Vatican City, Oct 14, 2020 / 08:00 am (CNA).- Pope Francis met with the parents of a slain Italian priest before the general audience Wednesday.
The pope referred to the meeting with the family of Fr. Roberto Malgesini during his general audience address Oct. 14 in the Paul VI Audience Hall at the Vatican.
He said: “Before entering the Hall, I met the parents of that priest of the Diocese of Como who was killed: he was killed precisely in his service to others. The tears of those parents are their own tears, and each one of them knows how much he or she has suffered in seeing this son who gave his life in service to the poor.”
He continued: “When we want to console somebody, we cannot find the words. Why? Because we cannot arrive at his or her pain, because her sorrows are her own, his tears are his own. The same is true of us: the tears, the sorrow, the tears are mine, and with these tears, with this sorrow I turn to the Lord.”
Malgesini, who was known for his care for the homeless and migrants, was stabbed to death Sept. 15 in the northern Italian city of Como.
The day following Malgesini’s death, Pope Francis said: “I praise God for the witness, that is, for the martyrdom, of this witness of charity towards the poorest.”
The pope noted that the priest had been killed “by a person in need whom he himself helped, a person with a mental illness.”
Papal almoner Cardinal Konrad Krajewski represented the pope at Malgesini’s funeral Sept. 19.
Bishop Oscar Cantoni of Como was also present at the meeting with the pope and Malgesini’s parents.
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Sheila Dinotshe Tlou, a nurse and professor of nursing education from Botswana, has played a leading role in HIV/AIDS prevention and other health causes. Her appointment to the Pontifical Academy for Life was announced on Oct. 15, 2022. / Screen… […]
Vatican City, Nov 24, 2017 / 09:26 am (CNA/EWTN News).- One of the Vatican’s top diplomatic voices has criticized U.S. President Donald Trump’s recent decision to end the Temporary Protected Status of thousands of Haitians taking refuge in the U.S., saying the country isn’t yet ready for the influx after a slew of natural disasters devastated the island nation.
“That’s a sad decision, because the Haitian population in the U.S. that arrived after the earthquake and after the storm that destroyed half of the island, cannot go back to a situation that still is very difficult,” Archbishop Silvano Tomasi told CNA Nov. 24.
Reconstruction in Haiti following the brutal 2010 earthquake that left hundreds of thousands dead before Hurricane Matthew struck in 2016, causing further devastation, “is not well-advanced,” Tomasi said, “because there are not enough resources for the people of Haiti.”
“We hope in the months ahead that there will still be some space to negotiate and delay, and continue the protection of status for Haitians in the United States.”
Archbishop Tomasi was formerly the Holy See’s Permanent Observer to the United Nations in Geneva, and is now Counselor for the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development.
He spoke during the Nov. 24 presentation of Pope Francis’ message for the 2018 World Day of Peace, titled “Migrants and Refugees: men and women in search of peace,” and dedicated entirely to the issue of migration.
The message comes just four days after Trump administration announced it will be ending protected legal residency for an estimated 60,000 Haitians living in the U.S., giving them until July 2019 to return to their country.
Thousands of Haitians flocked to the United States in 2010 following a catastrophic earthquake that measured at 7.0 on the Richter scale and which killed more than 200,000, displaced more than 1 million, and destroyed thousands of homes and businesses in and around the country’s capital, Port-au-Prince.
The Department of Homeland Security announced Monday that the “extraordinary conditions” necessitating TPS for Haitians in the United States “no longer exists.”
TPS, a policy begun in 1990, allows people who are unable safely to return to their home nations because of armed conflict, other violence, natural disasters, or other extraordinary and temporary circumstances to remain in the United States while the situation in their home country resolves.
However, the Trump administration’s decision Monday has raised the question for many as to whether Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, will be able to support an influx of 60,000 people returning home after seven years.
As far as the Holy See is concerned, Tomasi said they are working with local bishops conferences and the apostolic nunciature in Washington D.C. “to sensitize…public opinion” on the issue, and to “deal with politically irresponsible people.”
They are also hoping to illustrate “the fact that we need not only to be compassionate, but to be attentive to the need of these populations, which is a fact that is of benefit also to the United States because it will create an area of peace and cooperation not only in the Caribbean, but in the region.”
When it comes to the migration issue, Tomasi said it’s important to go beyond polemics and heated rhetoric.
Looking to what the reaction of many European countries has been to the arrival of refugees or asylum seekers, he said “there has been a multiplication of political parties where xenophobia dominates the goal of these organizations.”
“The solution is not to emphasize only security and control,” he said, but also involves thinking about how to welcome incoming migrants and refugees while taking into account “that the common good demands that both the necessity of the people arriving be taken into account, but also the limits that local communities welcoming them, accepting them, objectively have.”
“The important consideration I think is not to be too selfish, but to be open, to have a heart that is understanding and compassionate,” he said, adding that “we need to be men and women of compassion and empathy with the needs of others.”
Pope Francis smiles at pilgrims during his Wednesday general audience in the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall on Aug. 9, 2023. / Daniel Ibanez/CNA
Vatican City, Aug 9, 2023 / 03:40 am (CNA).
Pope Francis said Wednesday he likes to invoke the Virgin Mary under the title of “Our Lady ‘in haste,’” because she is always ready to swiftly intercede for her children’s requests.
“At World Youth Day, the Gospel proposed to young people the model of the Virgin Mary. At her most critical moment, [Mary] goes to visit her cousin Elizabeth. The Gospel says ‘she arose and went in haste,’” the pope said at his weekly audience in the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall Aug. 9.
“I really like to invoke Our Lady in this aspect,” Francis added. “Our Lady ‘in haste,’ who always gets things done quickly, never keeps us waiting, because she is the mother of all.”
“Mary arose and went with haste,” from Luke 1:39, was the theme of World Youth Day 2023 in Lisbon, Portugal. The international gathering of Catholic youth, held Aug. 1-6, drew around 1.5 million people to its closing vigil and Mass with Pope Francis.
Pilgrims at the Wednesday general audience Aug. 9, 2023 hold up an image of the Virgin Mary. Daniel Ibanez/CNA
Pope Francis resumed his Wednesday general audience Aug. 9 after traveling Aug. 2-6 to Portugal and taking a break during the month of July.
While in Portugal, Francis also stopped at the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima, where he prayed a rosary with sick young adults.
“Just as she did a century ago in Portugal, at Fatima, when she addressed three children, entrusting them with a message of faith and hope for the Church and the world,” the pope said, “today, in the third millennium, Mary still guides the pilgrimage of young people in following Jesus.”
He said he prayed at the place of the apparitions that God would heal the world of the diseases of the soul: “pride, lies, enmity, violence.”
“We renewed the consecration of ourselves, of Europe, of the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. And I prayed for peace, because there are so many wars in the world, so many,” he added.
On his return flight to Rome from Lisbon Aug. 6, Pope Francis said in Fatima he prayed a private prayer for peace, though he opted to skip reading aloud a prayer that consecrated the Church and “countries at war” to the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Francis said his second visit to Portugal “benefited from the festive atmosphere of… the wave of young people” in attendance at World Youth Day.
“It was not a vacation, a tourist trip, nor even a spiritual event closed on its self,” he said. “The Youth Day is an encounter with Christ through the Church. Young people go to encounter Christ.”
“While in Ukraine and other places in the world there is fighting, and while in certain hidden halls war is planned — it’s terrible, isn’t it? War is planned — World Youth Day showed everyone that another way is possible: a world of brothers and sisters, where the flags of all peoples fly together, next to each other, without hatred, without fear, without closing up, without weapons,” the pope said to an outbreak of applause.
“The message of the young people was clear: will the ‘great of the earth’ listen to it? I ask myself: will they listen to this young enthusiasm that wants peace?” he said.
“It is,” he continued, “a parable for our time, and even today Jesus says: ‘He who has ears, let him hear! He who has eyes, let him look!’ We hope that the whole world will listen to this Youth Day and look to this beauty of youth going forward.”
At the end of his audience, Pope Francis expressed his closeness to the people of Slovenia and Georgia, who have experienced devastating natural disasters this week, including flooding and landslides.
In Slovenia, at least six people have died, while in Georgia, at least 16 were killed and 35 more are missing, according to local officials.
“I pray for the victims and express my spiritual closeness to their families and to all those who are suffering as a result of these disasters, while I thank those who have offered them assistance, especially the volunteers,” the pope said.
Francis also noted the Catholic Church’s celebration of the feast of St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, also known as Edith Stein, a co-patroness of Europe.
“May her witness stimulate commitment to dialogue and fraternity among peoples and against all forms of violence and discrimination,” he said. “To her intercession we entrust the dear people of Ukraine, that they may soon find peace again.”
Sad loss. Long live the memory of the heroic sacrifices of Father Roberto Malgesini. Eternal rest grant unto him O Lord and let your perpetual light shine upon the departed soul. Strength and courage to his parents and to all his loved ones.
Sad loss. Long live the memory of the heroic sacrifices of Father Roberto Malgesini. Eternal rest grant unto him O Lord and let your perpetual light shine upon the departed soul. Strength and courage to his parents and to all his loved ones.