Vatican

No Picture
News Briefs

Pope prays that pastors will have courage to be close to their people

April 24, 2020 CNA Daily News 1

Vatican City, Apr 24, 2020 / 05:00 am (CNA).- Pope Francis prayed that God would give pastors the courage to be close to their people as he celebrated Mass Friday.

The pope asked that the Lord would “above all teach us not to be afraid of God’s people, not to be afraid to be close to them.”

Speaking from the chapel of the Casa Santa Marta, his Vatican residence, April 24, he said that pastors must avoid becoming mere “pastoral business managers” as Jesus wants every priest to have a “shepherd’s heart”.

“The power of the pastor is service,” he said. “He has no other power. When you begin to make mistakes taking other powers your vocation is ruined.”

In his homily, Pope Francis reflected on the day’s Gospel, John 6:1-15, in which Jesus used five loaves and two fish to feed a large crowd. He noted that the disciples were tired and did not want the crowd to come between them and the Lord. By contrast, Jesus sought to be close to the people and to teach the disciples how to become true pastors. 

Celebrating Mass before a small congregation due to the coronavirus pandemic, the pope said that the disciples saw themselves as “a privileged class, ‘an aristocracy,’ so to speak,” but that Jesus repeatedly corrected them. 

He gave the examples of when the disciples tried to prevent children from approaching the Lord and he rebuked them (Matthew 19:13-15), and when people on the road to Jericho ordered a blind man to stop crying out “Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me” (Luke 18:35-43). 

The pope recalled “a great pastor from a simple, humble neighborhood” who once told him that he wished he could have some rest from his parishioners’ demands. 

“But he realized he was a shepherd and had to be with people,” he said. “And Jesus … teaches the disciples, the apostles, this pastoral attitude that is closeness to the people of God.”

Pope Francis concluded the celebration with adoration and benediction, leading those following via livestream in an act of spiritual communion. 

Those gathered in the chapel then sang the Easter Marian antiphon “Regina caeli.”

At the start of the Mass, the pope prayed for teachers and students adapting to the new circumstances created by the pandemic.

He said: “We pray today for teachers who have to work so hard to lead lessons via the internet and other media channels and we also pray for students who have to take exams in a way they are not used to. Let us accompany them with prayer.”

[…]

No Picture
News Briefs

Pope Francis prays for families going hungry amid pandemic

April 23, 2020 CNA Daily News 2

Vatican City, Apr 23, 2020 / 07:00 am (CNA).- Pope Francis asked people to pray on Thursday for families who are struggling to put food on the table during the coronavirus pandemic.

“In many places, one of the effects of this pandemic is that many families find themselves in need, and they are hungry,” Pope Francis said April 23 during the broadcast of his morning Mass.

“Let us pray for these families, for their dignity,” he added. 

The pope said that the poor are suffering from “another pandemic”: the economic consequences of layoffs and furloughs. He said that the poor also suffer from the exploitation of unscrupulous money-lenders, and prayed for their conversion.

The coronavirus pandemic threatens food security in many parts of the world. David Beasley, executive director of the World Food Programme (WFP), based in Rome, said April 21 that the world was already facing “the worst humanitarian crisis since World War II” in 2020 before the pandemic.

“So today, with COVID-19, I want to stress that we are not only facing a global health pandemic but also a global humanitarian catastrophe,” he told the UN Security Council via videolink. “If we don’t prepare and act now — to secure access, avoid funding shortfalls and disruptions to trade — we could be facing multiple famines of biblical proportions within a short few months.”

According to the WFP, 130 million people worldwide are on the edge of starvation during the pandemic.

In his homily in the chapel of Casa Santa Marta, his Vatican residence, Pope Francis reflected on Christ as our intercessor before God. 

“We are accustomed to praying to Jesus to give us this grace, that other, to help us, but we are not accustomed to contemplating Jesus who shows the Father the wounds, to Jesus, the intercessor, to Jesus who prays for us,” the pope said.

“Let us think about this a little … For each of us Jesus prays. Jesus is the intercessor. Jesus wanted to bring his wounds with him to show them to the Father. It is the price of our salvation,” he said.

Pope Francis recalled an event in chapter 22 of the Gospel of Luke when Jesus said to Peter at the Last Supper: “Simon, Simon, behold Satan has demanded to sift all of you like wheat, but I have prayed that your own faith may not fail.”

“This is Peter’s secret,” the pope said. “Jesus’ prayer. Jesus prays for Peter, so that his faith may not fail and he can –  Jesus says – confirm his brothers in faith.”

“And Peter was able to go far, from coward to courageous, with the gift of the Holy Spirit thanks to the prayer of Jesus,” he added.

April 23 is the feast of St. George, Jorge Mario Bergoglio’s namesake. The Vatican celebrates the pope’s “name day” as an official state holiday. 

[…]

No Picture
News Briefs

Vatican City prepares to ease coronavirus restrictions in May

April 22, 2020 CNA Daily News 0

Vatican City, Apr 22, 2020 / 11:10 am (CNA).- Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin met with members of the Roman curia on Wednesday to discuss the gradual reopening of Holy See offices as Italy prepares to end its national lockdown.

The heads of Vatican dicasteries decided to implement a “gradual reactivation of ordinary services” starting in May, while “safeguarding the health precautions to limit contagion,” according to a statement from the Holy See Press Office April 22.

Italy’s strict lockdown is scheduled to end May 4 after 55 days of mandatory quarantine for the entire country.

Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte announced April 21 that he will be releasing a plan to slowly lift the coronavirus restrictions and reopen businesses.

“I wish I could say: let’s reopen everything. Immediately. … But such a decision would be irresponsible. It would bring up the contagion curve uncontrollably and it would frustrate all the efforts we’ve put in so far,” Conte wrote in a Facebook post published April 21. 

After over a month of lockdown, more than 100,000 people are currently ill with COVID-19 in Italy after 183,957 total cases were documented by the Italian Ministry of Health.

When the Diocese of Rome announced the suspension of all public Masses one day before the national lockdown was declared, there had been a total of 87 coronavirus cases documented in Lazio, the region surrounding Rome. As of April 21, there are 4,402 active cases reported in the same region with an additional 1,130 people recovered and 363 deceased.

Vatican City itself has reported nine cases of COVID-19 among its employees. The most recent confirmed case was reported by the Holy See Press Office this week after the patient was hospitalized.

“Appropriate sanitisation and checks were carried out among those who had had contact with the interested party on the only day of his presence at the workplace in the two weeks prior to the response, all with negative results,” Holy See Press Office Director Matteo Bruni said April 20.

Bruni has repeatedly said that Vatican City is implementing measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus in coordination with the Italian authorities.

St. Peter’s Basilica and square, the Vatican Museums, and several other public offices in the Vatican City State have been closed for more than six weeks.

[…]