The Vatican has accepted the decree of an archbishop approving the spiritual activities of the Catholic Shrine of Chandavila in the town of La Codosera in Badajoz, Spain, where Our Lady of Sorrows is alleged to have appeared to two young girls at the end of World War II. / Credit: Mentxuwiki, Wikimedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Vatican City, Aug 23, 2024 / 12:15 pm (CNA).
The Vatican has accepted the decree of an archbishop approving the spiritual activities of the Catholic Shrine of Chandavila in the town of La Codosera in Badajoz, Spain, where Our Lady of Sorrows is alleged to have appeared to two young girls at the end of World War II.
An Aug. 22 letter from the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) called Our Lady of Sorrows of Chandavila a “beautiful devotion,” with “many positive aspects,” including conversions, healing, and other visible signs of the action of the Holy Spirit in the pilgrims who visit the shrine.
The letter, signed by DDF prefect Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández and approved by Pope Francis in an Aug. 22 audience, said the shrine “may continue to offer to the faithful who wish to approach it, a place of interior peace, consolation, and conversion.”
Devotion to Our Lady of Sorrows of Chandavila springs from several alleged appearances of Our Lady of Sorrows to two young Spanish girls, 10-year-old Marcelina Barroso Expósito and 17-year-old Afra Brígido Blanco, close to the border with Portugal shortly before the end of World War II in 1945.
The DDF noted that “after the alleged visions, the two girls led a discreet and inconspicuous life. Both dedicated themselves to works of charity, especially to caring for the sick, the elderly, and orphans, thereby transmitting to those who are suffering the sweet consolation of the Virgin’s love that they had experienced.”
“There is nothing one can object to in this beautiful devotion,” the letter added.
The Vatican’s doctrinal office confirmed the “nihil obstat” judgment of the diocesan bishop, Archbishop José Rodríguez Carballo, O.F.M. In accordance with new norms on the discernment of “alleged supernatural phenomena,” the local bishop must consult and receive final approval from the Vatican after investigating and judging alleged apparitions and connected devotions.
According to the May 17 norms, a “nihil obstat” judgment means: “Without expressing any certainty about the supernatural authenticity of the phenomenon itself, many signs of the action of the Holy Spirit are acknowledged ‘in the midst’ of a given spiritual experience, and no aspects that are particularly critical or risky have been detected, at least so far.”
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Pope Francis waves to crowds gathered in St. Peter’s Square on June 19, 2022, on Corpus Christi Sunday. / Vatican Media
Denver Newsroom, Jun 19, 2022 / 09:56 am (CNA).
The Feast of Corpus Christi is a time for Christians to remember that God will meet their basic needs to eat and to be filled with the joy and amazement of receiving loving nourishment from Jesus Christ, Pope Francis said Sunday.
At the same time, the pope emphasized, the Eucharist must also move Christians to action.
“We can evaluate our Eucharistic Adoration when we take care of our neighbor like Jesus does,” the pope said Sunday before the recitation of the Angelus at St. Peter’s Square in Rome.
“There is hunger for food around us, but also for companionship; there is hunger for consolation, friendship, good humor; there is hunger for attention, there is hunger to be evangelized. We find this in the Eucharistic Bread — the attention of Christ to our needs and the invitation to do the same toward those who are beside us. We need to eat and feed others.”
The pope’s remarks reflected on Sunday’s Gospel reading, the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes from the Gospel of Luke.
The pope linked the reading to the institution of the Eucharist at the Last Supper. The Eucharist was like “the destination of a journey along which Jesus had prefigured through several signs, above all the multiplication of the loaves narrated in the Gospel of today’s liturgy.”
The pontiff reflected on the manner of the miracle when Jesus fed so many who lacked food.
“The miracle of the loaves and fishes does not happen in a spectacular way, but almost secretly, like the wedding at Cana — the bread increases as it passes from hand to hand. And as the crowd eats, they realize that Jesus is taking care of everything,” said Pope Francis.
“This is the Lord present in the Eucharist. He calls us to be citizens of Heaven, but at the same time he takes into account the journey we have to face here on earth,” he said. “If I have hardly any bread in my sack, he knows and takes care of it himself.”
Thousands gather in St. Peter’s Square in Rome on June 19, 2022, to hear Pope Francis’ Angelus reflections. Vatican Media
The pope connected the tangible needs of food with the intangible needs of humankind.
“Sometimes there is the risk of confining the Eucharist to a vague, distant dimension, perhaps bright and perfumed with incense, but rather distant from the straits of everyday life. In reality, the Lord takes all our needs to heart, beginning with the most basic,” he said.
“In the Eucharist, everyone can experience this loving and concrete attention of the Lord. Those who receive the Body and Blood of Christ with faith not only eat, but are satisfied. To eat and to be satisfied: These are two basic necessities that are satisfied in the Eucharist,” he added. “The crowd is satisfied because of the abundance of food and also because of the joy and amazement of having received it from Jesus!”
Jesus Christ’s self-giving presence is key to understanding the Eucharist, the pope said.
“We certainly need to nourish ourselves, but we also need to be satisfied, to know that the nourishment is given to us out of love. In the Body and Blood of Christ, we find his presence, his life given for each of us. He not only gives us help to go forward, but he gives us himself — he makes himself our traveling companion, he enters into our affairs, he visits us when we are lonely, giving us back a sense of enthusiasm.”
“This satisfies us, when the Lord gives meaning to our life, our obscurities, our doubts; he sees the meaning, and this meaning that the Lord gives satisfies us,” the pope explained. Everyone is looking for the presence of the Lord, because “in the warmth of his presence, our lives change,” the pope added.
“Without him, everything would truly be gray,” he said. “Adoring the Body and Blood of Christ, let us ask him with our heart: ‘Lord, give me that daily bread to go forward, Lord, satisfy me with your presence!’”
The pope also prayed that the Virgin Mary may teach us “how to adore Jesus, living in the Eucharist and to share him with our brothers and sisters.”
Statements on Spanish martyrs, Ukraine war
After the Angelus, the pope discussed the Saturday beatification of Dominican religious who were killed in the Spanish Civil War.
“They were all killed in hatred of the faith in the religious persecution that took place in Spain in the context of the civil war of the last century,” the pope said, calling for applause for them. “Their witness of adherence to Christ and forgiveness for their killers show us the way to holiness and encourage us to make their lives an offering of love to God and their brothers and sisters.”
The conflict of Ukraine after the Russian invasion also was a point for prayer, the pope said: “Let us not forget the suffering of the Ukrainian people in this moment, a people who are suffering.”
“I would like you all to keep in mind a question: What am I doing today for the Ukrainian people? Do I pray? Am I doing something? Am I trying to understand? What am I doing today for the Ukrainian people? Each one of you, answer in your own heart,” he asked.
Prayers for Myanmar, World Meeting of Families
Pope Francis also lamented the violence in Myanmar, which has forced many to flee their homes and blocked them from meeting basic needs.
“I join the appeal of the bishops of that beloved land, that the international community does not forget the Burmese people, that human dignity and the right to life be respected, as well as places of worship, hospitals, and schools. And I bless the Burmese community in Italy, represented here today,” he said.
In early 2021 the Myanmar military seized power in the country. Its crackdown on opponents provoked a violent backlash. The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees has said the conflict has displaced more than 800,000 people from their homes. Of these, 250,000 are children.
Pope Francis also noted that the 10th World Meeting of Families will begin June 22 in Rome and throughout the world. Around 2,000 Catholic families will gather in Rome this week to meet Pope Francis and hear talks on marriage and the faith.
“I thank the bishops, parish priests, and family pastoral workers who have called families to moments of reflection, celebration and festivity,” he said. “Above all, I thank the married couples and families who will bear witness to family love as a vocation and way to holiness. Have a good meeting!”
Chinese pilgrims attend the general audience in St. Peter’s Square, Oct. 12, 2016. / Credit: Daniel Ibanez/CNA
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 9, 2024 / 15:07 pm (CNA).
Pope Francis conveyed a “message of hope” to Chinese Catholics and expressed his desire to one day visit the Basilica of Holy Mary, the Help of Christians, in Shanghai, China, during an interview released on Friday.
In an interview at the Vatican with Father Pedro Chia, the director of the press office of the Chinese Province of the Society of Jesus, the pontiff said he would “really want to” conduct an apostolic visit to China to visit the shrine and meet with bishops and Catholics in the country.
“[The Chinese people] are indeed a faithful people who have gone through so much and remained faithful,” Francis said.
The pope added that the Chinese people are descendants of a “great people” and encouraged them not to “waste this heritage” but instead “pass it on with patience.” He further expressed a “message of hope” to the faithful in China.
“It seems tautological to send a message of hope to people who are masters of waiting,” Francis said. “The Chinese are masters of patience, masters of waiting. … It’s a very beautiful thing.”
The pope, who is a Jesuit, also provided advice to Jesuit clergy in China.
“Show the way to God through the spiritual exercises and discernment,” Francis said in his message to Chinese Jesuits. “… Walk with the poor [and with] those whose dignity has been violated in a mission of reconciliation and justice and … accompany young people in the creation of a hope-filled future and … take care of our common home.”
At the end of the interview, Francis bestowed a blessing on the Chinese people and prayed for the intercession of Our Lady of Sheshan.
No pope has ever visited China, but Francis was the first pope to visit Mongolia, which borders China, in September 2023.
In 2018, the Vatican signed a confidential agreement with the CCP that would require the regime to consult with the Holy See about the appointment of bishops. That deal was renewed in 2020 and again in 2022.
According to a recent Pew study, the number of Christians in China has leveled after increasing in the 1980s and 1990s, which some observers attribute to a “crackdown” by the communist regime.
Nina Shea, senior fellow and director of the Center for Religious Freedom at the Hudson Institute, told CNA that the declining numbers of China’s Christians are “no surprise.”
“They correlate with Xi’s [Jiping’s] crackdown on Christianity, his so-called ‘Sinicization’ campaign,” she said. For the past five years, “the state has strictly banned all children from any exposure to religion, churches have been blanketed with facial-recognition surveillance and linked to social credit scores.”
During that time, Bibles have been restricted and censored, Beijing has detained Christian bishops and pastors, and their sermons have been censored to “be on Xi’s ‘thought,’” Shea said.
On critics and the future of the Church
During the interview with Chia, Francis also commented on criticism he has faced during his papacy.
“Critics are always helpful,” the pope said. “Even if they are not constructive, they are always helpful because they make one reflect on one’s actions.”
“Well, many times you know that you have to wait, to endure and often correct oneself because behind some resistances there can be good criticism,” Francis continued. “And sometimes also with pain, because the resistances, as they happen at these moments, are not only against me personally, they are against the Church.”
The pontiff also referenced difficulties faced by St. Ignatius of Loyola, who founded the Jesuits.
“The difficulties and resistances that St. Ignatius faced at the beginning were conflicts with people who looked inward and lost their missionary spirit,” he said.
The pope also urged Catholics to avoid worldliness and clericalism when reflecting on the future of the Church. He noted that 20th-century Jesuit theologian Father Henri de Lubac warned that worldliness was “the worst evil that can befall the Church” and “even worse than the time of the concubinary popes.”
“Some say it will be a smaller, more reduced Church,” the pontiff said. “I think the Church must be careful not to fall into the plague of clericalism and the plague of spiritual worldliness.”
When asked whether he had any words of advice for the person who succeeds him as pope, Francis gave a simple response: “Pray … because the Lord speaks in the prayer.”
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