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Pope to Middle East Pilgrims: ‘God Wishes to Heal Hearts, Regenerate World’ 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: “Dear Brothers and Sisters, Saint Paul reminds us that ‘in hope, we were saved.'”
“Therefore, let us learn to read everything with the eyes of the Risen Christ, trusting in the Lord Who wants to heal with His mercy all the wounded and humiliated hearts and regenerate a new world and a new humanity reconciled in His love.”
“May the Lord bless you!” he said.
Decrying Tragedy in South Sudan, Pope Appeals: ‘Provide Food to Those Suffering Starvation’ by Deborah Castellano Lubov
To those on the verge of dying from starvation in South Sudan, it is imperative that concrete food aid reaches them right away.
Pope Francis made this appeal toward the end of his weekly General Audience this morning, the first in St. Peter’s Square in 2017.
“Of particular concern,” the Pope lamented, “is the painful news coming from the battered southern Sudan, where a fratricidal conflict is compounded by a severe food crisis, which, through starvation, condemns to death millions of people, including many children.”
On Monday, Feb. 20, South Sudan’s government officially declared a famine in different parts of the country. According to the United Nations, the African nation’s areas hardest hit by war and the collapsing economy have left about 100,000 people facing starvation. A million others are at risk of famine.
“At this time,” Pope Francis appealed, “it is more necessary than ever, that everyone commits not just to making statements, but to providing concrete food aid and allowing that it can reach suffering populations.”
“May the Lord sustain these brothers and those working to help them.”
Pope on Centenary of Fatima Apparitions: ‘Let Us Entrust Ourselves to Mary’ by Deborah Castellano Lubov
“Let us entrust ourselves to Mary.”
Pope Francis gave this advice this morning, February 22, 2017, at the end of the general audience while greeting the German-speaking pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square, the first outside in the square this year.
“I address a cordial greeting to all the German-speaking pilgrims,” the Pope said, noting,-“In this year of the centenary of the apparitions at Fatima, let us entrust ourselves to Mary, Mother of hope, who invites us to turn our gaze towards Salvation, toward a new world and a new humanity.
“God bless you all,” he said.
Chair of Saint Peter: Day of “Special Communion” with the Pope by Anne Kurian
At the General Audience of February 22, 2017, Pope Francis evoked the feast of the “Chair of Saint Peter,” a day of “special communion” with the Bishop of Rome. He asked young people especially to pray for his ministry.
In fact, at the end of the meeting in St. Peter’s Square, the Holy Father addressed a “special thought to young people, the sick and newlyweds.” “Today, we celebrate the feast of the Chair of the Apostle Saint Peter, day of special communion of believers with the Successor of Peter and with the Holy See,” he said to them.
“Dear young people, I encourage you to intensify your prayer for my Petrine ministry; dear sick, I thank you for your testimony of life giving in suffering for the edification of the ecclesial community; and you, dear newlyweds, build your family on the love that binds the Lord Jesus to His Church.”
At the moment of greeting in Portuguese, Pope Francis evoked this feast again: “May your visit today to the See of Saint Peter infuse great courage in your hearts to embrace your cross day after day, and an earnest desire for holiness, so that you are able to fill others’ cross with hope.”
“I entrust myself to your prayers,” added the Pontiff.
The Episcopal Chair, which recalls Peter’s supreme magisterium, has been celebrated at Rome since the 4th century. It has been kept in a of wooden and ivory furniture under the “Glory of Bernini” in Saint Peter’s Basilica since 875. The Chair of Saint Peter is represented carrying four Doctors of the Church, of East and West: Saint Augustine, Saint John Chrysostom, Saint Ambrose and Saint Athanasius. Represented on the back of the Chair is the scene when Christ communicates to Saint Peter the power to feed His sheep.
Since 1667, it has been exhibited only once, in 1867, for the 18th centenary of the martyrdom of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul.
GENERAL AUDIENCE: Pope: ‘Let Us See Ourselves, World With Christ’s Eyes’ by ZENIT Staff
‘Let us see ourselves and the world with Christ’s eyes,’ encouraged Pope Francis during the General Audience of February 22, 2017.
Continuing his catecheses on Christian hope, the Pope meditated on how Saint Paul reminds us that creation is God’s gift, which reveals to us His loving plan, and what this means to faithful on a practical level.
Pope Francis concluded, praying that all faithful realize that amid being discouraged or tempted to despair, we are to remember “that the Holy Spirit comes to our aid, to keep alive our cries to God, and to reveal new heavens and a new earth which he is preparing for us.”
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Speaker:
Dear Brothers and Sisters: Rather than being something we possess and use for own pleasure, Saint Paul reminds us that creation is God’s gift, which reveals to us his loving plan. But when we are self-centred and commit sin, we break our communion with God, and the original beauty of human nature and creation is marred. Thus, rather than show God’s infinite love, creation bears the wounds of human pride. The Lord, however, does not abandon us, but offers us a new horizon of freedom and salvation. Saint Paul reminds us of this truth, by inviting us to hear the groaning of all people and things, and even the groaning of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. These groans are not sterile, but speak of the pangs of birth, the ushering in of new life. Despite the many signs of our sins and failings, we know that we are saved by the Lord, and even now contemplate and experience within ourselves and all around us signs of the Resurrection, a new creation. We know that Jesus wants to heal us and creation once and for all, and reconcile us in his love. Let us see ourselves and the world with Christ’s eyes. And when we are discouraged or tempted to despair, let us remember that the Holy Spirit comes to our aid, to keep alive our cries to God, and to reveal new heavens and a new earth which he is preparing for us.
Speaker:
I greet the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors taking part in today’s Audience, particularly those from England, Ireland, Norway, India and the United States of America. Upon all of you, I invoke the gifts of mercy and peace, and I pray to the Lord that they may help you to care for creation and one another. May God bless you![Original text: English]© Libreria editrice vaticana
Pope to Circus Performers: Keep Making Beauty by Deborah Castellano Lubov
Keep making beauty, for this leads one toward God.
Pope Francis stressed this during this morning’s General Audience in St. Peter’s Square, as he thanked the Rony Roller Circus who performed for him during the Italian-language remarks.
After the performance, the circus performers, including dancers, clowns and contortionists, went up to the Pope, who gave them his blessing.
Reflecting on their festive performance, the Argentine Pope remarked:” They make beauty and beauty leads us to God. It’s a way to reach God.”
“Keep making beauty,” the Pope added, concluding: “Continue. It does good for all of us.”
Pope Sends Telegram for Death of Irish Cardinal Desmond Connell by ZENIT Staff
Pope Francis has sent his condolences for the death of the Archbishop Emeritus of the Irish Diocese of Dublin.
In a telegram, the Pope sent upon learning of the death of Cardinal Desmond Connell to current Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, Francis lamented the passing away of the 90-year-old cardinal who has been battling illness.
In Jan. 1988, he was appointed Archbishop of Dublin, a position he held until April 2004. In the consistory of Feb. 21, 2001, St. Pope John Paul II created him a cardinal.
Born in March 1926 in Phibsboro, Ireland, Desmond Connell would later be ordained for the Archdiocese of Dublin on May 19, 1951 and would hold a Doctorate in Philosophy from the Catholic University of Louvain.
In 1953, he started teaching in the Department of Metaphysics at University College Dublin where he was appointed professor of general metaphysics in 1972 and elected dean of the Faculty of Philosophy and Sociology in 1983.
The Irish cardinal served as chaplain to the Poor Clares in Donnybrook, and the Carmelites in Drumcondra and in Blackrock, and had written on philosophical and theological subjects.
Below is the Vatican-provided text of the telegram of condolences Pope Francis sent this morning:
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To the Most Reverend Diarmuid Martin
Archbishop of Dublin
I was deeply saddened to learn of the death of Cardinal Desmond Connell, and I extend my heartfelt condolences to you and to the clergy, religious and lay faithful of the Archdiocese. Recalling with gratitude Cardinal Connell’s years of generous priestly and episcopal ministry to the Archdiocese of Dublin, and his many contributions to the Church in Ireland, especially in the area of philosophical studies, I join you in commending his soul to the merciful love of Almighty God.
In the sure hope of the Resurrection, I cordially impart my Apostolic Blessing upon all who mourn the late Cardinal, as a pledge of consolation and peace in the Lord Jesus.
FRANCISCUS PP.
Francis PP.
[Original text: English] [Vatican-provided text]
‘The Vatican Will Intervene Legally to Avoid Use or Instrumentalization of Its Symbols and Figure of Pope’ by Sergio Mora
The Holy See will intervene to protect Pope Francis’ image, so that his message and person are not instrumentalized, stated on Wednesday, February 22, 2017, the Holy See State Secretariat, pointing out that among its tasks is “to protect the Holy Father’s image so that his entire message can reach the faithful and his person is not instrumentalized.”
Among the things it will defend, through the appropriate normative instruments established at the international level, are the Holy See’s official symbols and coat of arms.
The press release added that “to make the protection action more effective,” in regard to the objectives indicated, and to interrupt illegal situations eventually found, the State Secretariat will carry out systematic vigilance activities to control the ways with which images of the Holy Father and the Holy See’s coat of arms are used, intervening if necessary with timely actions.”
As is known, it is possible to find on the Internet several Websites, Twitter and Facebook included, which say that they belong to the Holy See, with information and news that is not true.
The leadership of the Holy See Press Office explained that it refers more to all objects sold or people who do business to earn money using the Pope’s image or the Holy See’s symbols.
GENERAL AUDIENCE: ‘For In This Hope, We Were Saved’ by ZENIT Staff on 22 February, 2017
This morning’s General Audience was held at 9:30 in St. Peter’s Square, for the first time this year, 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 the theme of Christian hope, in his address in Italian the Pope focused his meditation on the theme: “For in this hope, we were saved” (cf. Romans 8:19-27).
After summarizing his catechesis in several languages, the Holy Father expressed special greetings to groups of faithful present. Then he made an appeal for the grave situation in South Sudan.
The General Audience ended with the singing of the Pater Noster and the Apostolic Blessing.
Below is a ZENIT working translation of the Holy Father’s remarks:
* * *
The Holy Father’s Catechesis
Dear Brothers and Sisters, good morning!
We are often tempted to think that Creation is our property, a possession that we can exploit to our pleasure and to which we must render account to no one. In the passage of the Letter to the Romans (8:19-27), of which we just heard a part, the Apostle Paul reminds us, instead, that Creation is a wonderful gift that God has put in our hands, so that we can enter in relationship with Him and recognize the sign of His design of love, to whose realization we are all called to collaborate, day after day.
However, when the human being lets himself be gripped by egoism, he ends up by ruining even the most beautiful things that were entrusted to him. And so it has happened also with Creation. We think of water. Water is a most beautiful thing and so important; water gives us life, it helps us in everything but to exploit minerals water is contaminated, Creation is soiled and destroyed. This is only one example. There are so many. With the tragic experience of sin, communion with God broken, we have broken the original communion with all that surrounds us and we have ended up by corrupting Creation, thus rendering it a slave, subject to our perishability. And, unfortunately, the consequence of all this is dramatically before our eyes every day. When man breaks his communion with God, he loses his original beauty and ends up disfiguring everything around him; and where everything at first referred back to the Father-Creator and to His infinite love, now it bears the sad and desolate sign of human pride and voracity. Human pride, exploiting Creation, destroys.
However, the Lord does not leave us alone and, even in this desolate picture, He offers us a new prospect of liberation, of universal salvation. It is what Paul makes evident with joy, inviting us to listen to the groaning of the whole of Creation. In fact, if we pay attention, everything around us groans: Creation itself groans, we human beings groan and the Spirit groans within us, in our heart. Now, these groans are not a sterile, disconsolate lament but – as the Apostle specifies – they are the groans of one giving birth; they are the groans of one who suffers, but who knows that a new life is about to come to light. And in our case it is truly so. We are still dealing with the consequences of our sin and everything around us still bears the sign of our toils, of our failures, of our closures. At the same time, however, we know that the Lord has saved us and it has already been given to us to contemplate and to enjoy in ourselves and in what surrounds us signs of the Resurrection, of Easter, which brings about a new Creation.
This is the content of our hope. A Christian does not live outside the world; he is able to recognize in his life and in what surrounds him signs of evil, of egoism and of sin. He is supportive of those who suffer, of those who weep, of those who are marginalized, of those who feel desperate …. But, at the same time, a Christian has learned to read all this with the eyes of Easter, with the eyes of the Risen Christ. And so he knows that we are living a time of expectation, a time of longing that of goes beyond the present, the time of fulfilment. We know in hope that the Lord wants to heal, definitively with His mercy, wounded and humiliated hearts and all that man has disfigured in his impiety, and that thus He will regenerate a new world and a new humanity, finally reconciled in His love.
How many times we Christians are tempted to disappointment, to pessimism. Sometimes we let ourselves fall into useless lament or we remain without words and we do not even know what to ask for, what to hope for … However, once again the Holy Spirit comes to help us, breath of our hope, who keeps alive the groan and expectation of our heart. The Spirit sees for us beyond the negative appearances of the present and already now reveals to us the new heavens and the new earth that the Lord is preparing for humanity.[Original text: Italian] [Translation by Virginia M. Forrester]
In Italian
A warm welcome goes to the Italian-speaking faithful. I am happy to receive the Deacons of the Diocese of Milan and of the Society of Mary, as well as the delegation of the “Benedictine Torch of Peace,” with the Archbishop of Spoleto-Norcia, Monsignor Renato Boccardo, the Abbot of Montecassino, Dom Donato Ogliari and the Abbot of Subiaco, Dom Mauro Meacci: I invite each one to become a promoter of the culture of peace in every realm of life.
I greet the Mayor and the delegation of the town of Farindola, stricken a month ago by the avalanche that destroyed a hotel, causing numerous victims. I greet the Royal Arch-Confraternity of Piedmonte Matese with the Bishop of Alife-Caiazzo, Monsignor Valentino Di Cerbo; the participants in the manifestation against bullying with the Bishop of Palestrina, Monsignor Domenico Sigalini and the members of the Sophia Naval Operation, geared to the prevention of tragedies of human beings in the Mediterranean. I greet the members of the “Giuseppe Toniolo” Bank of Cooperative Credit of Genzano of Rome, La Stanza Accanto Association and the artists of the Rony Rollers Circus, thanking them for their performance. They create beauty! And beauty leads us to God. It is a way to come to God. Continue to create beauty! Continue, as it does us all good. Thank you!
A special thought goes to young people, the sick and newlyweds. Today we celebrate the feast of the See of Saint Peter the Apostle, day of special communion of believers with the Successor of Saint Peter and with the Holy See. Dear young people, I encourage you to intensify your prayer for my Petrine ministry; dear sick, I thank you for the testimony of life given in suffering for the edification of the ecclesial community; and you, dear newlyweds, build your family on the same love that binds the Lord Jesus to His Church.[Original text: Italian] [Translation by Virginia M. Forrester]
The Holy Father’s Appeal
Of particular concern is the painful news reaching us of martyred South Sudan, where, joined to a fratricidal conflict, is a grave food crisis that scourges the region of the Horn of Africa and that condemns millions of people to death due to hunger, among them many children. At this moment, more than ever the commitment of all is necessary not to stop a declarations but to render food aid concrete and to enable it to reach the suffering populations. May the Lord sustain these brothers of ours and all those who work to help them.[Original text: Italian] [Translation by Virginia M. Forrester]
INTERVIEW: Centesimus Annus Foundation President: The Economy of Communion Does Not Argue Entrepreneurship, But the Vision of Profit by Sergio Mora
Ecology is not something in itself but that for Pope Francis is part of a vision of the whole of the common good of humanity. The Economy of Communion does not discuss entrepreneurship, but the vision of profit, said the President of the Centesimus Annus Pro Pontifice Foundation, Domingo Sugranyes Bickel, answering journalists apart from the presentation of the Foundation’s International Prize on February 15, 2017, in the Holy See Press Office, in the presence of Cardinal Reinhard Marx.
In regard to the Economy of Communion, he pointed out: “one thing is the philanthropy of the capitalist world, which is useful, which helps much but has its limitations. Another thing is to transform the economic policies and visions that govern the future of enterprises,” adding that there “are very many businesses that are working in this line,” though he acknowledged that there “are also negative examples.”
The Holy Father “says ‘no’ to an economy that kills, which does not mean that economies kill,” although Francis has the merit of “putting this debate on the table, as had rarely been done in the past.” ”On many occasions he has expressed carefully the role of the businessman in development, and the Economy of Communion does not argue the principle of entrepreneurship but promotes it.”
“We must also remember that our economy was reduced to poverty in a spectacular way, as had never happened in the past, though he acknowledged that “this process of growth creates in turn inequalities, and the new economy that is arising changes profoundly the norms and the concept of work, and it’s possible that it will create new inequalities, although to reduce them, for many years there have been known systems underway through imposition and taxation. But it’s not enough.”
Therefore, “in the Centesimus Annus Foundation, we are promoting a new network of voluntary funds because we believe that the fiscal answer doesn’t resolve everything,” he explained.
In regard to Laudato Si’, he pointed out that it is necessary to understand this global vision of the Holy Father, “in which ecology is not something in itself but is part of the vision of the whole of the common good of humanity.”
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On ZENIT’s Web page:
Part I of the Interview: https://zenit.org/articles/centesimus-annus-foundation-president-much-has-been-simplified-about-capitalism-the-market-abuses-are-being-questioned/
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