Fr. Vitus Borogo, who was killed by armed bandits in Nigeria’s Kaduna state, June 25, 2022. / CBCN
Denver Newsroom, Jun 26, 2022 / 13:49 pm (CNA).
Two priests were killed over the weekend in Nigeria, one in Kaduna state and one in Edo state.Fr…. […]
Pope Francis delivers the Angelus address in St. Peter’s Square, June 12, 2022. / Vatican Media
Denver Newsroom, Jun 26, 2022 / 08:36 am (CNA).
Following his Angelus address on Sunday, Pope Francis remarked on the killing of Sister Luisa Dell’Orto, an Italian missionary who served in Haiti.
Sister Luisa, a Little Sister of the Gospel of Saint Charles de Foucauld, was killed the day before in the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince.
“For twenty years, Sister Luisa lived there, dedicated above all to serving children on the streets,” the pope said June 26 in St. Peter’s Square.
“I entrust her soul to God, and I pray for the Haitian people, especially for the least, so they might have a more serene future, without misery and without violence. Sister Luisa made a gift of her life to others even to martyrdom.”
He added an expression of closeness to Sister Luisa’s family and to the Little Sisters of the Gospel of Saint Charles de Foucauld.
Sister Luisa, who was 64, was born in Lucca, in Italy’s Lombardy region.
She was apparently the victim of an attempted robbery. She died in hospital.
Born in 1957, she had joined the religious congregation in 1984. Before going to Haiti, she had served in Cameroon and Madagascar.
Port-au-Prince has seen a wave of kidnappings and the rise of criminal gangs in recent years.
Last year, the Archdiocese of Port-au-Prince warned that gang violence had reached “unprecedented” levels. In September 2021 70-year-old Father André Sylvestre was shot to death by several gunmen on motorcycles outside of a bank. The gunmen did not take the money he carried.
Haiti has also been affected by other crises, including natural disasters and a lack of health care infrastructure.
Pope Francis delivers his Angelus address on June 26, 2022. / Vatican Media
St. Louis, Mo., Jun 26, 2022 / 08:20 am (CNA).
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Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 26, 2022 / 07:00 am (CNA).
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USCCB Fall Meeting 2021 / CNA
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 25, 2022 / 18:18 pm (CNA).
The Supreme Court on Friday overturned Roe v. Wade in a 6-3 decision, bringing an end to nearly a half-century of nationwide legalized abortion in the U.S.&… […]
John Roberts testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee during confirmation hearings to be Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court, Sept. 13, 2005. / Rob Crandall/Shutterstock.
Washington D.C., Jun 25, 2022 / 17:04 pm (CNA).
The Supreme Cour… […]
Pope Francis at Mass for the World Meeting of Families 2022 in St. Peter’s Square. / Daniel Ibanez/CNA
Vatican City, Jun 25, 2022 / 13:00 pm (CNA).
Pope Francis on Saturday delivered a message to families after a Mass in St. Peter’s Square for the World Meeting of Families 2022.
A copy of the message, a “Missionary Sending of Families,” will also be handed out to people in St. Peter’s Square during the pope’s Angelus address on Sunday.
The 10th World Meeting of Families is taking place in Rome from June 22-26. The gathering was attended by around 2,000 families from around the world.
Missionary Sending of Families
Dear families,
I invite you to continue your journey by listening to the Father who calls you: become missionaries in the ways of the world! Do not walk alone! You, young families, be guided by those who know the way, you who are further along, be companions on the journey for others. You who are lost because of difficulties, do not be overcome by sadness, trust the Love God has placed in you, plead daily with the Spirit to revive it.
Announce with joy the beauty of being family! Announce to children and young people the grace of Christian marriage. Give hope to those who have none. Act as if everything depends on you, knowing that everything must be entrusted to God. Be you who “sew” the fabric of society and of a synodal Church, creating relationships, multiplying love and life. Be a sign of the living Christ, do not be afraid of what the Lord asks of you, nor be generous with Him. Open yourselves to Christ, listen to Him in the silence of prayer. Accompany those who are most fragile, take charge of those who are alone, refugees, abandoned.
Be the seed of a more fraternal world! Be families with big hearts! Be the welcoming face of the Church! And please pray, always pray!
May Mary, our Mother, come to your aid when there is no more wine, be a companion in the time of silence and trial, help you to walk together with her Risen Son.
Franciscus
Cardinal Kevin Farrell celebrated Mass for the World Meeting of Families 2022 on June 25, 2022. / Daniel Ibanez/CNA
Vatican City, Jun 25, 2022 / 12:15 pm (CNA).
The next World Meeting of Families will be held in 2028, Cardinal Kevin Farrell ann… […]
Pope Francis greets families in St. Peter’s Square before Mass for the World Meeting of Families 2022 on June 25, 2022 / Daniel Ibanez/CNA
Vatican City, Jun 25, 2022 / 12:00 pm (CNA).
Christ, through his passion and death, has set us free from the slavery of self-centeredness, so that we can better love others, Pope Francis said at Mass for the World Meeting of Families on Saturday.
“Freedom is something we receive. All of us are born with many forms of interior and exterior conditioning, and especially with a tendency to selfishness, to making ourselves the center of everything and being concerned only with our own interests,” the pope said on June 25. “This is the slavery from which Christ has set us free.”
Pope Francis delivered the homily at a Mass celebrated by Cardinal Kevin Farrell, the prefect of the Dicastery for Laity, Family, and Life, the Vatican office which co-organized the 10th edition of the World Meeting of Families with the Diocese of Rome.
The gathering, attended by around 2,000 families, had the theme: “Family Love: A Vocation and a Path to Holiness.”
In his homily, Francis reflected on a passage from St. Paul’s Letter to the Galatians: “Brothers and sisters: For freedom Christ set us free; so stand firm and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery. For you were called for freedom, brothers and sisters. But do not use this freedom as an opportunity for the flesh; rather, serve one another through love.”
“Freedom,” the pope said, “is one of the most cherished ideals and goals of the people of our time. Everyone wants to be free, free of conditioning and limitations, free of every kind of ‘prison,’ cultural prison, social or economic. Yet, how many people lack the greatest freedom of all, which is interior freedom.”
He also noted that the freedom given by God, as St. Paul says, is not the self-indulgent freedom of the world, but freedom “directed to love, so that — as the Apostle tells us again today — ‘through love you may become slaves of one another.’”
“All of you married couples, in building your family, made, with the help of Christ’s grace, a courageous decision: to use freedom not for yourselves, but to love the persons that God has put at your side,” Pope Francis said.
He advised parents “not to shield our children from the slightest hardship and suffering, but to try to communicate to them a passion for life, the passion to arouse in them the desire to discover their vocation and embrace the great mission that God has in mind for them.”
“Nothing,” he said, “can be more encouraging for children than to see their parents experiencing marriage and family life as a mission, demonstrating fidelity and patience despite difficulties, moments of sadness and times of trial.
“Don’t ever forget this: the family is the first place where you learn to love,” he emphasized.
“In praising the beauty of the family, we also feel compelled, today more than ever, to defend the family,” Pope Francis said. “Let us not allow the family to be poisoned by the toxins of selfishness, individualism, today’s culture of indifference and culture of waste, and as a result lose its very DNA, which is the spirit of acceptance and service.”
Demonstrators clash with riot police, nearby El Ejido park, in Quito, on June 24, 2022, in the framework of indigenous-led protests against the government. – Ecuador’s government and Indigenous protesters accused each other of intransigence as thousands gathered for a 12th day of a fuel price revolt that has claimed six lives and injured dozens. After the most violent day of the campaign so far — with police firing tear gas to disperse thousands storming Congress — the government accused protesters of shunning a peaceful outcome. / Martin Bernetti/AFP via Getty Images
Lima, Peru, Jun 24, 2022 / 18:00 pm (CNA).
The bishops of Ecuador have called for dialogue in order to reach an agreement between the government and the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (Conaie), which is leading nationwide protests that have left six dead.
“On behalf of the Ecuadorian Bishops’ Conference, I wish to reaffirm our heartfelt call for the parties involved, setting aside any extreme position, to sit down to dialogue, to listen to each other, to reflect together and make decisions that benefit the entire country and not just small groups,” said Archbishop Luis Gerardo Cabrera Herrera of Guayaquil, president of the Ecuadorian Bishops’ Conference, in a June 22 video message.
“At the same time, we want to commit our participation to what the parties also see fit. The only thing we really want is for the much longed for peace to become a reality between us, a peace always based on justice, freedom and truth,” he added.
Beginning June 13, indigenous organizations have called for an indefinite national strike to demand the reduction of fuel prices and price caps for farm products. The marches have turned violent and protesters have clashed with the police and closed several roads.
Ecuador has recently faced high levels of inflation, unemployment, and poverty.
The initially peaceful protest resulted in a wave of violence and clashes between civilians and security forces that has so far left six dead, 74 injured, and 87 detained. In addition, the highway blockades have exacerbated the economic crisis in the country.
Meanwhile, the leader of Conaie, Leonidas Iza, opposes participating in the talks that Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso had already agreed to attend, pointing out that certain conditions must be met, such as lifting the state of emergency in force in six provinces of the country.
Iza was briefly arrested June 14. He is barred from leaving the country, and must appear before an attorney general twice weekly.
The Minister of the Interior, Patricio Carrillo, reported June 22 that an attack by indigenous people against police facilities in the city of Puyo left six policemen injured, 18 missing, and 18 police vehicles damaged.
Conaie also denounced abusive tactics used in cracking down against the protests by the police and the military.
Archbishop Alfredo José Espinoza Mateus of Quito also spoke out about the national strike, recalling the words of Pope Francis.
“Pope Francis tells us that it’s not easy to build dialogue, especially if you are divided by rancor. Dialogue is the only possible path, we have told the bishops of Ecuador. Dialogue, as the Pope affirms, must be marked by listening and meekness. It must be a path that is built together,” he explained.
The prelate reminded that “hate and rancor through violence build walls, but assuming this attitude of listening, humility, meekness, builds bridges that unite us.”
“I again invite us as archbishop of Quito to take this path of dialogue; that we may know how to listen to each other, because it’s a common goal, the goal is the good of our country. And let’s build those bridges to be able to achieve an Ecuador of peace and a better Ecuador,” he concluded.
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
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