Year: 2017

Vatican City, Oct 14, 2017 / 06:13 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On Saturday Pope Francis said that to share God’s love with the world requires action and service – and that we can’t just sit around and wait for other people to perform our vocation.

“Love is dynamic, it goes out of itself,” the Pope said Oct. 14. The person who loves does not just sit in an armchair watching and waiting for the world to improve. Instead, he or she “with enthusiasm and simplicity gets up and goes.”

As St. Vincent de Paul said, our vocation is not merely to go to one parish or diocese, but to go throughout the earth, he continued. And what do we do? We “inflame the hearts of men, doing what the Son of God did, he who came to bring fire to the world to inflame it with his love.”

The vocation to love, Francis said, “is always valuable for everyone.”

Pope Francis spoke to members of the Vincentian Family during a celebration in St. Peter’s Square Oct. 14 celebrating the 400th anniversary of the start of the charism of the Vincentian Family, a group of organizations founded by or under the inspiration of St. Vincent de Paul.

A 17th-century French priest, St. Vincent is known as the patron of Catholic charities for his apostolic work among the poor and marginalized.

The meeting was part of a week-long symposium in Rome which included Mass, prayer services and talks.

In their audience, Francis said he wanted to encourage the members of the Vincentian Family to continue their journey of charity.

Besides the verb “to go,” he offered two other simple words he said are of great importance for “the Vincentian spirit but also for Christian life in general:” To worship and to welcome.

For St. Vincent, worship of God, or prayer, was essential, the Pope said. There are many invitations from him in his writing encouraging us to cultivate an inner life, devoting ourselves to prayer, which “purifies and opens the heart,” he said.

St. Vincent considered prayer like the compass of every day, the “manual of life.” Only through prayer can we draw from God the love that we then pour into the world, he continued.

But the saint didn’t consider prayer a set of formulas or a sterile duty, he continued. Prayer, for St. Vincent, was to stand before God, being with him and devoting yourself to him.

“This is the most pure prayer, the one that makes room for the Lord and his praise, and nothing else: adoration,” he said.

“Here is adoration: to stand before the Lord, with respect, with calm and in silence, giving him the first place,” abandoning oneself with confidence.

Whatever the situation or problem, those who spend time worshiping God can’t help but be “contaminated” by the living source of love, he continued. Which makes us want to treat others like we have been treated by the Lord.

Those who spend time in worship and adoration become “more merciful, more sympathetic, more available, above rigidity and open to others.”

When we think of the verb “to welcome,” we often think of doing something, like performing an act of hospitality or the like, Francis said. But it actually has more to do with a way of thinking.

Welcoming is really “a slow detachment from all that is mine: my time, my rest, my rights, my plans, my agenda.”

The Christian is truly welcoming who sets aside his or her own ego in favor of sowing peace and concord and communion, even when not reciprocated.

“Thank you for moving in the streets of the world, as St. Vincent would ask you today,” the Pope concluded. I hope you continue to draw God’s love from adoration, spreading it throughout the world, through the “good contagion” of charity.

“I bless all of you and the poor you meet.”

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Vatican City, Oct 13, 2017 / 11:21 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis and the prime minister of Lebanon, Saad Rafic Hariri, discussed Friday the current situation in the Middle East and Lebanon, which has received a large number of refugees from Syria.

According to an Oct. 13 statement from the Vatican, the meeting took place “in an atmosphere of great cordiality,” which enabled a productive discussion of various issues in Lebanon and the Middle East.

Among these, the two expressed hope for “increasingly fruitful collaboration between the various political powers” in support of the common good of the nation.

They also focused on the importance of the Christian presence in the Middle East and the “historic and institutional role of the Church in the life of the country.”

In the half-hour meeting, Francis and Hariri spoke about the need to find a “just and comprehensive solution” to conflicts in the region and Pope Francis also expressed his appreciation for the welcome Lebanon has shown to refugees fleeing Syria and other countries of the Middle East.

Now more politically stable, before Oct. 2016 and the election of President Michel Aoun, the Lebanese parliament was under a 29-month deadlock to choose the next president.

Bordered by Syria to the north and east, and Israel to the south, the situation in Lebanon is closely tied to that of the Middle East. The country has welcomed the largest number of refugees per capita, which now represent an estimated one quarter of the country’s 4.5 million population.

In an effort to keep refugees from overwhelming any one area of the country, Lebanon has banned formal refugee camps, but already in some Lebanese towns there are now more Syrians than native Lebanese.

In Lebanon, Christians make up about 41 percent of the population, and Muslims, evenly divided between Sunnis and Shiites, around 54 perecent. Maronite Catholics are the largest Christian group.

In the meeting the Pope and Prime Minister also conversed on the importance of interreligious and intercultural dialogue, as well as the value of collaboration between Christians and Muslims in promoting peace and justice.

Francis gave Hariri a gift of an olive branch sculpture, symbolizing peace. On his part, the Prime Minister gave Francis a silver necklace with a cross.

As is usual for heads of state, following his meeting with Francis, the Prime Minister also met with Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin and Secretary for Relations with States Msgr. Paul Richard Gallagher.

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Vatican City, Oct 13, 2017 / 06:52 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On Friday Pope Francis met with Special Olympics soccer players, commending their commitment to the promotion of inclusion and the dignity of all.

“You are the symbol of a sport that opens eyes and heart to the value and dignity of individuals and people who would otherwise be subject to prejudice and exclusion,” the Pope said Oct. 13.

The papal audience was part of 50th anniversary celebrations put on by Special Olympics Italy. Francis met with around 350 participants of a unified soccer tournament taking place in Rome Oct. 12-15.

The event, called “We #Change the Game with PlayUnified,” involves 120 young athletes, both with and without intellectual disabilities, from the countries of Italy, France, Lithuania, Poland, Hungary, Spain, Portugal, Belgium and Romania.

The Special Olympics was started in 1967 by Eunice Kennedy Shriver and the first international Special Olympics Games took place at Soldier Field in Chicago in July 1968.

Today Special Olympics is active in 170 nations; more than 4 million athletes participate around the world.

Pope Francis told athletes that “sport is one of those universal languages ??that overcomes cultural, social, religious and physical differences, and succeeds at uniting people, making them part of the same game and protagonists together of victories and defeats.”

During the days of the tournament, participants will reaffirm the importance of “unified” sports, where athletes with and without disabilities play together on the same teams, he said.

“Do not be tired of showing the world of sport your shared commitment to building more fraternal societies in which people can grow and develop and fully realize their abilities,” he encouraged.

For its part, the Catholic Church supports and encourages these initiatives, he continued, because they foster the good of people and communities.

He recalled that in sports one can find many great stories of people who have overcome difficulties or come to terms with misfortunes such as poverty and physical and emotional wounds.

“These stories show us how the determination and character of some can be a motive for inspiration and encouragement for so many people in all aspects of their lives,” he said.

He praised their commitment to the promotion of human dignity and unity through sport, which he said “nourishes the hope of a positive and fruitful future of sport, because it makes it a real opportunity for inclusion and involvement.”
 
“I hope you spend these days with joy and serenity,” he concluded. Along with fun, also cultivating “friendship and solidarity.”

“As I ask you to pray for me, I invoke the Lord’s blessing on you, on your families, and on those who support you in your sporting activity,” he said.

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Vatican City, Oct 13, 2017 / 06:33 am (CNA/EWTN News).- With more than 30 deaths caused by the various wildfires devouring swaths of California, Pope Francis on Friday sent a message voicing his solidarity with victims, and ensuring his prayer for all those affected by the blazes.

“Informed of the tragic loss of life and the destruction of property caused by the wildfire in California, the Holy Father assures you of his heartfelt solidarity and his prayers for all those affected by this disaster,” read an Oct. 13 letter signed by Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin.

Addressed to Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco and Archbishop José Gómez of Los Angeles, the letter assured of the Pope’s closeness to “those who mourn the loss of their loved ones and who fear for the lives of those still missing.”

The letter also offered encouragement to civil authorities and emergency personnel working to put put the fires and help victims of the “tragedy,” and extended his blessing.

The 17 different wildfires raging in northern California, made worse by dry conditions and unrelenting winds, have so far scorched at least 100,000 acres and have killed at least 31 people since the beginning of the week. Thousands more have been displaced, their homes and businesses destroyed.

According to the Los Angeles Times, an estimated 2,834 homes were destroyed in the city of Santa Rosa alone, one of the hardest hit by the fires, while roughly 400,000 square feet of commercial spaces have also been reduced to ash.

Much of the area of the Diocese of Santa Rosa has been under mandatory evacuation, including the chancery and the local Catholic Charities office.

In an Oct. 10 message, Bishop Robert Vasa of the Diocese of Santa Rosa said “the sense of great helplessness is palpable” among residents. “When people ask how they can help I answer that I really do not know. I do know that prayers are the greatest source of solace and help.”

The bishop offered his own prayers for those who had lost loves ones in the fires, praying “for your consolation and for eternal rest for your lost loved ones. Our hearts go out to all of you.”

“At the same time, we acknowledge the sense of loss and suffering experienced by those who have lost their homes, or businesses, or places of employment,” he said. “We pray that you do not lose hope, nor the sense of God’s presence and ultimate goodness. You must know that the hearts of the entire community, though it can neither feel what you feel, nor undo the loss, do go out to you.”

Vasa also thanked the firefighters and police, both those from California and throughout the country who have offered their help.

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