Pope Francis gifts 6,000 rosaries, asks for prayers on name day

Vatican City, May 16, 2020 / 09:52 am (CNA).- The coronavirus emergency is also causing a food-related crisis, Vatican officials said Saturday, encouraging people to do their small part to help those who are going hungry.

“What happens now with the coronavirus crisis is it is increasing food-related problems,” Fr. Augusto Zampini-Davies said during a livestreamed press conference May 16.

“We know the value of a society is determined by how we treat the poorest, the most vulnerable, so what are we going to do for all these people, who, apart from the health issues, are suffering from hunger or food-related problems?” he asked.

Zampini-Davies is adjunct secretary of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development. He said the COVID-19 emergency is affecting food availability on many levels of society: for example, children who rely on school lunches are going hungry while schools are closed, and supply chains are being impacted by restrictions on imports and exports.

There are also millions of people who have lost their jobs or are being prevented from working by measures intended to control the health emergency, he noted. And this often means going hungry.

What happens to the millions of people who are helped neither by the market nor by the state, but we are forcing them to stay home? the priest asked. “What happens to these people? We cannot force them to stay at home without any support.”

Responding to a question about Pope Francis’ proposal for a “universal basic wage,” Zampini-Davies said it is “one tool” that has been used in the past to help confront emergency economic situations.

“As a tool, it has its pros and cons,” he said, but “if we want to promote health for everybody, we need to do something.”

“We cannot remain indifferent,” he said. “All the structures of society are being challenged at the moment, so what we are trying to do is to implement the preferential option for the poor, which is a fundamental element and an ethical imperative.”

A food crisis is one of the issues the Vatican’s new COVID-19 Commission is considering how to combat in the wake of the coronavirus.

The commission is under the auspices of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, headed by Cardinal Peter Turkson, and is intended to work for about one year.

Turkson noted May 16 that “COVID-19 started as a healthcare issue; but it has affected drastically the economy, jobs/employment, lifestyles, food security, the primary role of Artificial Intelligence and internet security, politics, governance and policies (nationalistic or open and in solidarity), research and patents.”

“Hardly any aspect of human life and culture is left unscathed by this pandemic.”

The commission is “an organ of the Holy See to occupy itself with the multifaceted COVID-19 pandemic.”

Zampini-Davies said FAO estimates 800 million people around the world were already “chronically hungry.”

“However … there is hope, because this terrible situation can be an opportunity to change,” he said.

He made some suggestions of actions to be taken on the international level, but also highlighted how “ordinary people” can help by reducing food loss and waste, and by changing their diets to include more seasonal food and fewer high polluting products.

He pointed to St. Therese of Lisieux for her example that “every small gesture of care counts” and noted that the pandemic has shown “we do not need as many things as we think. We can do more with less.”

Aloysius John, secretary general of Caritas Internationalis, the largest Catholic global aid network, said: “as the Holy Father told us, at this tragic moment of human history I want the Church to be present through the work of charity and if you do not do it who will do it?”

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Vatican City, Jun 7, 2019 / 02:36 pm (CNA).- The Apostolic See has confirmed the translation of the third edition of the Roman Missal prepared by the Italian bishops’ conference. The translation has garnered attention for its changes to the Our Father, as well as the Gloria.

The newly-approved Messale Romano will translate the penultimate line of the Our Father (ne nos indúcas in tentatiónem) (lead us not into temptation) as “non abbandonarci alla tentazione” (do not abandon us to temptation). The existing version had translated it as “non ci indurre in tentazione” (lead us not into temptation).

In the Gloria, the line “in térra pax homínibus bónae voluntátis” (on earth peace to people of good will) will be translated “pace in terra agli uomini, amati dal Signore” (peace on earth to men, loved by the Lord). It was translated “pace in terra agli uomini di buona volontà” (peace on earth to men of good will).

The Italian bishops’ conference had approved the new edition of the Messale Romano during their November 2018 general assembly. The Apostolic See’s confirmation of the text was communicated during the conference’s meeting last month.

News reports in English may have given the impression that Pope Francis had changed the Our Father for the whole of the Church, rather than his see having confirmed a change made by the bishops of Italy.

The new Italian text is a translation of the third edition of the Missale Romanum, the Latin typical edition which was issued in 2002. The existing Messale Romano was a translation of the second edition of the Missale Romanum, which had been promulgated in 1975.

The English translation of the third edition of the Missale Romanum was issued in 2011.

A spokesman for the English and Welsh bishops has said that the International Commission on English in the Liturgy “is not currently considering the Lord’s Prayer,” and that “there are no plans at present for [the Our Father] to change in English,” but that “I am sure there will be some consultation with the English-speaking nations.”

A spokesperson for the Scottish bishops said there were “no plans” to adopt the changes, while Bishop Francis Duffy of Ardagh and Clonmacnois, liturgy chair for the Irish bishops, said that “In consultation with bishops from other English-speaking countries, the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference will give close attention to the reported change to the Lord’s Prayer. The bishops will look at the implications for both the Irish and English translations of this much loved and universal prayer.”

The change in the Italian translation was many years in the making. The revised version of the Our Father had been published in a version of the Bible approved by the Italian bishops’ conference in 2002, and published in 2008.

The French bishops’ conference made a similar change to its translation of the Our Father. In 2017 it adopted a translation reading “ne nous laisse pas entrer en tentation” (do not let us fall into temptation), whereas the former translation had read “ne nous soumets pas à la tentation” (lead us not into temptation).

In January 2018, the German bishops’ conference chose against changing their translation of the Our Father to accord with the new trend. They noted “philosophical, exegetical, liturgical and, not least, ecumenical” reasons to leave the translation untouched, and added that the petition speaks of “the trust to be carried and redeemed by almighty God.”

Though the new Italian translation of the Our Father was not Pope Francis’ “change,” he has several times been publicly critical of the way the petition “ne nos indúcas in tentatiónem” is translated in some languages.

In an interview with Italian Catholic television network TV2000, Pope Francis lauded the French bishops’ decision, and he expressed concern that certain translations could give the impression it is God “who pushes me toward temptation to see how I fall.”

More recently, Francis commented that “the original Greek expression contained in the Gospels is difficult to render exactly, and all modern translations are somewhat limping.”

The Greek verb found in the Gospels, eisenenkēis, means to bring in, to lead in, to carry in, or to introduce.

In his collation on the Our Father, St. Thomas Aquinas wrote that “Christ teaches us to pray, not that we may not be tempted, but that we may not be led into temptation. For it is when one overcomes temptation that one deserves the reward … Our Lord, therefore, teaches us to pray that we be not led into temptation, by giving our consent to it,” because “it is human to be tempted, but to give consent is devilish.”

“But does God lead one to evil, that he should pray: ‘Lead us not into temptation’? I reply that God is said to lead a person into evil by permitting him to the extent that, because of his many sins, He withdraws His grace from man, and as a result of this withdrawal man does fall into sin,” the Angelic Doctor wrote.

“God, however, directs man by the fervor of charity that he be not led into temptation. For charity even in its smallest degree is able to resist any kind of sin: ‘Many waters cannot quench charity.’ He also guides man by the light of his intellect in which he teaches him what he should do. For as the Philosopher says: ‘Every one who sins is ignorant.’ ‘I will give thee understanding and I will instruct thee.’ It was for this last that David prayed, saying: ‘Enlighten my eyes that I never sleep in death; lest at any time my enemy say: I have prevailed against him.’ We have this through the gift of understanding. Therefore, when we refuse to consent to temptation, we keep our hearts pure … And it follows from this petition that we are led up to the sight of God, and to it may God lead us all.”

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Pope Francis meets with Bhaddanta Kumarabhivamsa, head of the Supreme Sangha Council, in Yangon, Myanmar, Nov. 29, 2017. / Vatican Media.

Vatican City, May 26, 2021 / 12:00 pm (CNA).
The Vatican said Wednesday that it hopes the coronavirus pande… […]