Category: Pope Francis

Tea and cake for Pope Francis as he celebrates 78th birthday.

Shouts of “Tanti auguri” – or, “Happy Birthday!” – filled St. Peter’s Square as Pope Francis circled around throngs of pilgrims on his pope mobile during the weekly general audience.

The Holy Father, who turned 78 on Dec. 17, stopped to blow out the candles on a cake given to him by group of Legionaries of Christ seminarians. He also took a sip of mate tea – a traditional South American drink popular in Argentina – offered to him by pilgrims.

One of the lucky little pilgrims to receive a kiss from the Pope on his birthday was a small baby girl named Gaia who has been in Rome receiving medical treatment at the nearby Bambino Gesu’ hospital.

Gaia’s mother, Daniella from Cortona, Italy, has tried to come every week for the Wednesday General audience since arriving in Rome several months ago – in fact, she told CNA this is the second time her baby has been kissed by Pope Francis.

Daniella added that she hopes Pope Francis will “inspect the Church,” because she believes “he has the capacity.”

“I like this Pope very much. For this reason I come to see him.”

Standing nearby was Richard Tirocke from Maryland in the United States. He told CNA that even though he did not practice his Catholic faith as seriously as he used to, it was nonetheless “incredible” to have had such a close encounter with Pope Francis. “I watched him kiss that baby,” he said. “I got to touch the baby’s head!”

Alex and Flora Apulsen from Florida arranged their vacation in Rome to ensure that they could be in the Square with the Pope. “We wish all his wishes will come true” on his birthday, Alex said. “This is truly a Pope for the people. It’s a very specially experience to be here.”

“He is a very great Pope,” said Flora. “We wish him happy birthday and all good things happen to him.”

Joe Pender from Sydney Australia told CNA he came to the Audience in the hopes of getting close to Pope Francis, and to receive a blessing.

“I wish him a good day, first of all, but most of all that he’s filled by the Holy Spirit today, and really blesses everyone as he continues to do every day.”

By Ann Schneible
Vatican City, CNA/EWTN News

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Only a repentant heart will receive salvation, Pope Francis says.

Pope Francis touched on the importance of being humble and open to the Lord’s correction, encouraging the faithful to offer him their sins to God in order to be saved.

“The humble, poor people that trust in the Lord: these are the ones who are saved and this is the way of the Church, isn’t it?” the Pope asked during his Dec. 16 daily mass in the Vatican’s Saint Martha Guesthouse.

“This is the path I must follow, not the path in which I do not listen to His voice, do not accept correction and do not trust in the Lord.”

Pope Francis centered his reflections on the day’s readings, taken from the Book of the Prophet Zephaniah and from the Gospel of Matthew, which the pontiff said both speak of a “judgment” on which both salvation and condemnation depend.

While Zephaniah in the first reading talks about a “rebellious and polluted” city, there is still the presence of some who repent of their sins, the Pope observed, saying that this group is the “people of God” who possess the “three characteristics (of) humility, poverty and trust in the Lord.”

However the people in the city who refused to trust in the Lord and accept the corrections he gave him cannot receive salvation because they are closed to it, he said, while it is the meek and the humble who trust that will be saved.

“And that is still valid today, isn’t it? When we look at the holy people of God that is humble, that has its riches in its faith in the Lord, in its trust in the Lord – the humble, poor people that trust in the Lord: these are the ones who are saved.”

The Pope then turned to the gospel reading in which Jesus tells the chief priests and elders the story of a father who asks his two sons to work in their vineyard. While the first son says that he will go and does not, the second initially denies his father’s request, but later goes to work.

In telling this story, Jesus makes it clear to the chief priests and elders that they were not open to the voice of God preached by John the Baptist, adding that this is why tax collectors and prostitutes will enter the kingdom of heaven before they do.

This statement from Jesus echoes the situation of many Christians today who feel “pure” simply because they go to mass and receive communion, the Pope noted, explaining that God asks for more.

“If your heart is not a repentant heart, if you do not listen to the Lord, if you don’t accept correction and you do not trust in Him, your heart is unrepentant,” he said, observing how the Pharisees were “hypocrites” for being scandalized at the attention Jesus gave to prostitutes and tax collectors.

Although they were affronted at Jesus acceptance of the sinners, they then “secretly approached them to vent their passion or to do business,” the pontiff explained, saying that because of their hypocrisy they are not welcome in paradise.

Pope Francis said that this judgment gives hope provided that we have the courage to open our hearts to God, even if that means giving him the full list of our sins.

He recalled the story of a Saint who believed that he had given everything to God with great generosity. However in a conversation with the Lord, the saint was told that there was still something he was holding onto.

When the saint asked what it was that he still had not given, the Lord replied “Your sins,” the pontiff recalled.

The moment in which we are able to tell the Lord “these are my sins – they are not his or hers, they are mine…take them” will be the moment when we become that “meek and humble people” who trust in God, the Pope said, and prayed that “the Lord grant us this grace.”

by Elise Harris
Vatican City, CNA/EWTN News

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Pope: Mary and Joseph exemplify mission,
vocation of family life.

Pope Francis spoke about Jesus’ choice to be born into a family, saying that it shows the importance of the vocation, which Mary and Joseph epitomized through their everyday holiness.

“We can learn so much from Mary and Joseph, and especially from their love for Jesus. They help us to rediscover the vocation and mission of the family, of every family,” the Roman Pontiff told pilgrims present in St. Peter’s Square for his Dec. 17 general audience.

Jesus, he noted, “was raised in an atmosphere of religious devotion (and) he learned from the words and example of Mary and Joseph.”

In his second catechesis on the family, Pope Francis revealed that in preparation for next year’s ordinary synod of bishops on the family, the entire year’s weekly catechesis would be dedicated to that theme.

Advent, he said, is a time of prayerful expectation for the Lord’s coming, and it invites each person to think about how the family, God’s gift since the beginning of creation, is honored and confirmed through Christ’s incarnation.

“The closeness of Christmas reminds us that God wanted to be born into a family, in a small, remote village of the Roman Empire,” the Pope explained, noting how Jesus remained “in the bosom of a pious, working” family in Nazareth for close to 30 years before starting his public ministry.

Although the gospels don’t say much about Jesus’ childhood, it’s safe to assume that Jesus led a very normal family life, he said, noting how the Gospel of Luke tells us that Jesus grew “in wisdom, age and grace” and learned from Mary and Joseph.

“Among other activities of everyday life, (Jesus) was dedicated to the fulfillment of social and religious duties: working with Joseph, listening to Scripture and praying the psalms,” the Bishop of Rome said, noting how Mary and Joseph “welcomed Jesus with love” despite having to overcome many difficulties for him.

“His was not an unrealistic family, a fable,” the pontiff said, explaining that Mary and Joseph are a prime example of how to live the mission and vocation of family life, particularly in the love they had for Jesus.

Pope Francis then called on every Christian family to make a place for Jesus in their home, because “it is through the love of such ‘normal’ families that God’s Son quietly comes to dwell among us, bringing salvation to our world.”

The Roman Pontiff concluded by praying that each family would have the desire to welcome Jesus with pure and grateful hearts.

He then greeted pilgrims present from numerous countries around the world and gave his blessing.

After the audience, tango dancers lined via della Conciliazione, the street leading up to St. Peter’s, as well as the square itself in order to honor the Pope for this 78th birthday.

By Elise Harris
Vatican City, CNA/EWTN News

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Pope Francis to media: People are more valuable than ‘hits.’

Catholics working in media would do well to remember that communications is about informing people – not collecting “hits,” Pope Francis told representatives from the Italian station TV2000.

Journalists, editors, and technicians from TV2000, the Italian Bishops’ Conference broadcasting station, met with the Pope in the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall on Dec. 15.

Addressing those who work in Italian Church television, Pope Francis presented three points of consideration which lie “at the heart” of communications.

First, the Pope said, Catholic media has the “challenging mission” of trying to protect social communications from being “twisted and bent” for other purposes. Rooted in conviction, good communications come from the courage to speak candidly and freely. Otherwise, what is communicated comes across as fake, uninformative, and bland.

Communicators should also, through an openness to the Holy Spirit, work toward unity and harmony. By this, he said, they should avoid saturating the public with an “excess of slogans,” and simple solutions, which do not take into account the “complexities of real life.”

Last, Pope Francis stressed that communicators should not be concerned with the number of “hits” they receive but rather with speaking “to the whole person.”

The Pope also highlighted the “three sins” which communicators must avoid: misinformation, slander, and defamation. While the most “insidious” of these would appear to be slander, he continued, the most serious, in terms of communication, is in fact misinformation, for it “leads you to believe only one part of the truth.”

Pope Francis concluded his address by thanking those present for their work in the field of Catholic television, entrusting them to Mary and Saint Gabriel – “the great communicator,” who “communicated the good news.”

By Ann Schneible
Vatican City, CNA/EWTN News

Pope to Meet With Autistic Kids to End Stigma.

Pope Francis will meet with autistic children and their families in a bid to help raise awareness and end the stigma and isolation of people living with autism spectrum disorders.

The audience will cap an international conference on autism being hosted this week by the Vatican’s health care office. Organizers said it was the biggest medical conference of its kind on autism, gathering more than 650 experts from 57 countries.

The Rev. P. Augusto Chendi of the Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers told reporters the aim of the conference and the papal audience is to “help break the isolation, and in many cases the stigma, that surrounds people affected by autistic spectrum disorders.”

While autism is increasingly diagnosed in places like the United States, where about 1 in 68 children are said to be on the spectrum, it is still largely unknown and undiagnosed elsewhere, including in the Vatican’s own backyard of Italy, said Dr. Stefano Vicari, head of pediatric neuropsychiatry at the Vatican-owned Bambin Gesu hospital in Rome.

Francis, who has shown great ease around children with special needs, will deliver a speech to the hundreds gathered in the Vatican audience hall. The session will be punctuated by music and movement for the children.

Autism experts said parents of autistic children require particular pastoral care since they are at high risk of getting divorced due to the emotional and financial stress of dealing with their child’s disorder.

The Vatican’s top health official, Monsignor Zygmunt Zimowski, said his office chose to focus on autism for its conference this year to give families affected by autism hope and attention.

Pope Reinforces Traditional Family Values.

Pope Francis is seeking to reassure the church’s right-wing base that he’s not a renegade bent on changing church doctrine on family issues — weeks after a Vatican meeting of bishops initially proposed a radical welcome for gays and divorced Catholics.

Francis opened an interreligious conference on the “complementarity” of men and women in marriage and sex. He said marriage between a man and woman is a “fundamental pillar” of society and that children have the right to grow up with a mother and father.

It was the second papal speech emphasizing church doctrine in as many days: Francis pronounced some of his strongest words yet against abortion, euthanasia and in vitro fertilization, sounding more like his predecessor, Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI, than the Argentine Jesuit who famously said “Who am I to judge?” about gays.

Vatican officials concurred that the interventions could be read as a response to the conservative backlash that erupted after the recent meeting of the world’s bishops on family issues. The meeting’s organizers, who were hand-picked by Francis, initially proposed a revolutionary welcome toward gays and civilly remarried Catholics, following Francis’ exhortation that the church must welcome all.

Gay rights groups and liberal Catholics cheered, even though the bishops scrapped the welcome in their final document.

Conservative Catholics, already uncomfortable with Francis’ lack of emphasis on doctrine, reacted with outright alarm after the synod, fearing that Francis eventually might lead the church into uncharted territory that would compromise church teaching on homosexuality and the indissolubility of marriage.

In the heat of the synod, the recently demoted Cardinal Raymond Burke called on Francis to issue a statement clarifying his position, saying the lack of clarity had “harmed” the church and caused confusion.

Francis appears to be obliging.

“Complementarity (between men and women) is the basis of marriage and the family, which is the first school where we learn to appreciate our gifts and those of others and where we learn the art of living together,” Francis told the conference. “Children have the right to grow up in a family, with a mother and a father who can create a suitable environment for their development.”

While Francis has said such things before — he famously led the church’s opposition to legalizing gay marriage in his native Argentina — his comments now appear clearly aimed at calming conservatives.

The synod process will conclude with another meeting of bishops in October next year, after which Francis is expected to issue a document of his own.

The three-day conference gathers representatives from 14 religions to share their remarkably similar views about the complementarity of men and women in sex and marriage. Speakers include the Rev. Rick Warren, one of most prominent evangelical pastors in the United States, and the Rev. Russell Moore of the Southern Baptist Convention, the biggest Protestant denomination in the U.S.

The conference is being organized by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, whose conservative prefect, Cardinal Gerhard Mueller, helped lead opposition to Francis’ radical agenda at the synod.

Conference organizers have stressed that this week’s meeting was not a response to the synod and was planned last year. But the timing couldn’t have been better to reinforce the conservative view on traditional family values.

During his remarks, Francis confirmed that he would travel to the U.S. next year to participate in a rally for families in Philadelphia. The Vatican said the other planned legs of the September 2015 trip to Washington and New York weren’t yet confirmed.

Pope turns Santa with Christmas giveaway for homeless.

Rome (AFP) – Pope Francis is raffling off unwanted gifts including a Fiat Panda, tandem bike and coffee machine to raise money for the homeless.

For just 10 euros ($12.50) those hoping to get their clutches on perfume, pens and even a panama hat given to the pope can enter a draw, the proceeds of which will go to a papal charity set up to help those who bed down nightly around the Vatican.

Tickets are to be sold throughout the upcoming festive season and signs have already gone up around the tiny city state advertising the draw, which will take place on January 8.

While the first prize is a gleaming Fiat Panda 4X4 in papal white, runners up could go home with racing bicycles, an HD digital video camera, a gentleman’s wrist watch, an umbrella or bottle of perfume — all of which will have much higher-than-usual value because of where they come from.

The Argentine pope — who chose his papal name in honour of Saint Francis of Assisi and his devotion to the poor — has cast off luxuries such as the ermine-trimmed cape and red shoes worn by his predecessor Benedict XVI and focused his efforts on helping the down-and-out.

He is also unlikely to have room to keep the hundreds of presents bestowed on him in his modest apartment, having opted out of moving into the spacious papal palace after his election last year.

In February the 77-year-old pope sold off his Harley Davidson — worth around 15,000 euros and inscribed with his name — for 241,500 euros at a Paris auction, giving the proceeds to a hostel and soup kitchen in Rome.

He also appointed a papal almoner, Polish archbishop Konrad Krajewski, who helps those who regularly sleep rough among the porticos near Saint Peter’s Square, or poor families struggling to pay their bills.

Krajewski announced last week that the Vatican would be installing showers for the homeless at public toilets just off St Peter’s square. The initiative followed an encounter with a homeless man who declined an invitation to dinner because he said he was too smelly to dine with a bishop.