Pope Francis on All Souls’ Day: Christian hope gives life meaning

November 2, 2020 CNA Daily News News Briefs 1 Print

Vatican City, Nov 2, 2020 / 10:00 am (CNA).- Pope Francis visited a cemetery in Vatican City to pray on All Souls’ Day Monday and offered Mass for the faithful departed.

“‘Hope does not disappoint,’ St. Paul tells us. Hope attracts us and gives meaning to life …  hope is a gift from God that draws us towards life, towards eternal joy. Hope is an anchor that we have on the other side,” Pope Francis said in his homily Nov. 2.

The pope offered Mass for the souls of the faithful departed at the Church of Our Lady of Mercy in the Teutonic Cemetery in Vatican City. Afterwards, he paused to pray at the tombs in the Teutonic Cemetery and then visited the crypt of St. Peter’s Basilica to spend a moment in prayer for the souls of the deceased popes who are buried there.

Pope Francis prayed for all the dead in the prayers of the faithful at Mass, including “the dead without face, without voice, and without name, so that God the Father may welcome them into eternal peace, where there is no longer either anxiety or pain.”

In his off-the-cuff homily, the pope said: “This is the goal of hope: to go to Jesus.”

On All Souls’ Day and throughout the month of November, the Church makes a special effort to remember, honor and pray for the dead. There are many different cultural traditions around this period, but one of the most consistently honored is the practice of visiting cemeteries.

The Teutonic Cemetery, located next to St. Peter’s Basilica, is the burial place of people of German, Austrian, and Swiss descent, as well as for people from other German-speaking nations, particularly members of the Archconfraternity of Our Lady.

The cemetery is built on the historic site of Nero’s Circus, where early Christians in Rome were martyred, including St. Peter.

Pope Francis sprinkled the tombs in the Teutonic Cemetery with holy water, pausing to pray at some of the graves, which were adorned with fresh flowers and lit candles for the occasion.

Last year, the pope offered All Souls’ Day Mass in the Catacombs of Priscilla, one of the prominent catacombs of the early Church in Rome.

In 2018, Pope Francis offered Mass in a cemetery for deceased children and unborn babies called the “Garden of Angels,” located in the Laurentino Cemetery on the outskirts of Rome.

In his homily, Pope Francis said that one must ask the Lord for the gift of Christian hope.

“Today in thinking of so many brothers and sisters who have died, it will do us good to look at cemeteries … and repeat: ‘I know that my Redeemer lives.’ … This is the strength that gives us hope, a free gift. May the Lord give it to all of us,” the pope said.

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Prosecutor calls for arrest of Vatican bishop charged with abusing Argentine seminarians

November 20, 2019 CNA Daily News 0

Vatican City, Nov 20, 2019 / 02:05 pm (CNA).- A criminal prosecutor in Argentina has requested the arrest of Bishop Gustavo Zanchetta, who is accused of sexually abusing two seminarians. Zanchetta is suspended from a position at the Vatican’s central bank, where he was appointed an “assessor” by Pope Francis in 2017.

Zanchetta is accused of sexually abusing two seminarians, and was criminally charged in June. He could face three to 10 years in prison if he is convicted.

The bishop lives in the Vatican City State, at the Domus Santa Marta, the same hotel at which Pope Francis resides.

A prosecutor of sexual crimes in Orán, María Soledad Filtrín Cuezzo, has requested international assistance in Zanchetta’s arrest, because, according to El Tribuno newspaper, the bishop has not responded to repeated telephone calls or emails to the contact information provided by his defense counsel.

Cuezzo had opposed allowing Zanchetta to leave the country, according to El Tribuno, but the bishop was permitted to leave after he presented a document showing that he is employed within Vatican City. She has also said that she had frequently found it necessary to request assistance from the apostolic nuncio in Argentina in order to ensure that Zanchetta appeared in court during proceedings in his case.

Zanchetta is alleged to have sent sexually explicit selfies from his cell phone, harassed seminarians, and mismanaged the finances of the Diocese of Oran, which he led from 2014 to 2017. 

Earlier this month, police raided chancery offices in Oran.

The bishop resigned from his diocese in 2017, citing health reasons. Four month later, Pope Francis appointed him to a newly-created position in the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See, which oversees the Vatican’s assets and real estate holdings.

Reporting from Argentine sources suggests that the bishop was first accused of sexually inappropriate behavior in 2015.

According to a February report from El Tribuno, one of the Zanchetta’s secretaries alerted authorities after accidentally finding sexually explicit images sent and received on Zanchetta’s cell phone in 2015. The complaint says that some of the images depict “young people” having sex in addition to lewd images of Zanchetta himself.

The bishop claimed his phone and computer had been hacked, and that the accusations were motivated anti-Francis voices.

Pope Francis summoned Zanchetta to Rome for five days in October 2015. The pope appeared to have accepted Zanchetta’s excuse that his cell phone had been hacked, and dismissed the allegations.

The Vatican has stated twice that officials did not know about Zanchetta’s misdeeds until 2018, a claim that is disputed by Fr. Juan José Manzano, the former vicar general of the Diocese of Orán. Manzano claims that he reported Zanchetta in 2015, after the pornographic images were found on his phone. Manzano says he also reported him again in 2017.

The report also says three of Zanchetta’s vicars general and two monsignors made a formal internal complaint before the Argentinian nunciature in 2016, alleging inappropriate behavior with seminarians.

That behavior included entering their rooms at night, requesting massages from them, waking up seminarians in the morning, sitting on their beds, drinking alcohol with them, and favoring more the more attractive young men.

The 2017 internal accusation, which The Tribune says alleged more explicit abuse by Zanchetta of seminarians, resulted in Zanchetta’s exit from the diocese, though Zanchetta said he was resigning for health reasons. The Vatican did not open an investigation at that time.

Pope Francis said in January that the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is now investigating Zanchetta.

It is not yet clear whether the bishop will be apprehended in the Vatican City State and extradited to Argentina.

 

ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, contributed to this report.

 

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