Vatican, Catholic leaders from Europe discuss sexual abuse in the Church

Robin Franssen, 18, of Belgium, is a first-year philosophy student at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas. / Credit: Bénédicte Cedergren/EWTN

Rome Newsroom, Jan 28, 2024 / 08:00 am (CNA).
Hundreds of students travel annually to Rome… […]

Vatican City, Mar 28, 2018 / 05:00 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On Wednesday Pope Francis said the Easter Triduum is the most important time of year for Christians, and stressed that those who truly allows themselves to be transformed by Jesus’ resurrection, while still being sinners, cannot be corrupt.

“A Christian, if he truly allows himself to be washed by Christ, if he truly lets himself be stripped of the ‘old man’ to walk in a new life, even while remaining a sinner, he cannot be corrupt,” the Pope said March 28. “He can no longer live with death in the soul, nor can he be the cause of death.”

The justification Jesus offered by dying on the cross “saves us from corruption,” he said, stressing, as he often has, that while everyone is a sinner, Christians must never be corrupt.

Francis said it is “sad and painful” to see “fake Christians” who claim to be walking according to the path given by Jesus after his resurrection, but who, in reality, are living a corrupt life.

“These fake-Christians will end poorly,” he said, adding that “a Christian, I repeat, is a sinner, we all are, I am, but we have the certainty that when we ask for forgiveness the Lord will forgive us. The fake Christian pretends to ask for forgiveness, but in their heart is rotten.”

He then asked pilgrims to join him in praying for these “mafia-Christians,” who say they follow Christ, but in reality harm themselves and others. “Let us pray for them,” he said, “that the Lord would touch their heart and soul.”

Pope Francis spoke to pilgrims gathered for his weekly general audience in St Peter’s Square. He dedicated his catechesis to the Easter Triduum, which he said are “the most important days in the liturgical year,” and signify “the fundamental phases of our faith and of our vocation in the world.”

All Christians, he said, “are called to live the three holy days as, so to speak, the ‘matrix’ of their personal and community lives.”

He pointed to St. Paul’s assertion in the Second Book of Corinthians that “the old has passed away, behold, the new has come.” Later, in his letter to the Romans, Paul describes the Easter transformation in a different way, saying Christ “was put to death for our trespasses and raised for our justification.”

“The only, the only one that justifies you, the only one that makes you born again is Jesus Christ, no one else!” the Pope said in off-the-cuff remarks, adding that “this is the greatness of the love of Jesus: he gave his life to make us holy, to renew us, to forgive us. And this is precisely the core of the paschal mystery.”

In the Triduum, the memory of Christ’s death and resurrection is celebrated and at the same time renews in those who are baptized during the liturgy “the meaning of their new condition,” he said.

This is why there are always people who are baptized during the Easter vigil, Francis explained, noting that during this week’s vigil in St. Peter’s Basilica he will baptize eight people “who will begin their Christian life” in the Church.

Easter is also a time for solidarity with those who suffer, he said, noting that Christians can see the face of Christ in the vulnerable and those experiencing pain, and are able to love them with the same love Jesus offered through his sacrifice on the cross.

In another aside, Francis noted how in many countries, including Argentina, mothers will take their children to wash their face and eyes on Easter morning as a symbol of being able to see “in a new way, to see things in the way of Jesus.”

He encouraged everyone with children to try this, seeing it as a concrete “sign of how to see Jesus risen.”

Pope Francis closed his speech by asking that Mary would accompany everyone as the Triduum begins, that they may be “more deeply inserted into the mystery of Christ, his death and resurrection for us.”

Mary “followed Jesus in his Passion, was present and united to him on the Cross, and received in her maternal heart the immense joy of the resurrection,” he said, and prayed that she would obtain for all “the grace of being internally moved by the celebrations of the coming days, so that our heart and our lives will truly be transformed.”

After his speech, Pope Francis greeted pilgrims in different languages from around the world. In his greeting to Spanish-speaking pilgrims, he encouraged them to “have the courage to go to confession in these days, make a good confession!”

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Vatican City, Jul 6, 2019 / 04:00 am (CNA).- Pope Francis approved the miracle attributed to Archbishop Fulton Sheen Friday, making possible the American television catechist’s beatification.

The Vatican Congregation for the Causes of Saints promulgated the decree approving Sheen’s miracle on July 6.

The miracle involves the unexplained recovery of James Fulton Engstrom, a boy born apparently stillborn in September 2010 to Bonnie and Travis Engstrom of the Peoria-area town of Goodfield. He showed no signs of life as medical professionals tried to revive him. The child’s mother and father prayed to Archbishop Sheen to heal their son.

A seven-member panel of medical experts advising the Vatican Congregation for the Causes of Saints gave unanimous approval of the miracle attributed to the famous television personality and evangelist in March 2014.

Archbishop Sheen was a beloved television catechist during the 1950s and 60s in the United States. His Emmy-award winning television show “Life is Worth Living” reached an audience of millions.

Sheen was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Peoria, Illinois at the age of 24, and was appointed auxiliary bishop of New York in 1951, where he remained until his appointment as Bishop of Rochester, New York in 1966. He retired in 1969 and moved back to New York City until his death in 1979.

On June 27, Sheen’s remains were transferred from the Archdiocese of New York to Peoria, Illinois following a long legal battle over the late archbishop’s burial place that had put Sheen’s sainthood cause on hold.

The Peoria diocese opened the cause for Sheen’s canonization in 2002, after Archdiocese of New York said it would not explore the case. In 2012, Benedict XVI recognized the heroic virtues of the archbishop.

In September 2014, Bishop Daniel Jenky of Peoria suspended Sheen’s cause on the grounds that the Holy See expected Sheen’s remains to be in the Peoria diocese.

Fulton Sheen’s niece Joan Cunningham filed a legal complaint in 2016 seeking to have her uncle’s remains moved to the Cathedral of St. Mary in Peoria. The Archdiocese of New York repeatedly appealed the attempt to transfer Sheen’s remains to Peoria.

On June 7, the New York Court of Appeals denied further appeal of the New York Supreme Court decision upholding Cunningham’s petition and later that month Sheen’s remains were moved to Peoria.

No date has been given for Sheen’s beatification. Another recognized miracle attributed to Sheen would lead to his canonization as a saint.

Along with Fulton Sheen, the Vatican Congregation of the Causes of Saints also recognized the heroic virtues of seven Servants of God:

Lebanese Patriarch of Antioch of the Maronites Elia Hoyek (1843-1931); Italian Archbishop Giovanni Vittorio Ferro of Reggio Calabria-Bova (1901-1992); Spanish founder of the Institute of  Missionaries of Charity Ángel Riesco Carbajo (1902-1972); Polish Father Ladislao Korniłowicz, a diocesan priest (1884-1946); Italian Franciscan Father Angelico Lipani (1842-1920); Filipino foundress of the Congregation of the Dominican Sisters of Saint Catherine of Siena Francisca del Espíritu Santo (1647-1711); and the French lay founder of the Congregation of the Sisters of Maternal Charity Etienne-Pierre Morlanne (1772-1862).

Pope Francis also approved the equipollent canonization of Blessed Bartholomew of the Martyrs, the 16th-century Portugese Domician Archbishop of Braga, inscribing him in the book of saints.

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