Pope Francis meets Bono at the launch of the Scholas Occurrentes International Educational Movement at the Pontifical Urban University in Rome, May 19, 2022. / Vatican Media.
Rome Newsroom, May 19, 2022 / 09:54 am (CNA).
Pope Francis formally launched an international educational movement on Thursday in the presence of U2 singer Bono.
The pope inaugurated the Scholas Occurrentes International Educational Movement on May 19 during a meeting with young people at Rome’s Pontifical Urban University.
The 85-year-old pope sat in a wheelchair as he watched student presentations, before engaging in a question-and-answer session.
Bono asked Pope Francis about the role of women and girls in tackling the climate crisis. The pope replied by pointing out that people speak of “Mother Earth,” not “Father Earth,” and indicating that women played a leading role.
Scholas Occurrentes grew out of the Escuela de Vecinos (“Neighborhood School”) and Escuelas Hermanas (“Sister Schools”) programs, developed by the future Pope Francis when he was archbishop of Buenos Aires, Argentina.
The organization was established as a pontifical foundation in 2015, charged with supporting poor and underserved communities around the world through education.
The pope signed a decree known as a chirograph on March 19 establishing the pontifical foundation as a private association of the faithful of an international character.
“Taking into account that the Pontifical Foundation Scholas Occurrentes today continues to expand its beneficial action and to structure itself as a community of communities and an educational movement of international character, it requires a new juridical form in keeping with this new reality,” said the decree, released by the Vatican on May 17.
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May 30, 2019: Migrants from Central America cross the U.S.-Mexico border at El Paso, Texas / Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico to seek asylum in the United States. / Mike Hardiman/Shutterstock
Washington D.C., Aug 25, 2021 / 16:35 pm (CNA).
Catho… […]
Pope Francis’ general audience of April 19, 2023. / Daniel Ibanez/CNA
Vatican City, Apr 19, 2023 / 04:15 am (CNA).
Even when not called to the particular grace of martyrdom, every Christian is called to testify to Christ through his or her life, Pope Francis said on Wednesday.
At his weekly audience with the public April 19, the pope quoted the Church’s dogmatic constitution, Lumen gentium, to highlight a Christian’s obligation to be a positive witness of the faith in both life and death.
“Although martyrdom is asked of only a few,” he said, “‘nevertheless all must be prepared to confess Christ before men. They must be prepared to make the profession of faith even in the midst of persecutions, which will never be lacking to the Church, in following the way of the cross.’”
Pope Francis’ general audience of April 19, 2023. Daniel Ibanez/CNA
Persecution of Christians, he added, is not just a thing of the past.
“The martyrs show us that every Christian is called to the witness of life, even when this does not go as far as the shedding of blood, making a gift of themselves to God and to their brethren, in imitation of Jesus,” he said.
Pope Francis spoke to a large crowd of people in St. Peter’s Square on a sunny, spring morning.
The current theme of his Wednesday general audiences is “the passion for evangelization.” On April 19, he focused on the topic of martyrdom and the witness it gives others about the Christian faith.
“Today we will turn our attention not to a single figure, but to the host of martyrs, men and women of every age, language, and nation who have given their life for Christ, who have shed their blood to confess Christ,” he said. “After the generation of the Apostles, they were the quintessential ‘witnesses’ of the Gospel.”
Pope Francis’ general audience of April 19, 2023. Daniel Ibanez/CNA
“The word ‘martyr’ derives from the Greek ‘martyria,’ which indeed means witness,” he explained.
Francis emphasized that the Christian martyrs are not individual heroes who acted alone, but are like a “ripe and excellent fruit of the vineyard of the Lord, which is the Church.”
“Christians,” he said, “by participating assiduously in the celebration of the Eucharist, were led by the Spirit to base their lives on that mystery of love: namely, on the fact that the Lord Jesus had given his life for them, and therefore that they too could and should give their life for him and for their brothers and sisters.”
He called Catholics to remember the many men and women who have given their lives for Christ over the more than 2,000-year history of the Church, especially the numerous martyrs of modern times.
Pope Francis’ general audience of April 19, 2023. Daniel Ibanez/CNA
Quoting again from Lumen gentium, he said, “the Second Vatican Council reminds us that ‘the Church considers martyrdom,’ this disciple, ‘as an exceptional gift and as the fullest proof of love. By martyrdom a disciple is transformed into an image of his Master by freely accepting death for the salvation of the world — as well as his conformity to Christ in the shedding of his blood.’”
Pope Francis concluded his message by naming some of the Church’s recent martyrs in the country of Yemen, including three Missionaries of Charity — Sister Aletta, Sister Zelia, and Sister Michael — who were shot dead in July 1998 while returning home from Mass.
He also recalled the March 2016 attack on the Missionaries of Charity in Aden, Yemen, in which a gunman killed 16 people, including Sister Anselm, Sister Marguerite, Sister Reginette, and Sister Judith. The Catholic missionary priest Father Tom Uzhunnalil was kidnapped in the attack. He was released 18 months later in September 2017.
Pope Francis’ general audience of April 19, 2023. Daniel Ibanez/CNA
The pope pointed out that some of the people killed in the 2016 shooting were Muslims who collaborated with the Missionaries of Charity in their work.
“It moves us to see how the witness of blood can unite people of different religions,” he said. “One should never kill in the name of God, because for him we are all brothers and sisters. But together one can give one’s life for others.”
“Let us pray, then, that we may never tire of bearing witness to the Gospel, even in times of tribulation,” Francis said. “May all the martyr saints be seeds of peace and reconciliation among peoples, for a more humane and fraternal world, as we await the full manifestation of the Kingdom of Heaven, when God will be all in all.”
Rome Newsroom, Mar 5, 2021 / 03:40 am (CNA).- Pope Francis met with Iraqi refugees in Rome early Friday before his flight to Baghdad.
The pope spent a few moments with about a dozen refugees from Iraq and Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, the papal almoner, … […]
3 Comments
“Bono asked Pope Francis about the role of women and girls in tackling the climate crisis. The pope replied by pointing out that people speak of ‘Mother Earth,’ not ‘Father Earth,’ and indicating that women played a leading role.”
The above is a reading from the gospel of climate change according to Pachamama Papa.
Save Us, O Lord!
Mother Earth needs tender care, love and protection. Proper and careful education is the way forward. All the best to Scholas Occurrentes International Educational Movement in its mission.
Indeed, Mother Earth does need tender care, love and protection. This was the commandment God gave to the human race when He addressed Adam in the Garden of Eden.
“Bono asked Pope Francis about the role of women and girls in tackling the climate crisis. The pope replied by pointing out that people speak of ‘Mother Earth,’ not ‘Father Earth,’ and indicating that women played a leading role.”
The above is a reading from the gospel of climate change according to Pachamama Papa.
Save Us, O Lord!
Mother Earth needs tender care, love and protection. Proper and careful education is the way forward. All the best to Scholas Occurrentes International Educational Movement in its mission.
Indeed, Mother Earth does need tender care, love and protection. This was the commandment God gave to the human race when He addressed Adam in the Garden of Eden.