Vatican

Vatican City, Feb 14, 2020 / 01:45 pm (CNA).- Pope Francis met with leadership of the Knights of Columbus on Wednesday, for the second time in a week, in the Cappella Paolina of the Apostolic Palace.

The pope met with the Knights’ officers and directors with their families Feb. 12, following a Mass said by Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore, Supreme Chaplain to the Knights.

Francis prayed an Our Father and a Hail Mary with the Knights, promising to pray for them and asking their prayers in turn.

Archbishop Lori gave the pope an Italian edition of a biography of Fr. Michael McGivney, founder of the Knights.

Francis had already received the leadership in an audience in the Clementine Hall Feb. 10.

“It was a great honor for our delegation to meet with the Pope not just once, but twice,” Supreme Knight Carl Anderson said.

“We are touched by the fact that Pope Francis took so much time with us, and we remain inspired by his words and grateful for his prayers. I ask all brother Knights and their families to take seriously the Holy Father’s request and commit to praying for him each day.”

The administrative council of the Knights of Columbus is on a pilgrimage to Rome to mark 100 years of charitable activity in the Eternal City.

At their Feb. 10 meeting, Pope Francis had praised the organization’s charitable work in Rome and in defense of life.

“Today the Knights of Columbus continue their work of evangelical charity and fraternity in a variety of fields,” the pope said. “I think in particular of your faithful witness to the sacredness and dignity of human life, evident at both the local and national levels.”

He also noted the Knights’ dedication to aiding, “both materially and spiritually, those Christian communities in the Middle East that are suffering the effects of violence, war and poverty.”

“I thank all the members of your Order for seeing in our persecuted and displaced brothers and sisters of that region neighbors for whom you are a sign of God’s infinite love,” he said.

Pope Francis noted the centenary of the group’s humanitarian aid in Rome, which started after World War I at the invitation of Benedict XV.

“The Knights responded generously, establishing sports centers for youth that quickly became places for education, catechesis and the distribution of food and other essentials so needed at that time,” he said.

Francis also praised the group for its “unswerving devotion to the Successor of Peter,” including through the Vicarius Christi fund, the annual proceeds of which are given to the pope for his personal charities.

The Knights of Columbus, a Catholic fraternal order, was founded in New Haven, Conn., in 1882 by Venerable Michael J. McGivney, a parish priest. It has 1.8 million members worldwide who perform volunteer service and advance the order’s key principles of charity, unity, fraternity and patriotism.

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Vatican City, Feb 14, 2020 / 09:47 am (CNA).- Laypeople have a mandate to spread the Gospel in their concrete circumstances through the witness of their lives, Pope Francis said in a message sent Friday to Catholics attending a congress on laity in Spa… […]

Vatican City, Feb 13, 2020 / 10:33 am (CNA).- In a newly published book, Pope Francis answers questions about himself and St. John Paul II, saying he learned the importance of joy and mercy from his predecessor, and they are in “total harmony&rdq… […]

Vatican City, Feb 12, 2020 / 01:30 pm (CNA).- Pope Francis promulgated on Wednesday a new apostolic exhortation, or letter of encouragement, about the Church in the Amazon region. The document is a follow-up to a synod, or meeting, of bishops convened … […]

Vatican City, Feb 12, 2020 / 12:49 pm (CNA).- During his General Audience on Wednesday, Pope Francis discussed the second beatitude, Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted, emphasizing the value of compunction.

Mourning “is an attitude that became central to Christian spirituality,” the pope said Feb. 12 at the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall.

The desert fathers calld this “an inner pain that opens up to a relationship with the Lord and with one’s neighbour; a renewed relationship with the Lord and with one’s neighbour,” he said.

Mourning can have two aspects, Pope Francis said: “for death or for the suffering of someone” and “tears shed over sin – for our own sin, when the heart bleeds for the pain of having offended God and one’s neighbour.”

He said that it is “a question of loving the other in such a way that we are bound to him or her until we share his or her pain … it is important that others make a breach in our hearts.”

“I have often spoken about the gift of tears, and how precious it is,” he said.

“Can one love in a cold way? Can one love by function, by duty? Certainly not. There are the afflicted to console, but sometimes there are also the consoled to afflict, to awaken, who have a heart of stone and have forgotten how to weep. It is also necessary to reawaken people who do not know how to be moved by the pain of others.”

While bitter, mourning can “open one’s eyes to life and to the sacred and irreplaceable value of each person, and at that moment one realizes how short time is,” the pope reflected.

Turning to weeping over sin, Francis said that it is not anger at having made a mistake, which he called pride.

“Instead there are those who mourn the evil done, the good omitted, the betrayal of the relationship with God. This is mourning for not having loved, which springs from having the life of others at heart. Here one weeps because one does not correspond to the Lord Who loves us so much, and we are saddened by the thought of the good not done; this is the meaning of sin. They say, ‘I have wounded the one I love’, and it pains them to tears. God be blessed if these tears come!”

He said it is “difficult but vital” to face one’s own errors.

“Let us think of the weeping of Saint Peter, which leads him to a new and far truer love: they are tears which purify, which renew. Peter looked to Jesus and wept: his heart was renewed.”

Pope Francis contrasted St. Peter with Judas, “who did not accept that he had made a mistake and, poor man, took his own life.”

“Understanding sin is a gift from God, it is the work of the Holy Spirit. We, by ourselves, are unable to understand sin. It is a grace we must ask for … This is a very great gift and after we have understood this, there comes the grief of repentance.”

The pope referred to St. Ephrem the Syrian’s saying that “a face washed with tears is unspeakably beautiful.”

“The beauty of penitence, the beauty of tears, the beauty of contrition,” the pope exclaimed.

“Christian life finds its best expression in mercy. Wise and blessed is he who welcomes the pain linked to love, because he will receive the consolation of the Holy Spirit which God always forgives, even the worst sins, always is the tenderness of God Who forgives and corrects.”

He added that “God always forgives: let us never forget this.. The problem is in us, that we tire of asking for forgiveness, we become wrapped up in ourselves and we do not ask for forgiveness. This is the problem; but He is there to forgive.”

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Vatican City, Feb 12, 2020 / 07:56 am (CNA).- Pope Francis’ post-synodal exhortation on the Amazon is part of the Church’s ordinary magisterium — that is officially a kind of Church teaching — while the final document of the Vatican’s 2019 Amazon synod is not, Cardinal Michael Czerny, special secretary of the Amazon synod, said Feb. 12.

The distinction in the authoritative weight of the two documents was also emphasized Wednesday by Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, secretary general of the Synod of Bishops, and by Matteo Bruni, the director of the Holy See Press Office.

“So we have two documents of two different kinds,” Czerny said in a presentation to journalists.

“The final document, consisting of proposals made and voted by the Synod Fathers, has the weight of a synodal final document,” he said, whereas the apostolic exhortation, “reflecting on the whole process and its final document, has the authority of ordinary magisterium of the Successor of Peter.”

Pope Francis released Feb. 12 the apostolic letter Querida Amazonia, which presents his response to the discussion of the Amazon synod, which took place in Rome over three weeks in October.

This synod ended with the presentation to Pope Francis of a final document, which was voted on by synod members setting out a series of recommendations based on the issues discussed during the preparation phase and synodal sessions.

The final document of the synod assembly is what Czerny and Baldisseri said does not have the weight of ordinary magisterium, noting the pope’s “presentation” of the document.

Pope Francis “encourages everyone to read the whole document” Czerny stated, but added that suggestions made in the synod’s final document remain in discussion only “as proposals made by the synod.” This means that Catholics are not required to believe, or even agree with, the proposals, or regard them as teachings of the pope.
 
In Querida Amazonia itself, Pope Francis offers his own reflections on the Amazon, saying he “will not go into all of the issues treated at length in the [synod’s] final document. Nor do I claim to replace that text or to duplicate it.”

The pope states that, at the same time, he “would like to officially present the Final Document, which sets forth the conclusions of the Synod…”

Francis added: “I have preferred not to cite the Final Document in this Exhortation, because I would encourage everyone to read it in full.”

The pope also asks that “pastors, consecrated men and women and lay faithful of the Amazon region strive to apply” the work of the synodal assembly.

Francis’ use of the words “officially present,” prompted some to ask if the pope wishes to give added weight to the synod’s conclusions, even if he chose not to cite them directly in his own document.

Bruni emphasized that “the apostolic exhortation is magisterium, the final document is not.” He later added that “anything in the final document should be read in the lens of the apostolic exhortation,” including any “application.”

The option for the pope to adopt the final synodal document as his own, including it as official Church teaching, was part of changes the pontiff made to synod rules in 2018. Since that year, canon law has permitted the pope to give a specific and deliberate kind of approval to a final synodal document that would incorporate the text into the pope’s ordinary magisterium, or official teaching.

However, Baldisseri said that article 18 of Episcopalis Communio, which established that law, makes clear that the pope needs to give his approval “expressly.”

“The apostolic exhortation does not speak of approval of the final document. It does not speak [of it]. It speaks of presentation, but not of approval,” Baldisseri continued. “There is not a clear canonical word of approval, as in article 18 of Episcopalis Communio. It speaks of express approval, not indirect, imagined.”

The final document of the Amazon synod “has a certain moral authority, sure,” he added, “but not magisterial.” 

Synods of bishops convened by the pope serve a mainly consultative role, as indicated in the Code of Canon Law.

Their main purpose is to foster unity between the pope and the bishops around the world, and to offer their input as the pope considers questions pertaining to the Church’s activity in different parts of the world, on issues of faith and morals, and “in the observance and strengthening of ecclesiastical discipline.”

“It is,” the Code says, “for the synod of bishops to discuss the questions for consideration and express its wishes but not to resolve them or issue decrees about them unless in certain cases the Roman Pontiff has endowed it with deliberative power, in which case he ratifies the decisions of the synod.”

Czerny said he thinks the best way to understand the synod’s debate of the possibility of the ordination of married priests in the Amazon region is to see it “as part of a process and as part of a journey.”

“That’s why it’s called a synod,” he noted, adding that “we are at a very important part in this synodal process and there are long roads ahead as well as long roads already traveled.”

“And so the questions you are returning to are questions ‘on the road,’ and the Holy Father has not resolved them in any way beyond what he has said in the exhortation,” the cardinal underlined.

“So if there are questions you feel are open, or that the Church feels are open, thanks to the exhortation they will continue to be discussed, debated, discerned, prayed over, and when mature, presented to the appropriate authority for decision,” he said.

“There are decisions that can be made in a diocese, in a [bishops’] conference, and there are decisions that are made here [in the Vatican].”

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Vatican City, Feb 12, 2020 / 04:45 am (CNA).- Pope Francis has highlighted the need for spiritual inculturation in the Amazon region, and praised indigenous expressions of religiosity, while pointing to the Eucharist as the central component of Christi… […]

Vatican City, Feb 12, 2020 / 04:30 am (CNA).- Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation on the Amazon calls for women in the South American region to be included in new forms of service in the Church, but not within the ordained ministries of the perma… […]

Vatican City, Feb 12, 2020 / 04:15 am (CNA).- While Pope Francis was expected to focus in the apostolic exhortation published today on a proposal to ordain married priests in the Amazon region, the pope instead emphasized the importance of collaboration in apostolic ministry by Catholics in various states of life.

“Efforts need to be made to configure ministry in such a way that it is at the service of a more frequent celebration of the Eucharist, even in the remotest and most isolated communities,” Pope Francis wrote in Querida Amazonia, released publicly Feb. 12 and dated Feb. 2.

The pope said that “In the specific circumstances of the Amazon region, particularly in its forests and more remote places, a way must be found to ensure” priestly ministry.

The urgent need for priests “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.

Even while emphasizing the importance of priestly ministry in the region, Pope Francis did not endorse a proposal from some bishops in the Amazon region to permit the ordination of married men to the priesthood.

Regarding that proposal, in a Feb. 12 editorial, the Vatican’s editorial director Andrea Tornielli wrote that “the Successor of Peter, after praying and reflecting, has decided to respond not by foreseeing changes or further possibilities of exceptions from those already provided for by current ecclesiastical discipline, but by asking that the essentials be the starting point,” for discussions regarding priestly ministry in the Amazon.

The pope’s own discussion of ministry in the Amazon appeared in his exhortation’s fourth chapter, “An Ecclesial Dream,” in which Pope Francis treated his desire for “Christian communities capable of generous commitment, incarnate in the Amazon region, and giving the Church new faces with Amazonian features.”

The chapter discussed the need to proclaim the gospel in the region; various means of inculturation; the strength and gifts of women; and ecumenical and interreligious coexistence.

Treating the inculturation of forms of ministry, the pope said that it “should also be increasingly reflected in an incarnate form of ecclesial organization and ministry,” asking: “how can we not consider an inculturation of the ways we structure and carry out ecclesial ministries?”

In addition to configuring ministry for more frequent celebrations of the Eucharist, he said there “is also a need for ministers who can understand Amazonian sensibilities and cultures from within.”

Priestly formation, he said, “develops distinctive traits in different parts of the world,” and he noted that “what is most specific to a priest” is his configuration to Christ the priest through Holy Orders.

He noted that “power” is not the defining character of priesthood, and referred to St. John Paul II’s statement in Mulieris Dignitatem that the priesthood is “totally ordered to the holiness of Christ’s members.”

The priest’s great potency, he said, is to say Mass. He identified Mass and Confession as the sacraments that “lie at the heart of the priest’s exclusive identity.” He noted that “It is also proper to the priest to administer the Anointing of the Sick.”

Laity “can proclaim God’s word, teach, organize communities, celebrate certain sacraments, seek different ways to express popular devotion and develop the multitude of gifts that the Spirit pours out in their midst,” the pope said, while adding that “they need the celebration of the Eucharist because it ‘makes the Church’.”

Because the Christian community grows from the Mass, “every effort should be made to ensure that the Amazonian peoples do not lack this food of new life and the sacrament of forgiveness,” Francis said.

In addition to asking that bishops generously encourage missionaries to the Amazon, he said that the “structure and content” of priestly formation should “be thoroughly revised, so that priests can acquire the attitudes and abilities demanded by dialogue with Amazonian cultures.”

“This formation must be preeminently pastoral and favour the development of priestly mercy,” he added, noting that the lack of seminaries for indigenous people was mentioned at the synod.

The Mass, Pope Francis said, “signifies and realizes the Church’s unity,” which “welcomes the abundant variety of gifts and charisms that the Spirit pours out.”

The Mass thus “requires the development of that rich variety.”

To that end, “Priests are necessary, but this does not mean that permanent deacons (of whom there should be many more in the Amazon region), religious women and lay persons cannot regularly assume important responsibilities for the growth of communities.”

“Consequently, it is not simply a question of facilitating a greater presence of ordained ministers who can celebrate the Eucharist. That would be a very narrow aim, were we not also to strive to awaken new life in communities. We need to promote an encounter with God’s word and growth in holiness through various kinds of lay service.”

An inculturated Church in the Amazon “requires the stable presence of mature and lay leaders endowed with authority and familiar with the languages, cultures, spiritual experience and communal way of life in the different places, but also open to the multiplicity of gifts that the Holy Spirit bestows on every one,” he said.

“This requires the Church to be open to the Spirit’s boldness, to trust in, and concretely to permit, the growth of a specific ecclesial culture that is distinctively lay. The challenges in the Amazon region demand of the Church a special effort to be present at every level, and this can only be possible through the vigorous, broad and active involvement of the laity.”

The pope also highlighted consecrated life and base communities, which is a term used to describe small Christian communities in the Amazon region.

He encouraged “the growth of the collaborative efforts being made through the Pan Amazonian Ecclesial Network and other associations” to implement the proposal made at the Fifth Episcopal Conference of Latin America at Aparecida in 2007 to “establish a collaborative ministry among the local churches of the various South American countries in the Amazon basin, with differentiated priorities”.

The Pan Amazonian Ecclesial Network, or REPAM, lists among its works “protection for the 137 ‘contactless tribes’ of the Amazon and affirmation of their right to live undisturbed.”

Francis also said that “ the Amazonian region sees a great deal of internal mobility” and migration, and thus “thought should be given to itinerant missionary teams and ‘support provided for the presence and mobility of consecrated men and women closest to those who are most impoverished and excluded’.”

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Vatican City, Feb 10, 2020 / 01:55 pm (CNA).- A Vatican official has defended his decision to administer the Eucharist to Argentina’s president, despite the leader’s effort to legalize abortion in his country. The official also administered the sacrament to the president’s consort, who is by protocol Argentina’s first lady.

Argentine Bishop Marcelo Sánchez Sorondo, chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of the Sciences, administered Holy Communion during a Mass offered Jan. 31 in the grotto of St. Peter’s Basilica, shortly before a meeting between Fernández’ and Pope Francis.

Argentine newspaper La Nación posted a video of the Mass, in which Argentina’s President Alberto Fernández and Fabiola Yáñez, the president’s domestic partner, can be seen approaching the bishop to receive the Eucharist.

Fernández has pledged to promote a bill in the country’s legislature that would legalize abortion. In 2018, Argentina’s Senate defeated a bill that would have legalized abortion in the first 14 weeks of pregnancy.

The Argentine bishops have responded to the president’s abortion advocacy with a planned pro-life Mass and other pro-life activities.

Fernández was divorced in 2005. Yanez has been his consort since 2014; in 2019 she moved into Argentina’s presidential residence.

Sorondo was asked by online newsite LifeSiteNews last week about the distribution of Holy Communion to Fernandez.

The bishop said that according to canon law “you are obliged to give communion if somebody asks you for communion. Only in the case that he is excommunicated. The President is not excommunicated, so I can give communion if he asks me for communion.”

Canon 915 of the Church’s Code of Canon Law says that Catholics who are ”obstinately persevering in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to holy communion.”

In 1994, the Congregation from the Doctrine of the Faith clarified that “Members of the faithful who live together as husband and wife with persons other than their legitimate spouses may not receive Holy Communion.”

With regard to advocacy for the legal protection of abortion, in 2004 Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, then Prefect for the Doctrine of the Faith, issued a memorandum to US bishops which stated that a Catholic politician who consistently campaigns and votes for permissive abortion and euthanasia laws “should not present himself for Holy Communion until he brings to an end the objective situation of sin” and that his pastor should warn him “that he will otherwise be denied the Eucharist.”

Also present at the Mass were members of Fernández’ government, accompanying him on a European trip: Foreign Minister Felipe Solá; Secretary for Strategic Affairs, Gustavo Beliz; Justice Minister, Marcela Losardo; and the Secretary for Religious Affairs, Guillermo Oliveri.

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