Pope Francis urges Passionists to help ‘the crucified of our age’

November 20, 2020 CNA Daily News 5

Vatican City, Nov 20, 2020 / 04:30 am (CNA).- Pope Francis urged members of the Passionist order Thursday to deepen their commitment to “the crucified of our age” as they mark the 300th anniversary of their founding. 

In a message to Fr. Joachim Rego, superior general of the Congregation of the Passion of Jesus Christ, the pope challenged the order to focus on helping the poor, the weak and the oppressed.

“Do not tire of accentuating your commitment to the needs of humanity,” the pope said in the message issued Nov. 19. “This missionary calling is directed above all towards the crucified of our age — the poor, the weak, the oppressed and those discarded by many forms of injustice.” 

The pope sent the message, dated Oct. 15, as the Passionists prepared to launch a Jubilee year celebrating the foundation of the order by St. Paul of the Cross in Italy in 1720.

The Jubilee year, whose theme is “Renewing our mission: gratitude prophecy, and hope,” will begin on Sunday, Nov. 22, and end on Jan. 1, 2022.

The pope said that the order’s mission could only be strengthened by an “inner renewal” among the Passionists’ over 2,000 members, present in more than 60 countries

“The implementation of this task will require a sincere effort of inner renewal on your part, which derives from your personal relationship with the Crucified-Risen One,” he said. “Only those crucified by love, as Jesus was on the cross, are able to help the crucified of history with effective words and actions.” 

“In fact, it is not possible to convince others of God’s love only through a verbal and informative proclamation. Concrete gestures are needed to make us experience this love in our own love that is offered by sharing the situations of the crucified, even totally spending one’s life, while remaining aware that between the proclamation and its acceptance in faith there is the action of the Holy Spirit.”

At 10.30 a.m. local time on Nov. 22, the Passionist Jubilee will begin with the opening of the Holy Door in the Basilica of Sts. John and Paul in Rome, followed by an inaugural Mass. Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin will be the principal concelebrant and the event will be livestreamed.

The Jubilee year will include an international congress, on “The wisdom of the cross in a pluralistic world,” at the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome on Sept. 21-24, 2021.

There will also be a number of opportunities to gain indulgences throughout the year, including by visiting the founder’s birthplace of Ovada in the northern Italian region of Piedmont.

The Passionists trace their origins back to Nov. 22, 1720, the day that Paul Danei received the habit of a hermit and began a 40-day retreat in a small cell in the Church of San Carlo in Castellazzo. During the retreat, he wrote the Rule of “The Poor of Jesus,” which laid the foundations of the future Congregation of the Passion.

Danei took the religious name Paul of the Cross and built up the order that would come to be known as the Passionists because of their commitment to preaching the Passion of Jesus Christ. He died in 1775 and was canonized in 1867 by Pope Pius IX.

Passionists wear a black habit with the distinctive emblem over their hearts. The Passion Sign, as it is known, consists of a heart with the words “Jesu XPI Passio” (the Passion of Jesus Christ) written inside. There are three crossed nails beneath these words and a large white cross at the top of the heart.

In his message to Passionists, the pope quoted from his 2013 apostolic exhortation “Evangelii gaudium.” 

“This significant centennial anniversary represents a providential opportunity to move towards new apostolic goals, without giving in to the temptation to ‘leave things as they are,’” he wrote. 

“Contact with the Word of God in prayer and reading the signs of the times in daily events will enable you to perceive the creative presence of the Spirit whose outpouring over time, points out the answers to humanity’s expectations. No one can escape the fact that today we live in a world where nothing is the same as before.”

He continued: “Humanity is in a spiral of changes that call into question not only the value of the cultural currents that have enriched it so far, but also the intimate constitution of its being. Nature and the cosmos, subject to pain and decay due to human manipulation, take on worrying degenerative traits. You too are asked to identify new lifestyles and new forms of language in order to proclaim the love of the Crucified One, thus giving witness to the heart of your identity.”


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Reconstruction of blast-damaged Beirut church brings hope

November 19, 2020 CNA Daily News 0

CNA Staff, Nov 19, 2020 / 06:27 pm (CNA).- The reconstruction of a church in Beirut severely damaged by the massive explosion that rocked the city this summer is a sign of hope to the area’s inhabitants, said a local priest.

Fr. Nicolas Riachy is pastor of the Church of the Savior in Beirut, Lebanon. He told Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) in a recent interview that the blast not only damaged his church, but caused a local exodus.

“Ten percent of the population of this neighborhood has left, because they can no longer live in their homes,” he said. “I can’t do anything to stop them because I can’t give them security, which is what they want.”

It is becoming more and more difficult to maintain hope, he said, as “those who have money and a foreign passport leave, but we poor people will die here.”

The priest hopes the rebuilding of the church will be a beacon of hope amid difficult circumstances.

On the afternoon of August 4, 2020, a massive explosion ripped through Beirut, as 2.75 metric tons of ammonium nitrate stored in a warehouse exploded in the city’s port area.

More than 200 people were killed in the blast, and another 6,000 were injured. More than 250,000 people were left homeless. The blast could be heard in Cyprus, more than 250 km away.

Survivors of the explosion told Aid to the Church in Need that it had left the area economically devastated and the people traumatized. One survivor said it was “worse than a war, because it took out everything at once. The effort of years was lost in seven seconds.”

The incident caused the total destruction of the poor neighborhoods around the port, where migrants and Christian workers who came from the mountains in search of a better life settled.

Riachy said his church lost its roof in the blast. The Greek Melkite church was built in 1890 and is one of the oldest in the city. It has great historical value for Beirut and has a symbolic location on the border between Christian and Muslim neighborhoods.

“We’re a kind of gateway to the Christian quarter,” Riachy said. “To those who want to stay we must give hope, our mission is to bring a light to the darkness we are living in.”

“There’s no Christianity without a cross,” he added. “Our example is Christ. It’s hard to be Christians, but many are still aware that this land is the Holy Land and that we can’t abandon it.”

The church is now undergoing reconstruction work, with the support of Aid to the Church in Need, which has pledged 5 million euros to help Christians in Beirut rebuild after the August explosion.

The cleaning phase of the church is nearly complete, but Riachy said there is still scattered glass and shattered window frames on the sides and entrance of the building.

“If the seasonal rains come it will damage everything. In addition, there’s a crack that must be fixed so that everything doesn’t collapse,” he said.

He voiced gratitude to Aid to the Church in Need for their help, saying the rebuilding efforts would be impossible without outside aid.

“All the homes of my parishioners have their windows and doors destroyed,” the priest said. “And then there’s the economic crisis. The banks won’t let people withdraw their money, now they have nothing. How can they help me rebuild the church?”

Riachy said he hopes the church will help bring hope to the Christians who remain in the city.

“Pope Francis said that a Middle East without Christians is unthinkable,” he added. “I hope this church can continue to be a beautiful testimony of the word of the Lord.”


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English bishops adjust liturgical translation, following concern of CDW

November 19, 2020 CNA Daily News 1

Denver Newsroom, Nov 19, 2020 / 05:01 pm (CNA).- The English and Welsh bishops’ conference has decreed that in the translation of the conclusion of collects in the Roman Missal, “one” is to be omitted before “God”. The conclusions will now read “God, for ever and ever”.

The decision follows a letter sent earlier this year by Cardinal Robert Sarah, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, addressing a concern about the English translation.

A Nov. 9 decree signed by Cardinal Vincent Nichols of Westminster, and Fr. Christopher Thomas, the president and general secretary, respectively, of the English and Welsh bishops’ conference, notes that “until now” in the three formulae of conclusions to collects, “the Latin words ‘Deus, per omnia sæcula sæculorum’ are rendered in English as ‘one God, for ever and ever.’”

“The addition of ‘one’ before ‘God’ in the conclusion of the Collects could be construed as mistaken and problematic. ‘Deus’ here refers to the earlier mention of ‘the Son’ and is a Christological, anti-Arian affirmation, and not directly Trinitarian in this context,” the decree states.

The bishops of England and Wales voted “that these formulae should be adjusted according with the removal of the word ‘one’ from the conclusion of the Collect.”

The most common formula, used when a collect is addressed to the Father, will read: “Through our Lord Jesus Christ your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.”

The correction will take effect in the dioceses of England and Wales from Nov. 29, the First Sunday of Advent.

An explanatory note added that the decision is “in harmony” with the bishops’ conferences in Scotland and Ireland, “as well as with other English-speaking territories”.

The addition of “one” before “God” “could serve to undermine the statement of the unique dignity of the Son within the Trinity”, or “could be interpreted as saying that Jesus is ‘one God,’” the explanatory note stated.

“Either or both of these interpretations is injurious to the faith of the Church.”

Continuing, the note said that the insertion of “one” before God “risks suggesting that Jesus became a god independent of the Blessed Trinity and is one god among many … what we pray needs to express what the Church believes, requiring that, in liturgical formulae, we uphold the doctrine of the Blessed Trinity.”

The Trinitarian doxology that concludes the collects “emphasises the divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, who as the Incarnate Son, intercedes on our behalf to the Father … thus, the Son’s role of priestly mediation is made clear.”

The explanatory note says the phrase was adopted in the fourth century “as a means to combat the Arian heresy,” which held that Jesus Christ became God, rather than having been God eternally.

Moreover, the note adds, “one” is not used in the translations of the conclusion in French, German, Italian, Spanish, or Portuguese: “The English translation has, therefore, diverged from those of other major language groups.”

The English and Welsh bishops’ explanatory note said that “since the addition of the word ‘one’” could obscure prayer and thus belief, the Congregation for Divine Worship “has ruled it should no longer be used in the translation of these texts into English.”

Cardinal Sarah had written to the presidents of English-speaking episcopal conferences about the translation problem May 13.

This was followed up by a May 27 letter from the chairman of the International Commission on English in the Liturgy which clarified, Cardinal Nichols wrote, that bishops’ conferences determine “how and when the proposed change is made.”

The explanatory note added that “it is for Episcopal Conferences, through ICEL, to decide how best to translate these formulae in order to safeguard both their Trinitarian nature, as well as their profession of the divinity of the Son.”

By his 2017 motu proprio Magnum principium, Pope Francis granted episcopal conferences a greater share of responsibility in the translation of liturgical texts relative to the Congregation for Divine Worship.

The executive director of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Secretariat of Divine Worship, Fr. Andrew Menke, told CNA that Cardinal Sarah’s letter has been discussed by the conference’s divine worship committee, who “will probably discuss the question again” at their next meeting, in January.

The USCCB has been approving new translations of components of the Liturgy of the Hours, a new translation of the Roman Missal having been adopted in 2011.

At its 2019 fall general assembly, the conference voted overwhelmingly to approve the ICEL grey book translation of the hymns of the Liturgy of the Hours.


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