From the Desk of

The Choice of a Word

“The consecrated woman is a mother: she must be a mother and not an ‘old maid’! Forgive me if I talk like this…” (“La consacrata è madre, deve essere madre e non zitella, scusatemi, parlo un po’ così...”) –Pope Francis, May 8, 2013, speaking to 800 superiors of women’s orders from around the world

Sometimes a single word can be the source of confusion. And it can cause one to miss the entire meaning of a talk.

Pope Francis

This morning, speaking in the Vatican to 800 women religious, all of them leaders of Catholic orders of nuns, representing hundreds of thousands of sisters from 75 countries around the world, Pope Francis may have chosen such a word.

Already, some in Rome are saying this may be a reason for this still very new, and very genuine, Pope from Argentina to be more careful with regard to the words he chooses when he speaks in public.

In other words, that Francis ought to prepare his talks in advance, and allow his advisors to edit them, rather than speak so often “off the cuff.”

Still, others are saying that his authenticity is so precious to the Church that he should continue to speak in his refreshing, natural, unscripted way, no matter what the cost.

The word the Pope used this morning was “zitella.”

It is an Italian word with several meanings, ranging from “single woman” to “spinster,” but the best way to translate it into English would seem to be “old maid.” And soon the official translations were putting the word in quotations, to distance the Pope just a bit from such a colloquial term.

The religious sisters listening to the Pope did not seem disturbed by his use of the word. After his talk, they applauded him. (Here is a video report on the address.)

But within an hour or two, a minor controversy was brewing, stoked in part by the American media.

“The Associated Press reports that in an audience Wednesday, ‘Pope Francis has told nuns from around the world that they must be spiritual mothers and not ‘old maids,’” Melinda Henneberger of the Washington Post wrote.

She continued: “I am at a loss to see how this could be other than insulting to women who’ve already given up having families of their own to serve God… Yes, Francis is a communications natural, but in this case, he broke the, um, cardinal rule: Know your audience.”

So Henneberger found Francis’s choice of word “insulting to women.”

Henneberger’s chief concern is that the role of women not be seen by the Church as exclusively “maternal.”

The Pope’s words were “in keeping with earlier remarks by Francis on the role of women,” she continued.

“In a talk soon after he was installed as Pope,” she said, “he noted that women have an important role in passing on the Catholic faith to their children. Of course, that isn’t our only role, right? Right?”

She concluded: “As someone who is trying her darnedest to pass on the faith, can I just say that we could use a hand from the Church in convincing said offspring that the Church is not as constricted as advertised in its view of women? Remarks like these are not particularly helpful.”

But her analysis overlooks some profound, strikingly beautiful words spoken by Francis.

“Rejoice, because it’s beautiful to follow Jesus,” Francis told the nuns. “It’s beautiful to reflect the image of the Mother of God and of our Holy Mother, the Hierarchical Church.”

So, in this case, the choice of a colloquial, popular Italian word to describe a condition of non-marriage and non-maternity (“zitella“) — a word the Pope himself seemed to recognize may have been inappropriate (“forgive me,” he said immediately) — became a source of polemics.

This is unfortunate, because the central idea expressed by the Pope is a beautiful, lofty one: that chastity, far from being a condition of sterility, or of bitterness at lack of offspring, has a profoundly “fruitful,” even “maternal” aspect.

In the the key paragraph spoken by the Pope this morning to express this concept, Francis said:

“Chastity for the Kingdom of Heaven shows how affection has its place in mature freedom and becomes a sign of the future world, to make God’s primacy shine forever. But, please, [make it] a ‘fertile’ chastity, which generates spiritual children in the Church. The consecrated are mothers: they must be mothers and not ‘old maids’!

“Forgive me if I talk like this, but this maternity of consecrated life, this fruitfulness, is important!

“May this joy of spiritual fruitfulness animate your existence. Be mothers, like the images of the Mother Mary and the Mother Church. You cannot understand Mary without her motherhood; you cannot understand the Church without her motherhood, and you are icons of Mary and of the Church.”

The danger Pope Francis faces is that a single word, taken out of context, can be exploited to harm the larger message he is proclaiming with great fervor and eloquence.

But it would perhaps be a still greater danger if this Pope were to succumb to considerable and growing pressure to “pre-digest” every homily or address.

The essential point of the Pope is quite valid: that all Christians should be spiritually fruitful, should generate “offspring” through their joy and faith, should be, therefore, “maternal” (and also “paternal”).

It is a shame that such a teaching could be misinterpreted as “insulting” — and perhaps Henneberger herself might use a different word, like “challenging,” rather than “insulting,” if she were to rewrite her piece upon further reflection.

Choosing the right word is not always easy, but the listener or reader should always pause to consider the entire context.

Pope Francis thus far has chosen all the right words. This incident shows that he will have to choose his words with special care in the weeks and months ahead.

“I pray for you, but I ask you to pray for me, because I am in need of your prayers.  Three ‘Hail Marys’ for me…” —Pope Francis, Saturday, May 4

On the Death of Giulio Andreotti

Giulio Andreotti passed away quietly yesterday in Rome at the age of 94.

He was arguably the single most important Italian statesman of the last 60 years. He was a man of brilliant intelligence, profound culture, great learning, and shrewd political pragmatism. He was a Italian Senator for Life.

He was also a Catholic, attended daily Mass, and for the past 20 years, in his retirement, he directed one of the most important small Catholic journals in the world, the monthly magazine 30 Giorni (30 Days), which closed nearly a year ago, in the summer of 2012. (The animating force behind 30 Giorni was a jovial Italian priest, don Giacomo Tantardini, who was, before his death a few months ago, a close friend of… Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, now Pope Francis.)

As a leader of Italy throughout the second half of the 20th century — he was Prime Minister on seven different occasions, and eight times Minister of Defense — Andreotti’s historical role, his life’s work, was to be a type of “bridge” between the defeated, Fascist Italy of Benito Mussolini and the Italy now emerging following the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the emergence of the European Union with its globalizing, secularizing trends.

He was in a similar way a critically important figure in the changing relationship between the Catholic Church and Italy during the past 75 years.

I did not know Andreotti well, but I met him on several occasions and twice had conversations of more than an hour with him. On those occasions, I felt I learned a great deal from him, from what he said and from what he did not say, and even from the words he chose, the turns of phrase he used. Speaking to him was an instruction in the use of the Italian language, and in how to speak well in any language. Speaking with him was to speak with a product of a profound classical education which no longer exists in our world in the same form. He was steeped in the Latin classics, and in Dante. Indeed, to speak with him was in some ways like speaking with one of those very old Italian cardinals, trained in the years before the Council, who are now very few.

On one memorable occasion, purely by chance, I found myself in the Hotel Columbus on the 27th of May in 1987, almost 30 years ago now. There was a long line of people on the stairway waiting to greet a cardinal who was celebrating the 50th anniversary of his priestly ordination. And I found myself standing behind a man with a large head and broad but slightly curved shoulders.

It was Giulio Andreotti.

And the cardinal we were going to greet was Agostino Casaroli (1914-1998), at that time, the Vatican Secretary of State for Pope John Paul II and the man known as “the architect of the Vatican’s Ostpolitik,” that is, the policy of dialogue with the Soviets rather than direct confrontation.

Andreotti with John Paul II; to the left behind John Paul II is Cardinal Casaroli

The reason I tell this story, the reason I remember the moment, is that I experienced something unique when the two men met.

As Andreotti greeted Casaroli, who was the shorter man, their eyes locked. As the next in line, I was only a yard away. They shook hands warmly, and Casaroli’s eyes, intelligent and penetrating, sparkled. And to me the look exchanged between the two men seemed like an electric charge which crackled across the air between them.

It seemed to me a product of the personality and power of the two men, so that, in the gaze they exchanged, one sensed important but unspoken crises and decisions the two had shared. It was a gaze of power, between two men of power. (Andreotti was famous for the phrase “power grows tiresome to those who don’t have it.”)

Andreotti died yesterday just before noontime. The President of Italy sent a message of condolence to his wife, Livia. In it, he said that “only history” will be able to judge Andreotti’s work.

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Born in 1919, Andreotti studied law and then entered politics. He was a member of Italy’s Parliament from the age of 26, in 1945, the year the Second World War ended, until the end of his life — almost 70 years. In the post-war years, he became the head of the Catholic University Students Association, succeeding Aldo Moro.

Thirty years later, in the 1970s, Moro, a close friend of Pope Paul VI, would be Italy’s Prime Minister. Moro was kidnapped by the Red Brigades on March 16, 1978. Andreotti then became the leader of the government in Moro’s absence.

Andreotti’s role during the kidnapping of Moro remains controversial. He refused any negotiation with the terrorists, and for this he was sharply criticized by Moro’s family.

Moro was killed by the Red Brigades in May 1978. His body was found in a car just a few yards from the Jewish synagogue of Rome. Not long after, on August 6, Moro’s friend, Paul VI, who had been profoundly shaken by these events, also died.

Andreotti was a protege of Alcide De Gasperi, the founder, with Guido Gonella, of Italy’s Christian Democratic Party. Andreotti ran for public office as a candidate of the Christian Democrats until the party was dissolved in the early 1990s.

Andreotti was the head of Italy’s government from February 1972 to June 1973, from July 1976 to June 1979, and from 1989 to 1992.

The author of numerous books, he was the President of the Center for Ciceronian Studies and of the Dante House of Rome.

Cardinal Achille Silvestrini — Casaroli’s right-hand man in the Vatican diplomacy — in an interview published today by VaticanInsider, said Andreotti was “a great statesman; one cannot understand the history of Italy in the 20th century without the fundamental role of Giuslio Andreotti.” Silvestrini added: “My first thought today was for his very dear wife, Livia, who was always his guardian angel.”

“I pray for you, but I ask you to pray for me, because I am in need of your prayers. Three ‘Hail Marys’ for me…” —Pope Francis, Saturday, May 4

Francis, Mary, and the Deceiver

Pope Francis returned to the Basilica of St. Mary Major this evening for the second time since he became Pope — the first time was at 8 a.m. on March 14, the morning after his election, to pray before an icon of the Virgin known as the Salus Populi Romani (“Protectress of the Roman People”).

He came to pray a Rosary and to dedicate his papacy to the Virgin Mary.

He also gave a homily this morning in the chapel of the Domus Santa Marta, where he is living. Once again this morning he mentioned the devil, referring to him as a “hater” who wishes ill to men and women, and who must be resisted by faith and prayer.

The coincidence today of these two prayers — one in the evening to Mary in her greatest basilica on earth, the other in the morning against the “prince of this world,” the devil, in a small chapel — seemed to emphasize a key theme of this pontificate: that the battle against the devil, against evil, is won with and through Mary, the daughter of Israel who was, and is, called “full of grace.”

And this explains a great deal about where this “Franciscan” pontificate is, and may be heading…

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Note also that, in about one week, in accordance with the clear requests of Pope Francis, this Pope’s papacy will be formally consecrated to Our Lady of Fatima in Fatima, Portugal, on May 13 — the day of the first apparition to the three shepherd children of Fatima in 1917, 96 years ago.

During those apparitions, which occurred always on the 13th of each month, until October 13 (with the exception of August, when the children were in prison, when it occurred on the 19th), “the Lady” spoke to the children of future events, including the coming of great wars, and then, in the end, of a time of peace for the entire world.

The Words of the Holy Father This Evening

Today, May 4th, on the first Saturday of the first May of his pontificate, at 6 in the evening, Pope Francis visited the Basilica of St. Mary Major and prayed five decades of the Rosary, the Joyous mysteries.

By coincidence, the archpriest of the Basilica — the largest church in the world dedicated to Mary — is the Spanish Cardinal Santos Abril y Castelló, 77, a key figure in gathering support for the election of Pope Francis to the papacy on March 13. Appointed a year and a half ago, on November 21, 2011, Abril y Castelló hosted a gathering of a number of key cardinals shortly before the beginning of the Conclave which elected Jorge Mario Bergoglio.

And he was present this evening to welcome Pope Francis to this pre-eminent sanctuary of the Virgin Mary.

The remarks of the Pope this evening were a powerful presentation of his Marian spirituality. They stressed Mary’s maternal concern for all Christians, and for all people, the concern of a mother that her children grow, live fully, and be free.

These were the three chief things the Pope stressed: that Mary wishes all to grow, to live a full life, and to be free.

“This evening we are here in front of Mary,” Pope Francis said, after thanking Abril y Castelló for receiving him. “We have prayed to her, to maternally take us more and more in union with her Son Jesus; we have brought her our joys and our sorrows, our hopes and our difficulties; we have invoked her with the lovely name Salus Populi Romani (“Protectress of the Roman People”) asking for all of us, for Rome, for the world, that she keep us in good health.

“Yes, because Mary gives us health, she is our saving grace… Mary is a mother, a mother who takes care above all of the health of her children and knows how to heal them with her great and tender love. The Madonna is the custodian of our health.

“What does this mean? My thoughts go, above all, to three aspects: she helps us in our growth, she helps us to face life, she teaches us to be free.”

In speaking about the concern of Mary that people “grow well,” the Pope noted that this is not just a matter of material well-being, but of deepening and strengthening character, deepening their spirits and souls so that they are not shallow but profound, not weak, but strong.

“A mother helps her children to grow and it is her wish that they grow well,” Pope Francis said. “This is why she teaches them to not yield to laziness, which is something that derives also from certain well-being. She teaches them not to adapt themselves to a life of ease that desires nothing beyond material possessions.

“A mother takes care that her children’s growth is not stunted, that they grow strong and capable of taking responsibilities upon themselves, that they take on commitments in life and lean towards great ideals.

“The Gospel of Luke says that in the family of Nazareth Jesus ‘grew and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him’ (Luke 2:40). This is exactly what the Madonna does with us, she helps us to grow humanely and in faith, to be strong and not to yield to the temptation of being men and Christians in a superficial way, but to live with responsibility, reaching upwards all the time.”

So, no spoiling of the children.

So, no degeneracy due to ease and selfishness.

Only the highest of ideals, always high ideals, no matter what… This is the Pope’s recipe for raising children.

“And then,” the Pope continued, “a mother thinks of the health of her children, teaching them to face the difficulties of life.”

And here the Pope stressed realism, courage, and prudence — the virtues.

Children need to be taught the virtues, the Pope said.

“One does not educate, one does not look after someone’s health, by avoiding problems, as if life was a highway without obstacles,” Francis said. “A mother helps her children to look to the problems in life with realism, not to lose oneself in them but to tackle them with courage, not to be weak, to know how to overcome them, in a healthy balance that a mother can ‘feel’ is to be found in between the areas of safety and of risk.

“A life without challenges does not exist, and a boy or a girl who does not know how to face challenges and put himself or herself on the line, has no backbone!

“Let us remember the parable of the Good Samaritan: Jesus does not commend the behavior of the priest or of the Levite, who avoid assisting the traveler who had been beaten, robbed and left half dead along the road, but that of the Samaritan who saw the situation of the man and tackled it in a concrete manner.

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“Mary lived many difficult times in her life, from the birth of Jesus, when ‘there was no room for him in the inn’ (Luke 2:7), up until the Calvary (John 19:25).

“And like a good mother she is close to us so that we never lose courage before the adversities of life, before our own weaknesses, before our sins: she gives us strength, she points to the path of her Son.

“From the cross, indicating John, Jesus tells Mary: ‘Woman, here is your son,’ and to John: ‘Here is your mother!’ (John 19,26-27).

“We are all represented by that disciple: the Lord entrusts us to the loving hands and to the tenderness of the Mother, so that we can rely on her support when we face and overcome the difficulties of our human and Christian journey.”

And then the Pope took up the question of freedom — perhaps the central question of our time. What is true freedom? How can we have this freedom? How can we lose it? The Pope addressed these great questions.

“One last aspect,” Francis said. “A good mother not only accompanies her children during their growth, not avoiding the problems and the challenges of life; a good mother also helps to take important decisions with freedom.

“But what does freedom mean? Certainly not doing all that one wants, letting oneself be dominated by passions, passing from one experience to the next without discernment, following the trends of the moment; freedom does not mean, so to say, throwing all that one does not like from the window.

“Freedom is given to us so that we make good choices in life!

“As a good mother, Mary teaches us to be, like she is, capable of making important decisions with the same full freedom with which she answered ‘yes’ to God’s plan for her life (Luke 1,38).”

The Pope does not make it entirely easy for us.

He does not tell us what these “good choices” are.

But he is quite clear that it our freedom that is at stake when we make choices. We may choose to be dominated by passions, or to seek to dominate our passions. We may choose to fight the plan of God for our lives, to run from it, or, like Mary, we may choose to say “yes” to it, to embrace it…

“Dear brothers and sisters, how difficult it is in our time to take important decisions!” the Pope summed up. “The ephemeral seduces us. We are victims of a tendency that pushes us towards the ephemeral… as if we wished to remain adolescents throughout our lives!

“We must not be afraid of definitive commitments, of commitments that involve and have an effect on our whole lives,” Francis said. “In this way our lives will be fruitful!”

And then Pope Francis spoke beautiful words about Mary — words of an eloquence reminiscent of his predecessor, Benedict XVI — words praising the daughter of Israel as a great soul, whose entire life was a hymn… words worth meditating on.

“The whole existence of Mary is a hymn to life, a hymn to love and to life,” Pope Francis said. “She generated Jesus the man and she accompanied the birth of the Church on Mount Calvary and in the Cenacle.

“The Salus Populi Romani is the mother that looks after our growth, she helps us face and overcome problems, she gives us freedom when we make important decisions; she is the mother who teaches us to be fruitful of good, joy, hope, to give life to others, both physical and spiritual life.

“This is what we are asking of you this evening, Oh Mary, Salus Populi Romani, for the people of Rome, for all of us: give us the grace that only you can give, so that we may always be signs and tools of life.”

“Pray Three Hail Mary’s for Me”

As he left the basilica after the Rosary, Pope Francis spoke a few words to the faithful present there.

And he asked them to say “three Hail Marys” for him.

“Good evening,” he said. “Thanks so much for your presence in the house of the mother of Rome, of your mother. Long live the Protectress of the Roman People. Long Live the Madonna. She is our Mother. Let us entrust ourselves to her, so that she may protect us like a good mother.

“I pray for you, but I ask you to pray for me, because I am in need of your prayers. Three ‘Hail Marys’ for me. I wish you a happy Sunday, tomorrow. Goodbye. Now I give you my blessing, to you and to all your family. May almighty God bless you (gives the blessing)… Happy Sunday.”

(Here are the words in the original Italian: “Buona sera! Grazie tante per la vostra presenza nella casa della mamma di Roma, della nostra Madre. Viva la Salus Populi Romani. Viva la Madonna. E’ la nostra Madre. Affidiamoci a lei, perché lei ci custodisce come una buona mamma. Io prego per voi, ma vi chiedo di pregare per me, perché ne ho bisogno. Tre “Ave” per me. Vi auguro una buona domenica, domani. Arrivederci. Adesso vi do la benedizione – a voi e a tutta la vostra famiglia. Vi benedica il Padre Onnipotente.. Buona domenica.”)

In his Twitter message today, Pope Francis said “It would be beautiful, during the month of May, to recite together in your family the Holy Rosary. Prayer renders still stronger the life of the family.” (“Sarebbe bello, nel mese di maggio, recitare assieme in famiglia il Santo Rosario. La preghiera rende ancora più salda la vita familiare.”) He had said something similar during his last Wednesday General Audience.

At the end of the Rosary, after the chanting of the litany, Pope Francis placed flowers under the icon of the Virgin Mary, and offered incense before the ancient image.

“To Place His Pontificate at the Feet of the Madonna”

Cardinal Santos Abril y Castelló, archpriest of the basilica of St. Mary Major, gave an interview to Vatican Radio about the evening Rosary to journalist Sergio Centofanti.

In his remarks, the cardinal revealed that Pope Francis has entrusted his entire pontificate to the Virgin Mary, placing it “at the feet of the Madonna.”

On the first morning of his pontificate, “Pope Francis wished to come to the Basilica not only to thank the Madonna, but also — as he told me personally — to make an act of entrustment, to place his pontificate at the feet of the Madonna,” the cardinal said.

“He came to ask for the protection and help of the Madonna, being a very Marian Pope. I know that he went very often to visit the national Sanctuary of the Madonna of Luján (in Argentina), and it was not the first time that he has visited the Salus populi romani.”

“Fighting evil with meekness and humility”

This morning, during his homily at his daily 7 a.m. morning Mass in the Domus Santa Marta, Pope Francis asked his hearers to “always remain meek and humble, that we might defeat the empty promises and the hatred of the world.”

The homily centered on the struggle between the love of Christ and the hatred of the “prince” of this world — the devil.

The Lord, the Pope said, tells us to be not afraid when the world hates us as it hated Him.

“The way of the Christians is the way of Jesus,” Francis said. “If we want to be followers of Jesus, there is no other way: none other than that, which He indicated to us — and one of the consequences of this is hatred — it is the hatred of the world, and also the prince of this world.”

Jesus, he said, “with His death, His resurrection” redeemed us “from the power of the world, from the power of the devil, from the power of the prince of this world.”

He added: “The origin of the hate [we experience], then is this: that we are saved. It is that prince who does not want that we should have been saved, who hates.”

Here, he said, is the reason that the hatred and persecution continue from the early days of the Church even unto the present day.

There are “many persecuted Christian communities in the world,” Pope Francis said, with bitterness in his voice. “Indeed, there are more persecuted communities in this time than in the early days: today, right now, in this day and in this hour.”

Asking himself why this is the case, the Pope said, “Because the spirit of the world hates.”

The Pope then said something perhaps a bit shocking to a relativistic world. He said one cannot “dialogue” with the devil, though dialogue is always necessary with other human beings.

“There can be no dialogue with the prince of this world,” Francis said. “Let this be clear!

“Today, dialogue is necessary among us humans, it is necessary for peace. Dialogue is a habit, it is an attitude that we must have among us to feel and understand each other… and that [dialogue] must be maintained forever. Dialogue comes from charity, from love.

“But with that prince, it is impossible to dialogue: one can only respond with the Word of God who defends us, for the world hates us – and just as he did with Jesus, so will he do with us.”

And then the Pope gave a description of how the devil tempts people, even putting words into the mouth of the tempter, the one who attempts to decive men and women.

“‘Only look,’ he will say, ‘just do this one small little scam… it is a small matter, nothing really’ – and so he begins to lead us on a road that is slightly off.

“This is a pious lie,” Francis continued. He again cited the devil.

“‘Do it, do it, do it: there is no problem,’” Francis said, putting words in the devil’s mouth. And he added: “It begins little by little, always, no?”

The Pope continued to describe the battle between the devil and the individual soul the devil is tempting.

“Then [he says]: ‘But … you’re good, you’re a good person: You [get away with] it.’ It is flattering – and he softens us by flattery: and then, we fall into the trap.”

Pope Francis went on to say that the Lord asks us to remain sheep, inside the Church, because if one decides to quit the fold, then he does not have “a shepherd to defend him and he falls into the clutches of these wolves.”

“You may ask the question,” continued Pope Francis, “‘Father, what is the weapon to defend against these seductions, from these blandishments, these enticements that the prince of this world offers?’”

The weapon, the Pope said, is the same weapon of Jesus, the Word of God — not dialogue — but always the Word of God, and then humility and meekness.

“We think of Jesus in His Passion. His Prophet says: ‘As a sheep going to the slaughter.’ He does not cry out, not at all: humility. Humility and meekness.

“These are the weapons that the prince and spirit of this world does not tolerate, for his proposals are proposals for worldly power, proposals of vanity, proposals for ill-gotten riches.”

“Today,” continued Pope Francis, “Jesus reminds us of this hatred that the world has against us, against the followers of Jesus.”

The world hates us, he repeated, “because He has saved us, redeemed us.”

The Pope concluded with an invocation to the Virgin Mary, asking her, “to help us become meek and humble in the way of Jesus.”

The Mass on Saturday morning was concelebrated by the Secretary of the Congregation for Bishops, Archbishop Lorenzo Baldisseri, with a contingent of the Pontifical Swiss Guard in attendance.

Pope Francis offered the guards a greeting of affection and gratitude. “The Church,” he said, “loves you so much,” and, “so do I.”

I would like to reiterate one thing the Pope said today: “I pray for you, but I ask you to pray for me, because I am in need of your prayers. Three ‘Hail Marys’ for me…”

Today is the Feast of Pope St. Pius V (1504-1572), the Pope responsible for codifying the Tridentine rite of the Mass in 1570. He also declared St. Thomas Aquinas a Doctor of the Church.

In Rome, several important stories are “trending”:

1. Pope Francis to visit Israel? In the Vatican today, Pope Francis met with the President of Israel, Shimon Peres. The two men discussed the general Middle East situation, including the tragic civil war in Syria which has caused great suffering to the very ancient Christian community there, largely Orthodox. Peres invited Pope Francis to visit Israel, and Francis accepted the invitation, though with no date yet set. This suggests there could be a papal visit to the Holy Land in the not-too-distant future, perhaps already in 2014, a year from now. As Cindy Wooden of Catholic News Service reported today: “Talk about a possible papal trip to Israel already circulated in March after Pope Francis met Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople. Several news reports said the Orthodox patriarch suggested that he and the Pope meet in Jerusalem in 2014 to mark the 50th anniversary of the historic first step in Catholic-Orthodox rapprochement: the 1964 meeting there between Pope Paul VI and Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras.”
2. Will John Paul II soon be made a saint? It is being rumored that the canonization of Blessed Pope John Paul II could occur as early as Sunday, October 20, later this year. This is not official! But rumors in recent days have been insistent that a second extraordinary healing attributed to John Paul’s intercession was recently approved in Rome, opening the way for a decree of canonization only 8 years after the Polish Pope’s death in 2005.

3. Reform of the Roman Curia? Many are wondering what changes Pope Francis may choose to make in the personnel and functioning of the Roman Curia. And in today’s April 30 edition, the Osservatore Romano published a wide-ranging interview on the matter with Archbishop Giovanni Angelo Becciu, 64, the current Substitute for General Affairs since his appointment by Pope Benedict XVI on May 10, 2011. (Becciu had previously been nuncio to Cuba.) Becciu says the Pope is moving without haste, deliberately, and that many observers are imagining changes that will not occur. He also says the Vatican Bank, contrary to some rumors, will not be closed by the new Pope.

4. The Return of Emeritus Pope Benedict to the Vatican. Two months and four days — so, 64 days — after he left the Vatican by helicopter for the summer papal palace in the small town of Castel Gandolfo outside of Rome, Emeritus Pope Benedict will return to the Vatican, by helicopter, on the evening of Thursday, May 2. He will live in a restored convent in the Vatican Gardens on a hill which rises behind St. Peter’s Basilica. This will bring him physically much closer to Pope Francis — about a 12-15 minute walk, depending how fast one walks — who is still living in the Domus Santa Marta, a Vatican guest house, and not in the Apostolic Palace which rises above St. Peter’s Square. There is no official word on what the relationship of the two men will be, whether they will meet to discuss theology and Church government, or not. Shortly before his February 28 renunciation of the papal throne, Benedict, now 86 (note that his brother, Georg, is 89 and in good health), stated that he would be “withdrawing into prayer” and would live out his remaining days “hidden from the world” (“nascosto dal mondo“). Benedict wears a white cassock with no a cape; Francis wears a white cassock with a short cape, the traditional clothing for a Pope.

5. Francis and his Marian Devotion. On Saturday, May 4, Pope Francis will go back to the Basilica of St. Mary Major, across Rome from St. Peter’s Basilica, to recite the Rosary. He went there on the first morning of his pontificate, on March 14. Also, on May 13 in Fatima, Portugal, the Patriarch of Lisbon, Cardinal Jose da Cruz Policarpo, at the repeated urging of Pope Francis, will consecrate Pope Francis’s papacy to Our Lady of Fatima.

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===============

Here is a brief, clear overview of the Pope Francis-Shimon Peres meeting in a Rome Reports video:

April 30, 2013. (Romereports.com) A month and a half after his election as Pope, Francis welcomed the president of Israel Shimon Peres at the Vatican. Soon after their greeting, Peres asked the Pope to pray for his country.

As camera flashes went off, Peres joked with the Pope that now those sounds of camera shutters follow them everywhere.

“It is part of our life now.”

They then met in private for about half an hour, using an interpreter to communicate. According to the Vatican press release, the Pope and the president spoke about the current political and social situation in the Middle East, peace between Israelis and Palestinians, and the importance of the city of Jerusalem. The Pope also expressed his concern for the conflict in Syria.

Pope Francis and Shimon Peres also highlighted the improvements in relations between Israel and the Holy See, since the creation of a bilateral permanent working commission 14 years ago.

Peres is on a three day tour to Italy, and will also meet with the Italian president and the new government. He will also receive the Medal of Honor for Peace at the Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi. Peres told the Pope he would pray for him there.

The Israeli president gave the Pope a Bible of Jerusalem with black leather binding, in Hebrew and English.

“It is the Holy Bible with a quotation.”

“Thank you very much.”

In the first pages of the Bible, Shimon Peres wrote verses from the Book of Kings: “To His Holiness, Pope Francis, I hope you will prosper in everything that you do and wherever you go.”

“From the Book of Kings. With deep esteem. Signed by Shimon Peres, president of Israel. April 2013.”

The Pope gave the president a small white case with three commemorative medals of his pontificate.

Before saying goodbye, Peres invited the Pope to visit Israel.

“I am waiting for you in Jerusalem, and not just me, but all the people from Israel.”

Shimon Peres is the eighth president that has met in person with Pope Francis at the Vatican, since his election on March 13.

Here is the video, which is worth watching:

======================================

Here is the official Vatican communique issued after the Pope Francis-Shimon Peres meeting:

Today in the Vatican Apostolic Palace, the Holy Father Francis received in audience His Excellency Mr. Shimon Peres, President of the State of Israel. President Peres then went on to meet with the Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, S.D.B., accompanied by Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, secretary for Relations with States.

During the cordial talks, the political and social situation in the Middle East—where more than a few conflicts persist—was addressed. A speedy resumption of negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians is hoped for, so that, with the courageous decisions and availability of both sides as well as support from the international community, an agreement may be reached that respects the legitimate aspirations of the two Peoples, thus decisively contributing to the peace and stability of the region. Reference to the important issue of the City of Jerusalem was not overlooked. Particular worry for the conflict that plagues Syria was expressed, for which a political solution is hoped for that privileges the logic of reconciliation and dialogue.

A number of issues concerning relations between the State of Israel and the Holy See and between state authorities and the local Catholic communities were also addressed. In conclusion, the significant progress made by the Bilateral Working Commission, which is preparing an agreement regarding issues of common interest, was appreciated and its rapid conclusion is foreseen. (link)

Link to complete text of Osservatore Romano interview with Shimon Peres

Here are excerpts from a Cindy Wooden/Catholic News Service report on the Becciu interview on the reform of the Roman Curia:

Vatican official says curia reform needs time, dismisses bank rumors

By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Amid widespread speculation about a complete and quick reorganization of Vatican departments and rumors in the Italian media that Pope Francis was going to close the Vatican bank, a top Vatican official told everyone to calm down.

“It’s a bit strange; the pope still has not met the group of advisers he chose and already the advice is raining down,” said Archbishop Angelo Becciu, the substitute secretary for general affairs in the Vatican Secretariat of State.

The Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, ran a front-page interview April 30 with Archbishop Becciu, whose job is similar to a chief of staff.

Asked about rumors that Pope Francis intended to close the Institute for Religious Works, commonly called the Vatican bank, Archbishop Becciu said, “The pope was surprised to see attributed to him phrases that he never said and that misrepresent his thought”…

As for the panel of eight cardinals Pope Francis named April 13 to advise him on “the governance of the universal church and to study a plan” to reorganize the Roman Curia, Archbishop Becciu said, “at this moment it is absolutely premature to advance any hypothesis about the future structure of the Curia.”

“Pope Francis is listening to everyone, but wants to hear first of all from those he chose as advisers,” the archbishop said. The eight cardinals — including Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley of Boston and Cardinal George Pell of Sydney — are supposed to hold their first formal meeting in October.

In the meantime, Archbishop Becciu said, Pope Francis has asked all the heads of Vatican congregations and councils to stay on “for now”…

“This shows the desire of the Holy Father to take the time he needs for reflection — and for prayer, let’s not forget — in order to have a complete picture of the situation,” he said.

Archbishop Becciu was asked about a commentator’s opinion that by appointing a group of advisers Pope Francis was putting in jeopardy the primacy of the papacy. The archbishop dismissed the claim.

“It’s a consultative body, not a decision-making one, and I truly do not see how Pope Francis’ decision could put primacy into question,” he said…

Link to complete text of the Becciu interview.

==============

A critique of the Vatican Curia comes from the editor of ucanews, Father William Grimm, based in Tokyo, Japan. Here are excerpts:

Reforming the Vatican is like nailing jelly to a wall
Is it optimistic to think it might actually happen this time?

Fr William Grimm MM, Tokyo
Japan
April 29, 2013

Among moves we can expect to see under Pope Francis will be an attempt to reform the Vatican Curia. The pope has appointed eight cardinals from around the world to advise him in making that reform happen…

A half-millennium of attempts to reform the central administration of the Catholic Church has not succeeded. Hopes that the Operations Octet will perform better against entrenched special interests than others have in the past are probably excessively optimistic.

The most radical, and therefore probably the most effective and necessary reform of the Curia would be its abolition. Most, if not all, of what it claims as its scope of authority could and should be handled by regional, national and local bishops’ conferences and synods of leaders and laity…

Over the centuries, Vatican officialdom has usurped various functions that need not and should not be dealt with there. The translation or even the creation of liturgical texts, annulling marriages, dispensing clergy from ministry and such should be within the competence of the communities that celebrate those liturgies, witness those marriages or ordain their clergy…

Failing that, the second-best alternative is to move the administrative functions of the Church out of Rome…

Today, the language of the curia is Italian, which has been called “a corrupt provincial dialect of Latin,” spoken almost exclusively in one small country. The talent pool that can work in that language is limited to Italians…

The solution is not to start teaching three-year-olds to speak Latin so that we can restore the past. The solution is to make one or more of the world’s international languages that function as Latin once did the administrative language of the Church. Then the Church could once again draw upon a world of talent, knowledge, information and experience without being limited to clerical natives of one country or careerists…

A Church that claims to be global must globalize. That means that, like the United Nations, it must have major parts of its operations outside the headquarters, in places where communications, international transportation and a global ethos make for efficiency and a broader vision. New York, Brussels, Nairobi, Hong Kong, Jakarta, Rio de Janeiro, Moscow, London and many more places come to mind…

So, scatter the administrative offices of the worldwide Church across the world. If officials can be convinced to make use of modern communications tools, it is likely that cooperative communication among the components of administration will improve. Apparently, they cannot get worse…

Is such a change impossible? No. Is it likely? No. But I would love to be proved wrong on that point.

Fr William Grimm MM is publisher of ucanews.com and is based in Tokyo

(Link)

Benedict to Return to Vatican City

Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI is expected to return from Castel Gandolfo to Vatican City in the next few days.

The Emeritus Pope — creating a situation unique in the history of the Church where a former Pope and a reigning Bishop of Rome will be both living inside the Vatican at the same time — will return to the Vatican “between the end of April and the first days of May, as planned,” Father Federico Lombardi, S.J., director of the Vatican Press Office, said yesterday at the offices of the Foreign Press Club in Rome, as reported by Isabella Piro of Vatican Radio.

Some had speculated in recent days that Benedict might change his mind and not come back to the Vatican for many months, or perhaps even not at all, remaining instead at Castel Gandolfo. This news ends that speculation.

Father Lombardi also told the journalists that the only foreign trip Pope Francis will make this year will be to Brazil from July 23 to 28 for World Youth Day. It had been rumored that Francis might travel to Argentina in December in connection with his December 17 birthday. “I invite you not to expect other foreign trips during this year,” Father Lombardi said. (“Vi invito a non aspettarvi altri viaggi all’estero per quest’anno.”)

So Pope Francis will be traveling abroad only once during his first year as Pope. This seems to emphasize that his focus is on Rome and on the Vatican. He is acting and functioning less as a “supreme pontiff” of the global Church and more as the bishop of his diocese, Rome, and, in a sense, as seen in his daily homilies in the chapel of the Domus Santa Marta, as the parish priest of Vatican City.

But, Vatican Radio said, the Pope may very well make a trip later this year inside of Italy, to Assisi, perhaps on October 4, the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi — the saint whose name this Pope chose as his own.

Also, it is “not to be excluded,” Father Lombardi said, that Pope Francis will publish his first encyclical before the end of the year. Lombardi noted that Emeritus Pope Benedict had prepared a portion of the text for an encyclical on faith, for this “Year of Faith,” so that will likely be the theme of Francis’s first encyclical.

Scholars will have to parse out, some day, perhaps, the way Pope Francis uses the material already prepared by Benedict: how much Francis keeps, how much he changes, how much he sets aside.

 A Place that Feels Like “Home”

The new Pope, Francis, 76, is still living in the Vatican’s only “guest house,” called the Domus Santa Marta (“House of St. Martha”), which is just at the bottom of the Vatican gardens, about a 12- or 15-minute walk away from where Benedict will come to live.

Francis seems very happy in the Domus.

“He likes it very much,” Father Lombardi said. (“Si trova molto bene”). “At the moment, he does not seem to want to change his residence, although this is not yet a definitive decision.” (“Al momento, non sembra voler cambiare alloggio, anche se non si tratta di una decisione definitiva.”)

So it seems that that Pope Francis, against all expectations, will remain for many more weeks — and perhaps permanently — in the Domus Santa Marta.

Some in Rome and Italy have written veiled criticisms of this decision. They have said it is “unbecoming” of the Pope to remain in a guest house and not to occupy his rooms in the Apostolic Palace.

One author even wrote that the people of Rome feel a bit “abandoned” since thay are not able to look up in the evening and to see the Pope’s light on in the papal palace above St. Peter’s Square. It remains dark.

The first embrace of Pope Francis and Emeritus Pope Benedict, in the Vatican Gardens at Castel Gandolfo, about 20 miles outside of Rome.

In recent weeks, the link between Benedict and Francis has been Archbishop Georg Gaenswein, the personal secretary of Emeritus Pope Benedict and the Prefect of the Pontifical Household, who has been living at Castel Gandolfo and traveling daily into Rome and back. Over time, this “commute” has become quite taxing on the archbishop, as the Roman traffic into the city in the morning can make what would be a 25-minute drive with no traffic into a journey of more than an hour of stop-and-go driving.

So this decision of Emeritus Pope Benedict to return to the Vatican gardens will also bring Archbishop Gaenswein back to the Vatican, and relieve him of that onerous commute.

The “two Popes” — one emeritus, one newly elected –  have only met on one occasion, on March 23, just 10 days after the election of Pope Francis.

They met at Castel Gandolfo, about 15 miles outside of Rome. (The photo below shows the moment of their first meeting.)

However, it has been announced that the two have spoken on more than one occasion over the telephone, and a source has advised that one such call went on for about two hours.

A Book on the New Pope



I would like readers of this newsletter to consider purchasing a copy of my new book about Pope Francis.

Entitled Pray for Me: The Life and Spiritual Vision of Pope Francis, First Pope from the Americas, the book narrates the events of Francis’s tumultuous first days.

This is followed by a brief biography providing a context for understanding this man, and then a look at the spiritual influences that shaped him.

My main goal was to offer readers a tool that can be used in many ways as a type of devotional.

Pray for Me is geared toward those who would like to accompany Pope Francis on his journey of faith in the months and years ahead.

Here are links where you can preorder the book:

1. Amazon

2. Barnes and Noble

If you would like a signed copy of the book, please call our toll-free number at 1-800-789-9494 in the US. Signed copies will be $30 (all shipping and handling included).

I would appreciate it if readers would support this book.

Francis Stopped for Divine Mercy

This Sunday evening in Rome, a beautiful, quiet, clear, cool spring evening, the parish priest of the Santo Spirito in Sassia church (the church next to the world headquarters of the Jesuits, 200 yards from the colonnade around St. Peter’s Square, and the church entrusted by Pope John Paul II to carry out a special devotion to the teaching about Divine Mercy preached by the Polish mystic, St. Faustina Kowalska), Father Giuseppe, a young and dynamic Polish priest, during his sermon on the day’s readings, told a little story I had not heard before.

Last week, he said, last Sunday, on April 7, the Sunday of Divine Mercy — on the eve of which Pope John Paul II died in 2005 — Pope Francis took possession of the cathedral church of the diocese of Rome, St. John Lateran.
But after doing that, while driving back over to the Vatican, Pope Francis, at about 7:15 in the evening — Father Giuseppe looked at his watch; “Yes,” he said, “it was about at this time, about 7:15 in the evening, a little after 7″ — Pope Francis stopped in front of the church, evidently out of respect for the Divine Mercy devotion practiced in this church, on Divine Mercy Sunday.

“Yes, it was about 7:15 in the evening,” Father Giuseppe said, still preaching his homily, and paused. “Pope Francis asked his driver to stop the car in front of the church, for a few moments. And when a few people noticed he was there, a crowd quickly gathered.

“And there was a young couple walking by, just at that time, in the providence of God. A young couple who had fallen away from the church. A young couple who were planning to be married. And when they saw the crowd gathering, they stopped, and they too caught a glimpse of the Pope.

“And catching a glimpse of Pope Francis, they were moved, deep within, and a few minutes later, after the Pope moved on, they came into the church. And they spoke with me for some time, and they want to again draw close to the church, because of the unusual events of that evening, because they saw the Pope stop in front of the church, just as they were walking by.

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“And when I see the Pope, and I am sure that I will have a chance to see him, I will tell him this story, the story of how his decision to stop his car on the Feast of Divine Mercy, in front of this church dedicated to the Divine Mercy, brought mercy to those two young people, in such a tangible way that they wanted to change their lives and draw close again to God and to Christ.

“Little miracles of God’s mercy are always occurring, and that was one of them.”

A new book: “Pray for Me: The Life and Spiritual Vision of Pope Francis”

A new book, from Random House on Pope Francis, written by Robert Moynihan. Release date: April 30, 2013.

I have received many emails asking about my absence. I apologize to those of you who wrote to me, and to whom I did not respond. I have not written any Letters since Letter #62, 19 days ago. I was simply unable to write because I had no time. I was under contract with Random House — a contract that dated back several years — to complete a book within the first 30 days of the new pontificate on the life and spiritual vision of the new Pope.

I have now completed the book, and it will be released in about two weeks, on April 30. It is also expected to appear in Spanish, Chinese, Arabic and Russian, and perhaps in other languages.

Entitled Pray for Me: The Life and Spiritual Vision of Pope Francis, First Pope from the Americas, the book is my eyewitness account of Francis’ first days as Pope. The book narrates the events of those tumultuous days, followed by a brief biography providing a context for understanding this man, and then a look at the spiritual influences that shaped him. My main goal was to offer readers a tool that can be used in many ways as a devotional. Pray for Me is really geared toward those who would like to accompany Pope Francis on his journey of faith in the months and years ahead. You may certainly read this book cover to cover, but I encourage you to use it as a tool for contemplation, one in which you can turn to any page and open a space for prayer and meditation on Pope Francis’ life — and on your own as well.

Also, during Holy Week, we held our annual Inside the Vatican Easter pilgrimage to Assisi, Norcia and Rome. In fact, portions of the book were written in Assisi, where I was able to visit the tomb of St. Francis in the Basilica of San Francesco, and in Norcia, where I was able to visit, once again, the birthplace of Benedict and his twin sister, Scholastica. So, as I completed the final chapters of a book on the transition from Pope Benedict to Pope Francis, I was able to stay in places important in the lives of St. Francis and St. Benedict.

Inside the Vatican’s 2013 Easter Pilgrims in Norcia, Italy, sharing some moments with a local soccer team.

But all of this meant that there was hardly time to prepare these Letters.
First Thoughts on Pope Francis

There is so much that could be said about Pope Francis that one hardly knows where to begin. But, in a desire to begin someplace, and in the hope of simplifying without becoming overly simplistic, I am willing to risk reducing these 30 days — it is a month and a day since Pope Francis was elected on March 13 — to four points:

(1) Continuity.

Pope Francis is linked to Pope Benedict. Pope Francis’s respect for Emeritus Pope Benedict is profound. Francis has not moved into the Apostolic Palace, but has continued to live in the Domus Santa Marta. He takes most of his meals there, sitting at the main round table in the dining hall. Though some in the Curia are urging him quietly to move to the Apostolic Palace — and many believe that, in the coming weeks or month, he will yield to that urging — he has stayed in the Domus. In addition to enjoying the company of others — the Domus is the residence of some 50 monsignors who work in the Vatican, and others guests often pass a night or two there, and take meals there — it almost seems that Francis does not feel it appropriate to move into the rooms of the old Pope while he is still living. And, if one studies some of Francis’s recent talks, one can find many passages that echo the words of Pope Benedict. A case in point is Francis’s recent discourse to the Pontifical Biblical Commission. Some lines are almost word-for-word citations of talks given by Pope Benedict. Clearly, either Francis or someone close to Francis is studying what Pope Benedict said in years past on these matters, then drawing on those words in these first days of the new pontificate. So I see great continuity between the two Popes where many say they see only innovation and discontinuity.

(2) Christ-centered.

Francis is extraordinarily Christ-centered. Christo-centric, in the traditional form of the word. Centered entirely on Christ as the measure and model for everything elese. We could glimpse this already in Francis’s citing of the Franch Catholic convert writer Leon Bloy on the first day of his pontificate, March 14, and we could see it again today in his remarks at St. Paul’s-Outside-the-Walls. Today Pope Francis said the following, which we may take as typical of a Christo-centrism which has been present every day during this first month. Speaking of Christ, Francis said:

“It is he who has called us, he who has invited us to travel his path, he who has chosen us. Proclamation and witness are only possible if we are close to him, just as Peter, John and the other disciples in today’s Gospel passage were gathered around the Risen Jesus; there is a daily closeness to him: they know very well who he is, they know him. The Evangelist stresses the fact that “no one dared ask him: ‘Who are you?’ – they knew it was the Lord” (Jn 21:12). This is important for us: living an intense relationship with Jesus, an intimacy of dialogue and of life, in such a way as to recognize him as ‘the Lord,’ and to worship him.”

Many will say that Pope Francis is “the Pope of the poor” or a “social Gospel Pope.” In so far as this may be intended to mean that Francis is focused on the poor or social concerns to the neglect of the essentials of Christian doctrine and tradition, this is certainly not true. Or rather, it is backwards. Francis’s faith is not less important to him than the poor, for whom he cares very much, or social justice, for which he also cares very much. Rather, his faith in the Risen Christ is the center of his understanding of himself, of the Church, and of the whole universe. And from that center, out of that faith, comes Francis’s profound commitment to social justice and the poor. The love of Christ moves him, urges him. This is what all of us are sensing, that he is moved by a great love. And the secret is that his love in the love of Christ, Christo-centric.

3. Marian devotion.

At the same time, Francis is devoted to the mother of Jesus: to Mary, the Jewish woman who 2,000 years ago conceived and bore and nursed and cared for the Son of God, and is therefore called the Theotokos (the “God-bearer”). From the first morning after his election, when he went out of the Vatican to St. Mary Major, almost secretly, to venerate the very ancient icon of Mary and the child Jesus called the Salus Populi Romani (the Safety or the Protection of the Roman People) until today, when he went to St. Paul’s-Outide-the-Walls to venerate another ancient Marian icon before which, in 1542, St. Ignatius of Loyola and his first companions made the pleadge which founded the Jesuity order to which Pope Francis belongs, he has shown his devotion to the Virgin. And his request to Cardinal Jose Policarpo, Archbishop of Lisbon and Patriarch of Portugal, to go to Fatima on May 13 and pray there that Francis’s pontificate be placed under the protection of Our Lady of Fatima must be seen as an exclamation point emphasizing this devotion. Policarpo, on April 8 in his introduction to the 181st general assembly of the Portuguese Bishops’ Conference this week, at the end of his opening speech, said: “Pope Francis asked me twice to consecrate his new ministry to Our Lady of Fatima. It is a request I may fulfill in the silence of a prayer. But it would be fine if the whole Bishops’ Conference would associate itself to make this request. Mary will guide us in all our labors [meaning all things to be discussed] in the meeting, and also in the way to accomplish this wish of Pope Francis.”

(For more information about this consecration, click here

4. People-centered.

Because of his Christian faith, because of his Christ-centered faith and his devotion to the Virgin Mary, Pope Francis has a real passion for invidual people. He is against the oppression of all people, and especially young people. and his angry against people that cause this. True, he loves babies, and has kissed many in these first few days. But he is not just the smiling pope who loves babies. In his home city of Buenos Aires, when he saw young people experimenting with crack cocaine and slowly destroying their lives, he blazed with a righteous fury because of his deep love for these young people. He denounced drug dealing—especially of the drug paco, a form of crack cocaine processed with sulfuric acid and kerosene that quickly destroyed the minds of many young people. In 2011, then-Cardinal Bergoglio condemned child trafficking and slavery in Buenos Aires, saying, “In this city, there are many girls who stop playing with dolls to enter the dump of a brothel because they were stolen, sold, betrayed… In this city, women and girls are kidnapped, and they are subjected to use and abuse of their body; they are destroyed in their dignity. The flesh that Jesus assumed and died for is worth less than the flesh of a pet. A dog is cared for better than these slaves of ours, who are kicked, who are broken” (La Nacion, September 24, 2011, citing Bergoglio’s homily at the fourth Mass for the Victims of Human Trafficking, Buenos Aires).

But this compassion and love for the exploited and abused also is manifested in many small ways. An Italian web site has a sweet story about Pope Francis who apparently gets up very early without an alarm. Here is a loose translation of the story, which I do not doubt is substantially true:

Recently, when he left his apartment at Domus Marta and went out into the hall, the Pope found a Swiss Guard standing at attention outside his door.

He asked him, “And what are you doing here? Were you awake all night?”

“Yes,” the guard answered respectfully.

“Standing?”

“One of my colleagues gave me a break.”

“And you’re not tired?”

“It’s my duty Your Holiness, for Your safety.”

The Pope looked at him with kindness. He went back into his apartment and, after a few minutes, returned with a chair in his hand: “At least sit down and rest.”

Shocked, the Swiss Guard replied, “Forgive me, but I can’t! The rules don’t allow it.”

“The rules?”

“My captain, Your Holiness.”

“Oh, is that so? Well, I’m the Pope and I am asking you to sit down.”

So, between the rules and the Pope, the Swiss Guard, complete with his halberd, chose the chair. And then the Pope brought him some bread and jam for a snack, saying, “Buon appetito, brother.”

Click here.

So, we are right to understand that we have a Pope who has a profound link with Pope Benedict, who has a profund Christo-centric and Marian spirituality, and who acts with profound kindness toward ordinary people.

Complete ext of the Pope’s Remarks Today at St. Paul’s-Outside-the-Walls

Dear Brothers and Sisters!

It is a joy for me to celebrate Mass with you in this Basilica. I greet the Archpriest, Cardinal James Harvey, and I thank him for the words that he has addressed to me. Along with him, I greet and thank the various institutions that form part of this Basilica, and all of you. We are at the tomb of Saint Paul, a great yet humble Apostle of the Lord, who proclaimed him by word, bore witness to him by martyrdom and worshipped him with all his heart. These are the three key ideas on which I would like to reflect in the light of the word of God that we have heard: proclamation, witness, worship.

In the First Reading, what strikes us is the strength of Peter and the other Apostles. In response to the order to be silent, no longer to teach in the name of Jesus, no longer to proclaim his message, they respond clearly: “We must obey God, rather than men”. And they remain undeterred even when flogged, ill-treated and imprisoned. Peter and the Apostles proclaim courageously, fearlessly, what they have received: the Gospel of Jesus.

And we? Are we capable of bringing the word of God into the environment in which we live? Do we know how to speak of Christ, of what he represents for us, in our families, among the people who form part of our daily lives?

Faith is born from listening, and is strengthened by proclamation.

But let us take a further step: the proclamation made by Peter and the Apostles does not merely consist of words: fidelity to Christ affects their whole lives, which are changed, given a new direction, and it is through their lives that they bear witness to the faith and to the proclamation of Christ.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus asks Peter three times to feed his flock, to feed it with his love, and he prophesies to him: “When you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish to go” (Jn 21:18).

These words are addressed first and foremost to those of us who are pastors: we cannot feed God’s flock unless we let ourselves be carried by God’s will even where we would rather not go, unless we are prepared to bear witness to Christ with the gift of ourselves, unreservedly, not in a calculating way, sometimes even at the cost of our lives.

But this also applies to everyone: we all have to proclaim and bear witness to the Gospel. We should all ask ourselves: How do I bear witness to Christ through my faith? Do I have the courage of Peter and the other Apostles, to think, to choose and to live as a Christian, obedient to God?

To be sure, the testimony of faith comes in very many forms, just as in a great fresco, there is a variety of colours and shades; yet they are all important, even those which do not stand out.

In God’s great plan, every detail is important, even yours, even my humble little witness, even the hidden witness of those who live their faith with simplicity in everyday family relationships, work relationships, friendships.

There are the saints of every day, the “hidden” saints, a sort of “middle class of holiness” to which we can all belong.

But in different parts of the world, there are also those who suffer, like Peter and the Apostles, on account of the Gospel; there are those who give their lives in order to remain faithful to Christ by means of a witness marked by the shedding of their blood.

Let us all remember this: one cannot proclaim the Gospel of Jesus without the tangible witness of one’s life. Those who listen to us and observe us must be able to see in our actions what they hear from our lips, and so give glory to God! Inconsistency on the part of pastors and the faithful between what they say and what they do, between word and manner of life, is undermining the Church’s credibility.

But all this is possible only if we recognize Jesus Christ, because it is he who has called us, he who has invited us to travel his path, he who has chosen us. Proclamation and witness are only possible if we are close to him, just as Peter, John and the other disciples in today’s Gospel passage were gathered around the Risen Jesus; there is a daily closeness to him: they know very well who he is, they know him. The Evangelist stresses the fact that “no one dared ask him: ‘Who are you?’ – they knew it was the Lord” (Jn 21:12). This is important for us: living an intense relationship with Jesus, an intimacy of dialogue and of life, in such a way as to recognize him as “the Lord”, and to worship him.

The passage that we heard from the Book of Revelation speaks to us of worship: the myriads of angels, all creatures, the living beings, the elders, prostrate themselves before the Throne of God and of the Lamb that was slain, namely Christ, to whom be praise, honour and glory (cf. Rev 5:11-14).

I would like all of us to ask ourselves this question: You, I, do we worship the Lord? Do we turn to God only to ask him for things, to thank him, or do we also turn to him to worship him? What does it mean, then, to worship God?

It means learning to be with him, it means that we stop trying to dialogue with him, and it means sensing that his presence is the most true, the most good, the most important thing of all.

All of us, in our own lives, consciously and perhaps sometimes unconsciously, have a very clear order of priority concerning the things we consider important. Worshipping the Lord means giving him the place that he must have; worshipping the Lord means stating, believing – not only by our words – that he alone truly guides our lives; worshipping the Lord means that we are convinced before him that he is the only God, the God of our lives, the God of our history.

This has a consequence in our lives: we have to empty ourselves of the many small or great idols that we have and in which we take refuge, on which we often seek to base our security.

They are idols that we sometimes keep well hidden; they can be ambition, a taste for success, placing ourselves at the centre, the tendency to dominate others, the claim to be the sole masters of our lives, some sins to which we are bound, and many others.

This evening I would like a question to resound in the heart of each one of you, and I would like you to answer it honestly: Have I considered which idol lies hidden in my life that prevents me from worshipping the Lord?

Worshipping is stripping ourselves of our idols, even the most hidden ones, and choosing the Lord as the centre, as the highway of our lives.

Dear brothers and sisters, each day the Lord calls us to follow him with courage and fidelity; he has made us the great gift of choosing us as his disciples; he sends us to proclaim him with joy as the Risen one, but he asks us to do so by word and by the witness of our lives, in daily life.

The Lord is the only God of our lives, and he invites us to strip ourselves of our many idols and to worship him alone.

May the Blessed Virgin Mary and Saint Paul help us on this journey and intercede for us.

March 26, 2013, Tuesday — Staying in the Domus

Everyone likes a home they can be comfortable in. And the new Pope is no exception.

And he likes the Domus Santa Marta. He’s comfortable there.

A view of the main lobby in the Domus. At the far end, where the light is shining, is the entrance. To the left is the dining hall. Behind the photographer is the chapel.

And so, for the moment, Pope Francis will not move into the grand, majestic Apostolic Palace which overlooks St. Peter’s Square, where every Pope since 1903 has lived.

This is causing a small sensation in the Vatican.

It is another sign of Pope Francis’s simplicity. His life is coherent with his words.

Interestingly, as far as being close to the tomb of St. Peter, except for the residences in the Fabbrica San Pietro, which is the building halfway back and on the left side of the basilica as one looks at the facade, there is no residence in Vatican City closer to St. Peter’s tomb than… the Domus.

A view of the front door of the Domus, taken from across the little piazza. Behind the photographer is St. Peter’s basilica. It is only a two-minute walk from one to the other.

It is only a two-minute walk across the cobblestones to the back entrance of the basilica, and then in and down to the crypt, where Peter’s body was taken after he was crucified only a few steps away, probably in 64 A.D.

And the presence of Peter’s body there is the whole reason for the existence of the basilica, and the entire Vatican. The basilica is built directly over his tomb. The center of Michaelangelo’s cupola is directly over the tomb. The main altar is directly over the tomb. The presence of Peter’s body there was the reason they built the basilica there.

So Francis, for the time being, will stay in his room at the Domus Santa Marta — the House of St. Martha, the saint known for her hospitality — the sister of Mary of Bethany and of Lazarus, whom Jesus raised.

It is the one guest house in Vatican City, and the place where the cardinals stayed during the Conclave.

There Francis will have a small suite, quite comfortable, but by no means luxurious. Room 201.

A view of the new Pope’s bedroom, published before the Conclave, when no one thought it would be the room the Pope would choose to remain in.

The Pope’s window has a view of the basilica dome, the lovely, silver cupola.

This is the same suite Cardinal Ratzinger used for a few days after his election in 2005, before he moved over to the Apostolic Palace. The suite where patriarchs have sometimes stayed in the past. The largest and best suite in the Domus. But nowhere near as large as the papal apartments in the Apostolic Palace are.

The chapel of the Domus, where Francis has been celebrating Mass each morning.

Francis will have a common diningroom on the first, ground floor of the Domus, where some 50 monsignors from the Vatican, who also live full-time in the Domus, take their breakfast, lunch and dinner.

And, also the same ground floor, is the chapel of the Domus, where Francis has been celebrating Mass each morning.

There are also several meeting rooms, and a large reception room for receiving guests.

A view of that chapel with Pope Francis sitting down on the last bench. His friends have said of him that, if there is any sort of meeting, they know whether he is there by looking at the last row. That is where he always sits.

Below that level, in the basement of the Domus, there are a couple of vending machines, for coffee and cappuccino, and there is even a small gym with weight machines and treadmills for exercising.

The Domus is spotlessly clean, and has been carefully managed, first, for nearly 10 years, by don Aldo Tolotto, and, for the past year, by Tolotto’s successor, Monsignor Battista Ricca, who is also in charge of the other two Vatican guest houses, both outside the Vatican, one behind Vatican Radio and the other on via della Scrofa, just behind the Piazza Navona.

In addition to the monsignors who live there, members of pontifical academies who have meetings in Rome (for example, members of the Pontifical Academy for Life and the Pontifical Academy of Sciences), can also reside for a few days in the Domus. Other visitors have occasionally been permitted to stay there, and I too have had the great privilege of staying in the Domus on occasion.

It is not known how this decision of Francis to stay in the Domus may affect the operations of the Vatican security force, or if any changes will have to be made to the traffic flow from the nearby side gate of the Vatican.

It is interesting to note that it is only a few minutes walk from the front door of the Domus up into the Vatican Gardens. On an afternoon stroll, then, Pope Francis could, conceivably, walk up into the gardens and in just a few minutes arrive… at the convent where Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI will be staying, beginning in May.

An aerial view of the square in front of the Domus. The Domus is the building with the red roof on the lower left. The trees surround a little fountain in the center of the square. The massive building on the right is St,. Peter’s Basilica; you can just see part of the dome, the white part on the far right. The white building in the middle at the bottom is the Fabbrica San Pietro. The yellow building at the top is where the Vatican security has its headquarters, and where the Pope’s butler, Paolo Gabriele, was held in a cell for many weeks. Off to the top right are the Vatican Gardens where Emeritus Pope Benedict will be living, hidden from the world, in a small convent. It is about 15-minute walk from the Domus.

Here below is a good report from Catholic News Service’s Cindy Wooden which contains additions details:

Pope Francis to live in Vatican guesthouse, not papal apartments

By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Francis has decided not to move into the papal apartments in the Apostolic Palace, but to live in a suite in the Vatican guesthouse where he has been since the beginning of the conclave that elected him, said Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman.

“He is experimenting with this type of living arrangement, which is simple,” but allows him “to live in community with others,” both the permanent residents — priests and bishops who work at the Vatican — as well as guests coming to the Vatican for meetings and conferences, Father Lombardi said March 26.

The spokesman said Pope Francis has moved out of the room he drew by lot before the conclave and into Suite 201, a room that has slightly more elegant furnishings and a larger living room where he can receive guests.

The Domus Sanctae Marthae, the official name of the guesthouse, was built in 1996 specifically to house cardinals during a conclave.

Celebrating Mass March 26 with the residents and guests, Pope Francis told them he intended to stay, Father Lombardi said. The permanent residents, who had to move out during the conclave, had just returned to their old rooms.

Pope Francis has been there since his election March 13, taking his meals in the common dining room downstairs and celebrating a 7 a.m. Mass with Vatican employees in the main chapel of the residence.

He will be the first pope in 110 years not to live in the papal apartments on the third floor of the Apostolic Palace.

In 1903, St. Pius X became the first pope to live in the apartments overlooking St. Peter’s Square. The apartments were completely remodeled by Pope Paul VI in 1964 and have undergone smaller modifications by each pope since, according to “Mondo Vaticano,” a Vatican-published mini-encyclopedia about Vatican buildings, offices and tradition.

The large living room or salon of the [Apostolic Palace] apartment is located directly above the papal library where official audiences with visiting bishops and heads of state are held.

Pope Francis will continue to use the library for official audiences and to recite the Angelus prayer on Sundays and holy days from the apartment window overlooking St. Peter’s Square, Father Lombardi said.

The apartments contain a chapel, an office for the pope and a separate office for his secretaries, the pope’s bedroom, a dining room, kitchen and rooms for two secretaries and for the household staff.

When Pope Francis returned to the guesthouse after his election, Father Lombardi had said the move was intended to be short-term while a few small work projects were completed in the papal apartments. He said March 26 that all the work had been completed, but at least for the foreseeable future, Pope Francis would not move in.

The Domus Sanctae Marthae, named after St. Martha, is a five-story building on the edge of Vatican City.

While offering relative comfort, the residence is not a luxury hotel. The building has 105 two-room suites and 26 singles; about half of the rooms are occupied by the permanent residents. Each suite has a sitting room with a desk, three chairs, a cabinet and large closet; a bedroom with dresser, night table and clothes stand; and a private bathroom with a shower.

The rooms all have telephones and access to an international satellite television system.

The building also has a large meeting room and a variety of small sitting rooms. In addition to the dining room and the main chapel, it also has four private chapels, located at the end of hallways on the third and fifth floors of each of the building’s two wings.

Francis’s schedule for the next few days

Vatican confirms Pope to lead full slate of Holy Week, Easter liturgies

By Carol Glatz
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The Vatican confirmed Pope Francis will lead a full slate of Holy Week and Easter liturgies in Rome and at the Vatican, keeping pace with a usually busy papal schedule.

The Vatican republished the Pope’s program March 25, updating a schedule they had released January 29. The only major changes were the name of the pontiff presiding over the ceremonies and the new pope’s recent decision to celebrate the Holy Thursday Mass of the Lord’s Supper in a Rome juvenile detention facility rather than in St. Peter’s Basilica.

The updated schedule starts with Pope Francis’ celebration of a morning chrism Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on Holy Thursday. That evening, he will preside over the Mass of the Lord’s Supper in Rome’s Casal del Marmo Prison for minors where he will wash the feet of some of the young detainees.

On Good Friday, he will celebrate the liturgy of the Lord’s Passion in St. Peter’s Basilica in the late afternoon, and then will lead a nighttime Way of the Cross at Rome’s Colosseum.

The meditations to be read during the Way of the Cross were written by Lebanese Catholic youths. Retired Pope Benedict XVI had asked Lebanon’s Maronite Patriarch Bechara Rai to choose the youths and guide their preparation of the texts. The retired pope’s request was meant to recall his 2012 visit to Lebanon and invite the whole church to pray for the Middle East — its tensions and its beleaguered Christian community.

On Holy Saturday, Pope Francis will preside over the Easter Vigil in St. Peter’s Basilica.

On Easter, March 31, he will celebrate Mass in St. Peter’s Square and give his blessing “urbi et orbi” (to the city of Rome and the world).

“Prepare well”

“Prepare well – prepare spiritually above all – in your communities, so that our gathering in Rio may be a sign of faith for the whole world.”–Pope Francis, Homily, Palm Sunday Mass, this morning in St. Peter’s Square, to young people planning to go to World Youth Day in Brazil in July

Also, will the Pope go to Jerusalem? He’s been invited… (see below…)

The Unique King: Joy, the Cross, the Young….

Pope Francis today, 11 days after his election as Pope, celebrated the first, joyous, Palm Sunday Mass of his pontificate.

He used the occasion, in his homily, to emphasize the contrast between the joy of Jesus’ wonderful entry in Jerusalem — “praise, blessing, peace: joy fills the air” — and the suffering that awaits Jesus in just a few short days — “Jesus enters Jerusalem to die on the cross.”

Pope Francis this morning in front of the Vatican obelisk to bless the palms for Palm Sunday. Behind him to the right is his Master of Ceremonies, Monsignor Guido Marini, who was also Master of Ceremonies under Pope Benedict XVI

Francis built his homily around three words: joy, cross, youth.

On the obelisk are written the words: “Plebem suam defendat.” Not shown are the words above, which say “Christus vincit, Christus regnat, Christus imperat, ab omni malo”; so the words taken together mean “Christ conquers, Christ reigns, Christ rules, may He defend his people from every evil.”

But, as on a several other occasions in the first days of his pontificate, he also referred to “the Evil One” (the devil), saying: “We must not believe the Evil One when he tells us: you can do nothing to counter violence, corruption, injustice, your sins! We must never grow accustomed to evil! With Christ we can transform ourselves and the world.”

His references to the devil, to the Evil One, as a reality, as a real factor (that is, actor, agent, doer, and so, evidently, as a personal being) in our world, have struck many, across the spectrum of Catholic and secular thought.

It will take time to grasp this Pope’s true meaning, the dimensions and nuances of his teaching on this subject, but we can take a first stab at an analysis. Clearly Francis is saying there is something “out there” that deceives, harms, must be fought against… or should I say, actually, someone who deceives, harms, must be fought against?

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Pope Francis blessings the palms before Mass

In this sense, the essence of the Pope’s preaching is to return to reality. Christian realism. Far from “pie in the sky” Christian avoidance of tough struggles for earthly social justice, but also, and importantly, personal sanctity.

Francis’s actions have shown us that he wishes to live simply, poorly, with the poor. And his teaching is now echoing that: that we must work, and struggle, and be committed, first to Christ, then to our brothers and sisters, and in this way, with great realism, to “Incarnate” our faith.

And it is in this sense that he then turned to the question of World Youth Day, which is planned for July in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, in July. He confirmed that he will go personally to Brazil (God willing), and he asked the young people to “prepare themselves,” saying: “Prepare well – prepare spiritually above all – in your communities, so that our gathering in Rio may be a sign of faith for the whole world.”

Again, “prepare well” means to take the journey seriously, as one would prepare for any trip, gathering together what one needs, but in this case, the preparations are those of faith, of the spirit. We could imagine that more specific recommendations for this “preparation” may soon be given — prayer, study of the scriptures, discussion of the faith, spiritual reading, perhaps a study of Franciscan and Ignatian spirituality, a recommitment to Christian life, a deepening participation in the sacraments. In short, a program of formation, which is also a program of renewal and reform, beginning with the young.

That seems to be Pope Francis’s meaning.

After celebrating Palm Sunday Mass, Pope Francis made his way through St. Peter’s Square in an open popemobile. He stopped many times along the way, blessing and kissing many babies and toddlers along the way. Once, the Pope got out of the vehicle to greet a group of people. He also blessed many pilgrims with physical disabilities.

In those minutes, he seemed to share the joy that Jesus himself may have felt entering Jerusalem.

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Here is a video showing these joyous moments: Pope Francis and the children.

(Full text of the papal homily at bottom below)

Will Francis travel to Jerusalem in the next 12 months?

“I’ve invited Pope Francis to the Holy Land”–Latin-rite Patriarch Fouad Twal of Jerusalem, speaking two days ago to the Aid to the Church in Need news service

by Oliver Maksan (ACN News, Friday, March 22, Israel)

The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Fouad Twal, has invited Pope Francis to visit the Holy Land. The Patriarch announced this to the Catholic charity “Aid to the Church in Need” in Jerusalem.

At the same time he spoke about how he knew the new Pope:

“I met Pope Francis when he was still the Cardinal Archbishop of Buenos Aires. That was on the occasion of my visit to the Palestinian diaspora in Argentina about two years ago.

“Cardinal Bergoglio, as he then was, knew the situation of the Palestinians in Argentina and other Latin American countries very well.

“At that time I gave a talk in his presence in which I called for a just peace in the Middle East and for mutual respect and tolerance between the different peoples there. Cardinal Bergoglio expressed his agreement.

“But independently of this he will, I am sure, love the Holy Land as all Popes have done and will be concerned about us here.”

Twal continued that this hope was also justified in the light of the Holy Father’s reputation as the Pope of the poor: “Here in the Middle East, and especially in Syria, there are many people who live in poverty and are suffering.”

In addition to the Latin Patriarch, both the Israeli President, Shimon Peres, and the President of the autonomous Palestinian National Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, have invited the Holy Father to visit the Holy Land.

Peres said that the new Pope was a welcome guest. He could help bring peace to a turbulent area.

Abbas has invited the Pope to visit Christ’s place of birth in Bethlehem. In his letter of congratulation on the election he expressed his wish that Pope Francis would commit himself to the cause of peace in the Holy Land.

In the meantime the media are reporting that Pope Francis intends to visit Jerusalem in the coming year together with the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I.

The Pope had accepted a suggestion to this effect from the Patriarch when the latter travelled to Rome for the inauguration.

The Church leaders thus intended to recall the historical meeting between Pope Paul VI and the then Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras in the Holy City 50 years ago.

The Vatican has not yet confirmed this information.

Papal Tweets

Here are the five Twitter messages that Pope Francis has “tweeted” since his election as Pope: two today, two on March 19 (Feast of St. Joseph, day of his inaugural Mass and installation) and one on March 17.

The powerful thing about “Twitter” that its brief messages can be “re-tweeted” to “lists” ranging from a handful of people to thousands of people, so that a “tweet” can be spread quickly to millions, even if those millions are not actually signed up for the Pope’s tweet. So this method of communication, even though seemingly superficial — the messages are limited to 140 characters, or about 20 words — can be very powerful for instantaneously contacting millions of people.

Pope Francis ‏@Pontifex 2h
We must not believe the Evil One when he tells us that there is nothing we can do in the face of violence, injustice and sin.

Pope Francis ‏@Pontifex 2h
I am looking forward to next July in Rio de Janeiro! I hope to see all of you in that great Brazilian city!

Pope Francis ‏@Pontifex 19 Mar
True power is service. The Pope must serve all people, especially the poor, the weak, the vulnerable.

Pope Francis ‏@Pontifex 19 Mar
Let us keep a place for Christ in our lives, let us care for one another and let us be loving custodians of creation.

Complete text of today’s Palm Sunday homily, March 24, 2013

“What counts is not earthly power” By Pope Francis

 

“Jesus enters Jerusalem. The crowd of disciples accompanies him in festive mood, their garments are stretched out before him, there is talk of the miracles he has accomplished, and loud praises are heard: “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” (Lk 19:38).

Crowds, celebrating, praise, blessing, peace: joy fills the air. Jesus has awakened great hopes, especially in the hearts of the simple, the humble, the poor, the forgotten, those who do not matter in the eyes of the world. He understands human sufferings, he has shown the face of God’s mercy, he has bent down to heal body and soul. Now he enters the Holy City! It is a beautiful scene, full of light, joy, celebration.

At the beginning of Mass, we repeated all this. We waved our palms, our olive branches, we sang “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord” (Antiphon); we too welcomed Jesus; we too expressed our joy at accompanying him, at knowing him to be close, present in us and among us as a friend, a brother, and also as a King: that is, a shining beacon for our lives.

And here the first word that comes to mind is “joy!”

Do not be men and women of sadness: a Christian can never be sad! Never give way to discouragement!

Ours is not a joy that comes from having many possessions, but from having encountered a Person: Jesus, from knowing that with him we are never alone, even at difficult moments, even when our life’s journey comes up against problems and obstacles that seem insurmountable, and there are so many of them! We accompany, we follow Jesus, but above all we know that he accompanies us and carries us on his shoulders. This is our joy, this is the hope that we must bring to this world of ours. Let us bring the joy of the faith to everyone!

2. But we have to ask: why does Jesus enter Jerusalem? Or better: how does Jesus enter Jerusalem?

The crowds acclaim him as King. And he does not deny it, he does not tell them to be silent (cf. Lk 19:39-40).

But what kind of a King is Jesus? Let us take a look at him: he is riding on a donkey, he is not accompanied by a court, he is not surrounded by an army as a symbol of power. He is received by humble people, simple folk.

Jesus does not enter the Holy City to receive the honours reserved to earthly kings, to the powerful, to rulers; he enters to be scourged, insulted and abused, as Isaiah foretold in the First Reading (cf. Is 50:6).

He enters to receive a crown of thorns, a staff, a purple robe: his kingship becomes an object of derision. He enters to climb Calvary, carrying his burden of wood.

And this brings us to the second word: Cross.

Jesus enters Jerusalem in order to die on the Cross. And it is here that his kingship shines forth in godly fashion: his royal throne is the wood of the Cross!

Our thoughts turn to the choosing of King David: God does not choose the strongest, the bravest, he chooses the last, the youngest, the one no one had considered. What counts is not earthly power.

Before Pilate, Jesus says: “I am a King”; but his power is God’s power which confronts the world’s evil and the sin that disfigures man’s face.

Jesus takes upon himself the evil, the filth, the sin of the world, including our own sin, and he cleanses it, he cleanses it with his blood, with the mercy and the love of God.

Let us look around: how many wounds are inflicted upon humanity by evil! Wars, violence, economic conflicts that hit the weakest, greed for money, power, corruption, divisions, crimes against human life and against creation!

And our personal sins: our failures in love and respect towards God, towards our neighbour and towards the whole of creation.

Jesus on the Cross feels the whole weight of the evil, and with the force of God’s love he conquers it, he defeats it with his resurrection.

Dear friends, we can all conquer the evil that is in us and in the world: with Christ, with the force of good!

Do we feel weak, inadequate, powerless? But God is not looking for powerful means: it is through the Cross that he has conquered evil!

We must not believe the Evil One when he tells us: you can do nothing to counter violence, corruption, injustice, your sins! We must never grow accustomed to evil! With Christ we can transform ourselves and the world. We must bear the victory of Christ’s Cross to everyone everywhere, we must bear this great love of God.

And this requires all of us not to be afraid to step outside ourselves, to reach out to others. In the Second Reading, Saint Paul tells us that Jesus emptied himself, assuming our condition, and he came to meet us (cf. Phil 2:7).

Let us learn to look up towards God, but also down towards others, towards the least of all! And we must not be afraid of sacrifice.

Think of a mother or a father: what sacrifices they make! But why? For love! And how do they bear those sacrifices? With joy, because they are made for their loved ones.

Christ’s Cross embraced with love does not lead to sadness, but to joy!

3. Today in this Square, there are many young people: for 28 years Palm Sunday has been World Youth Day!

This is our third word: youth!

Dear young people, I think of you celebrating around Jesus, waving your olive branches. I think of you crying out his name and expressing your joy at being with him! You have an important part in the celebration of faith! You bring us the joy of faith and you tell us that we must live the faith with a young heart, always, even at the age of seventy or eighty.

With Christ, the heart never grows old! Yet all of us, all of you know very well that the King whom we follow and who accompanies us is very special: he is a King who loves even to the Cross and who teaches us to serve and to love.

And you are not ashamed of his Cross! On the contrary, you embrace it, because you have understood that it is in giving ourselves that we have true joy and that God has conquered evil through love.

You carry the pilgrim Cross through all the Continents, along the highways of the world! You carry it in response to Jesus’ call: “Go, make disciples of all nations” (Mt 28:19), which is the theme of World Youth Day this year. You carry it so as to tell everyone that on the Cross Jesus knocked down the wall of enmity that divides people and nations, and he brought reconciliation and peace.

Dear friends, I too am setting out on a journey with you, in the footsteps of Blessed John Paul II and Benedict XVI.

We are already close to the next stage of this great pilgrimage of Christ’s Cross. I look forward joyfully to next July in Rio de Janeiro! I will see you in that great city in Brazil!

Prepare well – prepare spiritually above all – in your communities, so that our gathering in Rio may be a sign of faith for the whole world.

We are living out the joy of walking with Jesus, being with Him, carrying his Cross, with love, with a spirit that is always young!

Let us ask the intercession of the Virgin Mary. She teaches us the joy of meeting Christ, the love with which we must look to the foot of the Cross, the enthusiasm of the young heart with which we must follow him during this Holy Week and throughout our lives. Amen.”

“Very beautiful” embrace between Pope Francis and Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI at Castel Gandolfo in the Vatican Gardens upon Pope Francis’ arrival. — Father Federico Lombardi, S.J., today. Lombardi took the helicopter with Pope Francis from the Vatican to Castel Gandolfo

The first embrace of Pope Francis and Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI, shortly after noon today in the Vatican Gardens at Castel Gandolfo, about 20 miles outside of Rome. Pope Francis had just arrived by helicopter from the Vatican. Emeritus Pope Benedict, wearing a light jacket against the cold, came out of the Palace to greet him upon his arrival.

The two men, before their private conversation, pray side by side in the chapel inside the Palace at Castel Gandolfo, the summer residence of the Popes, and, since February 28, the date he stepped down from the papacy, the residence of Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI.

Think nothing else but that God ordains all, and where there is no love, put love, and you will draw love out. —St. John of the Cross

Francis’s schedule for the next few days

Pope Francis will celebrate Mass tomorrow in St. Peter’s Square for Palm Sunday.

He will then enter into Holy Week, with a full schedule of liturgical celebrations.

Pope Francis greets the crowd in St. Peter’s Square

Holding to Benedict

“But there is another form of poverty! It is the spiritual poverty of our time, which afflicts the so-called richer countries particularly seriously. It is what my much-loved predecessor, the dear and venerated Benedict XVI, called the ‘tyranny of relativism’…”

(Original Italian: “Ma c’è anche un’altra povertà! È la povertà spirituale dei nostri giorni, che riguarda gravemente anche i Paesi considerati più ricchi. È quanto il mio Predecessore, il caro e venerato Benedetto XVI, chiama la ‘dittatura del relativismo’…”)

–Pope Francis, March 22, 2013 (today), in the Vatican, speaking to the diplomatic corps accredited to the Holy See, citing words spoken by Pope Benedict XVI eight years ago on the eve of the previous Conclave

Pope Francis speaking today, March 22, 2013 to the Vatican diplomatic corps, representing 160 nations with whom the Holy See has diplomatic relations, in the Sala Regia in the Vatican

Folks, Pope Francis has done it.

He has taken his stand.

He did it this morning, about three hours ago.

And his stand is with… Pope Benedict, his predecessor, with whom he will meet tomorrow.

The importance of Francis’s words today cannot be overestimated.

Francis today took his stand with the essential spiritual vision of Pope Benedict. (And note: in this talk, unlike in several previous talks, Pope Francis adhered strictly to his prepared text; he made no “off the cuff” remarks. So, this was thought-out in advance and intentional.)

If one were to summarize in a phrase, one might say that Francis today said: “I stand with Pope Benedict.”

But on what, precisely?

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Francis today said he stands with Pope Benedict on the Christian conception of truth: that the truth of the Christian faith, the truth of the Christian vision of man, leads mankind toward life, more abundant life, toward justice, toward true joy.

A second view of Pope Francis in the Sala Regia today with the diplomatic corps

What Francis said today was critical, and should be read carefully by all who want to understand “where he is coming from.”

So far, the “pundits” — and really, all of us — have been “circling” Pope Francis, like the group of blind men circling the elephant, one touching the rope-like tail, one the smooth, sheet-like ear, one the hard, ivory tusk, all “seeing” only a small part… none seeing the whole.

One pundit notes the Pope’s simplicity, his actual poverty, his love for the poor, and says (wrongly): “He is the people’s Pope, the Pope of the poor, so… he is a liberal, he may very well be a social revolutionary, a ‘liberation’ Pope… and perhaps also breaking with Church teaching on sexual matters…” Another pundit notes that Francis has strongly defended Church teaching on the family, on sexual morality, and says (wrongly) “he is a conservative, he won’t ‘rock the boat’ at all…”

Francis cannot be captured by these political categories.

He transcends them.

As Jesus transcended all categories, reaching out to sinners — and all are sinners — but also, asking them not to sin. Loving the sinner, but not the sin…

As Pope Benedict transcended all categories. Ceaselessly reminding all of us that our destiny transcends all worldly categories, that we are made for eternity, not just for time…

Perhaps it is time that we should all say that there are not “conservative” and “liberal” or even “traditional” and “orthodox” Catholics at all, just simply “Catholics” in a universal Church, stretching backward to the first days of the Church and forward to the end of the world in time, and global in space, unable to be described rightly by these secular categories.

So today, Pope Francis, powerfully, set his course, transcending the “left” and the “right” and pointing all of us toward higher things.

It was the first, great “programmatic” discourse of his pontificate.

His central thrust today was: (1) don’t try to confine me, or reduce me and my message, to worldly categories; and (2) don’t try to separate me from my predecessor, Benedict.

These messages were powerful, fundamental and… needed.

The “signature phrase” today was that there is spiritual poverty as well as physical poverty — a central message of Christianity, and a central message of Pope Benedict.

Pope Francis said there is truth, a truth which gives life and light, a truth which relativism obscures, leaving confusion, darkness, and ultimately, death (as Pope John Paul II put it, creating a “culture of death”).

Eight years ago, on April 18, 2005, this same thought was at the heart of then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger’s homily to the cardinals as they were about to go into the Conclave that elected him the next day. Here are those essential, historic passages, just for the record, with the phrase “dictatorship of relativism” (in the original Italian the phrase was “una dittatura del relativismo”) bold-faced. Remember, these are the words of Pope Benedict just before he became Pope:

“How many winds of doctrine have we known in recent decades, how many ideological currents, how many ways of thinking. The small boat of the thought of many Christians has often been tossed about by these waves — flung from one extreme to another: from Marxism to liberalism, even to libertinism; from collectivism to radical individualism; from atheism to a vague religious mysticism; from agnosticism to syncretism, and so forth. Every day new sects spring up, and what St Paul says about human deception and the trickery that strives to entice people into error (cf. Eph 4: 14) comes true.

“Today, having a clear faith based on the Creed of the Church is often labeled as fundamentalism. Whereas relativism, that is, letting oneself be ‘tossed here and there, carried about by every wind of doctrine,’ seems the only attitude that can cope with modern times. We are building a dictatorship of relativism that does not recognize anything as definitive and whose ultimate goal consists solely of one’s own ego and desires.

“We, however, have a different goal: the Son of God, the true man. He is the measure of true humanism. An ‘adult’ faith is not a faith that follows the trends of fashion and the latest novelty; a mature adult faith is deeply rooted in friendship with Christ. It is this friendship that opens us up to all that is good and gives us a criterion by which to distinguish the true from the false, and deceit from truth.

“We must develop this adult faith; we must guide the flock of Christ to this faith. And it is this faith — only faith — that creates unity and is fulfilled in love.” (Link: April 18, 2005 homily)

By using this same phrase today, “dictatorship of relativism,” Pope Francis was linking his own thought, and faith, and the direction of his pontificate, to these words of then-Cardinal Ratzinger eight years ago.

Two other points are very important in Pope Francis’s discourse this morning:

(1) the new Pope’s desire to engage in dialogue with Islam, something he expresses in very clear terms, and so something many western powers, which since September 11, 2001, have entered into a seemingly endless conflict with large parts of the Islamic world, will certainly note with interest; and

(2) the new Pope’s concern for creation, that human beings take care not to “hurt the earth” by poisoning it; this is a strong emphasis toward the end of this speech.

A final point: Pope Francis expresses a clear desire that “those few countries that do not yet have diplomatic relations with the Holy See” — like China — may soon establish relations.

(Also, as John Allen noted in his own useful piece on this discourse a few minutes ago: “For the French, it was a bit of a mini-scandal that Francis did not deliver his speech today in French, the language Popes traditionally use in diplomatic settings. On background, Vatican officials say that the new Pope can understand both French and English, but needs time to become accustomed to using those languages in public. Aside from a few lines in Spanish, so far Francis has used Italian almost exclusively for his public remarks.”)

So, today’s talk to the diplomatic corps is an important, “course-setting” talk for the new helmsman of the “barque of Peter.”

And tomorrow, Pope Francis will meet with the old helmsman, Pope Benedict, at the papal palace in Castel Gandolfo…

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A Chair, Not a Throne…

Rome Reports has a very nice, short video on the decision of Pope Francis to use a white chair, not an ornate throne-like chair, for his public audiences.

Here is there report, with a link to the video, which I encourage you to watch, as it is only 54 seconds:

March 22, 2013. (Romereports.com) When it comes to small details, Pope Francis has already made some changes. His open attitude is obvious, but there are other things that may be overlooked by many.

The Pope has used this white chair, instead of the traditional throne seat.

Up until now, he has only used the traditional throne seat once. In his other meetings, with religious leaders and diplomats, Pope Francis has used a simple white chair, which is usually reserved for weekly general audiences.

Another point is that the chair is not elevated on a platform, rather it’s kept at the same level and height as other seats. In fact, during his meeting with religious leaders, he used the same type of chair used by the guests.

Here is the complete text of today’s important discourse to the diplomatic corps:

Discourse to Diplomats

http://www.romereports.com/palio/pope-francis-changes-throne-for-a-white-chair-english-9531.html#.UUyDAY6RBxl

Sala Regia of the Apostolic Vatican Palace

Friday, March 22, 2013

By Pope Francis

Your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Heartfelt thanks to your Dean, Ambassador Jean-Claude Michel, for the kind words that he has addressed to me in the name of everyone present. It gives me joy to welcome you for this exchange of greetings: a simple yet deeply felt ceremony, that somehow seeks to express the Pope’s embrace of the world. Through you, indeed, I encounter your peoples, and thus in a sense I can reach out to every one of your fellow citizens, with their joys, their troubles, their expectations, their desires.

Your presence here in such numbers is a sign that the relations between your countries and the Holy See are fruitful, that they are truly a source of benefit to mankind. That, indeed, is what matters to the Holy See: the good of every person upon this earth!

And it is with this understanding that the Bishop of Rome embarks upon his ministry, in the knowledge that he can count on the friendship and affection of the countries you represent, and in the certainty that you share this objective.

At the same time, I hope that it will also be an opportunity to begin a journey with those few countries that do not yet have diplomatic relations with the Holy See, some of which were present at the Mass for the beginning of my ministry, or sent messages as a sign of their closeness – for which I am truly grateful.

As you know, there are various reasons why I chose the name of Francis of Assisi, a familiar figure far beyond the borders of Italy and Europe, even among those who do not profess the Catholic faith.

One of the first reasons was Francis’ love for the poor. How many poor people there still are in the world! And what great suffering they have to endure!

After the example of Francis of Assisi, the Church in every corner of the globe has always tried to care for and look after those who suffer from want, and I think that in many of your countries you can attest to the generous activity of Christians who dedicate themselves to helping the sick, orphans, the homeless and all the marginalized, thus striving to make society more humane and more just.

But there is another form of poverty! It is the spiritual poverty of our time, which afflicts the so-called richer countries particularly seriously.

It is what my much-loved predecessor, Benedict XVI, called the “tyranny of relativism,” which makes everyone his own criterion and endangers the coexistence of peoples.

And that brings me to a second reason for my name. Francis of Assisi tells us we should work to build peace. But there is no true peace without truth!

There cannot be true peace if everyone is his own criterion, if everyone can always claim exclusively his own rights, without at the same time caring for the good of others, of everyone, on the basis of the nature that unites every human being on this earth.

One of the titles of the Bishop of Rome is Pontiff, that is, a builder of bridges with God and between people.

My wish is that the dialogue between us should help to build bridges connecting all people, in such a way that everyone can see in the other not an enemy, not a rival, but a brother or sister to be welcomed and embraced!

My own origins impel me to work for the building of bridges.

As you know, my family is of Italian origin; and so this dialogue between places and cultures a great distance apart matters greatly to me, this dialogue between one end of the world and the other, which today are growing ever closer, more interdependent, more in need of opportunities to meet and to create real spaces of authentic fraternity.

In this work, the role of religion is fundamental. It is not possible to build bridges between people while forgetting God. But the converse is also true: it is not possible to establish true links with God, while ignoring other people.

Hence it is important to intensify dialogue among the various religions, and I am thinking particularly of dialogue with Islam.

At the Mass marking the beginning of my ministry, I greatly appreciated the presence of so many civil and religious leaders from the Islamic world.

And it is also important to intensify outreach to non-believers, so that the differences which divide and hurt us may never prevail, but rather the desire to build true links of friendship between all peoples, despite their diversity.

Fighting poverty, both material and spiritual, building peace and constructing bridges: these, as it were, are the reference points for a journey that I want to invite each of the countries here represented to take up.

But it is a difficult journey, if we do not learn to grow in love for this world of ours.

Here too, it helps me to think of the name of Francis, who teaches us profound respect for the whole of creation and the protection of our environment, which all too often, instead of using for the good, we exploit greedily, to one another’s detriment.

Dear Ambassadors, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Thank you again for all the work that you do, alongside the Secretariat of State, to build peace and construct bridges of friendship and fraternity. Through you, I would like to renew to your Governments my thanks for their participation in the celebrations on the occasion of my election, and my heartfelt desire for a fruitful common endeavor. May Almighty God pour out his gifts on each one of you, on your families and on the peoples that you represent. Thank you!

“Think nothing else but that God ordains all, and where there is no love, put love, and you will draw love out.” –St. John of the Cross

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To Prison

Pope Francis has done it again.

Breaking once again with papal protocol, he has decided not to celebrate the Mass of the Supper of the Lord in the Basilica of St. John Lateran on Holy Thursday, which falls this year on March 28 — a week from today.

Instead, Pope Francis will to go to a prison chapel and there wash feet of 12 young prisoners on the afternoon of Holy Thursday.

In a decision evidently taken just a few hours ago — this afternoon the Vatican web site still contained a notice that the Mass would be held in St. Peter’s Basilica (because Pope Francis has not yet officially taken possession of St. John Lateran, the cathedral of the Bishop of Rome, where the Holy Thursday Mass is usually celebrated, with the washing of the feet of 12 priests by the Pope, since the Mass commemorates the Last Supper and the institution of the priesthood) — Pope Francis will go to the Casal del Marmo penal institute for afternoon Mass on the day before Good Friday.

Here is a link to the Vatican website which now shows the Mass occurring in the prison (see under March 28)

So Francis, the Pope who “takes the bus” (as he did between the Sistine Chapen and the Domus Santa Marta after his election), “pays his own hotel bills” (as he did the morning after his election), and “wears his old black shoes” (instead of the red shoes worn by his predecessors), is going to be the Pope who washes the feet of juvenile prisoners on Holy Thursday.

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In so doing, Francis has taken one more step towards solidifying his image as “the people’s pontiff” by going to prison, not a basilica, for a major pre-Easter ceremony here in Rome.

The Casal del Marmo penal institute for minors and young adults is on the outskirts of Rome. During the ceremony the 76-year-old pontiff will wash the feet of 12 inmates.

A Vatican press release said the ceremony would be a continuation of Francis’s practice as archbishop of Buenos Aires, when he celebrated the Mass of the Lord’s Supper in “a context characterized by simplicity,” including prisons, hospitals or shelters for the poor.

Francis’s predecessor, Benedict XVI, visited the Casal del Marmo in 2007, but not for the Holy Thursday Mass.

For the first two years of his pontificate, Benedict washed the feet of 12 lay people from the diocese of Rome, but since 2008 he chose a dozen priests for the ceremony.

John Paul II in 1980, his second Holy Week as Pope, chose to wash the feet of a group of homeless men, but the Mass was held, as is traditional, in St. John Lateran.

Pope Paul VI, on four Christmases in the late 1960s, celebrated Christmas Masses in Roman parishes, not in St. Peter’s — in this sense, Pope Francis is returning, somewhat, to a tradition established by Pope Paul VI.

Also, we do not yet know where Francis will chose to live. At the moment, he is still in the Domus Santa Marta, where cardinals stayed during the conclave.

Renovation work is being carried out on the Apostolic Palace to prepare those rooms for him.

But, upon seeing the grandeur of the large papal apartment last week, he is reported to have remarked that there was “room for 300 people.”

Some are saying he might not move there at all, just as he never moved to the episcopal palace in Buenos Aires, but stayed in a small apartment where he did his own cooking (he is reportedly an excellent chef).

The Yellow Bracelet for Lent

Cardinal Wilfrid Fox Napier, the Archbishop of Durban in South Africa, gives the gift of a yellow bracelet to the Pope Francis

2013-03-21 — From Vatican Radio
We’ve all noticed the yellow band Pope Francis has been wearing on his wrist since the day after his election. (The photo above shows the Pope receiving the band, and keeping it on his wrist when Archbishop Georg Gaenswein came to take it for safe-keeping.)

It is a simple rubber band that photographers and media have brought to the attention of the public, as we all get to know our new Pope and observe him as he goes about his papal commitments and appearances.

Vatican Radio’s Linda Bordoni asked the man who gave the Pope this unusual gift to tell her something about it.

He is Cardinal Wilfrid Fox Napier (in the photo above, giving the gift to the Pope), the Archbishop of Durban in South Africa.

Napier handed it to Pope Francis when he met with the College of Cardinals on March 14 in the Sistine Chapel, the day following his election as Pope.

One can see the moment in a Rome Reports video, at about 2:30 of the video (but the whole video is worth watching now, at the distance of one week). Click: Video of Cardinal Napier with Pope

Napier explains that a year or two ago one of his priests decided to create a special symbolic object for the season of Lent. Something to remind people to make a special commitment for Lent, to remind them that they’ve made this commitment. He decided on a black band and on a purple band with the word “Sacrificium” printed on them because — says Cardinal Napier — “that’s how our Lenten campaign goes: make a sacrifice, give to the poor.”

So when it came to the Year of Faith, this priest asked the cardinal whether he should make another band, and Napier said “go ahead.”

So what we have got now is the yellow “Year of Faith” band with the words “Credo Domine — I believe, Lord.” And then there is the symbol of the fish and the cross.

“Very important” — Cardinal Napier points out — the bracelet “goes with a card which on the one side has a prayer for the Year of Faith where we ask God to help us in this Year of Faith to do the things we need to do to really renew our faith; and on the other side there is a commitment form in which you commit to undertake the things to do.”

The band — or bracelet — is produced by St. Joseph’s Parish in Cardinal Napier’s Diocese.

Cardinal Napier says that when he gave Pope Francis the band, the Pope immediately asked what it was about. “He took it out of its box and immediately put it on his wrist,” notwithstanding his assistant was waiting to take it…

At lunch, on one of the days subsequent to that, he took it off and showed the cardinals sitting at table with him and explained to them its meaning and its origin…

Pope Benedict XVI, Six Years Ago Visited the Same Prison

“So his idea was: freedom, doing what I want to do, not recognizing these laws of a God who is remote, not being in the prison of this domestic discipline, but rather doing what is beautiful, what I like…” –Pope Benedict XVI, March 18, 2007, homily on the Prodigal Son in the same prison Pope Francis is going to visit next week

Pope Francis has startled the world with his decision to celebrate Mass on Holy Thursday at a Rome prison for minors.

But will not be the first Pope to visit that prison. In fact, Pope Benedict XVI went to that prison almost exactly six years ago, on March 18, 2007, on the fourth Sunday of Lent.

And at that Mass, Benedict gave a marvelous sermon on the Parable of the Prodigal Son.

And the citations here, above, and below, give a breath of the brilliance, the profundity, of Benedict’s thought on this parable.

“Everything became empty: the slavery of doing the same things then also re-emerged. And in the end, his money ran out and the young man found that his standard of living was lower than that of swine…

“The son realized that it is precisely work, humility and daily discipline that create the true feast and true freedom.

“So he returned home, inwardly matured and purified: he had understood what living is…” — Pope Benedict, Ibid.

POPE BENEDICT’S VISIT TO ROME’S PRISON FOR MINORS, “CASAL DEL MARMO”

HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI

Chapel of the Merciful Father
Fourth Sunday of Lent, 18 March 2007

By Pope Benedict XVI

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Dear Boys and Girls,

I have willingly come to pay you a Visit, and the most important moment of our meeting is Holy Mass, where the gift of God’s love is renewed: a love that comforts us and gives us peace, especially in life’s difficult moments.

In this prayerful atmosphere I would like to address my greeting to each one of you: to the Hon. Mr Clemente Mastella, Minister of Justice, to whom I express a special “thank you”; to Mrs Melìta Cavallo, Department Head of Justice for Minors, to the other Authorities who have spoken, to those in charge, to the operators, teachers and personnel of this juvenile penitentiary, to the volunteers, to your relatives and to everyone present.

I greet the Cardinal Vicar and Auxiliary Bishop Benedetto Tùzia.

I greet in particular, Mons. Giorgio Caniato, General Inspector of the Prisons Chaplaincy, and your Chaplain, whom I thank for expressing your sentiments at the beginning of Holy Mass.

In the Eucharistic celebration it is Christ himself who becomes present among us; indeed, even more: he comes to enlighten us with his teaching — in the Liturgy of the Word — and to nourish us with his Body and his Blood — in the Eucharistic Liturgy and in Communion.

Thus, he comes to teach us to love, to make us capable of loving and thereby capable of living.

But perhaps you will say, how difficult it is to love seriously and to live well! What is the secret of love, the secret of life? Let us return to the Gospel [of the Prodigal Son].

In this Gospel three persons appear: the father and two sons. But these people represent two rather different life projects. Both sons lived peacefully, they were fairly well-off farmers so they had enough to live on, selling their produce profitably, and life seemed good.

Yet little by little the younger son came to find this life boring and unsatisfying: “All of life can’t be like this”, he thought: rising every day, say at six o’clock, then according to Israel’s traditions, there must have been a prayer, a reading from the Holy Bible, then they went to work and at the end of the day another prayer.

Thus, day after day he thought: “But no, life is something more. I must find another life where I am truly free, where I can do what I like; a life free from this discipline, from these norms of God’s commandments, from my father’s orders; I would like to be on my own and have life with all its beauties totally for myself. Now, instead, it is nothing but work…”.

And so he decided to claim the whole of his share of his inheritance and leave. His father was very respectful and generous and respected the son’s freedom: it was he who had to find his own life project.

And he departed, as the Gospel says, to a far-away country. It was probably geographically distant because he wanted a change, but also inwardly distant because he wanted a completely different life.

So his idea was: freedom, doing what I want to do, not recognizing these laws of a God who is remote, not being in the prison of this domestic discipline, but rather doing what is beautiful, what I like, possessing life with all its beauty and fullness.

And at first — we might imagine, perhaps for a few months — everything went smoothly: he found it beautiful to have attained life at last, he felt happy.

Then, however, little by little, he felt bored here, too; here too everything was always the same.

And in the end, he was left with an emptiness that was even more disturbing: the feeling that this was still not life became ever more acute; indeed, going ahead with all these things, life drifted further and further away.

Everything became empty: the slavery of doing the same things then also re-emerged. And in the end, his money ran out and the young man found that his standard of living was lower than that of swine.

It was then that he began to reflect and wondered if that really was the path to life: a freedom interpreted as doing what I want, living, having life only for me; or if instead it might be more of a life to live for others, to contribute to building the world, to the growth of the human community….

So it was that he set out on a new journey, an inner journey.

The boy pondered and considered all these new aspects of the problem and began to see that he had been far freer at home, since he had also been a landowner contributing to building his home and society in communion with the Creator, knowing the purpose of his life and guessing the project that God had in store for him.

During this interior journey, during this development of a new life project and at the same time living the exterior journey, the younger son was motivated to return, to start his life anew because he now understood that he had taken the wrong track. I must start out afresh with a different concept, he said to himself; I must begin again.

And he arrived at the home of the father who had left him his freedom to give him the chance to understand inwardly what life is and what life is not. The father embraced him with all his love, he offered him a feast and life could start again beginning from this celebration.

The son realized that it is precisely work, humility and daily discipline that create the true feast and true freedom.

So he returned home, inwardly matured and purified: he had understood what living is.

Of course, in the future his life would not be easy either, temptations would return, but he was henceforth fully aware that life without God does not work; it lacks the essential, it lacks light, it lacks reason, it lacks the great sense of being human. He understood that we can only know God on the basis of his Word.

We Christians can add that we know who God is from Jesus, in whom the face of God has been truly shown to us. The young man understood that God’s Commandments are not obstacles to freedom and to a beautiful life, but signposts on the road on which to travel to find life.

He realized too that work and the discipline of being committed, not to oneself but to others, extends life.

And precisely this effort of dedicating oneself through work gives depth to life, because one experiences the pleasure of having at last made a contribution to the growth of this world that becomes freer and more beautiful.

I do not wish at this point to speak of the other son who stayed at home, but in his reaction of envy we see that inwardly he too was dreaming that perhaps it would be far better to take all the freedoms for himself.

He too in his heart was “returning home” and understanding once again what life is, understanding that it is truly possible to live only with God, with his Word, in the communion of one’s own family, of work; in the communion of the great Family of God.

I do not wish to enter into these details now: let each one of us apply this Gospel to himself in his own way. Our situations are different and each one has his own world. Nonetheless, the fact remains that we are all moved and that we can all enter with our inner journey into the depths of the Gospel.

Only a few more remarks: the Gospel helps us understand who God truly is. He is the Merciful Father who in Jesus loves us beyond all measure.

The errors we commit, even if they are serious, do not corrode the fidelity of his love. In the Sacrament of Confession we can always start out afresh in life. He welcomes us, he restores to us our dignity as his children.

Let us therefore rediscover this sacrament of forgiveness that makes joy well up in a heart reborn to true life.

Furthermore, this parable helps us to understand who the human being is: he is not a “monad”, an isolated being who lives only for himself and must have life for himself alone.

On the contrary, we live with others, we were created together with others and only in being with others, in giving ourselves to others, do we find life.

The human being is a creature in whom God has impressed his own image, a creature who is attracted to the horizon of his Grace, but he is also a frail creature exposed to evil but also capable of good. And lastly, the human being is a free person.

We must understand what freedom is and what is only the appearance of freedom.

Freedom, we can say, is a springboard from which to dive into the infinite sea of divine goodness, but it can also become a tilted plane on which to slide towards the abyss of sin and evil and thus also to lose freedom and our dignity.

Dear friends, we are in the Season of Lent, the 40 days before Easter. In this Season of Lent, the Church helps us to make this interior journey and invites us to conversion, which always, even before being an important effort to change our behaviour, is an opportunity to decide to get up and set out again, to abandon sin and to choose to return to God.

Let us — this is the imperative of Lent — make this journey of inner liberation together.

Every time, such as today, that we participate in the Eucharist, the source and school of love, we become capable of living this love, of proclaiming it and witnessing to it with our life.

Nevertheless, we need to decide to walk towards Jesus as the Prodigal Son did, returning inwardly and outwardly to his father.

At the same time, we must abandon the selfish attitude of the older son who was sure of himself, quick to condemn others and closed in his heart to understanding, acceptance and forgiveness of his brother, and who forgot that he too was in need of forgiveness.

May the Virgin Mary and St Joseph, my Patron Saint whose Feast it will be tomorrow, obtain this gift for us; I now invoke him in a special way for each one of you and for your loved ones.

 

“My Brother Andrew”

The key thing that Pope Francis did today was to greet Patriarch Bartholomew I, ecumenical patriarch of the Greek Orthodox Church, based in Constantinople, as “my brother Andrew.”

Now, Andrew was the brother of Simon Peter, the first Bishop of Rome. They were fishermen together on the Sea of Galilee, 2,000 years ago.

So Pope Francis, the successor of Peter, in 2013, is expressing the sense of friendship he feels toward the Orthodox, a friendship which reaches the level of fraternal feelings: the two men, Francis and Bartholomew, are as the brothers Peter and Andrew.

The patriarchs of Constantinople are considered the successors of the Apostle Andrew, and the Popes of Rome are considered the successors of the Apostle Peter

Bartholomew’s’ decision to travel to Rome for Pope Francis’ installation “is an extraordinary event in the history of Christianity, and it is significant for reasons far beyond its novelty,” writes George E. Demacopoulos, PhD, of the Orthodox Christian Studies Center, Fordham University, on website of the Order of St. Andrew the Apostle.

“The occasion is being presented in the media as something that has not happened since the ecclesiastical schism that separated Christian East and Christian West in the eleventh century,” Demacopoulos wrote. “But that characterization is almost certainly wrong — this is quite likely the first time in history that a Bishop of Constantinople will attend the installation of a Bishop of Rome. And this is a profoundly bold step in ecumenical relations between the Orthodox and the Roman Catholics, one that could have lasting significance.

“First and foremost it is a powerful symbolic gesture for the cause of Christian unity,” he continued. “It demonstrates in unprecedented fashion the extent to which the Ecumenical Patriarch considers the relationship with the Roman Catholic Church to be a priority. For their part, members of the Vatican staff have responded to this grand gesture and have arranged for the reading of the Gospel at the installation to be sung in Greek (rather than Latin) in recognition of the fact that the Ecumenical Patriarch has taken this unprecedented step.

“The Christian world has been divided for so long that the establishment of an authentic reunion will require courage, leadership, and humility,” he concluded. “It will also require a foundation in common faith and concerns. Given Pope Francis’ well-documented work for social justice and his insistence that globalization is detrimental to the poor, it would appear as though the Orthodox and the Roman Catholic traditions have a renewed opportunity to work collectively on issues of mutual concern. With our Lord’s assistance, that common cause can be transformed into more substantive theological work. But such work requires a first step and it would appear as though Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew is willing to take such a step.”

Note on the Urbi et Orbi Foundation at the Service of Pope Francis I note in passing that, together with about 30 other Catholics, along with a number of Protestants and Orthodox, we recently launched the “Urbi et Orbi Foundation,” based in the United States, to work for greater unity between Catholics and Orthodox. We have been seeking 100 “Founding Members,” each of whom donates $2,500, to launch our Foundation. Some of you reading this have already become members. We will be working closely with the new Pope, Francis, through the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, to support Francis’s efforts to build bridges of trust between the East and the West. We will support a number of initiatives, from direct charity (improved medical care for abandoned children) to theological and cultural initiatives (lectures and concerts). If you wish further information about this Foundation, simply reply to this email and I will email back with full details. I encourage you to consider joining with us in this work. If you would like to join us, please send me an email.

—Robert Moynihan

So Pope Francis met today, the second day of his pontificate, with “fraternal delegates” who ranged from representatives of other Christian Churches and denominations, to representatives of Jewish, Muslim, and other non-Christian communities.

Once again, as he has so often in these days, he asked for those present to pray for him.

One might almost say that today was the day of “Brother Francis” (“Fra Francesco”) as much as it was of “Pope Francis.”

The Encyclical on Faith

Pope Francis also made reference in his remarks to these “fraternal delegates” to “The Year of Faith” which was called by Pope Benedict XVI last fall, and which will finish in November, on the Feast of Christ the King.

One of the great questions of the new papacy right now is what Pope Francis will decide to do about the encyclical on “faith” which Pope Benedict had been preparing for this “Year of Faith,” and had evidently nearly finished. The text is said to contain many very beautiful passages. Will Pope Francis make this encyclical his own? Could he even consider publishing it under both his name and the name of his predecessor? Or will he not publish it at all? We do not know.

Phone Call to Benedict

Also, yesterday afternoon, the Vatican confirmed, Pope Francis made a phone call to Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI to express his good wishes on the Pope Emeritus’ saint’s day — the Feast of St. Joseph (March 19). Francis conveyed to Emeritus Pope Benedict his, and the Church’s, gratitude for the Pope emeritus’ service. It was a long and cordial phone call.

Benedict has attentively followed the events of recent days, including watching the events on television, in particular the Mass of inauguration of the new pontiff’s Petrine ministry yesterday, and Benedict assured his successor of his continued closeness in prayer.

The two will meet in Castel Gandolfo on Saturday, March 23.

A Second Dossier for Francis to Read?

Interestingly, it was reported today in Avvenire, the daily paper of the Italian bishops’ conference, that, in addition to the 300-page secret dossier on the “Vatileaks” affair that Emeritus Pope Benedict has left to Pope Francis, there is also another text by Benedict himself which Benedict has “left on his desk” for the new Pope to read.

The news comes from a normally reliable source — Archbishop Loris Capovilla, who was the personal secretary of Pope John XXIII (1958-1963). However, Capovilla is now 98 years old, so it is possible that he may have confused the Vatileaks dossier with this other text, although Capovilla says quite directly that “it is not the Vatileaks dossier.”

Here is the text from this morning’s Avvenire in a interview of Capovilla by Marco Roncalli. Capovilla says: “In ogni caso – e non stiamo parlando dei dossier Vatileaks – Benedetto XVI ha lasciato sulla scrivania del suo successore qualcosa come trecento pagine scritte personalmente da lui, così mi è stato detto da Roma.” (“In any case — and I am not talking about the Vatileaks dossier — Benedict XVI has left on the desk of his successor something like 300 pages written personally by him, so I have been told by Rome.”)

Roncalli ends his interview by wondering whether Pope Francis is already reading this long text left, it appears, by Pope Benedict.

Private Audiences

Also today, just prior to the larger meeting, Pope Francis received in separate, smaller audiences:

– Her Excellency Dilma Vana Rousseff, president of Brazil, with an entourage,

– His Holiness Bartholomew I, Greek Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople,

– Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, of the Russian Orthodox Patriarchate of Moscow, and

– Claudio Epelman, executive director of the Latin American Jewish Congress.

In Argentina, Pope Francis Hosted Russian Orthodox Icons

Regarding the meeting with Metropolitan Hilarion: On March 18, Monday, a delegation of the Moscow Patriarchate headed by Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations (DECR), arrived in Rome to attend the enthronement of Pope Francis. Hilarion and Bishop Sergiy of Solnechnogorsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Administrative Secretariat, were met at the airport by the Rev. Milan Žust, S.J., of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and hieromonk Antoniy (Sevryuk), rector of the Church of St. Catherine in Rome and secretary of the administration of the Moscow Patriarchate’s parishes in Italy.

Members of the delegation were accommodated at the Domus Santa Marta, where the new Pope is residing. A short meeting with Pope Francis took place at the refectory. The Pope warmly greeted Metropolitan Hilarion who introduced members of the delegation and conveyed cordial best wishes to Pope Francis from His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia.

The Pope said that he had offered special prayers for Patriarch Kirill at the divine service as it is a commemoration day of St. Cyril of Jerusalem according to the Julian calendar.

Pope Francis also thanked Metropolitan Hilarion for the exhibition of Russian icons held in Buenos Aires last autumn with the St. Gregory the Theologian Charity Foundation’s assistance. The future Pope visited the exhibition and has warm recollections of it.

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Francis: “I also ask of you the kindness of a special prayer for myself, so that I might be a Pastor in harmony with Christ’s heart.”

Here is a more detailed report on the noon meeting with the “fraternal delegates” from the Vatican Information Service (VIS):

POPE FRANCIS: “YOUR PRESENCE IS A TANGIBLE SIGN OF COOPERATION FOR COMMON GOOD OF HUMANITY”

Vatican City, 20 March 2013 (VIS) – Early this afternoon in the Clementine Hall of the Vatican Apostolic Palace, Pope Francis received fraternal delegates, that is, representative envoys of Churches, Ecclesial Communities, and international ecumenical organizations, as well as representatives of non-Christian Religions, who have come to Rome for the inauguration of his ministry as Bishop of Rome and successor of the Apostle Peter.

On behalf of those present, the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew I, greeted the Pope, recalling the “elevated, serious, and difficult task” that his ministry bears with it. He also reiterated the need for the Churches to shun worldly distractions and to work on the unity between Christians.

Francis, who listened to the words of the Patriarch seated on an armchair rather than the throne that is customarily used in the Clementine Hall, thanked Bartholomew I, calling him “my brother Andrew,” since the patriarchs of Constantinople are considered the successors of the Apostle Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter.

He then said that, thanks to the presence at yesterday’s Mass of representatives of the various communities, he felt “in an even stronger way, the prayer for unity among the believers in Christ and [glimpsed] prefigured in some way, its full realization, which depends on God’s plan and our sincere cooperation.”

“I begin my apostolic ministry,” he continued, “in this year that my venerated predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, with a truly inspired intuition, proclaimed the Year of Faith for the Catholic Church. With this initiative, which I wish to continue and which I hope serves as a stimulus for each of us in our journey of faith, he wanted to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council, proposing a type of pilgrimage to what is essential for every Christian: a personal and transforming relationship with Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who died and rose again for our salvation. The heart of the Council’s message lies precisely in the desire to proclaim this ever-valid treasure of the faith to the persons of our time.”

Francis then recalled the image and words of Pope John XXIII at the opening of the Council: “The Catholic Church considers it her duty to actively work so as to bring about the great mystery of that unity for which Jesus Christ prayed so ardently to His Father in heaven on the eve of his sacrifice.”

He continued saying: “Yes, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, we all feel intimately joined in our Saviour’s prayer at the Last Supper, to his call: ‘ut unum sint’. Let us call on our merciful Father that we may fully live that faith that we received as a gift on the day of our Baptism and to be able to witness to it freely, joyfully, and courageously. This will be the best way we can serve the cause of unity among Christians, a service of hope for a world that is still marked by divisions, differences, and rivalries.”

“For my part, I wish to assure you, following in the path of my predecessors, of my firm will to continue on the path of ecumenical dialogue … I ask you to take my cordial greetings and assurance of my remembrance in the Lord Jesus to the Churches and Christian Communities that you represent here. I also ask of you the kindness of a special prayer for myself, so that I might be a Pastor in harmony with Christ’s heart.”

Then, addressing the representatives of the Jewish communities, he emphasized “the very special spiritual bond” that they have with Christians.

Quoting the Vatican II declaration Nostra Aetate (1965), he said: “’The Church of Christ acknowledges that … the beginnings of her faith and her election are found already among the Patriarchs, Moses and the prophets.’ … I am confident that, with the help of the Almighty, we can profitably continue that fraternal dialogue that the Council hoped for and that has been carried out, bearing not few fruits, especially over the last few decades.”

The Pope then greeted those belonging to other religious traditions, first of all the Muslims who “adore the one, living, and merciful God and who call upon Him in prayer.”

Then, addressing all those gathered, he said: “I really appreciate your presence. In it I see a tangible sign of the desire to grow in mutual respect and cooperation for the common good of humanity.”

“The Catholic Church is aware of the importance of the promotion of friendship and respect between men and women of different religious traditions. I want to repeat this: the promotion of friendship and respect between men and women of different religious traditions.”…

The Church “is also aware of the responsibility that we all bear to this our world, to all of creation, which we should love and protect. And we can do much for the good of the poorest, of the weak and suffering, to promote justice and reconciliation, to build peace. But, above all, we must keep alive the thirst for the Absolute in the world, not allowing a one-dimensional vision of the human person, in which humanity is reduced to that which it produces and consumes, to prevail. This is one of the most dangerous pitfalls of our times.”

“We know how, in recent times, violence has produced an attempt to eliminate God and the divine from the horizon of humanity, and we feel the value of witnessing in our societies to the original openness to the transcendent that is inscribed in the human heart. In this, we also feel close to all men and women who, although not claiming to belong to any religious tradition, still feel themselves to be in search of truth, goodness, and beauty, God’s Truth, Goodness, and Beauty, and who are our precious allies in the effort to defend human dignity, in building a peaceful coexistence between peoples, and in carefully protecting creation.”

(end VIS report)

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“Think nothing else but that God ordains all, and where there is no love, put love, and you will draw love out.” –St. John of the Cross

Francis’s schedule for the next few days

On Saturday, 23 March, he will go to Castel Gandolfo to meet with Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI and have lunch with him.

March 19, 2013, Tuesday — Protect

Pope Francis at his inauguration Mass.

Today a new pontificate officially began.

The essential message in the homily given by Pope Francis to open his pontificate draws on the work and image of St. Joseph, spouse of Mary, head of the Holy Family. And that message is to “protect.”

This message is important at a time when the figure of the person who “protects,” be he a father, a mother, a priest, a scholar, a leader, is under attack — in a time when the “protection” is entrusted to others, or to none, when the “protectors” are anonymous, or hidden, or when they simply don’t exist.

To “protect” means to make sure what one protects is not harmed, not hurt.

And so this emphasis on “protecting” seems to recall a passage in the Book of Revelation which focuses on “not hurting,” that is, protecting.

In Chapter 7 of Revelation, an angel ascends from the east, bearing “the seal of the living God.”

This angel cries out in a “loud voice” to the other “angels,” who had been “hurting” the earth.

Now, we know that St. Bonaventure considered St. Francis, who had received the signs of Christ’s wounds on his body, the stigmata, in 1224 A.D., this angel, the “angel having the seal of the living God.” Bonaventure writes about Francis in this way in his biography of Francis, the Legenda Major.

And we know that this new Pope has chosen the name Francis in honor of St. Francis.

Here is the relevant passage from the Book of Revelation:

7:2 And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea,

7:3 Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.

So, this pontificate begins under the sign of St. Joseph, the father, the protector.

And under the sign of St. Francis, the protector of the earth, and all who are on the earth, the man of peace.

I note also that today is the saint’s day (celebrated in Italy almost like a birthday) of Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI. A blessed “nameday” to the Emeritus Pope, Benedict XVI.

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“To protect Jesus with Mary, to protect the whole of creation, to protect each person, especially the poorest, to protect ourselves” –Pope Francis, Homily, March 19, 2013, Mass in St. Peter’s Square to inaugurate his pontificate

HOMILY, MASS OF INAUGURATION OF BISHOP OF ROME’S PETRINE MINISTRY, MARCH 19, 2013

Here is the prepared text provided by the Vatican for Pope Francis’ homily at his inaugural Mass Tuesday in Vatican City.

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

I thank the Lord that I can celebrate this Holy Mass for the inauguration of my Petrine ministry on the solemnity of Saint Joseph, the spouse of the Virgin Mary and the patron of the universal Church. It is a significant coincidence, and it is also the name-day of my venerable predecessor: we are close to him with our prayers, full of affection and gratitude.

I offer a warm greeting to my brother cardinals and bishops, the priests, deacons, men and women religious, and all the lay faithful. I thank the representatives of the other Churches and ecclesial Communities, as well as the representatives of the Jewish community and the other religious communities, for their presence. My cordial greetings go to the Heads of State and Government, the members of the official Delegations from many countries throughout the world, and the Diplomatic Corps.

In the Gospel we heard that “Joseph did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took Mary as his wife” (Mt 1:24). These words already point to the mission which God entrusts to Joseph: he is to be the custos, the protector. The protector of whom? Of Mary and Jesus; but this protection is then extended to the Church, as Blessed John Paul II pointed out: “Just as Saint Joseph took loving care of Mary and gladly dedicated himself to Jesus Christ’s upbringing, he likewise watches over and protects Christ’s Mystical Body, the Church, of which the Virgin Mary is the exemplar and model” (Redemptoris Custos, 1).

How does Joseph exercise his role as protector? Discreetly, humbly and silently, but with an unfailing presence and utter fidelity, even when he finds it hard to understand. From the time of his betrothal to Mary until the finding of the twelve-year-old Jesus in the Temple of Jerusalem, he is there at every moment with loving care. As the spouse of Mary, he is at her side in good times and bad, on the journey to Bethlehem for the census and in the anxious and joyful hours when she gave birth; amid the drama of the flight into Egypt and during the frantic search for their child in the Temple; and later in the day-to-day life of the home of Nazareth, in the workshop where he taught his trade to Jesus.

How does Joseph respond to his calling to be the protector of Mary, Jesus and the Church? By being constantly attentive to God, open to the signs of God’s presence and receptive to God’s plans, and not simply to his own. This is what God asked of David, as we heard in the first reading. God does not want a house built by men, but faithfulness to his word, to his plan. It is God himself who builds the house, but from living stones sealed by his Spirit. Joseph is a “protector” because he is able to hear God’s voice and be guided by his will; and for this reason he is all the more sensitive to the persons entrusted to his safekeeping. He can look at things realistically, he is in touch with his surroundings, he can make truly wise decisions. In him, dear friends, we learn how to respond to God’s call, readily and willingly, but we also see the core of the Christian vocation, which is Christ! Let us protect Christ in our lives, so that we can protect others, so that we can prote ct creation!

The vocation of being a “protector”, however, is not just something involving us Christians alone; it also has a prior dimension which is simply human, involving everyone. It means protecting all creation, the beauty of the created world, as the Book of Genesis tells us and as Saint Francis of Assisi showed us. It means respecting each of God’s creatures and respecting the environment in which we live. It means protecting people, showing loving concern for each and every person, especially children, the elderly, those in need, who are often the last we think about. It means caring for one another in our families: husbands and wives first protect one another, and then, as parents, they care for their children, and children themselves, in time, protect their parents. It means building sincere friendships in which we protect one another in trust, respect, and goodness. In the end, everything has been entrusted to our protection, and all of us are responsible for it. Be protectors of God’s gifts!

Whenever human beings fail to live up to this responsibility, whenever we fail to care for creation and for our brothers and sisters, the way is opened to destruction and hearts are hardened. Tragically, in every period of history there are “Herods” who plot death, wreak havoc, and mar the countenance of men and women.

Please, I would like to ask all those who have positions of responsibility in economic, political and social life, and all men and women of goodwill: let us be “protectors” of creation, protectors of God’s plan inscribed in nature, protectors of one another and of the environment. Let us not allow omens of destruction and death to accompany the advance of this world! But to be “protectors”, we also have to keep watch over ourselves! Let us not forget that hatred, envy and pride defile our lives! Being protectors, then, also means keeping watch over our emotions, over our hearts, because they are the seat of good and evil intentions: intentions that build up and tear down! We must not be afraid of goodness or even tenderness!

Here I would add one more thing: caring, protecting, demands goodness, it calls for a certain tenderness. In the Gospels, Saint Joseph appears as a strong and courageous man, a working man, yet in his heart we see great tenderness, which is not the virtue of the weak but rather a sign of strength of spirit and a capacity for concern, for compassion, for genuine openness to others, for love. We must not be afraid of goodness, of tenderness!

Today, together with the feast of Saint Joseph, we are celebrating the beginning of the ministry of the new Bishop of Rome, the Successor of Peter, which also involves a certain power. Certainly, Jesus Christ conferred power upon Peter, but what sort of power was it? Jesus’ three questions to Peter about love are followed by three commands: feed my lambs, feed my sheep. Let us never forget that authentic power is service, and that the Pope too, when exercising power, must enter ever more fully into that service which has its radiant culmination on the Cross. He must be inspired by the lowly, concrete and faithful service which marked Saint Joseph and, like him, he must open his arms to protect all of God’s people and embrace with tender affection the whole of humanity, especially the poorest, the weakest, the least important, those whom Matthew lists in the final judgment on love: the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick and those in prison (cf. Mt 25:31-46 ). Only those who serve with love are able to protect!

In the second reading, Saint Paul speaks of Abraham, who, “hoping against hope, believed” (Rom 4:18). Hoping against hope! Today too, amid so much darkness, we need to see the light of hope and to be men and women who bring hope to others. To protect creation, to protect every man and every woman, to look upon them with tenderness and love, is to open up a horizon of hope; it is to let a shaft of light break through the heavy clouds; it is to bring the warmth of hope! For believers, for us Christians, like Abraham, like Saint Joseph, the hope that we bring is set against the horizon of God, which has opened up before us in Christ. It is a hope built on the rock which is God.

To protect Jesus with Mary, to protect the whole of creation, to protect each person, especially the poorest, to protect ourselves: this is a service that the Bishop of Rome is called to carry out, yet one to which all of us are called, so that the star of hope will shine brightly. Let us protect with love all that God has given us!

I implore the intercession of the Virgin Mary, Saint Joseph, Saints Peter and Paul, and Saint Francis, that the Holy Spirit may accompany my ministry, and I ask all of you to pray for me! Amen.

“Think nothing else but that God ordains all, and where there is no love, put love, and you will draw love out.” –St. John of the Cross
Francis’s schedule for the next few days

On Wednesday, 20 March, he will hold an audience with fraternal delegates representing the heads of the various Eastern rite Churches so there will not be a General Audience.

On Saturday, 23 March, he will go to Castel Gandolfo to meet with Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI and have lunch with him.

On the Eve

Tomorrow a new pontificate will officially begin. It will be the Feast of St. Joseph, March 19.

I note that “Joseph” is the name of Joseph Ratzinger, so tomorrow is the “onomastico,” or saint’s day (celebrated in Italy almost like a birthday) of Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI.

The Vatican Information Service (VIS) issued the following news report for tomorrow. It is quite comprehensive. It answers many of the questions you may have about the details of tomorrow’s historic events.

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Two little notes: the Gospel will be in Greek, showing the respect of the Latin Church for the Greek Churches (the Orthodox Churches), that “other lung” of Christianity which John Paul II spoke so often of, saying that the Church needed to breathe “with two lungs” (the Greek Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew will be present, the first time an Ecumenical Patriarch has ever attended the Mass inaugurating a new pontificate); and, Father Lombardi stated publicly that the Pope will very likely depart from the prepared text of his homily, which he will deliver in Italian.

So there may be some surprises.

TOMORROW, MASS OF INAUGURATION OF BISHOP OF ROME’S PETRINE MINISTRY

Vatican City, 18 March 2013 (VIS) -– In the press conference held today, Fr. Federico Lombardi, S.J., director of the Press Office of the Holy See, focused on two themes: Pope Francis’ first audiences and details of the Mass inaugurating the Petrine Ministry of the Bishop of Rome.

First, Fr. Lombardi relayed the information that the Holy Father was, at the moment, having lunch with the President of Argentina, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, whom he received at the Domus Sanctae Marthae “in a private meeting that lasted around 20 minutes, afterwards greeting the other members of the Argentine delegation”. Also this morning, at 10:00am, Francis received in audience Cardinal Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone, S.D.B. Yesterday afternoon he had two very cordial audiences, one with the Bishop of Albano, Italy, and the other with the Superior General of the Jesuits, Fr. Adolfo Nicolas Pachon.

The main part of the press conference was dedicated to how the Mass inaugurating the Petrine Ministry of the Bishop of Rome will be celebrated.

“The correct term for the ceremony,” Fr. Lombardi clarified, “is not enthronement but inauguration. As successor of Peter, the Pope is Bishop of Rome and the Church of Rome ‘presides in love’ over the others. Also, it is a celebration rich with symbols that recall the Pope’s tie to St. Peter, beginning with the place where, according to tradition, Peter was martyred.”

The Press Office Director also explained where those participating in and attending the Mass will be located. “On the left-hand side of the ‘Sagrato’ (porch of the Basilica) will be seated bishops and archbishops (around 250 are expected), ecclesiastics, and delegations from other Churches and Christian confessions. On the right-hand side of the ‘Sagrato’ will be delegations from various countries lead by heads of state, ministers, etc. On the St. Peter’s statue side of the piazza will be seated Jews, Muslims, and members of other religions, then around 1200 priests and seminarians. On the St. Paul’s statue side of the piazza will be seated the diplomatic corps accredited to the Holy See and other civil authorities. The rest of the piazza will be standing-room for all those without tickets. A large number is expected to attend.”

Between 8:45 and 8:50 am the Pope will depart the Domus Sanctae Marthae and start to move through the crowd in the various sections of the piazza—either in the Jeep or the Popemobile—and greet those gathered. He will return to the Sacristy, via the Pietà side, around 9:15 am. Mass is planned to begin at 9:30 am.

Regarding the beginning of the ceremony, the Pope, once having entered the Basilica, will head to the Confession (St. Peter’s tomb under the high altar) while trumpets will announce the “Tu es Petrus”. The Pope will venerate the tomb of St. Peter, together with the Patriarchs and Major Archbishops of the Eastern Rite Catholic Churches (10 in number, four of whom are cardinals). He will then be presented with the Pallium, Ring, and Book of the Gospels that were placed at St. Peter’s tomb the night before.

The Holy Father will then come back up from the Confession to the main floor of the Basilica, from which the procession continues. The “Laudes Regiae” (Christ is King) will be chanted, with some invocations taken from the Vatican II document on the Church, “Lumen Gentium”. In the Litany of Saints are particularly to be noted, after the Apostles, the Holy Roman Pontiffs who have been canonized up to the most recent: St. Pius X. Fr. Lombardi clarified that these are only the pontiffs who have been named as saints, not those who have been beatified. The procession will then make its entrance into the square.

Fr. Lombardi listed who will be concelebrating the Mass with Francis: all the cardinals present in Rome, joined by the Patriarchs and Major Eastern Rite Archbishops (6); the Secretary of the College of Cardinals; and two Superior Generals (that of the Order of Friars Minor, Jose Rodriguez Carballo and that of the Jesuits, Adolfo Nicolas Pachon, respectively President and Vice-President of the Union of Superior Generals). In total about 180 are expected to concelebrate and they will be seated at the left (that is, in front of the ecclesiastics, not the national delegations).

Before the Mass begins there are the rites specific to the beginning of the Bishop of Rome’s Petrine Ministry. These include:

The Imposition of the Pallium:

Made of lamb’s wool and sheep’s wool, the Pallium is placed on the Pope’s shoulders recalling the Good Shepherd who carries the lost sheep on his shoulders. The Pope’s Pallium has five red crosses while the Metropolitans’ Palliums have five black crosses. The one used by Francis is the same one that Benedict XVI used. It is placed on the Pope’s shoulders by Cardinal proto-deacon Tauran and, after the imposition, there is a prayer recited by Cardinal proto-presbyter Daneels.

The Fisherman’s Ring:

Peter is the fisherman Apostle, called to be a “fisher of men”. The ring is presented to the Pope by Cardinal Deacon Sodano (first of the Order of Bishops). It bears the image of St. Peter with the keys. It was designed by Enrico Manfrini The ring was in the possession of Archbishop Macchi, Pope Paul VI’s personal secretary, and then Msgr. Malnati, who proposed it to Pope Francis through Cardinal Re. It is made of silver and gold.

 The “Obedience”:

Six cardinals, two from each order, among the first of those present approach the Pope to make an act of obedience. Note that all the Cardinal electors already made an act of obedience in the Sistine Chapel at the end of the Conclave and that all the cardinals were able to meet the Pope in the following day’s audience in the Clementine Hall. Also, at the moment of “taking possession” of the Cathedral of Rome—St. John Lateran—it is expected that the act of obedience will be made by representatives of the various members of the People of God.

The Mass will be that of the Solemnity of St. Joseph, which has its own readings (therefore they are not directly related to the rite of the Inauguration of the Pontificate). The Gospel will be proclaimed in Greek, as at the highest solemnities, to show that the universal Church is made up of the great traditions of the East and the West. “Latin,” Fr. Lombardi said, “is already abundantly present in the other prayers and Mass parts.”

The Pope will give his homily in Italian and, as is his style, it probably will not follow the written text strictly, but will contain improvisations.

Fr. Lombardi said that the Master of Celebrations expects that the ceremony will not last much more than two hours and, always with the intention of simplification and not making the rite overly long, there will not be an Offertory procession. The Eucharistic gifts will be brought to the altar by the ministers who prepare the altar. Also, the Pope will not distribute Communion, which will be done by the deacons on the “Sagrato” and, in the various areas of the piazza, by priests.

Regarding the music for the ceremony, several moments are notable. When the Pope enters the Basilica silver trumpets will ring out the “Tu es Petrus”. The Laudes Regiae will be chanted during the procession from St. Peter’s tomb to the “Sagrato”. A 14 piece brass ensemble will play at various moments of the celebration. During the Offertory the “Tu es pastor ovium” (You Are the Shepherd of the Sheep) motet composed by Pierluigi da Palestrina precisely for the Inauguration of the Pontificate will be sung. At the conclusion, the “Te Deum” will be sung with verses alternating between Gregorian chant and a melody by Tomas Luis de Victoria. As it will not be held on a Sunday, there will be no Angelus after the Mass.

At the end of the celebration, and after removing the Liturgical vestments, the Pope will go to the Basilica’s high altar, before which he will greet the heads of the official delegations from various countries who will pass before him. He will then go to the Domus Sanctae Marthae for lunch.

Other delegations staying in Rome can meet with Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, S.D.B., secretary of State of His Holiness, and Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, secretary for Relations with States the following day, Wednesday (for example, the President of Brazil in light of the upcoming World Youth Day). As is known, the Pope will receive delegations of the Christian Churches and Ecclesial Communities and of other religions in audience on Wednesday.

At the present moment, the main delegations that are expected to attend are:

– 33 delegations representing Christian Churches and Ecclesial Communities (14 Oriental; 10 Western; 3 Christian organizations; others). Among these will be present: Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I; Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of all Armenians Karekin II; Metropolitan Hilarion of the Patriarchate of Moscow; many metropolitans; Anglican Archbishop Sentamu; Secretary of the World Council of Churches Fykse Tveit; etc.

– 16 members of important Jewish delegations including: the Jewish community of Rome; international Jewish committees; the Chief Rabbinate of Israel; the World Jewish Congress; the Anti-Defamation League, etc.

– As well as delegations of Muslims, Buddhists, Sikhs, Jainists, etc.

To date, delegations of various sizes and levels from 132 countries have confirmed their attendance.

“The delegations,” Fr. Lombardi emphasized, “are coming to Rome following information of the event made public by the Secretary of State. There were no ‘invitations’ sent out. All who wish to come are warmly welcomed. It must be made clear that no one has privileged status or will be refused. The order will depend on protocol and the level of the delegation.”

Naturally, the most important delegations will be those from Argentina, led by President Cristina Kirchner and Italy, led by President Napolitano and Prime Minister Monti with presidents of the Italian Senate, House, and Constitutional Court.

Also expected are six reigning sovereigns (Belgium, Monaco…); 31 heads of state (Austria, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Canada, Poland, Portugal, European Union…); three crown princes (Spain, Holland, Bahrain); 11 heads of government (Germany, France, the Vice President of the United States, …); and delegations led by: first ladies, vice presidents, vice prime ministers, parliament presidents, ministers, ambassadors, and other dignitaries.

Papal Coat of Arms:

The last topic that Fr. Lombardi covered was the now pontiff’s papal coat of arms and motto. These are the same that he used as bishop. The shield has a bright blue background, at the centre top of which is a yellow radiant sun with the IHS christogram on it representing Jesus (it is also the Jesuit logo). The IHS monogram, as well as a cross that pierces the H, are in red with three black nails directly under them. Under that, to the left, is a star representing Mary, Mother of Christ and the Church. To the right of the star is a nard flower representing Joseph, Patron of the Universal Church. With these symbols the Pope demonstrates his love for the Holy Family.

What distinguishes his coat of arms as pontiff is that, instead of the wide-brimmed, red cardinal’s hat atop the shield, it is now crowned by the papal tiara and crossed keys.

His motto—“miserando atque eligendo” (because he saw him through the eyes of mercy and chose him)—is taken from the Venerable Bede’s homily on the Gospel account of the call of Matthew. It holds special meaning for the Pope because—when he was only 17-years-old, after going to confession on the Feast of St. Matthew in 1953—he perceived God’s mercy in his life and felt the call to the priesthood, following the example of St. Ignatius of Loyola.

“Think nothing else but that God ordains all, and where there is no love, put love, and you will draw love out.” –St. John of the Cross

Francis’s schedule for the next few days

On Tuesday, 19 March, the Feast of St. Joseph, patron of the Church, the Mass to inaugurate the new papacy will be held at 9:30 am in St. Peter’s Square. No tickets will be issued for that Mass. All who wish may attend.

On Wednesday, 20 March, he will hold an audience with fraternal delegates representing the heads of the various Eastern rite Churches so there will not be a General Audience.

On Saturday, 23 March, he will go to Castel Gandolfo to meet with Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI and have lunch with him.

March 18, 2013, Monday — Mystical experience

“Vidit ergo Iesus publicanum et quia miserando atque eligendo vidit, ait illi: ‘Sequere me’” (“Jesus saw a tax collector and, because with feelings of compassion and choosing him he saw him, he said to him: ‘Follow me.’”).” –The Venerable Bede (672-735), Homily on the Gospel of St. Matthew, Latin text and English translation; the words in the middle of this phrase, “miserando et eligendo” meaning “looking upon him with compassion and choosing him” describe the moment when Christ called St. Matthew, the tax collector, to come and follow him; the words were chosen by Pope Francis as his episcopal motto, and will remain his motto as Pope

Caravaggio, The Calling of St. Matthew, in the Church of St. Louis of the French, near the Piazza Navona in Rome. The traditional interpretation of this painting is that Matthew is the old man. However, it seems to some — to an increasing number — that the young man with his head down at the end of the table is Matthew, whom Christ is calling to look up, stand up, and follow Him

Pope Francis, the Mystic

“The more we love God and enter into intimate contact with Him through prayer, the more He makes Himself known and enflames our hearts with His love.” —Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI, speaking on mystical union with God at his Wednesday General Audience on January 12, 2011

Why is Pope Francis so simple, so genuine, so evidently filled with the love of Christ?

Part of the answer may be… because God filled him with His love.

Part of the answer may lie in what seems to have been a sort of mystical experience which occurred to Francis on September 21, 1953, when he was 17 years old.

We found out about this experience only today, in an official Vatican press release.

But is has been almost entirely overlooked by the Vatican press corps.

One of the central claims of the Catholic faith is not only that God exists, that He is real, but also that He can communicate with human beings, that human beings can be “pierced” by the actual sense of the divine presence, can experience and be aware of this real presence, can — as the very first verse of the old Baltimore Catechism taught — “know” God, then “love and serve Him.”

Today in Rome, the Vatican released a statement about the new Pope’s coat-of-arms.

But hidden in the statement was something that few knew up until now: that there was a mystical experience at the origin of this Pope’s religious life.

That this Pope, at the age of 17, while deep in prayer, was touched by God.

That this Pope, at the age of 17, was filled with the Spirit of God, in a very special way, and given the grace to begin a life of total commitment to God, which has ended up bringing his to the throne of St. Peter, which he will receive in tomorrow morning’s Mass of installation.

We know that many young people (all young people?) pass through a period of time when they seek with great intensity to know their place in this world — to hear their calling, to find their true vocation.

And now we know that Pope Francis passed through this process of discernment, too.

The homily of the Venerable Bede on the calling of St. Matthew “is a tribute to the divine mercy and is reproduced in the Liturgy of the Hours for the Feast of St. Matthew,” the Vatican told us today in a press release.

This homily “has a particular meaning in life and the spiritual journey of the Pope,” the Vatican said.

“In fact,” the Vatican continued, “on the Feast of St. Matthew [September 21] in the year 1953, the young Jorge Mario Bergoglio experienced at the age of 17 years, in a very special way, the loving presence of God in his life.

“Following a confession, he felt his heart touched and sensed the descent of the mercy of God, who with a look of tender love, called him to the religious life, following the example of St. Ignatius of Loyola.”

In these few, spare words, we are told of an experience which transformed the life of young Jorge.

He felt his heart “touched” and he “sensed” the “descent of the mercy of God.”

He felt, “in a very special way,” the “loving presence of God in his life.”

He felt, we are told, as if God were gazing upon him, “with a look of tender love.”

These are all the elements of a personal experience of Christ (for Christ is God, and Christ is God’s mercy).

These are the elements of a mystical, life-transforming experience of God’s actual presence.

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These are the elements of an experience of meeting God, face to face.

This is the secret of Pope Francis: that he experienced personally, in a powerful way, the goodness and mercy of God, and found the experience so powerful, that it changed his entire life, led him to become a priest, a Jesuit, and now the Bishop of Rome and head of the Church.

On the Feast of St. Matthew

And it is significant that this experience occurred on the Feast of St. Matthew, September 21.

In the Jewish world and society of that time — the time of Christ — no one was more shunned than a publican, a Jew working for the Roman authorities by collecting taxes from his own people and making a large personal profit.

Publicans were not allowed to trade, eat, or even pray with others Jews.

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One day, while seated at his table of books and money, Jesus looked at Matthew and said two words: “Follow me.” Matthew rose, leaving his pieces of silver to follow Christ. In the painting by Caravaggio above, that is what is about to happen.

Matthew’s original name, Levi, in Hebrew means “Adhesion.” His new name, Matthew, meant “Gift of God.”

Matthew is also mentioned in the Gospels as the host of a dinner party for Christ and His companions to which Matthew invited his fellow tax-collectors. The Jews were surprised to see Jesus with a publican, but Jesus explained that he had come “not to call the just, but sinners.”

St. Matthew is known to us principally as the writer of one of the four Gospels — his Gospel is the first in the New Testament. Matthew’s Gospel is believed to have been written in Aramaic, the language that Jesus spoke, and it was written to convince the Jews that their anticipated Messiah had come in the person of Jesus.

This explains, in part, why Pope Francis is so open to those who are outside of the Church — because he wishes to bring them in, as Matthew was brought in.

He does not want anything that he does to exclude them, to keep them outside. He wants to call to them, he wants them to hear his call, so that they, like Matthew in the painting, with his head down, almost in despair, can look up, see Christ, and follow, beginning a new life.

St. John of the Cross, the great Spanish mystic, wrote: “Very few people have the courage to be happy. It is difficult to tear the heart away from the things of earth, from riches, from honors. Yet happiness is not outside us, in these things: ‘The kingdom of God is within you.’ For the kingdom of God does not consist in food and drink, but in justice and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.”

St. Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits, was born in 1491, one of 13 children of a family of minor nobility in northern Spain. As a young man, Ignatius was inflamed by the ideals of courtly love and knighthood and dreamed of doing great deeds. But in 1521 Ignatius was gravely wounded in a battle with the French. While recuperating, Ignatius Loyola experienced a conversion.

It was in Manresa, on the banks of the river Cardoner, that he had a vision which is regarded as the most significant in his life. The vision was more of an enlightenment; he later said that he learned more on that one occasion than he did in the rest of his life. Ignatius never revealed exactly what the vision was, but it seems to have been an encounter with God as He really is so that all creation was seen in a new light and acquired a new meaning and relevance, an experience that enabled Ignatius to find God in all things. This grace, finding God in all things, is one of the central characteristics of Jesuit spirituality.

So Pope Francis, after much prayer, also experienced something extraordinary. For Ignatius, it was a vision; for Pope Francis, “the descent of the mercy of God.”

The new Pope’s coat-of-arms.

Here Below is the complete text of the Vatican’s official explanation of the meaning of the symbols, in the origical Italian and in my own English translation, including the text explaining the meaning of the motto, which includes the reference to Pope Francis’s mystical experience.
LO SCUDO

Nei tratti, essenziali, il Papa Francesco ha deciso di conservare il suo stemma anteriore, scelto fin dalla sua consacrazione episcopale e caratterizzato da una lineare semplicità.

THE SHIELD

In its essential elements, Pope Francis decided to keep his old coat-of-arms, chosen at the time of his episcopal consecration and characterized by a linear simplicity.

Lo scudo blu è sormontato dai simboli della dignità pontificia, uguali a quelli voluti dal predecessore Benedetto XVI (mitra collocata tra chiavi decussate d’oro e d’argento, rilegate da un cordone rosso) . In alto, campeggia l’emblema dell’ordine di provenienza del Papa, la Compagnia di Gesù: un sole raggiante e fiammeggiante caricato dalle lettere, in rosso, IHS, monogramma di Cristo. La lettera H è sormontata da una croce; in punta, i tre chiodi in nero.

The blue shield is surmounted by the symbols of the papal dignity, the same as those desired by his predecessor Benedict XVI (miter placed between crossed keys of gold and silver, bound by a red cord). At the top, stands the emblem of the order of origin of the Pope, the Society of Jesus: a radiant and blazing sun containing the letters, in red, IHS, the monogram of Christ. The letter H is surmounted by a cross; at the tip, the three nails in black.

In basso, si trovano la stella e il fiore di nardo. La stella, secondo l’antica tradizione araldica, simboleggia la Vergine Maria, madre di Cristo e della Chiesa; mentre il fiore di nardo indica San Giuseppe, patrono della Chiesa universale. Nella tradizione iconografica ispanica, infatti, San Giuseppe è raffigurato con un ramo di nardo in mano. Ponendo nel suo scudo tali immagini, il Papa ha inteso esprimere la propria particolare devozione verso la Vergine Santissima e San Giuseppe.

Below, are found the star and the flower of spikenard. The star, according to the ancient heraldic tradition, symbolizes the Virgin Mary, Mother of Christ and of the Church, while the flower of nard indicates St. Joseph, patron of the universal Church. In the Spanish iconographic tradition, in fact, St. Joseph is depicted holding a branch of spikenard. By placing these images in his shield, the Pope wanted to express his particular devotion to the Blessed Virgin and St. Joseph.

II MOTTO

Il motto del Santo Padre Francesco è tratto dalle Omelie di San Beda il Venerabile, sacerdote (Om. 21; CCL 122, 149-151), il quale, commentando l’episodio evangelico della vocazione di San Matteo, scrive: “Vidit ergo Iesus publicanum et quia miserando atque eligendo vidit, ait illi Sequere me” (Vide Gesù un pubblicano e siccome lo guardò con sentimento di amore e lo scelse, gli disse: Seguimi).

THE MOTTO

The motto of the Holy Father Francis is taken from the Homilies of St. Bede the Venerable, priest (Om. 21, CCL 122, 149-151), who, commenting on the Gospel story of the calling of St. Matthew, writes: “Vidit ergo lesus publicanum et quia miserando atque eligendo vidit, ait illi: ‘Sequere me’” (“Jesus saw a tax collector and, because with feelings of compassion and choosing him he saw him, he said to him: ‘Follow me.’”)

Questa omelia è un omaggio alla misericordia divina ed è riprodotta nella Liturgia delle Ore della festa di San Matteo. Essa riveste un significato particolare nella vita e nell’itinerario spirituale del Papa. Infatti, nella festa di San Matteo dell’anno 1953, il giovane Jorge Mario Bergoglio sperimentò, all’età di 17 anni, in un modo del tutto particolare, la presenza amorosa di Dio nella sua vita. In seguito ad una confessione, si sentì toccare il cuore ed avvertì la discesa della misericordia di Dio, che con sguardo di tenero amore, lo chiamava alla vita religiosa, sull’esempio di Sant’Ignazio di Loyola.

This homily is a tribute to the divine mercy and is reproduced in the Liturgy of the Hours for the Feast of St. Matthew. It has a particular meaning in life and the spiritual journey of the Pope. In fact, on the Feast of St. Matthew [September 21] in the year 1953, the young Jorge Mario Bergoglio experienced at the age of 17 years, in a very special way, the loving presence of God in his life. Following a confession, he felt his heart touched and sensed the descent of the mercy of God, who with a look of tender love, called him to the religious life, following the example of St. Ignatius of Loyola.

Una volta eletto Vescovo, S.E. Mons. Bergoglio, in ricordo di tale avvenimento che segnò gli inizi della sua totale consacrazione a Dio nella Sua Chiesa, decise di scegliere, come motto e programma di vita, l’espressione di San Beda miserando atque eligendo, che ha inteso riprodurre anche nel proprio stemma pontificio.

Once he was elected bishop, His Excellency Monsignor Bergoglio, in memory of the event which marked the beginning of his total consecration to God in His Church, decided to choose, as his motto and his program of life, the expression of St. Bede miserando atque eligendo, which he decided to reproduce also in his pontifical coat-of-arms.

Link to the Vatican’s official site where this information is found.

“Think nothing else but that God ordains all, and where there is no love, put love, and you will draw love out.” –St. John of the Cross

Francis’s schedule for the next few days

On Tuesday, 19 March, the Feast of St. Joseph, patron of the Church, the Mass to inaugurate the new papacy will be held at 9:30 am in St. Peter’s Square. No tickets will be issued for that Mass. All who wish may attend.

On Wednesday, 20 March, he will hold an audience with fraternal delegates representing the heads of the various Eastern rite Churches so there will not be a General Audience.

On Saturday, 23 March, he will go to Castel Gandolfo to meet with Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI and have lunch with him.

Hummes

“I think even we are sometimes like these people, who on the one hand want to listen to Jesus, but on the other hand, sometimes we like to stone others and condemn others. The message of Jesus is this: mercy.” – Pope Francis, during his first Sunday noon Angelus as Pope, today, March 17, 2013

The Vatican has released the booklet for the Mass on Tuesday in which Pope Francis will be installed as Pope.

SOLENNITÀ DI SAN GIUSEPPE SPOSO DELLA BEATA VERGINE MARIA

 (Solemnity of St. Joseph, Spouse of the Blessed Virgini Mary) 

IMPOSIZIONE DEL PALLIO 

(Imposition of the Pallium) 

CONSEGNA DELL’ANELLO DEL PESCATORE 

(Handing Over of the Ring of the Fisherman)

E SANTA MESSA

(And Holy Mass) 

PER L’INIZIO DEL MINISTERO PETRINO DEL VESCOVO DI ROMA FRANCESCO 

(For the Beginning of the Petrine Ministry of the Bishop of Rome, Francis) 

PIAZZA SAN PIETRO, 19 MARZO 2013 

(St. Peter’s Square, March 19, 2013) 

Interestingly, Pope Francis has called on the Franciscan friars of Mt. Alverna in central Italy — where St. Francis received the stigmata, the five wounds of Christ, in the year 1224 A.D., two years before his death (he was the first reported case of the stigmata in history) an event which led St. Bonaventure, writing in about 1260 A.D., to describe St. Francis as “the Angel of the 6th seal” spoken of by John in the Book of the Apocalypse — to be present as assistants and servers at the Mass.

This clearly is intended to put an exclamation point on the “Franciscan” nature of this pontificate, which began with the Pope’s choice of the name “Francis,” never chosen before.

About 14 of the friars will take part in the ceremony, which will mark the official beginning of Francis’ pontificate.

These Franciscan servers will remain under the direction of Monsignor Guido Marini, the Master of Papal Ceremonies who was so much respected and appreciated by Emeritus Pope Benedict.

Information or Disinformation

There have been many false rumors in the Italian press, and elsewhere, regarding the new Pope’s views, and plans, including reports that Pope Francis had decided to set Marini aside and entrust the Tuesday Mass of Installation only to the Franciscans. This is not true. However, the number of these false reports, circulating very quickly around the internet, at a time when many journalists are writing under tight deadlines, so, under pressure while weary, as they try to provide as much “new” information to readers as possible, means that in these days special care must be taken in assessing what one reads, in seeing whether it is sourced, and, if it is sourced, in assessing the motives and reliability of that source.

On several occasions recently, I have tracked bits of “news” that turn our to be complete inventions, just simply “made up.” For example, Pope Francis met Cardinal Bernard Law on the morning of March 14, on his unexpected visit to St. Mary Major (this was true, Francis did meet Law); but internet reports, which made it into some papers, said Francis had taken the occasion to ask Law not to set foot again in the basilica (this was not true, it was made up).

In such cases, it works like this: a British tabloid (for example) cites “Italian press reports,” giving a website or newspaper name; at that particular website, one finds the information, but it is sourced to a blog; at the blog, the news in question can be found — but it is simply in a comment posted by a reader, without any attribution whatsoever. So one has no way of knowing whether this is “information” or “disinformation.” In other words, the trail runs dry. It is a “dead end.”

And yet, some information based on such unreliable sources is picked up, circulated, and even gets into print.

So, it is necessary to double-check things, actually speak with real people to confirm that what they are said to have said is really what they did say, and so forth. In short, it is necessary, at least on some matters, to engage in real journalism, and to arrive, eventually, as close to the truth as possible.

So, readers, be warned: some things, perhaps even many things, being reported on the web are simply not true, but only disinformation.

Here is a link to the entire Mass book

Today’s Angelus

Pope Francis, speaking to an overflow crowd of more than 150,000 in St Peter’s Square, urged the world on Sunday to be more forgiving.

“A little bit of mercy makes the world less cold and more just,” he told the cheering crowd from the window of the papal apartments.

Earlier, he celebrated Mass in St. Anne’s Church just inside the Vatican walls.

Chants of “Francesco, Francesco, Francesco,” the Pope’s name in Italian, reverberated through the Square.

“Brothers and sisters, good morning,” he said, using a familiar style that has already become his hallmark.

His theme was the Gospel story about the crowd of people who wanted to stone a woman taken in adultery.

Jesus told them “let he among you who is without sin, cast the first stone” and then told the woman “go and sin no more.”

At the Mass in St. Anne’s, he said: “I think even we are sometimes like these people, who on the one hand want to listen to Jesus, but on the other hand, sometimes we like to stone others and condemn others. The message of Jesus is this: mercy.”

The Pope said people should be open to God’s mercy, even those who have committed grave sins.

“The Lord never tires of forgiving, never! It is we who tire of asking for forgiveness,” he said at the Mass.

He mentioned favorably a book by German Cardinal Walter Kasper, which he said he had just been reading.

“I liked that book a lot, but don’t think I am trying to advertise books by my cardinals,” he said.

Before he entered the tiny church of Santa Anna for the morning Mass, Francis stopped to greet well-wishers who had lined up outside a nearby Vatican gate.

He chatted and laughed with many of them before pointing to his black plastic wrist watch and saying: “It’s almost 10 o’clock. I have to go inside to say Mass. They are waiting for me.”

Inside, he wore the purple vestments of the liturgical season of Lent, which ends in two weeks on Easter Sunday.

At the end of the Mass, he waited outside the church and greeted people as they left the building, like a parish priest, asking many of them: “Pray for me.”

Here is the complete text of his Angelus meditation:

Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!

After our first meeting last Wednesday, today I again give my greetings to you all! And I am happy to do it on Sunday, the Lord’s Day!

This is beautiful and important for us Christians: to meet on Sunday, to greet one another, to talk as we are doing now, in the square. This square that, thanks to the media, takes on worldly dimensions.

In this Fifth Sunday of Lent, the Gospel presents us with the story of the adulterous woman whom Jesus saves from being condemned to death. It captures Jesus’ attitude: we do not hear words of contempt, we do not hear words of condemnation, but only words of love, of mercy, that invite us to conversion. “Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more!”

Well, brothers and sisters! God’s face is that of a merciful father who is always patient. Have you thought about God’s patience, the patience that He has with each of us? That is His mercy. He always has patience, is always patient with us, understanding us, awaiting us, never tiring of forgiving us if we know how to return to him with a contrite heart. “Great is the Lord’s mercy,” says the Psalm.

In these days, I have been able to read a book by a cardinal—Cardinal Kasper, a talented theologian, a good theologian—on mercy. And it did me such good, that book, but don’t think that I’m publicizing the books of my cardinals. That is not the case! But it did me such good, so much good…

Cardinal Kasper said that hearing the word “mercy” changes everything. It is the best thing that we can hear: it changes the world. A bit of mercy makes the world less cold and more just. We need to understand God’s mercy well, this merciful Father who has such patience…

Think of the prophet Isaiah who asserts that even if our sins were scarlet red, God’s love would make them white as snow. That is beautiful, [this aspect of mercy].

Our Lady of Fatima

I remember when, just after I was made bishop, in 1992, the Madonna of Fatima came to Buenos Aires and a large Mass for the sick was celebrated.

I went to hear confessions at that Mass. Near the end of the Mass I got up because I had to administer a confirmation. An over 80-year-old woman came up to me, humbly, very humbly.

I asked her: “Nonna,” [grandmother]—because that’s how we address our elderly—“Nonna, you want to confess?”

“Yes,” she told me.

“But if you haven’t sinned…”

And she said to me: “We have all sinned…”

“But perhaps the Lord will not forgive you…”

“The Lord forgives everyone,” she told me, with certainty.

“But how do you know that, ma’am?”

“If the Lord didn’t forgive everyone, the world would not exist.”

I wanted to ask her: “Tell me, have you studied at the Gregorian [Pontifical University]?”, because that is the wisdom that the Holy Spirit gives: the inner wisdom of God’s mercy.

Let us not forget this word: God never tires of forgiving us, never!

“So, Father, what is the problem?”

Well, the problem is that we get tired, we don’t want to, we get tired of asking forgiveness.

Let us never get tired. Let us never get tired. He is the loving Father who always forgives, who has that heart of mercy for all of us. And let us also learn to be merciful with everyone.

Let us call upon the intercession of the Madonna who has held in her arms the Mercy of God made human.

(Here is a link to a video of Pope Francis’ first Angelus).

 ADDENDUM

Cardinal Hummes: One of the Pope’s Best Friends

In the group photo below, Brazilian Cardinal Claudio Hummes is seen on the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica next to the new Pope Francis at the very center of the photo, taken on March 13 at the moment ot the announcement of the new Pope.

The presence of Hummes was somewhat unusual. Normally, the Cardinal Dean, Angelo Sodano, 85, would have stood in that position.

It seems clear that it was Francis’s personal decision to invite his old friend, Hummes, to stand next to him.

Analyzing the balcony

Pope Francis greeting the crowds in St. Peter’s piazza for the first time

To the right of Hummes, as we look at the photo, is Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, then, further away on the far right, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, at the edge of the balcony. The cardinal on the far left is Cardinal Agostino Vallini, the Pope’s vicar for the city of Rome. Behind the Pope and slightly to the right is Monsignor Guido Marini, the Papal Master of Ceremonies.

So Hummes has a position of honor right at the new Pope’s side. What more do we know about him?

Hummes was the Prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Clergy, that is, for Priests, from 2006 to 2010.

In 2006, on December 1, just before leaving Brazil for Rome, he gave an interview in which he hinted that the Church might consider changing the present discipline on clerical celibacy.

That is, that there might be a consideration — a study of the question — of allowing married priests — not allowing priests to marry, there is a difference. The eastern tradition has allowed married men to be ordained, but has never allowed ordained priests to marry, and the Latin tradition would not break with the Greek tradition on this point.

Speaking to a Brazilian newspaper on December 1, 2006, Cardinal Hummes seemed to open the door to a Church reconsideration of celibacy for priests, saying, “Celibacy is a discipline, not a dogma of the Church. Certainly, the majority of the apostles were married. In this modern age, the Church must observe these things; it has to advance with history.”

But in a statement released through the Vatican press office shortly after his arrival in Rome, Hummes noted that changing the rule “is not currently on the agenda of Church authorities.”

Below the photo is an eloquent text by Hummes, published a few months later in early 2007, in defense of clerical celibacy.

The Argument of Cardinal Hummes Explaining Why the Church Teaches that Priests Should Take A Vow of Celibacy 

Cardinal Hummes on Priestly Celibacy

“Christ’s Precious Gift to His Church”

March 24, 2007

VATICAN CITY, MARCH 24, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Here is an article written by Cardinal Cláudio Hummes, prefect of the Congregation for Clergy, on “The Importance of Priestly Celibacy.” It was published in the Italian edition of L’Osservatore Romano.

By Cardinal Claudio Hummes

At the beginning of the 40th anniversary of the publication of the Encyclical “Sacerdotalis Caelibatus” of His Holiness Paul VI, the Congregation for the Clergy deems it opportune to recall the magisterial teaching of this important papal document.

Indeed, priestly celibacy is Christ’s precious gift to his Church, a gift one needs to meditate on anew and to strengthen, especially in today’s profoundly secularized world.

Scholars note that the origins of priestly celibacy date back to apostolic times. Father Ignace de la Potterie writes: “Scholars generally agree that the obligation of celibacy, or at least of continence, became canon law from the fourth century onwards. … However, it is important to observe that the legislators of the fourth and fifth centuries affirmed that this canonical enactment was based on an apostolic tradition.

“The Council of Carthage (390), for instance, said: ‘It was fitting that those who were at the service of the divine sacraments be perfectly continent (continentes esse in omnibus), so that what the Apostles taught and antiquity itself maintained, we too may observe.’”[1]

In the same way, Alfons-Marie Stickler mentions biblical arguments of apostolic inspiration that advocate celibacy.[2]

Historical development

 

The Church’s solemn Magisterium has never ceased to reaffirm the measures regulating ecclesiastical celibacy. The Synod of Elvira (300-303?) prescribed in canon 27: “A bishop, like any other cleric, should have with him either only one sister or consecrated virgin; it is established that in no way should he have an extraneous woman”; in canon 33: “The following overall prohibition for bishops, presbyters and deacons and for all clerics who exercise a ministry has been decided: they must abstain from relations with their wives and must not beget children; those who do are to be removed from the clerical state.”[3]

 

Pope St. Siricius (384-399), in his “Letter to Bishop Himerius of Tarragona” dated February 10, 385, affirmed: “The Lord Jesus … wished the figure of the Church, whose Bridegroom he is, to radiate with the splendor of chastity … all of us as priests are bound by the indissoluble law of these measures … so that from the day of our ordination we may devote our hearts and our bodies to moderation and modesty, to please the Lord our God in the daily sacrifices we offer to him.”[4]

 

At the First Lateran Ecumenical Council of 1123, we read from canon 3: “We absolutely forbid priests, deacons or subdeacons to cohabit with concubines or wives and to cohabit with women other than those whom the Council of Nicea (325) permitted to live in the household.”[5]

 

So too, at the 24th session of the Council of Trent, the absolute impossibility of contracting marriage for clerics bound by sacred orders or for male religious who had solemnly professed chastity was reasserted; and with it, the nullity of marriage itself was declared, together with the duty to ask God, with an upright intention, for the gift of chastity.[6]

 

In more recent times, the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council reaffirmed in the Decree on the Ministry and Life of Priests, “Presbyterorum Ordinis,”[7] the close connection between celibacy and the Kingdom of God. It saw in the former a sign that radiantly proclaims the latter, the beginning of a new life to whose service the minister of the Church is consecrated.

 

With the encyclical “Sacerdotalis Caelibatus” of June 24, 1967, Paul VI kept a promise he had made to the Council Fathers two years earlier. In it, he examined the objections raised concerning the discipline of celibacy. Subsequently, by placing emphasis on their Christological foundation and appealing to history and to what we learn from the first-century documents about the origins of celibacy and continence, he fully confirmed their value.

 

The 1971 Synod of Bishops, both in the presynodal program “Ministerium Presbyterorum” (Feb. 15) and in the final document “Ultimis Temporibus” (Nov. 30), affirmed the need to preserve celibacy in the Latin Church, shedding light on its foundations, the convergence of motives and the conditions that encouraged it.[8]

 

The new Code of Canon Law of the Latin Church in 1983 reasserted the age-old tradition: “Clerics are obliged to observe perfect and perpetual continence for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven and therefore are obliged to observe celibacy, which is a special gift of God, by which sacred ministers can adhere more easily to Christ with an undivided heart and can more freely dedicate themselves to the service of God and humankind.”[9]

 

Along the same lines, the 1990 synod resulted in the Apostolic Exhortation of the Servant of God, Pope John Paul II, “Pastores Dabo Vobis,” in which the Pontiff presented celibacy as a radical Gospel requirement that especially favors the style of spousal life and springs from the priest’s configuration to Jesus Christ through the sacrament of orders.[10]

 

The Catechism of the Catholic Church, published in 1992 and which gathers the first fruits of the great event of the Second Vatican Council, reaffirms the same doctrine: “All the ordained ministers of the Latin Church, with the exception of permanent deacons, are normally chosen from among men of faith who live a celibate life and who intend to remain celibate ‘for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven.’”[11]

 

At the most recent Synod on the Eucharist itself, according to the preliminary unofficial draft of its final propositions authorized by Pope Benedict XVI, in proposition. 11, “the importance of the priceless gift of ecclesiastical celibacy in the practices of the Latin Church is recognized” despite the scarcity of clergy in certain parts of the world as well as the “Eucharistic hunger” of the People of God.

 

With the reference to the Magisterium, particularly that of the Second Vatican Council and of the most recent Pontiffs, the Fathers asked that the reasons for the relationship between celibacy and priestly ordination be properly described, with full respect for the tradition of the Eastern Churches. Some of them referred to the matter of the “viri probati,” but the hypothesis was judged to be a way not to be taken.

 

Only recently, on Nov. 16, 2006, Benedict XVI presided at one of the regular meetings held in the Apostolic Palace of the Heads of the Dicasteries of the Roman Curia. On that occasion, the value of the choice of priestly celibacy in accordance with the unbroken Catholic tradition was reasserted and the need for the sound human and Christian formation of seminarians and ordained priests was reaffirmed.

 

Reasons for holy celibacy

 

In his encyclical “Sacerdotalis Caelibatus,” Paul VI begins by presenting the situation of priestly celibacy at that time, from the viewpoint of the appreciation of it and of the objections to it. His first words are crucial and ever timely: “Priestly celibacy has been guarded by the Church for centuries as a brilliant jewel, and retains its value undiminished even in our time when the outlook of men and the state of the world have undergone such profound changes.”[12]

 

Paul VI revealed what he himself meditated upon, questioning himself on the subject in order to be able to respond to the objections. He concluded: “Hence, we consider that the present law of holy celibacy should today continue to be linked to the ecclesiastical ministry. This law should support the minister in his exclusive, definitive and total choice of the unique and supreme love of Christ and of the Church; it should uphold him in the entire dedication of himself to the public worship of God and to the service of the Church; it should distinguish his state of life both among the faithful and in the world at large.”[13]

 

“It is true,” the Pope added, “that virginity, as the Second Vatican Council declared, is not demanded of the priesthood by its nature. This is clear from the practice of the early Church and the tradition of the Eastern Churches (cf. “Presbyterorum Ordinis,” no. 16). But at the same time the Council did not hesitate to confirm solemnly the ancient, sacred and providential present law of priestly celibacy. In addition, it set forth the motives which justify this law for those who, in a spirit of faith and with generous fervor, know how to appreciate the gifts of God.”[14]

 

It is true. Celibacy is a gift that Christ offers to men called to the priesthood. This gift must be accepted with love, joy and gratitude. Thus, it will become a source of happiness and holiness.

 

Paul VI gave three reasons for sacred celibacy: its Christological, ecclesiological and eschatological significance.

 

Let us start with its Christological significance.

 

Christ is newness. He brings about a new creation. His priesthood is new. He renews all things. Jesus, the only-begotten Son of the Father sent into the world, “became man in order that humanity which was subject to sin and death might be reborn, and through this new birth might enter the Kingdom of Heaven.”

 

“Being entirely consecrated to the will of the Father, Jesus brought forth this new creation by means of his Paschal Mystery; thus, he introduced into time and into the world a new form of life which is sublime and divine and which radically transforms the human condition.”[15]

 

Natural marriage itself, blessed by God since creation but damaged by sin, was renewed by Christ, who “has raised it to the dignity of a sacrament and of a mysterious symbol of his own union with the Church. … But Christ, ‘Mediator of a more excellent covenant’ (cf. Hebrews 8:6), has also opened a new way in which the human creature adheres wholly and directly to the Lord, and is concerned only with him and with his affairs; thus, he manifests in a clearer and more complete way the profoundly transforming reality of the New Testament.”[16]

 

This newness, this new process, is life in virginity, which Jesus himself lived in harmony with his role as Mediator between heaven and earth, between the Father and the human race. “Wholly in accord with this mission, Christ remained throughout his whole life in the state of celibacy, which signified his total dedication to the service of God and men.”[17] The service of God and men means that total love without reserve which distinguished Jesus’ life among us: virginity for the sake of the Kingdom of God!

 

Now Christ, by calling his priests to be ministers of salvation, that is, of the new creation, calls them to be and to live in newness of life, united and similar to him in the most perfect way possible. From this derives the gift of sacred celibacy, as the fullest configuration with the Lord Jesus and a prophecy of the new creation. He called his apostles “friends.” He called them to follow him very closely in everything, even to the cross. And the cross brought them to the Resurrection, to the new creation’s completion.

 

We know, therefore, that following him with faithfulness in virginity, which includes sacrifice, will lead us to happiness. God does not call anyone to unhappiness; he calls us all to happiness. Happiness, however, always goes hand in hand with faithfulness. The late Pope John Paul II said this to the married couples whom he met at the Second World Meeting of Families in Rio de Janeiro.

 

Thus, the theme of the eschatological meaning of celibacy is revealed as a sign and a prophecy of the new creation, in other words, of the definitive Kingdom of God in the parousia, when we will all be raised from the dead.

 

As the Second Vatican Council teaches, “She [the Church] is, on earth, the seed and the beginning of that kingdom.”[18] Virginity, lived for love of the Kingdom of God, is a special sign of these “final times,” because the Lord announced that “in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.”[19]

 

In a world like ours, a world of entertainment and superficial pleasures, captivated by earthly things and especially by the progress of science and technology — let us remember the biological sciences and biotechnology — the proclamation of an afterlife, of a future world, a parousia, as a definitive event of a new creation is crucial and at the same time free from the ambiguity of aporia, of din, suffering and contradictions with regard to the true good and the new, profound knowledge that human progress brings with it.

 

Finally, the ecclesiological meaning of celibacy leads us more directly to the priest’s pastoral activity.

 

The encyclical “Sacerdotalis Caelibatus” affirms: “The consecrated celibacy of the sacred ministers actually manifests the virginal love of Christ for the Church, and the virginal and supernatural fecundity of this marriage.”[20]

 

Like Christ and in Christ, the priest mystically weds the Church and loves the Church with an exclusive love. Thus, dedicating himself totally to the affairs of Christ and of his Mystical Body, the priest enjoys ample spiritual freedom to put himself at the loving and total service of all people without distinction.

 

“In a similar way, by a daily dying to himself and by giving up the legitimate love of a family of his own for the love of Christ and of his Kingdom, the priest will find the glory of an exceedingly rich and fruitful life in Christ, because like him and in him he loves and dedicates himself to all the children of God.”[21]

 

The encyclical likewise adds that celibacy makes it easier for the priest to devote himself to listening to the Word of God and to prayer, and prepares him to offer upon the altar the whole of his life, marked by sacrifice.[22]

 

Value of chastity, celibacy

 

Even before it is a canonical disposition, celibacy is God’s gift to his Church. It is an issue bound to the complete gift of self to the Lord.

 

In the distinction between the age-old discipline of celibacy and the religious experience of consecration and the pronouncement of vows, it is beyond doubt that there is no other possible interpretation or justification of ecclesiastical celibacy than unreserved dedication to the Lord in a relationship that must also be exclusive from the emotional viewpoint. This presupposes a strong personal and communal relationship with Christ, who transforms the hearts of his disciples.

 

The option for celibacy of the Latin Rite Catholic Church has developed since apostolic times precisely in line with the priest’s relationship with his Lord, moved by the inspiring question, “Do you love me more than these?”[23] which the Risen Jesus addressed to Peter.

 

The Christological, ecclesiological and eschatological reasons for celibacy, all rooted in the special communion with Christ to which priests are called, can therefore be expressed in various ways, according to what is authoritatively stated in “Sacerdotalis Caelibatus.”

 

Celibacy is first and foremost a “symbol of and stimulus to charity.”[24] Charity is the supreme criterion for judging Christian life in all its aspects; celibacy is a path of love, even if, as the Gospel according to Matthew says, Jesus himself states that not all are able to understand this reality: “Not all men can receive this precept, but only those to whom it is given.”[25]

 

This charity develops in the classical, twofold aspect of love for God and for others: “By preserving virginity or celibacy for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven, priests are consecrated in a new and excellent way to Christ. They more readily cling to him with undivided heart.”[26]

 

St. Paul, in the passage alluded to here, presents celibacy and virginity as the way “to please God” without divided interests:[27] in other words, a “way of love” which certainly presupposes a special vocation; in this sense it is a charism and in itself excellent for both Christians and priests.

 

Through pastoral charity, radical love for God becomes love for one’s brethren. In “Presbyterorum Ordinis” we read that priests “dedicate themselves more freely in him and through him to the service of God and of men. They are less encumbered in their service of his Kingdom and of the task of heavenly regeneration. In this way they become better fitted for a broader acceptance of fatherhood in Christ.”[28]

 

Common experience confirms that it is easier for those who, apart from Christ, are not bound by other affections, however legitimate and holy they may be, to give their heart to their brethren fully and without reserve.

 

Celibacy is the example that Christ himself left us. He wanted to be celibate. The encyclical explains further: “Wholly in accord with this mission, Christ remained throughout his whole life in the state of celibacy, which signified his total dedication to the service of God and men. This deep connection between celibacy and the priesthood of Christ is reflected in those whose fortune it is to share in the dignity and mission of the Mediator and the Eternal Priest; this sharing will be more perfect the freer the sacred minister is from the bonds of flesh and blood.”[29]

 

Jesus Christ’s historical existence is the most visible sign that chastity voluntarily embraced for God’s sake is a solidly founded vocation, both at the Christian level and at that of common human logic.

 

If ordinary Christian life cannot legitimately claim to be such if it excludes the dimension of the cross, how much more incomprehensible would priestly life be were the perspective of the crucified One to be put aside.

 

Suffering, sometimes weariness and boredom and even setbacks have to be dealt with in a priest’s life which, however, is not ultimately determined by them. In choosing to follow Christ, one learns from the very outset to go with him to Calvary, mindful that taking up one’s cross is the element that qualifies the radical nature of the sequela.

 

Lastly, as previously stated, celibacy is an eschatological sign. In the Church, from this moment, the future Kingdom is present. She not only proclaims it but brings it about through the sacraments, contributing to the “new creation” until her glory is fully manifested.

 

While the sacrament of marriage roots the Church in the present, immersing her totally in the earthly realm which can thus become a possible place for sanctification, celibacy refers immediately to the future, to that full perfection of the created world that will be brought to complete fulfillment only at the end of time.

 

Being faithful to celibacy

 

The 2,000-year-old wisdom of the Church, an expert in humanity, has in the course of time constantly determined several fundamental and indispensable elements to foster her children’s fidelity to the supernatural charism of celibacy.

 

Among them, also in the recent Magisterium, the importance of spiritual formation for the priest, who is called to be “a witness of the Absolute,” stands out. “Pastores Dabo Vobis” states: “In preparing for the priesthood we learn how to respond from the heart to Christ’s basic question: ‘Do you love me?’. For the future priest the answer can only mean total self-giving.”[30]

 

In this regard, the years of formation are absolutely fundamental, both those distant years lived in the family, and especially the more recent years spent at the seminary. At this true school of love, like the apostolic community, young seminarians cluster round Jesus, awaiting the gift of his Spirit for their mission.

 

“The relation of the priest to Jesus Christ, and in him to his Church, is found in the very being of the priest, by virtue of his sacramental consecration/anointing and in his activity, that is, in his mission or ministry.”[31]

 

The priesthood is no more than “‘living intimately united’ to Jesus Christ”[32] in a relationship of intimate communion, described “in terms of friendship.”[33] The priest’s life is basically that form of existence which would be inconceivable without Christ. Precisely in this lies the power of his witness: Virginity for the sake of the Kingdom of God is a real element, it exists because Christ, who makes it possible, exists.

 

Love for the Lord is authentic when it endeavors to be total: Falling in love with Christ means having a deep knowledge of him, it means a close association with his person, the identification and assimilation of his thought, and lastly, unreserved acceptance of the radical demands of the Gospel.

 

It is only possible to be witnesses of God through a deep experience of Christ; the whole of a priest’s life depends on his relationship with the Lord, the quality of his experience of martyria, of his witness.

 

Only someone who truly has Jesus for his friend and Lord, one who enjoys his communion, can be a witness of the Absolute. Christ is not only a subject of reflection, of a theological thesis or of a historical memory; he is the Lord who is present, he is alive because he is the Risen One and we live only to the extent that we participate ever more deeply in his life. The entire priestly existence is founded on this explicit faith.

 

Consequently, the encyclical says: “The priest should apply himself above all else to developing, with all the love grace inspires in him, his close relationship with Christ, and exploring this inexhaustible and enriching mystery; he should also acquire an ever deeper sense of the mystery of the Church. There would be the risk of his state of life seeming unreasonable and unfounded if it were viewed apart from this mystery.”[34]

 

In addition to formation and love for Christ, an essential element for preserving celibacy is passion for the Kingdom of God, which means the ability to work cheerfully, sparing no effort to make Christ known, loved and followed.

 

Like the peasant who, having found the precious pearl, sold all he had in order to purchase the field, so those who find Christ and spend their whole lives with him and for him cannot but live by working to enable others to encounter him.

 

Without this clear perspective, any “missionary urge” is doomed to failure, methodologies are transformed into techniques for maintaining a structure, and even prayers can become techniques for meditation and for contact with the sacred in which both the human “I” and the “you” of God dissolve.

 

One fundamental and necessary occupation, a requirement and a task, is prayer. Prayer is irreplaceable in Christian life and in the life of priests. Prayer should be given special attention.

 

The Eucharistic Celebration, the Divine Office, frequent confession, an affectionate relationship with Mary Most Holy, spiritual retreats and the daily recitation of the holy rosary are some of the spiritual signs of a love which, were it lacking, would risk being replaced by unworthy substitutes such as appearances, ambition, money, etc.

 

The priest is a man of God because God calls him to be one, and he lives this personal identity in an exclusive belonging to his Lord, also borne out by his choice of celibacy. He is a man of God because he lives by God and talks to God. With God he discerns and decides in filial obedience on the steps of his own Christian existence.

 

The more radically a priest is a man of God through a life that is totally theocentric, as the Holy Father stressed in his Address at the Christmas Meeting with the Roman Curia on Dec. 22, 2006, the more effective and fertile his witness will be, and the richer in fruits of conversion his ministry. There is no opposition between fidelity to God and fidelity to man: On the contrary, the former is a prerequisite for the latter.

 

Conclusion: a holy vocation

 

“Pastores Dabo Vobis,” speaking on the priest’s vocation to holiness, having underlined the importance of the personal relationship with Christ, expresses another need: The priest, called to the mission of preaching the Good News, sees himself entrusted with it in order to give it to everyone. He is nevertheless called in the first place to accept the Gospel as a gift offered for his life, for himself, and as a saving event that commits him to a holy life.

 

In this perspective, John Paul II has spoken of the evangelical radicalism that must be a feature of the priest’s holiness. It is therefore possible in the evangelical counsels, traditionally proposed by the Church and lived in the various states of consecrated life, to map out the vitally radical journey to which, also and in his own way, the priest is called to be faithful.

 

“Pastores Dabo Vobis” states: “A particularly significant expression of the radicalism of the Gospel is seen in the different ‘evangelical counsels’ which Jesus proposes in the Sermon on the Mount, and among them the intimately related counsels of obedience, chastity and poverty. The priest is called to live these counsels in accordance with those ways and, more specifically, those goals and that basic meaning which derive from and express his own priestly identity.”[35]

 

And again, taking up the ontological dimension on which evangelical radicalism is founded, the postsynodal apostolic exhortation says: “The Spirit, by consecrating the priest and configuring him to Jesus Christ, Head and Shepherd, creates a bond which, located in the priest’s very being, demands to be assimilated and lived out in a personal, free and conscious way through an ever richer communion of life and love and an ever broader and more radical sharing in the feelings and attitudes of Jesus Christ. In this bond between the Lord Jesus and the priest, an ontological and psychological bond, a sacramental and moral bond, is the foundation and likewise the power for that ‘life according to the Spirit’ and that ‘radicalism of the Gospel’ to which every priest is called today and which is fostered by ongoing formation in its spiritual aspect.”[36]

 

The nuptial dimension of ecclesiastical celibacy, proper to this relationship between Christ and the Church which the priest is called to interpret and to live, must enlarge his mind, illumine his life and warm his heart. Celibacy must be a happy sacrifice, a need to live with Christ so that he will pour out into the priest the effusions of his goodness and love that are ineffably full and perfect.

 

In this regard the words of the Holy Father Benedict XVI are enlightening: “The true foundation of celibacy can be contained in the phrase: Dominus pars (mea) — You are my land. It can only be theocentric. It cannot mean being deprived of love, but must mean letting oneself be consumed by passion for God and subsequently, thanks to a more intimate way of being with him, to serve men and women, too. Celibacy must be a witness to faith: faith in God materializes in that form of life which only has meaning if it is based on God.

 

“Basing one’s life on him, renouncing marriage and family, means that I accept and experience God as a reality and that I can therefore bring him to men and women.”[37]

 

—————————————–

 

NOTES

 

1. Cf. Father Ignace de la Potterie , Il fondamento biblico del celibato sacerdotale, in Solo per amore. Riflessioni sul celibato sacerdotale, Cinisello Balsamo, 1993, pp. 14-15.

2. Cf. Alfons-Marie Stickler, in Ch. Cochini, Origines apostoliques du Célibat sacerdotal, Preface, p. 6.

3. Cf. Heinrich Denzinger, Enchiridion symbolorum definitionum et declarationum de rebus fidei et morum, ed. P. Hünermann., Bologna, 1995, nn. 118-119, p. 61.

4. Ibid., op. cit., n. 185, p. 103; [n. 10].

5. Cf. ibid., op. cit., n. 711, p. 405.

6. Ibid., op. cit., n. 1809, p. 739.

7. Second Vatican Council, Decree on the Ministry and Life of Priests, Presbyterorum Ordinis, n. 16.

8. Enchiridion of the Synod of Bishops, 1, 1965-1988 ed. General Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops, Bologna, 2005, nn. 755-855; 1068-1114; especially nn. 1100-1105.

9. Code of Canon Law, canon 277, §1.

10. John Paul II, Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Pastores Dabo Vobis, 25 March 1992, n. 44.

11. Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 1579.

12. Paul VI, Encyclical Letter Sacerdotalis Caelibatus, n. 1.

13. Ibid., n. 14.

14. Ibid., n. 17.

15. Ibid., n. 19.

16. Ibid., n. 20.

17. Ibid., n. 21.

18. Cf. Second Vatican Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium, n. 5.

19. Paul VI, Sacerdotalis Caelibatus, n. 34.

20. Ibid., n. 26.

21. Ibid., n. 30.

22. Cf. ibid., nn. 27-29.

23. John 21:15.

24. Paul VI, Sacerdotalis Caelibatus, n. 24.

25. Matthew 19:11.

26. Second Vatican Council, Presbyterorum Ordinis, n. 16.

27. Cf. I Corinthians 7:32-33.

28. Second Vatican Council, Presbyterorum Ordinis, n. 16.

29. Paul VI, Sacerdotalis Caelibatus, n. 21.

30. John Paul II, Pastores Dabo Vobis, n. 42.

31. Ibid., n. 16.

32. Ibid., n. 46.

33. Ibid.

34. Paul VI, Sacerdotalis Caelibatus, n. 75.

35. John Paul II, Pastores Dabo Vobis, n. 27.

36. Ibid., n. 72.

37. Benedict XVI, Address at the Audience with the Roman Curia for the Exchange of Christmas Greetings, 22 December 2006; L’Osservatore Romano English edition, 3 January 2007, p. 5.

 

Link: Hummes article

 

“Think nothing else but that God ordains all, and where there is no love, put love, and you will draw love out.” –St. John of the Cross

 

Francis’s schedule for the next few days

On Monday, he will meet the President of Argentina Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, one of the many world leaders who are flying into Rome for the Pontiff’s Inaugural Mass on Tuesday.

On Tuesday, 19 March, the Feast of St. Joseph, patron of the Church, the Mass to inaugurate the new papacy will be held at 9:30 am in St. Peter’s Square. No tickets will be issued for that Mass. All who wish may attend.

On Wednesday, 20 March, he will hold an audience with fraternal delegates representing the heads of the various Eastern rite Churches so there will not be a General Audience.

On Saturday, 23 March, he will go to Castel Gandolfo to meet with Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI and have lunch with him.

March 16, 2013, Saturday — Black Shoes

“First of all I would say a prayer for our Bishop Emeritus Benedict XVI. Let us all pray together for him, that the Lord bless him and Our Lady protect him.” –Pope Francis, asking all to pray for Emeritus Pope Benedict, during his first public words after his election on March 13, 2013

It is now official. Pope Francis, 76, will go to Castel Gandolfo, about 15 miles outside of Rome, to meet Emeritus Pope Benedict, 85, on March 23, next Saturday, one week from today.
It will be their first meeting since Benedict renounced his office and since Francis was elected Pope on Wednesday, three days ago.

But it will not be their first meeting ever; the two have met before. Here below are two photos of Pope Benedict meeting with Cardinal Bergoglio, who is now Pope Francis.

Pope Benedict meeting with Cardinal Bergoglio

Pope Benedict meeting with Cardinal Bergoglio

According to a Vatican communique issued today, Pope Francis will leave by helicopter from the Vatican at 12 noon and arrive at 12:15 p.m. at Castel Gandolfo, where he will join the Emeritus Pope for lunch.

Pope Francis has already rendered homage to Pope Emeritus Benedict on several occasions during the first three days of his pontificate, beginning with a telephone call to the Emeritus Pope on Wednesday evening, the night of his election.

Then, standing on the balcony of St. Peter’s, Francis asked the crowd below in the Square to pray for Benedict, and prayed the Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory Be, in Latin.

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On Friday, on the occasion of a meeting with his cardinals, Francis recalled the “goodness” of his predecessor, and rrefreered to his decision to step down as a “courageous and humble” gesture.

Benedict XVI, 85, left the papal office on February 28, 16 days ago.

He is expected to return to the Vatican at the end of April, and to move in to a convent in the Vatican Gardens. It is not yet clear what his relationship will be with his successor, or how often they will meet, if at all.

One difference between the two, however, has already become evident. Pope Francis is not wearing the “red shoes” that past Popes have typically worn.

The red shoes that are typically worn by the pope.

This tradition goes back more than 200 years.

Here are Pius VII’s slippers from 1808, 205 years ago.

So, it is a tradition. It isn’t a very important tradition. It has no doctrinal significance, of course. But it is a tradition.

And Francis, so far, is not following this tradition.

Since his election, Francis has worn an ordinary pair of black shoes, apparently rejecting the red leather shoes worn by Benedict XVI.

Benedict’s red shoes were hand-made for him by a cobbler in the Borgo, the old area of medieval streets just next to the Vatican on the right side of St. Peter’s Square.

A pair of the red shoes had been made for his successor and were on display in the days before the conclave.

But, Pope Francis has not worn those red shoes. He has worn his old black shoes.

Reports says that, before he left Buenos Aires for Rome, Cardinal Bergoglio, was wearing a pair of shoes so shabby that friends insisted on buying him a new pair.

“He’s always very humbly dressed and the shoes he was wearing were not in very good shape,” a South American priest told Vatican Radio.

Here is how he looked this morning as he entered the Paul VI Hall to geet some 5,000 journalists who had come to Rome to cover the Conclave and his election.

And he also wore these same black shoes on Thursday and Friday.

The New York Times commented: “[Francis] wore simple black shoes and an ordinary wristwatch with a thick black band to his first Mass as pontiff…. In an ancient institution where style often translates into substance, Francis, in his first 24 hours as Pope, has dramatically shifted the tone of the papacy. Whereas Benedict XVI, the pope emeritus, was a theologian who favored red loafers, ermine-lined cloaks and erudite homilies, reviving papal fashions from centuries past, Francis, the former Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Buenos Aires, appeared Thursday to be sending a message of radical humility.”

Radical humility, radical simplicty, and a willingness to set aside traditional ways — these are three of the characteristics of this pontificate thus far.

The Love of the Poor as a Central Christian Mission

But this matter of red shoes and black shoes is not simply a matter of taste, or even of a desire for simplicity.

It is programmatic, or so it seems.

That means, Pope Francis is showing us his “program” by such small gestures.

And what is that program.

It is to set the love of the poor and downtrodden and miserable and despairing at the heart of the mission of the Pope, or the papacy, of the Church hierarchy, of the Church as a whole, and so, of individual Christians.

The Pope is telling us that, to be Christians, to bear witness to the love of Christ, to the reality of Christ and his love for us, shown in his life and his willingness to lay down his life for us on the cross, we must show our love for the poor and the downtrodden in real, practical, evident ways.

And he made this very clear this morning in his meeting with the 5,000 members of the press who are here in Rome.

On the third day after his election, Francis agreed — as has become customary, so in this he kept to tradition — to meet with the press.

Once again today, he departed from his written text, or notes, and told us why he had chosen the name “Francis.”

And why this choice of a name will mark his pontificate.

His pontificate will be centered on Christ, he said — and not on “the Pope” or “the Church” — but also on poverty, on the poor: “How I wish for a poor Church, and for a Church for the poor,” he told us.

“Never forget the poor”

The meeting was, in fact, extraordinary.

The Pope asked us if we wanted to know why he chose his name. And, of course, we did want to know. So we all listened intently.

“Do you know why the Bishop of Rome wanted to be called Francis?” he asked. “During the papal election, I had at my side the Archbishop Emeritus of Sao Paulo (Brazil), Cardinal Claudio Hummes. A great friend, a great friend…

Here, Cardinal Claudio Hummes of Brazil, friend of the new Pope, whose suggestion to “never forget the poor” led Pope Francis to choose the name “Francis” as his papal name.

“When things began to be a little dangerous, he comforted me! And when the votes arrived at two-thirds, and when the cardinals began to applaud in their customary way because the Pope had been elected, he put his arms around me, he hugged me, and he said to me: ‘Never forget the poor.’”
“This word stayed with me, the poor, the poor. And after that, thinking about the poor, I thought of St. Francis of Assisi. And then, while the vote-counting continued, I thought about war, until the end of the voting. And Francis is the man of peace. And it was thus that the name Francis came to me in my heart, Francis of Assisi. The man of poverty, the man of peace, the man who loved…”

And then the Pope paused for a moment, and spoke directly from his heart: “How I wish for a poor Church, and for a Church for the poor!”

Francis also told us how one of the cardinals suggested that he take the name Clement XV, to “pay back” Pope Clement the XIV, who suppressed the very powerful Jesuit Order of 250 years ago, in the late 1700s.

We all laughed…

There were also beautiful words in this talk about the Church. He stressed that the Church does not have a “political” nature, but is essentially something “spiritual.” And he stressed the centrality of Christ for the Church, not the Pope.

“Christ is the center!” he said. “Without Him, Peter and the Church would not exist and would have no reason to exist.”

“For the good of the Church”

And in this context, he spoke about Pope Benedict’s decision to renounced the papal throne.

“As Benedict XVI frequently reminded us, Christ is present in Church and guides her,” Pope Francis said. “In everything that has occurred, the principal agent has been, in the final analysis, the Holy Spirit.

“He prompted the decision of Benedict XVI for the good of the Church; he guided the Cardinals in prayer and in the election.”

This, he summed up, was the key to understanding the events of these recent days.

The silent blessing

And then Francis did something which surprised everyone, pleased many, and shocked a few.

The moment had come for him to impart to all of us his Apostolic Blessing, but he did not do this in the usual way.

In fact, he made no exterior gesture at all. He did not lift his hand, he did not move it in the form of a blessing, and he did not speak “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit” out loud.

He said, in Italian: “I cordially impart to all of you my blessing. Thank you.” And then, in Spanish, he explained as follows: “I told you I was cordially imparting my blessing. Since many of you are not members of the Catholic Church, and others are not believers, I cordially give this blessing silently, to each of you, respecting the conscience of each, but in the knowledge that each of you is a child of God. May God bless you!”

And with that, he turned and left.

One of my colleagues turned to me and said, “Where was the papal blessing?”

“He gave it silently,” I said. “He blessed us silently, without presupposing anything. He was trying to be respectful of individual consciences. This is not a purely religious gathering.”

“But it still seems like something is missing,” my friend said. “No blessing!”

“But there was a blessing,” I said. “We just could not see it. It is like what Ratzinger used to say, that in heaven, in the presence of God, there will no longer be any external rites or rituals to signify our worship, all those things will pass away, because the perfect will have come…”

“But are we already in heaven?” my friend replied.

“No,” I said. “But can’t we believe we are on the way?”

But my friend still was not satisfied. “I would have liked to have received a blessing from him,” he said.

“You did,” I said.

There will be more time in the future to reflect more deeply on these questions, which of course also have a relation to the liturgy. For the moment, it is enough to say that Pope Francis, also in this matter of giving a silent, not a public blessing to the journalists, did something without recent precedent, which is providing all of us with cause for meditation and inward conversion.

And that is what should be our thought at this time, just as Cardinal Hummes told Pope Francis as the vote total rose: “never forget the poor.” We should never forget our own need for conversion. We should be converted to Christ. We are ever in need of deeper conversion.

This is what Pope Francis is calling us to, if we can but hear him…

Curia Officials Reappointed — But Only “Temporarily”

Another important decision was announced today. Pope Francis reconfirmed all the heads of the Vatican Curia offices. But he did so only “donec aliter provideatur” (“until otherwise it may be provided” or “until other decisions are taken” or, perhaps most simply, “just for now”).

And in taking this decision, Francis was following tradition.

All new Popes restore their curial officials a day or two after their election, so that the Curia, which is “zeroed out” at the departure of one Pope, can be restored to a functioning body.

So, he followed tradition — but the phrasing of the decision means that, sometime soon, he is leaving the door still open to radical personnel changes in the Curia. It is just that he has not yet had time to take those decisions.

If he does not take such decisions within a few weeks, or months, that would suggest there is not going to be a “clean sweep” of the Curia.

So we do not yet know what Francis will do regarding the Curia.

Here is the official announcement in Italian, with the words “donec aliter provideatur” bold-faced:

COMUNICATO

Il Santo Padre Francesco ha espresso la volontà che i Capi e i Membri dei Dicasteri della Curia Romana, come pure i Segretari, nonché il Presidente della Pontificia Commissione dello Stato della Città del Vaticano, proseguano, provvisoriamente, nei rispettivi incarichi donec aliter provideatur.
Il Santo Padre desidera, infatti, riservarsi un certo tempo per la riflessione, la preghiera e il dialogo, prima di qualunque nomina o conferma definitiva.

Bollettino Ufficiale Santa Sede (16 marzo 2013)

Talk Today to Journalists

Here is the complete text of the Pope’s talk today to the 5,000 journalists from around the world in the Paul VI Audience Hall.

Some of the paragraphs below seem to have been prepared for the Pope by a member of the Curia, but large parts of the rest of the talk were either composed by the Pope himself, or are extemporaneous, that is, unscripted, especially his story of how he chose his name at the suggestion of Cardinal Hummes, his friend.

Address of the Holy Father

To Representatives of the Communications Media
Saturday, 16 March 2013

By Pope Francis

Dear Friends,

At the beginning of my ministry in the See of Peter, I am pleased to meet all of you who have worked here in Rome throughout this intense period which began with the unexpected announcement made by my venerable Predecessor Benedict XVI on 11 February last. To each of you I offer a cordial greeting.

The role of the mass media has expanded immensely in these years, so much so that they are an essential means of informing the world about the events of contemporary history.

I would like, then, to thank you in a special way for the professional coverage which you provided during these days – you really worked, didn’t you? – when the eyes of the whole world, and not just those of Catholics, were turned to the Eternal City and particularly to this place which has as its heart the tomb of Saint Peter. Over the past few weeks, you have had to provide information about the Holy See and about the Church, her rituals and traditions, her faith and above all the role of the Pope and his ministry.

I am particularly grateful to those who viewed and presented these events of the Church’s history in a way which was sensitive to the right context in which they need to be read, namely that of faith. Historical events almost always demand a nuanced interpretation which at times can also take into account the dimension of faith. Ecclesial events are certainly no more intricate than political or economic events!

But they do have one particular underlying feature: they follow a pattern which does not readily correspond to the “worldly” categories which we are accustomed to use, and so it is not easy to interpret and communicate them to a wider and more varied public.

The Church is certainly a human and historical institution with all that that entails, yet her nature is not essentially political but spiritual: the Church is the People of God, the Holy People of God making its way to encounter Jesus Christ. Only from this perspective can a satisfactory account be given of the Church’s life and activity.

Christ is the Church’s Pastor, but his presence in history passes through the freedom of human beings; from their midst one is chosen to serve as his Vicar, the Successor of the Apostle Peter.

Yet Christ remains the center, not the Sucessor of Peter: Christ, Christ is the centre.

Christ is the fundamental point of reference, the heart of the Church. Without him, Peter and the Church would not exist or have reason to exist.

As Benedict XVI frequently reminded us, Christ is present in Church and guides her. In everything that has occurred, the principal agent has been, in the final analysis, the Holy Spirit.

He prompted the decision of Benedict XVI for the good of the Church; he guided the Cardinals in prayer and in the election.

It is important, dear friends, to take into due account this way of looking at things, this hermeneutic, in order to bring into proper focus what really happened in these days.

All of this leads me to thank you once more for your work in these particularly demanding days, but also to ask you to try to understand more fully the true nature of the Church, as well as her journey in this world, with her virtues and her sins, and to know the spiritual concerns which guide her and are the most genuine way to understand her. Be assured that the Church, for her part, highly esteems your important work. At your disposal you have the means to hear and to give voice to people’s expectations and demands, and to provide for an analysis and interpretation of current events. Your work calls for careful preparation, sensitivity and experience, like so many other professions, but it also demands a particular concern for what is true, good and beautiful.

This is something which we have in common, since the Church exists to communicate precisely this: Truth, Goodness and Beauty “in person.” It should be apparent that all of us are called not to communicate ourselves, but this existential triad made up of truth, beauty and goodness.

Some people wanted to know why the Bishop of Rome wished to be called Francis. Some thought of Francis Xavier, Francis De Sales, and also Francis of Assisi. I will tell you the story.

During the election, I was seated next to the Archbishop Emeritus of São Paolo and Prefect Emeritus of the Congregation for the Clergy, Cardinal Claudio Hummes: a good friend, a good friend! When things were looking dangerous, he encouraged me.

And when the votes reached two thirds, there was the usual applause, because the Pope had been elected.

And he gave me a hug and a kiss, and said: “Don’t forget the poor!”

And those words came to me: the poor, the poor.

Then, right away, thinking of the poor, I thought of Francis of Assisi.

Then I thought of all the wars, as the votes were still being counted, till the end. Francis is also the man of peace. That is how the name came into my heart: Francis of Assisi.

For me, he is the man of poverty, the man of peace, the man who loves and protects creation; these days we do not have a very good relationship with creation, do we? He is the man who gives us this spirit of peace, the poor man … How I would like a Church which is poor and for the poor!

Afterwards, people were joking with me. “But you should call yourself Hadrian, because Hadrian VI was the reformer, we need a reform…” And someone else said to me: “No, no: your name should be Clement.” “But why?” “Clement XV: thus you pay back Clement XIV who suppressed the Society of Jesus!” These were jokes.

I love all of you very much, I thank you for everything you have done. I pray that your work will always be serene and fruitful, and that you will come to know ever better the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the rich reality of the Church’s life. I commend you to the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Star of Evangelization, and with cordial good wishes for you and your families, each of your families. I cordially impart to all of you my blessing. Thank you.

(In Spanish)

I told you I was cordially imparting my blessing. Since many of you are not members of the Catholic Church, and others are not believers, I cordially give this blessing silently, to each of you, respecting the conscience of each, but in the knowledge that each of you is a child of God. May God bless you!

Bartholomew To Attend March 19 Inauguration

It has been announced that the Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew II, will attend the Mass of the Inauguration of Pope Francis, the first time this has happened since the Great Schism of 1054 A.D., on March 19, Feast of St. Joseph. Other Orthodox leaders with be present, including Metropolitan Hilarion of the Russian Orthodox Church.

This seems to be an act of appreciation of Benedict XVI’s outreach to the Orthodox Church and also a reminder that Catholic/Orthodox dialogue should be important in the Franciscan Pontificate, as should the recovery of our shared heritage, the Church has two lungs not one.

“Think nothing else but that God ordains all, and where there is no love, put love, and you will draw love out.” –St. John of the Cross
Francis’s Schedule for the next few days

On Sunday, 17 March at 12:00 pm, he will recite the first Angelus of his papacy from the papal apartments overlooking St. Peter’s Square, as is customary.

On Tuesday, 19 March, the Feast of St. Joseph, patron of the Church, the Mass to inaugurate the new papacy will be held at 9:30 am in St. Peter’s Square. No tickets will be issued for that Mass. All who wish may attend.

On Wednesday, 20 March, he will hold an audience with fraternal delegates representing the heads of the various Eastern rite Churches so there will not be a General Audience.

Pope Francis

Like good wine that improves with age, let us give the youth the wisdom of our lives.” –Pope Francis, on old age, speaking to the assembled cardinals of the Church on March 15, 2013, two days after his election to the throne of Peter

Pope Francis gave a remarkable reflection today on old age. But before getting to that, first two remarkable videos, courtesy of Rome Reports:

1. Pope Francis receives the keys of the papal apartment 

On Thursday evening, March 14 — 24 hours ago — Pope Francis received the keys to the papal apartments. So the apartments are open again.

Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, 78, who served Pope Benedict XVI as Secretary of State, and was responsible as “Camerlengo” or Chamberlain, during the sede vacante, for sealing the apartments, cut out the red ribbon that sealed the doors, before giving the key to the new pontiff.

Francis was given a silver-colored key to unlock the doors of the apartments where he will now live.

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The Prefect of the Papal Household, Archbishop Georg Gaenswein, then gave the new Pope a walking tour of his new office and meeting rooms.

I recommend taking a look at this video because it is a rare glimpse into the papal apartments. This is where Francis will be living.

Perhaps more important, however, there is something very moving about this video.

The most moving part, I think, is the moment, just a few seconds, when the new Pope stands by the door in the dark, his back facing the camera, looking into the blackness, as Archbishop Gaenswein, Emeritus Pope Benedict’s personal secretary, walks forward into the darkness and finds the light switch.

Gaenswein knows the way because he has lived in this home for nearly eight years.

I note something also that many may know, but that has not been written in many places: this new Pope has no personal secretary.

Yes, Francis is completely alone.

Perhaps he will choose his own personal secretary soon. Or perhaps he will not even have a personal secretary. Or perhaps he will even rely, in some way, on Gaenswein himself, perhaps on a part-time basis, to carry out that task. We do not yet know.

Here is the video, which I heartily recommend that you see:

2. Second, Pope Francis visits Cardinal Mejia

Also late yesterday afternoon, without fanfare, Pope Francis visited a Roman hospital where an elderly cardinal from Argentina, Cardinal Jorge Mejia, 90, is being cared for, after suffering a heart attack on March 13, the same day his fellow Argentine cardinal, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, was elected Pope Francis.

Mejia was born in Buenos Aires in 1923, and was ordained to the priesthood in Buenos Aires. He worked in the Curia for many years, and became Archivist and Librarian of Holy Roman Church. He led the delegation from the Holy See’s Pontifical Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews at a meeting in Rome in 2010 of the Commission for Dialogue between Jews and Catholics from January 17-20. (I know him, and he has always been couteous and generous with his time over the years.)

Meeting with his cardinals at 11 a.m. today (see below), Pope Francis reported to them on Mejia’s condition: “His condition is stable and he sent his greetings to us all.”

The video linked below does not show Francis meeting with Mejia, but it does show the new Pope entering and walking through the hospital. The video has no sound, but it is striking for what it shows of the simplicity of this Pope: no large entourage, no large number of bodyguards, everything very low-key.

Here is the video:

 Pope Francis on Old Age

This morning, Pope Francis gave a very simple reflection on old age which may be worth printing out and posting on your wall.

It may also give us an insight into how Pope Francis, age 76, plans to regard Emeritus Pope Benedict, age 85 — nine years his senior.

He also spoke about creating a “harmony” in the College of Cardinals, words which echoed the words of Pope Benedict on February 28, in his last meeting with the College before his renunciation of the Petrine office and his helicopter flight out of the Vatican to Castel Gandolfo.

So, Francis today, in his first meeting with the cardinals, echoed the words of Benedict in his last meeting with the cardinals.

There is no need for further explanation.

“Courage, dear brothers!” Pope Francis began. “Probably half of us are in our old age. Old age, they say, is the seat of wisdom.

“The old ones have the wisdom that they have earned from walking through life. Like old Simeon and Anna at the temple whose wisdom allowed them to recognize Jesus.

“Let us give with wisdom to the youth: like good wine that improves with age, let us give the youth the wisdom of our lives.”

Francis was addressing the entire College of Cardinals in the Clementine Hall, both electors and non-electors.

He improvised several times during his talk — including when he informed them that Cardinal Mejia had suffered a heart attack two days before and was now recovering at the Pius XI private clinic.

Before beginning his address, the Pope listened to the greeting that Cardinal Angelo Sodano, dean of the College of Cardinals, read to him on behalf of the entire College.

“We give thanks to the Lord our God,” Sodano began. “This is the liturgical invitation that we, the Cardinal Fathers, address to one another, between the ‘seniors’ and the ‘juniors,’ to thank the Lord for the gift that He has made to His Holy Church, giving us a new Shepherd… Know, Holy Father, that all of us, your cardinals, are at your full disposal, seeking to build with you the apostolic cenacle of the nascent Church, the Upper Room of Pentecost. We will try to keep ‘an open mind and a believing heart,’ as you wrote in your book of meditations.”

“Because we are brothers…”

During his own address in reply, Francis said that today’s meeting sought “to be almost an extension of the intense ecclesial communion experienced in this period. Enlivened by a profound sense of responsibility and supported by a great love for Christ and the Church, we have prayed together, sharing our fraternal feelings, our experiences and reflections. A mutual understanding and openness has brown in this climate of great cordiality. This is good because we are brothers.”

He continued: “Someone said to me: ‘The cardinals are the Holy Father’s priests.’ But we are that community, that friendship, that closeness, that will do us all well. And this knowledge, this mutual openness, have facilitated our docility to the Holy Spirit. He, the Paraclete, is the supreme protagonist of every initiative and expression of faith.”

He then added: “It’s curious: It makes me think that the Paraclete makes all the differences in the Churches and seems to be an apostle of Babel. But, on the other hand, [the Holy Spirit] is the one who makes unity of these differences, not in equality, but in harmony.”

“The Holy Spirit is harmony itself”

“I remember the Church Father who defined the Holy Spirit thus: ‘Ipse harmonia est‘ ["The Holy Spirit is harmony itself."]

“This Paraclete who gives, to each of us, different gifts, unites us in this Church community that worships the Father, the Son, and Him, the Holy Spirit.”

These words were very reminiscent of the words of Benedict on February 28.

On that occosion — Benedict’s last meeting with his cardinals — Benedict urged them all to pray so that the College of Cardinals be “like an orchestra” where diversity, as an expression of the Universal Church, always contributes to a higher sense of harmony.

The Church, Pope Benedict stressed then, is a living body, “as was so clearly seen through the crowds gathered in St Peter’s Square for the last Wednesday general audience.”

Through the Church, Benedict said on February 28, the mystery of the Incarnation “remains forever present” so that “Christ continues to walk through all times and in all places.”

For this reason, Francis’ first discourse to the College of Cardinals today must be seen as a clear, direct echo of Benedict’s last discourse to the College.

It is like the handing on of a baton.

And this became even clearer in the remarks Francis then spoke, with an actual citation of Pope Benedict, after having cited… Cardinals Sodano, Bertone, and Re.\

“The Conclave was full of meaning”

Francis noted that “the period of the Conclave was full of meaning, not only for the College of Cardinals, but also for all the faithful. In these days we felt, almost tangibly, the affection and solidarity of the universal Church, as well as the attention of many people who, although they do not share our faith, look to the Church and the Holy See with respect and admiration.”

At the same time, he expressed his gratitude to all the cardinals for their cooperation in the Church’s functions during the Sede Vacante.

He especially thanked Cardinal Angelo Sodano for “his words of devotion and for the well wishes that he extended to me [on behalf of the cardinals].”

He also thanked Cardinal Camerlengo Tarcisio Bertone, S.D.B., “for his thoughtful work in this delicate phase of transition.”

He also thanked Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, cardinal dean of the Conclave “who was our boss in the Conclave: thank you very much!”

Benedict’s teaching will remain “a spiritual heritage”

Francis then continued: “I think with great affection and deep gratitude of my venerable predecessor, Benedict XVI, who during these years of his pontificate has enriched and strengthened the Church with his teaching, his goodness, his guidance, his faith, his humility, and his gentleness, which will remain a spiritual heritage for all.”

Francis noted that, “as Pope Benedict XVI reminded us so often in his teachings and most recently with his brave and humble gesture, Christ is the one who guides the Church through His Spirit.

“The Holy Spirit is the soul of the Church, with his life-giving force that unifies one body from many: the mystical Body of Christ.”

Francis continued: “Let us never give in to pessimism, to that bitterness that the devil offers us every day.

“Do not give in to pessimism and discouragement.

“We have the firm certainty that the Holy Spirit gives the Church with His mighty breath, the courage to persevere and also to seek new methods of evangelization, to bring the Gospel to the ends of the earth.

Then, using words reminiscent of the teaching of don Luigi Giusaani, founder of the Communion and Liberation movement, Francis said:

“The Christian truth is attractive and persuasive because it responds to the deep needs of human existence, convincingly announcing that Christ is the only Savior of the whole person and of all persons.

“This announcement is as valid today as it was at the beginning of Christianity when there was a great missionary expansion of the Gospel.”

And Francis ended his talk by using an expression quite common in Benedict’s teaching, that the “face of Christ” is what we desire to look upon, that the “beautiful face” of that person, Christ, the splendor of that face, will be, in fact, the blessing of ultimate communion in eternity.

“Now,” Francis finished, “return to your Sees to continue your ministry enriched by the experience of these days that have been so full of faith and ecclesial communion. This unique and incomparable experience has allowed us to understand in depth the beauty of ecclesial reality, which is a reflection of the splendor of the Risen Christ. One day we’ll look upon that beautiful face of the Risen Christ.”

Upon finishing his address, the Pope greeted, one by one, all the cardinals present in the Clementine Hall personally.

So, in essence, Francis today, in his first talk to the cardinals, gave a “Ratzingerian,” a “Pope Benedict-like” talk. This was an evident sign of a desire for continuity with the Emeritus Pope who stepped down on February 28.

Controversies and Outreach

Today also was marked by an outburst of allegations in the press alleging that Bergoglio did not conduct himself correctly during the year’s of military Junta rule in Argentina in the 1970s, when an estimated 30,000 government opponents were arrested, and many killed, by the regime.

The Vatican responded to these allegations today with a press communique denying they were true.

RESPONSE TO ACCUSATIONS AGAINST BERGOGLIO IN ARGENTINA

Vatican City, 15 March 2013 (VIS) – At this afternoon’s press conference, Fr. Federico Lombardi, S.J., director of the Holy See Press Office, read a statement responding to allegations made against Cardinal Bergoglio in Argentina. It states:

“The campaign against Bergoglio is well-known and dates back to many years ago. It has been carried out by a publication specializing in sometimes slanderous and defamatory campaigns. The anticlerical cast of this campaign and of other accusations against Bergoglio is well-known and obvious.”

“The charges refer to the time before Bergoglio became bishop [of Buenos Aires], when he was Provincial Superior of the Jesuits in Argentina and accuse him of not having protected two priests who were kidnapped.”

“This was never a concrete or credible accusation in his regard. He was questioned by an Argentinian court as someone aware of the situation but never as a defendant. He has, in documented form, denied any accusations.”

“Instead, there have been many declarations demonstrating how much Bergoglio did to protect many persons at the time of the military dictatorship. Bergoglio’s role, once he became bishop, in promoting a request for forgiveness of the Church in Argentina for not having done enough at the time of the dictatorship is also well-known.”

“The accusations pertain to a use of historical-sociological analysis of the dictatorship period made years ago by left-wing anticlerical elements to attack the Church. They must be firmly rejected.”

“Regarding “Liberation Theology”: Bergoglio has always referred to the Instructions of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. He has always rejected violence saying that its price is always paid by the weakest.”

Francis greets Rome’s Jewish community

Also today, Pope Francis sent a letter to the head of Rome’s Jewish community.

POPE FRANCIS TO RABBI OF ROME: “I HOPE TO CONTRIBUTE TO THE PROGRESS OF RELATIONS BETWEEN JEWS AND CATHOLICS WHICH BEGAN WITH VATICAN COUNCIL II”

Vatican City, 15 March 2013 (VIS) – The Holy Father has sent a message to Dr. Riccardo Di Segni, the Chief Rabbi of Rome, the oldest Jewish community of the diaspora. “On this day of my election as Bishop of Rome and Pastor of the Universal Church,” reads the text, “I send you my cordial greetings, informing you that the solemn inauguration of my pontificate will take place on Tuesday, 19 March.”

“Trusting in the protection of the Most High,” the Pope continues, “I strongly hope to be able to contribute to the progress of the relations that have existed between Jews and Catholics since Vatican Council II in a spirit of renewed collaboration and in service of a world that may always be more in harmony with the Creator’s will.”

Waiting for first appointments: Celli?

The new Pope’s first major decisions will be his appointments, in particular that of Secretary of State.

Veteran American Vaticanist John Thavis writes today: “He clearly needs someone in that position who knows the Roman Curia well enough to navigate its tricky currents, and make reforms without too much collateral damage.

“One Italian who might fit the bill is Archbishop Claudio Celli, who heads the Pontifical Council for Social Communications. A seasoned diplomat who was stationed in Argentina (and who knew then-Father Bergoglio) during the years of the military dictatorship, Celli later worked as a top foreign affairs official in the Secretariat of State, handling Chinese and East European affairs, among others.

“Later, he was for years secretary of the Vatican’s investment and accounting office. As president of the communications council, he has pushed for a greater Vatican presence in social media and helped launch the Pope’s Twitter account.”

Link to the full Thavis article: Thavis article. 

Francis’s Schedule for the next few days

On Saturday at 11:00 am in the Paul VI Hall, the Pope will hold an audience with accredited journalists (permanent and temporary) and those who work in the media.

On Sunday, 17 March at 12:00 pm, he will recite the first Angelus of his papacy from the papal apartments overlooking St. Peter’s Square, as is customary.

On Tuesday, 19 March, the Feast of St. Joseph, patron of the Church, the Mass to inaugurate the new papacy will be held at 9:30 am in St. Peter’s Square. No tickets will be issued for that Mass. All who wish may attend.

On Wednesday, 20 March, he will hold an audience with fraternal delegates representing the heads of the various Eastern rite Churches so there will not be a General Audience.

Pope Francis