Vatican City, Mar 8, 2020 / 09:30 am (CNA).- The Vatican Museums will be closed until April 3 as a precautionary measure to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus in Italy.
The Holy See Press Office put out a statement March 8 announcing the closu… […]
Vatican City, Mar 8, 2020 / 07:30 am (CNA).- In a video streamed live to St. Peter’s Square, Pope Francis prayed for those suffering from the “coronavirus epidemic” and encouraged Catholics to live through this trial with the strength of faith.
“I join my brother bishops in encouraging the faithful to live this difficult moment with the strength of faith, the certainty of hope and the fervor of charity,” Pope Francis said March 8.
“The season of Lent helps us all to give an evangelical sense also to this moment of trial and pain,” he added.
The pope led the Sunday Angelus prayer via video filmed in the library of the Apostolic Palace in response to ongoing concerns about the spread of coronavirus in Italy and Vatican City. Traditionally, the pope leads the Angelus from the palace balcony overlooking St. Peter’s Square.
“Today’s Angelus prayer is a little strange with the pope ‘caged’ in the library, but I see you, I am close to you,” Pope Francis told the smaller than usual crowd in St. Peter’s Square at the beginning of the video broadcast.
“This way of praying the Angelus today is done to carry out preventive measures, so as to avoid crowds of people, which can favor the transmission of the virus,” he said.
The Italian government imposed a strict quarantine on March 8 for northern and central regions of Italy, including Milan and Venice.
Most of the 5,883 people who have contracted Covid-19 in Italy have been in the northern regions of the country. The Italian Ministry of Health reported 76 confirmed cases in Rome’s Lazio region on the evening of March 7.
With 233 coronavirus-related deaths in Italy in two weeks — 85 of which have occurred in the past two days — Italy has had the most Covid-19 mortalities outside of China.
Italy’s museums, archaeological sites, concerts, and movie theaters have all been closed until April 3, the Italian Minister of Tourism said March 8. All schools and universities will also remain closed throughout the country until March 15.
Pope Francis said March 8 that he is “close in prayer to people suffering from the current coronavirus epidemic.”
Vatican City confirmed its first case of coronavirus on March 5, and later announced that both the pope’s Angelus address and Wednesday general audience would take place over live video.
“The love of Jesus has no measure,” Pope Francis said in the video message. “It is a free, unconditional choice, a free initiative, a divine friendship that asks for nothing in return.”
“Being witnesses of Jesus is a gift that we have not deserved: we feel inadequate, but we cannot hold back with the excuse of our inability,” the pope said.
After the Angelus, Pope Francis appeared in the window of the Apostolic Palace to give a blessing to the pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square.
“Jesus says to us too: ‘Stand up and do not be afraid’ … we must not forget that the baptism that we received made us witnesses,” Pope Francis said.
Vatican City, Mar 7, 2020 / 12:30 pm (CNA).- Pope Francis will lead the Sunday Angelus prayer via video link, the Vatican has announced. The pope will also hold this week’s Wednesday general audience in the same way. The decision was taken in res… […]
South Bend, Ind., Mar 7, 2020 / 12:00 pm (CNA).- Catholic clergy and laity have a shared responsibility to proclaim the Gospel, speakers at a conference sponsored by the University of Notre Dame have said.
“We’re all in the same boat… […]
Vatican City, Mar 7, 2020 / 05:00 am (CNA).- The next ordinary Synod of Bishops will be a synod on synodality, the Vatican announced March 7.
In October 2022, bishops from around the world will meet in Rome to discuss the theme: “For a synodal C… […]
Vatican City, Mar 6, 2020 / 10:41 am (CNA).- Rolls Royce and Italian Luxury Living are no longer offering an exclusive meeting and Mass with Pope Francis to Rolls Royce owners who donate over $100,000 to the Catholic Church.
“The offer does not exist anymore,” Ananda Gari of Italian Luxury Living told CNA by phone March 6.
Religion News Service reported March 5 that Rolls-Royce was offering its luxury car owners a chance to meet privately with Pope Francis, receive the Eucharist from the pope during a private Mass, and take an “exclusive” tour of the Vatican. The cost of the trip was reportedly $155,000, in addition to a suggested donation of 100,000 euros to the Holy See.
The RNS report said the offer was facilitated through tour operator Italian Luxury Living.
Gari said his company and Rolls-Royce decided mutually to cancel the offer to meet Pope Francis.
Gari said that he did not want to cause a “scandal,” which is why the offer was “canceled.” He declined to elaborate.
Gari also declined several times to answer questions about whether some Vatican official was to be the facilitator of the exclusive meeting, insisting only that “the offer no longer exists.”
Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni told CNA March 6 he has “heard nothing of this offer.”
Italian Luxury Living is registered as a Texas limited liability corporation. The company was registered with the Texas Secretary of State in April 2018; its registered agent is Jonathan Henley, an attorney in the 16,000-person town of Gainesville, Texas. The company’s official address is the office of Henley’s law firm.
“I set up the company a long time ago and have not heard from the guy,” Henley told CNA March 6.
“That sounds fishy to me,” Henley added, asking if the offer was “some sort of scam.”
“If there is something going on like that, I will be resigning as a registered agent.”
As of March 6, the company’s website says it has been taken down temporarily, “for maintenance.” Gari told CNA he took the site down after the publication of the RNS story, which he said could be “damaging” to hims professionally.
On the company’s LinkedIn page, Gari is listed both as Italian Luxury Living’s “Founder and Director,” and as the company’s “President and Co-Founder.”
According to British registries, Gari is also director of two UK companies: ALG Ventures, founded in October 2019, and Journey of a Lifetime Entertainment Limited, founded in November 2019.
Gari insisted to CNA that his company has never before offered an opportunity to meet the pope. He also equated the offer to other typical Italian tour offers and said “competitors have done similar things.”
JD Flynn contributed to this report.
Vatican City, Mar 6, 2020 / 05:10 am (CNA).- The Vatican announced Friday that Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of Cardinal Philippe Barbarin as archbishop of Lyon after his recent acquittal at the conclusion of his appeal of a 2019 conviction of failing to report abuse.
Jan. 30 the French cardinal was acquitted of last March’s conviction of failing to report the sexual abuse of a minor by a diocesan priest. He had received a six-month suspended prison sentence.
Barbarin, 69, had submitted his letter of resignation to Pope Francis after his initial conviction in March 2019, but it was not accepted, pending his appeal.
The Vatican stated at the time that Pope Francis preferred to leave “Cardinal Barbarin free to make the best decision for the diocese.”
Barbarin elected to step back from the governance of the diocese, leaving the day-to-day management to his vicar general, Fr. Yves Baumgarten.
Archbishop of Lyon since 2002, Barbarin was accused of not reporting instances of abuse to judicial authorities between July 2014 and June 2015, in a case involving Fr. Bernard Preynat, who has been accused of abusing dozens of minors in the 1980s and early 90s.
At the time of his conviction in March last year, five other archdiocesan officials on trial with Barbarin were acquitted. Barbarin’s conviction was widely expected to be overturned after the prosecutor in the case argued there was no proof of the cardinal’s legal wrongdoing and therefore no grounds for conviction.
In 2017, the cardinal told Le Monde that he did not conceal allegations against Preynat, but said that his response to the allegations had been “inadequate.” He said he opened an investigation against Preynat after becoming aware of the allegations against him and removed him from ministry in 2015.
Barbarin’s trial also made headlines when, in October 2018, the French court issued a summons to Cardinal Luis Francisco Ladaria Ferrer, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, to testify in the case. The Vatican invoked diplomatic immunity, saying that as a minister of Vatican City State, Lardaria is protected under international law.
The court summons had involved a letter Ladaria sent to Barbarin, advising him to take disciplinary action against Preynat, “while avoiding public scandal.”
The plaintiffs’ lawyers wanted Ladaria to testify as to whether the direction to prevent scandal was intended as an injunction to avoid going to court, in which case, they said, the CDF prefect would have been complicit in failing to report the allegedly abusive priest to authorities.
Allegations against Preynat became public in 2015. Prosecutors dropped the case the following year after an initial investigation, but a victims’ group with more than 80 members who say they were abused by Preynat led to a reopening of the case. He now faces up to ten years in prison in a trial which is still ongoing.
At the time of his conviction, Barbarin said “after the decision of the court, regardless of my personal fate, I want to reiterate first of all compassion for the victims and the whole place that they and their families have in my prayers.”
Barbarin was born in 1950 in Rabat, Morocco, at the time under French protectorate. He was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Creteil, France in 1977.
He was bishop of Moulins from 1998 until his appointment as archbishop of Lyon in 2002. He was created cardinal in October 2003.
Vatican City, Mar 6, 2020 / 04:30 am (CNA).- Vatican City has confirmed its first case of coronavirus, a Vatican spokesman said Friday.
All outpatient services in Vatican City State’s Health and Hygiene Department were suspended March 6 to allow… […]
Vatican City, Mar 5, 2020 / 04:18 pm (CNA).- Pope Francis is asking youth to wake up from the deadening static of staring at a cell phone to encounter Christ in their neighbor.
“Today, we are often ‘connected’ but not communicating. The indiscriminate use of electronic devices can keep us constantly glued to the screen,” Pope Francis said in his message to young people published March 5.
“When I look at things, do I look carefully, or is it more like when I quickly scroll through the thousands of photos or social profiles on my cell phone?” Francis asked.
The pope warned that he sees a “growing digital narcissism” among young people and adults alike.
“How often do we end up being eyewitnesses of events without ever experiencing them in real time! Sometimes our first reaction is to take a picture with our cell phone, without even bothering to look into the eyes of the persons involved,” Francis said.
Pope Francis encouraged young people to “wake up.” He said that if someone realizes that he is “dead inside,” he can trust that Christ can give them new life to “arise,” as he did with the young man in Luke 7:14.
“When we are ‘dead,’ we remain closed in on ourselves. Our relationships break up, or become superficial, false and hypocritical. When Jesus restores us to life, he ‘gives’ us to others,” he said.
The pope called upon young people to bring about “cultural change” that will allow those “isolated and withdrawn into virtual worlds” to arise.
“Let us spread Jesus’ invitation: ‘Arise!’ He calls us to embrace a reality that is so much more than virtual,” he said.
“This does not involve rejecting technology, but rather using it as a means and not as an end,” the pope added.
Pope Francis said that a person who is alive in Christ encounters reality, even tragedy, that leads him to suffer with his neighbor.
“How many situations are there where apathy reigns, where people plunge into an abyss of anguish and remorse! How many young people cry out with no one to hear their plea! Instead, they meet with looks of distraction and indifference,” Francis said.
“I think too of all those negative situations that people of your age are experiencing,” he said. “One young woman told me: ‘Among my friends I see less desire to get involved, less courage to get up.’ Sadly, depression is spreading among young people too, and in some cases even leads to the temptation to take one’s own life.”
With Christ, who brings new life, a young person can become more aware of those who are suffering draw near to them, he said.
“You too, as young people, are able to draw near to the realities of pain and death that you encounter. You too can touch them and, like Jesus, bring new life, thanks to the Holy Spirit,” he said. “You will be able to touch them as he does, and to bring his life to those of your friends who are inwardly dead, who suffer or have lost faith and hope.”
“Perhaps, in times of difficulty, many of you have heard people repeat those ‘magic’ formulas so fashionable nowadays, formulas that are supposed to take care of everything: ‘You have to believe in yourself’, ‘You have to discover your inner resources’, ‘You have to become conscious of your positive energy’ … But these are mere words; they do not work for someone who is truly ‘dead inside,’” he said.
“Jesus’ word has a deeper resonance; it goes infinitely deeper. It is a divine and creative word, which alone can bring the dead to life,” the pope said.
Pope Francis addressed this message to the young people throughout the world who will celebrate local diocesan World Youth Day gatherings on Palm Sunday this year.
The pope reminded young people that the next international World Youth Day will take place in Lisbon in 2022: “From Lisbon, in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, great numbers of young people, including many missionaries, set out for unknown lands, to share their experience of Jesus with other peoples and nations.”
“As young people, you are experts in this! You like to take trips, to discover new places and people, and to have new experiences,” he said.
“If you have lost your vitality, your dreams, your enthusiasm, your optimism and your generosity, Jesus stands before you as once he stood before the dead son of the widow, and with all the power of his resurrection he urges you: ‘Young man, I say to you, arise!’” Pope Francis said.
Vatican City, Mar 5, 2020 / 03:00 pm (CNA).- In a video released on Thursday by Vatican Media, Pope Francis announced that his prayer intention for the month of March is for “the unity of Christians in China.”
“Let us pray together t… […]
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