Pope Francis entrusts Canada trip to the Blessed Virgin Mary

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ACI Prensa Staff, Jan 17, 2024 / 07:00 am (CNA).
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CNA Staff, Sep 14, 2020 / 01:01 pm (CNA).- Bishop Philip Egan of Portsmouth wrote Sunday to the people of his diocese encouraging them to return to churches for Mass and private prayer.

He wrote to Catholics and “to everyone of good will, to those ‘with ears to hear’, to anyone searching for God, and to all who wish to meet His Son, Jesus Christ and to know more about His Gospel. I say to you all: Come back! Come back to Mass! Come back to church for private prayer! Come back to visit Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament! You are truly welcome – we have missed you!”

Bishop Egan’s pastoral letter, ‘Come back to me’ says the Lord, was issued Sept. 13.

He called the recent months of the coronavirus pandemic ‘extraordinary’, and noted the hard work of medical staff and key workers, as well as what has been done in the Diocese of Portsmouth by priests, parishioners, and chaplains.

“Now that schools and many others are returning to work, let us keep up this good work,” he exhorted. “Let us keep safe. And let us ask the Lord for an end to the pandemic, the invention of a vaccine and the restoration or ordinary life.”

Bishop Egan wrote that “in inviting you back to Mass, I am aware that in some places and for some of you – those self-shielding, the sick, the vulnerable – this will not yet be possible. Moreover, we are aware too that the infection-rate is varying, and we might even face a local lockdown. Indeed, for everyone it will require care, prudence and adjustments. It might mean attending Mass on a weekday instead of a Sunday.”

He indicated that most of the churches in the diocese are now open, with “stringent safety procedures,” and asked for volunteers to assist in these efforts.

“The pandemic has shown us how fragile modern life is,” he reflected. “It has caused us to review our priorities. It has made us face our mortality and the question of God.”

The bishop said that “it is in our churches that the Lord sanctifies, teaches and guides us, uniting us together, giving us the Sacraments of eternal life, and sending us out on mission and service.”

While many “followed Mass online,” he noted that “online has its place and we thank God for all the work done to enable this. But online is not the same as ‘inline’ and being there. It’s not the same as actually receiving Jesus in Holy Communion. It’s not the same as participating in the presence of the eucharistic community.”

“This is why I say: Come back to the Lord to be nourished by His Word and His Sacraments,” Bishop Egan exclaimed.

While the canonical obligation to assist at Mass on Sundays and Holy Days is suspended in the Portsmouth diocese, he asked, “surely, we do not follow Jesus our Lord and Master simply out of habit or duty? No, we follow Him because we love Him. We follow Him because He has called us. We follow Him because He is our Saviour: He has laid down His life for us.”

Beginning Sept. 14, England has imposed a “rule of six” on both indoor and outdoor social gatherings, including in private homes. Gatherings of more than six persons are not allowed, though the rule to not apply to places of worship, as well as schools, workplaces, gyms, and organized team sports.

Individuals participating in gatherings of seven or more face a fine, starting at GBP 100 ($129). The UK police minister has encouraged people to report their neighbors who have had gatherings of more than six.

The government permitted public Masses to resume in England beginning July 4. Masses had been suspended March 20, and churches were closed beginning March 23.

The UK bishops ordered the closing of churches in March, even though houses of worship were exempted from the government’s stay-at-home order. Churches were allowed to reopen for private prayer from June 15.

In a March 19 pastoral letter, Bishop Egan had written to his flock saying, “let us keep our churches open for prayer,” while suspending the public celebration of Mass. He issued a decree that day stating that “all churches should be kept open during the day for the faithful to visit and to pray before the Blessed Sacrament.”

In a March 24 decree “in response to new government restrictions” he stated that “all churchesand chapels in the Diocese of Portsmouth are to be closed with immediate effect until further notice.”

According to the World Health Organization, as of Sept. 6 the UK had 344,168 cumulative cases of Covid-19, and 41,549 deaths.

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Pope Francis delivers a video message to the conference “100 Years Since the ‘Concilium Sinense’” at the Pontifical Urban University in Rome on Tuesday, May 21, 2024. / Credit: Fabio Gonnella/EWTN

Rome Newsroom, May 21, 2024 / 13:57 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis has praised the Catholic Church’s first council in China 100 years ago as “an authentic synodal journey” that opened the way for the Church in China “to increasingly have a Chinese face.”

In a video message to a conference in Rome on the Catholic Church in China, the pope noted that Chinese Catholics have endured “times of patience and trial” in the past century.

“The Lord in China has safeguarded the faith of the people of God along the way. And the faith of God’s people has been the compass that has shown the way throughout this time,” Pope Francis said in the May 21 address.

The pope pointed to a Church council that took place in Shanghai 25 years before the Chinese Communist Revolution as an example of a moment when “the communion between the Holy See and the Church in China manifested its fruits, fruits of good for all the Chinese people.” 

The 1924 council, called the Primum Concilium Sinense, brought together 105 Catholic missionaries, bishops, and Chinese Catholics to establish a framework for a native Chinese hierarchy.

“The Fathers gathered in the Concilium Sinense lived an authentically synodal experience and made important decisions together,” Pope Francis said.

“Remembering the Council of Shanghai can also suggest today new paths to the entire Church and open paths to be undertaken with boldness to proclaim and bear witness to the Gospel in the present,” he added. 

Among the crowd listening to the pope’s video message were representatives from the People’s Republic of China, including Bishop Shen Bin of Shanghai, who was unilaterally installed by Chinese authorities as bishop of Shanghai in April 2023 without a papal mandate, thereby breaking the terms of the Vatican-China deal. Pope Francis confirmed his appointment in July 2023.

The Holy See first entered into a provisional two-year agreement with Beijing on the appointment of bishops in 2018, which has since been renewed twice and is again up for renewal this fall. 

Pope Francis opted not to speak of the Vatican’s diplomatic efforts with Beijing or religious freedom in China in his message but said that Chinese Catholics today “bear witness to their faith through works of mercy and charity, and in their witness they give a real contribution to the harmony of social coexistence.”

A large statue of Our Lady of Sheshan stood on the pope’s desk as he spoke. The pope noted that during the month of May many Chinese Catholics usually go on pilgrimage to the Marian Shrine of Sheshan, located near Shanghai.

“I too ideally climb the hill of Sheshan, and let us all together entrust to Mary, Help of Christians, our brothers and sisters in the faith who are in China, all the Chinese people, and all our poor world, asking for her intercession, so that peace may always win everywhere,” Pope Francis said.

Following the pope’s message, Shen Bin delivered a 15-minute speech in Chinese to the packed auditorium of the Pontifical Urban University on the Janiculum Hill overlooking St. Peter’s Basilica.

The Chinese bishop offered a different interpretation of the 1924 council from the pope in his speech, saying that “the Council of Shanghai did not lead to an immediate and radical change in the Church in China,” adding that by the 1949 Communist Revolution “only 29 of China’s 137 dioceses had Chinese bishops, and only three of 20 archbishops were Chinese.”

“The Catholic Church in China had not really freed itself from foreign powers to become a work led by Chinese Christians and had not yet managed to shed the label of ‘foreign religion,’” he said.

Shen Bin, who has held leadership positions in the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association established by the Chinese Communist Party and under the control of the United Front Work Department, went on to defend Beijing’s religious freedom record and underlined the need for the Church in China to “follow a path of sinicization.”

“The policy of religious freedom implemented by the Chinese government has no interest in changing the Catholic faith but only hopes that the Catholic clergy and faithful will defend the interests of the Chinese people and free themselves from the control of foreign powers,” Shen Bin said in his speech.

“Today the Chinese people are carrying out the great rebirth of the Chinese nation in a global way with Chinese-style modernization, and the Catholic Church in China must move in the same direction, following a path of sinicization that is in line with Chinese society and culture today,” the Shanghai bishop added.

The conference, titled “100 Years Since the ‘Concilium Sinense’: Between History and the Present,” was held in Chinese and Italian in the Great Hall of the Pontifical Urban University. The Pastoral Commission for China and Agenzia Fides, the information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies, organized the conference, which featured Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin and Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle as speakers.

Speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the conference, Parolin said the Holy See would like to increase and deepen its contacts in China.

“We have been hoping for a long time now to have a stable presence in China, even if initially it may not have the form of a papal representation of an apostolic nunciature,” Parolin said.

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