Pope Francis urges French Catholic bishops to console victims in wake of abuse report

Pope Francis speaking in St. Peter’s Basilica on June 5, 2022. / Vatican Media

Rome Newsroom, Jul 21, 2022 / 07:13 am (CNA).

As Europe faces record high temperatures and summer wildfires, Pope Francis has pointed out that the poor suffer the most from heat waves, drought, and other environmental extremes.

In a message for the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, the pope said that it is “the poorest among us who are crying out.”

“Exposed to the climate crisis, the poor feel even more gravely the impact of the drought, flooding, hurricanes, and heat waves that are becoming ever more intense and frequent,” Pope Francis said in the message published on July 21.

“Listening to these anguished cries, we must repent and modify our lifestyles and destructive systems. … The present state of decay of our common home merits the same attention as other global challenges such as grave health crises and wars,” he said.

Pope Francis signed the message urging care for creation on July 16, one day after new temperature records were set in Spain and Portugal. There were 1,063 heat-related deaths in Portugal between July 7 and July 18, according to the country’s director-general of health.

Since then, the heat wave has spread to France and the U.K., which broke its national record for the highest temperature ever recorded on July 19. 

In his message, Pope Francis explained that he authorized the Holy See on behalf of the Vatican City State to accede to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Agreement “in the hope that the humanity of the 21st century will be remembered for having generously shouldered its grave responsibilities.”

He said that achieving the demanding goals of the Paris agreement of limiting temperature increase to 1.5°C and reducing net greenhouse gas emissions to zero requires cooperation between all nations.

“This means ‘converting’ models of consumption and production, as well as lifestyles, in a way more respectful of creation and the integral human development of all peoples, present and future, a  development grounded in responsibility, prudence/precaution, solidarity, concern for the poor and for future generations,” the pope added.

The pope called for economically richer countries, “who have polluted most in the last two centuries,” to provide financial and technical support for economically poorer nations that are “already experiencing the most of the burden of climate change.”

Pope Francis established Sept. 1 as the annual World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation following the publication of the encyclical Laudato si’ in 2015. The pope has also recommended that the period from Sept. 1 to Oct. 4 — the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi —  be celebrated as a “Season of Creation.”

The theme of this year’s Season of Creation will be “listen to the voice of creation.” The pope expressed hope that the season will be “a special time for all Christians to pray and work together to care for our common home.”

Pope Francis said: “Originally inspired by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, this Season is an opportunity to cultivate our ‘ecological conversion,’ a conversion encouraged by Saint John Paul II as a response to the ‘ecological catastrophe’ predicted by Saint Paul VI back in 1970.”

“If we learn how to listen, we can hear in the voice of creation a kind of dissonance. On the one hand, we can hear a sweet song in praise of our beloved Creator; on the other, an anguished  plea, lamenting our mistreatment of this our common home.”

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Barcelona, Spain, Jun 10, 2019 / 04:01 pm (CNA).- After 137 years of ongoing construction, Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia received a building permit Friday.

Construction on the basilica is expected to be completed in 2026.

Architect Antoni Gaudí began his work on Sagrada Familia in 1883, and in 1914 stopped all other projects to work exclusively on  the basilica, to which he dedicated himself until his death in 1926.

“It was a historical anomaly that La Sagrada Familia did not have a license,” said Janet Sanz, deputy mayor for Ecology, Urbanism and Mobility, according to NPR.

“They were working on the church in a very irregular way,” she said. “And we were very clear that, like everyone else, La Sagrada Familia should comply with the law.”

A permit had been applied for in 1885, but the city’s council never responded to the application. Three years ago, the authorities discovered that the building did not have the proper paperwork.

La Sagrada Familia foundation purchased the building permit and signed a contract with the city June 7. It is the most expensive building permit in the city’s history, at about $5.1 million dollars.

Per the agreement, the city will be involved with the preservation and completion of the basilica. The foundation will also be co-responsible for the revenue the building brings to the city.

Though unfinished, Sagrada Familia was consecrated in 2010 by Benedict XVI.

The church receives about 4 million visitors per year. Under the contract, the foundation will not seek to increase the amount of the visitors. A new metro station will also be built to provide visitors with direct access to the church and to help decrease traffic in the surrounding area.

A date for the project’s completion has been set for 2026, 100 years after Gaudí died in a car accident. Since his death, the progress has been based off the artist’s plaster models and copies of his drawings, which had been partially destroyed in a fire set during the Spanish Civil War, and which were later reconstructed.

The architect was a devout Catholic and has numerous modernist architectural pieces throughout Barcelona. His cause for canonization was opened in Rome in 2003.

 In 2005, Sagrada Familia was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

[…]

"Cabrini" tells the true story of Francesca Cabrini, also known as St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, and will be released by Angel Studios on International Women’s Day, March 8, 2024. / Credit: Angel Studios

CNA Staff, Jan 28, 2024 / 06:00 … […]