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Pope to Roman Clergy: ‘The True Revolution Is to Go to the Roots’ by Federico Cenci
“It is very important to go back to seek the roots of our faith,” said Pope Francis this morning, March 2, 2017, to the priests of the Diocese of Rome, gathered in the Basilica of Saint John Lateran for the traditional appointment at the beginning of Lent.
Before beginning his long meditation, the Pontiff heard the confession of some of the priests. A meditation within which Francis made room also for what he described as “Deuteronomic memory,” in as much as an “analogy with Israel’s memory. “
Just as the Apostles “never forgot the moment in which Jesus touched their heart,” we also must turn our memory to those that have helped us in our Christian journey. “Sometimes they were simple and close persons, who initiated us in the life of faith.” The Bishop of Rome stressed that the “believer is one who fundamentally ‘remembers.’” Therefore, “one cannot believe without memory” and faith is nourished and fed by the memory.”
Moreover, the Lord is “God of our parents and grandparents. He is not God of the last moment, a God without the history of the family, a God who to respond to every new paradigm must discard those that preceded as old and ridiculous.”
The history of the family is “never out of fashion,” he added. “The clothes and hair of grandparents will seem old, they will makes us laugh when we look at the brownish-colored photographs, but the affection of our parents, who gave all of themselves so that we could be here and have what we have, are a lighted flame in every noble heart.”
Therefore, it is necessary to always keep present that, to progress in the faith, “is also an exercise in returning with the memory to fundamental graces.” Bergolio highlighted that “one can progress going back,” going to seek again “treasures and experiences that were forgotten and that many times contain the keys to understand the present.”
For the Pontiff, the “truly revolutionary thing” is “to go to the roots.” To have the concept understood better, he rattled off one of his personal anecdotes, of when during the Exercises, not understanding the preacher, he had in mind a writing that his grandmother had on her night table: “Pay attention as God is looking at you, think that you will die and you don’t know when.” “At that moment, I was blocked and I went forward in prayer, the memory helped me,” confided the Holy Father.
Confirming that a “Christian does not forget his roots,” Francis explained that “the more lucid the memory of the past is, the clearer does the future open, because the really new way can be seen and distinguished from ways already followed which led nowhere.” See, then, that “the faith grows by remembering, by connecting things with the real history lived by our parents and by the whole people of God, by the whole Church.”
Therefore, he added, “the Eucharist is the Memorial of our faith, that which situates us again, daily, in the fundamental event of our salvation, in the Passion, Death and Resurrection of the Lord, center and pivot of history.”
Therefore, the invitation to priests is to “return always to this Memorial” and to “actualize it in a Sacrament that is prolonged in life.”
To go back to the sources of the memory, the Pope suggested a passage of the prophet Jeremiah and another of the prophet Hosea, “in which they speak to us of what the Lord remembers of His People.”
For Jeremiah “the memory of the Lord is that of the beloved bride of his youth, who was then unfaithful to him.” For Hosea, the memory of the Lord is that of the coddled and ungrateful son,” continued the Pontiff.
“Today as then, the infidelity and ingratitude of Pastors has repercussions on the poorest of the faithful people, who remain at the mercy of strangers and idolaters.”
“In Face of Climate Change: Clean Energy, New Agriculture and Intelligent Cities,” Says Academy of Sciences by Sergio Mora
The results of the meeting on Biological Extinction and Proposals to Safeguard the Natural Environment, on which humanity depends, were presented this Thursday in the Holy See Press Office. The workshop, which was held at the Pontifical Academy of Sciences in the Vatican, began on February 27 and ended on March 1.
Professor Werner Arber, Nobel Prize in Medicine and President of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences intervened in the conference, as did two of its academics: Peter Hamilton Raven and Partha Sarathi Dasgupta, and its Chancellor, Archbishop Sanchez Sorondo.
We are convinced that “human activity with fossil elements, mainly oil and carbon, end by producing global warming, altering the cycle of water and causing the extinction of biodiversity,” pointed out Archbishop Sorondo, adding that activities of this type are engaged in primarily by industrialized countries, and everyone feels these changes, but poor populations suffer it especially.
Industrialized countries are primarily responsible, but also poor populations, which need to sell their jungles and forests at ridiculous prices to be able to survive. The solutions proposed are: “change towards clean energy, new agricultural techniques, new ‘intelligent cities,’ small and self-sufficient in energy,” pointed out Archbishop Sanchez Sorondo.
However, not only new urbanizations, as there are old cities, like New Orleans, that are carryng out important changes,’ and these ‘intelligent cities’ enable “the peripheries to live better” as well.
In a more global picture, the total eradication of poverty is necessary, direct or indirect cause of this situation, “not only because human life needs it, but to live also thanks to biodiversity,” explained the Chancellor.
In regard to population, the Chancellor said that the best way to make progress is the existence of the family in the Christian sense, and he stressed that ”the carbonization of the air is not caused by the quantity of the population but by human activity, which uses fossil materials,” he stressed.
For his part, Nobel Prize Professor Werner Arber considered it very important to begin this change not only in the medium term, but also thinking of the next centuries, and educating populations from now on for that purpose.
Pope’s Morning Homily: Pick Up Your Daily Cross by Deborah Castellano Lubov
How can you follow Christ this Lent? Pick up your daily cross…
According to Vatican Radio, Pope Francis stressed this to faithful during his daily morning Mass at Casa Santa Marta, drawing from today’s readings, and reflecting that a Christian’s compass is to follow the crucified Christ.
At the beginning of Lent, we are invited to repent, stressed the Pope. Francis began recalling that today’s liturgy places this exhortation in the context of three realities: man, God, and the journey.
3 Realities
The reality of man, Francis stressed, is that of choosing between good and evil.
“God has made us free, the choice is ours,” the Pope said, “but He does not leave it to us alone; rather, he points out the path of goodness with the Commandments.”
Then there is the reality of God, the Pope noted.
“There is no God, without Christ,” the Pope stressed, noting, “A God without Christ, ‘disincarnate,’ is a god that is not real.”
“The reality of God is God made Christ, for us. To save us. And when we distance ourselves from this, from this reality, and we distance ourselves from the Cross of Christ, from the truth of the wounds of the Lord, we distance ourselves also from love, from the charity [carità] of God, from salvation and going along an ideological street from God, far away.”
“This is not God who came to us and made Himself close to us to save us, and died for us. This [God made Christ for us, to save us] is the reality of God.”
The Holy Father went on to cite a dialogue between an agnostic and a believer, recorded by a French writer of the last century.
“The agnostic of good will asked the believer, ‘But how can I… for me, the problem is how Christ is God: I can’t understand this. How is Christ God?’ And the believer responded, ‘Eh, for me this is not a problem. The problem would be if God would not have been made Christ.’
This, Francis stressed, is the reality of God, namely “God made Christ, God made flesh.” This, he added, is the foundation of the works of mercy.
“The wounds of our brothers are the wounds of Christ, they are the wounds of God, because God is made Christ. The second reality. We cannot live Lent without this reality. We must convert, not to an abstract God, but to the concrete God who is made Christ.”
Reality of the Journey
Turning to the third reality, that of the journey, Francis recalled Jesus’ words: “If anyone wants to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”
“Not doing what I want, but what Jesus wants; following Jesus. And He says that on this path, we lose our life, in order to gain it back later.”
This, Francis noted, requires a continual loss of life,” loss of doing what I want, loss of comforts, being always on the path of Jesus who was at the service of others, [who was] was in adoration of God.”
“This,” Francis said, “is the right path.”
“Indigenous Peoples: Model of Coexistence with Creation,” Says Pope by ZENIT Staff
The Lord has given man an environment of “extraordinary beauty,” however, it is often assaulted by the frenzied desire for profit. To repossess it, it is opportune today to reflect on the model of sustainable development.
This, in short, is Pope Francis’ Message for the Fraternity Campaign organized by the Brazilian Church for Lent, published today, March 1, 2017. This year, the event is focused on the theme of ecosystems and the defense of life.
The Pontiff’s reflection begins precisely with Brazil, whose environmental beauty he acknowledges. “The Creator was generous with Brazil, in as much as He granted it a variety of ecosystems of extraordinary beauty,” he wrote. But, unfortunately, present also are signs of aggression to Creation and of deterioration of nature, he adds.
Francis then recalls the Brazilian Church’s commitment to the care of the environment and of the poor, as well as to the study of the causes of the ecological problems and the ways to overcome them.
To this end, he begins from 1979, the year in which the Fraternity Campaign was launched, focused on the theme: “To Preserve What Belongs to All.” Today’s initiative follows in its wake, drawing inspiration from the biblical verse “The Lord God took man and put him in the Garden of Eden, so that he could cultivate and protect it.” Hence the invitation to “take care of Creation, especially the ecosystems of Brazil, gifts of God and to promote fraternal relations with the life and culture of peoples, in the light of the Gospel.”
According to the Pope, this campaign solicits us to be grateful for and to respect “the diversity of nature, which is manifested in the diverse ecosystem of Brazil – a real gift of God – through the promotion of respectful relations” with the peoples that live in such contexts. This is one of the greatest challenges in all parts of the earth, because environmental degradation is always accompanied by social injustice,” stressed Francis.
Finally, the Holy Father mentions the indigenous peoples, describing them as a model “of the way coexistence with Creation can be respectful,” fruitful and merciful. Looking at them, it is “possible to find a sustainable model that can be an alternative to the frenzied desire for profit which exhausts natural resources and harms the dignity of the poor,” concluded the Pontiff.
Holy See’s Statement on ‘Death Penalty’ at 34th Session of Human Rights Council by ZENIT Staff
Here is the Vatican-provided text of the discourse delivered yesterday, March 1, 2017, by Archbishop Ivan Jurkovič, Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations and Other International Organizations in Geneva, to the 34th Session of the Human Rights Council, Biennial High-Level Panel on “The Death Penalty:”
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Statement by His Excellency Archbishop Ivan Jurkovič, Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations and Other International Organizations in Geneva at the 34th Session of the Human Rights Council – Item 3 – Biennial High-Level Panel on “The Death Penalty”
1st March 2017
Mr. Chairman,
The Holy See thanks the High Commissioner and the distinguished panelists for their presentations. My Delegation appreciates the ongoing efforts toward the elimination of the death penalty in many countries.
Mr. Chairman,
My Delegation reaffirms that life is sacred “…from conception to natural death,”1 and recalls the words Pope Francis, that “even a criminal has the inviolable right to life”.2
In this regard, one should consider that human justice is fallible and that the death penalty per se is irreversible. We should take into account that capital punishment always includes the possibility of taking the life of an innocent person. Moreover, we believe that, whenever possible, the legislative and judicial authorities must always seek to ensure the possibility for guilty parties to make amends and to remedy, at least in part, the impact of their crimes.
At present, there is insufficient evidence that the death penalty has a deterrent effect on crime. As Pope Francis recently has affirmed, in his letter to the President of the International Commission against the Death Penalty, “for a constitutional state the death penalty represents a failure, because it obliges a State to kill in the name of justice.
But justice is never reached by killing a human being”. 3
My Delegation believes that more humane measures are available to address crime, ensuring the victim the right to justice and giving the criminal the chance to reform. Moreover, this will facilitate the development of a more just and fair society, fully respectful of human dignity.
Mr. Chairman,
In conclusion, the Holy See is strongly committed to the aim of abolishing the use of the death penalty, and we firmly support, as an interim measure, the moratoria established by the 2014 General Assembly resolution. Moreover, we take this occasion to encourage States to improve prison conditions in order to guarantee respect for the dignity of every person without regard for criminal status, and to ensure the implementation of the right of the accused to a fair trial and due process.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
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1 Pope Francis, Letter to the president of the International Commission Against the Death Penalty, 20 March 2015.
2 Pope Francis, Angelus, 21 February 2016.
3 Pope Francis, Letter to the president of the International Commission Against the Death Penalty, 20 March 2015.
Statement of Vatican Workshop on ‘Biological Extinction: How to Save the Natural World on Which We Depend’ by ZENIT Staff
The following is the declaration of the workshop held by the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and the Pontifical Academy for Social Sciences on the theme ‘Biological Extinction: How to Save the Natural World on Which We Depend,’ which was published today. The meeting took place Feb. 27-March 1, 2017, at Casina Pio VI in the Vatican Gardens:
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Extinction is Forever: How To Avoid It
A study week was convened at the Casina Pio IV in the Vatican on February 27-March 1, 2007, by the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences to review what we know about biological extinction, its causes and the ways in which we might limit its extent. The participants concluded, based on comparisons with the fossil record, that the current rate of loss of species is approximately 1,000 times the historical rate, with perhaps a quarter of all species in danger of extinction now and as many as half of them may be gone by the end of the present century. Since we depend on living organisms for the functioning of our planet, our food, many of our medicines and other materials, waste absorption and the mediation of our climate, and for much of the beauty of the earth, these losses will inflict incalculable damage on our common prospects unless we control them. We have discovered and described less than one fifth of the species that are estimated to exist, and so we’re throwing away unknown potential and threatening the basic functioning of our planet.
Prior to the development of agriculture some 10,000 years ago, human beings lived as bands of a few dozen individuals for whom survival was an all-encompassing challenge. At that time, there were perhaps one million of us living in the entire world. As our numbers grew, however, we began to form the villages, towns, and cities in which our civilization was developed. A third of the earth was gradually converted to agriculture. By two hundred years ago, we had grown to one billion people for the first time, and then to two billion in 1930 and shooting upward to the 7.4 billion of today. Since 1950, world GDP has grown 15 times while the world population has tripled. This five-fold increase in per capita income has brought huge gains to the contemporary human condition.
Aside from threatening millions of species with extinction, this enormous increase in economic activity based on profit and on the use of fossil fuels is putting huge strains on the earth’s capacity to function sustainably. The most obvious associated signs include global climate change and the concomitant damages to the earth’s system that it brings in its wake, such as sea level rise as well as ocean acidification and anoxia, these feeding back on biological extinction directly.
The human population of earth is marked by vast economic inequality. Thus the richest 19% of the world’s people use well over half of the world’s resources as measured by their consumption. Per capita income of the richest 1.4 billion people averages $41,000; in sharp contrast, the poorest 1 billion people, in Sub-Saharan Africa, have an average income of $3,500. The wealthy are thus substantially responsible for the increase in global warming and, consequently, the decrease in biodiversity. The poorest people, who do not enjoy the benefits of fossil fuels, are indirectly responsible for deforestation and some destruction of biodiversity, because their actions take place within a world economic system dominated by demands made by the wealthy, who have much higher overall consumption levels without paying any externalities to conserve global biodiversity.
Just as human activities are responsible for these negative effects, today we need positive human action for the sustainable development of biodiversity.
An inescapable condition for attaining global sustainability is wealth redistribution, because high levels of consumption anywhere have impacts worldwide in degrading the functioning of earth systems and destroying biodiversity. Ending extreme poverty, which would cost about $175 billion or less than 1% of the combined income of the richest countries in the world, is one major route to protecting our global environment and saving as much biodiversity as possible for the future. This can be accomplished in individual poor regions. In the sea, the establishment of large protected marine reserves is another important element in the preservation of overall biological productivity. To accomplish this, we must follow the conciliatory moral principles outlined so well in the Encyclical Laudato si’ that formed the inspiration for our meeting.
The formation of intensive agricultural systems, when carried out properly through crop rotation and incorporation of livestock and reinvesting profits in regional economies, in suitable regions is an important part of the strategy for protecting biodiversity, because concentrated productivity enables the sustainable development of other regions, conserving biodiversity, as is taking place in the Amazon. Regarding modern genetic methods, as Pope Francis pointed out, “This is a complex environmental issue; it calls for a comprehensive approach which would require, at the very least, greater efforts to finance various lines of independent, interdisciplinary research capable of shedding new light on the problem”. It will also be important to think carefully about the best possible design for the cities of the future, where a large majority of the world’s people will soon be living, whose peripheries must enjoy the same benefits of the city centers.
We concluded our meeting in the spirit of Pope Francis’ eloquent words in his Encyclical Laudato si’ and we left resolved to seek new ways of working together to build a sustainable, stable, and socially just world. The human race has experienced severe local collapse in the past, but now we are threatened on a global level. To solve our common dilemma, we must learn to love one another, to collaborate and to build bridges throughout the world to a degree that has not been imagined previously.[Original text: English]
An Electric Car for the Pope of Laudato Si’ by Anita Bourdin
At the end of January, Berlin businessman Jochen Wermuth sent Pope Francis a white “Leaf” Nisssan for his 80th birthday (December 17, 2016), revealed on Monday, February 27, 2017, the consulting business investment firm, Wermuth Asset Management, thus putting into operation its convictions that one can ally an environmental and social governance and strong performances. The firm published a photo of the Pope next to the businessman, who drove the car around the Vatican enclosure, The news was relayed by Spiegel on February 25, 2017 and, in Austria, by Kathpress agency.
Joche Wermuth, who is Protestant, wished to help the Vatican in view of a complete conversion to electric mobility and renewable energies, in partnership with DriWe, an integrated platform for the management of electric mobility.
Benedict XVI (2005-2013) already encouraged the ecological turning at the Vatican: he had 2,400 photovoltaic panels installed on the roof of the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall, thanks to German enterprise Bonner Solar World AG. And Renault offered him an electric “Kangoo.” The objective was to make Vatican City – with some 600 inhabitants, but millions of visitors – self-sufficient energetically and to have “zero” impact on the environment.
The Pope of “Laudato Si’” (2015) who had his shoes deposited at Paris on the occasion of the UN Conference on the environment, will use this zero emission of CO2 car for brief trips, but he will keep the “popemobile” for his usual outings.
This “Leaf” Nissan is equipped with a photovoltaic panel to keep the freshness of the passenger compartment when stopping and an intelligent charging point, managed by mobile telephone, which enables the batteries to be recharged in about an hour, specified the Italian press.
In the wake of initiatives inspire by Laudato Si’, the Pontifical Academy of Sciences has just organized a colloquium on the theme of the right to water. And the Vatican is also pursuing its action, begun under John Paul II, against the desertification of the Sahel.
In Central African Republic, a Cardinal Visits His Long-suffering Flock by Eva-Maria Kolmann
Cardinal Dieudonné Nzapalainga, the newly-minted cardinal and archbishop of Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic, is on a tour of all the dioceses in the country that is only just emerging from several years of ethnic and sectarian clashes. A recent stop included the Diocese of Bouar in the north-west of the country, where he visited the parish of Bozoum, in the town of Bocarang, which just last month was the scene of violent clashes. Father Aurelio Gazzera, the parish priest of Bozoum, accompanied the Cardinal. Father Gazzera reported on the visit to international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need.
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What was your experience of the visit by Cardinal Nzapalainga to your parish?
Father Aurelio Gazzera: The Cardinal‘s visit reminded me a little of the visit by the Pope to Bangui a year ago. The joy and the hopes of the people that it inspired were very great! The people gave the Cardinal an overwhelming welcome. It was profoundly moving to see how greatly the people genuinely wanted to listen to the Cardinal. And this listening, I truly believe and hope, was for many of them the beginning of a new journey, just as for many people the words of the Pope were a real inspiration, when he visited our country in November 2015.
You were present for two meetings with the rebels of the Antibalaka faction. What can you tell us about them?
The rebels were armed, some of them with ordinary home-made guns they had fashioned out of water pipes, and others with Kalashnikovs. During the war, the Antibalaka were the opponents of the Seleka rebels. Since then they have become a mixed group of men who initially took up arms to protect their families and their villages, but to which a number of youths have now attached themselves; they seek to profit from the situation and live by robbery and extortion. To them the Cardinal addressed a calm but emphatic invitation to change their lives and not allow themselves to be fooled by material things and money—and, above all, not to allow themselves to be led astray by those who were urging them on to violence, only to later abandon them.
What was the most important message of the Cardinal?
I would say that his most important messages were these: first, “Have trust in God; do not fear!” And then: “Take a more farsighted view and do not limit yourselves to looking for satisfaction in material things but have a long-term vision! That will make it possible to have a new country, a new life for everyone!”
Did the Cardinal also speak about the role of the Church?
There was a very intense and moving occasion in Bocaranga when we had gathered together, along with the Cardinal, with around 20 religious from various different mission stations. Among them there were very young novices, sisters who had just taken their permanent vows, as well elderly missionaries who have been working in the Central African Republic for 40 years and more. All of them had remained at their posts, especially during these four years—despite the threats, the attacks and lootings, the attempts at intimidation. The Cardinal emphatically expressed the gratitude of the Church and of the people for this continuing perseverance. And he told us about something that happened in a parish in Bangui at the height of the war. One man said to him, “I stayed put, because I could see the light burning in the convent. And I knew that if [the sisters] were staying, then I could stay as well”
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Aid to the Church in Need is an international Catholic charity under the guidance of the Holy See, providing assistance to the suffering and persecuted Church in more than 140 countries. www.churchinneed.org (USA); www.acnuk.org (UK); www.aidtochurch.org (AUS); www.acnireland.org (IRL); www.acn-aed-ca.org (CAN)
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Pope to Roman Clergy: ‘The True Revolution Is to Go to the Roots’ by Federico Cenci
“It is very important to go back to seek the roots of our faith,” said Pope Francis this morning, March 2, 2017, to the priests of the Diocese of Rome, gathered in the Basilica of Saint John Lateran for the traditional appointment at the beginning of Lent.
Before beginning his long meditation, the Pontiff heard the confession of some of the priests. A meditation within which Francis made room also for what he described as “Deuteronomic memory,” in as much as an “analogy with Israel’s memory. “
Just as the Apostles “never forgot the moment in which Jesus touched their heart,” we also must turn our memory to those that have helped us in our Christian journey. “Sometimes they were simple and close persons, who initiated us in the life of faith.” The Bishop of Rome stressed that the “believer is one who fundamentally ‘remembers.’” Therefore, “one cannot believe without memory” and faith is nourished and fed by the memory.”
Moreover, the Lord is “God of our parents and grandparents. He is not God of the last moment, a God without the history of the family, a God who to respond to every new paradigm must discard those that preceded as old and ridiculous.”
The history of the family is “never out of fashion,” he added. “The clothes and hair of grandparents will seem old, they will makes us laugh when we look at the brownish-colored photographs, but the affection of our parents, who gave all of themselves so that we could be here and have what we have, are a lighted flame in every noble heart.”
Therefore, it is necessary to always keep present that, to progress in the faith, “is also an exercise in returning with the memory to fundamental graces.” Bergolio highlighted that “one can progress going back,” going to seek again “treasures and experiences that were forgotten and that many times contain the keys to understand the present.”
For the Pontiff, the “truly revolutionary thing” is “to go to the roots.” To have the concept understood better, he rattled off one of his personal anecdotes, of when during the Exercises, not understanding the preacher, he had in mind a writing that his grandmother had on her night table: “Pay attention as God is looking at you, think that you will die and you don’t know when.” “At that moment, I was blocked and I went forward in prayer, the memory helped me,” confided the Holy Father.
Confirming that a “Christian does not forget his roots,” Francis explained that “the more lucid the memory of the past is, the clearer does the future open, because the really new way can be seen and distinguished from ways already followed which led nowhere.” See, then, that “the faith grows by remembering, by connecting things with the real history lived by our parents and by the whole people of God, by the whole Church.”
Therefore, he added, “the Eucharist is the Memorial of our faith, that which situates us again, daily, in the fundamental event of our salvation, in the Passion, Death and Resurrection of the Lord, center and pivot of history.”
Therefore, the invitation to priests is to “return always to this Memorial” and to “actualize it in a Sacrament that is prolonged in life.”
To go back to the sources of the memory, the Pope suggested a passage of the prophet Jeremiah and another of the prophet Hosea, “in which they speak to us of what the Lord remembers of His People.”
For Jeremiah “the memory of the Lord is that of the beloved bride of his youth, who was then unfaithful to him.” For Hosea, the memory of the Lord is that of the coddled and ungrateful son,” continued the Pontiff.
“Today as then, the infidelity and ingratitude of Pastors has repercussions on the poorest of the faithful people, who remain at the mercy of strangers and idolaters.”
“In Face of Climate Change: Clean Energy, New Agriculture and Intelligent Cities,” Says Academy of Sciences by Sergio Mora
The results of the meeting on Biological Extinction and Proposals to Safeguard the Natural Environment, on which humanity depends, were presented this Thursday in the Holy See Press Office. The workshop, which was held at the Pontifical Academy of Sciences in the Vatican, began on February 27 and ended on March 1.
Professor Werner Arber, Nobel Prize in Medicine and President of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences intervened in the conference, as did two of its academics: Peter Hamilton Raven and Partha Sarathi Dasgupta, and its Chancellor, Archbishop Sanchez Sorondo.
We are convinced that “human activity with fossil elements, mainly oil and carbon, end by producing global warming, altering the cycle of water and causing the extinction of biodiversity,” pointed out Archbishop Sorondo, adding that activities of this type are engaged in primarily by industrialized countries, and everyone feels these changes, but poor populations suffer it especially.
Industrialized countries are primarily responsible, but also poor populations, which need to sell their jungles and forests at ridiculous prices to be able to survive. The solutions proposed are: “change towards clean energy, new agricultural techniques, new ‘intelligent cities,’ small and self-sufficient in energy,” pointed out Archbishop Sanchez Sorondo.
However, not only new urbanizations, as there are old cities, like New Orleans, that are carryng out important changes,’ and these ‘intelligent cities’ enable “the peripheries to live better” as well.
In a more global picture, the total eradication of poverty is necessary, direct or indirect cause of this situation, “not only because human life needs it, but to live also thanks to biodiversity,” explained the Chancellor.
In regard to population, the Chancellor said that the best way to make progress is the existence of the family in the Christian sense, and he stressed that ”the carbonization of the air is not caused by the quantity of the population but by human activity, which uses fossil materials,” he stressed.
For his part, Nobel Prize Professor Werner Arber considered it very important to begin this change not only in the medium term, but also thinking of the next centuries, and educating populations from now on for that purpose.
Pope’s Morning Homily: Pick Up Your Daily Cross by Deborah Castellano Lubov
How can you follow Christ this Lent? Pick up your daily cross…
According to Vatican Radio, Pope Francis stressed this to faithful during his daily morning Mass at Casa Santa Marta, drawing from today’s readings, and reflecting that a Christian’s compass is to follow the crucified Christ.
At the beginning of Lent, we are invited to repent, stressed the Pope. Francis began recalling that today’s liturgy places this exhortation in the context of three realities: man, God, and the journey.
3 Realities
The reality of man, Francis stressed, is that of choosing between good and evil.
“God has made us free, the choice is ours,” the Pope said, “but He does not leave it to us alone; rather, he points out the path of goodness with the Commandments.”
Then there is the reality of God, the Pope noted.
“There is no God, without Christ,” the Pope stressed, noting, “A God without Christ, ‘disincarnate,’ is a god that is not real.”
“The reality of God is God made Christ, for us. To save us. And when we distance ourselves from this, from this reality, and we distance ourselves from the Cross of Christ, from the truth of the wounds of the Lord, we distance ourselves also from love, from the charity [carità] of God, from salvation and going along an ideological street from God, far away.”
“This is not God who came to us and made Himself close to us to save us, and died for us. This [God made Christ for us, to save us] is the reality of God.”
The Holy Father went on to cite a dialogue between an agnostic and a believer, recorded by a French writer of the last century.
“The agnostic of good will asked the believer, ‘But how can I… for me, the problem is how Christ is God: I can’t understand this. How is Christ God?’ And the believer responded, ‘Eh, for me this is not a problem. The problem would be if God would not have been made Christ.’
This, Francis stressed, is the reality of God, namely “God made Christ, God made flesh.” This, he added, is the foundation of the works of mercy.
“The wounds of our brothers are the wounds of Christ, they are the wounds of God, because God is made Christ. The second reality. We cannot live Lent without this reality. We must convert, not to an abstract God, but to the concrete God who is made Christ.”
Reality of the Journey
Turning to the third reality, that of the journey, Francis recalled Jesus’ words: “If anyone wants to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”
“Not doing what I want, but what Jesus wants; following Jesus. And He says that on this path, we lose our life, in order to gain it back later.”
This, Francis noted, requires a continual loss of life,” loss of doing what I want, loss of comforts, being always on the path of Jesus who was at the service of others, [who was] was in adoration of God.”
“This,” Francis said, “is the right path.”
“Indigenous Peoples: Model of Coexistence with Creation,” Says Pope by ZENIT Staff
The Lord has given man an environment of “extraordinary beauty,” however, it is often assaulted by the frenzied desire for profit. To repossess it, it is opportune today to reflect on the model of sustainable development.
This, in short, is Pope Francis’ Message for the Fraternity Campaign organized by the Brazilian Church for Lent, published today, March 1, 2017. This year, the event is focused on the theme of ecosystems and the defense of life.
The Pontiff’s reflection begins precisely with Brazil, whose environmental beauty he acknowledges. “The Creator was generous with Brazil, in as much as He granted it a variety of ecosystems of extraordinary beauty,” he wrote. But, unfortunately, present also are signs of aggression to Creation and of deterioration of nature, he adds.
Francis then recalls the Brazilian Church’s commitment to the care of the environment and of the poor, as well as to the study of the causes of the ecological problems and the ways to overcome them.
To this end, he begins from 1979, the year in which the Fraternity Campaign was launched, focused on the theme: “To Preserve What Belongs to All.” Today’s initiative follows in its wake, drawing inspiration from the biblical verse “The Lord God took man and put him in the Garden of Eden, so that he could cultivate and protect it.” Hence the invitation to “take care of Creation, especially the ecosystems of Brazil, gifts of God and to promote fraternal relations with the life and culture of peoples, in the light of the Gospel.”
According to the Pope, this campaign solicits us to be grateful for and to respect “the diversity of nature, which is manifested in the diverse ecosystem of Brazil – a real gift of God – through the promotion of respectful relations” with the peoples that live in such contexts. This is one of the greatest challenges in all parts of the earth, because environmental degradation is always accompanied by social injustice,” stressed Francis.
Finally, the Holy Father mentions the indigenous peoples, describing them as a model “of the way coexistence with Creation can be respectful,” fruitful and merciful. Looking at them, it is “possible to find a sustainable model that can be an alternative to the frenzied desire for profit which exhausts natural resources and harms the dignity of the poor,” concluded the Pontiff.
Holy See’s Statement on ‘Death Penalty’ at 34th Session of Human Rights Council by ZENIT Staff
Here is the Vatican-provided text of the discourse delivered yesterday, March 1, 2017, by Archbishop Ivan Jurkovič, Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations and Other International Organizations in Geneva, to the 34th Session of the Human Rights Council, Biennial High-Level Panel on “The Death Penalty:”
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Statement by His Excellency Archbishop Ivan Jurkovič, Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations and Other International Organizations in Geneva at the 34th Session of the Human Rights Council – Item 3 – Biennial High-Level Panel on “The Death Penalty”
1st March 2017
Mr. Chairman,
The Holy See thanks the High Commissioner and the distinguished panelists for their presentations. My Delegation appreciates the ongoing efforts toward the elimination of the death penalty in many countries.
Mr. Chairman,
My Delegation reaffirms that life is sacred “…from conception to natural death,”1 and recalls the words Pope Francis, that “even a criminal has the inviolable right to life”.2
In this regard, one should consider that human justice is fallible and that the death penalty per se is irreversible. We should take into account that capital punishment always includes the possibility of taking the life of an innocent person. Moreover, we believe that, whenever possible, the legislative and judicial authorities must always seek to ensure the possibility for guilty parties to make amends and to remedy, at least in part, the impact of their crimes.
At present, there is insufficient evidence that the death penalty has a deterrent effect on crime. As Pope Francis recently has affirmed, in his letter to the President of the International Commission against the Death Penalty, “for a constitutional state the death penalty represents a failure, because it obliges a State to kill in the name of justice.
But justice is never reached by killing a human being”. 3
My Delegation believes that more humane measures are available to address crime, ensuring the victim the right to justice and giving the criminal the chance to reform. Moreover, this will facilitate the development of a more just and fair society, fully respectful of human dignity.
Mr. Chairman,
In conclusion, the Holy See is strongly committed to the aim of abolishing the use of the death penalty, and we firmly support, as an interim measure, the moratoria established by the 2014 General Assembly resolution. Moreover, we take this occasion to encourage States to improve prison conditions in order to guarantee respect for the dignity of every person without regard for criminal status, and to ensure the implementation of the right of the accused to a fair trial and due process.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
***
1 Pope Francis, Letter to the president of the International Commission Against the Death Penalty, 20 March 2015.
2 Pope Francis, Angelus, 21 February 2016.
3 Pope Francis, Letter to the president of the International Commission Against the Death Penalty, 20 March 2015.
Statement of Vatican Workshop on ‘Biological Extinction: How to Save the Natural World on Which We Depend’ by ZENIT Staff
The following is the declaration of the workshop held by the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and the Pontifical Academy for Social Sciences on the theme ‘Biological Extinction: How to Save the Natural World on Which We Depend,’ which was published today. The meeting took place Feb. 27-March 1, 2017, at Casina Pio VI in the Vatican Gardens:
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Extinction is Forever: How To Avoid It
A study week was convened at the Casina Pio IV in the Vatican on February 27-March 1, 2007, by the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences to review what we know about biological extinction, its causes and the ways in which we might limit its extent. The participants concluded, based on comparisons with the fossil record, that the current rate of loss of species is approximately 1,000 times the historical rate, with perhaps a quarter of all species in danger of extinction now and as many as half of them may be gone by the end of the present century. Since we depend on living organisms for the functioning of our planet, our food, many of our medicines and other materials, waste absorption and the mediation of our climate, and for much of the beauty of the earth, these losses will inflict incalculable damage on our common prospects unless we control them. We have discovered and described less than one fifth of the species that are estimated to exist, and so we’re throwing away unknown potential and threatening the basic functioning of our planet.
Prior to the development of agriculture some 10,000 years ago, human beings lived as bands of a few dozen individuals for whom survival was an all-encompassing challenge. At that time, there were perhaps one million of us living in the entire world. As our numbers grew, however, we began to form the villages, towns, and cities in which our civilization was developed. A third of the earth was gradually converted to agriculture. By two hundred years ago, we had grown to one billion people for the first time, and then to two billion in 1930 and shooting upward to the 7.4 billion of today. Since 1950, world GDP has grown 15 times while the world population has tripled. This five-fold increase in per capita income has brought huge gains to the contemporary human condition.
Aside from threatening millions of species with extinction, this enormous increase in economic activity based on profit and on the use of fossil fuels is putting huge strains on the earth’s capacity to function sustainably. The most obvious associated signs include global climate change and the concomitant damages to the earth’s system that it brings in its wake, such as sea level rise as well as ocean acidification and anoxia, these feeding back on biological extinction directly.
The human population of earth is marked by vast economic inequality. Thus the richest 19% of the world’s people use well over half of the world’s resources as measured by their consumption. Per capita income of the richest 1.4 billion people averages $41,000; in sharp contrast, the poorest 1 billion people, in Sub-Saharan Africa, have an average income of $3,500. The wealthy are thus substantially responsible for the increase in global warming and, consequently, the decrease in biodiversity. The poorest people, who do not enjoy the benefits of fossil fuels, are indirectly responsible for deforestation and some destruction of biodiversity, because their actions take place within a world economic system dominated by demands made by the wealthy, who have much higher overall consumption levels without paying any externalities to conserve global biodiversity.
Just as human activities are responsible for these negative effects, today we need positive human action for the sustainable development of biodiversity.
An inescapable condition for attaining global sustainability is wealth redistribution, because high levels of consumption anywhere have impacts worldwide in degrading the functioning of earth systems and destroying biodiversity. Ending extreme poverty, which would cost about $175 billion or less than 1% of the combined income of the richest countries in the world, is one major route to protecting our global environment and saving as much biodiversity as possible for the future. This can be accomplished in individual poor regions. In the sea, the establishment of large protected marine reserves is another important element in the preservation of overall biological productivity. To accomplish this, we must follow the conciliatory moral principles outlined so well in the Encyclical Laudato si’ that formed the inspiration for our meeting.
The formation of intensive agricultural systems, when carried out properly through crop rotation and incorporation of livestock and reinvesting profits in regional economies, in suitable regions is an important part of the strategy for protecting biodiversity, because concentrated productivity enables the sustainable development of other regions, conserving biodiversity, as is taking place in the Amazon. Regarding modern genetic methods, as Pope Francis pointed out, “This is a complex environmental issue; it calls for a comprehensive approach which would require, at the very least, greater efforts to finance various lines of independent, interdisciplinary research capable of shedding new light on the problem”. It will also be important to think carefully about the best possible design for the cities of the future, where a large majority of the world’s people will soon be living, whose peripheries must enjoy the same benefits of the city centers.
We concluded our meeting in the spirit of Pope Francis’ eloquent words in his Encyclical Laudato si’ and we left resolved to seek new ways of working together to build a sustainable, stable, and socially just world. The human race has experienced severe local collapse in the past, but now we are threatened on a global level. To solve our common dilemma, we must learn to love one another, to collaborate and to build bridges throughout the world to a degree that has not been imagined previously.[Original text: English]
An Electric Car for the Pope of Laudato Si’ by Anita Bourdin
At the end of January, Berlin businessman Jochen Wermuth sent Pope Francis a white “Leaf” Nisssan for his 80th birthday (December 17, 2016), revealed on Monday, February 27, 2017, the consulting business investment firm, Wermuth Asset Management, thus putting into operation its convictions that one can ally an environmental and social governance and strong performances. The firm published a photo of the Pope next to the businessman, who drove the car around the Vatican enclosure, The news was relayed by Spiegel on February 25, 2017 and, in Austria, by Kathpress agency.
Joche Wermuth, who is Protestant, wished to help the Vatican in view of a complete conversion to electric mobility and renewable energies, in partnership with DriWe, an integrated platform for the management of electric mobility.
Benedict XVI (2005-2013) already encouraged the ecological turning at the Vatican: he had 2,400 photovoltaic panels installed on the roof of the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall, thanks to German enterprise Bonner Solar World AG. And Renault offered him an electric “Kangoo.” The objective was to make Vatican City – with some 600 inhabitants, but millions of visitors – self-sufficient energetically and to have “zero” impact on the environment.
The Pope of “Laudato Si’” (2015) who had his shoes deposited at Paris on the occasion of the UN Conference on the environment, will use this zero emission of CO2 car for brief trips, but he will keep the “popemobile” for his usual outings.
This “Leaf” Nissan is equipped with a photovoltaic panel to keep the freshness of the passenger compartment when stopping and an intelligent charging point, managed by mobile telephone, which enables the batteries to be recharged in about an hour, specified the Italian press.
In the wake of initiatives inspire by Laudato Si’, the Pontifical Academy of Sciences has just organized a colloquium on the theme of the right to water. And the Vatican is also pursuing its action, begun under John Paul II, against the desertification of the Sahel.
In Central African Republic, a Cardinal Visits His Long-suffering Flock by Eva-Maria Kolmann
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What was your experience of the visit by Cardinal Nzapalainga to your parish?
Father Aurelio Gazzera: The Cardinal‘s visit reminded me a little of the visit by the Pope to Bangui a year ago. The joy and the hopes of the people that it inspired were very great! The people gave the Cardinal an overwhelming welcome. It was profoundly moving to see how greatly the people genuinely wanted to listen to the Cardinal. And this listening, I truly believe and hope, was for many of them the beginning of a new journey, just as for many people the words of the Pope were a real inspiration, when he visited our country in November 2015.
You were present for two meetings with the rebels of the Antibalaka faction. What can you tell us about them?
The rebels were armed, some of them with ordinary home-made guns they had fashioned out of water pipes, and others with Kalashnikovs. During the war, the Antibalaka were the opponents of the Seleka rebels. Since then they have become a mixed group of men who initially took up arms to protect their families and their villages, but to which a number of youths have now attached themselves; they seek to profit from the situation and live by robbery and extortion. To them the Cardinal addressed a calm but emphatic invitation to change their lives and not allow themselves to be fooled by material things and money—and, above all, not to allow themselves to be led astray by those who were urging them on to violence, only to later abandon them.
What was the most important message of the Cardinal?
I would say that his most important messages were these: first, “Have trust in God; do not fear!” And then: “Take a more farsighted view and do not limit yourselves to looking for satisfaction in material things but have a long-term vision! That will make it possible to have a new country, a new life for everyone!”
Did the Cardinal also speak about the role of the Church?
There was a very intense and moving occasion in Bocaranga when we had gathered together, along with the Cardinal, with around 20 religious from various different mission stations. Among them there were very young novices, sisters who had just taken their permanent vows, as well elderly missionaries who have been working in the Central African Republic for 40 years and more. All of them had remained at their posts, especially during these four years—despite the threats, the attacks and lootings, the attempts at intimidation. The Cardinal emphatically expressed the gratitude of the Church and of the people for this continuing perseverance. And he told us about something that happened in a parish in Bangui at the height of the war. One man said to him, “I stayed put, because I could see the light burning in the convent. And I knew that if [the sisters] were staying, then I could stay as well”
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Aid to the Church in Need is an international Catholic charity under the guidance of the Holy See, providing assistance to the suffering and persecuted Church in more than 140 countries. www.churchinneed.org (USA); www.acnuk.org (UK); www.aidtochurch.org (AUS); www.acnireland.org (IRL); www.acn-aed-ca.org (CAN)
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Pope’s Ash Wednesday Homily: ‘Return to the Lord With All Your Heart’...for Wednesday, 1 March 2017 Zenith in Roswell, Georgia, United States
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Pope’s Ash Wednesday Homily: ‘Return to the Lord With All Your Heart’ by Deborah Castellano Lubov
“Return to me with all your heart… return to the Lord”
Pope Francis repeated this advice during tonight’s Mass at Rome’s Basilica of Saint Sabina, as he recalled how the prophet Joel makes this plea to the people in the Lord’s name.
This afternoon –Ash Wednesday, the day marking the beginning of Lent – an assembly of prayer took place in the form of the Roman “Stations,” presided over by Pope Francis. At 4:30 pm, in the church of Saint Anselm all”Aventino, a moment of prayer was held followed by a penitential procession to the Basilica of Saint Sabina.
Taking part in the procession were cardinals, archbishops, bishops, Benedictine monks of Saint Anselm, Dominican fathers of Saint Sabina and some faithful. At the end of the procession, Pope Francis presided over the celebration of the Eucharist in the Basilica of Saint Sabina, with the rite of the blessing and imposition of ashes.
In his homily, during the Mass at St. Sabina, the Pope noted that we, today, are to take up this appeal, to return to the merciful heart of the Father.
“In this season of grace that begins today, we once again turn our eyes to his mercy,” the Pope noted, adding, “Lent is a path: it leads to the triumph of mercy over all that would crush us or reduce us to something unworthy of our dignity as God’s children.”
No Longer to Be Slaves, But Free
“Lent,” Francis noted, “is the road leading from slavery to freedom, from suffering to joy, from death to life.”
The mark of the ashes with which we set out, the Pontiff highlighted, reminds us of our origin, namely that we were taken from the earth, we are made of dust. However, he stressed, we are dust in the loving hands of God, Who has breathed His spirit of life upon each one of us, and still wants to do so.
He wants to keep giving us that breath of life that saves us from every other type of breath: the stifling asphyxia brought on by our selfishness, the stifling asphyxia generated by petty ambition and silent indifference – an asphyxia that smothers the spirit, narrows our horizons and slows the beating of our hearts. The breath of God’s life saves us from this asphyxia that dampens our faith, cools our charity and strangles every hope.
To experience Lent, the Pope said, is to yearn for this breath of life that our Father unceasingly offers us amid the mire of our history.
“The breath of God’s life sets us free from the asphyxia that so often we fail to notice, or become so used to that it seems normal, even when its effects are felt. We think it is normal because we have grown so accustomed to breathing air in which hope has dissipated, the air of glumness and resignation, the stifling air of panic and hostility.”
Time to Say No
Lent, the Holy Father also reminded, is the time for saying no.
“No to the spiritual asphyxia born of the pollution caused by indifference, by thinking that other people’s lives are not my concern, and by every attempt to trivialize life, especially the lives of those whose flesh is burdened by so much superficiality. Lent means saying no to the toxic pollution of empty and meaningless words, of harsh and hasty criticism, of simplistic analyses that fail to grasp the complexity of problems, especially the problems of those who suffer the most.
“Lent is the time to say no to the asphyxia of a prayer that soothes our conscience, of an almsgiving that leaves us self-satisfied, of a fasting that makes us feel good. Lent is the time to say no to the asphyxia born of relationships that exclude, that try to find God while avoiding the wounds of Christ present in the wounds of his brothers and sisters: in a word, all those forms of spirituality that reduce the faith to a ghetto culture, a culture of exclusion.”
Time to Remember
Lent, he added, is a time for remembering, and asking ourselves what we would be if God had closed his doors to us.
“What would we be without his mercy that never tires of forgiving us and always gives us the chance to begin anew? Lent is the time to ask ourselves where we would be without the help of so many people who in a thousand quiet ways have stretched out their hands and in very concrete ways given us hope and enabled us to make a new beginning?”
Lent, the Pope noted, is the time to start breathing again, to open our hearts to the breath of the One capable of turning our dust into humanity.
“It is a time to set aside everything that isolates us, encloses us and paralyzes us.”
Pope Francis concluded, noting,”Lent is a time of compassion, when, with the Psalmist, we can say: “Restore to us the joy of your salvation, sustain in us a willing spirit”, so that by our lives we may declare your praise (cf. Ps 51:12.15), and our dust – by the power of your breath of life – may become a “dust of love.”
***
On ZENIT’s Web page:
Full Text: https://zenit.org/articles/popes-homily-at-ash-wednesday-mass-at-basilica-of-st-sabina-allaventino/
Pope at General Audience: ‘Let Lent Free Us From Our Slavery’ by Deborah Castellano Lubov
Lent is a time for us to no longer be slaves, but to be free and full of hope.
Pope Francis stressed this during the General Audience at 9:30 a.m.today, Ash Wednesday, in St. Peter’s Square. Continuing with the series of catecheses on Christian hope, in his address in Italian, the Pope focused his meditation on the theme: “Lent, Journey of Hope” (Exodus 3:7-8.10)
Francis recalled how the Church instituted Lent as a time of preparation for Easter and, therefore, the whole meaning of these 40 days draws light from the paschal mystery, to which it is oriented.
“We can imagine the Risen Lord, Who calls us to come out of our darkness, and we set out on the way to Him, who is the Light,” Francis said, reminding: “Lent is a journey towards the Risen Jesus.”
Lent is, by its nature, a time of hope, he stressed.
To understand better what this means, the Jesuit Pope highlighted, we must remember the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt, narrated in the Book of Exodus in the Bible. While the point of departure is the condition of slavery in Egypt, he noted, the Lord has not forgotten His people and His promise. “He calls Moses and, with a powerful arm, has the Israelites leave Egypt and guides them through the desert to the land of freedom.”
“And these 40 days are, for all of us also,” Francis said, “a going out from slavery, from sin, to freedom, to the encounter with the Risen Christ. Every step, every effort, every trial, every fall and every recovery, all make sense only within the plan of salvation of God, who wants life for His people and not death, joy and not sorrow.”
Jesus’ Easter is His exodus, the Pope said, with which He has opened the way for us to attain full, eternal and blessed life. To open the way for us to eternal life cost Him all His blood, and, thanks to Him, we are saved from the slavery of sin.
“But this does not mean that He did everything and we have nothing to do, that He went through the Cross and we “go to Paradise in a carriage.”
“It’s not so,” Francis clarified, saying, “Our salvation is certainly His gift, but, because it is a story of love, it requires our “yes” and our participation in His love, as our Mother Mary shows us and, after her, all the Saints.”
Lent, the lives of this dynamic, the Holy Father said, noting namely that in which Christ precedes us with His exodus, and we go through the desert thanks to Him and behind Him.
“Lent is a “sacramental sign of our conversion” (Roman Missal, Collect, First Sunday of Lent); one who undertakes the way of Lent is always on the way of conversion. Lent is the sacramental sign of our journey from slavery to freedom, ever to be renewed — a journey that is certainly demanding, as it is right that it should be, because love is demanding, but it is a journey full of hope.”
Rather, I will say more: the Lenten exodus is the journey in which hope itself is formed.
“The exhaustion of crossing the desert – all the trials, the temptations, the illusions, the mirages . . .–, all this is useful to forge a strong, solid hope on the model of that of the Virgin Mary, who in the midst of the darkness of the Passion and Death of her Son continued to believe and to hope in His Resurrection, in the victory of God’s love.”
Pope Francis concluded, praying, “Let us enter Lent today with a heart open to this horizon. Feeling ourselves part of the people of God, we begin with joy this journey of hope.”
“Today, Ash Wednesday,” Pope Francis said, “the Lord indicates the path of hope to follow. May the Holy Spirit lead you to fulfill a true journey of conversion, to rediscover the gift of the Word of God, to be purified from sin and to serve Christ present in brothers.”
***
On ZENIT’s Web page:
Full Text: https://zenit.org/articles/general-audience-on-lent-journey-of-hope/
Pope to Middle East Pilgrims: ‘Lent Is a Journey of Hope’ by Deborah Castellano Lubov
“I give a warm welcome to the Arabic-speaking pilgrims, particularly those from Iraq, Jordan and the Middle East!”, said Pope Francis during the General Audience of March 1, 2017.
This morning’s General Audience was held at 9:30 in St. Peter’s Square, where the Holy Father Francis met with groups of pilgrims and faithful from Italy and from all over the world.
The Pope spoke in Italian, translated immediately into Arabic by one of his collaborators in the Roman Curia: “Lent is a journey of hope: the hope of reaching the Passover through the desert of fasting and of mortification; a journey of faith, where we experience the love faithfulness of God who never abandons us; a penitential journey, where salvation is accomplished and fulfilled through the free response of man; a path of liberation from the idols of the world to come to the freedom of God’s children; a journey of the victory over the temptations with the help of prayer and the sacraments.”
“I wish you good Lent,” Francis said, noting, “May the Lord bless you all and protect you from the evil one!”
Pope Praying for Supporting Persecuted Christians in March by Deborah Castellano Lubov
Pope Francis in January will be praying for support for persecuted Christians.
The Pope’s intention for March was announced by the Apostleship of Prayer.
The March intention in full is: “Support for persecuted Christians: that persecuted Christians may be supported by the prayers and material help of the whole Church.”
This is the only monthly prayer intention released, as Pope Francis this year decided to make a change to the practice of having two monthly prayer intentions established beforehand for each month.
At the end of last year, the Apostleship of Prayer announced, “Starting in 2017, the Pope will present only one prepared prayer intention per month, rather than the two presented before this year. He plans, however, to add a second prayer intention each month related to current events or urgent needs, like disaster relief. The urgent prayer request will help mobilize prayer and action related to the urgent situation. The Apostleship of Prayer will publish these urgent prayer intentions on this website as soon as we receive them from the Vatican.”
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See more: https://zenit.org/articles/pope-francis-to-change-practice-of-his-monthly-intentions/
Pope’s Homily at Ash Wednesday Mass at Basilica of St. Sabina All’Aventino by ZENIT Staff
This afternoon –Ash Wednesday, day of the beginning of Lent – an assembly of prayer took place in the form of the Roman “Stations,” presided over by Pope Francis.
At 4:30 pm, in the church of Saint Anselm all”Aventino, a moment of prayer was held followed by a penitential procession to the Basilica of Saint Sabina. Taking part in the procession were Cardinals, Archbishops, Bishops, Benedictine monks of Saint Anselm, Dominican Fathers of Saint Sabina and some faithful. At the end of the procession, Pope Francis presided over the celebration of the Eucharist in the Basilica of Saint Sabina, with the rite of the blessing and imposition of ashes.
The following is a translation of the homily that the Pope delivered after the proclamation of the Holy Gospel.
* * *
“Return to me with all your heart… return to the Lord” (Jl 2:12, 13). The prophet Joel makes this plea to the people in the Lord’s name. No one should feel excluded: “Assemble the aged, gather the children, even infants at the breast, the bridegroom… and the bride” (v. 16). All the faithful people are summoned to come and worship their God, “for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love” (v. 13).
We too want to take up this appeal; we want to return to the merciful heart of the Father. In this season of grace that begins today, we once again turn our eyes to his mercy. Lent is a path: it leads to the triumph of mercy over all that would crush us or reduce us to something unworthy of our dignity as God’s children. Lent is the road leading from slavery to freedom, from suffering to joy, from death to life. The mark of the ashes with which we set out reminds us of our origin: we were taken from the earth, we are made of dust. True, yet we are dust in the loving hands of God, who has breathed his spirit of life upon each one of us, and still wants to do so. He wants to keep giving us that breath of life that saves us from every other type of breath: the stifling asphyxia brought on by our selfishness, the stifling asphyxia generated by petty ambition and silent indifference – an asphyxia that smothers the spirit, narrows our horizons and slows the beating of our hearts. The breath of God’s life saves us from this asphyxia that dampens our faith, cools our charity and strangles every hope. To experience Lent is to yearn for this breath of life that our Father unceasingly offers us amid the mire of our history.
The breath of God’s life sets us free from the asphyxia that so often we fail to notice, or become so used to that it seems normal, even when its effects are felt. We think it is normal because we have grown so accustomed to breathing air in which hope has dissipated, the air of glumness and resignation, the stifling air of panic and hostility.
Lent is the time for saying no. No to the spiritual asphyxia born of the pollution caused by indifference, by thinking that other people’s lives are not my concern, and by every attempt to trivialize life, especially the lives of those whose flesh is burdened by so much superficiality. Lent means saying no to the toxic pollution of empty and meaningless words, of harsh and hasty criticism, of simplistic analyses that fail to grasp the complexity of problems, especially the problems of those who suffer the most. Lent is the time to say no to the asphyxia of a prayer that soothes our conscience, of an almsgiving that leaves us self-satisfied, of a fasting that makes us feel good. Lent is the time to say no to the asphyxia born of relationships that exclude, that try to find God while avoiding the wounds of Christ present in the wounds of his brothers and sisters: in a word, all those forms of spirituality that reduce the faith to a ghetto culture, a culture of exclusion.
Lent is a time for remembering. It is the time to reflect and ask ourselves what we would be if God had closed his doors to us. What would we be without his mercy that never tires of forgiving us and always gives us the chance to begin anew? Lent is the time to ask ourselves where we would be without the help of so many people who in a thousand quiet ways have stretched out their hands and in very concrete ways given us hope and enabled us to make a new beginning?
Lent is the time to start breathing again. It is the time to open our hearts to the breath of the One capable of turning our dust into humanity. It is not the time to rend our garments before the evil all around us, but instead to make room in our life for all the good we are able to do. It is a time to set aside everything that isolates us, encloses us and paralyzes us. Lent is a time of compassion, when, with the Psalmist, we can say: “Restore to us the joy of your salvation, sustain in us a willing spirit”, so that by our lives we may declare your praise (cf. Ps 51:12.15), and our dust – by the power of your breath of life – may become a “dust of love”.[Original text: Italian] [Vatican-provided text]
GENERAL AUDIENCE: Pope: ‘May Lent Renew Our Hope in Christ’s Promises’ by ZENIT Staff
Here is the Vatican-provided English-language summary of the Pope’s address at the General Audience this morning:
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Speaker: Dear Brothers and Sisters: Today, Ash Wednesday, we begin our Lenten journey towards Easter. Lent is essentially a pilgrimage of hope, a season of penance and spiritual renewal that prepares us to share more fully in the mystery of Christ’s death and resurrection. We relive the experience of the Exodus, in which the Chosen People journeyed towards the Promised Land and, through spiritual discipline and the gift of the Law, learned the love of God and neighbour. Easter is Jesus’ own exodus, his passover from death to life, in which we participate through our rebirth in Baptism. By following Christ along the way of the Cross, we share in his victory over sin and death; by living the new life bestowed by the Holy Spirit in the communion of the Church, we are united more fully to the Lord in the sacraments, prayer and adoration. May our celebration of Lent renew our hope in Christ’s promises, and our commitment to follow him ever more closely, so that at Easter, in union with Mary our Mother, we may rejoice in the gift of eternal life and the triumph of God’s saving love.
Speaker: I greet the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors taking part in today’s Audience, particularly the groups from Korea and the United States of America. May the Lenten journey we begin today bring us to Easter with hearts purified and renewed by the grace of the Holy Spirit. Upon you and your families I invoke an abundance of joy and peace in Christ our Redeemer. God bless you all!
[Original text: English]© Libreria editrice vaticana
GENERAL AUDIENCE: On Lent, Journey of Hope by ZENIT Staff
The General Audience was held at 9:30 this morning, Ash Wednesday, in St. Peter’s Square, where the Holy Father Francis met with groups of pilgrims and faithful from Italy and from all over the world.
Continuing with the series of catecheses on Christian hope, in his address in Italian the Pope focused his meditation on the theme: “Lent, Journey of Hope” (Exodus 3:7-8.10).
After summarizing his catechesis in several languages, the Holy Father expressed special greetings to groups of faithful present.
The General Audience ended with the singing of the Pater Noster and the Apostolic Blessing.
* * *
The Holy Father’s Catechesis
Dear Brothers and Sisters, good morning!
On this day, Ash Wednesday, we enter the liturgical Season of Lent. And as we are carrying out a series of catecheses on Christian hope, I would like to present Lent to you today as a journey of hope.
In fact, this perspective is immediately evident if we think that the Church instituted Lent as a time of preparation for Easter and, therefore, the whole meaning of these forty days draws light from the paschal mystery, to which it is oriented. We can imagine the Risen Lord, who calls us to come out of our darkness, and we set out on the way to Him, who is the Light. And Lent is a journey towards the Risen Jesus, it is a period of penance, also of mortification, but not as an end in itself, rather geared to make us rise again with Christ, to renew our baptismal identity, namely, to be reborn again “from on high,” from the love of God (cf. John 3:3). See why Lent is, by its nature, a time of hope.
To understand better what this means, we must refer to the fundamental experience of the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt, narrated by the Bible in the Book that bears this name: Exodus. The point of departure is the condition of slavery in Egypt, oppression, forced labor. However, the Lord has not forgotten His people and His promise: He calls Moses and, with a powerful arm, has the Israelites leave Egypt and guides them through the desert to the land of freedom. During this journey from slavery to freedom, the Lord gives the Israelites the Law, to educate them to love Him, only Lord, and to love one another as brothers. Scripture shows that the exodus was long and troubled: it lasted symbolically 40 years, namely, the lifetime of a generation. A generation that, in face of the trials of the journey, was always tempted to regret Egypt and to turn back. We also know the temptation to turn back, all of us. But the Lord remains faithful and those poor people, led by Moses, arrived at the Promised Land. The whole of this journey was undertaken in hope: the hope of reaching the Land, and in this sense it is precisely an “exodus,” a going out of slavery to freedom. And these 40 days are, for all of us also, a going out from slavery, from sin, to freedom, to the encounter with the Risen Christ. Every step, every effort, every trial, every fall and every recovery, all make sense only within the plan of salvation of God, who wants life for His people and not death, joy and not sorrow.
Jesus’ Easter is His exodus, with which He has opened the way for us to attain full, eternal and blessed life. To open this way, this passage, Jesus had to strip Himself of His glory, humble Himself, be obedient to death and to death on the cross. To open the way for us to eternal life cost Him all His blood, and, thanks to Him, we are saved from the slavery of sin. But this does not mean that He did all and we have nothing to do, that He went through the cross and we “go to Paradise in a carriage.” It’s not so. Our salvation is certainly His gift, but, because it is a story of love, it requires our “yes” and our participation in His love, as our Mother Mary shows us and, after her, all the Saints.
Lent lives of this dynamic: Christ precedes us with His exodus, and we go through the desert thanks to Him and behind Him. He was tempted for us, and He defeated the Tempter for us, but with Him, we must also face temptations and overcome them. He gives us the living water of His Spirit, and it is for us to draw from His source and drink, in the Sacraments, in prayer, in adoration. He is the light that overcomes the darkness, and we are asked to kindle the little flame that was entrusted to us on the day of our Baptism.
In this sense, Lent is a “sacramental sign of our conversion” (Roman Missal, Collect, First Sunday of Lent); one who undertakes the way of Lent is always on the way of conversion. Lent is the sacramental sign of our journey from slavery to freedom, ever to be renewed — a journey that is certainly demanding, as it is right that it should be, because love is demanding, but <it is> a journey full of hope. Rather, I will say more: the Lenten exodus is the journey in which hope itself is formed. The exhaustion of crossing the desert – all the trials, the temptations, the illusions, the mirages . . .–, all this is useful to forge a strong, solid hope on the model of that of the Virgin Mary, who in the midst of the darkness of the Passion and Death of her Son continued to believe and to hope in His Resurrection, in the victory of God’s love.
Let us enter Lent today with a heart open to this horizon. Feeling ourselves part of the people of God, we begin with joy this journey of hope.[Original text: Italian] [Translation by Virginia M. Forrester]
In Italian
A warm greeting goes to the Italian-speaking faithful. I am happy to receive the parish groups and the Associations, in particular the Friends of the Heart of Altamura, thanking them for the gift of the defibrillator. I greet the students of Civitavecchia, Legnano, Cislago, Thiene and Celafu, as well as the Livia Bottardi Technical Institute for Tourism of Rome and the Dutch Christian school of Meppel. I hope that for each one this meeting at the beginning of Lent arouses a spiritual renewal, with participation in the Lenten celebrations and in the solidarity campaigns that many ecclesial organizations, in different parts of the world, promote to witness their closeness to needy brothers.
A special thought goes to young people, the sick and newlyweds. Dear brothers, today, Ash Wednesday, the Lord indicates the path of hope to follow. May the Holy Spirit lead you to fulfill a true journey of conversion, to rediscover the gift of the Word of God, to be purified from sin and to serve Christ present in brothers.[Original text: Italian] [Translation by Virginia M. Forrester]
Pope’s Message for Lent 2017 by ZENIT Staff
‘The Word is a gift. Other persons are a gift’ is the title of Pope Francis’ message for Lent 2017 (1 March to 15 April).
Taking as a starting point the parable of the rich man and Lazarus from the Gospel of St. Luke (Lk 16: 19-31), the Holy Father divides his message into three sections:
“The Other Person Is a Gift”
“Sin Blinds Us”
“The Word Is a Gift”
The document, signed on 18 October, feast of St. Luke the Evangelist, concludes with the Pope’s prayer: ‘May the Holy Spirit lead us on a true journey of conversion.’ (D.C.L.)
Below is the Vatican-provided full text of the Pope’s Message:
***
‘The Word is a gift. Other persons are a gift’
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Lent is a new beginning, a path leading to the certain goal of Easter, Christ’s victory over death. This season urgently calls us to conversion. Christians are asked to return to God “with all their hearts” (Joel 2:12), to refuse to settle for mediocrity and to grow in friendship with the Lord. Jesus is the faithful friend who never abandons us. Even when we sin, he patiently awaits our return; by that patient expectation, he shows us his readiness to forgive (cf. Homily, 8 January 2016).
Lent is a favorable season for deepening our spiritual life through the means of sanctification offered us by the Church: fasting, prayer and almsgiving. At the basis of everything is the word of God, which during this season we are invited to hear and ponder more deeply. I would now like to consider the parable of the rich man and Lazarus (cf. Lk 16:19-31). Let us find inspiration in this meaningful story, for it provides a key to understanding what we need to do in order to attain true happiness and eternal life. It exhorts us to sincere conversion.
1. The other person is a gift
The parable begins by presenting its two main characters. The poor man is described in greater detail: he is wretched and lacks the strength even to stand. Lying before the door of the rich man, he fed on the crumbs falling from his table. His body is full of sores and dogs come to lick his wounds (cf. vv. 20-21). The picture is one of great misery; it portrays a man disgraced and pitiful.
The scene is even more dramatic if we consider that the poor man is called Lazarus: a name full of promise, which literally means “God helps”. This character is not anonymous. His features are clearly delineated and he appears as an individual with his own story. While practically invisible to the rich man, we see and know him as someone familiar. He becomes a face, and as such, a gift, a priceless treasure, a human being whom God loves and cares for, despite his concrete condition as an outcast (cf. Homily, 8 January 2016).
Lazarus teaches us that other persons are a gift. A right relationship with people consists in gratefully recognizing their value. Even the poor person at the door of the rich is not a nuisance, but a summons to conversion and to change. The parable first invites us to open the doors of our heart to others because each person is a gift, whether it be our neighbor or an anonymous pauper. Lent is a favorable season for opening the doors to all those in need and recognizing in them the face of Christ. Each of us meets people like this every day. Each life that we encounter is a gift deserving acceptance, respect and love. The word of God helps us to open our eyes to welcome and love life, especially when it is weak and vulnerable. But in order to do this, we have to take seriously what the Gospel tells us about the rich man.
2. Sin blinds us
The parable is unsparing in its description of the contradictions associated with the rich man (cf. v. 19). Unlike poor Lazarus, he does not have a name; he is simply called “a rich man”. His opulence was seen in his extravagant and expensive robes. Purple cloth was even more precious than silver and gold, and was thus reserved to divinities (cf. Jer 10:9) and kings (cf. Jg 8:26), while fine linen gave one an almost sacred character. The man was clearly ostentatious about his wealth, and in the habit of displaying it daily: “He feasted sumptuously every day” (v. 19). In him we can catch a dramatic glimpse of the corruption of sin, which progresses in three successive stages: love of money, vanity and pride (cf. Homily, 20 September 2013).
The Apostle Paul tells us that “the love of money is the root of all evils” (1 Tim 6:10). It is the main cause of corruption and a source of envy, strife and suspicion. Money can come to dominate us, even to the point of becoming a tyrannical idol (cf. Evangelii Gaudium, 55). Instead of being an instrument at our service for doing good and showing solidarity towards others, money can chain us and the entire world to a selfish logic that leaves no room for love and hinders peace.
The parable then shows that the rich man’s greed makes him vain. His personality finds expression in appearances, in showing others what he can do. But his appearance masks an interior emptiness. His life is a prisoner to outward appearances, to the most superficial and fleeting aspects of existence (cf. ibid., 62).
The lowest rung of this moral degradation is pride. The rich man dresses like a king and acts like a god, forgetting that he is merely mortal. For those corrupted by love of riches, nothing exists beyond their own ego. Those around them do not come into their line of sight. The result of attachment to money is a sort of blindness. The rich man does not see the poor man who is starving, hurting, lying at his door.
Looking at this character, we can understand why the Gospel so bluntly condemns the love of money: “No one can be the slave of two masters: he will either hate the first and love the second, or be attached to the first and despise the second. You cannot be the slave both of God and of money” (Mt 6:24).
3. The Word is a gift
The Gospel of the rich man and Lazarus helps us to make a good preparation for the approach of Easter. The liturgy of Ash Wednesdayinvites us to an experience quite similar to that of the rich man. When the priest imposes the ashes on our heads, he repeats the words: “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return”. As it turned out, the rich man and the poor man both died, and the greater part of the parable takes place in the afterlife. The two characters suddenly discover that “we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it” (1 Tim 6:7).
We too see what happens in the afterlife. There the rich man speaks at length with Abraham, whom he calls “father” (Lk 16:24.27), as a sign that he belongs to God’s people. This detail makes his life appear all the more contradictory, for until this moment there had been no mention of his relation to God. In fact, there was no place for God in his life. His only god was himself.
The rich man recognizes Lazarus only amid the torments of the afterlife. He wants the poor man to alleviate his suffering with a drop of water. What he asks of Lazarus is similar to what he could have done but never did. Abraham tells him: “During your life you had your fill of good things, just as Lazarus had his fill of bad. Now he is being comforted here while you are in agony” (v. 25). In the afterlife, a kind of fairness is restored and life’s evils are balanced by good.
The parable goes on to offer a message for all Christians. The rich man asks Abraham to send Lazarus to warn his brothers, who are still alive. But Abraham answers: “They have Moses and the prophets, let them listen to them” (v. 29). Countering the rich man’s objections, he adds: “If they will not listen either to Moses or to the prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone should rise from the dead” (v. 31).
The rich man’s real problem thus comes to the fore. At the root of all his ills was the failure to heed God’s word. As a result, he no longer loved God and grew to despise his neighbor. The word of God is alive and powerful, capable of converting hearts and leading them back to God. When we close our heart to the gift of God’s word, we end up closing our heart to the gift of our brothers and sisters.
Dear friends, Lent is the favorable season for renewing our encounter with Christ, living in his word, in the sacraments and in our neighbor. The Lord, who overcame the deceptions of the Tempter during the forty days in the desert, shows us the path we must take. May the Holy Spirit lead us on a true journey of conversion, so that we can rediscover the gift of God’s word, be purified of the sin that blinds us, and serve Christ present in our brothers and sisters in need. I encourage all the faithful to express this spiritual renewal also by sharing in the Lenten Campaigns promoted by many Church organizations in different parts of the world, and thus to favor the culture of encounter in our one human family. Let us pray for one another so that, by sharing in the victory of Christ, we may open our doors to the weak and poor. Then we will be able to experience and share to the full the joy of Easter.
From the Vatican, 18 October 2016,
Feast of Saint Luke the Evangelist
FRANCIS
Original text: English]© Copyright – Libreria Editrice Vaticana
Cardinal Sean O’Malley’s Statement on Resignation of Marie Collins from Protection of Minors’ Commission by ZENIT Staff
Cardinal Seán O’Malley, archbishop of Boston and president of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, today issued the following statement regarding resignation of Marie Collins from the Commission:
__
“On behalf of the Members of the Commission, I have expressed to Marie Collins our most sincere thanks for the extraordinary contributions she has made as a founding member of the Commission. We will certainly listen carefully to all that Marie wishes to share with us about her concerns and we will greatly miss her important contributions as a member of the Commission. As the Commission gathers for the plenary meeting next month we will have an opportunity to discuss these matters. With the members of the Commission I am deeply grateful for Marie’s willingness to continue to work with us in the education of church leaders, including the upcoming programs for new bishops and for the dicasteries of the Holy See. Our prayers will remain with Marie and with all victims and survivors of sexual abuse.”
Shahbaz Bhatti: The Mission of a “True Politician,” According to Cardinal Parolin by Federico Cenci
“There are persons who are willing to die for an ideal in which they believe. Among these is Shahbaz Bhatti, Federal Minister of Minorities of Pakistan, killed on March 2, 2011 at Islamabad by armed men.” Thus writes the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, in the Preface of the book, which goes on sale today and is published by Saint Paul’s: “Shabaz – The Voice of Justice,” written by Paul Bhatti, Pakistani doctor and politician, older brother of the martyred Minister.
The author reviews his brother’s life with private memories and family anecdotes, up to his commitment in politics and worry over the constant threats that led to the day of his assassination.
The commitment of a Christian politician, killed six years ago, whom Parolin praises, pointing him out as a model. “A politician in the true sense of the term, who chose the Gospel as his style of life and marked his work with it,” writes the Cardinal.
The Vatican Secretary of States pauses, in particular, on the “unforgettable phrases” that Shahbaz Bhatti has left us as testament, some of which are reported in the volume in question. They “express the depth of his intimate relation with Christ,” notes Parolin.
Bhatti’s ideal was not “a simple idea, not a mere value, though noble and lofty. It was what Christians have that is most dear, namely, Christ Himself,” reflects the Cardinal. In fact, in his spiritual testament he wrote: “I want to live for Christ and I want to die for Him.”
As Cardinal Parolin highlights in the preface, from the book it emerges how Shahbaz Bhatti had at heart the lot of the poorest, of the weakest, of the last.” And “among these, he kept a particular place for the Christian minority of Pakistan.
“To fulfil his mission, the martyred politician “was a sincere promoter of inter-religious dialogue, of ecumenism and of peace between peoples, showing that only open encounter can educate the new generations to listen, to tolerance and to peaceful coexistence,” continues Parolin.
Cardinal Parolin recalls that Bhatti made service to Christ his “life’s program,” as he himself wrote: “High posts in the government were proposed to me and I was asked to abandon my battle, but I always refused, even at the risk of my life itself. My answer was always the same: ‘No, I want to serve Jesus as an ordinary man.’”
See, then, how Bhatti did not draw back in face of “the powers of the world,” in as much as he was “aware that nothing and no one could tear him from the hand of his Lord,” stresses the Vatican Secretary of State.
The example of altruism and courage that this book transmits can enrich us all. And it “helps us to not forget the Christians of Pakistan and their difficulties,” concludes Cardinal Parolin.
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Pope’s Ash Wednesday Homily: ‘Return to the Lord With All Your Heart’...for Wednesday, 1 March 2017 Zenith in Roswell, Georgia, United States
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Pope’s Ash Wednesday Homily: ‘Return to the Lord With All Your Heart’ by Deborah Castellano Lubov
“Return to me with all your heart… return to the Lord”
Pope Francis repeated this advice during tonight’s Mass at Rome’s Basilica of Saint Sabina, as he recalled how the prophet Joel makes this plea to the people in the Lord’s name.
This afternoon –Ash Wednesday, the day marking the beginning of Lent – an assembly of prayer took place in the form of the Roman “Stations,” presided over by Pope Francis. At 4:30 pm, in the church of Saint Anselm all”Aventino, a moment of prayer was held followed by a penitential procession to the Basilica of Saint Sabina.
Taking part in the procession were cardinals, archbishops, bishops, Benedictine monks of Saint Anselm, Dominican fathers of Saint Sabina and some faithful. At the end of the procession, Pope Francis presided over the celebration of the Eucharist in the Basilica of Saint Sabina, with the rite of the blessing and imposition of ashes.
In his homily, during the Mass at St. Sabina, the Pope noted that we, today, are to take up this appeal, to return to the merciful heart of the Father.
“In this season of grace that begins today, we once again turn our eyes to his mercy,” the Pope noted, adding, “Lent is a path: it leads to the triumph of mercy over all that would crush us or reduce us to something unworthy of our dignity as God’s children.”
No Longer to Be Slaves, But Free
“Lent,” Francis noted, “is the road leading from slavery to freedom, from suffering to joy, from death to life.”
The mark of the ashes with which we set out, the Pontiff highlighted, reminds us of our origin, namely that we were taken from the earth, we are made of dust. However, he stressed, we are dust in the loving hands of God, Who has breathed His spirit of life upon each one of us, and still wants to do so.
He wants to keep giving us that breath of life that saves us from every other type of breath: the stifling asphyxia brought on by our selfishness, the stifling asphyxia generated by petty ambition and silent indifference – an asphyxia that smothers the spirit, narrows our horizons and slows the beating of our hearts. The breath of God’s life saves us from this asphyxia that dampens our faith, cools our charity and strangles every hope.
To experience Lent, the Pope said, is to yearn for this breath of life that our Father unceasingly offers us amid the mire of our history.
“The breath of God’s life sets us free from the asphyxia that so often we fail to notice, or become so used to that it seems normal, even when its effects are felt. We think it is normal because we have grown so accustomed to breathing air in which hope has dissipated, the air of glumness and resignation, the stifling air of panic and hostility.”
Time to Say No
Lent, the Holy Father also reminded, is the time for saying no.
“No to the spiritual asphyxia born of the pollution caused by indifference, by thinking that other people’s lives are not my concern, and by every attempt to trivialize life, especially the lives of those whose flesh is burdened by so much superficiality. Lent means saying no to the toxic pollution of empty and meaningless words, of harsh and hasty criticism, of simplistic analyses that fail to grasp the complexity of problems, especially the problems of those who suffer the most.
“Lent is the time to say no to the asphyxia of a prayer that soothes our conscience, of an almsgiving that leaves us self-satisfied, of a fasting that makes us feel good. Lent is the time to say no to the asphyxia born of relationships that exclude, that try to find God while avoiding the wounds of Christ present in the wounds of his brothers and sisters: in a word, all those forms of spirituality that reduce the faith to a ghetto culture, a culture of exclusion.”
Time to Remember
Lent, he added, is a time for remembering, and asking ourselves what we would be if God had closed his doors to us.
“What would we be without his mercy that never tires of forgiving us and always gives us the chance to begin anew? Lent is the time to ask ourselves where we would be without the help of so many people who in a thousand quiet ways have stretched out their hands and in very concrete ways given us hope and enabled us to make a new beginning?”
Lent, the Pope noted, is the time to start breathing again, to open our hearts to the breath of the One capable of turning our dust into humanity.
“It is a time to set aside everything that isolates us, encloses us and paralyzes us.”
Pope Francis concluded, noting,”Lent is a time of compassion, when, with the Psalmist, we can say: “Restore to us the joy of your salvation, sustain in us a willing spirit”, so that by our lives we may declare your praise (cf. Ps 51:12.15), and our dust – by the power of your breath of life – may become a “dust of love.”
***
On ZENIT’s Web page:
Full Text: https://zenit.org/articles/popes-homily-at-ash-wednesday-mass-at-basilica-of-st-sabina-allaventino/
Pope at General Audience: ‘Let Lent Free Us From Our Slavery’ by Deborah Castellano Lubov
Lent is a time for us to no longer be slaves, but to be free and full of hope.
Pope Francis stressed this during the General Audience at 9:30 a.m.today, Ash Wednesday, in St. Peter’s Square. Continuing with the series of catecheses on Christian hope, in his address in Italian, the Pope focused his meditation on the theme: “Lent, Journey of Hope” (Exodus 3:7-8.10)
Francis recalled how the Church instituted Lent as a time of preparation for Easter and, therefore, the whole meaning of these 40 days draws light from the paschal mystery, to which it is oriented.
“We can imagine the Risen Lord, Who calls us to come out of our darkness, and we set out on the way to Him, who is the Light,” Francis said, reminding: “Lent is a journey towards the Risen Jesus.”
Lent is, by its nature, a time of hope, he stressed.
To understand better what this means, the Jesuit Pope highlighted, we must remember the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt, narrated in the Book of Exodus in the Bible. While the point of departure is the condition of slavery in Egypt, he noted, the Lord has not forgotten His people and His promise. “He calls Moses and, with a powerful arm, has the Israelites leave Egypt and guides them through the desert to the land of freedom.”
“And these 40 days are, for all of us also,” Francis said, “a going out from slavery, from sin, to freedom, to the encounter with the Risen Christ. Every step, every effort, every trial, every fall and every recovery, all make sense only within the plan of salvation of God, who wants life for His people and not death, joy and not sorrow.”
Jesus’ Easter is His exodus, the Pope said, with which He has opened the way for us to attain full, eternal and blessed life. To open the way for us to eternal life cost Him all His blood, and, thanks to Him, we are saved from the slavery of sin.
“But this does not mean that He did everything and we have nothing to do, that He went through the Cross and we “go to Paradise in a carriage.”
“It’s not so,” Francis clarified, saying, “Our salvation is certainly His gift, but, because it is a story of love, it requires our “yes” and our participation in His love, as our Mother Mary shows us and, after her, all the Saints.”
Lent, the lives of this dynamic, the Holy Father said, noting namely that in which Christ precedes us with His exodus, and we go through the desert thanks to Him and behind Him.
“Lent is a “sacramental sign of our conversion” (Roman Missal, Collect, First Sunday of Lent); one who undertakes the way of Lent is always on the way of conversion. Lent is the sacramental sign of our journey from slavery to freedom, ever to be renewed — a journey that is certainly demanding, as it is right that it should be, because love is demanding, but it is a journey full of hope.”
Rather, I will say more: the Lenten exodus is the journey in which hope itself is formed.
“The exhaustion of crossing the desert – all the trials, the temptations, the illusions, the mirages . . .–, all this is useful to forge a strong, solid hope on the model of that of the Virgin Mary, who in the midst of the darkness of the Passion and Death of her Son continued to believe and to hope in His Resurrection, in the victory of God’s love.”
Pope Francis concluded, praying, “Let us enter Lent today with a heart open to this horizon. Feeling ourselves part of the people of God, we begin with joy this journey of hope.”
“Today, Ash Wednesday,” Pope Francis said, “the Lord indicates the path of hope to follow. May the Holy Spirit lead you to fulfill a true journey of conversion, to rediscover the gift of the Word of God, to be purified from sin and to serve Christ present in brothers.”
***
On ZENIT’s Web page:
Full Text: https://zenit.org/articles/general-audience-on-lent-journey-of-hope/
Pope to Middle East Pilgrims: ‘Lent Is a Journey of Hope’ by Deborah Castellano Lubov
This morning’s General Audience was held at 9:30 in St. Peter’s Square, where the Holy Father Francis met with groups of pilgrims and faithful from Italy and from all over the world.
The Pope spoke in Italian, translated immediately into Arabic by one of his collaborators in the Roman Curia: “Lent is a journey of hope: the hope of reaching the Passover through the desert of fasting and of mortification; a journey of faith, where we experience the love faithfulness of God who never abandons us; a penitential journey, where salvation is accomplished and fulfilled through the free response of man; a path of liberation from the idols of the world to come to the freedom of God’s children; a journey of the victory over the temptations with the help of prayer and the sacraments.”
“I wish you good Lent,” Francis said, noting, “May the Lord bless you all and protect you from the evil one!”
Pope Praying for Supporting Persecuted Christians in March by Deborah Castellano Lubov
Pope Francis in January will be praying for support for persecuted Christians.
The Pope’s intention for March was announced by the Apostleship of Prayer.
The March intention in full is: “Support for persecuted Christians: that persecuted Christians may be supported by the prayers and material help of the whole Church.”
This is the only monthly prayer intention released, as Pope Francis this year decided to make a change to the practice of having two monthly prayer intentions established beforehand for each month.
At the end of last year, the Apostleship of Prayer announced, “Starting in 2017, the Pope will present only one prepared prayer intention per month, rather than the two presented before this year. He plans, however, to add a second prayer intention each month related to current events or urgent needs, like disaster relief. The urgent prayer request will help mobilize prayer and action related to the urgent situation. The Apostleship of Prayer will publish these urgent prayer intentions on this website as soon as we receive them from the Vatican.”
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See more: https://zenit.org/articles/pope-francis-to-change-practice-of-his-monthly-intentions/
Pope’s Homily at Ash Wednesday Mass at Basilica of St. Sabina All’Aventino by ZENIT Staff
This afternoon –Ash Wednesday, day of the beginning of Lent – an assembly of prayer took place in the form of the Roman “Stations,” presided over by Pope Francis.
At 4:30 pm, in the church of Saint Anselm all”Aventino, a moment of prayer was held followed by a penitential procession to the Basilica of Saint Sabina. Taking part in the procession were Cardinals, Archbishops, Bishops, Benedictine monks of Saint Anselm, Dominican Fathers of Saint Sabina and some faithful. At the end of the procession, Pope Francis presided over the celebration of the Eucharist in the Basilica of Saint Sabina, with the rite of the blessing and imposition of ashes.
The following is a translation of the homily that the Pope delivered after the proclamation of the Holy Gospel.
* * *
“Return to me with all your heart… return to the Lord” (Jl 2:12, 13). The prophet Joel makes this plea to the people in the Lord’s name. No one should feel excluded: “Assemble the aged, gather the children, even infants at the breast, the bridegroom… and the bride” (v. 16). All the faithful people are summoned to come and worship their God, “for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love” (v. 13).
We too want to take up this appeal; we want to return to the merciful heart of the Father. In this season of grace that begins today, we once again turn our eyes to his mercy. Lent is a path: it leads to the triumph of mercy over all that would crush us or reduce us to something unworthy of our dignity as God’s children. Lent is the road leading from slavery to freedom, from suffering to joy, from death to life. The mark of the ashes with which we set out reminds us of our origin: we were taken from the earth, we are made of dust. True, yet we are dust in the loving hands of God, who has breathed his spirit of life upon each one of us, and still wants to do so. He wants to keep giving us that breath of life that saves us from every other type of breath: the stifling asphyxia brought on by our selfishness, the stifling asphyxia generated by petty ambition and silent indifference – an asphyxia that smothers the spirit, narrows our horizons and slows the beating of our hearts. The breath of God’s life saves us from this asphyxia that dampens our faith, cools our charity and strangles every hope. To experience Lent is to yearn for this breath of life that our Father unceasingly offers us amid the mire of our history.
The breath of God’s life sets us free from the asphyxia that so often we fail to notice, or become so used to that it seems normal, even when its effects are felt. We think it is normal because we have grown so accustomed to breathing air in which hope has dissipated, the air of glumness and resignation, the stifling air of panic and hostility.
Lent is the time for saying no. No to the spiritual asphyxia born of the pollution caused by indifference, by thinking that other people’s lives are not my concern, and by every attempt to trivialize life, especially the lives of those whose flesh is burdened by so much superficiality. Lent means saying no to the toxic pollution of empty and meaningless words, of harsh and hasty criticism, of simplistic analyses that fail to grasp the complexity of problems, especially the problems of those who suffer the most. Lent is the time to say no to the asphyxia of a prayer that soothes our conscience, of an almsgiving that leaves us self-satisfied, of a fasting that makes us feel good. Lent is the time to say no to the asphyxia born of relationships that exclude, that try to find God while avoiding the wounds of Christ present in the wounds of his brothers and sisters: in a word, all those forms of spirituality that reduce the faith to a ghetto culture, a culture of exclusion.
Lent is a time for remembering. It is the time to reflect and ask ourselves what we would be if God had closed his doors to us. What would we be without his mercy that never tires of forgiving us and always gives us the chance to begin anew? Lent is the time to ask ourselves where we would be without the help of so many people who in a thousand quiet ways have stretched out their hands and in very concrete ways given us hope and enabled us to make a new beginning?
Lent is the time to start breathing again. It is the time to open our hearts to the breath of the One capable of turning our dust into humanity. It is not the time to rend our garments before the evil all around us, but instead to make room in our life for all the good we are able to do. It is a time to set aside everything that isolates us, encloses us and paralyzes us. Lent is a time of compassion, when, with the Psalmist, we can say: “Restore to us the joy of your salvation, sustain in us a willing spirit”, so that by our lives we may declare your praise (cf. Ps 51:12.15), and our dust – by the power of your breath of life – may become a “dust of love”.[Original text: Italian] [Vatican-provided text]
GENERAL AUDIENCE: Pope: ‘May Lent Renew Our Hope in Christ’s Promises’ by ZENIT Staff
Here is the Vatican-provided English-language summary of the Pope’s address at the General Audience this morning:
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Speaker: Dear Brothers and Sisters: Today, Ash Wednesday, we begin our Lenten journey towards Easter. Lent is essentially a pilgrimage of hope, a season of penance and spiritual renewal that prepares us to share more fully in the mystery of Christ’s death and resurrection. We relive the experience of the Exodus, in which the Chosen People journeyed towards the Promised Land and, through spiritual discipline and the gift of the Law, learned the love of God and neighbour. Easter is Jesus’ own exodus, his passover from death to life, in which we participate through our rebirth in Baptism. By following Christ along the way of the Cross, we share in his victory over sin and death; by living the new life bestowed by the Holy Spirit in the communion of the Church, we are united more fully to the Lord in the sacraments, prayer and adoration. May our celebration of Lent renew our hope in Christ’s promises, and our commitment to follow him ever more closely, so that at Easter, in union with Mary our Mother, we may rejoice in the gift of eternal life and the triumph of God’s saving love.
Speaker: I greet the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors taking part in today’s Audience, particularly the groups from Korea and the United States of America. May the Lenten journey we begin today bring us to Easter with hearts purified and renewed by the grace of the Holy Spirit. Upon you and your families I invoke an abundance of joy and peace in Christ our Redeemer. God bless you all!
[Original text: English]© Libreria editrice vaticana
GENERAL AUDIENCE: On Lent, Journey of Hope by ZENIT Staff
The General Audience was held at 9:30 this morning, Ash Wednesday, in St. Peter’s Square, where the Holy Father Francis met with groups of pilgrims and faithful from Italy and from all over the world.
Continuing with the series of catecheses on Christian hope, in his address in Italian the Pope focused his meditation on the theme: “Lent, Journey of Hope” (Exodus 3:7-8.10).
After summarizing his catechesis in several languages, the Holy Father expressed special greetings to groups of faithful present.
The General Audience ended with the singing of the Pater Noster and the Apostolic Blessing.
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The Holy Father’s Catechesis
Dear Brothers and Sisters, good morning!
On this day, Ash Wednesday, we enter the liturgical Season of Lent. And as we are carrying out a series of catecheses on Christian hope, I would like to present Lent to you today as a journey of hope.
In fact, this perspective is immediately evident if we think that the Church instituted Lent as a time of preparation for Easter and, therefore, the whole meaning of these forty days draws light from the paschal mystery, to which it is oriented. We can imagine the Risen Lord, who calls us to come out of our darkness, and we set out on the way to Him, who is the Light. And Lent is a journey towards the Risen Jesus, it is a period of penance, also of mortification, but not as an end in itself, rather geared to make us rise again with Christ, to renew our baptismal identity, namely, to be reborn again “from on high,” from the love of God (cf. John 3:3). See why Lent is, by its nature, a time of hope.
To understand better what this means, we must refer to the fundamental experience of the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt, narrated by the Bible in the Book that bears this name: Exodus. The point of departure is the condition of slavery in Egypt, oppression, forced labor. However, the Lord has not forgotten His people and His promise: He calls Moses and, with a powerful arm, has the Israelites leave Egypt and guides them through the desert to the land of freedom. During this journey from slavery to freedom, the Lord gives the Israelites the Law, to educate them to love Him, only Lord, and to love one another as brothers. Scripture shows that the exodus was long and troubled: it lasted symbolically 40 years, namely, the lifetime of a generation. A generation that, in face of the trials of the journey, was always tempted to regret Egypt and to turn back. We also know the temptation to turn back, all of us. But the Lord remains faithful and those poor people, led by Moses, arrived at the Promised Land. The whole of this journey was undertaken in hope: the hope of reaching the Land, and in this sense it is precisely an “exodus,” a going out of slavery to freedom. And these 40 days are, for all of us also, a going out from slavery, from sin, to freedom, to the encounter with the Risen Christ. Every step, every effort, every trial, every fall and every recovery, all make sense only within the plan of salvation of God, who wants life for His people and not death, joy and not sorrow.
Jesus’ Easter is His exodus, with which He has opened the way for us to attain full, eternal and blessed life. To open this way, this passage, Jesus had to strip Himself of His glory, humble Himself, be obedient to death and to death on the cross. To open the way for us to eternal life cost Him all His blood, and, thanks to Him, we are saved from the slavery of sin. But this does not mean that He did all and we have nothing to do, that He went through the cross and we “go to Paradise in a carriage.” It’s not so. Our salvation is certainly His gift, but, because it is a story of love, it requires our “yes” and our participation in His love, as our Mother Mary shows us and, after her, all the Saints.
Lent lives of this dynamic: Christ precedes us with His exodus, and we go through the desert thanks to Him and behind Him. He was tempted for us, and He defeated the Tempter for us, but with Him, we must also face temptations and overcome them. He gives us the living water of His Spirit, and it is for us to draw from His source and drink, in the Sacraments, in prayer, in adoration. He is the light that overcomes the darkness, and we are asked to kindle the little flame that was entrusted to us on the day of our Baptism.
In this sense, Lent is a “sacramental sign of our conversion” (Roman Missal, Collect, First Sunday of Lent); one who undertakes the way of Lent is always on the way of conversion. Lent is the sacramental sign of our journey from slavery to freedom, ever to be renewed — a journey that is certainly demanding, as it is right that it should be, because love is demanding, but <it is> a journey full of hope. Rather, I will say more: the Lenten exodus is the journey in which hope itself is formed. The exhaustion of crossing the desert – all the trials, the temptations, the illusions, the mirages . . .–, all this is useful to forge a strong, solid hope on the model of that of the Virgin Mary, who in the midst of the darkness of the Passion and Death of her Son continued to believe and to hope in His Resurrection, in the victory of God’s love.
Let us enter Lent today with a heart open to this horizon. Feeling ourselves part of the people of God, we begin with joy this journey of hope.[Original text: Italian] [Translation by Virginia M. Forrester]
In Italian
A warm greeting goes to the Italian-speaking faithful. I am happy to receive the parish groups and the Associations, in particular the Friends of the Heart of Altamura, thanking them for the gift of the defibrillator. I greet the students of Civitavecchia, Legnano, Cislago, Thiene and Celafu, as well as the Livia Bottardi Technical Institute for Tourism of Rome and the Dutch Christian school of Meppel. I hope that for each one this meeting at the beginning of Lent arouses a spiritual renewal, with participation in the Lenten celebrations and in the solidarity campaigns that many ecclesial organizations, in different parts of the world, promote to witness their closeness to needy brothers.
A special thought goes to young people, the sick and newlyweds. Dear brothers, today, Ash Wednesday, the Lord indicates the path of hope to follow. May the Holy Spirit lead you to fulfill a true journey of conversion, to rediscover the gift of the Word of God, to be purified from sin and to serve Christ present in brothers.[Original text: Italian] [Translation by Virginia M. Forrester]
Pope’s Message for Lent 2017 by ZENIT Staff
‘The Word is a gift. Other persons are a gift’ is the title of Pope Francis’ message for Lent 2017 (1 March to 15 April).
Taking as a starting point the parable of the rich man and Lazarus from the Gospel of St. Luke (Lk 16: 19-31), the Holy Father divides his message into three sections:
“The Other Person Is a Gift”
“Sin Blinds Us”
“The Word Is a Gift”
The document, signed on 18 October, feast of St. Luke the Evangelist, concludes with the Pope’s prayer: ‘May the Holy Spirit lead us on a true journey of conversion.’ (D.C.L.)
Below is the Vatican-provided full text of the Pope’s Message:
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‘The Word is a gift. Other persons are a gift’
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Lent is a new beginning, a path leading to the certain goal of Easter, Christ’s victory over death. This season urgently calls us to conversion. Christians are asked to return to God “with all their hearts” (Joel 2:12), to refuse to settle for mediocrity and to grow in friendship with the Lord. Jesus is the faithful friend who never abandons us. Even when we sin, he patiently awaits our return; by that patient expectation, he shows us his readiness to forgive (cf. Homily, 8 January 2016).
Lent is a favorable season for deepening our spiritual life through the means of sanctification offered us by the Church: fasting, prayer and almsgiving. At the basis of everything is the word of God, which during this season we are invited to hear and ponder more deeply. I would now like to consider the parable of the rich man and Lazarus (cf. Lk 16:19-31). Let us find inspiration in this meaningful story, for it provides a key to understanding what we need to do in order to attain true happiness and eternal life. It exhorts us to sincere conversion.
1. The other person is a gift
The parable begins by presenting its two main characters. The poor man is described in greater detail: he is wretched and lacks the strength even to stand. Lying before the door of the rich man, he fed on the crumbs falling from his table. His body is full of sores and dogs come to lick his wounds (cf. vv. 20-21). The picture is one of great misery; it portrays a man disgraced and pitiful.
The scene is even more dramatic if we consider that the poor man is called Lazarus: a name full of promise, which literally means “God helps”. This character is not anonymous. His features are clearly delineated and he appears as an individual with his own story. While practically invisible to the rich man, we see and know him as someone familiar. He becomes a face, and as such, a gift, a priceless treasure, a human being whom God loves and cares for, despite his concrete condition as an outcast (cf. Homily, 8 January 2016).
Lazarus teaches us that other persons are a gift. A right relationship with people consists in gratefully recognizing their value. Even the poor person at the door of the rich is not a nuisance, but a summons to conversion and to change. The parable first invites us to open the doors of our heart to others because each person is a gift, whether it be our neighbor or an anonymous pauper. Lent is a favorable season for opening the doors to all those in need and recognizing in them the face of Christ. Each of us meets people like this every day. Each life that we encounter is a gift deserving acceptance, respect and love. The word of God helps us to open our eyes to welcome and love life, especially when it is weak and vulnerable. But in order to do this, we have to take seriously what the Gospel tells us about the rich man.
2. Sin blinds us
The parable is unsparing in its description of the contradictions associated with the rich man (cf. v. 19). Unlike poor Lazarus, he does not have a name; he is simply called “a rich man”. His opulence was seen in his extravagant and expensive robes. Purple cloth was even more precious than silver and gold, and was thus reserved to divinities (cf. Jer 10:9) and kings (cf. Jg 8:26), while fine linen gave one an almost sacred character. The man was clearly ostentatious about his wealth, and in the habit of displaying it daily: “He feasted sumptuously every day” (v. 19). In him we can catch a dramatic glimpse of the corruption of sin, which progresses in three successive stages: love of money, vanity and pride (cf. Homily, 20 September 2013).
The Apostle Paul tells us that “the love of money is the root of all evils” (1 Tim 6:10). It is the main cause of corruption and a source of envy, strife and suspicion. Money can come to dominate us, even to the point of becoming a tyrannical idol (cf. Evangelii Gaudium, 55). Instead of being an instrument at our service for doing good and showing solidarity towards others, money can chain us and the entire world to a selfish logic that leaves no room for love and hinders peace.
The parable then shows that the rich man’s greed makes him vain. His personality finds expression in appearances, in showing others what he can do. But his appearance masks an interior emptiness. His life is a prisoner to outward appearances, to the most superficial and fleeting aspects of existence (cf. ibid., 62).
The lowest rung of this moral degradation is pride. The rich man dresses like a king and acts like a god, forgetting that he is merely mortal. For those corrupted by love of riches, nothing exists beyond their own ego. Those around them do not come into their line of sight. The result of attachment to money is a sort of blindness. The rich man does not see the poor man who is starving, hurting, lying at his door.
Looking at this character, we can understand why the Gospel so bluntly condemns the love of money: “No one can be the slave of two masters: he will either hate the first and love the second, or be attached to the first and despise the second. You cannot be the slave both of God and of money” (Mt 6:24).
3. The Word is a gift
The Gospel of the rich man and Lazarus helps us to make a good preparation for the approach of Easter. The liturgy of Ash Wednesdayinvites us to an experience quite similar to that of the rich man. When the priest imposes the ashes on our heads, he repeats the words: “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return”. As it turned out, the rich man and the poor man both died, and the greater part of the parable takes place in the afterlife. The two characters suddenly discover that “we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it” (1 Tim 6:7).
We too see what happens in the afterlife. There the rich man speaks at length with Abraham, whom he calls “father” (Lk 16:24.27), as a sign that he belongs to God’s people. This detail makes his life appear all the more contradictory, for until this moment there had been no mention of his relation to God. In fact, there was no place for God in his life. His only god was himself.
The rich man recognizes Lazarus only amid the torments of the afterlife. He wants the poor man to alleviate his suffering with a drop of water. What he asks of Lazarus is similar to what he could have done but never did. Abraham tells him: “During your life you had your fill of good things, just as Lazarus had his fill of bad. Now he is being comforted here while you are in agony” (v. 25). In the afterlife, a kind of fairness is restored and life’s evils are balanced by good.
The parable goes on to offer a message for all Christians. The rich man asks Abraham to send Lazarus to warn his brothers, who are still alive. But Abraham answers: “They have Moses and the prophets, let them listen to them” (v. 29). Countering the rich man’s objections, he adds: “If they will not listen either to Moses or to the prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone should rise from the dead” (v. 31).
The rich man’s real problem thus comes to the fore. At the root of all his ills was the failure to heed God’s word. As a result, he no longer loved God and grew to despise his neighbor. The word of God is alive and powerful, capable of converting hearts and leading them back to God. When we close our heart to the gift of God’s word, we end up closing our heart to the gift of our brothers and sisters.
Dear friends, Lent is the favorable season for renewing our encounter with Christ, living in his word, in the sacraments and in our neighbor. The Lord, who overcame the deceptions of the Tempter during the forty days in the desert, shows us the path we must take. May the Holy Spirit lead us on a true journey of conversion, so that we can rediscover the gift of God’s word, be purified of the sin that blinds us, and serve Christ present in our brothers and sisters in need. I encourage all the faithful to express this spiritual renewal also by sharing in the Lenten Campaigns promoted by many Church organizations in different parts of the world, and thus to favor the culture of encounter in our one human family. Let us pray for one another so that, by sharing in the victory of Christ, we may open our doors to the weak and poor. Then we will be able to experience and share to the full the joy of Easter.
From the Vatican, 18 October 2016,
Feast of Saint Luke the Evangelist
FRANCIS
Original text: English]© Copyright – Libreria Editrice Vaticana
Cardinal Sean O’Malley’s Statement on Resignation of Marie Collins from Protection of Minors’ Commission by ZENIT Staff
Cardinal Seán O’Malley, archbishop of Boston and president of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, today issued the following statement regarding resignation of Marie Collins from the Commission:
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“On behalf of the Members of the Commission, I have expressed to Marie Collins our most sincere thanks for the extraordinary contributions she has made as a founding member of the Commission. We will certainly listen carefully to all that Marie wishes to share with us about her concerns and we will greatly miss her important contributions as a member of the Commission. As the Commission gathers for the plenary meeting next month we will have an opportunity to discuss these matters. With the members of the Commission I am deeply grateful for Marie’s willingness to continue to work with us in the education of church leaders, including the upcoming programs for new bishops and for the dicasteries of the Holy See. Our prayers will remain with Marie and with all victims and survivors of sexual abuse.”
Shahbaz Bhatti: The Mission of a “True Politician,” According to Cardinal Parolin by Federico Cenci
“There are persons who are willing to die for an ideal in which they believe. Among these is Shahbaz Bhatti, Federal Minister of Minorities of Pakistan, killed on March 2, 2011 at Islamabad by armed men.” Thus writes the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, in the Preface of the book, which goes on sale today and is published by Saint Paul’s: “Shabaz – The Voice of Justice,” written by Paul Bhatti, Pakistani doctor and politician, older brother of the martyred Minister.
The author reviews his brother’s life with private memories and family anecdotes, up to his commitment in politics and worry over the constant threats that led to the day of his assassination.
The commitment of a Christian politician, killed six years ago, whom Parolin praises, pointing him out as a model. “A politician in the true sense of the term, who chose the Gospel as his style of life and marked his work with it,” writes the Cardinal.
The Vatican Secretary of States pauses, in particular, on the “unforgettable phrases” that Shahbaz Bhatti has left us as testament, some of which are reported in the volume in question. They “express the depth of his intimate relation with Christ,” notes Parolin.
Bhatti’s ideal was not “a simple idea, not a mere value, though noble and lofty. It was what Christians have that is most dear, namely, Christ Himself,” reflects the Cardinal. In fact, in his spiritual testament he wrote: “I want to live for Christ and I want to die for Him.”
As Cardinal Parolin highlights in the preface, from the book it emerges how Shahbaz Bhatti had at heart the lot of the poorest, of the weakest, of the last.” And “among these, he kept a particular place for the Christian minority of Pakistan.
“To fulfil his mission, the martyred politician “was a sincere promoter of inter-religious dialogue, of ecumenism and of peace between peoples, showing that only open encounter can educate the new generations to listen, to tolerance and to peaceful coexistence,” continues Parolin.
Cardinal Parolin recalls that Bhatti made service to Christ his “life’s program,” as he himself wrote: “High posts in the government were proposed to me and I was asked to abandon my battle, but I always refused, even at the risk of my life itself. My answer was always the same: ‘No, I want to serve Jesus as an ordinary man.’”
See, then, how Bhatti did not draw back in face of “the powers of the world,” in as much as he was “aware that nothing and no one could tear him from the hand of his Lord,” stresses the Vatican Secretary of State.
The example of altruism and courage that this book transmits can enrich us all. And it “helps us to not forget the Christians of Pakistan and their difficulties,” concludes Cardinal Parolin.
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