In recent months, as Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine has shocked the world, Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, Major Archbishop of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC), has emerged as a brave moral leader, recalling such […]
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Rome Newsroom, Jul 6, 2022 / 10:10 am (CNA).
Human rights advocates have raised concerns about heightened restrictions on Christians in China after Pope Francis expressed hope that the Holy See’s agreement with Beijing w… […]
Sr. Alessandra Smerilli (second from left) and Sr. Nathalie Becquart (third from left) pose with Pope Francis and others during the youth synod in 2018. / Daniel Ibáñez / CNA
Vatican City, Jul 6, 2022 / 05:59 am (CNA).
Pope Francis has said he … […]
Pope Francis, pictured on Oct. 4, 2014. / Mazur/catholicnews.org.uk.
Vatican City, Jul 5, 2022 / 06:53 am (CNA).
Pope Francis has expressed shock and sadness over the mass shooting that led to the death of at least six and wounded some 30 other… […]
Pope Francis waves at pilgrims from China at the general audience in St. Peter’s Square on Sept. 7, 2016. / Daniel Ibanez/CNA.
Vatican City, Jul 5, 2022 / 04:49 am (CNA).
Pope Francis said he hopes the Vatican’s provisional agreement with China on the appointment of Catholic bishops will be renewed for the second time in October.
In comments to Reuters published Tuesday, the pope said “the agreement is moving well and I hope that in October it can be renewed.”
The Vatican-China agreement was first signed in September 2018 and then renewed for another two years in October 2020. The terms of the agreement have not been made public.
Pope Francis spoke to Reuters about the China deal in a 90-minute interview which also covered his health, resignation rumors, and the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
In September 2021, the Vatican confirmed that the sixth Catholic bishop had been ordained under the agreement’s terms.
Seven bishops ordained before the 2018 agreement have also had their positions regularized by the Vatican.
Pope Francis said the appointment of bishops under the deal in China “is going slowly, but they are being appointed.”
The slow process, he said, is “‘the Chinese way,’ because the Chinese have that sense of time that nobody can rush them.”
Father Bernardo Cervellera, former editor-in-chief of AsiaNews, told CNA last year that the bishops who have been nominated and ordained are close to the Patriotic Catholic Association, “so this means that they are very near to the government.”
The Catholic Church is still in need of around 40 more bishops in China, according to Cervellera.
In the Reuters interview, Pope Francis said the Chinese “also have their own problems because it is not the same situation in every region of the country. [The treatment of Catholics] also depends on local leaders.”
He also defended the Vatican-China deal against its critics.
“Diplomacy is the art of the possible and of doing things to make the possible become a reality,” he said.
He compared today’s critics and those who spoke negatively of the Vatican’s diplomatic decisions during the Cold War, when the popes struck deals with Eastern European communist governments in an attempt to protect the interests of the Catholic Church.
“Diplomacy is like that. When you face a blocked situation, you have to find the possible way, not the ideal way, out of it,” the pope said.
Pope Francis / Daniel Ibáñez/CNA.
Vatican City, Jul 4, 2022 / 09:06 am (CNA).
It is no coincidence that Pope Francis chose the form of an apostolic letter to write about liturgy. Nor that he chose to write it one year after the publication of t… […]
Pope Francis speaks to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Paul Pelosi after Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on June 29, 2022. / Vatican Media
Vatican City, Jul 4, 2022 / 03:43 am (CNA).
Pope Francis condemned abortion in new comments about the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
When asked whether a Catholic politician who supports the right to choose abortion can receive the sacrament of Communion, he warned of bishops losing their “pastoral nature.”
Speaking to Reuters over the weekend, the pope said he respected the ruling in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case, though he did not know enough to speak about the juridical aspects.
The interview, published July 4, said Francis compared abortion to “hiring a hit man.”
“I ask: Is it legitimate, is it right, to eliminate a human life to resolve a problem?” Pope Francis said.
He was also asked about the debate over whether Catholic politicians who promote legal abortion should be admitted to Holy Communion.
In May, U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was barred from receiving Communion in her home diocese of San Francisco by Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone because of her advocacy of abortion.
Pelosi (D-Calif.) reportedly received Holy Communion at a Mass with Pope Francis at the Vatican on June 29. It is not clear if the pope was aware that Pelosi attended, though the Vatican issued a photo showing the two greeting each other in St. Peter’s Basilica.
Pope Francis told Reuters: “When the Church loses its pastoral nature, when a bishop loses his pastoral nature, it causes a political problem. That’s all I can say.”
The 90-minute interview in Italian took place on July 2 in a reception room on the ground floor of the Vatican’s Santa Marta guesthouse, where the pope lives.
In addition to the abortion topic, the interview covered the pope’s health, resignation rumors, and the possibility of trips to Kyiv and Moscow.
Pope Francis prays the Angelus from the window of the Apostolic Palace on July 3, 2022. / Vatican Media/CNA
Vatican City, Jul 3, 2022 / 06:15 am (CNA).
Pope Francis said Sunday that evangelization should not be seen as “personal activism,” but … […]
Pope Francis celebrated Mass for Rome’s Congolese community in St. Peter’s Basilica on July 3, 2022. / Daniel Ibanez/CNA
Vatican City, Jul 3, 2022 / 04:10 am (CNA).
Amid singing, clapping, and dancing to traditional Congolese music, Pope Francis celebrated the Zaire Use of the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite in St. Peter’s Basilica on Sunday.
The pope began his homily on July 3 with the word, “esengo,” which means “joy” in Lingala, the Bantu-based creole spoken in parts of the Democratic Republic of Congo and by millions of speakers across Central Africa.
Pope Francis celebrated the Mass for Rome’s Congolese community on the day that he was due to offer Mass in Kinshasa before his trip to Africa was canceled at the request of the pope’s doctors.
The pope, whose mobility has been limited due to a knee injury, remained seated throughout the Mass. Francis presided over the Liturgy of the Word and gave the homily. Archbishop Richard Gallagher offered the Liturgy of the Eucharist.
“Today, dear brothers and sisters, let us pray for peace and reconciliation in your homeland, in the wounded and exploited Democratic Republic of Congo,” Pope Francis said.
“We join the Masses celebrated in the country according to this intention and pray that Christians may be witnesses of peace, capable of overcoming any feeling of resentment, any feeling of vengeance, overcoming the temptation that reconciliation is not possible, any unhealthy attachment to their own group that leads to despising others.”
The pope underlined that the Lord calls all Christians to be “ambassadors of peace.”
The Democratic Republic of Congo has experienced a wave of violence in recent years. Dozens of armed groups are believed to operate in the eastern region of DR Congo despite the presence of more than 16,000 UN peacekeepers. Local Catholic bishops have repeatedly appealed for an end to the bloodshed.
“Brother, sister, peace begins with us,” Pope Francis said.
“If you live in his peace, Jesus arrives and your family, your society changes. They change if your heart is not at war in the first place, it is not armed with resentment and anger, it is not divided, it is not double, it is not false. Putting peace and order in one’s heart, defusing greed, extinguishing hatred and resentment, fleeing corruption, fleeing cheating and cunning: this is where peace begins.”
Peace was expected to be a key theme of the pope’s canceled Africa trip. Pope Francis was planning to spend July 2-5 in the Congolese cities of Kinshasa and Goma, and July 5-7 in the South Sudanese capital Juba.
After the Vatican announced that the trip was postponed due to the ongoing medical treatment for the pope’s knee pain, Pope Franics said on June 13: “We will bring Kinshasa to St. Peter’s, and there we will celebrate with all the Congolese in Rome, of which there are many.”
About 2,000 people were present in the inculturated Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on the first Sunday of July.
Women in brightly colored traditional dresses sang and danced as they prayed the Gloria. People clapped and shouted as Archbishop Richard Gallagher incensed the main altar.
The gifts were brought up to the altar in a dancing procession. Religious sisters in the pews stepped from side to side together to the music.
At the end of the Mass, Pope Francis greeted some members of the local Congolese community from his wheelchair.
“May the Lord help us to be missionaries today, going in the company of brother and sister; having on his lips the peace and closeness of God; carrying in the heart the meekness and goodness of Jesus, Lamb who takes away the sins of the world,” the pope said.
The Zaire Use of the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite is an inculturated Mass formally approved in 1988 for the dioceses of what was then known as the Republic of Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The only inculturated Eucharistic celebration approved after the Second Vatican Council, it was developed following a call for adaptation of the liturgy in “Sacrosanctum concilium,” Vatican II’s Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy.
In a video message in 2020, Pope Francis said: “The experience of the Congolese rite of the celebration of Mass can serve as an example and model for other cultures.”
Pope Francis recorded a video message for the people of South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. / Screenshot of YouTube video
Vatican City, Jul 2, 2022 / 07:00 am (CNA).
Pope Francis has said that he is “greatly disappointed” that he … […]
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