May 7 papal conclave date finalized as cardinals prepare for election

Vatican City, Jun 5, 2020 / 07:00 am (CNA).- A U.S. Vatican cardinal will lead prayers for George Floyd in Rome Friday.

Cardinal Kevin Farrell will preside at a prayer service at the Basilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere June 5 at 7 p.m. local time. F… […]

Vatican City, May 16, 2020 / 09:52 am (CNA).- The coronavirus emergency is also causing a food-related crisis, Vatican officials said Saturday, encouraging people to do their small part to help those who are going hungry.

“What happens now with the coronavirus crisis is it is increasing food-related problems,” Fr. Augusto Zampini-Davies said during a livestreamed press conference May 16.

“We know the value of a society is determined by how we treat the poorest, the most vulnerable, so what are we going to do for all these people, who, apart from the health issues, are suffering from hunger or food-related problems?” he asked.

Zampini-Davies is adjunct secretary of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development. He said the COVID-19 emergency is affecting food availability on many levels of society: for example, children who rely on school lunches are going hungry while schools are closed, and supply chains are being impacted by restrictions on imports and exports.

There are also millions of people who have lost their jobs or are being prevented from working by measures intended to control the health emergency, he noted. And this often means going hungry.

What happens to the millions of people who are helped neither by the market nor by the state, but we are forcing them to stay home? the priest asked. “What happens to these people? We cannot force them to stay at home without any support.”

Responding to a question about Pope Francis’ proposal for a “universal basic wage,” Zampini-Davies said it is “one tool” that has been used in the past to help confront emergency economic situations.

“As a tool, it has its pros and cons,” he said, but “if we want to promote health for everybody, we need to do something.”

“We cannot remain indifferent,” he said. “All the structures of society are being challenged at the moment, so what we are trying to do is to implement the preferential option for the poor, which is a fundamental element and an ethical imperative.”

A food crisis is one of the issues the Vatican’s new COVID-19 Commission is considering how to combat in the wake of the coronavirus.

The commission is under the auspices of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, headed by Cardinal Peter Turkson, and is intended to work for about one year.

Turkson noted May 16 that “COVID-19 started as a healthcare issue; but it has affected drastically the economy, jobs/employment, lifestyles, food security, the primary role of Artificial Intelligence and internet security, politics, governance and policies (nationalistic or open and in solidarity), research and patents.”

“Hardly any aspect of human life and culture is left unscathed by this pandemic.”

The commission is “an organ of the Holy See to occupy itself with the multifaceted COVID-19 pandemic.”

Zampini-Davies said FAO estimates 800 million people around the world were already “chronically hungry.”

“However … there is hope, because this terrible situation can be an opportunity to change,” he said.

He made some suggestions of actions to be taken on the international level, but also highlighted how “ordinary people” can help by reducing food loss and waste, and by changing their diets to include more seasonal food and fewer high polluting products.

He pointed to St. Therese of Lisieux for her example that “every small gesture of care counts” and noted that the pandemic has shown “we do not need as many things as we think. We can do more with less.”

Aloysius John, secretary general of Caritas Internationalis, the largest Catholic global aid network, said: “as the Holy Father told us, at this tragic moment of human history I want the Church to be present through the work of charity and if you do not do it who will do it?”

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Pope Francis offers Christmas Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on Dec. 24, 2021 / Vatican Media

Vatican City, Dec 24, 2022 / 12:20 pm (CNA).

A manger, the Christ Child’s first resting place, can teach us a lot about the meaning of Christmas, Pope Francis said in his Christmas homily.

“In order to rediscover the meaning of Christmas, we need to look to the manger,” he said on Dec. 24.

“Yet why is the manger so important? Because it is the sign, and not by chance, of Christ’s coming into this world,” he said. “It is how he announces his coming. It is the way God is born in history, so that history itself can be reborn.”

Pope Francis celebrated the Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord with Mass during the night, held in St. Peter’s Basilica at 7:30 p.m. on Dec. 24.

“The Christmas manger, the first message of the divine Child, tells us that God is with us, he loves us and he seeks us. So take heart,” the pope said. “Do not allow yourself to be overcome by fear, resignation or discouragement. God was born in a manger so that you could be reborn in the very place where you thought you had hit rock bottom. There is no evil, there is no sin, from which Jesus does not want to save you.”

The Christmas Mass, which had around 7,000 people in attendance according to the Vatican, began with the chanting of the traditional Kalenda Proclamation of the Birth of Christ from the Roman Martyrology. A statue of the Baby Jesus, displayed in front of the altar, was then unveiled as the bells of St. Peter’s Basilica rang out.

The choir sang the traditional Christmas carols Silent Night, the First Noel, and Adeste Fidelis, among others. The Mass concluded with the traditional Italian carol Tu Scendi Dalle Stelle, which means “You come down from the stars.”

In his homily, Pope Francis said God wants to tell us the following message: “If you feel consumed by events, if you are devoured by a sense of guilt and inadequacy, if you hunger for justice, I, your God, am with you. I know what you are experiencing, for I experienced it myself in that manger. I know your weaknesses, your failings and your history. I was born in order to tell you that I am, and always will be, close to you.” 

The pope focused on the three places in the second chapter of the Gospel of Luke where it mentions the manger.

“First, Mary places Jesus ‘in a manger’ (Lk 2:7); then the angels tell the shepherds about ‘a child wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger’ (v. 12); and finally, the shepherds, who find ‘the child lying in the manger’ (v. 16),” he said.

Francis explained that by being born in a stable and placed in a manger to sleep, the Son of God showed us that true wealth is found in relationships, not power and money.

“Around the manger there is very little: hay and straw, a few animals, little else. People were warm in the inn, but not here in the coldness of a stable. Yet that is where Jesus was born,” he said. “The manger reminds us that he was surrounded by nothing but love: Mary, Joseph and the shepherds; all poor people, united by affection and amazement, not by wealth and great expectations.”

He said the Church is called to show the same affection toward the poor.

“We are called to be a Church that worships a Jesus who is poor and that serves him in the poor,” he noted, quoting St. Oscar Romero, who said on Jan. 1, 1980: “The Church supports and blesses efforts to change the structures of injustice, and sets down but one condition: that social, economic and political change truly benefit the poor.”

“Certainly, it is not easy to leave the comfortable warmth of worldliness to embrace the stark beauty of the grotto of Bethlehem, but let us remember that it is not truly Christmas without the poor. Without the poor, we can celebrate Christmas, but not the birth of Jesus,” he said.

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