Vatican

Vatican City, Aug 6, 2018 / 10:04 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis made a private visit Monday morning to pray at the tomb of Bl. Paul VI, on the 40th anniversary of his death.

Francis made a similar visit to Bl. Paul VI’s tomb last year.

Pope Francis’ visit to the tomb took place in an absolutely private manner, said vice-director of the Holy See press office, Paloma Garcia.

She told EWTN Aug. 6 that Pope Francis prayed for about 10 minutes at the tomb, which is located in the Vatican Grottos, the crypt beneath St. Peter’s Basilica.

Bl. Paul VI, to whom Francis referred Sunday as a “pope of modernity,” was the author of the 1968 encyclical Humanae vitae, which reaffirmed Church teaching against contraception.

Bl. Paul VI will be canonized with Bl. Oscar Romero Oct. 14, during the synod on young people, faith, and vocational discernment.

At the end of his Angelus address Aug. 5, Francis recalled the blessed, calling him a “great pope of modernity,” and remembering him “with much veneration and gratitude.”

“From heaven may he intercede for the Church and for peace in the world,” the pope said.

Pope Francis unofficially confirmed the news of Paul VI’s canonization during his annual meeting with the priests of Rome Feb. 17. “Paul VI will be a saint this year,” he said Feb. 15.

After a long question and answer session, the pope gave texts containing meditations by Bl. Paul VI as a gift to each of the priests. “I saw it and I loved it,” Francis said about the book.

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Vatican City, Aug 6, 2018 / 09:22 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis sent his prayers and condolences to the people of Indonesia Monday, after nearly 100 people were killed and thousands evacuated in the aftermath of a strong earthquake Sunday.

“… […]

Vatican City, Aug 5, 2018 / 05:04 am (CNA/EWTN News).- It is not wrong to be concerned with the daily necessities of life, but strengthening one’s relationship with Jesus is of far greater importance, Pope Francis said in his Sunday Angelus addre… […]

Washington D.C., Aug 3, 2018 / 01:30 pm (CNA).- Catholic theologians have weighed in on changes Pope Francis has made to the Catechism of the Catholic Church’s teaching on the death penalty, pointing to some unresolved questions about what, exact… […]

Vatican City, Aug 2, 2018 / 10:14 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis met with a group of Jesuits Wednesday urging them to help youth who are unemployed, and who might be at risk of suicide, drug addiction, or of joining a terrorist organization.

Answering a question from a participant of a “European Jesuits in Formation” course, during a private audience in the anteroom of the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall Aug. 1, the pope said youth unemployment “is a problem of dignity,” and stressed it is an issue Jesuits should be working to help solve.

Unemployment, he said, may be “one of the most acute and painful problems for young people, because it goes right to the heart of the person. The person who has no work, feels [themselves to be] without dignity.”

“This is important: understand the problem of young people,” help them feel that you understand them, and “then move to solve this problem,” he said.

Francis encouraged those taking part in the Jesuit formation course to get their “hands dirty” looking for a solution to the problems of unemployment, suicide, and drug use among young people, as well as the issue of youth joining terrorist organizations.

He went on to say he believes one cause of the high unemployment rate among young adults is an attention on what he called intangible “finance,” rather than the economy, which can be more easily oriented toward the dignity of the person.

During the meeting, Pope Francis also indicated his desire for Jesuits to read two speeches: one by Bl. Paul VI at the 32nd general congregation in 1974, and one by Fr. Pedro Arrupe, former superior general of the Society of Jesus, whose cause for sainthood was recently opened in Rome.

“In these two speeches there is the frame of what the [Jesuits] must do today: courage, going to the peripheries, to the intersections of ideas, problems, of the mission…” he said.

“It takes courage to be a Jesuit. It does not mean that a Jesuit must be irresponsible, or reckless, no. But have courage. Courage is a grace of God…”

At the unscripted meeting, Francis also asked for their prayers, and made a comment about the difficulty of being pope, saying the work “is not easy.” Noting that perhaps that statement could sound like “heresy,” he added that it is also “usually fun.”

He recalled that it was said once that the primary role of the general superior was to “put to pasture the Jesuits,” meaning the general superior should be like a shepherd to the members of the congregation.

Francis said another person responded to this idea, saying, “‘Yes, but it is like putting to pasture a herd of toads:’ one from here, one from there…” because toads are not as easily shepherded as sheep.

This is a beautiful thing, however, the pope continued, “because it requires great freedom, [and] without freedom one cannot be a Jesuit.”

He pointed out that it also requires “great obedience to the shepherd; who must have the great gift of discernment to allow each of the ‘toads’ to choose what he feels the Lord is asking him [to do].”

“This is the originality of the Society [of Jesus]: unity with great diversity,” he said.

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Vatican City, Aug 2, 2018 / 04:57 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Thursday the Vatican changed the Catechism’s teaching on the permissibility of the death penalty, which the Church has taught is legitimate in extreme cases, stating it is ‘inadmissible… […]

Vatican City, Aug 1, 2018 / 04:52 am (CNA/EWTN News).- When a person puts an object or a philosophy above God, it not only destroys happiness, it hinders the ability to experience real love, Pope Francis said Wednesday.

“Attachment to an object … […]

Vatican City, Jul 31, 2018 / 02:05 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Everyone is called to pursue sainthood through living the Works of Mercy, though it is not for the weak of heart, Pope Francis told more than 60,000 young altar servers in St. Peter’s Square… […]

Vatican City, Jul 30, 2018 / 05:00 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis accepted Monday the resignation of Archbishop Philip Wilson following calls for the prelate’s removal as head of the Archdiocese of Adelaide. Wilson was convicted in May of fail… […]

Vatican City, Jul 29, 2018 / 07:03 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The love with which individuals and communities treat the poor, the weak, and the hungry, is the best measure of faith, Pope Francis said in his Angelus address Sunday.

“Faced with the cry … […]