Tanzanian appointed secretary of Congregation for Evangelization of Peoples

Sr. Raffaella Petrini meets Pope Francis. / Vatican Media.

Vatican City, Nov 9, 2021 / 03:00 am (CNA).
The recent appointment of new leaders at the Vatican City State shows Pope Francis’ determination to break some circuits of power, but at the … […]

Pope Francis waves to the crowd gathered in St. Peter’s Square to hear his Angelus address n Sunday, June 9, 2024. / Credit: Vatican Media

Vatican City, Jun 9, 2024 / 09:05 am (CNA).

Pope Francis urged people to reflect on Sunday on whether they are sacrificing their serenity and freedom to be enslaved by money, power, and pleasure.

Speaking in his Angelus address on June 9, the pope asked people to contemplate the temptations that can imprison us and the freedom found in Christ

“If we let ourselves be conditioned by the quest for pleasure, power, money, or consensus, we become slaves to these things,” he said.

“If instead we allow God’s freely-given love to fill us and expand our heart, and if we let it overflow spontaneously by giving it back to others with our whole selves without fear, calculation, or conditioning, then we grow in freedom and spread its good fragrance around us in our homes, in our families, and in our communities.”

In his speech from the window of the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace, the pope highlighted the many ways in which “Jesus was a free man.”

Jesus was not enslaved by wealth, but embraced “a poor life full of uncertainties, freely taking care of the sick and whoever came to ask him for help, without ever asking for anything in return.”

“He was free with regard to power,” Francis added. “Indeed, despite calling many to follow him, He never obliged anyone to do so, nor did he ever seek out the support of the powerful, but always took the side of the least, teaching his disciples to do likewise.”

The Lord was also free from the need “for fame and approval, and for this reason, he never gave up speaking the truth,” he said.

Pope Francis underlined that Jesus never gave up speaking the truth “even at the cost of not being understood or becoming unpopular — even to the point of dying on the cross.” The pope added that Jesus did not allow himself “to be intimidated, bought, or corrupted by anything or anyone.”

Pope Francis asked people to spend some time reflecting on “this freedom of Jesus,” and then to examine their consciences as to whether there are any areas in life where they are “imprisoned by the myths of money, power, and success.”

After leading the crowd gathered in St. Peter’s Square in the Angelus prayer in Latin, the pope made a passionate appeal for peace in the Holy Land, asking people to pray for the ceasefire negotiations and urging the international community to ensure that humanitarian aid arrives for those who are most in need.

Pope Francis also asked people to pray for the people who are suffering in Myanmar and Ukraine, giving a special shoutout to some Ukrainians who were in the crowd waving flags. 

“May the Virgin Mary help us live and love like Jesus taught us, in the freedom of the children of  God,” Pope Francis said.

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Vatican City, Mar 16, 2021 / 05:00 pm (CNA).- An Italian bishop is carrying out a visitation at the Vatican’s Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments less than a month after Cardinal Robert Sarah resigned as prefect.

According to media reports, Bishop Claudio Maniago of Castellaneta, president of the liturgy commission of the Italian bishops’ conference, began a visitation to the Vatican’s liturgy office March 15.

Maniago is also a member of the Congregation for Divine Worship, appointed in 2016.

Pope Francis accepted Cardinal Sarah’s resignation as prefect of the Divine Worship congregation Feb. 20. His successor to lead the office has not yet been named.

Information about Maniago’s visitation has not been made public, but the Italian newspaper La Stampa wrote March 16 that it had confirmed it was taking place and seen an internal email of the congregation announcing the visitation.

According to La Stampa, the March 12 email, from Archbishop Arthur Roche, secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship, said: “The Holy Father has decided, before making appointments to the Congregation, that there should be a visit to the Dicastery by one of his representatives.”

The email reportedly further said that Maniago would be learning about the congregation’s work and meeting with officials one by one.

“I have already expressed to the Holy Father our openness to this visit and our sure and sincere welcome to Msgr. Maniago,” Roche reportedly wrote.

“There is nothing to be alarmed about in this. As you know, this style of visit is now becoming a regular occurrence at the end of the mandate of the heads of the Dicastery or at the time of a significant change.”

La Stampa reported that internal consultations of the sort described in Roche’s email did not take place, however, in the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples or the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, which both received new prefects in recent years.

Since Sarah’s resignation was accepted in February, the question has been who might be chosen to replace the Guinean cardinal at the head of the liturgy congregation.

CNA reported last month that Pope Francis could be looking at three possible candidates, one of which is Maniago, the bishop carrying out this month’s visitation.

In his role at the Italian bishops’ conference, Maniago, 62, oversaw the new Italian translation of the Roman Missal.

Another possible option for prefect is Roche, currently the congregation’s number two.

Before being appointed to his Vatican position in 2012, Roche, 70, served as chairman of the International Commission on English in the Liturgy.

During the last eight years, the English archbishop has been a go-between for Pope Francis and Cardinal Sarah on liturgical issues.

Bishop Vittorio Viola of Tortona, Italy, is a third possible candidate. The 55-year-old is a member of the Order of Friars Minor.

His first appointment as a bishop, in 2014, was on the initiative of Pope Francis, who took him from a position as president of the Assisi-based branch of Caritas.

Viola was also formerly the Custodian of the Papal Basilica of Saint Mary of the Angels in Assisi. He got to know the pope during his 2013 visit to the city when they sat next to each other during a lunch with the poor.

Viola is also a good friend of Bishop Domenico Sorrentino of Assisi, who was secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship from 2003 to 2005.

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