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Pope Francis: Intentionally hurting migrants ‘is a grave sin’
Vatican City, Aug 28, 2024 / 11:06 am (CNA).
Pope Francis said Wednesday those who knowingly and intentionally “repel” migrants are committing a grave sin.
Breaking from the current theme of his general audiences Aug. 28, the pope spoke at length about the poor conditions of migrants who attempt to cross a sea or desert to reach safety but who sometimes lose their lives in the process.
Pope Francis greets pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square for his general audience on Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2024. Credit: Vatican Media“The tragedy is that many, the majority of these deaths, could have been prevented,” Francis underlined in his speech to thousands in St. Peter’s Square.
“It must be said clearly: There are those who work systematically and with every means possible to repel migrants,” he said. “And this, when done with awareness and responsibility, is a grave sin.”
Departing from his prepared remarks, the pontiff recalled seeing the heartbreaking viral photo of the wife and child of Pato Crepin, who died in the desert in the summer of 2023 while trying to cross the border into Tunisia on their way to Europe.
Last year, Tunisian authorities were clamping down on irregular immigration by taking people who entered the country to remote areas on the borders with Libya and Algeria.
The country’s leader also signed an agreement with the European Union to receive 1 billion euros (about $1.1 billion) in order to stem the area’s highly profitable business of smuggling people from Tunisia into Europea via the Mediterranean Sea.
“We all remember the photo of the wife and daughter of Pato, dead from hunger, thirst, in the desert,” Pope Francis said. “In the time of satellites and drones, there are migrant men, women, and children that no one must see. They hide them. Only God sees them and hears their cry. This is a cruelty of our civilization.”
Pope Francis greets pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square for his general audience on Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2024. Credit: Vatican MediaThe Missing Migrants Project, run by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), records that since 2014, an estimated 47,000 people have either died or gone missing while attempting to migrate in Africa, Europe, and the Mediterranean areas.
Most deaths were caused by drowning, usually while attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea in unsafe and overcrowded boating vessels.
In his general audience on Wednesday, Pope Francis also waded into political arguments about immigration and borders.
“We can all agree on one thing: Migrants should not be in those seas and in those lethal deserts,” he said. “But it is not through more restrictive laws, it is not with the militarization of borders, it is not with rejection that we will obtain this result.”
Pope Francis kisses a baby during his general audience in St. Peter’s Square on Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2024. Credit: Vatican MediaThe solution, according to the pope, is to extend safe and legal access routes for migrants so that those who are fleeing war, violence, persecution, and natural disasters can find refuge.
Migrants will stop risking their lives to cross the sea or deserts, he continued, if we promote “a global governance of migration based on justice, fraternity, and solidarity.”
In numerous past statements on refugees and migrants, Pope Francis has asked countries to be as welcoming to immigrants as they are able while also acknowledging their right to control their borders and to determine how many migrants and refugees they can safely integrate into their societies.
Paragraph 2241 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church also affirms that “the more prosperous nations are obliged, to the extent they are able, to welcome the foreigner in search of the security and the means of livelihood which he cannot find in his country of origin.”
“Political authorities,” the catechism continues, “for the sake of the common good for which they are responsible, may make the exercise of the right to immigrate subject to various juridical conditions, especially with regard to the immigrants’ duties toward their country of adoption.”
In his Wednesday audience, Pope Francis recalled a lesson from the Book of Exodus: “You shall not wrong a stranger or oppress him.”
Pope Francis waves to the crowd gathered in St. Peter’s Square for his general audience on Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2024. Credit: Vatican Media“The orphan, the widow, and the stranger are the quintessential poor whom God always defends and asks to be defended,” he emphasized.
“There is a Psalm which says to the Lord: ‘Thy way was through the sea / Thy path through the great waters’ (Ps 77:19). And another says that he ‘led his people through the wilderness / for his steadfast love endures forever’ (Ps 136:16),” the pope quoted.
“These holy words tell us that, to accompany the people on their journey to freedom, God himself crosses the sea and the desert,” Pope Francis said. “[God] does not remain at a distance, no; he shares in the migrants’ tragedy, God is there with them, with the migrants, he suffers with them, with the migrants, he weeps and hopes with them, with the migrants.”
The pontiff said that while most of us are unable to be on the front lines with the courageous people who, acting as good Samaritans, “do their utmost to rescue and save injured and abandoned migrants on the routes of desperate hope,” there are still ways to help — “first and foremost, prayer.”
“And I ask you: Do you pray for migrants, for those who come to our lands to save their lives?” he said.
He also urged cooperation to combat human trafficking and the criminal traffickers who “mercilessly exploit the misery of others” for money.
“Let us join our hearts and forces so that the seas and deserts are not cemeteries but spaces where God may open up roads to freedom and fraternity,” he said.
Pope Francis receives Ecuador’s new ambassador to the Holy See, Edmundo Uribe
Vatican City, Aug 27, 2024 / 15:45 pm (CNA).
Pope Francis received at the Vatican on Aug. 26 Ecuador’s new ambassador to the Holy See, Edmundo Uribe Pérez.
The South American country’s new representative to the Vatican presented his credentials to the Holy Father Monday during a private audience at the Apostolic Palace.
Uribe was appointed ambassador by Ecuador’s president, Daniel Noboa, on May 22, replacing Alicia de Jesús Crespo Vega.
The audience between Uribe and Pope Francis, of which the Holy See did not share details, took place less than two weeks before the start of the International Eucharistic Congress, which will be held Sept. 8–15 in Quito, the capital of Ecuador, and for which Pope Francis named Venezuelan Cardinal Baltazar Porras as his pontifical legate.
Who is Uribe?Jorge Edmundo Uribe Pérez was born on Sept. 7, 1952. He is married and has a daughter.
He completed his primary and secondary studies at Holy Spirit School in Guayaquil run by the Claretian Fathers and studied law for two years at the Catholic University of Guayaquil.
He studied world history, with an emphasis on the philosophy of history, and took a senior management course at the IDE Business School in 2017.
He has also been president of the Foundation of the Ecuadorian Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family, and Property and director of the Association of Banana Exporters of Ecuador (2018–2023).
From 1985–2006 he developed several projects with partners in Ecuador. He was founder and executive president of Tropical Fruit Export S.A. from 2018–2023 and is an active member of the Pontifical Institute Heralds of the Gospel.
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
China officially recognizes formerly ‘underground’ bishop, Vatican says
Vatican City, Aug 27, 2024 / 13:00 pm (CNA).
The Vatican announced Tuesday its “satisfaction” that China has officially recognized Bishop Melchior Shi Hongzhen as bishop of Tianjin.
“This provision is a positive fruit of the dialogue established over the years between the Holy See and the Chinese government,” reads a Holy See statement released Aug. 27.
According to Reuters, 95-year-old Shi had once been placed under house arrest after refusing to join the church officially backed by the Chinese government.
Shi was ordained a priest in the Catholic Church on July 4, 1954, and consecrated coadjutor bishop of Tianjin on June 15, 1982. He was ordained bishop of the Diocese of Tianjin on June 8, 2019.
According to the Holy See statement, 56,000 Catholic faithful — distributed across 21 parishes served by 62 priests — belong to the Diocese of Tianjin.
Under Pope Francis, the Holy See has expanded dialogue with China and engaged in talks regarding provisional agreements on the appointment of bishops in the Asian nation.
The controversial Sino-Vatican Agreement, first signed in 2018, which has never been made public, is said to stipulate that the Catholic Church is allowed to have bishops in communion with Rome who are at the same time recognized by Chinese authorities in the country. It was renewed in 2020 and 2022.
In 2021, the Holy See sent a delegation led by a member of the then-Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples (now known as the Dicastery for Evangelization), Archbishop Claudio Maria Celli, to meet with Chinese authorities and negotiate the two-year renewal of the Sino-Vatican Agreement before it expires.
Negotiations between the Vatican and China resumed Aug. 28–Sept. 2, 2022, when a Holy See delegation was sent to meet with local authorities in Tianjin.
During the Tianjin visit, the delegation also visited the formerly “underground” Shi, signaling the pope’s concern for the Catholic faithful in the communist country.
Pope Francis makes surprise visit to St. Monica’s tomb in Rome
Vatican City, Aug 27, 2024 / 12:15 pm (CNA).
Pope Francis made a surprise visit to the Basilica of St. Augustine on Tuesday to pray at the tomb of St. Monica.
During his visit to the basilica near Piazza Navona in Rome’s historic center, the pope prayed in the side chapel containing the tomb of St. Monica on her feast day, Aug. 27.
St. Monica is honored in the Church for her holy example and dedicated prayerful intercession for her son, St. Augustine, before his conversion. Today Catholics turn to St. Monica as an intercessor for family members who are distant from the Church. She is the patron saint of mothers, wives, widows, difficult marriages, and victims of abuse.
Pope Francis visits the Basilica of St. Augustine in Rome on Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2024. Credit: Vatican MediaBorn into a Christian family in North Africa in 332, Monica was given in marriage to Patricius, a pagan who had a disdain for his wife’s religion. She dealt patiently with her husband’s bad temper and infidelity to their marriage vows, and her long-suffering patience and prayers were rewarded when Patricius was baptized into the Church a year before his death.
When Augustine, the eldest of three children, became a Manichean, Monica went tearfully to the bishop to ask for his help, to which he famously responded: “The child of those tears shall never perish.”
She went on to witness Augustine’s conversion and baptism by St. Ambrose 17 years later, and Augustine became a bishop and doctor of the Church.
Augustine recorded his conversion story and details of his mother’s role in his autobiography “Confessions.” He wrote, addressing God: “My mother, your faithful one, wept before you on my behalf more than mothers are wont to weep the bodily death of their children.”
St. Monica died soon after her son’s baptism in Ostia, near Rome, in 387. Her relics were moved from Ostia to the Basilica of St. Augustine in Rome in 1424.
After visiting St. Monica’s tomb, Pope Francis also paused to pray in front of the basilica’s Caravaggio painting, “Madonna of Loreto,” also known as Our Lady of the Pilgrims.
The Basilica of St. Augustine is located near the Pantheon and just around the corner from Rome’s Piazza Navona. The basilica also contains a 16th-century statue of the Virgin Mary known as the Madonna del Parto, or the Madonna of Safe Delivery, where many women have prayed for a safe childbirth.
This was not the first time that Pope Francis has made a surprise visit to the Basilica of St. Augustine. The pope also visited St. Monica’s tomb on her feast day in 2020 and offered Mass at the basilica on St. Augustine’s feast day on Aug. 28, 2013.
In his homily, the pope quoted the first line of Augustine’s “Confessions”: “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.”
Pope Francis added: “In Augustine it was this very restlessness in his heart which brought him to a personal encounter with Christ, brought him to understand that the remote God he was seeking was the God who is close to every human being, the God close to our heart, who was ‘more inward than my innermost self.’”
“Here I cannot but look at the mother: this Monica! How many tears did that holy woman shed for her son’s conversion! And today too how many mothers shed tears so that their children will return to Christ! Do not lose hope in God’s grace,” the pope said.
Author explains how St. John Paul II, Benedict XVI, and Francis have opposed the devil
Rome, Italy, Aug 26, 2024 / 17:50 pm (CNA).
In an Italian-language book published in April 2023, “Esorcisti contro Satana” (“Exorcists against Satan”), journalist Fabio Marchese Ragona revealed how St. John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI, and Pope Francis have confronted the devil throughout their pontificates, promoting the ministry of exorcism or even practicing it.
“Father Gabriele Amorth already decried that in the Church, in the 1980s, there were many bishops who did not believe in exorcisms or in the devil. John Paul II, but also Benedict XVI and Francis, supported this deliverance ministry through their speeches against the action of the evil one,” Marchese explained in an interview with ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner.
In his homilies, Pope Francis has repeatedly mentioned that “the devil enters through the pockets” in reference to the power of corruption.
Speaking with ACI Prensa, Marchese recalled his meeting with the pontiff in preparation for his book on exorcism. “Never dialogue with the devil, because he will win,” the Holy Father warned him.
“He makes you believe that everything is good, that you will be successful, and then he traps you, you fall into the abyss and then it’s difficult to get up again,” the expert recalled the pope saying.
Marchese, a Vatican journalist with Mediaset (Italian television) with more than 10 years of experience, wrote the book full of stories of victims of possession and testimonies of exorcists who fight against the devil, including a previously unpublished interview with Pope Francis in which he describes how the devil always “tries to attack everyone and sows discord, also in the Church, trying to pit one against another.”
Pope Francis, attacked by the devilThe pope admits in this interview that he too has been attacked by the devil, Marchese said. “The devil attacks everyone, but above all those in the hierarchy of the Church. He tempted Jesus and he also does the same with the popes and bishops.”
Indeed, in the first chapter of the book, Marchese tells the story of a nun who was freed from diabolic possession and who, during the exorcisms, with a demonic voice, indicated that the devil hated Pope Francis: “Have you seen everything I put that Argentine through?” the devil said to the priest. “But he doesn’t go away, he is strong, too much for me.”
“I asked the pope,” Marchese recalled, “did you know that the devil says that about you? And he answered me: ‘Perhaps because I annoy him with prayer and I follow the Gospel.’ At the same time, he is certainly pleased when I commit some sin. He seeks the downfall of man, but he has no hope when prayer is present.”
In some dioceses in northern Europe there are no exorcists despite the warnings of recent popes, Marchese noted in the interview with ACI Prensa. “Yes, unfortunately it’s like that, and I have to agree with Father Gabriele Amorth (1925–2016), who was a great exorcist.”
Some popes have performed remote exorcismsAlthough some popes have performed remote exorcisms, such as Pius XII and St. John Paul II, there is no evidence that other contemporary pontiffs have done so. Even in times when the devil has manifested himself, such as when Benedict XVI blessed three demoniac youths from a distance after a general audience in 2009, popes have not carried out exorcisms.
St. John XXIII never performed exorcisms and neither did St. Paul VI, who in 1972 commented how “the smoke of Satan had entered through some crack” into the Church. Nor has Pope Francis performed an exorcism, as confirmed in the interview with Marchese, since he prefers that specialized priests do it.
His approach is focused on preventing and combating evil temptations through faith and prayer. The pontiff has not only openly preached against the devil, he also recognized the International Association of Exorcists in June 2014, Marchese noted.
In 2019, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) published the book “Rebuking the Devil,” which compiles Pope Francis’ most important teachings on the prince of lies, “his empty promises and works, and how he can be actively combated.”
“The pope tells us how to use powerful spiritual weapons against the devil, including the word of God and the adoration of the Blessed Sacrament,” wrote Bishop Michael F. Burbidge of the Diocese of Arlington, Virginia, at the presentation of the book.
This updated story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
Pope Francis on Ukraine’s Russian Orthodox Church ban: ‘Churches are not to be touched!’
CNA Staff, Aug 26, 2024 / 11:09 am (CNA).
Pope Francis on Sunday sharply denounced the Ukrainian government’s recently enacted ban on Russian Orthodox Church worship, arguing that the faithful should not be barred from worshipping as they please.
The new Ukrainian law, which passed the country’s Parliament on Aug. 20, bans the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukrainian territory. The measure comes roughly two-and-a-half years after Russia invaded Ukraine in a major escalation of the two countries’ ongoing conflict.
The new law further encourages religious organizations in Ukraine, including the Moscow-aligned Ukrainian Orthodox Church, “to break the existing ties with the Russian state,” according to the parliamentary news agency.
In his Angelus address on Sunday, the Holy Father said he has been “thinking about the laws recently adopted in Ukraine,” which he said causes him to “fear for the freedom of those who pray.”
“[T]hose who truly pray always pray for all,” the pope said. “A person does not commit evil because of praying. If someone commits evil against his people, he will be guilty for it, but he cannot have committed evil because he prayed.”
“So let those who want to pray be allowed to pray in what they consider their Church. Please, let no Christian church be abolished directly or indirectly,” Francis said.
“Churches are not to be touched!” he added.
The Ukrainian Parliament’s news agency alleged last week that the Russian Orthodox Church has “become a de facto part of the state apparatus of Putin’s criminal totalitarian regime.”
The church “is used by Russia to justify and support aggression against Ukraine and Putin’s insane policies in general,” the state agency claimed.
Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, last week defended the new law, arguing that the Russian government has used the Orthodox Church “as a tool of militarization.”
The new law aims to offer protection against ideology and narratives being pushed about Ukraine being part of the “Russian world,” the archbishop argued.
Pope Francis meets with families of 2020 Beirut blast victims
Vatican City, Aug 26, 2024 / 10:39 am (CNA).
Pope Francis met with 30 relatives of victims of the Port of Beirut explosion in a private audience at the Vatican on Monday, expressing his sorrow and closeness with families suffering due to the ongoing political turmoil in Lebanon.
“I continue to keep you and your loved ones in my prayers, and I join my tears to your own,” the Holy Father shared. “Together with you, I think of all those whose lives were taken by that enormous explosion.”
Four years since the deadly blast that killed more than 220 people and injured some 6,500 people in the country’s capital, investigations into the actual cause of the explosion remain stalled due to political wrangling.
“Together with you, I ask for truth and justice. All of us know that the issues are complex and difficult and that opposing powers and interests make their influence felt. Yet truth and justice must prevail over all else,” the pope expressed to the families present at the private audience.
“Four years have now gone by. The Lebanese people, and you above all, have a right to words and actions that manifest responsibility and transparency,” he added.
The Holy Father praised the “dignity of faith” and the “nobility of hope” of the families he met Monday morning, likening their spirit to that of the cedar tree — the symbol of Lebanon.
“Cedars invite us to lift our gaze on high, to heaven, to God, who is our hope, a hope that does not disappoint,” he said.
He also encouraged them to uphold and live their vocation to be people of peace in the Middle East.
“Lebanon is, and must remain, a project for peace. Its vocation is to be a land where diverse communities live together in concord, setting the common good above individual advantage, a land where different religions and confessions encounter one another in a spirit of fraternity,” he said.
The pope also reminded the families present that the local and universal Church is not indifferent to their sufferings but is united to them in action and in prayer.
“I know that your bishops and priests, your men and women religious, are close to you. I thank them from the bottom of my heart for all that they have done and continue to do,” he conveyed.
“You are not alone, and we will never abandon you but express our solidarity with you through prayer and concrete works of charity.”
At the conclusion of the meeting, Pope Francis imparted his paternal blessings and entrusted the care of the families to Our Lady of Lebanon.
“May the Virgin Mary from her shrine in Harissa continue to watch over you and all the Lebanese people. I cordially impart my blessing. I assure you of my prayers, and I ask you, please, to pray for me. Thank you.”
Pope Francis prays for people of Nicaragua: ‘Renew your hope in Jesus’
Vatican City, Aug 25, 2024 / 10:08 am (CNA).
Pope Francis prayed Sunday for a renewed hope for the people of Nicaragua, where the Catholic Church is experiencing harsh persecution under the regime of President Daniel Ortega.
“To the beloved people of Nicaragua: I encourage you to renew your hope in Jesus. Remember that the Holy Spirit always guides history toward higher designs,” Pope Francis said at the end of his Angelus address on Aug. 25.
The pope entrusted Nicaragua to the protection and intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
“May the Immaculate Virgin protect you in times of trial and make you feel her maternal tenderness,” he said. “May Our Lady accompany the beloved people of Nicaragua.”
Persecution of the Church in Nicaragua has intensified in recent years. The government has expelled nuns, taken over ecclesiastical institutions, seized Church assets, shut down Catholic media outlets, and sent priests and bishops to prison or into exile.
The pope’s prayer comes just days after the Ortega dictatorship canceled the legal status of 1,500 nonprofit organizations, including hundreds of Catholic organizations, and exiled two more priests to Rome.
According to the newspaper Mosaico, Father Denis Martínez García and Father Leonel Balmaceda from the Dioceses of Matagalpa and Estelí, respectively, were arrested earlier this month and then expelled by the government to Rome.
Both priests come from dioceses that are administered by the formerly imprisoned Bishop Rolando Álvarez, who was exiled to Rome in January.
Pope Francis delivers his Angelus address from the window of his studio overlooking St. Peter's Square, Aug. 25, 2024. Credit: Vatican MediaIn his Angelus address, the pope reflected on St. Peter’s words to Jesus recorded in the Gospel of John: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life” (Jn 6:68).
Pope Francis pointed out that the disciples did not always understand what Jesus said and did, but even when it was not easy for them to understand, they remained faithful because they had experienced that Jesus was “the answer to the thirst for life, the thirst for joy, and the thirst for love.”
“Brothers and sisters … For us, too, it is not easy to follow the Lord, to understand his way of acting, to make his criteria and his examples our own,” he said.
“However, the more we stay close to him — the more we adhere to his Gospel, receive his grace in the sacraments, stay in his company in prayer, imitate him in humility and charity — the more we experience the beauty of having him as a friend, and we realize that only he has ‘the words of eternal life,’” Pope Francis said.
After praying the Angelus prayer in Latin with the crowd gathered in St. Peter’s Square, the pope offered prayers for people suffering from war, particularly in Ukraine and the Holy Land, and for people experiencing health challenges.
Pope Francis expressed his solidarity in particular with the thousands of people affected by mpox, also called monkeypox, a disease rapidly spreading in parts of Africa that has been declared a global health emergency.
“I pray for all those infected, especially the people of the Democratic Republic of Congo who are so tried,” he said. “I express my sympathy to the local Churches in the countries most affected by this disease and encourage governments and private industries to share available technology and treatments so that no one lacks adequate medical care.”
The pope offered greetings to young people with physical and mental disabilities who are currently participating in the “Relay for Inclusion” in Italy.
Pope Francis also greeted new seminarians from the North American College present in St. Peter’s Square, encouraging them to live their vocations with joy “because true prayer gives us joy.”
Pope Francis greeted new seminarians from the North American College present in St. Peter’s Square, encouraging them to live their vocations with joy “because true prayer gives us joy.” Credit: Vatican Media“May Mary, who welcomed Jesus, the Word of God … help us to listen to him and never abandon him,” the pope prayed.
Pope Francis: War has an ‘abyss of evil’ at its center
Vatican City, Aug 24, 2024 / 11:00 am (CNA).
Pope Francis called the heart of war an “abyss of evil” during a meeting with Catholic politicians and legislators at the Vatican on Saturday.
“Our consciences cannot fail to be moved by the scenes of death and destruction daily before our eyes,” the pope said Aug. 24 about the many violent conflicts taking place around the globe.
“We need to hear the cry of the poor, the ‘widows and orphans’ of which the Bible speaks,” he continued, “in order to see the abyss of evil at the heart of war and to resolve by every means possible to choose peace.”
Francis addressed the topic of war in an audience with members of the International Catholic Legislators Network (ICLN) in the Clementine Hall of the Apostolic Palace.
He said it is imperative to renounce war as a suitable way of resolving international conflicts and establishing peace, urging the Catholic legislators and all men and women of goodwill “to build a world — to cultivate a garden — marked by fraternity, justice, and peace.”
ICLN met the pope as it holds its 15th annual meeting in the Italian cities of Rome and Frascati (on the southeast outskirts of Rome), from Aug. 22–25. The theme of the gathering is “The World at War: Permanent Crises and Conflicts — What Does It Mean for Us?”
The network’s mission is to help Christians in public office exercise “virtuous and effective leadership that is committed to the dignity of every human being.”
St. Thomas More is the patron of the group, whose members must uphold the social doctrine of the Catholic Church in political life. The archbishop of Vienna, Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, is an honorary patron of the network.
In his remarks, the pontiff quoted from his 2020 encyclical on fraternity, Fratelli Tutti, which says that “war is a failure of politics and of humanity, a shameful capitulation, a stinging defeat before the forces of evil.”
He also lamented an increasing lack of distinction between military and civilian targets and the enormous destructive capacity of contemporary weapons.
The ongoing crisis of “a third world war fought piecemeal,” Francis continued, “seriously jeopardizes the patient efforts made by the international community, above all through multilateral diplomacy, to encourage cooperation in addressing the grave injustices and the pressing social, economic, and environmental challenges facing our human family.”
He noted a need for patience and perseverance “in pursuing the path of peace, in season and out of season, through negotiation, mediation, and arbitration.”
The pope also pointed out that, as Christians, we see that the roots of conflict in a society can be found “in a deeper conflict present in the human heart.”
“Conflicts may sometimes be unavoidable, yet they can only be resolved fruitfully in a spirit of dialogue and sensitivity to others and their reasons, and in shared commitment to justice in the pursuit of the common good,” the pontiff said.
He asked Catholic legislators to be witnesses of hope to a “war-weary world,” especially the next generation.
“May your commitment to the common good, buoyed by trust in Christ’s promises, serve as an example for our young people,” he encouraged. “How important it is for them to see models of hope and idealism that counter the messages of pessimism and cynicism to which they are so often exposed.”
Pope Francis meets wrongly-imprisoned Italian man freed after 33 years behind bars
Vatican City, Aug 23, 2024 / 16:45 pm (CNA).
Pope Francis had a private meeting at the Vatican on Friday with an Italian man who was wrongly imprisoned for 33 years after being falsely accused of the triple homicide of three shepherds in 1991.
Beniamino Zuncheddu, now in his 60s, was released from prison in January after his murder conviction was overturned.
The only eyewitness to the crime, which took place in the mountains at night on the Italian island of Sardinia, first said he couldn’t identify the killer but later accused Zuncheddu, a fellow sheepherder.
Zuncheddu’s conviction was overturned at the end of 2023 for insufficient proof after it was revealed the witness may have been told to name Zuncheddu by a police officer.
During their meeting in the library of the Apostolic Palace on Aug. 23, the exonerated man gave Pope Francis a copy of a book he wrote with his lawyer that was published in May, “Io Sono Innocente” (“I Am Innocent”).
According to Vatican News, Zuncheddu found the strength to endure decades of unjust imprisonment by trusting in God, and he has forgiven the person whose accusations put him in prison for over 30 years.
Pope to Madagascar Eucharistic Congress pilgrims: Be missionaries of God’s love to others
Vatican City, Aug 23, 2024 / 16:00 pm (CNA).
In a message for pilgrims participating in the third National Eucharistic Congress in Madagascar from Aug. 23–26, Pope Francis said each person should be a missionary of God’s love to others.
“Once you’ve met Christ in adoration, once you’ve touched him and received him in the Eucharistic celebration, you can no longer keep him to yourself but become a missionary of his love to others,” the pope shared in a message released on Aug. 23. The message was read by the apostolic nuncio of Madagascar, Archbishop Tomasz Grysa.
According to ACI Africa, CNA’s news partner in Africa, an estimated 40,000 pilgrims are anticipated to be taking place in this year’s four-day Eucharistic Congress organized by the Archdiocese of Antsiranana, Madagascar. Credit: EWTNAccording to ACI Africa, CNA’s news partner in Africa, an estimated 40,000 pilgrims are anticipated to take part in this year’s four-day congress organized by the Archdiocese of Antsiranana.
Pope Francis praised the archdiocesan initiative aimed at helping Catholic communities in the southeastern African country to “get back to basics” by deepening their understanding of the Eucharist as the foundation of their Christian life.
“I encourage this initiative, which aims to bring the sons and daughters of your Christian communities back to basics, helping them to rediscover the meaning of Eucharistic adoration and the taste for spending time with Christ,” the Holy Father said.
During a time when faith in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist is a “great challenge,” the pope particularly called upon members of the Mouvement Eucharistique des Jeunes (Eucharistic Youth Movement), who are celebrating their centenary this year, to draw their friends closer to Jesus Christ.
“Help your brothers and sisters experience Jesus in the Eucharist. Help them, too, to make their own lives an offering to God, united to that of Jesus on the altar, so as to make him ever better known, loved, and served,” the 87-year-old pontiff urged.
According to ACI Africa, CNA’s news partner in Africa, an estimated 40,000 pilgrims are anticipated to be taking place in this year’s four-day Eucharistic Congress organized by the Archdiocese of Antsiranana, Madagascar. Credit: EWTNThe pope also stressed the need for Madagascar’s National Eucharistic Congress pilgrims to be witnesses of hope and joy in a world in which skepticism and pessimism are widespread.
“May this Eucharistic congress help each and every one of you to cultivate feelings of charity and solidarity toward all, and especially toward those in trial, for whom the path of life becomes more difficult every day,” he said. “Bring them the Lord’s hope, be witnesses to his compassion and merciful love.”
At the conclusion of his message, Pope Francis invoked the protection and blessing of Our Lady for all pilgrims and asked them to continue to pray for him.
“Wishing you a fruitful congress, I entrust each of you to the maternal protection of the Virgin Mary. May she intercede for you so that you may deepen your relationship with Christ every day.”
Vatican approves devotion to 1945 apparition of Our Lady of Sorrows in Spain
Vatican City, Aug 23, 2024 / 12:15 pm (CNA).
The Vatican has accepted the decree of an archbishop approving the spiritual activities of the Catholic Shrine of Chandavila in the town of La Codosera in Badajoz, Spain, where Our Lady of Sorrows is alleged to have appeared to two young girls at the end of World War II.
An Aug. 22 letter from the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) called Our Lady of Sorrows of Chandavila a “beautiful devotion” with “many positive aspects,” including conversions, healing, and other visible signs of the action of the Holy Spirit in the pilgrims who visit the shrine.
The letter, signed by DDF prefect Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández and approved by Pope Francis in an Aug. 22 audience, said the shrine “may continue to offer to the faithful who wish to approach it a place of interior peace, consolation, and conversion.”
Devotion to Our Lady of Sorrows of Chandavila springs from several alleged appearances of Our Lady of Sorrows to two young Spanish girls, 10-year-old Marcelina Barroso Expósito and 17-year-old Afra Brígido Blanco, close to the border with Portugal shortly before the end of World War II in 1945.
The DDF noted that “after the alleged visions, the two girls led a discreet and inconspicuous life. Both dedicated themselves to works of charity, especially to caring for the sick, the elderly, and orphans, thereby transmitting to those who are suffering the sweet consolation of the Virgin’s love that they had experienced.”
“There is nothing one can object to in this beautiful devotion,” the letter added.
The Vatican’s doctrinal office confirmed the “nihil obstat” judgment of the diocesan bishop, Archbishop José Rodríguez Carballo, OFM. In accordance with new norms on the discernment of “alleged supernatural phenomena,” the local bishop must consult and receive final approval from the Vatican after investigating and judging alleged apparitions and connected devotions.
According to the May 17 norms, a “nihil obstat” judgment means: “Without expressing any certainty about the supernatural authenticity of the phenomenon itself, many signs of the action of the Holy Spirit are acknowledged ‘in the midst’ of a given spiritual experience, and no aspects that are particularly critical or risky have been detected, at least so far.”
EU watchdog reports alarming rise in Christian persecution, calls for protections
CNA Newsroom, Aug 22, 2024 / 14:15 pm (CNA).
On the occasion of the International Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Violence Based on Religion or Belief (Aug.22), a European watchdog warned of serious anti-Christian violence in Europe and called on governments to protect converts from Islam in particular.
The Vienna-based Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians in Europe (OIDAC Europe) has reported an increase in anti-Christian hate crimes by 44%.
Though the OIDAC Europe 2022/23 Annual Report reports the majority of the 749 cases of anti-Christian hate crimes were acts of vandalism or arson, the religious freedom watchdog noted a marked increase in violent attacks against individual people.
Executive Director of OIDAC Europe, Anja Hoffmann, said the rising threats against Christians in countries across Europe are alarming and should not be overlooked, reported CNA Deutsch, CNA’s German-language news partner.
Since the beginning of 2024, OIDAC Europe has documented 25 cases of violence, threats and attempted murder against Christians in Great Britain, France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Austria, Poland and Serbia.
In some cases, entire communities have been attacked.
In June this year, there was an attack on a Seventh-day Adventist congregation in Dijon during a church service. The tear gas attack sparked panic and left nine people injured, the watchdog’s statement said.
Protection for converts from IslamHoffmann also highlighted the need to protect and support Christian converts from Islam who are viewed as “apostates.”
The watchdog cited the example of a British court case that sentenced a man to life in prison for attempting to murder Javed Nouri, a Muslim convert to Christianity. According to the prosecutor, Alid considered Nouri an apostate and “therefore somebody who deserved to die.”
Hoffmann called on European governments to act: “The right to convert is an essential element of religious freedom. European governments must therefore do everything in their power to protect Christian converts with a Muslim background in particular, who are at high risk.”
German bishop calls on states to actIn an Aug. 22 press release, the German Bishops Conference deplored the steady increase of violence against Christians and people of other faiths.
Bishop Bertram Meier of Augsburg in Bavaria, chairman of the German bishops’ Commission for the Universal Church, said governments and religious communities have to take on more responsibility and work together to curb the rise of religious violence.
“All states have the responsibility to counteract violations of human rights and thus also religious freedom. Where this does not happen, or where the state itself attacks these rights, discrimination and ultimately violence, especially against religious minorities, are not far away,” insisted Meier.
The International Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Acts of Violence Based on Religion or Belief was instituted by the United Nations General Assembly in 2019.
Synod on Synodality: Bishops launch regional workshops ahead of October meeting in Rome
Vatican City, Aug 22, 2024 / 05:30 am (CNA).
Around the world, bishops together with the Catholic faithful of their dioceses in Europe, Asia, Latin America, and Africa are gearing up for the second session of the 2021-2024 Synod on Synodality to take place Oct.2-27 in Vatican City.
The worldwide process launched by Pope Francis for the Catholic Church is centered on the theological concept of “synodality” or “journeying together” as the People of God. Synodality places particular emphasis on renewing the call of each baptized person to actively participate in the mission Jesus Christ entrusted to his church.
As part of this global process of listening, dialogue, and discernment, regional bishops' conferences — in collaboration with clergy, religious men and women, and laypeople — have spearheaded continental-wide workshops to discuss key theological and pastoral considerations raised in the Instrumentum Laboris, the Vatican’s working document for the second and last global session of the Synod on Synodality released on July 9.
EuropeThis month, 42 representatives from local churches across Europe will be divided into small focus groups at an Aug. 29-31 conference in Linz, Austria, to discuss the themes outlined in the Vatican’s working document for the second session of the Synod.
Members of the Council of the Bishops' Conferences of Europe (CCEE), including the presidents of the bishops' conferences of Italy, Austria, and Switzerland, will attend the three-day meeting, together with European experts in theology and canon law as well as Vatican representatives.
Pastoral theologian Klara-Antonia Csiszar, who took part in the first session of the Synod on Synodality last year, will also be present at the Linz meeting. She has said that diversity at all levels within the Catholic Church will be a key focus area of the meeting led by the CCEE.
“We have attached importance to how diversity can be perceived in Europe,” Csiszar said in an interview with Kathpress. “What message does this diversity have for the Church in Europe, what does it mean for our local churches, [and] what voice does the Church in Europe play in the symphony of the universal Church?”
AsiaIn Asia, the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences (FABC) held its regional workshop Aug. 5-8 in Bangkok and identified the necessity for unity and harmony for the growth of the Catholic church in a largely non-Christian region. The meeting was attended by 38 delegates from local churches spread across 17 countries.
“Asia has nurtured a diversity of cultures and religions, and by embracing harmony, mutual appreciation, and respect for differences, we can help the universal Church understand more about the experience of walking together amidst diversity,” Cardinal Stephen Chow said in the Sunday Examiner.
In association with its social communications office, the FABC have recently launched the “Synodality Asia” website to engage the Catholic faithful to engage with the synodal path of Asia.
Latin AmericaIn South America, the Episcopal Council of Latin America and the Caribbean (CELAM) held a three-day congress in Bogota, Colombia, attended by nearly 2,000 people. Approximately 200 people attended workshops in person while an additional 1,200 people participated online in the Aug. 9-11 congress to discuss topics including church structures, the role of women, and the meaning of mission.
Referring to the 2023 synthesis report of the first session of the Synod on Synodality, Archbishop of Caracas in Venezuela, Monsignor Raúl Biord, said “the poverty of the proposals [on the key synod theme of mission] in the report is striking” and therefore challenged participants to consider more profoundly the relationship between synodality and mission as outlined by the Vatican in the Instrumentum Laboris.
“Reducing mission to a missionary pastoral care as proposed in many of our diocesan organizational charts is unfocused and impoverishing,” the archbishop said at the congress. “The true goal of synodality is the mission to which we are called (by the mandate of the Risen One), in which we are involved (from the Trinitarian dynamic) and committed (by baptism and the sacraments of Christian initiation).”
AfricaPrior to the release of the Instrumentum Laboris, the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM) together with the African Synodal Initiative (ASI), convened a two-day meeting in Nairobi, Kenya in April.
Fifty delegates from local churches came together to explore the ways and means of being “a synodal church in mission” and discussed the unique experience and distinct contribution of the peoples of Africa in the evangelization of the continent.
Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo, president of SECAM and archbishop of Kinshasa, said the meeting recognized the importance of fortifying the Christian identity in the region.
“There was consensus among delegates that Africa must embrace the experience of Small Christian Communities (SCCs); and the rich philosophical principles of Ubuntu, which highlight the values of family, fraternity and solidarity. These discussions highlighted the need to integrate these distinct cultural and community forces into the broader mission of our Church,” Ambongo said in a press briefing following the April 23-26 conference.
The Oct. 2-27 meeting to be held in the Vatican with Pope Francis will close the discernment phase of the Synod on Synodality. The conclusions of both the 2023 and 2024 global sessions — as accepted and approved by the pope — are then expected to be implemented in all local churches with the purpose of creating a listening and more participative Catholic Church worldwide.
Pope Francis: Living the fruits of the Holy Spirit helps us spread holiness
Vatican City, Aug 21, 2024 / 07:00 am (CNA).
Pope Francis said Wednesday the person who lives with joy his anointing in the sacrament of confirmation cannot help but spread the fragrance of holiness in the Church and the world.
“We know that, unfortunately, sometimes Christians do not spread the fragrance of Christ, but the bad odor of their own sin,” the pope also warned during the general audience Aug. 21, adding that “sin turns us into bad oil.”
During his weekly public audience in the Vatican’s Pope Paul VI Hall, Pope Francis continued a series of lessons on the Holy Spirit, focusing on the fruits of being anointed with the blessed oil called Chrism in the sacraments of baptism and confirmation.
The audience hall brimmed over with thousands of pilgrims from around the world, some of whom held flags from their countries or waved colored bandanas, eager to catch a sight of the pope.
At the end of the meeting, before praying the “Our Father” and giving his blessing, the pontiff remembered certain countries and territories experiencing war, including Ukraine, Myanmar, South Sudan, and the North Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
“Let us pray for peace,” he said, “and let’s not forget Palestine and Israel, that there will be peace there.”
In his catechesis, Pope Francis recalled the baptism of Christ, when “the very Spirit descended on Jesus.”
Christians, he explained, are “anointed in imitation of Christ,” as St. Cyril of Jerusalem wrote in his Mystagogical Catecheses.
The pope recited the prayer said by the bishop when he consecrates the chrism oil on Holy Thursday: “May those formed into a temple of your majesty by the holiness infused through this anointing and by the cleansing of the stain of their first birth be made fragrant with the innocence of a life pleasing to you.”
“A person who lives his anointing with joy gives fragrance to the Church, gives fragrance to the community, gives fragrance to his family,” the pontiff said.
Quoting from St. Paul’s Letter to the Galatians, Francis said, “the fragrance of Christ emanates from the ‘fruits of the Spirit,’ which are ‘love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.’”
“It’s beautiful to find a good person, a faithful person, a meek person, not proud,” he commented.
Sin, the pope emphasized, “must not distract us from the commitment of realizing, as far as we are able and each in their own environment, this sublime vocation of being the good fragrance of Christ in the world.”
“Let us ask the Holy Spirit to make us more conscious [of being] anointed, anointed by him,” he concluded.
Pope Francis and Cardinal Pizzaballa open lay Catholic meeting against backdrop of war
Rome Newsroom, Aug 20, 2024 / 14:36 pm (CNA).
The theme of peace took center stage at the Rimini Meeting this week as Pope Francis offered a message of encouragement in the face of the reality of war to the hundreds of thousands of attendees gathered on the opening day of the annual festival organized by the lay Catholic movement Communion and Liberation.
Pope Francis urged the meeting’s participants not to be discouraged by war and the challenges of today but to search out “the beauty of life” with passion in an Aug. 19 message sent to the Catholic festival through Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin.
Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, OFM, the leader of the Catholic Church in the Holy Land, for his part, discussed prospects for peace in the Israel-Hamas war Tuesday in a conversation with Bernhard Scholz, president of the Meeting for Friendship Amongst Peoples Foundation.
He emphasized the importance of the current negotiations as possibly a last chance for peace before the situation becomes “really tragic.”
“I have to say that the impact this war has had on both the Israeli and Palestinian populations is unparalleled, unprecedented,” said Pizzaballa, who is head of Latin-rite Catholics in the Holy Land.
“Everything depends on the coming days,” the Latin patriarch said. “That’s why I said that it’s important to pray: It’s the only thing that is left for us to do.”
The Rimini Meeting, formally named the Meeting for Friendship Amongst Peoples, is taking place Aug. 20–25 around the theme “If We Are Not After the Essential, Then What Are We After?” in the northeastern Italian city that gives it its name.
More than half a million people are expected to attend; approximately 800,000 participated in the festival in 2022.
Now in its 45th year, the event includes 140 panels and discussions with about 450 Italian and international speakers, 16 exhibitions, 18 theatrical performances, and a number of sports activities and literary events. An estimated 3,000 volunteers are participating in the meeting.
An estimated 17,000 children and teenagers took part in the 2023 meeting, and this year’s children’s workshops are also expected to be well attended.
In his message to the gathering, the pope urged attendees to take an active role in the Church’s mission.
“As the icy winds of war blow, adding to recurring phenomena of injustice, violence, and inequality ... it is imperative to stop and ask: Is there anything worth living for and hoping for?” the pontiff’s message said.
“In the face of the temptation of discouragement, the complexity of the current crisis and, in particular, the challenge of a peace that seems impossible,” Parolin wrote, “the Holy Father urges everyone to become responsible protagonists of change, actively collaborating in the Church’s mission, in order to give life together to places where Christ’s presence can be seen and touched.”
In the papal message sent on the eve of the weeklong meeting, Parolin wrote that Pope Francis wants everyone to search for the most essential, necessary part of life, which is faith in Jesus Christ, and “for what gives meaning to our lives, first of all by stripping ourselves of what weighs down our daily lives…”
“In doing so, we discover that the value of human existence does not consist in things, in successes achieved, in the race of competition, but first and foremost in that relationship of love that sustains us, rooting our journey in trust and hope: It is friendship with God, which is then reflected in all other human relationships, that grounds the joy that will never fail,” it continued.
During his onstage interview Aug. 20, Pizzaballa said “interreligious dialogue is in crisis” because of the war in Israel and Palestine.
“This situation is a watershed. There are no public meetings. At the institutional level, we have difficulty speaking to one another, we can’t manage to meet,” he said.
The cardinal noted that the war, for everyone, has brought forth “feelings that were already there but now have become the common language: hatred, resentment, revenge, justice understood as vengeance, deep distrust, inability to recognize the essence of the other.”
“The war will finish one way or another,” but it will be difficult to rebuild after this division, he added.
Other events at the Rimini Meeting will also address the theme of peace in the Middle East, including a talk Aug. 21 on the preservation of holy sites and how to foster dialogue in the Holy Land.
On Aug. 23, Pope Francis’ envoy for peace in Ukraine, Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, will participate in a roundtable on “Educating for Reconciliation” with the secretary-general of the Muslim World League, Muhammad Bin Abdul Karim Al-Issa.
Bishop Aldo Berardi, OSST, apostolic vicar of northern Arabia and Kuwait, and Bishop Paolo Martinelli, OFM Cap, apostolic vicar of southern Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, will also participate.
Pope Francis receives Amazon founder Jeff Bezos
ACI Prensa Staff, Aug 19, 2024 / 14:45 pm (CNA).
Pope Francis received Jeff Bezos, the billionaire founder of Amazon — who was accompanied by his fiancée, Lauren Sanchez — at the Vatican last week.
The Vatican Press Office made no mention of the meeting in its bulletin where it generally reports on the meetings that the Holy Father holds on a daily basis.
According to the Daily Mail, Pope Francis’ meeting with Bezos and Sanchez took place on Thursday, Aug. 15, the day the Catholic Church celebrates the Assumption of the Virgin Mary.
On her Instagram account, Sanchez said that “it was an honor for Jeff and I to spend time with His Holiness, @franciscus at his home in the Vatican.”
null“His wisdom, warmth, and humor were deeply touching. He reminded us not to take life too seriously, a simple yet powerful reminder to keep lightness in our hearts,” she commented.
Bezos’ fiancée related that “we also discussed the urgent need for climate action, something he’s passionate about, as are all of us at the Bezos Earth Fund.”
Sanchez also noted that what Pope Francis believes about “finding beauty and meaning in everything we do resonated deeply with me. I love that he encourages priests to read poetry and literature to stay connected with the human spirit.”
In closing, the 54-year-old said she was “grateful for this incredible blessing and for the gentle wisdom he shared with us.”
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
Pope Francis pens preface to US death row chaplain’s book on death penalty
Vatican City, Aug 19, 2024 / 14:15 pm (CNA).
Pope Francis commended an American chaplain’s work with death row inmates as a ministry that reflects the “deepest reality of the Gospel” in a new book preface on the death penalty.
The pope personally penned the introduction to “A Christian on Death Row: My Commitment to Those Condemned” by Dale Recinella, a lawyer who has ministered to death row inmates in Florida as a lay Catholic chaplain for more than 25 years.
Pope Francis calls Recinella’s work as a chaplain on death row a “passionate adherence to the deepest reality of the Gospel of Jesus, which is the mercy of God.”
“Dale Racinella has truly understood and testifies with his life, every time he crosses the threshold of a prison, especially the one he calls ‘the house of death,’ that God’s love is boundless and immeasurable,” Pope Francis wrote in the preface of the book to be published Aug. 27.
“And that even the most heinous of our sins does not mar our identity in God’s eyes: We remain his children, loved by him, cared for by him, and considered precious by him.”
Death row ministryRecinella had been working as a high-powered lawyer in the 1980s when he began reassessing how he had been using his gifts and his skills up to that point, identifying a strong desire to give back.
Together with his wife, Susan, Recinella got involved in a ministry helping the homeless and AIDS patients, where the organizer of the ministry approached Recinella to see if he’d be willing to go even deeper.
“He asked if I would be willing to come to his prison and start seeing men that were terminal with cancer and AIDS,” Recinella recalled, speaking to CNA in an interview in 2020.
“And what I didn’t have the courage to tell him was I’d never been in a prison; I had financed prisons on Wall Street all over the country, huge prisons, but I’d never been in one and had no desire to go in one.”
Recinella’s family helped to convince him that he should take the plunge in the early 1990s.
“It was Susan and the kids quoting Jesus from the Gospel in Matthew 25 that convinced me that if my faith was really guiding my life, that Jesus had said when we visited the least in prison, we visited him, but when we didn’t, we had refused to visit him. And so I figured I’d give it a shot,” he said.
It would be a couple of years before the idea of death row specifically really crossed Recinella’s mind, when he and his family ended up moving to the small town of Macclenny, Florida. That town just happened to be the home of the state’s death row prison.
Recinella was shocked at the harsh conditions he encountered when he first set foot in a death row prison.
“The very first thing that struck me, my first experience was, ‘I can’t believe we’re still doing this in the 20th century,’” he recalled, noting that despite the Florida heat, the inmates were not given air conditioning.
Recinella eventually decided to give up the practice of the law so that he could minister to the death row inmates.
Ministering to condemned criminals has not proven easy. Recinella recalls being assigned to a serial killer who had killed young women of a similar age to Recinella’s daughter.
“I was not ready to handle the spiritual challenges of dealing with the level of human suffering that we’ve experienced in street ministry, AIDS ministry, prison, ministry, and death row ministry,” he said.
Recinella found the strength to do it through conversations with a trusted priest and through the sacraments, he said.
In addition to spending several days a week visiting inmates himself, he has also trained other people to do prison ministry and has acted as a witness for nearly two dozen executions.
Recinella told “EWTN News In Depth” in 2021 that among the people he has ministered to when they are dying — whether they are homeless, lawyers, politicians, or inmates — everyone has asked for mercy in their dying moments.
“I’ve never had anyone ask me to pray for God to give them justice,” he said. “Everyone, even if they didn’t think they had faith, when they’re facing the end of the tunnel, everyone has asked me to pray with them for God’s mercy.”
Pope urges abolition of the death penaltyPope Francis revised the Catechism of the Catholic Church in 2018 to state that the death penalty is “inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person” (CCC, 2267).
In the preface to Recinella’s book, Pope Francis underlined his strong opposition to capital punishment, saying that “the death penalty is in no way a solution to the violence that can strike innocent people.”
“Capital executions, far from bringing justice, fuel a sense of revenge that becomes a dangerous poison for the body of our civil societies,” the pope said.
Pope Francis emphasized how he wants the Catholic Church’s 2025 Jubilee Year to be a time for “all believers to collectively call for the abolition of the death penalty.”
The death penalty has been abolished within the European Union and more than 140 countries.
Iran, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, and the United States were the countries with the most confirmed executions in 2023, according to Amnesty International.
“States should focus on allowing prisoners the opportunity to truly change their lives rather than investing money and resources in their execution, as if they were human beings no longer worthy of living and to be disposed of,” Francis wrote.
Pope Francis met Recinella and his wife in a private audience at the Vatican in 2019. The Vatican’s Pontifical Academy for Life bestowed on Recinella its first Guardian of Life Award in 2021 in honor of his decades of service and ministry to death row inmates.
Recinella’s new book will be published by the Vatican Publishing House on Aug. 27. He is also the author of “When We Visit Jesus in Prison: A Guide for Catholic Ministry.”
CNA staff writer Jonah McKeown contributed to this article.
Pope Francis reflects with wonder on ‘the miracle of the Eucharist’
Vatican City, Aug 18, 2024 / 10:20 am (CNA).
Pope Francis said Sunday that the Eucharist is a “miracle” in which Jesus nourishes us with his life and satisfies the hunger in our hearts.
“All of us need the Eucharist,” Pope Francis said in his Angelus address on Aug. 18.
“The heavenly bread, which comes from the Father, is the Son made flesh for us. This food is more than necessary because it satisfies the hunger for hope, the hunger for truth, and the hunger for salvation that we all feel not in our stomachs but in our hearts.”
Speaking from the window of the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace, the pope encouraged people to reflect with “wonder and gratitude” on the “miracle of the Eucharist” in which Jesus “makes himself present for us and with us.”
“The bread from heaven is a gift that exceeds all expectations,” the pope said.
“Jesus takes care of the greatest need: He saves us, nourishing our lives with his, forever. Thanks to him, we can live in communion with God and among ourselves.”
The pope’s reflection centered on Jesus’ words recorded in Chapter 6 of the Gospel of John: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven.”
Pope Francis said: “Let us ask ourselves … When I receive the Eucharist, which is the miracle of mercy, do I stand in awe before the body of the Lord, who died and rose again for us?”
After leading the crowd in the Angelus prayer in Latin, the pope urged people to continue to pray for “pathways to peace” to open in the Middle East, in Palestine and Israel, as well as in Ukraine, Myanmar, and every place affected by war.
The pope also expressed joy that four 20th-century martyrs were beatified on Sunday in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Religious sisters and pilgrims wave flags while Pope Francis gave the Angelus in St. Petter's Square on Aug. 18, 2024. Credit: Vatican MediaThousands attended the beatification Mass of Father Luigi Carrara, Father Giovanni Didonè, and Father Vittorio Faccin — all Xaverian missionary priests from Italy serving in the Democratic Republic of Congo who were martyred by anti-religious guerrillas in the Kwilu Rebellion in 1964. Father Albert Joubert, a martyred diocesan priest born to a French father and African mother, was also beatified with them.
“Their martyrdom was the crowning achievement of a life spent for the Lord and for their brothers and sisters,” Pope Francis said.
“May their example and intercession foster paths of reconciliation and peace for the good of the Congolese people.”
Rupnik art appears on Vatican website again — and in Pope Francis’ apartment
Rome Newsroom, Aug 16, 2024 / 13:32 pm (CNA).
Despite calls from abuse victims and their advocates to stop displaying artwork by the disgraced former Jesuit priest Father Marko Ivan Rupnik, the Vatican has again used one of the artist’s images to illustrate an online article.
In addition, last week, a video was published by Argentine public TV channel Canal de la Cuidad that shows a Rupnik image hanging in Pope Francis’ personal apartment inside the Vatican’s Santa Marta residence.
On the Vatican website, the Holy See’s communications department used a picture of a Rupnik mosaic of the dormition of Mary at the top of an article for the solemnity of the Assumption of Mary on Aug. 15.
Vatican News articles about Catholic feast days have continued to regularly feature Rupnik’s art after public abuse accusations were made against the Slovenian priest at the end of 2022.
Accused of sexually abusing women, Rupnik is currently under investigation by the Vatican’s doctrinal office after Pope Francis waived a statute of limitations.
In June, Cardinal Seán O’Malley, head of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors and the newly retired archbishop of Boston, sent a letter to the heads of Vatican offices asking them to display “pastoral prudence” by not displaying artwork that could imply either an exoneration or defense of those accused of abuse.
“We must avoid sending a message that the Holy See is oblivious to the psychological distress that so many are suffering,” O’Malley wrote in a letter sent June 26, according to the commission he heads.
The video depicting Pope Francis’ apartment shows an image of a sleeping St. Joseph with an angel above him. It can be seen hanging on the wall next to a door while Pope Francis met on Aug. 8 with Anita Fernández, the granddaughter of one of the victims murdered in the so-called “death flights” of the last military dictatorship in Argentina.
The image looks to be a detail from a larger 2008 Rupnik mosaic installation in a chapel in a religious house in Croatia. Images and a description of the work can be found on the website of the Centro Aletti, Rupnik’s art school and theology center in Rome.
It is believed to be at least the second Rupnik artwork hanging in the pope’s personal quarters. The other is a mosaic of Mary and the Child Jesus, which the pope spoke about in a video message he sent to a Marian congress in Aparecida, Brazil, in 2023.
In the video posted to the Vatican News Portuguese channel on YouTube, now showing as “unlisted,” the Marian artwork is seen hanging over a wooden table in what appears to be a sitting room. Videos categorized as “unlisted” do not appear in searches.
Other artwork is visible on the walls, including a cross and a portrait of St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits.
The Vatican’s press office did not respond by time of publication to a request for comment Friday about the use of Rupnik’s art on the Vatican News website or its display in Pope Francis’ private apartment.
The Shrine of Our Lady of Aparecida in Brazil is one of the latest of hundreds of Catholic churches and chapels to be decorated by Rupnik’s style of artwork. According to the Centro Aletti, the massive installations, covering almost 25,000 square feet on the basilica’s north facade, were completed between August and November 2021 by the center’s “Art Atelier.”