snobbery,” C.S. Lewis), Europe practiced the civilizing and religious Truce of God between combatants. Dating from a Church council in France in 975, the Truce of God restricted warfare, with holidays assigned to several dates and seasons of the year having Christian religious significance like Christmas or Easter. In 1139 the Second Council of the Lateran imposed the penalty of excommunication for breaking the Truce. While the medieval Truce was to be applied only between Christian combatants, it surfaces in crusader history in the Holy Land. The opposing armies often found interludes for gift exchanges and tournaments.
SECOND, the Christian Truce of God finds a counterpart in ancient Arabia. Following the peaceful era of the Elephant, recorded later in the Qur’an (“The Elephant” is Q 105).
“ . . . it was an ancient Constitution through all Arabia [the pre-Islamic “Age of Ignorance”], to hold four months of the Year sacred, in which all War was to cease . . . as soon as any of those Sacred Months began, they all immediately desisted, and taking off the heads from their Spears, and laying aside all other Weapons of War, had intercourse, and intermingled together, as if there had been perfect Peace and Friendship between them, without any fear of each other; so that if a Man should meet on those Months him that had slain his Father, or his Brother, he dusrt not meddle with him, how violent soever his Hatred or Revenge might prompt him to it” (Humphrey Prideaux, “The Life of Mahomet,” London, 1695/1718, with reprints).
THIRD, sadly, in today’s Dark Ages (drones and laser guided missiles rather than long bows and trebuchets), the conflicted world is remotely likely to respond more to the political demands of a secular president-elect than to even a prayerful pope; and, possibly (?), the imam of el-Azhar who might also appeal more to universal and inborn Natural Law (the Hadith’s “fitrah”?), than to a “pluralism” of significantly incongruent and not-inborn world religions.