Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz in 2016. / Shutterstock
Rome Newsroom, Apr 22, 2022 / 05:22 am (CNA).
The Vatican has ended an investigation into allegations that Polish Cardinal Stanisław Dziwisz failed to investigate claims of clerical sex abuse w… […]
Pope Francis at the general audience in St. Peter’s Square on April 20, 2022. / Daniel Ibanez/CNA
Rome Newsroom, Apr 22, 2022 / 04:52 am (CNA).
Pope Francis’ agenda was cleared on Friday for needed medical checkups, a Vatican spokesperson said.
Francis, who is 85 years old, has been suffering from pain in his right knee, causing him to take smaller roles in some Vatican liturgies and to remain seated more often.
“The pope has slowed down his activities today because of medical checkups that are needed today. That is why the schedule is empty today,” Matteo Bruni, director of the Holy See Press Office, said on April 22.
The pope’s movements have been visibly more limited since the start of the year.
At a general audience on Jan. 26, he said the reason he was unable to greet pilgrims as usual was because of a temporary “problem with my right leg,” an inflamed knee ligament.
With a smile, he added: “They say this only comes to old people, and I don’t know why it has come to me, but … I don’t know.”
On Good Friday, Pope Francis did not prostrate himself on the ground before the cross as he usually does during the liturgy for the Lord’s Passion.
Unexpectedly, the pope also opted to not celebrate the Vatican’s Easter Vigil Mass on Holy Saturday, though he attended, delivered the homily, and baptized several new Catholics.
And on Easter Sunday, he had to sit down part way through his delivery of the Urbi et Orbi message and blessing.
Pope Francis has also received more assistance walking and going up and down stairs in recent weeks.
Pope Francis boards the papal plane before a visit to Iraq March 5, 2021. / Daniel Ibanez/CNA
Rome Newsroom, Apr 22, 2022 / 03:45 am (CNA).
A bishop of South Sudan said on Thursday that during this summer’s expected papal visit, Pope Francis wi… […]
Members of the Manitoba Métis Federation meet with Pope Francis at the Vatican, April 21, 2022. / Vatican Media
Vatican City, Apr 21, 2022 / 18:00 pm (CNA).
As the Catholic Church continues to engage Canada’s Indigenous people and questions of … […]
Pope Francis on Palm Sunday 2022 in St. Peter’s Square. / Daniel Ibanez/CNA
Vatican City, Apr 21, 2022 / 06:40 am (CNA).
Pope Francis has joined the head of the United Nations and the leader of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in a call for a four-day truce in Ukraine for the Triduum and Easter.
The Eastern Orthodox churches and the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church follow the Julian calendar, meaning they will celebrate Easter on April 24 this year.
The appeal for an Easter truce was launched on April 19 by Antonio Guterres, secretary general of the UN, in agreement with Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk.
“Easter is a season for renewal, resurrection and hope. It is a time for reflection on the meaning of suffering, sacrifice, death — and rebirth. It is meant to be a moment of unity,” Guterres said at UN headquarters in New York
“This year, Holy Week is being observed under the cloud of a war that represents the total negation of the Easter message,” he said, calling for a four-day pause on fighting, beginning on Holy Thursday, April 21, to allow for the opening of humanitarian corridors and the safe delivery of aid.
The Vatican announced on April 21 that Pope Francis had joined the UN chief’s appeal, after the pope had called for an Easter truce in Ukraine during Palm Sunday Mass on April 10.
“In the knowledge that nothing is impossible for God, they invoke the Lord so that the population trapped in war zones may be evacuated and peace may soon be restored, and they ask those in charge of the Nations to listen to the people’s cry for peace,” a Vatican press release said.
At the end of Mass on Palm Sunday 2022, Pope Francis urged the laying down of weapons for an “Easter truce.”
Before an estimated 65,000 people in St. Peter’s Square, Pope Francis said that “nothing is impossible for God.”
“He can even bring an end to a war whose end is not in sight, a war that daily places before our eyes heinous massacres and atrocious cruelty committed against defenseless civilians. Let us pray about this.”
Archbishop Georg Gänswein in St. Peter’s Square on Sept. 25, 2019. / Daniel Ibáñez/CNA.
Vatican City, Apr 21, 2022 / 05:30 am (CNA).
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI’s personal secretary, Archbishop Georg Gänswein, has been in isolation for the past … […]
Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Square on April 18, 2022. / Daniel Ibanez/CNA
Vatican City, Apr 21, 2022 / 03:05 am (CNA).
Pope Francis has said that Catholic education and formation are more important than ever in “an age awash in information often transmitted without wisdom or critical sense.”
“As educators, you are called to nurture the desire for truth, goodness and beauty that lies in the heart of each individual, so that all may learn how to love life and be open to the fullness of life,” Pope Francis wrote in a message delivered to a delegation from English-speaking Catholic universities on April 20.
“Catholic education is also evangelization: bearing witness to the joy of the Gospel and its power to renew our communities and provide hope and strength in facing wisely the challenges of the present time,” he said.
Pope Francis met with a delegation from the Global Researchers Advancing Catholic Education (G.R.A.C.E.) at the Vatican’s apostolic palace on Wednesday morning.
The GRACE project is a collaboration between five Catholic universities in Europe, the United States, and Australia.
In written remarks prepared for the meeting and given to the delegation, the pope encouraged the Catholic university representatives to discern “innovative ways of uniting research with best practices so that teachers can serve the whole person in a process of integral human development.”
“In short, this means forming the head, hands and heart together: preserving and enhancing the link between learning, doing and feeling in the noblest sense. In this way, you will be able to offer not only an excellent academic curriculum, but also a coherent vision of life inspired by the teachings of Christ,” Pope Francis said.
“In this sense, the Church’s work of education aims not only ‘at developing the maturity of the human person … but is especially directed towards ensuring that those who have been baptized become daily more appreciative of the gift of faith which they have received’” (Second Vatican Council’s Declaration Gravissimum Educationis, 2).
Through the GRACE project, a long-term partnership has been formed between Boston College in the U.S., the University of Notre Dame in Australia, Mary Immaculate College Limerick in Ireland, Saint Mary’s University Twickenham in the U.K. and the International Office of Catholic Education in Rome.
The group organizes webinars and meetings, and supports doctoral students in research projects focused on Catholic education.
The pope opted to speak off the cuff to the group in Italian, apologizing for not speaking in English and noting that he “understood almost everything” that the delegation had said.
“I lived in Ireland, in Dublin, in Milltown Park, to study English. I studied English, but I forgot, excuse me!” he joked.
In his off the cuff remarks, the pope spoke about the relationship between tradition and progress.
He said: “Without roots, no progress can be made. Only with the roots do we become people: not museum statues, like some cold, starched, rigid traditionalists, with the thought that providing for life means living attached to the roots.”
“There is a need for this relationship with the roots, but also to move forward. And this is the true tradition: taking from the past to move forward. Tradition is not static: it is dynamic, aimed at moving forward.”
The pope met with the delegation ahead of his Wednesday general audience, where he spoke about the importance of honoring the elderly.
“May the joy of these days of Easter fill your hearts, and may your meeting here in the Eternal City strengthen you in fidelity to the Lord and his Church, and enrich your efforts to highlight the distinctiveness of our Catholic vision of education,” the pope’s written message to Catholic educators said.
“I trust that this study visit will inspire each of you to rededicate himself or herself with generous zeal to your vocation as educators, to your efforts to solidify the foundations of a more humane and solidary society, and thus the advancement Christ’s kingdom of truth, holiness, justice and peace,” he said.
Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragán / Public domain.
Rome, Italy, Apr 20, 2022 / 07:00 am (CNA).
Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragán died Wednesday morning in Rome at the age of 89.The Mexican cardinal is remembered for his service at the Vatican as th… […]
Pope Francis at the general audience in St. Peter’s Square on April 20, 2022. / Daniel Ibanez/CNA
Vatican City, Apr 20, 2022 / 03:20 am (CNA).
To not honor the elderly as God commands, and to treat them as something to discard, “is a grave sin,” Pope Francis said on Wednesday.
During his weekly meeting with the public in St. Peter’s Square on April 20, the pope said “this commandment to honor the elderly gives us a blessing.”
“Please, care for old people,” he urged, “because they are the presence of history, the presence of the family. And it is thanks to them we are here. Please, do not leave them alone.”
Honoring the elderly is a form of love, giving life not only to those honored, but to those doing the honoring, he said.
For the first time since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the pope’s Wednesday general audience was back in St. Peter’s Square.
The pope’s lesson focused on seven verses from the book of Sirach, including Sirach 3:12-13: “My son, be steadfast in honoring your father; do not grieve him as long as he lives. Even if his mind fails, be considerate of him; do not revile him because you are in your prime.”
“Honor is a good word to frame this aspect of returning love that concerns old age,” Pope Francis said. “We have received this love from our parents, now we return this love to our parents, to our grandparents.”
“Love for the human person that is common to us, including honoring a life lived, is not a matter for the old. Rather it is an ambition that will bring radiance to the youth who inherit its best qualities. May the wisdom of God’s Spirit grant us to open the horizon of this true cultural revolution with the necessary energy,” he stated.
Pope Francis encouraged parents to bring their children around the elderly often. And if their grandparents are in a nursing home, to bring them to visit.
He recalled that he would often visit the nursing homes in Buenos Aires, Argentina, when he was there. One time, he said, he spoke to a woman who had four children, and when he asked her if they came to visit, she said “yes.” But later, a nurse told Francis that in fact, it had been six months since the woman had seen her children, but she had lied because she did not want to speak badly of them.
This is treating the elderly like something disposable, he said. “This contempt, which dishonors the elderly, actually dishonors all of us.”
“Let us think carefully about this beautiful expression of love which is honor,” he urged. “Even care for the sick, the support of those who are not self-sufficient, the guarantee of sustenance, can be lacking honor.”
“This special love that paves the way in the form of honor — tenderness and respect at the same time — intended for the elderly is sealed by God’s commandment,” he continued.
We have all thought at one moment or another that our grandparents were annoying, he said. “Do not say, ‘no,’ it is ‘yes.’ We have thought that.”
“‘Honor thy father and mother’ is a solemn commitment,” he said. “It is not just about one’s own father and mother. It is about their generation and the generations before, whose leave-taking can also be slow and prolonged, creating a time and space of long-lasting coexistence with the other ages of life. In other words, it is about the old age of life.”
Pope Francis greets 80,000 teens on pilgrimage in St. Peter’s Square on April 18, 2022. / Vatican Media
Vatican City, Apr 19, 2022 / 05:30 am (CNA).
Pope Francis urged 80,000 teenagers gathered in St. Peter’s Square on Monday to turn to the Ble… […]
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