Pope Francis: Pray for a ‘very ill’ Benedict XVI

Vatican City, Aug 6, 2017 / 04:31 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On Sunday Pope Francis said the Feast of the Transfiguration is an invitation to put God and others first, adding that the lazy summer months are the perfect time to take a step back and refocus on the essentials.

“The event of the Transfiguration of the Lord offers us a message of hope: it invites us to encounter Jesus, in order to be at the service of our brothers,” the Pope said during his Aug. 6 Angelus address.

Looking to pilgrims gathered in a sweltering St. Peter’s Square, he turned to the day’s Gospel passage from St. Matthew, which recounted the event of the Transfiguration and the disciples descent down the mountain afterward.

The image of the disciples going down Mount Tabor serves as a reminder of the importance of detaching ourselves from worldly things, and walking toward Christ, he said.

And to do this, he added, involves dedicating ourselves to an “attentive and prayerful listening to Christ,” by looking for “intimate moments of prayer that allow the docile and joyful welcoming of the Word of God.”

Speaking in August, when most Romans are out on vacation, he said summer time is the perfect opportunity to delve into this prayer, and called summer a “providential moment to enhance our commitment to seek and encounter the Lord.”

“In this period, students are free from scholastic duties and many families are taking their vacation; it’s important that in the time of rest and detachment from daily concerns, they can re-energize the forces of body and spirit, deepening their spiritual path.”

Returning to the image of the Transfiguration, Pope Francis noted that the disciples went back down the mountain with “eyes and hearts transfigured by their encounter with the Lord.”

This is also a path that we can take, he said, adding that the “ever more vivid” rediscovery of Jesus is not an end in itself, but rather something that leads us to go down the mountain ourselves, “recharged by the strength of the Divine Spirit.”

With this renewed strength, we’ll be able to take “new steps of authentic conversion” and will be able to “constantly bear witness to charity, as a law of daily life.”

By allowing ourselves to be transformed by the presence of Christ and his Word, we will become concrete signs of love for our brothers and sisters, Francis said, especially those who suffer due to loneliness, abandonment, illness, injustice and violence.

He closed his address by turning to Mary, who is “always ready to welcome and guard in her heart every word of her Divine Son.”

Pope Francis prayed that Mary would help all to enter into harmony with the Word of God, enabling Christ to be “the light and guide” of our entire lives, and entrusted to her all those on vacation during the summer months.

“To her we entrust the vacation of everyone, so that they are serene and profitable,” he said, and offered a special prayer for those who are unable to take vacation due to age, health, work or financial trouble.

He prayed that for these people, summer would “still be a relaxing time, cheered by friends and happy moments,” and led pilgrims in the traditional Marian prayer.

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Vatican City, Oct 12, 2018 / 03:45 pm (CNA).- The synod of bishops on young people, the faith, and vocational discernment is being held at the Vatican Oct. 3-28.

CNA plans to provide a brief daily summary of the sessions, provided by the synodal fathers from Poland.

Please find below the Polish fathers’ summary of the Oct. 12 session:

The themes discussed today were oriented by the search for general concepts that could give a new meaning to the entire document. Among them, that of the family appeared.

“It is necessary to write a new document, based on the Instrumentum Laboris,”  said the President of the Polish Bishops’ Conference, Archbishop Stanisław Gądecki, summing up this day of the Synod’s work in discussion groups.

“The family is an institution that resembles the Church. The Church as a family must constantly accompany Her children. Just as no two vocations are ever exactly alike, but all are different, so too parents, in relation to their children, have to ask each day what they should do to bring them up well, to lead them to the fullness of the life towards which faith is advancing,” emphasized Archbishop Gądecki.

The family’s role in the life and the discernment of the young person’s vocation was also highlighted by Archbishop Grzegorz Ryś, who recalled that, according to the values declared by Polish youth, it is precisely the family which is the most important factor.

“Young people esteem the family in itself and if they are helped to understand the family’s value, then starting from it, one can lead them to faith, to God, who is the Creator of the family. We want to lead young people not only to truly live their youth but to discover Jesus Christ. In order to reach Him, one must first meet them in places that are important to them. Such places are friendship, work, freedom, and the family, which comes first,” said Archbishop Ryś.

Archbishop Ryś also spoke about the question of vocations.

“A vocation, in the broad sense, touches the eternal design of God in relation to every human being. Speaking about vocations, we want to say, first of all, that every person is needed and is eternally wanted by God, that God needs everyone. The fact of coming into being is accompanied by a call, that is a vocation.”

The head of the Bishops’ Conference, Archbishop Gądecki, also noted that, in the course of today’s work, attention was drawn to the fact that the document lacks an acknowledgement that in order for it to be Christian, a young person’s calling must necessarily be connected with the cross.

Too often an excessively light vision of the lives of young people is presented, one which omits their worries and their engagement with the transcendental.

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Rome Newsroom, Mar 11, 2021 / 12:00 pm (CNA).- Bulldozers have torn into a 135-year-old church dedicated to St. Joseph in northern France — the first of several church demolitions that could take place in the country in the coming months.

The Chapelle Saint-Joseph, built by the Jesuits in Lille between 1880 and 1886, is being bulldozed by the Catholic University of Lille to make way for a new student building. But the nearby Rameau Palace — designed by the same architect, Auguste Mourcou — is being preserved and restored.

A group appealed to the French Ministry of Culture to reclassify the church building as historical. But the ministry rejected the appeal, stressing that “giving up the demolition of the chapel would lead to the abandonment of an important project for the development of higher education, which represents an investment of 120 million euros [around $144 million].”

Voilà ce qu’il reste ce soir de NOTRE chapelle Saint-Joseph .@bernstephane @VSpillebout @Le_Figaro @Lille_actu @FChretienne @oprfrance @vmfpatrimoine @LaCroix @lavoixdunord @Infos_HDF @hautsdefrance @BFMGrandLille pic.twitter.com/A2r6LG2nB0

— La Gazette du Patrimoine (@gazettepatrim) March 3, 2021

Urgences patrimoine, an organization that seeks to preserve French cultural heritage, collected 12,400 signatures on a petition to save the St. Joseph chapel. But the demolition process, captured on video, began in late February regardless.

Meanwhile, discussions have been held to replace the Church of Sainte-Germaine-Cousin in Calais, an early 20th-century building in the Art Deco style, with an apartment complex, according to CNA’s Italian language news partner, ACI Stampa.

The Diocese of Arras announced in August 2020 that the church would no longer be used due to maintenance costs. The church’s 28 stained-glass windows, created by master glassmaker Louis Barillet, have been registered as protected historic architecture with the French government since 1997.

Another church facing potential demolition is the Saint-Èloi du Poirier church, built in 1902 in Trith-Saint-Léger. Local authorities have said that tearing down the church would be less expensive than renovating it, which it estimates would cost around $958,000.

Members of the local community have written letters, made phone calls to authorities, and organized a town hall meeting in an attempt to save the church.

According to French law, local authorities have the final word as to whether to renovate or demolish churches after the French government appropriated all church property in 1907.

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