Division Is Devil’s Main Weapon, Pope Tells Bishops... from ZENIT in Roswell, Georgia, United States for Friday, 9 September 2016

Division Is Devil’s Main Weapon, Pope Tells Bishops... from ZENIT in Roswell, Georgia, United States for Friday, 9 September 2016
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Division Is Devil’s Main Weapon, Pope Tells Bishops by Kathleen Naab

The devil has two main weapons for damaging the Church, Pope Francis says, and his principle weapon is division.
The Pope said this today when he addressed a group of new bishops assigned to mission territories, who are in Rome for a course sponsored by the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.
After encouraging the bishops to experience God’s mercy as pilgrims so that they can transmit it to their flocks, and to remember to always be close to their priests, the Holy Father had a warning.
“Watch carefully,” he said, “so that all that is put into action for evangelization and the various pastoral activities you promote is not damaged or frustrated by existing divisions or those which can be created. Divisions are the weapon that the devil has most at hand to destroy the Church from within.”
The Pontiff went on to say the devil has two weapons: “but the main one is division, the other is money.”
“The devil enters by the pockets and he destroys with the tongue, with gossip, which divides, and the habit of gossiping is a habit of ‘terrorism,’” he said, using one of his favorite images to describe this sin.
“The gossiper is a ‘terrorist’ that throws the bomb — gossip — to destroy.”
“Please,” the Holy Father exhorted, “fight against divisions, because it is one of the weapons that the devil has to destroy the local Church and the universal Church.”
Noting the particular temptations to division that could arise in these bishops’ work in mission lands, the Pope recognized the challenges in working with various ethnic groups present in the same territory.
Differences among them, he said, “must not penetrate the Christian communities, to the point of prevailing over their good.”
Prayer and penance.
Pope Francis told the bishops they need to pray and to do penance, relying on the grace of God, so that these challenges, though difficult, can be resolved.
“The Church is called to be able to put herself always above tribal-cultural connotations,” he said, “and the bishop, visible principle of unity, has the task to build the particular Church incessantly in the communion of all her members.”
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On ZENIT’s Web page:
Full text: https://zenit.org/articles/popes-address-to-new-bishops-in-mission-territories/
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In New Book, Benedict XVI Explains His Preparation for Meeting With Christ by ZENIT Staff

A new book-length interview with Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI hit bookshelves today in the Italian language. In “Last Conversations” the retired Pontiff is interviewed by German journalist Peter Seewald, the journalist who also interviewed Benedict for other books, including Salt of the Earth, God and the World, and Light of the World.
This latest series of interviews covers a number of themes including Benedict’s decision to resign.
Jesuit Fr Federico Lombardi, who is now president of the Joseph Ratzinger (Benedict XVI ) Foundation, told Vatican Radio there are two very important aspects of this book.
The first he says, is the witness Pope Emeritus Benedict gives as he lives this last phase of his life. “The last time of his life is preparation for the encounter with God. This is a very important witness, profound, spiritual; a witness of faith.”
Fr Lombardi goes on to say that this theme “justifies this book”, because his explanation of “how he experiences now the presence of God in his life is something that is precious and urgent…”
Another key theme says the Ratzinger Foundation president, is “how he says again clearly and I think in a definitive way the reasons of his renunciation, eliminating every rumour, every false interpretation as consequence of the scandals of the difficulties. ‘No,’ he says no, “it was a time I (the Pope Emeritus) had already overcome the difficulties and then there was the good time to take a decision before God in total responsibility and this I have done and I am happy with this decision and I have not changed my mind.””
Recalling other interesting themes and points in the book, Fr Lombardi mentions Pope Benedict’s reflections on his participation at the Second Vatican Council, and his collaboration with St John Paul II. Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI’s “Last Conversations” is released worldwide in Italian as of today.
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Pope’s Morning Homily: Evangelization Is an Art by ZENIT Staff

Evangelization is an art and never “a walk in the park,” Pope Francis said today during morning Mass at the Casa Santa Marta.
Today is the feast of the Jesuit saint Peter Claver, and the Pope recalled his example during the homily, reflecting that evangelization is witnessing to Christ with one’s whole life.
According to Vatican Radio, the Holy Father lamented in the homily that there are some Christians today, who live their lives of service as though they were mere functionaries – priests and lay people who boast of what they do: “This is the boast: I am proud of myself. This reduces the Gospel to a function or even a source of pride: I go to preach the gospel and I’ve brought many people into the Church. To proselytize: that too is a source of pride. To evangelize is not to proselytize. That is, neither coast along, nor reduce the Gospel to rote work, nor to proselytize: none of these is really to evangelize. This is what Paul says here [in the 1st Letter to the Corinthians (9:16-19, 22b-27)]: ‘For me it is not a boast. For me it is a necessity’, adding, ‘one that is laid on me.’ A Christian has an obligation, the force of which is such as to make it like a heartfelt necessity to carry the name of Jesus.”
And what, then, ought to be the “style” by which we evangelize? By “becoming all things to all people,” Francis said, in reference to St. Paul.
He went on to say, “Go and share in the lives of others: accompany them on their journey of faith, that they might grow in faith along their way.”
We must put ourselves in the other’s condition: not to get in others’ way, but to be on the way with them. Pope Francis recalled an episode during lunch with young people at World Youth Day in Krakow, when a boy asked him what he should say to a close friend who was an atheist:
“It’s a good question. We all know people far from the Church: what should we tell them? I said: ‘Look, the last thing you need to do is say something! Begin to do, and he will see what you are doing and ask you about it; and when he asks you, then tell him. To evangelize is to give this testimony: I live the way I do, because I believe in Jesus Christ; I awaken in you a curiosity, so you ask me, ‘But why are you doing these things?’ The answer: ‘Because I believe in Jesus Christ and preach Jesus Christ and not just with the Word’ – you must proclaim the Word – but with your life.”
This is to evangelize, he said, “and this is done free of charge,” because, “we have freely received the Gospel.” Grace, salvation, can be neither bought nor sold: it is free. “We have to give it for free.”
Pope Francis then recalled the figure of St. Peter Claver: a missionary, he noted, who, “who went off to preach the Gospel.” Perhaps, wondered Pope Francis, “he thought his future would be devoted to preaching. The Lord, however, asked him to be close to those, who had been ‘discarded’ at that time: the slaves, the black people who arrived there from Africa, to be sold.”
“This man did not stroll along saying he evangelized: he did not reduce evangelism to a rote task, and even to a proselytizing; he proclaimed Jesus Christ with his actions, speaking to the slaves, living with them, living like them – and there are many like him in the Church – many people who annihilate themselves to proclaim Jesus Christ – and all of us, brothers and sisters, have an obligation to evangelize – and that does not mean a knock on the neighbor’s door to say: ‘Christ is risen!’ – it is living the faith, talking about it with meekness, with love, with no desire to win an argument (It. convincere), but [to give it away] for free: giving away freely that, which God has given to me – that is what it means to evangelize.”
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Readings provided by the US bishops’ conference:
Memorial of Saint Peter Claver, Priest
Lectionary: 441
Reading 1 1 COR 9:16-19, 22B-27
Brothers and sisters:
If I preach the Gospel, this is no reason for me to boast,
for an obligation has been imposed on me,
and woe to me if I do not preach it!
If I do so willingly, I have a recompense,
but if unwillingly, then I have been entrusted with a stewardship.
What then is my recompense?
That, when I preach, I offer the Gospel free of charge
so as not to make full use of my right in the Gospel.Although I am free in regard to all,
I have made myself a slave to all
so as to win over as many as possible.
I have become all things to all, to save at least some.
All this I do for the sake of the Gospel,
so that I too may have a share in it.
Do you not know that the runners in the stadium all run in the race,
but only one wins the prize?
Run so as to win.
Every athlete exercises discipline in every way.
They do it to win a perishable crown,
but we an imperishable one.
Thus I do not run aimlessly;
I do not fight as if I were shadowboxing.
No, I drive my body and train it,
for fear that, after having preached to others,
I myself should be disqualified.
Responsorial Psalm PS 84:3, 4, 5-6, 12
R. (2) How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord, mighty God!
My soul yearns and pines
for the courts of the LORD.
My heart and my flesh
cry out for the living God.
R. How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord, mighty God!
Even the sparrow finds a home,
and the swallow a nest
in which she puts her young—
Your altars, O LORD of hosts,
my king and my God!
R. How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord, mighty God!
Blessed they who dwell in your house!
continually they praise you.
Blessed the men whose strength you are!
their hearts are set upon the pilgrimage.
R. How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord, mighty God!
For a sun and a shield is the LORD God;
grace and glory he bestows;
The LORD withholds no good thing
from those who walk in sincerity.
R. How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord, mighty God!
Alleluia SEE JN 17:17B, 17A
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Your word, O Lord, is truth;
consecrate us in the truth.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel LK 6:39-42
Jesus told his disciples a parable:
“Can a blind person guide a blind person?
Will not both fall into a pit?
No disciple is superior to the teacher;
but when fully trained,
every disciple will be like his teacher.
Why do you notice the splinter in your brother’s eye,
but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own?
How can you say to your brother,
‘Brother, let me remove that splinter in your eye,’
when you do not even notice the wooden beam in your own eye?
You hypocrite! Remove the wooden beam from your eye first;
then you will see clearly
to remove the splinter in your brother’s eye.”
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Program of Pope’s Trip to Sweden for Commemoration of Reformation by ZENIT Staff

The program for Pope Francis’ Oct 31-Nov.1 trip to Sweden for the joint Lutheran-Catholic commemoration of the Reformation was published today.
The Pope will depart from Rome’s Fiumicino airport at 8.20 a.m. and will arrive at 11 a.m. at Malmö, where the official welcome will be held.
He will then pay a courtesy visit to the Swedish royal family in Lund.
He will participate in the joint ecumenical prayer in the Lutheran cathedral of Lund, and in the ecumenical event in the Malmö Arena, where he will conclude the day by meeting with the ecumenical delegations.
On Tuesday 1 November, at 9.30 a.m., he will celebrate Holy Mass in Malmö, after which he will transfer to the city’s airport for the official farewell ceremony.
At 12.45 p.m. he will depart on his return flight, and is expected to arrive at Rome’s Ciampino airport at 3.30 p.m.
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The Joy of Mercy by Archbishop Francesco Follo

Roman Rite
Ex 32, 7-11.13-14; Ps 51; 1 Tim 1.12 -17; Lk 15.1 – 32
Ambrosian Rite
Is 5, 1-7; Ps 79; Gal 2.15 – 20; Mt 21.28 – 32
Second Sunday after the martyrdom of St. John the Precursor
1) The logic of mercy.
The reason why Jesus today tells three parables is explained by St. Luke at the beginning of chapter 15 of his Gospel: “Tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to listen to Jesus,
but the Pharisees and scribes began to complain, saying, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” So to them he addressed these parables.“(See verses 1-3).
In the parable of the sheep lost and found, the shepherd does not interrupt his search until he finds it. It is a stubborn and persevering search and the shepherd is under no circumstances willing to abandon the sheep to its fate. In this story Christ presents a faithful, persevering and tenacious God. God’s heart has one big wish: that every man is not lost and that if he is, the tenacity of the Father consists in being always the Father for his children.
In the parable of the lost drachma it is described the joy of a poor woman who finds what is necessary for her living. To search for this the woman lights a lamp because, at that time, the houses were quite dark and without the light she could not locate her precious coin. When light reflected on the coin making it shine, then it was possible to find it. This teaches us that we can lose ourselves, but we must not stop to “shine” so that we can be found more easily.
In the parable of the lost son (better known as the prodigal son) we contemplate the Father who is faithful to his son and rejoices when he returns to his house, that is a place of forgiveness and celebration.
The Father forgives and hosts a party for this lost and unwise child, who, for the desire to have it all for himself, demanded and obtained “only” his part of inheritance and then dissipated it. The merciful Father not only welcomes again the son but restores his dignity of son (see Pope Francis, General Audience of August 30, 2016). The son receives more than it asks. Grieved for his sin, the young man returns to his father and asks to be received “only” as a servant. To a man who would be content with a servant’s heart, the father gives back a son’s heart.
The prodigal and lost son delivers his pain to the father and the father confirms a love to which the child previously and absurdly had rebelled.
We, too, with our sin reject the free love of God the Father. But when we return to Him converted by his merciful righteousness, we get a dress for the party, a ring and sandals.
To each of us who has converted, the Father says, “Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him.” What was the first garment of Adam? He was naked. His dress was to be the image and likeness of God, that is, to be his son. This is our dress: being children next to the Father. Being his children is our dress, our dignity, our identity.
To each one of us, who returns contrite to the Father, are given the ring and the sandals that confirm that we are sons and not slaves. In fact, to give the ring with the emblem meant to give the seal that implied to have all the family assets and not just one part. The sandals were worn by free men, because slaves went barefoot
2) Justice and love: mercy.
I think it is useful to remember that the mercy of God is inconceivable to man, because it transcends his thoughts. Before comprehending it , I realized it thanks to this event. I was in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, for a course in German, and one day the teacher asked the students to talk about what each of us considered most characteristic of his Country. They knew I was coming from the Vatican so I had to speak of Vatican City. In the ten minutes I had been given, I spoke of the Vatican as a state “functional” because it allows the Holy Father to exercise his “function” as Head of the Universal Church at the service of truth and charity.
After me, came a young Ukrainian, who told the parable of the prodigal son. I was amazed at this choice, but I was even more surprised by the reaction of the four students of South Korea, who said: “It’s really a good story, but it is not human.” These young Asians had realized that the parable could not be the result of the human mind. Only a divine mind could conceive it, only a divine love could achieve it, only a restless human heart can search for it, and only a contrite human heart can receive it and practice it by the works of mercy.
In its essence, mercy expresses the bond of love that unites the Creator to the creature, the father to the son and the children among themselves.
The important thing is to live life as a persevering return to the house of the Father. A return through pain, sorrow and the conversion of heart which means a desire to change and a firm decision to improve our life.
Back to the house of the Father through the sacrament of reconciliation in which, by confessing our sins, we put again Jesus Christ on us and become again his brothers, members of God’s family.
This God, Father rich in mercy, not only waits “anxiously” that we return to Him, but is the first to come to us, repentant sinners. He reaches us while we are still running, embraces us with love and without reproaching our failures and covers us with grace and gifts.
Let’s not stop contemplating with wonder the “father of the prodigal son”, who” is faithful to his fatherhood, faithful to the love that has he always lavished on his son “(St. John Paul II, Dives in Misericordia, IV, 6). This loyalty is expressed by the readiness of the hug and the joy of the feast.
God, in his and our house, is waiting for us, like the father of the parable, although we do not deserve it. The seriousness of our sin is not important. The important thing is that we, prodigal sons, feel the nostalgia of his home, open our hearts to God’s mercy, amazed by the faithful love of the Father, and rejoice in the divine gift of calling ourselves his children and being his children.
3) Virginity, tenderness, mercy.
Commenting this parable of the prodigal son, especially the phrase “When he was still far off, his father saw him, had compassion, ran, embraced and kissed him,” Pope Francis said: “How much affection!” And He added: “He saw him from a distance, it means that he was constantly waiting for him. He was waiting for him, tenderness is something beautiful. “With the word “tenderness “, the Holy Father does not intend an action based solely on emotion or feeling. Tenderness is to accept each other in the totality of what it is. A mother is tender not because gently caresses or kisses her baby, but every time she cares for him with tenderness, solicitude and the gentleness of God’s goodness. Already in the Old Testament the prophets, speaking of God, used a language that recalls the tenderness, intensity and totality of His love, manifested in creation and in the whole history of salvation and that has its culmination in the incarnation of the Son. God, however, always surpasses every human love, as the prophet Isaiah says: “Can a mother forget her infant, be without tenderness for the child of her womb? Even should she forget, I will never forget you “(Is 49, 15)?
The consecrated Virgins in the world are faithful to their vocation when practice chastity as a love for God. In this love is included the love for neighbor that awaits for gestures of mercy and tenderness. With a humble life they go beyond appearances, and discreetly show the tenderness of God that each one of them carries in herself. In this world they follow the invitation “Let your life be a special witness of charity and a visible sign of the kingdom to come” (Ritual of the Consecration of Virgins). With this strong affection they radiate the dignity of being brides of the merciful Christ and testify that those who surrender to the love of God are in joy and peace. Coming close with tenderness and love to situations of suffering and weakness, these consecrated women “illuminate by example the value of the consecrated life so to make it shine the beauty and the holiness in the Church” (Pope Francis).
Patristic Reading
Golden Chain
AMBROSE; St. Luke has given three parables successively; the sheep which was lost and found, the piece of silver which was lost and found, the son who was dead and came to life again, in order that invited by a threefold remedy, we might heal our wounds. Christ as the Shepherd bears you on His own body, the Church as the woman seeks for thee, God as the Father receives you, the first, pity, the second, intercession, the third, reconciliation.
CHRYS. There is also in the above-mentioned parable a rule of distinction with reference to the characters or dispositions of the sinners. The father receives his penitent son, exercising the freedom of his will, so as to know from whence he had fallen; and the shepherd seeks for the sheep that wanders and knows not how to return, and carries it on his shoulders, comparing to an irrational animal the foolish man, who, taken by another’s guile, had wandered like a sheep. This parable is then set forth as follows; But he said, A certain man had two sons. There are some who say of these two sons, that the elder is the angels, but the younger, man, who departed on a long journey, when he fell from heaven and paradise to earth; and they adapt what follows with reference to the fall or condition of Adam. This interpretation seems indeed a lenient one, but I know not if it be true. For the younger son came to repentance of his own accord, remembering the past plenty of his father’s house, but the Lord coming called the race of man to repentance, because he saw that to return of their own accord to whence they had fallen had never been in their thoughts; and the elder son is vexed at the return and safety of his brother, whereas the Lord says, There is joy in heaven over one sinner repenting.
CYRIL; But some say that by the elder son is signified Israel according to the flesh, but by the other who left his father, the multitude of the Gentiles.
AUG. This man then having two sons is understood to be God having two nations, as if they were two roots of the human race; and the one composed of those who have remained in the worship of God, the other, of those who have ever deserted God to worship idols. From the very beginning then of the creation of mankind the elder son has reference to the worship of the one God, but the younger seeks that the part of the substance which fell to him should be given him by his father. Hence it follows, And the younger of them said to his father, Give me the portion of goods which falls to me; just as the soul delighted with its own power seeks that which belongs to it, to live, to understand, to remember, to excel in quickness of intellect, all which are the gifts of God, but it has received them in its own power by free will. Hence it follows, And he divided to them his substance.
THEOPHYL. The substance of man is the capacity of reason which is accompanied by free will, and in like manner whatever God has given us shall be accounted for our substance, as the heaven, the earth, and universal nature, the Law and the Prophets.
AMBROSE; Now you see that the Divine patrimony is given to them that seek; nor think it wrong in the father that he gave it to the younger, for no age is weak in the kingdom of God; faith is not weighed down by years. He at least counted himself sufficient who asked, And I wish he had not departed from his father, nor had the hindrance of age. For it follows, And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country.
CHRYS. The younger son set out into a distant country, not locally departing from God, who is every where present, but in heart. For the sinner flees from God that he may stand afar off.
AUG. Whoever wishes to be so like to God as to ascribe his strength to Him, let him not depart from Him, but rather cleave to Him that he may preserve the likeness and image in which he was made. But if he perversely wishes to imitate God, that as God has no one by whom He is governed, so should he desire to exercise his own power as to live under no rules, what remains for him but that having lost all heat he should grow cold and senseless, and, departing from truth, vanish away.
AUG. But that which is said to have taken place not many days after, namely, that gathering all together he set out abroad into a far country, which is forgetfulness of God, signifies that not long after the institution of the human race, the soul of man chose of its free will to take with it a certain power of its nature, and to desert Him by whom it was created, trusting in its own strength, which it wastes the more rapidly as it has abandoned Him who gave it. Hence it follows, And there wasted his substance in riotous living. But he calls a riotous or prodigal life one that loves to spend and lavish itself with outward show, while exhausting itself within, since every one follows those things which pass on to something else, and forsakes Him who is closest to himself. As it follows, And when he had spent all, there arose a great famine in that land. The famine is the want of the word of truth.
It follows, And he began to be in want. Fitly did he begin to be in want who abandoned the treasures of the wisdom and the knowledge of God, and the unfathomableness of the heavenly riches.
It follows, And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country.
AUG. One of the citizens of that country was a certain prince of the air belonging to the army of the devil, whose fields signify the manner of his power, concerning which it follows, And he sent him into the field to feed swine. The swine are the unclean spirits which are under him.
BEDE; But to feed swine is to work those things in which the unclean spirits delight. It follows, And he would have filled his belly with the husks which the swine did eat. The husk is a sort of bean, empty within, soft outside, by which the body is not refreshed, but filled, so that it rather loads than nourishes.
AUG. The husks then with which the swine were fed are the teaching of the world, which cries loudly of vanity; according to which in various prose and verse men repeat the praises of the idols, and fables belonging to the gods of the Gentiles, wherewith the devils are delighted. Hence when he would fain have filled himself, he wished to find therein something stable and upright which might relate to a happy life, and he could not; as it follows, And no one gave to him.
CYRIL; But since the Jews are frequently reproved in holy Scripture for their many crimes, how agree with this people the words of the elder son, saying, Lo, these many years do I serve you, neither transgressed at any time your commandment. This then is the meaning of the parable. The Pharisees and Scribes reproved Him because He received sinners; He set forth the parable in which He calls God the man who is the father of the two sons, (that is, the righteous and the sinners,) of whom the first degree is of the righteous who follow righteousness from the beginning, the second is of those men who are brought back by repentance to righteousness.
BASIL; Besides, it belongs more to the character of the aged to have an old man’s mind and gravity, than his hairs, nor is he blamed who is young in age, but it is the young in habits who lives according to his passions.
TIT. BOST. The younger son then went away not yet matured in mind, and seeks from his father the part of his inheritance which fell to him, that in truth he might not serve of necessity. For we are rational animals endowed with free will.
CHRYS. Now the Scripture says, that the father divided equally between his two sons his substance, that is, the knowledge of good and evil, which is a true and everlasting possession to the soul that uses it well. The substance of reason which flows from God to men at their earliest birth, is given equally to all who come into this world, but after the intercourse that follows, each one is found to possess more or less of the substance; since one believing that which he has received to be from his father, preserves it as his patrimony, another abuses it as something that may be wasted away, by the liberty of his own possession. But the freedom of will is shown in that the father neither kept back the son who wished to depart, nor forced the other to go that desired to remain, lest he should seem rather the author of the evil that followed. But the youngest son went afar off, not by changing his place, but by turning aside his heart. Hence it follows, He took a journey into a far country.
AMBROSE; For what is more afar off than to depart from one’s self, to be separate not by country but by habits. For he who severs himself from Christ is an exile from his country, and a citizen of this world. Fitly then does he waste his patrimony who departs from the Church.
TIT. BOST. Hence too was the prodigal denominated one who wasted his substance, that is, his right understanding, the teaching of chastity, the knowledge of the truth, the recollections of his father, the sense of creation.
AMBROSE; Now there came to pass in that country a famine not of food but of good works and virtues, which is the more wretched fast. For he who departs from the word of God is hungry, because man does not live on bread alone, but on every word of God. And he who departs from his treasures is in want. Therefore began he to be in want and to suffer hunger, because nothing satisfies a prodigal mind. He went away therefore, and attached himself to one of the citizens. For he who is attached, is in a snare. And that citizen seems to lee a prince of the world. Lastly, he is sent to his farm which he bought who excused himself from the kingdom.
BEDE; For to be sent to the farm is to be enthralled by the desire of worldly substance.
AMBROSE; But he feeds those swine into whom the devil sought to enter, living in filth and pollution.
THEOPHYL. There then he feeds, who surpassed others in vice, such as are panders, arch-robbers, arch-publicans, who teach others their abominable works.
CHRYS. Or he who is destitute of spiritual riches, as wisdom and understanding, is said to feed swine, that is, to nourish in his soul sordid and unclean thoughts, and he devours the material food of evil conversation, sweet indeed to him who lacks good works, because every work of carnal pleasure seems sweet to the depraved, while it inwardly unnerves and destroys the powers of the soul. Food of this kind, as being swines’ food and hurtfully sweet, that is, the allurements of fleshly delights, the Scripture describes by the name of husks.
AMBROSE; But he desired to fill his belly with the husks. For the sensual care for nothing else but to fill their bellies.
THEOPHYL. To whom no one gives a sufficiency of evil; for he is afar from God who lives on such things, and the devils do their best that a satiety of evil should never come.
GLOSS. Or no one gave to him, because when the devil makes any one his own, he procures no further abundance for him, knowing him to be dead.
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Pope’s Address to New Bishops in Mission Territories by ZENIT Staff

Today, Pope Francis received in audience participants in a Seminar for Bishops of Mission Territories, promoted by the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.
Here is a translation of the Pope’s address:
* * *
Dear Brothers,
The Updating Seminar for Recently Appointed Bishops, promoted by the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, offers me the happy occasion to meet and greet you one by one. I thank Cardinal Fernando Filoni for his words and for all the work he carries out with the collaborators of the Dicastery.
Coming to Rome in this Holy Year of Mercy, you are united to so many pilgrims from every part of the world: this experience does all of us so much good; it makes us feel that we are all pilgrims, pilgrims of mercy. We are all in need of Christ’s grace to be merciful as the Father. Every Bishop experiences this reality personally and, as Vicar of the “Great Shepherd of the sheep” (cf. Hebrews 13:20), he is called to manifest God’s paternity –with his life and the episcopal ministry –, the goodness, solicitude, mercy, gentleness together with the authoritativeness of Christ, who came to give His life and make of all men one family, reconciled in the Father’s love. Each one of you has been placed as Pastor in his Diocese, to govern the Church of God in the name of the Father, whose image you render present; in the name of Jesus Christ His Son, by whom you were constituted teachers, priests and guides, and in he name of the Holy Spirit, who gives life to the Church (cf. Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Pastores gregis, 7).
You come from diverse and distant places, and you belong to the great constellation of the so-called “mission territories.” Therefore, each one of you has the great privilege and at the same time the responsibility to be in the front line of evangelization. In the image of the Good Shepherd, you are sent to care for the flock and to go in search of the sheep, especially those that are far and lost; to seek again new ways for the proclamation, to go to encounter persons; to help those who have received the gift of Baptism to grow in the faith, so that believers, including the “tepid” and non-practicing ones, may discover again the joy of the faith and evangelizing fruitfulness (cf. Apostolic ExhortationEvangelii gaudium, 11). Therefore, I encourage you to find the sheep that do not yet belong to Christ’s sheepfold: in fact “evangelization is essentially connected with the proclamation of the Gospel to those that do not know Jesus Christ or have always rejected Him” (Ibid., 14).
In your missionary work you can make use of various collaborators. Many lay faithful, immersed in a world marked by contradictions and injustices, are willing to seek the Lord and to render Him testimony. It corresponds to the Bishop first of all to encourage, accompany and stimulate all the attempts and efforts that are already being made to keep hope and faith alive. The young Churches of which you are Pastors are characterized by the presence of a local clergy which at times is numerous, at times scarce or actually exiguous. In any case, I invite you to pay attention to the preparation of presbyters in the Seminary years, without ceasing to accompany them in permanent formation after their Ordination. Be able to offer them a concrete and tangible example. In so far as it is possible, try to take part with them in the principal formative moments, always taking care also of the personal dimension. Do not forget that the Bishop’s closest neighbor is the presbyter, if he receives a letter, he must answers it immediately, immediately! — the same day, if possible. However, that closeness must begin in the Seminary, during the formation and continued. The Bishop’s closest neighbor is the presbyter.
The dynamism of the Sacrament of Holy Orders, the vocation itself and the episcopal mission, as well as the duty to follow attentively the concrete problems and questions of the society to be evangelized, ask every bishop to tend to the fullness of Christ’s maturity (cf. Ephesians4:13). Also, through the testimony of your human, spiritual and intellectual maturity, centered on pastoral charity, may the charity of Christ and the solicitude of the Church for all men shine ever more clearly in you.
Watch carefully so that all that is put into action for evangelization and the various pastoral activities you promote is not damaged or frustrated by existing divisions or those which can be created. Divisions are the weapon that the devil has most at hand to destroy the Church from within. He has two weapons, but the main one is division, the other is money. The devil enters by the pockets and he destroys with the tongue, with gossip, which divides, and the habit of gossiping is a habit of “terrorism.” The gossiper is a “terrorist” that throws the bomb — gossip — to destroy. Please, fight against divisions, because it is one of the weapons that the devil has to destroy the local Church and the universal Church. In particular the differences, owing to the various ethnic groups present in the same territory, must not penetrate the Christian communities, to the point of prevailing over their good. There are challenges that are difficult to resolve, but with the grace of God, prayer, penance, they can <be resolved>. The Church is called to be able to put herself always above tribal-cultural connotations and the Bishop, visible principle of unity, has the task to build the particular Church incessantly in the communion of all her members.
Dear Brothers, I am sure that what you have been able to share over these days will help each one of you to carry out his ministry with enthusiasm. Take care of the people of God entrusted to you, take care of the Presbyters, and take care of the seminarians. This is your work. May Mary Our Mother protect and sustain you. On my part, I assure you of my prayer; and you also, please pray for me, I need it too!
[Original text: Italian] [Translation by ZENIT]
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Pope’s Address to Benedictine Abbots by ZENIT Staff

On Thursday, Pope Francis received in audience the participants in the International Congress of Benedictine Abbots.
Here is a translation of the Pope’s address:
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Dear Father Abbots,
Dear Sisters,
With joy I give my welcome to you all. I greet the Abbot Primate Dom Notker Wolf, whom I thank for his kind words and especially for the precious service carried out in these years. After sixteen years of traveling around, I wonder: who can stop this man? Your International Congress, which sees you gathered in Rome periodically to reflect on the monastic charism received from Saint Benedict and on how to remain faithful to it in a changing world, has in this circumstance particular significance in the context of the Jubilee of Mercy. It is Christ Himself who invites us to be “merciful as the Father is merciful” (Luke6:36); and you are privileged witnesses of this “how,” of this ‘way” of God’s merciful working. In fact, if it is only in the contemplation of Jesus Christ that one sees the merciful face of the Father (cf. BullMisericordiae Vultus, 1) monastic life constitutes a masterful way to enjoy such a contemplative experience and to translate it in personal and community witness.
Today’s world shows ever more clearly its need of mercy; but this is not a slogan or a recipe: it is the heart of the Christian life and at the same time its concrete style, the breath that animates inter-personal relations and renders one attentive to the neediest and solidaristic with them. It is that which manifests definitively the authenticity and credibility of the message of which the Church is the depositor and herald. Well, in this time and in this Church, called to point ever more on the essential, monks and nuns guard by vocation a peculiar gift and a special responsibility: that of keeping alive the oases of the spirit, where Pastors and faithful can draw from the sources of divine mercy. Therefore, in the recent Apostolic Constitution Vultum Dei quaerere, I turn to the nuns, and by extension to all monks: “May the motto ora et labotra of the Benedictine tradition, which educates to find a balanced relation between the tension towards the Absolute and commitment in daily responsibilities, between the quiet of contemplation and the alacrity of service, be again and always valid for you” (n. 32).
Seeking, with God’s grace, to live as merciful ones in your communities, you proclaim the evangelical fraternity of all your monasteries scattered in every corner of the planet; and you do so through that active and eloquent silence that lets God speak in the deafening and distracted life of the world. May the silence you observe and of which you are the custodians be the necessary “presupposition for a look of faith that receives God’s presence in your personal history, in that of brothers and sisters that the Lord gives you and in the events of the contemporary world” (Ibid., 33). Although you live separated from the world, your cloister is not sterile, rather, it is “a richness and not an impediment to communion” (Ibid., 31). Your work, in harmony with prayer, renders you participants in the creative work of God and makes you “solidaristic with the poor who cannot live without working” (Ibid., 32). With your typical hospitality, you can encounter the hearts of the most lost and distant, of those who find themselves in a grave condition of human and spiritual poverty. Your commitment for the formation and education of youth is also very appreciated and highly qualified. May the students of your schools, through study and your testimony of life, be able to become experts in that humanism that emanates from the Benedictine Rule. And your contemplative life is also a privileged channel to nourish communion with brethren of the Oriental Churches.
May the occasion of the International Congress reinforce your Federation, so that the service of communion and cooperation between the monasteries is always greater and better. Do not let yourselves be discouraged if the members of the monastic communities diminish in number or grow old; on the contrary, keep the zeal of your witness, also in those countries that today are more difficult, with fidelity to the charism and the courage to found new communities. Your service to the Church is very precious. In our time there is also need of men and women that place nothing before the love of Christ (cf. Rule of Saint Benedict, 4, 21; 72, 11), may they nourish themselves daily with the Word of God, may they celebrate the holy liturgy worthily, and may they work happily and actively in harmony with Creation.
Dear brothers and sisters, I thank you for your visit. I bless and accompany you with my prayer; and please, you too pray for me, I need it. Thank you.
[Original text: Italian] [Translation by ZENIT]
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Archbishop Eamon Martin to Lead Pilgrimage in Solidarity With Holy Land Christians by ZENIT Staff

Today Archbishop Eamon Martin of Armagh, Primate of All Ireland, will begin an eight-day pilgrimage of solidarity to the Holy Land accompanied by 177 pilgrims from all around Ireland.
The pilgrimage will have a particular focus on demonstrating solidarity with the local Christian community – which has been diminishing in numbers in recent decades. Speaking ahead of the pilgrimage Archbishop Eamon said, “I am glad to be part of this pilgrimage of prayerful solidarity to the Holy Land. Our presence with God’s people there is much appreciated. It reminds them that they are not forgotten and it brings to the gloom of their suffering a glimpse of Easter hope and joy.”
Archbishop Eamon continued, “Many of the Christians in the Holy Land feel isolated, alone and discouraged. They are fearful of being neglected or even forgotten by their brothers and sisters in other parts of the world. They have asked for our support and our pilgrimage is a tangible expression of our solidarity at this time of their suffering which has come about from persecution because of their faith, and by social and economic marginalisation.”
During the course of the pilgrimage, which will be based around the Sea of Galilee, Bethlehem and Jerusalem, Archbishop Eamon will lead pilgrims in meeting local Christian representatives including the Mayor of Bethlehem, Ms Vera Baboun, and Bishop William Shomali of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem.
Archbishop Eamon said, “Our pilgrimage has a unique character – we come in prayerful solidarity with the Christian community in the Holy Land. They call themselves the ‘living stones’ of the Holy Land – unlike some of the crumbling buildings and ruins which we will see during the pilgrimage.”
It is hoped that the pilgrimage would be the beginning of a series of such trips that will bring more and more Irish people to this historic region. One way to offer both practical and material support to the local communities is the twinning of Irish parishes with parishes in the Holy Land.
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Pope’s Address to “America in Dialogue: Our Common Home” Symposium by ZENIT Staff

On Thursday, Pope Francis received in audience the participants in a Symposium promoted by the Organization of American States and the Institute of Inter-Religious dialogue of Buenos Aires on the theme: “America in Dialogue: Our Common Home” (Augustinianum, Rome, September 7-8).
Here is a ZENIT translation of the Pope’s address:
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Ladies and Gentlemen:
I am happy to welcome all of you, who are taking part in this first meeting: “America in Dialogue: Our Common Home.” I thank the Organization of American States and the Institute of Inter-Religious Dialogue of Buenos Aires, as well as the collaboration of the Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue for their efforts to make this event a reality. I know that you are working jointly on the project to establish an Institute of Dialogue that embraces the whole American continent. To work together is a laudable initiative and I invite you to go forward for the good of the whole world, and not just of America.
This first meeting has focused on the study of the Encyclical Laudato Si’.In it I wished to call attention on the importance to love, respect and safeguard our common home. We cannot but admire the beauty and harmony that exists in all of Creation; it is the gift that God makes to us so that we can find Him and contemplate Him in his work. It is important to wager for an “integral ecology,” in which respect for creatures values the richness they enclose in themselves and puts the human being at the summit of Creation.
Religions have a very important role in this task of promoting care and respect of the environment, especially in this integral ecology. Faith in God leads us to know Him in His Creation, which is fruit of His Love for us, and it calls us to look after and protect nature. For this <to happen> it is necessary that religions promote a true education, at all levels, which will help to spread a responsible and attentive attitude to the exigencies of the care of our world; and, in a special way, to protect, promote and defend human rights (cf. Encyclical Laudato Si’). For example, an interesting thing would be if each one of the participants were to ask himself how this has been incorporated in his country, his city, his environment, or in his religious belief, in his religious community, and in schools. I believe that we are still at the level of “nursery school” in this. In other words, responsibility must be incorporated not only as a subject but as awareness, in an integral education.
Our religious traditions are a necessary source of inspiration to foster a culture of encounter. Inter-religious cooperation, based on the promotion of sincere and respectful dialogue, is essential. If there is no mutual respect there will be no religious dialogue. I remember that in my city, when I was a child, some parish priest ordered the burning of the Evangelicals’ tents and, thank God, this has been surmounted. If there is no mutual respect, there will be no inter-religious dialogue; it is the basis to be able to walk together and address challenges. This dialogue is founded on one’s identity and in mutual trust, which is born when one is able to recognize the other as gift of God and accept that he has something to say to one. The other has something to say to one. Every encounter with the other is a small seed that is deposited; if it is watered with assiduous and respectful treatment, based on the truth, it will grow into a luxuriant tree, with a multitude of fruits, where all can take shelter and be nourished, and no one is excluded and in it, all will be part of a common project, uniting their efforts and aspirations.
In this path of dialogue, we are witnesses of God’s goodness, who has given us life; the latter is sacred and must be respected, not scorned. A believer is a defender of Creation and of life; he cannot remain silent or cross his arms in face of so many rights that are annihilated with impunity. The man and woman of faith are called to defend life in all its stages, physical integrity and fundamental freedoms, such as the freedom of conscience, of thought, of expression and of religion. It is a duty we have, as we believe that God is the architect of Creation and we are instruments in His hands so that all men and women are respected in their dignity and rights, and are able to fulfill themselves as persons.
The world is constantly observing us, believers, to see what our attitude is to our common home and human rights. Moreover, it asks us to collaborate among ourselves and with men and women of good will, who do not profess a religion, so that we give effective answers to the many plagues of our world, such as war and hunger, the misery that afflicts millions of people, the environmental crisis, violence, corruption and moral degradation, the crisis of the family, of the economy and, above all, the lack of hope. Today’s world suffers and needs our joint help, and so it is asking for it. Do you realize that this is light years away from any proselyticing idea?
We see with pain, moreover, that sometimes the name of religion is used to commit atrocities, such as terrorism, and sow fear and violence and, consequently, religions are pointed out as responsible for the evil that surrounds us. It is necessary to condemn jointly and emphatically these abominable actions and to keep one’s distance from all that seeks to poison minds and divide and destroy coexistence. It is necessary to show the positive values that are inherent in our religious traditions to make a solid contribution to hope. Important, therefore, are meetings such as the present one. We must share sorrows as well as hopes, to be able to walk together, taking care of one another and also of Creation, in defense and promotion of the common good. How good it would be to leave the world better than we found it. This is lovely. In a dialogue a couple of years ago, an enthusiast for the care of our common home, said: we must leave our children a better world. But will there me children? answered another.
Finally, this meeting is taking place in the Year dedicated to the Jubilee of Mercy, which has a universal value that embraces both believers as well as non believers, because God’s merciful love has no limits: not of culture, or race, or language or religion: it embraces all those suffering in body and in spirit. Moreover, God’s love envelops the whole of His Creation and we, as believers, have the responsibility to defend, look after and cure the one who needs it. May this circumstance of the Jubilee Year be an occasion to open subsequent areas of dialogue, to go out to encounter suffering brothers, and also to struggle so that our common house is a home where we all have a place and no one is excluded or eliminated. Each human being is the greatest gift God can give us.
I invite you to work and to stimulate initiatives jointly, so that we all become conscious of the need to look after and protect our common home, building a world that is ever more human, where no one is superfluous and where all of us are necessary. And I ask God to bless us all.
[Original text: Spanish] [Translation by ZENIT]
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Dicastery to Offer 2-Year Course on Consecrated Life in Canon Law, Magisterium by ZENIT Staff

The Congregation for the Institutes of Consecrated Life and the Societies of Apostolic Life has issued a communiqué in which it states that, given the fundamental importance of continuing formation for consecrated life, it intends to accompany consecrated men and women on their journey by means of an “Interdisciplinary School for Formation in the Ecclesial Magisterium and canon law on consecrated life”.
The Studium, or School of Theology and Law in Consecrated Life, is described as a school of higher formation in Church teaching and in canon law on the forms of consecrated life in the Church. It proposes a two-year course comprising critical, comparative and interdisciplinary reading of the ecclesial Magisterium and canon law on the theme, as an active foundation in the process of identity of an integrated vision of the Church and the vocation to consecrated life. The interdisciplinary focus of the School combines research and practice, at the same time relating the Traditio of the Church to the flow of contemporary cultural issues, introducing, with targeted itineraries, the experience of the ecclesiology of communion.
To facilitate learning and the students’ approach to this methodology, the School offers a tutor for each language group (English, French, Spanish and Italian) as a point of reference, and for support and assessment throughout the two years. The Studium, accredited with the universities and the Pontifical academies based in Rome, awards the diploma of “Specialisation in the ecclesial Magisterium and canon law of consecrated life”.
In 2017, a continuing education workshop will also be initiated, in which all students may enrol both students and those who do not attend the Studium.
For enrolment and information, please contact the Congregation for the Institutes of Consecrated Life and the Societies of Apostolic Life, Palazzo delle Congregazioni, Piazza Pio XII, 3, Roma; tel 06.69892509 – 06.69892539; e-mail: segretariastudium@religiosi.va
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