Pope Francis to soccer players: ‘The most beautiful victories are those you win as a team’

Vatican City, Nov 18, 2017 / 05:06 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On Saturday Pope Francis praised the achievements of scientific and technological advancements, but cautioned that developments in the field have limits, and should be founded above all on the good of the human person.

“It remains always valid the principle that not everything that is technically possible or feasible is therefore ethically acceptable,” the Pope said in his prepared remarks Nov. 18.

“Science, like any other human activity, knows that there are limits to be observed for the good of humanity itself, and requires a sense of ethical responsibility,” he said, adding that in the words of Bl. Pope Paul VI, the true measure of progress “is that which is aimed at the good of every man and the whole man.”

Pope Francis spoke on the last day of the Pontifical Council for Culture’s Nov. 15-18 plenary titled “The Future of Humanity: New Challenges to Anthropology,” and which took place inside the Vatican’s old synod hall. Some 54 members and consultors of the council, including prelates and laity, participated.

Discussion touched on anthropological changes in three key areas: medicine and genetics, neuroscience, and the progress of autonomous and thinking machines.

In his speech, the Pope noted how each of these scientific and technical developments have prompted some to think humanity is on the cusp of a new age and level of being superior to what came before.

The questions these advancements raise are “great and serious,” he said, and the Church is paying close attention, but with the desire to put the human person and the issues surrounding it at the center of her own reflections.

In the bible the course of man’s anthropological progress can be seen from Genesis to Revelation, he said, developing around the “fundamental elements” of relation and freedom.”

Relation consists of three dimensions: relation to material things such as land and animals, relation to the divine and relation to other beings, where as freedom is expressed in autonomy and in moral choices.

This understanding of anthropology is still valid today, Francis said, but at the same time, today we also realize that “the great fundamental principles and concepts of anthropology are not rarely put into question on the basis of a greater knowledge of the complexity of the human condition and the need for further investigation.”

Anthropology is the source of our self-understanding, but in modern times, it has become a “fluid and changing horizon” in light of increasing socioeconomic changes, population shifts, increasing intercultural interactions, globalization and the “incredible” discoveries of science and technology.”

Francis said that in response to this situation, we must first give thanks to the scientists who work in favor of humanity and all of creation through their research and discoveries.

Science and technology have helped to deepen in our understanding of the human person, he said, but cautioned that “this alone is not enough to give a response.”

In this regard, he said it’s necessary to draw on the “treasures of wisdom” conserved in the various religions traditions, in “popular wisdom”  and in literature and the arts, while at the same time rediscovering the perspectives offered by philosophy and theology.

He stressed the need to overcome the “tragic division” between the humanistic-theological culture and the scientific culture, saying there must be greater dialogue between the Church and the scientific community.

The Church, he said, offers key talking points for this dialogue, the first of which is the centrality of the human person, “which is considered an end and not a means.” Secondly, the Church reminds the world of the principle of the “universal destination of goods,” which includes knowledge and technology.

“Scientific and technical progress serve to benefit all of humanity and their benefits can’t go to the advantage of the few,” Francis said, adding that new inequalities based on knowledge that increase the divide between the rich and the poor must be avoided in the future.

Pope Francis closed his speech saying the major decisions on the direction of scientific research and investment “are assumed by the whole of society and not dictated solely by the market or by the interest of a few,” and thanked participants for the “precious service” to the Church and to humanity.

[…]

Speaking at a press briefing on Oct. 6, Vatican spokesman Paolo Ruffini said that there needs to be “a certain amount of confidentiality about who takes the floor and who doesn’t in order to leave the space open … for ‘conversation in the Spirit.’” / Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/EWTN News

Vatican City, Oct 6, 2023 / 13:24 pm (CNA).

The roughly 450 people in the room during the Synod on Synodality assembly are “bound to confidentiality and discretion” regarding what is said in Synod discussions. 

Unlike at past Synod of Bishops meetings, where the “pontifical secret” only applied to sharing what was said by others in the synod hall, the Synod on Synodality’s official regulations no longer allow Synod delegates to share their personal interventions with the public. 

The rules, published this week on the first day of the 16th Ordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, stipulate that all Synod delegates are “bound to confidentiality and discretion regarding both their own interventions and the interventions of other participants,” a duty that it says will continue to remain in force after the Synod assembly has ended.

For the first time, the Vatican communications office is also withholding the identities of which delegates are addressing the Synod assembly each day and the members of each working group, opting instead to summarize some of the topics discussed over the course of the day’s speeches and small-group discussions.

Speaking at a press briefing on Oct. 6, Vatican spokesman Paolo Ruffini said that there needs to be “a certain amount of confidentiality about who takes the floor and who doesn’t in order to leave the space open … for ‘conversation in the Spirit.’”

“It’s not important who says what, but it is an exchange and mutual listening,” said Ruffini, who serves as the president of the information commission for the Synod and is also the head of the Vatican Dicastery for Communication. 

When asked about what the potential punishments would be for breaking the confidentiality regulations, Ruffini laughed and said that the rules do not mean that “there is a policeman who is going to punish you.”

“It is an assembly of brothers and sisters who have decided to speak freely during this specific period of time and, of course, there is a personal discernment in all of this,” he said.

“We are not talking about punishments,” he added. “We are talking about this personal discernment that was asked for by the pope to the members.”

According to the Vatican, the confidentiality requirement exists “in order to guarantee the freedom of expression of each and all regarding their thoughts and to ensure the serenity of the discernment in common, which is the main task entrusted to the assembly.”

Pope Francis calls Synod to ‘fast’ from public speech

Pope Francis underlined “the priority of listening” in his opening speech of the Synod on Synodality on Oct. 4, calling for “a certain fasting from public speech” by the Synod delegates during the nearly monthlong assembly.

“Some will say — and are saying — that the bishops are afraid and that is why they don’t want the journalists talking. No. The work of journalists is very important. But we have to help them so that they can also speak of this journeying in the Spirit,” Pope Francis said.

“More than speaking, the priority is that of listening. I ask journalists to please make this known to people, that they realize that the priority is to listen.”

The pope went on to describe how past synods during his pontificate were influenced by “worldliness” and the media before they even began. 

“During the Synod on the Family, public opinion, the fruit of our worldliness, [thought] that communion was going to be given to the divorced, and in that spirit we began the synod,” Francis said.

“When we had the Synod for the Amazon, public opinion, pressure, [thought] that viri probati were going to be [ordained], and we went in under that pressure. Now there is speculation about this synod: ‘What are they going to do?’ ‘Maybe ordain women?’ … Those are things they are saying out there.”

During the Synod on Synodality, communication about what takes place in the synod hall is being managed by a “Commission for Information,” which is “mandated to report on the progress of the synodal assembly.”

The Synod rules forbid participants from recording, filming, or disclosing their interventions in the Synod’s General Congregations and in the Working Groups, but note that an official audiovisual recording of the General Congregations is kept in the archives of the General Secretariat of the Synod.

During official press briefings, Ruffini, the president of the information commission, has limited himself to summarizing the structure of the assembly and to listing off “various themes” and subjects that people brought up in discussions.

Summarizing the 22 three-minute inventions given in the Synod assembly on Friday morning, Ruffini said that the topics included “the suffering of the Church in several parts of the world,” the closeness of the Church to the Ukrainian people, seminary formation, the topic of “the Eucharist as food of the synodal Church,” and how the Church can be present to young people who spend so much time on the internet. 

Sheila Pires, the secretary of the Synod’s information commission, told journalists that the atmosphere inside Paul VI Hall has been “an atmosphere of joy.”

“As much as there may be some tensions here and there, above all there is really an atmosphere of joy,” she said.

[…]

Vatican City, Apr 1, 2018 / 03:30 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On Easter morning Pope Francis said God’s announcement to his people always comes as a surprise, like the shock of the disciples who found Jesus’ tomb empty after his resurrection, and told Christians not to waste time responding to the good news they’ve been given.

“The announcements of God are always a surprise, because ours is a God of surprises,” the Pope said April 1, on Easter morning. “From the beginning of the history of salvation, from Abraham, who God tells to ‘go, get up and go to the land I send you to,’ there’s always one surprise after another.”

“God doesn’t know how to make an announcement, a proclamation without surprising us,” he said, “and that surprise moves your heart, it touches you. It happens when you don’t expect it.”

Francis also spoke of the haste with which the women and the disciples in John’s Gospel responded when they heard news of the empty tomb and Jesus’ resurrection, and he posed a question to those present for the Mass, asking “what about you?”

“What about me? Is my heart open to God’s surprises?” he said, urging Christians to ask themselves: “Am I able to go with great haste, or do I stay back and say, ‘I’ll go tomorrow’?”

Pope Francis celebrated Easter Mass in St. Peter’s Square after presiding over the Easter Vigil inside the basilica the night before, bringing a close to the Easter Triduum and the events of Holy Week.

The altar during Mass was bedecked with some 50,000 flowers of different varieties, which were a gift from florists in Holland.

Though he usually sticks to his text during formal liturgies, Francis did not prepare a homily for Easter morning, and spoke to pilgrims in brief, off-the-cuff remarks. He did the same thing last year, meaning a spontaneous reflection Easter morning could be a new trend for the Argentine pope.

In his short homily, the pope focused on three aspects of the day’s Gospel passage from John, in which Peter and John run to the tomb after Mary Magdalene tells them she found it empty earlier that morning.

The three aspects Pope Francis focused on are the surprise of the announcement, the haste with which the women and the disciples ran to the tomb, and the personal response of each

Please see below for the full text of Pope Francis’ homily:

After having listened to the word of God, this passage from the Gospel, I want to say three things. First, the announcement: the Lord is Risen. That proclamation, that from the tine of the early Christians they would greet each other this way: the Lord is risen! And the women that were there to anoint the Lord’s body, they found themselves in front of a surprise. The surprise. The announcements of God are always a surprise, because ours is a God of surprises. So from the beginning of the history of salvation, from Abraham, who God tells to ‘go, get up and go to the land I send you to,’ there’s always one surprise after another. God doesn’t know how to make an announcement, a proclamation without surprising us. And that surprise moves you heart, it touches you. It happens when you don’t expect it. It’s a surprise from ‘down low’, it takes you off guard. God’s announcement was a surprise.

The rush, the women ran, they went in a hurry to get to the tomb, to say ‘we found this!’ The surprises of God put us on the path, on the journey right away, without waiting. So they run to see, and Peter and John, they run. The shepherds, the night of Christmas when Jesus was born in Bethlehem, ran…the Samaritan woman runs to tell her people, ‘this is new, I met a man who told me everything I have ever done!’ These people run, they leave what they’re doing. The housewife leaves the potatoes in the pot, and they’ll be burned, but it’s important to run, to see that surprise that announcement. Today this also happens to us in our neighborhoods, when something happens and people go to see it. People go with great haste. Andrew didn’t waste time and he went to Peter to say: ‘we found the Messiah!’ The surprises, the good news, are always given like this, with great haste. But in the Gospel there is a person who takes their time, who doesn’t want to take a risk, but the Lord is good, and he waits for him with great love. This is Thomas, who said ‘I’ll believe when I see his wounds.’ The Lord is patient with those people who do not get up and leave with great haste.

Thirdly, is a question: and me, what? What about me? Is my heart open to God’s surprises? Am I able to go with great haste, or with that chant, do I stay back and say ‘I’ll go tomorrow’? What is the surprise saying to me? John and Peter, they ran to the tomb. John in his Gospel, tells us to believe. Even Peter, believed, but in his own way, with that faith that is a bit mixed with remorse for having denied the Lord. The announcement that has made a surprise, to run and go with great haste, and the question: what about me, today, in this Easter in 2018? What about me? What about you?

[…]