Pope Francis meets members of the Papal Foundation in the Vatican’s Clementine Hall, April 28, 2022. / Vatican Media.
Rome Newsroom, Apr 19, 2023 / 14:50 pm (CNA).
The Papal Foundation, a U.S.-based organization that provides funding for Cathol… […]
Pope Francis’ general audience of April 19, 2023. / Daniel Ibanez/CNA
Vatican City, Apr 19, 2023 / 04:15 am (CNA).
Even when not called to the particular grace of martyrdom, every Christian is called to testify to Christ through his or her life, Pope Francis said on Wednesday.
At his weekly audience with the public April 19, the pope quoted the Church’s dogmatic constitution, Lumen gentium, to highlight a Christian’s obligation to be a positive witness of the faith in both life and death.
“Although martyrdom is asked of only a few,” he said, “‘nevertheless all must be prepared to confess Christ before men. They must be prepared to make the profession of faith even in the midst of persecutions, which will never be lacking to the Church, in following the way of the cross.’”
Persecution of Christians, he added, is not just a thing of the past.
“The martyrs show us that every Christian is called to the witness of life, even when this does not go as far as the shedding of blood, making a gift of themselves to God and to their brethren, in imitation of Jesus,” he said.
Pope Francis spoke to a large crowd of people in St. Peter’s Square on a sunny, spring morning.
The current theme of his Wednesday general audiences is “the passion for evangelization.” On April 19, he focused on the topic of martyrdom and the witness it gives others about the Christian faith.
“Today we will turn our attention not to a single figure, but to the host of martyrs, men and women of every age, language, and nation who have given their life for Christ, who have shed their blood to confess Christ,” he said. “After the generation of the Apostles, they were the quintessential ‘witnesses’ of the Gospel.”
“The word ‘martyr’ derives from the Greek ‘martyria,’ which indeed means witness,” he explained.
Francis emphasized that the Christian martyrs are not individual heroes who acted alone, but are like a “ripe and excellent fruit of the vineyard of the Lord, which is the Church.”
“Christians,” he said, “by participating assiduously in the celebration of the Eucharist, were led by the Spirit to base their lives on that mystery of love: namely, on the fact that the Lord Jesus had given his life for them, and therefore that they too could and should give their life for him and for their brothers and sisters.”
He called Catholics to remember the many men and women who have given their lives for Christ over the more than 2,000-year history of the Church, especially the numerous martyrs of modern times.
Quoting again from Lumen gentium, he said, “the Second Vatican Council reminds us that ‘the Church considers martyrdom,’ this disciple, ‘as an exceptional gift and as the fullest proof of love. By martyrdom a disciple is transformed into an image of his Master by freely accepting death for the salvation of the world — as well as his conformity to Christ in the shedding of his blood.’”
Pope Francis concluded his message by naming some of the Church’s recent martyrs in the country of Yemen, including three Missionaries of Charity — Sister Aletta, Sister Zelia, and Sister Michael — who were shot dead in July 1998 while returning home from Mass.
He also recalled the March 2016 attack on the Missionaries of Charity in Aden, Yemen, in which a gunman killed 16 people, including Sister Anselm, Sister Marguerite, Sister Reginette, and Sister Judith. The Catholic missionary priest Father Tom Uzhunnalil was kidnapped in the attack. He was released 18 months later in September 2017.
The pope pointed out that some of the people killed in the 2016 shooting were Muslims who collaborated with the Missionaries of Charity in their work.
“It moves us to see how the witness of blood can unite people of different religions,” he said. “One should never kill in the name of God, because for him we are all brothers and sisters. But together one can give one’s life for others.”
“Let us pray, then, that we may never tire of bearing witness to the Gospel, even in times of tribulation,” Francis said. “May all the martyr saints be seeds of peace and reconciliation among peoples, for a more humane and fraternal world, as we await the full manifestation of the Kingdom of Heaven, when God will be all in all.”
Pope Francis meets participants in the plenary assembly of the Congregation for the Eastern Churches at the Vatican’s Clementine Hall, Feb. 18, 2022 / Vatican Media
Rome Newsroom, Apr 17, 2023 / 11:55 am (CNA).
On Monday Pope Francis introduced… […]
Pope Francis at the Wednesday general audience on Dec. 28, 2022. / Vatican Media.
Vatican City, Apr 16, 2023 / 08:30 am (CNA).
Pope Francis asked people to pray for Sudan on Sunday, that the country’s rival military factions might lay down thei… […]
Pope Francis delivered an address before praying the Regina Caeli on Divine Mercy Sunday April 16, 2023. / Vatican Media
Vatican City, Apr 16, 2023 / 07:00 am (CNA).
Despite its failures and imperfection, within the community of the Church is w… […]
Pope Francis greets pilgrims at the Wednesday general audience in St. Peter’s Square on March 22, 2023. / Daniel Ibanez/CNA
Rome Newsroom, Apr 15, 2023 / 06:50 am (CNA).
Pope Francis said Friday that he plans to visit Mongolia, the world’s most sparsely populated sovereign country.
In off-the-cuff remarks to employees of the Italian airline company that staffs the papal plane for his international trips, the pope said that he will travel to Mongolia after his scheduled trips to Hungary and France in the coming months.
“In two weeks’ time, God willing, I will leave for my 41st pilgrimage, by going to visit Hungary. And then there will be Marseille, then Mongolia,” Francis said at a Vatican audience with ITA Airways on April 14.
An apostolic journey to Mongolia would make Pope Francis the first pope to visit the Asian country that shares a 2,880-mile border with China, its most significant economic partner.
Mongolia has a population of about 1,300 Catholics in a country of more than 3 million people.
The first modern mission to Mongolia was in 1922 and was entrusted to the Congregation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. But under a communist government, religious expression was soon thereafter suppressed, until 1992. Mongolia’s first native priest was ordained in 2016.
Last year, Pope Francis named an Italian who had served as a missionary in Mongolia for nearly 20 years as the world’s youngest cardinal. Cardinal Giorgio Marengo, 48, is the apostolic prefect of Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, which serves the entire country.
Roughly the size of Alaska, Mongolia has 5 people per square mile. About 30% of its population is nomadic or semi-nomadic. Bordering Russia to the north and China to the south, Mongolia is also the second largest landlocked country in the world with the vast Gobi Desert covering one-third of its territory.
Pope Francis first spoke about the possibility of traveling to Mongolia in February during an in-flight press conference on his return trip from South Sudan. He told reporters at the time that “there is a possibility from Marseille to fly to Mongolia.”
What countries will Pope Francis visit in 2023?
Pope Francis is scheduled to visit Budapest, Hungary at the end of this month from April 28-30 in what will be his second visit to the central European country in three years.
The pope is also expected to travel to Portugal during the 2023 World Youth Day in Lisbon taking place August 1-6.
The French Diocese of Marseille announced this week that Pope Francis will preside over a Mass on Sept. 23 as part of a meeting of Mediterranean bishops in the port city in southern France.
Due to the pope’s recent comments, it is expected that a potential papal trip to Mongolia would depart directly from Marseille.
Pope Francis has also said that he hopes to travel to India next year in response to an invitation by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
In response to the long wait times to enter St. Peter’s Basilica, those who wish to enter for Mass, confession, or adoration can now do so via a special “prayer entrance” immediately to the right of the barricades to enter through the metal detectors on the right side of the piazza. / Credit: Courtney Mares/CNA
Rome Newsroom, Apr 14, 2023 / 13:15 pm (CNA).
With 100,000 people cramming into St. Peter’s Square on Easter Sunday, the lines to enter the Vatican basilica have returned to their pre-pandemic wait times.
In light of the influx of tourists to the Eternal City, the Vatican has introduced a separate “prayer entrance” for Catholics who want to enter St. Peter’s Basilica for Mass, confession, or adoration.
The entrance, signaled only by a small sign, is immediately to the right of the barricades to enter through the metal detectors on the right side of the piazza.
Mountain Butorac, who leads small groups of Catholics on pilgrimages to Rome with his company The Catholic Traveler, calls the prayer entrance “long overdue.”
According to Butorac, it can take up to two hours of waiting in a long line to enter St. Peter’s Basilica during the peak tourism season.
“When I first moved to Rome, I was always going to Sunday Mass at St. Peter’s … but then standing in line for an hour and a half to go to Mass got old pretty fast,” he told CNA.
“We also do weekly family confession there and we always would have to go right at 7 or 8 a.m. And now we can go later in the day,” he added.
Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, the archpriest of St. Peter’s Basilica, said the prayer entrance was introduced during Holy Week on an “experimental basis.”
“In line with the Holy Father’s wish, we would like to restore maximum accessibility to the sanctuary for spiritual, liturgical, and celebratory life,” Gambetti said.
The cardinal expressed hope that the new entrance will “allow the faithful, prayer groups, and pilgrims to come to pray in St. Peter’s and participate in the sacraments easily, without waiting in long queues.”
The prayer entrance will soon lead to a “pilgrim path” designated by red velvet ropes that will guide people along the right side wall of the basilica, while the throngs of tourists and guided groups will remain in the main part of the basilica.
The new path will bring pilgrims past Michelangelo’s Pietà and the tomb of St. John Paul II directly to the chapel with daily eucharistic adoration and the back corner of the basilica reserved for confessions.
Pilgrims will also be able to access two of the chapels where daily public Masses are held: the Altar of the Chair and Altar of St. Joseph.
However, it appears that the Vatican is still coordinating the logistics of this prayer path after the soft launch of the new entrance during Holy Week, as the current prayer entrance merely drops pilgrims off at the front of the line to enter through security, essentially allowing those who wish to access the sacraments in the basilica an option to “skip the line.”
To enter, tell the security guard near the new prayer entrance sign that you are coming to the basilica to pray.
Elizabeth Hince, who lives near St. Peter’s Basilica with her husband and two young children, said: “We’re very excited to not have to get up at 7 a.m. to avoid the line when we want to go to confession or adoration!”
Pope Francis greets an elderly couple at his general audience on Jan. 11, 2023 / Vatican Media
Rome, Italy, Apr 13, 2023 / 12:00 pm (CNA).
The Vatican announced Thursday the date and theme for the third annual World Day for Grandparents and the… […]
Pope Francis prays at his Wednesday audience in St. Peter’s Square on April 12, 2023. / Daniel Ibáñez/CNA
Vatican City, Apr 12, 2023 / 10:47 am (CNA).
Pope Francis revised a law regulating the Vatican’s judicial system on Wednesday, reversing s… […]
Pope Francis at his Wednesday general audience on April 12, 2023. / Daniel Ibanez/CNA
Vatican City, Apr 12, 2023 / 04:10 am (CNA).
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