Pope Francis spoke to participants in a Feb. 16-18, 2023, conference on how pastors and laypeople can work together better / Vatican Media. See CNA article for full slideshow.
Vatican City, Feb 18, 2023 / 09:00 am (CNA).
The Church is a home which priests and laypeople need to care for together, Pope Francis said on Saturday.
“It is time for pastors and laypeople to walk together, in every area of the Church’s life, in every part of the world,” he said in the Vatican’s New Synod Hall on Feb. 18.
“The lay faithful are not ‘guests’ in the Church, they are at home, so they are called to take care of their own home,” he said. “The laity, and especially women, need to be more valued in their human and spiritual skills and gifts for the life of parishes and dioceses.”
Pope Francis’ speech was addressed to the participants in a Feb. 16-18 conference on how pastors and laypeople can work together better for the mission of the Church.
“Together with pastors, they must bear Christian witness in secular environments: the world of work, culture, politics, art, social communication,” the pope said. “We could say: lay people and pastors together in the Church, lay people and pastors together in the world.”
Francis went on to list some of the many ways laypeople can participate in the life of the Church: performing some forms of preaching; collaborating with priests in the formation of children, young adults, seminarians, and religious novices; spiritual directing, preparing engaged couples for marriage, and accompanying married couples.
“They should always be consulted when preparing new pastoral initiatives at every level: local, national and universal,” he said.
“This is why,” Pope Francis said, “pastors need to be trained from seminary days onward in daily and ordinary collaboration with the laity, so that living communion becomes a natural way of acting for them, and not an extraordinary and occasional occurrence.”
“One of the worst things that happens in a pastor is to forget the people from whom he came, the lack of memory,” he continued. “To him can be addressed that much-repeated word of the Bible, ‘Remember;’ ‘remember from whence you were taken, of the flock from which you were taken to return to serve it, remember your roots’ (cf. 2 Tim. 1).”
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Pope Francis at his Wednesday general audience in St. Peter’s Square June 7, 2023. / Daniel Ibanez/CNA
Rome Newsroom, Jun 7, 2023 / 10:50 am (CNA).
The Vatican said Wednesday evening that Pope Francis is out of surgery and that the abdominal operation he underwent “took place without complications.”
The 86-year-old pope will remain in Rome’s Gemelli Hospital for several days to recover after the surgery, according to the Vatican’s spokesman.
In a surgery lasting three hours, Pope Francis underwent a laparotomy and abdominal wall reconstruction using prosthetic materials in the early afternoon of June 7.
The operation under general anesthesia was planned by the pope’s medical team in recent days after it became necessary due to a hernia that was causing recurrent, painful, and worsening symptoms, according to Matteo Bruni, the director of the Holy See Press Office.
The surgery attempted to repair an incisional hernia, a type of abdominal wall hernia at the site of a previous surgical incision. In the pope’s case, this could be the result of the scarring caused by the pope’s colon surgery in July 2021.
The Italian newspaper Il Messaggero reported that the surgeon in charge of the pope’s operation was Sergio Alfieri, the same surgeon who operated on Pope Francis in July 2021 when the pope had part of his colon removed due to diverticulitis.
Pope Francis left for the hospital immediately after greeting pilgrims at his Wednesday general audience, where the pope prayed before a relic of St. Thérèse of Lisieux.
The pope was taken to Gemelli Hospital in a white Fiat 500 with tinted windows with a police escort.
Once news of the pope’s surgery broke, people began to gather in front of the hospital where he was being treated.
“We follow him with our affection. We follow him with our prayers, hoping that everything will be resolved as soon as possible and he will return to the exercise of his ministry,” Cardinal Pietro Parolin told journalists when asked about the pope’s health.
The cardinal added that he expects that Pope Francis will continue to work from his hospital bed as he recovers.
“Even if from a hospital bed, he will resume the exercise of his ministry. So if there are things that need to be decided, urgently, they will be brought to him at the Gemelli hospital,” Parolin said, according to Sky News.
Pope Francis has been hospitalized three times in the past two years. The pope was hospitalized for four days in March for a lung infection and has also dealt this year with a recurrence of diverticulitis, a painful inflammation of bulges in the large intestine following his operation in July 2021.
Since early 2022 the pope has suffered from knee pain. He started to have difficulty standing and walking and has been using a cane and wheelchair for more than a year.
Pope Francis told the Italian bishops in May last year that he did not want to have his knee operated on because he did not want to recover from general anesthesia again following his last surgery.
An Italian diocese noted in a press release on June 7 that it had been notified by the Prefecture of the Papal Household that all of Pope Francis’ audiences, including general audiences, have been canceled until June 18 due to the pope’s surgery.
Tabea Schneider (far left) with a group of other pilgrims who traveled 20 hours by bus from Cologne, Germany, to attend the funeral of Pope Benedict XVI on Jan. 5, 2023, in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican. / Courtney Mares / CNA
Vatican City, Jan 5, 2023 / 08:36 am (CNA).
Catholics from Germany, France, Ghana, India, Australia, Uganda, and many more countries who attended the funeral Mass for Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI on Thursday have shared their favorite memories of the late pope and why some decided to join in the chants of “santo subito” at the end of the ceremony.
More than 50,000 people attended the Jan. 5 funeral for the pope emeritus, who died at the age of 95 last Saturday.
Among those in the crowd for the funeral was Arthur Escamila, who got to know Benedict XVI personally during the 2008 World Youth Day in Australia.
“It was emotional seeing the coffin coming out of the basilica,” he told CNA.
Escamila, a numerary from Opus Dei, recalled how Benedict XVI rested for a few days in the Opus Dei center in Sydney where he was living at the time.
“I had the privilege of living together with him for three days in Sydney in 2008 just before World Youth Day. We spent three days together. I attended his Mass. I ate with him. I listened to music with him,” he said.
Among those in the crowd for the funeral of Pope Benedict XVI on Jan. 5, 2023, in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican, was Arthur Escamila, who got to know Benedict XVI personally during the 2008 World Youth Day in Australia. Courtney Mares / CNA
Benedict XVI was “very humble” and “approachable,” Escamila remembered. “From the beginning he learned my name. He addressed me by my first name and I was very impressed by that.”
Arthur Escamila meets Pope Benedict XVI during the pope’s trip to World Youth Day in Sydney, Australia, July 15–20, 2008. Vatican Media
“My father had recently died. He was interested in that and asked me questions about my father, my family. He wanted to know about his illness. So I was personally touched,” he said.
“So his death meant a lot because it was closing a chapter where I knew the pope emeritus personally and had a connection with him that was personal.”
Cardinal Oswald Gracias, the archbishop of Bombay, also spoke about his personal memories of Benedict XVI.
The cardinal, who traveled from India for the funeral, told CNA that he found the funeral “very moving” and a “fitting farewell for the Holy Father Emeritus.”
Cardinal Oswald Gracias, the archbishop of Bombay, spoke about his personal memories of Pope Benedict XVI at the pope’s funeral on Jan. 5, 2023, in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican. Courtney Mares / CNA
“He was a great theologian, the greatest of the 20th century I think. I personally … whenever I read any article, any book, any homily of his I always got a new insight into theology or spirituality. His was a great contribution for the Church,” Gracias said.
The Indian cardinal also expressed gratitude for the many ways that the former pope touched his life: “He created me cardinal. He appointed me archbishop of Bombay … and we met often. I was on the committee for the translation of liturgical texts and so we discussed much there.”
Father Albert Musinguzi from Uganda said that he felt “deep spiritual joy” at the funeral, especially because it was the first Mass he had ever concelebrated at the Vatican.
Father Albert Musinguzi (second from right) with other priests and deacons at the funeral of Pope Benedict XVI on Jan. 5, 2023, in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican. Courtney Mares / CNA
“Although we have lost a great man, we are not mourning. We are celebrating a spiritual giant, a great man, a gift to the Church and to the entire world because Pope Benedict was a man not only for the Church but for the entire world,” he said.
The priest from Uganda’s Archdiocese of Mbarara, currently studying in Rome, said that he believes that the late pope emeritus is a saint.
“Pope Benedict was a humble pope, but a great theologian. We have learned from his humility to approach God from the Word of God. But what I like most from his preaching is that God and science are not opposed to each other … And what touched me most recently in the life of Pope Benedict XVI were his last words,” Musinguzi said.
“As we know Pope Benedict was 95 years old, so for 71 years he has given homilies and innumerable essays. He has written 66 books, three encyclicals, four exhortations, and he has summarized all of them in four words, which were his last four words: ‘Jesus, I love you.’”
Tabea Schneider traveled 20 hours by bus from Cologne, Germany, with many other enthusiastic German pilgrims who spontaneously decided to come to Rome for the funeral. She said that she was very moved when Pope Francis touched the coffin of Benedict XVI.
Tabea Schneider (far left) with a group of other pilgrims who traveled 20 hours by bus from Cologne, Germany, to attend the funeral of Pope Benedict XVI on Jan. 5, 2023, in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican. Courtney Mares / CNA
“It was a very emotional moment,” she said.
A group of approximately 65 people from all across France traveled together to Rome for Benedict’s funeral.
The Famille Missionnaire de Notre-Dame, a men and women’s religious community, organized two buses.
After the funeral, the group prayed the Liturgy of the Hours outside St. Peter’s Square for the repose of the soul of Benedict XVI.
Members of the Famille Missionnaire de Notre Dame traveled to Rome from France for Benedict XVI’s funeral.
Sister Maksymiliana Domini, originally from Poland, told CNA the group arrived on Tuesday evening and will depart the night of the funeral.
“We love Pope Benedict,” she said, adding that they wanted to honor him and his legacy.
The Famille Missionnarie de Notre-Dame, she said, feels very close to Benedict because of their shared love for the Church’s liturgy and for an interpretation of the Second Vatican Council in the hermeneutic of continuity.
“We are 100% aligned with him spiritually,” Domini said.
Father Anthony Agnes Adu Mensah from Accra, Ghana, said that he enthusiastically joined in the chants of “santo subito” at the end of the Mass.
“I feel in my heart that Pope Benedict is a saint,” the priest said.
Father Anthony Agnes Adu Mensah from Accra, Ghana, (left) with a seminarian from his diocese at the funeral of Pope Benedict XVI on Jan. 5, 2023, in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican. Alan Koppschall / EWTN
Pope Francis waves during his Angelus address at the Vatican, Aug. 8, 2021. / Vatican Media.
Milan, Italy, Aug 9, 2021 / 17:44 pm (CNA).
Italian police announced Monday that the sender of the letter addressed to Pope Francis containing three bul… […]
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Remember – remember from whence you were taken, of the flock from which you were taken to return to serve it, remember your roots (2 Timothy, verse 1).
Remember – remember from whence you were taken, of the flock from which you were taken to return to serve it, remember your roots (2 Timothy, verse 1).