Pope Francis greets new Swiss Guards as they prepare to be sworn in on May 6, 2024, at the Vatican. / Credit: Vatican Media
CNA Newsroom, Jan 18, 2025 / 09:00 am (CNA).
As millions of pilgrims are expected for the jubilee year in Rome, Pope Francis praised the patient service of the Swiss Guard and support for their families on Saturday.
Speaking at an audience marking the 25th anniversary of the Pontifical Swiss Guard Foundation, the pope emphasized how the guards’ patient service has become increasingly vital for managing pilgrim visits.
“Over time, the work of the Swiss Guard has changed considerably, but its aim remains always that of protecting the pope,” Francis said.
“This also involves contributing to the welcome of the many pilgrims from all over the world who wish to meet him. And this takes patience, and the guards have it!”
The foundation, established during the Great Jubilee of 2000, provides crucial support for guard families, particularly in education and professional development.
“I like the fact that the guards get married; I like the fact they have children, they have a family,” the pope said, noting the growing number of married guards with children. “This is very important, very important.”
Beyond family support, the foundation helps ensure the guards’ operational readiness through training programs and equipment updates. It also maintains contact with former guards who have returned home after Vatican service.
“I am in contact with some of those who remain very, very close to the Vatican, to the Church,” Francis said. “Sometimes they call on the phone, send something; when they pass through Rome, they visit me. It is a beautiful connection that I cherish.”
The pope pointed to the foundation’s work as exemplary of necessary collaboration within the Church. “No reality can proceed alone,” he said. “It is important to collaborate. We must all help each other and support each other.”
Pope Francis meets with members of the Pontifical Swiss Guard Foundation in the Vatican’s richly-frescoed Clementine Hall during an audience marking the organization’s 25th anniversary, Jan. 18, 2025. Credit: Vatican Media
Concluding the audience, Francis expressed “heartfelt gratitude” for the foundation’s 25 years of support and requested prayers while assuring the members of his own prayerful remembrance.
The Pontifical Swiss Guard, founded in 1506 by Pope Julius II, is among the oldest active military units in continuous operation. The first significant event of the 2025 Jubilee Year will be the World Communications Day gathering, scheduled for January 24-26, expected to draw thousands of media professionals to Rome.
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Pope Francis at the general audience at St. Peter’s Square on Oct. 18, 2023. / Credit: Vatican Media
Vatican City, Oct 18, 2023 / 09:57 am (CNA).
Pope Francis drew upon the example of St. Charles de Foucauld during his general audience Wednesday in his ongoing catechesis on apostolic zeal to stress the importance of centering our lives on Jesus.
At the end of his remarks at his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square Oct. 18, the pope called for peace in the Middle East and announced that Oct. 27 has been designated as a day of prayer and fasting.
Before the assembled faithful, the pope said the “first step” for evangelization and conversion is putting “Jesus at the center of one’s heart.”
The pope, however, admonished that “we risk talking about ourselves, our group, a morality, or, even worse, a set of rules, but not about Jesus, his love, his mercy.”
He added, in unscripted remarks: “I see this in some new movements that are arising: They talk about their vision of humanity, they talk about their spirituality and they feel they are on a new path… But why don’t you talk about Jesus? They talk about many things, about organization, about spiritual paths, but they don’t know how to talk about Jesus.”
Pope Francis presides over his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican on Oct. 18, 2023. Credit: Vatican Media
Epitomizing this love for the Eucharist was St. Charles de Foucauld, who was canonized by Pope Francis in 2022. Born in 1858, he dedicated his life to missionary work in the Sahara, living and working among the Tuareg people (a subgroup of Berber people).
After serving in the French cavalry, he went on to become a Trappist, going to serve the poor in Syria, an experience that had a profound impact on him and helped define his understanding of poverty. He later discerned out of the Trappists and went to Palestine, where he went to live close to the Poor Clares.
“It is in Nazareth that he realizes he must be formed in the school of Christ. He experiences an intense relationship with him, spends long hours reading the Gospels, and feels like his little brother. And as he gets to know Jesus, the desire to make Jesus known arises in him,” the pope said.
It was this time in Palestine that provided him with the inspiration to write his prolific works, including “Letters from the Desert,” “Hope in the Gospels,” and “Meditations of a Hermit.” These writings became the essence of his spiritual legacy, inspiring the formation of numerous future religious congregations. He was assassinated in 1916 at his hermitage in Tamanghasset in southern Algeria after being kidnapped by an armed tribal group associated with the Senussi Bedouins.
Pope Francis closed his 2020 encyclical on fraternity and social action Fratelli Tutti with a reflection on the saint, writing: “Blessed Charles directed his ideal of total surrender to God towards an identification with the poor, abandoned in the depths of the African desert. In that setting, he expressed his desire to feel himself a brother to every human being, and asked a friend to ‘pray to God that I truly be the brother of all.’ He wanted to be, in the end, ‘the universal brother.’ Yet only by identifying with the least did he come at last to be the brother of all. May God inspire that dream in each one of us.”
Pope Francis greets pilgrims at his general audience in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican on Oct. 18, 2023. Credit: Vatican Media
Pope Francis, in today’s catechism, noted that while de Foucauld lived “a youth far from God” he converted “by accepting the grace of God’s forgiveness in confession.” He was someone who “drawing upon his intense experience of God, made a journey of transformation towards feeling a brother to all,” the pope said, quoting Fratelli Tutti.
In contrast to the life of de Foucauld, the pope lamented the loss of Eucharistic devotion today. “I am convinced that we have lost the sense of adoration; we must take it up again, starting with us consecrated people, the bishops, the priests, the nuns, and all the consecrated people. ‘Wasting’ time in front of the tabernacle, to take up again the sense of adoration,” the pope said in an unscripted remark.
The pope presented the life of de Foucauld as an antidote to this tendency, saying that we “by kneeling and welcoming the action of the Spirit, who always inspires new ways to engage, meet, listen and dialogue, always in collaboration and trust, always in communion with the Church and pastors.”
“Every Christian is an apostle,” the pope said, quoting de Foucauld. In this way, he continued, “Charles foreshadows the times of Vatican Council II. He intuits the importance of the laity and understands that the proclamation of the Gospel is up to the entire people of God.”
The Holy Father concluded Wednesday’s general audience by renewing his appeal for peace in the Holy Land. “My thoughts turn to Palestine and Israel. Victims are increasing and the situation in Gaza is desperate. Please do everything possible to avoid a humanitarian catastrophe,” the pope pleaded.
He added: “War does not solve any problem… It increases hatred and multiplies revenge. War erases the future; it erases the future.”
In calling for a day of prayer and fasting , the pope invited members of other faiths to join an interfaith prayer vigil for peace on Oct. 27 at 6 p.m. in St. Peter’s Square.
On March 23, the Congregation for Catholic Education (for Educational Institutions)1 issued an “Instruction,” “The identity of the Catholic school for a culture of dialogue.” The focus here is on elementary/primary schools and secondary/high schools […]
Cardinal Pietro Parolin attends an ordination at the Basilica of Sant’Eugenio in Rome, Sept. 5, 2020. / Daniel Ibáñez/CNA.
Vatican City, Jan 18, 2022 / 07:05 am (CNA).
Cardinal Pietro Parolin and Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra have tested positive for COVID-19, the Holy See press office confirmed on Tuesday.
Parolin, the Vatican Secretary of State, has “very mild” symptoms, while his Venezuelan substitute, Peña Parra, is asymptomatic, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni told journalists on Jan. 18.
Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra meets with Pope Francis in Vatican City on August 17, 2018. . Vatican Media
Both members of the Roman Curia were fully vaccinated and had received booster shots.
Earlier this week, Parolin, who travels frequently for his diplomatic role, canceled a trip to Erba in northern Italy scheduled for Feb 6. The cardinal turned 67 on Jan. 17.
Parolin issued further coronavirus restrictions within Vatican City last month, requiring people to provide either proof of vaccination against COVID-19 or evidence of recovery from it to enter Vatican offices.
Swiss Guards – those beautifully attired young guys are serving the pilgrims with dedication and respect. May they and their loved ones be blessed.