Cardinal Baldassare Reina celebrates Mass on Day 3 of the Novendiales Masses for Pope Francis on April 28, 2025, in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican. / Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNA
CNA Newsroom, Apr 28, 2025 / 18:42 pm (CNA).
Cardinal Baldassare Reina urged the faithful to “discern and order” the late pontiff’s reform initiatives while acknowledging the sense of loss felt by Rome’s Catholics in his homily on the third day of “Novendiales” Masses for Pope Francis.
Speaking at St. Peter’s Basilica on Monday, April 28, the 54-year-old vicar general for the Diocese of Rome described how the faithful feel like “sheep without a shepherd” following the pontiff’s death.
“I think of the multiple reform processes of Church life initiated by Pope Francis, which extend beyond religious affiliations. People recognized him as a universal pastor,” Reina said. “These people carry concern in their hearts, and I seem to discern in them a question: What will become of the processes that have begun?”
Cardinals celebrate Mass on Day 3 of the Novendiales Masses for Pope Francis on April 28, 2025, in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican. Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNA
The Italian cardinal, who will vote in the conclave scheduled to begin May 7, said that true fidelity requires continuing the path set by Pope Francis rather than retreating from it.
“Our duty must be to discern and order what has begun, in light of what our mission demands of us, moving toward a new heaven and a new earth, adorning the Bride (the Church) for the Bridegroom,” he stated.
Drawing on the Gospel of John, Reina reflected on the parable of the grain of wheat that must die to bear fruit, comparing it to Christians becoming “seeds” willing to be spent for new life. He warned against responding to current challenges with fear or worldly compromise.
Cardinals celebrate Mass on Day 3 of the Novendiales Masses for Pope Francis on April 28, 2025, in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican. Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNA
“This cannot be the time for balancing acts, tactics, caution, instincts to turn back, or, worse, revenge and power alliances, but rather we need a radical disposition to enter into God’s dream entrusted to our poor hands,” the cardinal emphasized.
He concluded his homily with a tribute to Pope Francis, comparing the pontiff’s final Easter Sunday appearance to the radical act of sowing described in Scripture: “That extreme, total, exhausting gesture of the sower made me think of Pope Francis’ Easter Sunday, of that outpouring of blessings and embraces to his people, the day before he died. The final act of his tireless sowing of the announcement of God’s mercies. Thank you, Pope Francis.”
In closing, the cardinal invoked the Blessed Virgin Mary, venerated in Rome as “Salus Populi Romani,” to accompany and protect the Church.
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Pope Francis waves during the weekly general audience in the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall on Dec. 28, 2022. / Credit: Vatican Media.
Vatican City, Dec 28, 2022 / 10:30 am (CNA).
Pope Francis Wednesday published a message on St. Francis de Sales, a saint who teaches us that “devotion [to God] is meant for everyone, in every situation.”
The pope’s apostolic letter, titled Totum amoris est, or “Everything Pertains to Love,” was published on Dec. 28, the 400th anniversary of St. Francis de Sales’ death in 1622.
The title comes from the preface of the Swiss saint’s book “Treatise on the Love of God,” in which he wrote that “In Holy Church, everything pertains to love, lives in love, is done for love and comes from love.”
St. Francis de Sales was a priest and bishop who taught against Protestant heresies and encouraged holiness in all people, no matter their vocation. He is known for his spiritual writings, including two books that are still widely read today: “An Introduction to the Devout Life” and “Treatise on the Love of God.” In 1877, he was proclaimed a Doctor of the Church.
“On this anniversary of the fourth centenary of his death, I have given much thought to the legacy of Saint Francis de Sales for our time,” Pope Francis said in his apostolic letter. “I find that his flexibility and his far-sighted vision have much to say to us.”
“Today he bids us set aside undue concern for ourselves, for our structures and for what society thinks about us, and consider instead the real spiritual needs and expectations of our people,” the pope noted.
Saint Francis de Sales, painted by Francisco Bayeu y Subías. Wikimedia (CC0)
Commenting on St. Francis de Sales’ teachings, Pope Francis said “devotion is meant for everyone, in every situation, and each of us can practice it in accordance with our own vocation.”
“As Saint Paul VI wrote on the fourth centenary of the birth of Francis de Sales, ‘Holiness is not the prerogative of any one group, but an urgent summons addressed to every Christian: “Friend, come up higher” (Lk 14:10). All of us are called to ascend the mountain of God, albeit not each by the same path.’”
“Devotion,” Paul VI said, quoting St. Francis, “must be practiced differently by the gentleman, the craftsman, the chamberlain, the prince, the widow, the young woman, the wife. Moreover, the practice of devotion must be adapted to the abilities, affairs and duties of each.”
False Devotion
In his letter, Pope Francis reflected on what St. Francis de Sales called “false devotion” and its relevance for our spiritual lives today.
Saint Francis de Sales. Kelson / Wikimedia (CC0)
“Francis’ description of false devotion is delightful and ever timely. Everyone can relate to it, since he salts it with good humor,” the pope explained.
De Sales wrote: “Someone attached to fasting will consider himself devout because he doesn’t eat, even though his heart is filled with bitterness; and while, out of love for sobriety, he will not let a drop of wine, or even water, touch his tongue, he will not scruple to drench it in the blood of his neighbor through gossip and slander. Another will consider himself devout because all day long he mumbles a string of prayers, yet remains heedless of the evil, arrogant and hurtful words that his tongue hurls at his servants and neighbors. Yet another will readily open his purse to give alms to the poor, but cannot wring an ounce of mercy from his heart in order to forgive his enemies. Another still will pardon his enemies, yet never even think of paying his debts; it will take a lawsuit to make him do so.”
“All these,” Pope Francis said, “of course, are perennial vices and struggles, and they lead the saint to conclude that ‘all these fine people, commonly considered devout, most surely are not.’”
True Devotion
The pope explained that St. Francis de Sales taught that true devotion, instead, is found in “God’s life dwelling within our hearts.”
“True and lively devotion presupposes the love of God; indeed, it is none other than a genuine, and not generic, love of God,” the saint said.
Saint Francis de Sales giving Saint Jeanne de Chantal the rule of the order of the Visitation /. null
Pope Francis said: “In Francis’ lively language, devotion is ‘a sort of spiritual alertness and energy whereby charity acts within us or, we act by means of it, with promptness and affection.’ For this reason, devotion does not exist alongside charity, but is one of its manifestations, while at the same time leading back to it.”
“Devotion is like a flame with regard to fire: it increases the intensity of charity without altering its quality,” the pope said, adding a quote from St. Francis de Sales, who said: “Charity is a spiritual fire that, when fanned into flame, is called devotion. Devotion thus adds nothing to the fire of charity but the flame that makes charity prompt, active and diligent, not only in the observance of God’s commandments but also in the exercise of his divine counsels and inspirations.”
“Understood in this way, devotion is far from something abstract,” the pope said. “Rather, it becomes a style of life, a way of living immersed in our concrete daily existence. It embraces and discovers meaning in the little things: food and dress, work and relaxation, love and parenthood, conscientiousness in the fulfillment of our duties. In a word, it sheds light on the vocation of each individual.”
Love
Pope Francis also reflected on St. Francis de Sales’ teachings on love as “the first act and principle of our devout or spiritual life.”
Mosaic of Sales on the exterior of St. Francis de Sales Oratory in St. Louis, Missouri. RickMorais / Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
“The source of this love that attracts the heart is the life of Jesus Christ,” he explained. “‘Nothing sways the human heart as much as love,’ and this is most evident in the fact that ‘Jesus Christ died for us; he gave us life through his death. We live only because he died, and died for us, as ours and in us.’”
“These words are profoundly moving; they reveal not only a clear and insightful understanding of the relationship between God and humanity, but also the deep bond of affection between Francis de Sales and the Lord Jesus,” the pope said. “The ecstasy of life and action is no abstract reality, but shines forth in the charity of Christ that culminates on the cross. That love, far from mortifying our existence, makes it radiate with extraordinary brightness.”
Pope Francis’ general audience of April 19, 2023. / Daniel Ibanez/CNA
Vatican City, Nov 21, 2023 / 04:55 am (CNA).
Pope Francis has expressed deep reservations about the direction of the Catholic Church in Germany, warning that concrete steps currently being taken “threaten” to undermine unity with the universal Church.
In a striking personal intervention, the pope wrote a letter to four German Catholic laywomen that was published in the German newspaper Welt on Nov. 21.
“I, too, share concerns about the numerous concrete steps that large parts of this local church are now taking that threaten to move further and further away from the common path of the universal Church,” the pope wrote in his letter, which was written in German and signed “Francis.”
Chief among the pope’s concerns is a push to establish a permanent “Synodal Council,” a mixed body of laity and bishops that would govern the Catholic Church in Germany. The pope underscored that this kind of “advisory and decision-making body … cannot be reconciled with the sacramental structure of the Catholic Church,” and referenced a previous prohibition the Vatican had issued on the topic.
Leadership of the controversial German Synodal Way recently met in Essen on November 10. They aim to establish a Synodal Council in Germany no later than 2026.
The pope proposed a different path forward for the Church in Germany.
“Instead of looking for ‘salvation’ in ever new committees and always discussing the same topic with a certain self-absorption,” the pope urged the Catholic Church in Germany to “open up and go out to meet our brothers and sisters, especially those who are … on the thresholds of our church doors, on the streets, in the prisons, in the hospitals, in the squares and in the cities.”
Archbishop Timothy Broglio, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, speaks at the USCCB fall plenary assembly Nov. 14, 2023. / Credit: USCCB video
Vatican City, Jan 31, 2025 / 11:10 am (CNA).
Archbishop Timothy Broglio defended th… […]
2 Comments
We read: “Our duty must be to discern and order what has begun [….] This cannot be the time for balancing acts, tactics, caution, instincts to turn back…”
Two quotes, a question, and a summary:
FIRST, what if the “order” of stuff is larger than what has “begun”? In the LOGOS, what is the real mix of mercy with truth,” as in “Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and forever” (Heb 13:8), a phrase which the creative Second Vatican Council thought necessary to repeat (Dei Verbum) as in not (!) turning the clock back…but setting it right.
SECOND, about the lowly “instincts” of backwardist cardinals versus the lofty predisposition (!) of better positioned cardinals, some real inquirers and discerners might recall the following from a mere layman born too early to synodalize:
“Being, the creative principle properly so called is, strictly speaking, unknown and unknowable, except so far as it manifests itself in the second and third [‘hypostasis’]: the second ‘hypostasis,’ the principle of intelligence, reveals itself as the ‘logos,’ ‘ratio,’ or order of the universe; while the third, the ‘hypostasis of spirit,’ is the principle of motion therein. To assert that these ‘hyposteses’ are uncreated is simply to assert their existence as principles [!]. As such they are not to be ‘confused’ in person; being is not to be resolved into order, NOR IS ORDER TO BE RESOLVED INTO PROCESS [!]” (Charles Norris Cochrane, “Christianity and Classical Culture: A Study of Thought and Action from Augustus to Augustine,” Oxford, 1940/1974, CAPS added).
THIRD, how to reconcile these principles with the truncated four “process” principles (termed “principles”) superimposed in italics on the Gospel, in the bellwether Evangelii Gaudium (2013)? Now, by a two-thirds conclave vote, how to at least recognize the the order and the moral absolutes referenced in the “dubia”? That is:
Is “time is greater than space” ever at risk of flattening into Historicism?
Is “unity prevails over conflict” ever at risk of flattening into Managerialism?
Is “realities are more important than ideas” ever at risk of flattening into Nominalism?
Is “the whole is greater than the part” ever at risk of flattening into Proportionalism and Consequentialism?
SUMMARY: The hour is late…. About supposedly turning the clock back, what time is it?
If you’re driving on a wet road during a bad storm and see that the bridge in front of you is out, turning around would be a good idea. Pope Francis is like a bad case of food poisoning. You grin and bear it while it lasts and then leave it behind once it’s done.
We read: “Our duty must be to discern and order what has begun [….] This cannot be the time for balancing acts, tactics, caution, instincts to turn back…”
Two quotes, a question, and a summary:
FIRST, what if the “order” of stuff is larger than what has “begun”? In the LOGOS, what is the real mix of mercy with truth,” as in “Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and forever” (Heb 13:8), a phrase which the creative Second Vatican Council thought necessary to repeat (Dei Verbum) as in not (!) turning the clock back…but setting it right.
SECOND, about the lowly “instincts” of backwardist cardinals versus the lofty predisposition (!) of better positioned cardinals, some real inquirers and discerners might recall the following from a mere layman born too early to synodalize:
“Being, the creative principle properly so called is, strictly speaking, unknown and unknowable, except so far as it manifests itself in the second and third [‘hypostasis’]: the second ‘hypostasis,’ the principle of intelligence, reveals itself as the ‘logos,’ ‘ratio,’ or order of the universe; while the third, the ‘hypostasis of spirit,’ is the principle of motion therein. To assert that these ‘hyposteses’ are uncreated is simply to assert their existence as principles [!]. As such they are not to be ‘confused’ in person; being is not to be resolved into order, NOR IS ORDER TO BE RESOLVED INTO PROCESS [!]” (Charles Norris Cochrane, “Christianity and Classical Culture: A Study of Thought and Action from Augustus to Augustine,” Oxford, 1940/1974, CAPS added).
THIRD, how to reconcile these principles with the truncated four “process” principles (termed “principles”) superimposed in italics on the Gospel, in the bellwether Evangelii Gaudium (2013)? Now, by a two-thirds conclave vote, how to at least recognize the the order and the moral absolutes referenced in the “dubia”? That is:
Is “time is greater than space” ever at risk of flattening into Historicism?
Is “unity prevails over conflict” ever at risk of flattening into Managerialism?
Is “realities are more important than ideas” ever at risk of flattening into Nominalism?
Is “the whole is greater than the part” ever at risk of flattening into Proportionalism and Consequentialism?
SUMMARY: The hour is late…. About supposedly turning the clock back, what time is it?
If you’re driving on a wet road during a bad storm and see that the bridge in front of you is out, turning around would be a good idea. Pope Francis is like a bad case of food poisoning. You grin and bear it while it lasts and then leave it behind once it’s done.