New Catholic group aims to form next generation of women leaders

Vatican City, Oct 1, 2017 / 03:34 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On Sunday Pope Francis said that we can’t improve our political landscape by observing and judging from afar, but that it involves personal involvement, which should always be done in a spirit of charity and helpfulness.

“Try to act personally instead of just looking and criticizing the work of others from the balcony,” the Pope said Oct. 1.

But make your advice constructive, he continued. “If the politician is wrong, go tell him, there are so many ways to say, ‘But I think that would be better like so, like so…’ Through the press, the radio… But say it constructively.”

“And do not look out from the balcony, look at her from the balcony waiting for her to fail.”

Pope Francis spoke to people in the Italian town of Cesena during a day trip to Cesena and Bologna Oct. 1. In Cesena he met with citizens of the town and with priests, religious and lay people at the city’s cathedral.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, Cesena was the birthplace of Pope Pius VI and Pope Pius VII. Also in the 19th century Francesco Xaverio Castiglione (the future Pope Pius VIII) was bishop of Cesena, thus giving the city its nickname of the “city of the three popes.”

In Bologna the Pope’s schedule included meetings with migrants and refugees, clergy and religious, academics and students, and workers and the unemployed.

“The authentic face of politics and its reason for being,” Francis said, is “an invaluable service to the good of the whole community. And that is why the Church’s social doctrine regards it as a noble form of charity.”

In order to re-establish the independence and the ability of politics to serve the public good, he continued, we must “act in such a way as to diminish inequalities, to promote the welfare of families with concrete measures, to provide a solid framework of rights-duties – balance both – and make them effective for everyone.”

Therefore, the Pope said, from the centrality of the “piazza” – the square – goes out the message that it is “essential to work together for the common good.”

“I invite you to consider the nobility of political action in the name and favor of the people,” he said. In recent years, the true aim of politics has appeared to retreat in the face of aggression and financial power.

Thus, we must “rediscover the value” of this essential part of society and give our contribution – recognizing the need for political ideas to be held up to reality and reshaped as necessary.

We shouldn’t claim an impossible perfection from those in public life, he stated, but we should still “demand” from politicians “the coherence of commitment, preparation, moral rectitude, initiative, forbearance, patience and strength of spirit in addressing today’s challenges.”

This won’t fix everything quickly or easily, of course, he continued. “The magic wand doesn’t work in politics.” But if a politician does wrong: constructively tell them, he encouraged.

We all make mistakes, Francis said. And when we do, we should apologize, return to a right path and go on.

Concluding, he said that it is the right of everyone to have a voice in politics, but especially we should listen to “the young and the elderly.” To young people because they are the ones with the energy to do things, and to the elderly because they have the wisdom and authority of life.

The people expect from good politics the defense and “harmonious development” of their heritage and its best potential, he said.

“Let us pray to the Lord for the raising of good politicians who really care for society, the people and the good of the poor.”

[…]

Pope Francis’ general audience in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican, Nov. 3, 2021. / Vatican Media.

Vatican City, Nov 3, 2021 / 09:00 am (CNA).
Pope Francis has asked Catholics around the world to pray in November for people suffering from depress… […]

Vatican City, Jan 10, 2021 / 05:30 am (CNA).- Pope Francis prayed Sunday for the United States, asking the Immaculate Virgin Mary to help foster a “culture of encounter” after the recent violence at the U.S. Capitol Building.

“I extend an affectionate greeting to the people of the United States of America, shaken by the recent siege of Congress. I pray for those who lost their lives, five lost in those dramatic moments,” Pope Francis said after his Angelus address Jan. 10.

“I reaffirm that violence is always self-destructive. Nothing is gained with violence and so much is lost. I urge the authority of the state and the entire population to maintain a high sense of responsibility in order to calm the spirits, promote national reconciliation and protect the democratic values rooted in American society,” the pope said.

In the midday Marian prayer broadcast live from the library of the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace, Pope Francis invoked the intercession of the Immaculate Conception, who was proclaimed patroness of the United States in 1846.

“May the Immaculate Virgin, Patroness of the United States of America, help to keep alive the culture of encounter, the culture of care, as the main way to build the common good together,” the pope said.

Pope Francis’ comments came four days after pro-Donald Trump protesters stormed the U.S. Capitol Building Jan. 6 as Congress was in the process of certifying the presidential election results, leading to the evacuation of lawmakers and the deadly shooting of one protester by law enforcement. A U.S. Capitol police officer also died from injuries sustained during the attack, and three other protesters died due to medical emergencies.

In a video clip published Jan. 9, Pope Francis said that he was “astonished” by this incident that occurred in the U.S. Capitol Building.

“I was astonished, because they are a people so disciplined in democracy, right? But it’s a reality,” the pope said in the clip published to the website of the Italian news program TgCom24.

“Something isn’t working,” Francis continued. With “people taking a path against the community, against democracy, against the common good. Thanks be to God that this has broken out and there was a chance to see it well so that now you can try and heal it. Yes, this must be condemned, this movement…”

The clip was published as a preview of a longer interview with Pope Francis by Vatican journalist Fabio Marchese Ragona, who works for the Italian television network Mediaset.

The interview will air on the evening of Jan. 10, and will be followed by a Mediaset-produced film on the life of Jorge Mario Bergoglio, from his youth in Argentina until his election as Pope Francis in 2013.

In his Angelus address, Pope Francis reflected on the manifestation of the Holy Trinity at Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan River.

“After this gesture of compassion from Jesus, an extraordinary thing happens: the heavens open and the Trinity is finally revealed. The Holy Spirit descends in the form of a dove and the Father says to Jesus: ‘You are my beloved Son.’ God manifests himself when mercy appears,” Pope Francis said.

“Do not forget this: God manifests himself when mercy appears, because that is his face. Jesus becomes the servant of sinners and is proclaimed Son; He lowers himself upon us and the Spirit descends upon him. Love calls love. It is also true for us: in every gesture of service, in every work of mercy that we perform, God manifests himself, God sets his gaze on the world.”

The pope said that “God overcomes the evil of the world by humbling himself.”

He added: “It is also the way in which we can lift others up: not judging, not in commanding what to do, but by becoming neighbors, by empathizing, by sharing God’s love.”

[…]