Hi everyone! The Holy Father's schedule has picked up since his departure for Rio de Janeiro on Monday. This week he will be celebrating World Youth Day 2013 with young people from all over the world. It's a wonderful way for him to begin his Petrine Ministry abroad, and on his home continent, no less!
Below is a summary of his opening address in the presence of the President of Brazil, Dilma Rousseff. I'll also include more pictures that usual to try pass along the enthusiasm of the crowd and their excitement at the Pope's presence for this world-sized celebration. Beneath that you'll see a few things from the last weeks of June, to catch us up a little on what's been going on. Finally, if you haven't yet read the Pope's first encylical on faith, click here to access it. Enjoy!
From his arrival at airport Monday afternoon, the Holy Father travelled the eight kilometres from the airport to the presidential palace in a utility vehicle with the back window open to greet the crowd who thronged the route.
During some parts of the journey the vehicle was forced to stop since there were no security cordons to holdback the crowd. Upon nearing the cathedral the vehicle was exchanged for the unarmoured Popemobile which will be used during the visit, and the route was unexpectedly changed to enable the Pope to greet the crowds who had awaited him for hours.
Upon arrival at Guanabara Palace, Francis greeted the senior state and diplomatic representative and, after listening to the anthems of Brazil and Vatican City State, he gave his first address as Pope in the American continent.
The Pope went on to cordially greet the president for her warm welcome and said to the bishops that, by his visit to Brazil, he wished to “pursue the pastoral mission proper to the Bishop of Rome of confirming my brothers in their faith in Christ, of encouraging them to give an account of the reasons for the hope which comes from him, and of inspiring them to offer everyone the inexhaustible riches of his love”.
However, he continued, “the principal reason for my visit to Brazil goes beyond its borders. I have actually come for World Youth Day. I am here to meet young people coming from all over the world, drawn to the open arms of Christ the Redeemer. …
He emphasised that, in addressing the young, he is also speaking to “their families, their local and national church communities, the societies they come from, and the men and women upon whom this new generation largely depends”. He recalled the saying, “'Our children are the apple of our eyes'. How beautiful is this expression of Brazilian wisdom, which applies to young people an image drawn from our eyes, which are the window through which light enters into us, granting us the miracle of sight! What would become of us if we didn’t look after our eyes? How could we move forward? I hope that, during this week, each one of us will ask ourselves this thought-provoking question. … Young people are the window through which the future enters the world, thus presenting us with great challenges. Our generation will show that it can realize the promise found in each young person when we know how to give them space; how to create the material and spiritual conditions for their full development; how to give them a solid basis on which to build their lives”.
After his address, Pope Francis met privately with the president and with the governor and major of Rio de Janeiro. He then transferred to the Sumare residence, which belongs to the archbishop of Rio de Janeiro, where he will stay during his visit.
Tuesday, the Pope will spend the day resting and acclimatising, and will resume activities tomorrow with a visit to the shrine of Aparecida, 200 kilometres from the Brazilian capital. (From VIS)
PAPAL MASS ON THE SOLEMNITY OF SAINTS PETER AND PAUL
IMPOSITION OF THE SACRED PALLIUM
ON METROPOLITAN ARCHBISHOPS
ON METROPOLITAN ARCHBISHOPS
HOMILY
OF POPE FRANCIS
Vatican Basilica
Saturday, 29 June 2013
Saturday, 29 June 2013
Your Eminences,
Your Eminence, Metropolitan Ioannis,
My Brother Bishops and Priests,
Dear Brothers and Sisters
Your Eminence, Metropolitan Ioannis,
My Brother Bishops and Priests,
Dear Brothers and Sisters
We are celebrating the Solemnity of Saints Peter and
Paul, Apostles, principal patrons of the Church of Rome: a celebration made all
the more joyful by the presence of bishops from throughout the world. […]
I would like to offer three thoughts on the Petrine
ministry, guided by the word “confirm”. What has the Bishop of Rome been
called to confirm?
1. First, to
confirm in faith. The Gospel speaks of the confession of Peter:
“You are Christ, the Son of the living God” (Mt 16:16), a confession which does not come from him but from
our Father in heaven. Because of this confession, Jesus replies: “You are
Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church” (v. 18). The role, the
ecclesial service of Peter, is founded upon his confession of faith in Jesus,
the Son of the living God, made possible by a grace granted from on high.
In the second part of today’s Gospel we see the peril of thinking in worldly
terms. When Jesus speaks of his death and resurrection, of the path of
God which does not correspond to the human path of power, flesh and blood
re-emerge in Peter: “He took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him ... This must
never happen to you” (16:22). Jesus’ response is harsh: “Get behind me,
Satan! You are a hindrance to me” (v. 23). Whenever we let our
thoughts, our feelings or the logic of human power prevail, and we do not let
ourselves be taught and guided by faith, by God, we become stumbling
blocks. Faith in Christ is the light of our life as Christians and as
ministers in the Church!
2. To
confirm in love. In the second reading we heard the moving words
of Saint Paul: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have
kept the faith” (2 Tm 4:7).
But what is this fight? It is not one of those fights fought with human
weapons which sadly continue to cause bloodshed throughout the world; rather,
it is the fight of martyrdom. Saint Paul has but one weapon: the message
of Christ and the gift of his entire life for Christ and for others. It
is precisely this readiness to lay himself open, personally, to be consumed for
the sake of the Gospel, to make himself all things to all people, unstintingly,
that gives him credibility and builds up the Church. The Bishop of Rome
is called himself to live and to confirm his brothers and sisters in this love
for Christ and for all others, without distinction, limits or barriers. And not
only the Bishop of Rome: each of you, new archbishops and bishops, have the
same task: to let yourselves be consumed by the Gospel, to become all things to
everyone. It is your task to hold nothing back, to go outside of yourselves in
the service of the faithful and holy people of God.
3. To
confirm in unity. Here I would like to reflect for a moment on the
rite which we have carried out. The pallium is a symbol of communion with
the Successor of Peter, “the lasting and visible source and foundation of the
unity both of faith and of communion” (Lumen Gentium,
18). And your presence today, dear brothers, is the sign that the
Church’s communion does not mean uniformity. The Second Vatican Council,
in speaking of the hierarchical structure of the Church, states that the Lord
“established the apostles as college or permanent assembly, at the head of
which he placed Peter, chosen from their number” (ibid., 19). To confirm in unity: the Synod of Bishops, in
harmony with the primate. Let us go forward on the path of synodality, and grow
in harmony with the service of the primacy. And the Council continues,
“this college, in so far as it is composed of many members, is the expression
of the variety and universality of the people of God” (ibid., 22). In the Church, variety, which is itself a
great treasure, is always grounded in the harmony of unity, like a great mosaic
in which every small piece joins with others as part of God’s one great
plan. This should inspire us to work always to overcome every conflict
which wounds the body of the Church. United in our differences: there
is no other Catholic way to be united. This is the Catholic spirit, the Christian
spirit: to be united in our differences. This is the way of Jesus! The
pallium, while being a sign of communion with the Bishop of Rome and with the
universal church, with the Synod of Bishops, also commits each of you to being
a servant of communion.
To confess the Lord by letting oneself be taught by
God; to be consumed by love for Christ and his Gospel; to be servants of
unity. These, dear brother bishops, are the tasks which the holy apostles
Peter and Paul entrust to each of us, so that they can be lived by every
Christian. May the holy Mother of God guide us and accompany us always with her
intercession. Queen of Apostles,
pray for us! Amen.
(Cited on June 29, 2013 from
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/francesco/homilies/2013/documents/papa-francesco_20130629_omelia-pallio_en.html)
One of the Great Events of the Year of Faith:
HOLY MASS WITH SEMINARIANS,
NOVICES AND THOSE DISCERNING THEIR VOCATION
HOMILY OF POPE FRANCIS
Vatican Basilica
Sunday, 7 July 2013
Sunday, 7 July 2013
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Yesterday I had
the pleasure of meeting you, and today our joy is even greater, because we have
gathered for the Eucharist on the Lord’s Day. You are seminarians,
novices, young people on a vocational journey, from every part of the world.
You represent the Church’s youth! If the Church is the Bride of Christ,
you in a certain sense represent the moment of betrothal, the Spring of
vocation, the season of discovery, assessment, formation. And it is a
very beautiful season, in which foundations are laid for the future.
Thank you for coming!
Today the word of
God speaks to us of mission. Where does mission originate? The
answer is simple: it originates from a call, the Lord’s call, and when he calls
people, he does so with a view to sending them out. How is the one sent
out meant to live? What are the reference points of Christian
mission? The readings we have heard suggest three: the joy of
consolation, the Cross and prayer.
1. The first
element: the joy of consolation. The prophet
Isaiah is addressing a people that has been through a dark period of exile, a
very difficult trial. But now the time of consolation has come for
Jerusalem; sadness and fear must give way to joy: “Rejoice ... be glad ...
rejoice with her in joy,” says the prophet (66:10). It is a great
invitation to joy. […]
Every Christian, and especially you and I, is called to
be a bearer of this message of hope that gives serenity and joy: God’s
consolation, his tenderness towards all. But if we first experience the
joy of being consoled by him, of being loved by him, then we can bring that joy
to others. This is important if our mission is to be fruitful: to feel
God’s consolation and to pass it on to others! I have occasionally met
consecrated persons who are afraid of the consolations of God, and … the poor
things, they were tormented, because they are of this divine tenderness. But be
not afraid. Do not be afraid, because the Lord is the Lord of consolation, he
is the Lord of tenderness. […] We must find the Lord who consoles us and
go to console the people of God. This is the mission. People today certainly
need words, but most of all they need us to bear witness to the mercy and
tenderness of the Lord, which warms the heart, rekindles hope, and attracts people
towards the good. What a joy it is to bring God’s consolation to others!
2. The second
reference point of mission is the Cross of Christ. Saint Paul, writing to
the Galatians, says: “Far be it from me to glory except in the Cross of our
Lord Jesus Christ” (6:14). And he speaks of the “marks of Jesus”, that
is, the wounds of the crucified Lord, as a countersign, as the distinctive mark
of his life as an Apostle of the Gospel. In his ministry Paul experienced
suffering, weakness and defeat, but also joy and consolation. This is the
Paschal mystery of Jesus: the mystery of death and resurrection. And it
was precisely by letting himself be conformed to the death of Jesus that Saint
Paul became a sharer in his resurrection, in his victory. In the hour of
darkness, in the hour of trial, the dawn of light and salvation is already
present and operative. The Paschal mystery is the beating heart of the
Church’s mission! And if we remain within this mystery, we are sheltered
both from a worldly and triumphalistic view of mission and from the
discouragement that can result from trials and failures. Pastoral
fruitfulness, the fruitfulness of the Gospel proclamation is measured neither
by success nor by failure according to the criteria of human evaluation, but by
becoming conformed to the logic of the Cross of Jesus, which is the logic of
stepping outside oneself and spending oneself, the logic of love. It is
the Cross – always the Cross that is present with Christ, because at times we
are offered the Cross without Christ: this has not purpose! – it is the
Cross, and always the Cross with Christ, which guarantees the fruitfulness of
our mission. And it is from the Cross, the supreme act of mercy and love,
that we are reborn as a “new creation” (Gal 6:15).
3. Finally the
third element: prayer. In the Gospel we heard: “Pray therefore the Lord
of the harvest, to send out laborers into his harvest” (Lk 10:2). […] The Church, as Benedict XVI has
often reiterated, is not ours, but God’s; and how many times do we, consecrated
men and women, think that the Church is ours! We make of it… something that we
invent in our minds. But it is not ours!, it is God’s. The field to be
cultivated is his. The mission is grace. And if the Apostle is born
of prayer, he finds in prayer the light and strength of his action. […]
Dear seminarians,
dear novices, dear young people discerning your vocations. One of you, one of
your formators, said to me the other days, “evangelizer, on le fait à genoux”
“evangelization is done on one’s knees”. Listen well: “evangelization is done
on one’s knees”. Without a constant relationship with God, the mission becomes
a job. But for what do you work? As a tailor, a cook, a priest, is your
job being a priest, being a sister? No. It is not a job, but rather something
else. The risk of activism, of relying too much on structures, is an
ever-present danger. If we look towards Jesus, we see that prior to any
important decision or event he recollected himself in intense and prolonged
prayer. […] Herein lies the secret of pastoral fruitfulness, of the
fruitfulness of a disciple of the Lord! […]
What counts
is to be permeated by the love of Christ, to let oneself be led by the Holy
Spirit and to graft one’s own life onto the tree of life, which is the Lord’s
Cross.
Dear
friends, with great confidence I entrust you to the intercession of Mary Most
Holy. She is the Mother who helps us to take life decisions freely and
without fear. May she help you to bear witness to the joy of God’s
consolation, without being afraid of joy, she will help you to conform
yourselves to the logic of love of the Cross, to grow in ever deeper union with
the Lord in prayer. Then
your lives will be rich and fruitful! Amen.
(Cited on July
8th 2013 from
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/francesco/homilies/2013/documents/papa-francesco_20130707_omelia-seminaristi-novizie_en.html)
VISIT TO
LAMPEDUSA
HOMILY OF HOLY FATHER FRANCIS
"Arena" sports camp, Salina Quarter
Monday, 8 July 2013
"Arena" sports camp, Salina Quarter
Monday, 8 July 2013
Immigrants dying at sea, in boats
which were vehicles of hope and became vehicles of death. That is how the
headlines put it. When I first heard of this tragedy a few weeks ago, and realized that it happens
all too frequently, it has constantly come back to me like a painful thorn in
my heart. So I felt that I had to come here today, to pray and to offer a sign
of my closeness, but also to challenge our consciences lest this tragedy be
repeated. Please, let it not be repeated! First, however, I want to say a word
of heartfelt gratitude and encouragement to you, the people of Lampedusa and
Linosa, and to the various associations, volunteers and security personnel who
continue to attend to the needs of people journeying towards a better future.
You are so few, and yet you offer an example of solidarity! Thank you! I also
thank Archbishop Francesco Montenegro for all his help, his efforts and his
close pastoral care. I offer a cordial greeting to Mayor Giusi Nicolini: thank
you so much for what you have done and are doing. I also think with affection
of those Muslim immigrants who this evening begin the fast of Ramadan, which I
trust will bear abundant spiritual fruit. The Church is at your side as you
seek a more dignified life for yourselves and your families. To all of you: o’scià!
This morning, in the light of
God’s word which has just been proclaimed, I wish to offer some thoughts meant
to challenge people’s consciences and lead them to reflection and a concrete
change of heart.
"Adam, where are you?"
This is the first question which God asks man after his sin. "Adam, where
are you?" Adam lost his bearings, his place in creation, because he
thought he could be powerful, able to control everything, to be God. Harmony
was lost; man erred and this error occurs over and over again also in
relationships with others. "The other" is no longer a brother or
sister to be loved, but simply someone who disturbs my life and my comfort. God
asks a second question: "Cain, where is your brother?" The illusion
of being powerful, of being as great as God, even of being God himself, leads
to a whole series of errors, a chain of death, even to the spilling of a
brother’s blood!
God’s two questions echo even
today, as forcefully as ever! How many of us, myself included, have lost our
bearings; we are no longer attentive to the world in which we live; we don’t
care; we don’t protect what God created for everyone, and we end up unable even
to care for one another! And when humanity as a whole loses its bearings, it
results in tragedies like the one we have witnessed.
"Where is your
brother?" His blood cries out to me, says the Lord. This is not a question
directed to others; it is a question directed to me, to you, to each of us.
These brothers and sisters of ours were trying to escape difficult situations
to find some serenity and peace; they were looking for a better place for
themselves and their families, but instead they found death. How often do such
people fail to find understanding, fail to find acceptance, fail to find solidarity.
And their cry rises up to God! Once again I thank you, the people of Lampedusa,
for your solidarity. I recently listened to one of these brothers of ours.
Before arriving here, he and the others were at the mercy of traffickers,
people who exploit the poverty of others, people who live off the misery of
others. How much these people have suffered! Some of them never made it here.
[…] The culture of comfort, which
makes us think only of ourselves, makes us insensitive to the cries of other
people, makes us live in soap bubbles which, however lovely, are insubstantial;
they offer a fleeting and empty illusion which results in indifference to
others; indeed, it even leads to the globalization of indifference. In this
globalized world, we have fallen into globalized indifference. We have become
used to the suffering of others: it doesn’t affect me; it doesn’t concern me;
it’s none of my business!
[…] "Has any one of us wept
because of this situation and others like it?" Has any one of us grieved
for the death of these brothers and sisters? […] Lord, in this liturgy, a
penitential liturgy, we beg forgiveness for our indifference to so many of our
brothers and sisters. Father, we ask your pardon for those who are complacent
and closed amid comforts which have deadened their hearts; we beg your
forgiveness for those who by their decisions on the global level have created
situations that lead to these tragedies. Forgive us, Lord!
Today too, Lord, we hear you
asking: "Adam, where are you?" "Where is the blood of your
brother?"
At the end of Mass, the Pope said
the following words :
Before imparting my blessing to
you I want to thank you once again; you people of Lampedusa, for the example of
love, charity and hospitality that you have set us and are still setting us.
The Bishop said that Lampedusa is a beacon. May this example be a beacon that
shines throughout the world, so that people will have the courage to welcome
those in search of a better life. Thank you for bearing this witness! And I
also want to thank you for your tenderness which I have felt in Fr Stefano
himself. He told me on the boat what he and the parochial vicar do. I thank you
all, and I thank you, Fr Stefano.
No comments:
Post a Comment