Pope: Mass is for the Eucharist, not pictures. Put the phone away.

Pope Francis at the Angelus from St. Peter’s, July 9, 2023 / Vatican News

Vatican City, Jul 9, 2023 / 07:09 am (CNA).

The residents of three rich cities in the time of Jesus were incapable of marveling at his works and message, Pope Francis noted, seeing in their example a warning for the faithful of today.

Before praying the midday Angelus with a large crowd in St. Peter’s Square on this very warm Sunday, the Pope considered Jesus’s “very beautiful prayer” addressed to the Father and recounted in the Mass of today: “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children.”

The Pope reflected on two questions about Jesus’s prayer: What are these “things” and who were they hidden from?

To answer the first question, the Pope noted that just before this passage Jesus recalled some of his works, including healings.

“The message, then, is clear. Let us not forget this,” Pope Francis said. “God reveals himself by liberating and healing the human person, with a gratuitous love that saves. This is why Jesus thanks his father, because his greatness consists in his love and he never works outside of love.”

Those who pretend to be great cannot understand these things, the Pope warned. 

“In this regard, Jesus names the inhabitants of three rich cities of his times — Chorazin, Bethsaida, Capernaum — where he had accomplished many healings, but whose inhabitants remained indifferent to his preaching. For them, his miracles were only spectacular events, useful for making news and to incite gossip. Once passing interest in them was over, they archived them, maybe in order to occupy themselves in other novelties of the moment. They did not know how to welcome the great things of God.”

Those who miss God’s message because they are “full of themselves” are contrasted with the “little children.”

Jesus praises the Father for “the simple people whose hearts are free from presumption and self-love. The little ones are those who, like children, feel their need and are not self-sufficient. They are open to God and allow themselves to be amazed at his works. They know how to read the signs, to marvel at the miracles of his love!”

Pope Francis invited the faithful to remember that “our lives, if we think about it, are filled with miracles.”

And he suggested that instead of being indifferent, we allow ourselves to be impressed:

“To impress — a beautiful verb that brings photographic film to mind. This is the correct behavior before God’s works: to take a photo of his works in our minds so they are impressed on our hearts, to then be developed in our lives through many good deeds, so that this ‘photograph’ of God who is love becomes ever brighter in us and through us.”

The Pope concluded, as he often does, with some questions for reflection, or examination of conscience: 

“In the deluge of news that overwhelms us, do I, as Jesus shows us today, know how to stop myself before the great things that God accomplishes? Do I allow myself to marvel like a child at the good that silently changes the world? And do I thank the Father each day for his works? May Mary, who exulted in the Lord, make us able to be amazed by his love and to thank him with simplicity.”

After praying the Angelus, the Pope announced that he will create 21 new cardinals in a consistory on September 30.

He also noted the new flare-up of violence in the Holy Land. He expressed his hopes that Palestinian and Israeli leaders would commit themselves to dialogue so that “we can put an end to the spiral of violence and open paths of reconciliation and peace.”

Patriarch Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, who is among those the Pope has just named a cardinal, on July 4 condemned the Israeli government’s air and ground attacks on the Jenin refugee camp in the Palestinian West Bank after two unknown assailants launched rockets toward Israel from Lebanon.

In a statement on Twitter, the patriarch said, “the city of Jenin has been subject to unprecedented Israeli aggression, which also caused a lot of damage to our Latin parish in Jenin.”

“We condemn this violence, demand a ceasefire, and hope for the pursuit of peace and dialogue to prevent other future unjustified attacks on the population,” he said.

Pope Francis also noted that today is Sea Sunday. In addition to thanking the various people who work in ports and on the seas, he noted the many volunteers who dedicate themselves to cleaning the oceans. The Pope spoke of recent news about the amount of plastic that is found in the water and praised those who are working to combat this issue. 

In the same context, he thanked those who work to help the many migrants who try to find better lives by crossing the Mediterranean Sea. He has referred to this body of water as “Europe’s largest cemetery.”

Nearly 50 people were saved just last Friday off the coast of Libya. The International Organization for Migration has reported that the first quarter of 2023 was the deadliest first quarter since 2017, with 441 migrant deaths in the Central Mediterranean. In fact, according to that UN group, nearly 2,000 have already died this year. Part of that large number is due to one of the worst tragedies to ever occur: when the Adriana sank last month off the coast of Greece. The IOM estimates the number who died at 596.

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Pope Francis goes to confession during a penance service in St. Peter’s Basilica on March 25, 2022. / Vatican Media.

Vatican City, Mar 26, 2022 / 05:30 am (CNA).

Pope Francis told hundreds of priests and seminarians on Friday that when they are hearing confessions, they should strive to accompany penitents along the path to greater holiness.

“The confessor always has as his goal the universal call to holiness, and to accompany discreetly to it,” the pope said on March 25, speaking about the Sacrament of Reconciliation, when a penitent Catholic discloses his or her sins to a priest or bishop, who acts in persona Christi, Latin for “in the person of Christ,” to grant God’s pardon and forgiveness.

“To accompany means to take care of the other person, walking together with him or her,” he continued. “It is not enough to indicate a goal, if you are not willing to walk even a stretch of road together.”

“However brief the confessional interview may be, from a few details you can understand the needs of the brother or sister: we are called to respond to them, accompanying them above all to the understanding and acceptance of God’s will, which is always the way of the greatest good, the way of joy and peace,” the pope stated.

Francis addressed around 800 priests and seminarians at the end of an annual course on the seal of confession and the internal forum, which is an extra-sacramental form of secrecy, or confidentiality, applied to spiritual direction.

The course, in its 32nd edition, was held in person and online. It was organized by the Apostolic Penitentiary, the office of the Roman Curia responsible for issues related to the sacrament of confession, indulgences, and the internal forum.

“Dear brothers, I thank the Lord with you for the ministry which you carry out, or which will soon be entrusted to you — for there are [transitional] deacons here — a ministry at the service of the sanctification of the faithful People of God,” Pope Francis said.

He reminded priests that though they are ministers of the Sacrament of Reconciliation, they should also receive the graces of the sacrament themselves.

“You go to ask forgiveness for your sins, do you not? This is very healthy. It is good for us confessors to do so,” he said.

Francis also advised priests to “inhabit” the confessional, always being ready to welcome, listen, and accompany those who come to seek God’s forgiveness. Everyone needs forgiveness, he said, “that is, to feel that they are loved as children by God the Father.”

“The words we say: ‘I absolve you of your sins’ also mean ‘you, brother, sister, are precious, you are precious to God; it is good that you are there.’ And this is a most powerful medicine for the soul, and also for the psyche of everyone,” he said.

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Vatican City, Feb 14, 2020 / 01:45 pm (CNA).- Pope Francis met with leadership of the Knights of Columbus on Wednesday, for the second time in a week, in the Cappella Paolina of the Apostolic Palace.

The pope met with the Knights’ officers and directors with their families Feb. 12, following a Mass said by Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore, Supreme Chaplain to the Knights.

Francis prayed an Our Father and a Hail Mary with the Knights, promising to pray for them and asking their prayers in turn.

Archbishop Lori gave the pope an Italian edition of a biography of Fr. Michael McGivney, founder of the Knights.

Francis had already received the leadership in an audience in the Clementine Hall Feb. 10.

“It was a great honor for our delegation to meet with the Pope not just once, but twice,” Supreme Knight Carl Anderson said.

“We are touched by the fact that Pope Francis took so much time with us, and we remain inspired by his words and grateful for his prayers. I ask all brother Knights and their families to take seriously the Holy Father’s request and commit to praying for him each day.”

The administrative council of the Knights of Columbus is on a pilgrimage to Rome to mark 100 years of charitable activity in the Eternal City.

At their Feb. 10 meeting, Pope Francis had praised the organization’s charitable work in Rome and in defense of life.

“Today the Knights of Columbus continue their work of evangelical charity and fraternity in a variety of fields,” the pope said. “I think in particular of your faithful witness to the sacredness and dignity of human life, evident at both the local and national levels.”

He also noted the Knights’ dedication to aiding, “both materially and spiritually, those Christian communities in the Middle East that are suffering the effects of violence, war and poverty.”

“I thank all the members of your Order for seeing in our persecuted and displaced brothers and sisters of that region neighbors for whom you are a sign of God’s infinite love,” he said.

Pope Francis noted the centenary of the group’s humanitarian aid in Rome, which started after World War I at the invitation of Benedict XV.

“The Knights responded generously, establishing sports centers for youth that quickly became places for education, catechesis and the distribution of food and other essentials so needed at that time,” he said.

Francis also praised the group for its “unswerving devotion to the Successor of Peter,” including through the Vicarius Christi fund, the annual proceeds of which are given to the pope for his personal charities.

The Knights of Columbus, a Catholic fraternal order, was founded in New Haven, Conn., in 1882 by Venerable Michael J. McGivney, a parish priest. It has 1.8 million members worldwide who perform volunteer service and advance the order’s key principles of charity, unity, fraternity and patriotism.

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