Pope Leo XIV supports ‘important and urgent’ Creation Day Sept. 1

Pope Francis waves to the crowd gathered in St. Peter’s Square to hear his Angelus address n Sunday, June 9, 2024. / Credit: Vatican Media

Vatican City, Jun 9, 2024 / 09:05 am (CNA).

Pope Francis urged people to reflect on Sunday on whether they are sacrificing their serenity and freedom to be enslaved by money, power, and pleasure.

Speaking in his Angelus address on June 9, the pope asked people to contemplate the temptations that can imprison us and the freedom found in Christ

“If we let ourselves be conditioned by the quest for pleasure, power, money, or consensus, we become slaves to these things,” he said.

“If instead we allow God’s freely-given love to fill us and expand our heart, and if we let it overflow spontaneously by giving it back to others with our whole selves without fear, calculation, or conditioning, then we grow in freedom and spread its good fragrance around us in our homes, in our families, and in our communities.”

In his speech from the window of the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace, the pope highlighted the many ways in which “Jesus was a free man.”

Jesus was not enslaved by wealth, but embraced “a poor life full of uncertainties, freely taking care of the sick and whoever came to ask him for help, without ever asking for anything in return.”

“He was free with regard to power,” Francis added. “Indeed, despite calling many to follow him, He never obliged anyone to do so, nor did he ever seek out the support of the powerful, but always took the side of the least, teaching his disciples to do likewise.”

The Lord was also free from the need “for fame and approval, and for this reason, he never gave up speaking the truth,” he said.

Pope Francis underlined that Jesus never gave up speaking the truth “even at the cost of not being understood or becoming unpopular — even to the point of dying on the cross.” The pope added that Jesus did not allow himself “to be intimidated, bought, or corrupted by anything or anyone.”

Pope Francis asked people to spend some time reflecting on “this freedom of Jesus,” and then to examine their consciences as to whether there are any areas in life where they are “imprisoned by the myths of money, power, and success.”

After leading the crowd gathered in St. Peter’s Square in the Angelus prayer in Latin, the pope made a passionate appeal for peace in the Holy Land, asking people to pray for the ceasefire negotiations and urging the international community to ensure that humanitarian aid arrives for those who are most in need.

Pope Francis also asked people to pray for the people who are suffering in Myanmar and Ukraine, giving a special shoutout to some Ukrainians who were in the crowd waving flags. 

“May the Virgin Mary help us live and love like Jesus taught us, in the freedom of the children of  God,” Pope Francis said.

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Statues illuminated in ethereal blue light during the special evening access to St. Peter’s Basilica for the Jubilee of Artists, February 16, 2025. / Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/CNA

Rome Newsroom, Feb 17, 2025 / 10:30 am (CNA).

For the Jubilee of Hope, an American artist has created an installation mapping the “soundscape” of one of the historic bells of St. Peter’s Basilica, premiering the work on the night of Feb. 16.

“The Silent Echoes of a Great Sound Sculpture” by Bill Fontana made the bell’s live soundscape audible as artists and other pilgrims walked through the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica after dark on Sunday.

The after-hours opening of the basilica, one of several events in Rome organized for the Feb. 15-18 Jubilee of Artists and the World of Culture, was called the “Notte Bianca” — “white night” in English. During the extraordinary opening, artists and others walked around a basilica bathed in blue light and accompanied by live cello music. 

The contemporary art installation, which can be heard in a video recording here, was audible via speakers in the portico, or entrance, of St. Peter’s Basilica. It is expected to continue to play from 9:30 a.m. through 7 p.m. daily throughout the 2025 Jubilee of Hope.

The soundscape was made using the largest of St. Peter’s Basilica’s six bells — called “Campanone,” Italian for “Great Bell.” The over eight-feet tall bell was cast in 1786 by the silversmith Luigi Valadier and weighs around 9 tons.

Fontana explained how the installation works in a statement on his website: “Latent in the physical structure of everything, are resonant frequencies. … I began to explore this phenomenon using high resolution vibration sensors called accelerometers. These may be placed onto and inside of a wide range of structures and situations that then map, render and reveal the silent echoes latent in a structure or an object that is echoing a live soundscape.”

Fontana did a similar recording of the Emmanuel bell of Notre Dame Basilica in Paris in 2022.

According to a press release: “Using state-of-the-art sensors and a sophisticated audio system, the internal vibrations — normally in no way audible since [the bell] weighs over nine tons — have been captured, amplified, and transformed into a deeply immersive auditory experience.”

The soundscape, also called a “sound sculpture,” the note continued, “will accompany [pilgrims and visitors] on their spiritual journey” at St. Peter’s Basilica.

The Vatican’s Dicastery for Education and Culture also organized several initiatives for the weekend’s Jubilee of Artists, but two of the events — a papal audience and a gathering with the pope at the film studios of Cinecittà — had to be canceled after Francis was hospitalized for a respiratory infection on Feb. 14.

At a Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on Sunday, the dicastery prefect, Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça, read Pope Francis’ message to artists, calling them to participate in the “revolutionary vision of the Beatitudes” and transform suffering into hope.

“Your mission is not only to create beauty but to reveal the truth, goodness, and beauty hidden within the folds of history, to give voice to the voiceless, to transform pain into hope,” the pope’s message stated.

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Pope Francis waves during his Sunday Angelus message and prayer on July 17, 2022 / Vatican Media

Vatican City, Jul 17, 2022 / 07:00 am (CNA).
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