Vilnius, Lithuania, Sep 22, 2018 / 02:36 pm (CNA).- Traveling Saturday to Lithuania, Pope Francis joked that, in the eyes of some, Pope St. John Paul II is considered a saint while he himself is considered “a devil.”
The pope’s joke came amidst a Sept. 22 conversation with journalists, the Associated Press reported, during which he was presented a book about Pope St. John Paul II, written by long-time papal photographer Grzegorz Galazka.
Francis joked as he examined the book, reportedly telling reporters “[John Paul II] was a saint, I am a devil.”
“No, you are both saints!” Galazka responded.
The pope has shown a similar penchant for self-deprecating humor in the past.
Talking with reporters in August, he said his role in securing Italy’s reception of controversial controversial migrants had been that of “the devil’s paw.”
In January, Francis joked with cloistered nuns in Peru that they had come to hear him speak only “to get out of the convent a bit to take a stroll.”
In 2015, Pope Francis reportedly joked with then-Ecuadorian president Rafael Correa. After a visit, Correa tweeted that Pope Francis had made a joke based on stereotypes about Argentine vanity. “Being Argentine, they thought I would call myself Jesus II,” Francis reportedly told Correa.
The pope’s trip to Lithuania is the start of a four-day trip through the Baltic states, during which Pope Francis will visit Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, before returning to Rome Sept. 25.
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Vatican City, Jun 28, 2018 / 11:41 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Newly-minted Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu will resign from his post as substitute of the Secretariat of State tomorrow, in anticipation of his appointment as prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints later this summer.
Cardinal Becciu, 70, was elevated to the cardinalate June 28, and will resign his role at the Secretariat of State June 29. His appointment at the Congregation for the Causes of Saints will take effect Aug. 31.
Referring to his new post while speaking to the press June 27, Cardinal Becciu said the Church does not exist “to create a system of power to dominate,” but its primary goal is to help humanity to “experience God’s existence.”
The experience with God, he said, is “an experience which transforms, which day by day you make a good journey, and at the end you become a saint.”
The Church’s mission, then, is to remind the world of “the vocation for all men to become saints.”
Because of this, Becciu said, the importance of his new office is to “discover those people who lived the Gospel in such a courageous way, and to propose them to humanity as true models of holiness. It’s a very interesting challenge.”
Becciu was born in 1948 in Pattada, on the island of Sardinia, and was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Ozieri in 1972, at the age of 24.
In 2001 he was consecrated a bishop, and appointed apostolic nuncio to Angola as well as Sao Tome and Principe. He served there until 2009, when he was appointed apostolic nuncio to Cuba.
Since 2011, he has been substitute at the Secretarat of State.
Cardinal Becciu has served as an important aide to Pope Francis, and while meeting with reporters he discussed the pope’s ongoing reform of the Roman Curia.
“It’s still too early to judge the reform,” he said: “The work hasn’t been finished” and it is still “a bit rugged”.
“We’re working toward an apostolic constitution that will bring everything together, giving a unified structure to the whole reform. So far we’ve had elements, but not a unified idea.”
Cardinal Becciu’s role at the Secretariat of State “all at the service of the Holy Father. It meant heping to spread his voice and helping him to carry out his mission throughout the world.”
The cardinal has also served as Pope Francis’ personal delegate to the Knights of Malta, tasked with overseeing a “spiritual and moral” reform of the order.
President of the Italian Bishops’ Conference Cardinal Matteo Maria Zuppi (center) attends the consistory for the creation of new cardinals at St. Peter’s Basilica on Aug. 27, 2022, in Vatican City. / Photo by Franco Origlia/Getty Images
Rome Newsroom, Jul 17, 2023 / 05:25 am (CNA).
Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, the Italian prelate tasked by Pope Francis to head a peace mission between Ukraine and Russia, is traveling to Washington, D.C. this week, the Vatican announced.
The cardinal’s visit comes only weeks after the Biden administration announced it was sending an additional $800 million in weapons to aid Ukraine’s counteroffensive — including morally problematic “cluster bombs” that have been banned by most countries, including the Holy See.
Zuppi, who has already visited both Ukraine and Russia, will be in the U.S. capital from July 17-19 and will be accompanied by an official from the Vatican’s Secretariat of State.
“The visit will take place in the context of the peace promotion mission in Ukraine and aims to exchange ideas and views on the current tragic situation and to support humanitarian initiatives to alleviate the suffering of the most affected and most fragile people, especially children,” read the Vatican statement announcing Cardinal Zuppi’s visit.
The Vatican has not disclosed with whom Zuppi will meet during his three-day visit.
Pope Francis’ envoy to Ukraine Cardinal Matteo Zuppi on June 6, 2023, finished a “brief but intense” two-day visit to Kyiv, which included a meeting with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Credit: Vatican News/YouTube
The United States has been a major provider of military support to Ukraine since the country was invaded by Russia on Feb. 24, 2022. To date, the U.S. has sent $41.3 billion in military aid to the Eastern European country, according to the U.S. Department of Defense.
The latest round of support has drawn criticism from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), as well as bishops conferences from other countries, for its inclusion of cluster bombs in the military package. Cluster bombs present an especially grave threat to civilians given that they impact indiscriminately large areas and often do not explode until long after impact.
One hundred twenty-three countries signed the 2008 Convention on Cluster Bombs, which explicitly bans the use, transfer, production, and stockpiling of the munitions. The U.S., however, along with Russia and Ukraine, are not signatories of the convention.
In a statement following the Biden administration’s announcement, Bishop David Malloy, head of the USCCB’s international justice and peace committee, underscored that the U.S. bishops have long advocated the U.S. government to sign the convention.
“Pope Francis has addressed the conventions on antipersonnel mines and cluster munitions, exhorting all countries to commit to these conventions ‘so that there are no more mine victims,’” Malloy wrote.
“While recognizing Ukraine’s right to self-defense, we must continue to pray for dialogue and peace,” he added. “I join with our Holy Father in supporting and sharing in his moral concern and aspiration.”
Cardinal Zuppi has played a prominent role in promoting peace between Ukraine and Russia since Pope Francis asked him in May to lead a peace mission on behalf of the Vatican. The cardinal, who is the archbishop of Bologna and the president of the Italian bishops’ conference, has strong ties to the influential peace-building community Sant’Egidio, a lay Catholic association that has taken part in peace negotiations in many countries including Mozambique, South Sudan, Congo, Burundi, and the Central African Republic.
As part of his peace mission, he visited Kyiv June 5-6, meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other political and religious leaders. The papal envoy then visited Moscow from June 28-29, a trip that included a meeting with Patriarch Kirill, the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church.
His own conscience causes him. He is doing nothing of importance for the church.It must be very hard to be Pope, just look Benedict had to quit. Lord have mercy.
I find it remarkable that his statement, “I am the Devil” came only days after referring, in two different homilies, to those who openly accuse bishops and priests of sexual abuse, of using their ranks to intimidate and/or covering up said abuse, to be in effect “The Great Accuser” and “Satan.”
His own conscience causes him. He is doing nothing of importance for the church.It must be very hard to be Pope, just look Benedict had to quit. Lord have mercy.
Love him, hate him, or whatever, he sure trolls the media like a pro, and that’s not all bad.
I find it remarkable that his statement, “I am the Devil” came only days after referring, in two different homilies, to those who openly accuse bishops and priests of sexual abuse, of using their ranks to intimidate and/or covering up said abuse, to be in effect “The Great Accuser” and “Satan.”
So if i and millions of my protestant brothers and sisters say we are in agreement
To the popes comment is that condiered imflamatory or a per