Pope Francis waves from a window of the Apostolic Palace during his Angelus address and prayer on Aug. 20, 2023. / Vatican Media.
Vatican City, Aug 20, 2023 / 06:12 am (CNA).
Christians should imitate Jesus in being steadfast — not inflexible —… […]
null / Daniel Ibáñez/CNA.
Vatican City, Aug 19, 2023 / 09:41 am (CNA).
Pope Francis called the mother of a young man, Luca Re Sartù, 24, who has passed away after apparently contracting a bacterial staph infection during his trip to Portugal fo… […]
Pope Francis poses next to a miniature model of a ship with Madagascar’s President Andry Nirina Rajoelina and his family in the Vatican’s apostolic palace on Aug. 17, 2023. / Vatican Media.
Vatican City, Aug 17, 2023 / 05:45 am (CNA).
Pope Francis met Thursday with the Catholic president of Madagascar, Andry Nirina Rajoelina. The president was accompanied by his wife of 23 years and three young adult children.
The 49-year-old politician and businessman has led the country of Madagascar in his current term since January 2019. He also led a provisional government in the country from 2009-2014.
According to the Vatican, after a 20-minute private conversation, Pope Francis invited Rajoelina and his family to pray a Hail Mary together before a Marian image he had received from the bishops of Madagascar.
The pope and delegation were also photographed together next to a miniature of a ship, a gift Francis received on the occasion of his 2019 visit to the island country.
Pope Francis traveled to Madagascar Sept. 6-8, 2019, as part of a larger trip that included the countries of Mozambique and Mauritius.
There are 22 Catholic dioceses in Madagascar, an island country about 250 miles off the coast of East Africa.
Christians, both Protestants and Catholics, make up the majority religion in Madagascar, at estimates between 40 and 80%. Islam and indigenous religions are also practiced. The country’s total population is around 25 million.
After his meeting with Pope Francis, Rajoelina spoke with Vatican diplomat and under-secretary for relations with states Monsignor Mirosław Stanisław Wachowski.
According to a brief statement from the Vatican, the conversation covered the war in Ukraine and its global consequences, crises affecting the continent of Africa, and the contributions of the Catholic Church to Malagasy society.
The two also touched on the respectful bilateral relationship between the Holy See and Madagascar and the possibility of drafting a bilateral agreement.
The Seto Inland Sea is the body of water separating Honshū, Shikoku, and Kyūshū, three of the four main islands of Japan. / Shutterstock
Rome Newsroom, Aug 16, 2023 / 10:37 am (CNA).
Pope Francis this week merged the Diocese of Takamatsu with t… […]
Pope Francis speaks to the crowd assembled in St. Peter’s Square on Aug. 15, 2023, for the recitation of the Angelus on the solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. / Vatican Media
CNA Staff, Aug 15, 2023 / 07:41 am (CNA).
Pope Francis on Tuesday urged the faithful to adopt a “spirit of service,” pointing to the example of the Blessed Mother who went in haste to help her expectant cousin Elizabeth.
The pope spoke to a crowd gathered in St. Peter’s Square for the recitation of the Angelus on the feast of Mary’s assumption into heaven.
In his reflection before leading the Marian prayer, Pope Francis drew on the day’s Gospel reading — Luke’s account of Mary’s Visitation — which the Holy Father said shows the Mother of God to be a “woman of service” to her neighbor.
“Our Lady, who had just conceived, travels almost 150 kilometers [about 93 miles] from Nazareth to reach Elizabeth’s house,” Pope Francis noted. “Helping is costly, to all of us! We always experience this in the fatigue, patience, and worries that taking care of others entails.”
The pope warned, however, that “service risks being barren without praise to God.”
“Indeed, when Mary enters the home of her cousin, she praises the Lord,” the pope said. “She does not talk about her weariness from the journey, but rather a song of jubilation springs from her heart. Because those who love God know praise.”
“Let us try to ask ourselves: Do I live my work and daily occupations with a spirit of service, or with selfishness?” the pope said. “Do I devote myself to someone freely, without seeking immediate advantages? In short, do I make service the ‘springboard’ of my life?”
He continued: “And thinking about praise: Do I, like Mary, exult in God? Do I pray, blessing the Lord? And, after praising him, do I spread his joy among the people I meet? Each one of you, try to answer these questions.”
Following the recitation of the Angelus, Francis also offered a customary blessing of the crowd.
“Today, we entrust to Mary assumed into heaven our supplication for peace in Ukraine and in all war-torn regions: There are so many of them, unfortunately,” he said.
“The clamor of weapons drowns out attempts at dialogue; the law of force prevails over the force of law,” he continued. “But let us not be discouraged, let us continue to hope and to pray, because it is God, it is he who guides history. May he listen to us!”
Pope Francis blesses the crowd from a window overlooking St. Peter’s Square at the end of his Sunday Angelus address Aug. 13, 2023. / Vatican Media.
Vatican City, Aug 13, 2023 / 07:46 am (CNA).
Pope Francis called attention Sunday to the thousands of people who have lost their lives trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea to immigrate to Europe in 2023.
“It is an open wound of our humanity,” he said after reciting the Angelus prayer at the Vatican on Aug. 13. He added that the deaths bring “pain and shame.”
The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) estimates that 2,175 men, women, and children are either missing or dead in the Mediterranean Sea as of Aug. 13, 2023. In 2022, in the same period, the estimated dead and missing was 1,361.
Speaking to a crowd of around 15,000 people gathered in St. Peter’s Square, Pope Francis said he had prayed for the 41 migrants who died in the latest Mediterranean shipwreck tragedy.
Survivors rescued off the coast of the small Italian island of Lampedusa reported the migrant shipwreck on Wednesday, according to CNN.
An estimated 90,763 migrants have arrived in Italy by sea in 2023 as of Aug. 6, a large uptick from the previous year, authorities say.
“I encourage political and diplomatic efforts that seek to heal [the wound of migrant deaths] in a spirit of solidarity and brotherhood,” Pope Francis said on Sunday, “as well as the efforts of all those working to prevent shipwrecks and rescue migrants.”
Pope Francis gives his Angelus address June 29, 2023. / Credit: Vatican News
Vatican City, Aug 13, 2023 / 06:46 am (CNA).
In times of fear and difficulty, call on Jesus, who has already conquered the powers of evil, Pope Francis said on Sunday…. […]
Pope Francis at his general audience in St. Peter’s Square on May 17, 2023. / Vatican Media
Vatican City, Aug 12, 2023 / 09:30 am (CNA).
After Ecuadorian presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio was gunned down at a campaign rally this week, Pope Francis appealed for a unified effort for peace in the country plagued by drug-related violence.
The pope sent a condolence telegram to Archbishop Alfredo Espinoza Mateus of Quito on Aug. 12 in which he condemned the assassination “with all his strength” and expressed his deepest sympathy to the family of the deceased and “all of the beloved Ecuadorian people.”
Villavicencio, 59, was assassinated on Wednesday night at a campaign event only ten days before the first round of voting in Ecuador’s presidential election. The politician had been an outspoken critic of the violence caused by drug trafficking.
Immediately following the assassination, the Ecuadorian bishops’ conference condemned the act of violence, while pledging to support initiatives to restore public safety and to “pray and work for peace based on freedom, justice, and truth.”
The telegram sent on the pope’s behalf by Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin called on “all citizens and political forces to unite in a common effort for peace in the face of the suffering caused by unjustifiable violence.”
“With these sentiments, Pope Francis, while commending the eternal rest of Mr. Villavicenzo to the maternal intercession of Our Lady of El Quinche, affectionately imparts his apostolic blessing as a sign of faith and hope in the risen Christ,” it said.
Unless the Ukrainian army’s current counteroffensive ends in clear-cut victory for either Ukraine or Russia—an outcome that seems unlikely at the moment—it is possible, though hardly certain, that conditions then will finally exist for a […]
Cardinal Manuel Clemente, the Patriarch of Lisbon, greets attendees of World Youth Day at the opening Mass on Aug. 1, 2023, in Lisbon, Portugal. / Arlindo Homem / JMJ Lisboa 2023
Rome Newsroom, Aug 10, 2023 / 04:30 am (CNA).
Pope Francis on Thu… […]
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