Pope Francis presents new cardinals to Benedict XVI in the chapel of the Vatican’s Mater Ecclesiae Monastery on Nov. 28, 2020. / Vatican News.
Vatican City, Apr 13, 2022 / 11:31 am (CNA).
Pope Francis visited Benedict XVI on Wednesday, ahead of the Pope emeritus’ 95th birthday.
The Holy See press office said that the pope went to the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery, the retired German pope’s residence in Vatican City, shortly after 6 p.m. local time on April 13.
Benedict XVI will celebrate his 95th birthday on April 16, Holy Saturday. He was born in 1927, also on Holy Saturday, in Marktl, Bavaria. He led the Catholic Church from 2005 to 2013, when he became the first pope in almost 600 years to resign.
“After a brief and affectionate conversation, and after praying together, Pope Francis returned to Casa Santa Marta [his residence],” the press office said.
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Vatican City, Feb 3, 2019 / 05:28 am (CNA/EWTN News).- During the Angelus Sunday, Pope Francis urged people to think of and pray for the many people in Yemen, especially children, who are starving to death in the war.
President Joe Biden signs the Respect for Marriage Act on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, D.C. on Dec. 13, 2022. / Photo by BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images
Pope Francis greets participants in a meeting promoted by the International Catholic Legislators Network in the Vatican’s Clementine Hall, Aug. 27, 2021. / Vatican Media.
Vatican City, Aug 27, 2021 / 05:30 am (CNA).
Pope Francis urged Catholic lawmakers Friday to protect human dignity online by using public policy to combat child pornography, data breaches, and cyber attacks.
“In our age particularly, one of the greatest challenges confronting us is the administration of technology for the common good,” Pope Francis said in the Apostolic Palace on Aug. 27.
Vatican Media.
“By means of policies and regulations, lawmakers can protect human dignity from whatever may threaten it. I think, for example, of the scourge of child pornography, the misuse of personal data, attacks on critical infrastructures such as hospitals, and the spread of false information on social media and so on,” he said.
Speaking to the International Catholic Legislators Network, the pope encouraged the politicians to “make every effort to undertake serious and in-depth moral reflection on the risks and possibilities associated with scientific and technological advances.”
Pope Francis said that moral reflection on technology would help ensure that laws and regulations focus on “promoting integral human development rather than progress as an end in itself.”
Vatican Media.
“The wonders of modern science and technology have increased our quality of life,” he said. “At the same time, left to themselves and to market forces alone, without suitable guidelines provided by legislative assemblies and public authorities guided by a sense of social responsibility, these innovations can end up becoming a threat to the dignity of the human person.”
The International Catholic Legislators Network is a group of Catholic parliamentarians from around the world that holds an annual private meeting in Rome.
Vatican Media.
The group, founded in 2010 by the Austrian Cardinal Christoph Schönborn and David Alton, a member of Britain’s House of Lords, is dedicated to religious liberty, Church-state relations, the protection of life, and communicating Catholic thought in secular politics.
Vatican Media.
“Your work as lawmakers and political leaders is more important than ever. Charged with serving the common good, you are now being challenged to direct your efforts to the integral renewal of your communities and of society as a whole,” Pope Francis said.
“This entails more than simply combating the virus or seeking to return to the status quo prior to the pandemic — no, that would be a failure — it demands confronting the deeper causes that the crisis has laid bare and aggravated: poverty, social inequality, widespread unemployment, and the lack of access to education.”
Vatican Media.
Among those present at the papal audience were Christiaan Alting von Geusau, president and rector of the International Theological Institute in Vienna, Cardinal Schönborn, and Patriarch Ignatius Aphrem II of the Syriac Orthodox Church.
Vatican Media.
“In an age of upheaval and political polarization, legislators and politicians in general are not always held in high esteem,” the pope said. “Yet what loftier vocation can there be than that of serving the common good and placing the welfare of the community before our personal advantage?”
Vatican Media.
“If we are to heal our world so harshly tried by the pandemic, and build a more inclusive and sustainable future in which technology serves human needs without isolating us from one another, we need not only responsible citizens, but also capable leaders inspired by the principle of the common good,” Pope Francis said.
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