PHOTOS: Pope Leo XIV visits Pompei and Naples in Italy

Pope Francis waves to the crowd in St. Peter’s Square during his Angelus address on June 25, 2023. / Vatican Media

Vatican City, Jun 25, 2023 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Pope Francis has urged Christians not to be afraid of suffering criticism, economic loss, and persecution for being faithful to what the Church teaches.

“There is a cost to remain faithful to what counts. The cost is going against the tide, freeing oneself from being conditioned by popular opinion, being separated from those who ‘follow the current,’” Pope Francis said on June 25.

In his Sunday Angelus address, the pope underlined how Jesus’ words “do not be afraid” still apply today. He reflected in particular on Jesus’ warning in the Gospel of Matthew: “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna” (Mt. 10:28).

Pope Francis said: “It was like saying: You do not need so much to be afraid of suffering misunderstanding and criticism, of losing prestige and economic advantages to remain faithful to the Gospel, but of wasting your existence in the pursuit of trivial things that do not fill life with meaning.”

The pope explained how Jesus told his disciples not to be afraid shortly after telling them about the persecutions that they would have to undergo for the Gospel, something, he noted, that still applies today.

“Since her beginning, in fact, the Church has experienced many persecutions, along with joys—of which there have been many. It seems paradoxical: the proclamation of the Kingdom of God is a message of peace and justice, founded on fraternal charity and on forgiveness; and yet it meets with opposition, violence, and persecution,” he said.

“Jesus, however, says not to fear, not because everything will be all right in the world, no, but because we are precious to his Father and nothing that is good will be lost.”

Pope Francis added that Jesus’ warning means that the only true fear one should have is of throwing one’s life away chasing things that do not ultimately matter.

“Even today, in fact, some are ridiculed or discriminated against for not following certain fads, which, however, place second-rate realities at the center – for example, to follow after things instead of people, achievement instead of relationships,” he said.

The pope gave the example of a priest or religious sister who dedicates his or her time to service, while forgetting to dedicate time to being with Jesus, falling into spiritual worldliness, or parents who spend all their time working to provide for their family without spending enough time with their children.

He added that young people can also get so caught up in sports, school, social media, and their cell phones that they focus too much of their time on “passing things.”

“All of this requires some renunciation regarding the idols of efficiency and consumerism. … Think of the least who are often treated like waste products and unwanted objects,” Pope Francis said.

“What matters is not to throw away the greatest good: life. This is the only thing that should frighten us,” he added.

After praying the Angelus prayer in Latin with the crowd gathered below in St. Peter’s Square, the pope gave a shoutout to volunteers with Radio Maria Italy who held up a long banner inviting everyone to place themselves “under the mantle” of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

The pope said that he was saddened to learn of the prison riot in the Támara Women’s Penitentiary Center in Honduras earlier this week in which 46 inmates were killed.

“Terrible violence between rival gangs sowed death and suffering,” he said. “I pray for the deceased, I pray for the family members. May the Virgin of Suyapa, Mother of Honduras, help hearts open to reconciliation and make room for fraternal coexistence, even within prisons.”

Pope Francis also marked the 40th anniversary of the disappearance of Emanuela Orlandi, the 15-year-old girl who went missing in Rome on June 22, 1983, after leaving her home in Vatican City State.

“I would like to use this anniversary to express, once again, my closeness to the family members, especially her mother, and assure them of my prayers. I extend a remembrance to all families who bear the sorrow of a dear one who has disappeared,” he said.

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Vatican City, Feb 6, 2019 / 11:34 am (CNA).- The Vatican clarified Wednesday Pope Francis’ comments on the sexual abuse of women religious made during his in-flight press conference returning from Abu Dhabi Feb. 5.

“When the Holy Father, referring to the dissolution of a Congregation, spoke of ‘sexual slavery,’ he meant ‘manipulation,’ a form of abuse of power that is also reflected in sexual abuse,” Holy See Press Office Interim Director Alessandro Gisotti said Feb. 6.

The clarification refers to a specific sentence in the pope’s response to a question regarding the sexual abuse of women religious by clerics.

Francis said Tuesday that, “Pope Benedict had the courage to dissolve a women’s congregation that had a certain level because this slavery of women had entered, even sexual slavery, by clerics or by the founder.”

The Holy See Press Office clarified that sexual manipulation had occurred within this women’s religious congregation, not actual sex slavery.

Gisotti later told CBS News that Pope Francis’ remarks referred to the Contemplative Sisters of Saint-Jean in France suppressed by Benedict XVI in 2013.

Sexual abuse of women religious by priests has been a recent subject in the women’s section of the Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano.

Recent reports have also suggested incidences of the abuse of women religious by clerics in Africa and Asia.

In India, a police investigation is ongoing into a case of an alleged abuse of a nun of the Missionaries of Jesus by a bishop. The religious sister has accused Bishop Franco Mulakkal of Jullunder of sexually assaulting her 13 times between 2014 and 2016.

The sister had said that she filed a complaint against Bishop Mulakkal in March 2018 with Cardinal George Alencherry, Major Archbishop of the Syro-Malabar Archdiocese of Ernakulam-Angamaly, and that he failed to report it to the police.

Mulakkal was removed from his responsibilities as Bishop of Jullundur, arrested Sept. 21, 2018, and then released on bail.

The pope said Feb. 5 he believes the problem is more common in some cultures than others but acknowledged that “there have been priests and also bishops who have done that. And I believe it may still be being done.”

The Church has “been working on this for a long time,” including through the suspension of clerics and the dissolution of some congregations involved in “corruption.”

“It’s a problem. The mistreatment of women is a problem,” the pope said. Asking for prayers, he added that he wants to go forward. “There are cases, yes,” he said, adding: “We are working.”

The issue was broached as the Vatican approaches a four-day meeting of the heads of bishops’ conferences and religious orders to discuss the sexual abuse of minors. The summit will be held Feb. 21-24.

In his response the pope also denounced the treatment of women as “second-class” and said it is often a cultural problem which in some countries can escalate even to the point of female babies being the targets of infanticide.

“I would dare to say that humanity still hasn’t matured” regarding the full equality of women, he said.

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Father Philip Goyret, an ecclesiology professor at Rome’s Pontifical University of the Holy Cross. | Credit: Photo courtesy of Father Philip Goyret

Jan 23, 2026 / 12:04 pm (CNA).
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