Vatican City, Sep 5, 2020 / 05:20 am (CNA).- The Vatican announced Saturday that Pope Francis will sign the third encyclical of his pontificate in Assisi on Oct. 3.
The encyclical is entitled Fratelli tutti, which means “All Brothers” in I… […]
Vatican City, Sep 4, 2020 / 05:00 am (CNA).- Cardinal Pietro Parolin told Lebanese Catholics at a Mass in Beirut Thursday that Pope Francis is close to them, and praying for them, during their time of suffering.
“It is with great joy that I find myself among you today, in the blessed land of Lebanon, to express to you the closeness and solidarity of the Holy Father and, through him, of the whole Church,” the Vatican’s Secretary of State said Sept. 3.
Parolin visited Beirut Sept. 3-4 as the representative of Pope Francis, a month after the city experienced a devastating blast which killed nearly 200 people, injured thousands, and left thousands without a home.
The pope has called for Sept. 4 to be a universal day of prayer and fasting for the country.
Cardinal Parolin celebrated Mass for around 1,500 Maronite Catholics at the Shrine of Our Lady of Lebanon, a major pilgrimage site in the hills of Harissa, north of Beirut, on the evening of Sept. 3.
“Lebanon has suffered too much and the past year has been the scene of several tragedies affecting the Lebanese people: the acute economic, social and political crisis which continues to rock the country, the coronavirus pandemic which has worsened the situation and most recently, a month ago, the tragic explosion of the port of Beirut which ripped open the capital of Lebanon and caused terrible misery,” Parolin said in his homily.
“But the Lebanese are not alone. We accompany them all spiritually, morally and materially.”
Parolin also met with Lebanon’s President Michel Aoun, a Catholic, in the morning of Sept. 4.
Cardinal Parolin brought the president greetings from Pope Francis and said that the pope was praying for Lebanon, according to Archbishop Paul Sayah, who is responsible for external relations for the Maronite Catholic Patriarchate of Antioch.
Parolin told President Aoun that Pope Francis “wants you to know that you are not alone in these difficult times that you are experiencing,” Sayah told CNA.
The Secretary of State will conclude his visit with a meeting with Maronite bishops, including Cardinal Bechara Boutros Rai, the Maronite Catholic patriarch of Antioch, during lunch Sept. 4.
Speaking via phone from Lebanon the morning of Sept. 4, Sayah said that the patriarchs have a deep appreciation and gratitude to the Holy Father for his closeness “in such difficult times.”
“I’m sure today [Patriarch Rai] will express those sentiments to Cardinal Parolin face-to-face,” he noted.
Commenting on the Aug. 4 Beirut explosion, Sayah said “it’s a huge disaster. The suffering of the people… and the destruction, and the winter is coming and people will certainly not have the time to rebuild their homes.”
Archbishop Sayah added, however, that “one of the beautiful things about this experience is the influx of people volunteering to help.”
“Young people especially have really flocked in the thousands into Beirut to help, and also the international community which has been present offering assistance in various ways. It’s a good sign of hope,” he said.
Cardinal Parolin also met with religious leaders at the Maronite Cathedral of St. George in Beirut.
“We are still shocked by what happened a month ago,” he said. “We pray that God may render us strong to care for every person who was affected and to accomplish the task of rebuilding Beirut.”
“As I arrived here, the temptation was to say that I would have liked to meet you in different circumstances. I said, ‘no,’ however! The God of love and mercy is also the God of history and we believe that God wants us to accomplish our mission of caring for our brothers and sisters in this present time, with all its difficulties and challenges.”
In his homily, delivered in French with Arabic translation, Cardinal Parolin said the Lebanese people can identify with Peter in the fifth chapter of St. Luke’s Gospel.
After fishing all night and catching nothing, Jesus asks Peter “to hope against all hope,” the Secretary of State noted. “After objecting, Peter obeyed and said to the Lord: ‘but at your word I will let go of the nets… And having done so, he and his companions caught a great multitude of fish.’”
“It is the Word of the Lord which changed the situation of Peter and it is the Word of the Lord which calls today the Lebanese to hope against all hope and to move forward with dignity and pride,” Parolin encouraged.
He also said that “the Word of the Lord is addressed to the Lebanese through their faith, through Our Lady of Lebanon and through Saint Charbel and all the saints of Lebanon.”
Lebanon will be reconstructed not only on a material level, but also on the level of public affairs, according to the secretary of state. “We have every hope that Lebanese society will be based more on rights, duties, transparency, collective responsibility and the service of the common good.”
“The Lebanese will walk this path together,” he said. “They will rebuild their country, with the help of friends and with a spirit of understanding, dialogue and coexistence that has always distinguished them.”
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CNA Staff, Sep 3, 2020 / 12:45 pm (CNA).- Pope Francis did not approve a proposal to ordain married men in the Amazon region because the idea was discussed, and even argued about, but not prayerfully discerned at a 2019 synod of bishops, according to notes from the pope included in an article published Thursday in the Catholic periodical La Civiltà Cattolica.
“There was a discussion … a rich discussion … a well-founded discussion, but no discernment, which is something different than just arriving at a good and justified consensus or at a relative majority,” Pope Francis said, on the issue of addressing a priest shortage in the Amazon by ordaining so-called viri probati, or older, mature and married men from local communities.
The pope clarified that synods of bishops should be opportunities for prayerful reflection, not parliamentary lobbying.
Pope Francis explained that a synod of bishops is a “spiritual exercise,” a period for discernment of how the Holy Spirit is speaking, and for self-examination regarding the motive beyond positions.
“Walking together means dedicating time to honest listening, capable of making us reveal and unmask (or at least to be sincere) the apparent purity of our positions and to help us discern the wheat that – up to the Parousia – always grows among the weeds.”
“Whoever has not realized this evangelical vision of reality exposes themselves to useless bitterness. Sincere and prayerful listening shows us the ‘hidden agendas’ called to conversion,” the pope added.
The October 2019 Synod of Bishops on the Pan-Amazon Region was a gathering of bishops from the region, and from other parts of the world, who met to discuss pastoral strategies for evangelization, catechesis, and pastoral care in the region, which spans several South American countries, and is beset by social, economic, and environmental challenges.
Some bishops at the synod proposed that Francis should permit the ordination of married men to the priesthood to address a regional shortage of priests. Critics of the idea said it would undermine the Church’s understanding of clerical celibacy as a gift, would become a widespread demand in the Church, and would not effectively resolve the clerical shortage in the Amazon.
In his Feb. 12 exhortation Querida Amazonia, which responded to the synod’s discussion on the region, Pope Francis did not endorse the proposal for the ordination of married men.
Instead, the urgent need for priests in the region “leads me to urge all bishops, especially those in Latin America, not only to promote prayer for priestly vocations, but also to be more generous in encouraging those who display a missionary vocation to opt for the Amazon region,” he wrote.
In his remarks published this week, the pope emphasized that continued discernment is needed to implement the vision laid out in his exhortation. “I like to think that, in a certain sense, the synod is not over. This time of welcoming the whole process that we have lived challenges us to continue walking together and to put this experience into practice.”
Pope Francis was criticized in some quarters for his decision not to approve viri probati, despite support for the proposal from the bishops at the synod. Church historian Massimo Faggioli wrote in Commonweal that “what we see with Querida Amazonia might suggest a betrayal of the Amazon Synod at least in terms of what it means for institutional Church reforms.”
But in his recently published note, Francis emphasized that a synod is not a legislative body, looking only for majority approval on proposals.
“We must understand that the synod is more than a parliament; and in this specific case it could not escape that [parliamentary] dynamic. On this issue it was a rich, productive and even necessary parliament; but no more than that. To me, this was decisive in the final discernment, when I thought about how to do the exhortation.”
“One of the riches and originality of the synodal pedagogy lies precisely in going out of a parliamentary logic to learn to listen, in community, to what the Spirit says to the Church; for this reason I always propose to remain silent after a certain number of interventions,” the pope added.
“What sense would the synodal assembly have if it were not for listening together to what the Spirit says to the Church?” Pope Francis asked.
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Vatican City, Sep 2, 2020 / 08:00 am (CNA).- At the end of his general audience Wednesday, Pope Francis made a lengthy appeal for peace and harmony in Lebanon, asking people around the world to spend a day in prayer and fasting for the Middle Eastern country.
“For over a hundred years, Lebanon has been a country of hope. Even during the darkest periods of its history, the Lebanese have kept their faith in God and demonstrated the ability to make their land a place of tolerance, respect and coexistence unique in the region,” he said.
“For the good of the country itself, but also of the world, we cannot allow this heritage to be lost.”
Francis said that he wanted Friday, Sept. 4, to be a universal day of prayer and fasting for Lebanon, and invited people of all religions to join in.
He also said he would be sending Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican Secretary of State, to Lebanon Sept. 4 as his representative, “to express my closeness and solidarity.”
“We offer our prayers for all of Lebanon and for Beirut,” he said. He closed by asking everyone to stand for a moment of silent prayer.
The pope made his appeal at his first public general audience since the outbreak of coronavirus in Italy over six months ago. The meeting was held with additional security measures in the San Damaso Courtyard inside the Vatican. More than 500 pilgrims were present.
Pope Francis greeted people as he entered the courtyard, and kissed a Lebanese flag held by a priest.
Later, the pope asked the Lebanese priest, Fr. Georges Breidi, to join him on the platform while he gave his nearly 700-word appeal. Afterward, Breidi thanked Pope Francis for his words, saying “we very much need your support and the support of the universal Church.”
“We cannot continue to live like this in Lebanon,” he added, noting, with emotion in his voice, the large number of Christians who are leaving the country.
“We need your prayers, your support, and your fraternal love. And we await you to bless our beloved land,” the priest told Pope Francis, before embracing him.
Breidi spoke to CNA about his experience immediately afterward: “I really can’t find the right words to say, however, I thank God for this great grace he gave me today.”
“[The pope] asked me if I wanted to say a word of thanks, that which I gave at the end. I hadn’t prepared in advance — I don’t know what I said.”
Sept. 1 marked 100 years since the creation of the State of Greater Lebanon. The country is almost evenly divided between Sunni Muslims, Shia Muslims, and Christians, most of whom are Maronite Catholics. Lebanon also has a small Jewish population, as well as Druze and other religious communities.
Lebanon’s capital city, Beirut, experienced a large explosion in its port area Aug. 4. The blast, caused by the detonation of a large amount of ammonium nitrate, killed nearly 200 people and injured thousands. It also caused extensive damage to homes and businesses around the area.
“In particular, I address the inhabitants of Beirut, severely tested by the explosion: take courage, brothers! Faith and prayer be your strength. Do not abandon your homes and your heritage, do not let the dreams of those who have believed in the future of a beautiful and prosperous country fall,” Pope Francis said.
He also urged priests and bishops in Lebanon to accompany their faithful, asking bishops especially to have “apostolic zeal” and to live in “poverty with your poor people who are suffering.”
“Help your faithful and your people to stand up and be protagonists of a new rebirth,” he added.
The pope emphasized the importance of peace, harmony, and brotherhood as a foundation for ensuring the continued presence of Christians in Lebanon and throughout the Middle East.
He quoted St. Pope John Paul II’s 1989 letter to bishops on the situation in Lebanon, which said, “faced with the repeated tragedies that each of the inhabitants of this land knows, we become aware of the extreme danger that threatens the very existence of the country. Lebanon cannot be abandoned in its solitude.”
Francis urged political and religious leaders to commit to reconstruction work in Beirut with transparency and with the common good in mind. He also asked the international community to continue its support.
“I ask you to entrust our anxieties and hopes to Mary, Our Lady of Harissa. May she support those who mourn their loved ones and instill courage in all those who have lost their homes and part of their lives with them,” he prayed.
“May she intercede with the Lord Jesus, so that the Land of the Cedars may flourish again and spread the perfume of living together throughout the Middle East region,” he said.
Vatican City, Sep 2, 2020 / 05:50 am (CNA).- Tourists in Rome had an unexpected chance to see Pope Francis at his first public audience for almost six months.
People from all over the world expressed their happiness and surprise Wednesday at having the opportunity to be present at Francis’ first in-person audience since the start of the coronavirus outbreak.
“We were surprised because we thought there were no audiences,” Belen and her friend, both from Argentina, told CNA. Belen is visiting Rome from Spain where she lives.
“We love the pope. He’s from Argentina too and we feel very close to him,” she said.
Pope Francis has been livestreaming his Wednesday general audience from his library since March, when the coronavirus pandemic led Italy and other countries to impose lockdown to slow down the virus’ spread.
The Sept. 2 audience was held in the San Damaso Courtyard on the interior of the Vatican’s apostolic palace, with a capacity of around 500 people.
The announcement that Francis would resume public audiences — albeit in a different location than usual and with limited numbers — was made Aug. 26. Many of the people who attended Wednesday said they just happened to be in the right place at the right time.
One family from Poland told CNA they found out about the audience just 20 minutes beforehand. Seven-year-old Franek, whose name is the Polish version of Francis, was excited he got to tell the pope about their common name.
Beaming, Franek said he was “very happy.”
Sandra, a Catholic visiting Rome from India with her parents, sister, and family friend, said “it feels great. We never thought we could see him, now we are going to.”
They found out about the audience two days before, she said, and decided to go. “We just wanted to see him and have his blessings.”
Pope Francis, not wearing a face mask, took the time to greet pilgrims as he entered and exited the courtyard, taking a moment to exchange a few words or to do a traditional zucchetto exchange.
He also stopped to kiss a Lebanese flag brought to the audience by Fr. Georges Breidi, a Lebanese priest studying at the Gregorian University in Rome.
At the end of his catechesis, the pope brought the priest up to the podium with him while he gave an appeal for Lebanon, announcing a day of prayer and fasting for the country on Friday, Sept. 4, after Beirut experienced a devastating blast Aug. 4.
Breidi spoke with CNA immediately after the experience. He said: “I really can’t find the right words to say, however, I thank God for the grace he gave me today.”
Belen also had the chance to exchange a quick greeting with the pope. She said she is part of the Fraternidad de Agrupaciones Santo Tomás de Aquino (FASTA), a lay association which follows the spirituality of the Dominicans.
She said that she introduced herself, and Pope Francis asked her how the founder of FASTA is doing. The pope knew Fr. Aníbal Ernesto Fosbery, O.P., when he was a priest in Argentina.
“We didn’t know what to say in that moment but it was amazing,” Belen said.
An older Italian couple from Turin traveled to Rome specifically to see the pope when they heard about the public audience. “We came and it was a magnificent experience,” they said.
A family visiting from the U.K. was also excited to be at the audience. Parents Chris and Helen Gray, together with their boys, Alphie, 9, and Charles and Leonardo, 6, are three weeks into a 12-month family journey.
Rome was the second stop, Chris said, noting that the chance for their boys to see the pope was a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”
Helen is Catholic and they are raising their boys in the Catholic Church, Chris said.
“Fantastic opportunity, how do I describe it?” he added. “Just an opportunity to refocus, especially in times like today with everything so uncertain, it’s great to hear words about certainty and community. It gives you a bit more hope and faith for the future.”
© Catholic World Report