Pope Francis to return to window overlooking St. Peter’s Square for Sunday prayer

Vatican City, May 1, 2020 / 10:30 am (CNA).- Pope Francis has raised Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle to the rank of cardinal bishop in a new sign of his esteem for the former Archbishop of Manila.

The Holy See press office said May 1 that the pope had des… […]

Pope Francis at the general audience in St. Peter’s Square on June 28, 2023. / Daniel Ibanez/CNA

Vatican City, Jun 28, 2023 / 05:03 am (CNA).

At his first general audience in three weeks, Pope Francis praised the evangelization efforts of St. Mary MacKillop, a religious sister who devoted her life to providing Catholic education to the poor in rural Australia.

“Mary MacKillop was convinced that the purpose of education is the integral development of the person both as an individual and as a member of the community; and that this requires wisdom, patience and charity on the part of every teacher,” the pope said in a hot St. Peter’s Square on June 28.

Commenting on the late June weather, Francis asked pilgrims at the start of the event “to be a little patient today in this heat.”

“Thank you for coming in this heat, with this sunshine, thank you so much for your visit,” he added.

Pope Francis held his usual weekly audience for the first time since June 7, the morning of the day he underwent a three-hour abdominal surgery under anesthesia to correct an incisional hernia.

Last week’s public audience was canceled to allow the pope more time to recover from surgery. In July the weekly audience is canceled for a summer break. It will resume on Aug. 9, after Pope Francis returns from a visit to Portugal for World Youth Day 2023 in Lisbon.

Continuing a series of lessons on apostolic zeal, Pope Francis on Wednesday highlighted Australia’s first and only Catholic saint: Mary MacKillop.

MacKillop was the first of eight children born to Scottish immigrants in 1842, in what is now known as Melbourne. At the time, the European settlement in Australia had been established for a little over 50 years.

MacKillop, whose family had its own economic problems, dreamed of offering free education to Australia’s Catholic rural poor.

With the help of her spiritual director and mentor, she developed a plan for a congregation of sisters to aid those in need in Australia’s vast countryside. She took the religious name St. Mary of the Cross, and founded what would go on to be the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph of the Sacred Heart.

MacKillop’s sisters established many schools and orphanages across Australia, including in the “bush.”

Pope Francis said MacKillop believed Catholic education was also “a great form of evangelization.”

“Indeed, education does not consist of filling the head with ideas, just this no,” he said. “In what does education consist? In accompanying and encouraging students on the path of human and spiritual growth, showing them how friendship with the Risen Jesus expands the heart and makes life more human.”

“To educate is to help to think well; to feel well — the language of the heart; and to do well — the language of the hands,” Francis continued. “This vision is fully relevant today…”

The pope noted that MacKillop did not, however, have an easy path to fulfilling her mission of sharing the Good News with those in need.

“You see: all the saints have found opposition, even within the Church,” he explained.

MacKillop “had to pay bills, negotiate with local bishops and priests, manage the schools and look after the professional and spiritual formation of her sisters; and, later, she suffered health problems. Yet, through it all, she remained calm, patiently carrying the cross that is an integral part of the mission,” he said.

“Mary,” Pope Francis emphasized, “had great faith in God’s Providence: she was always confident that in any situation God provides.”

The pope also underlined the saint’s great care for the poor and marginalized, which pushed her “to go where others would not or could not go.”

“This is very important,” he said. “On the road to holiness, which is the Christian road, the poor and the marginalized are protagonists, and a person cannot move forward in holiness unless he also devotes himself to them in one way or another. They, who need the Lord’s help, carry the presence of the Lord.”

Francis recalled being struck once by a line he read that said: “the protagonist of the story is the beggar: beggars are those who draw attention to injustice, which is the great poverty in the world.”

He also lamented that money is spent on making weapons instead of on producing food.

“Don’t forget: there is no holiness if, in one way or another, there is no care for the poor, for the needy, for those who are somewhat on the margins of society,” he said.

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Vatican City, Feb 25, 2018 / 04:37 am (CNA/EWTN News).- After a week of heavy bombardment near Damascus left hundreds of civilians dead, Pope Francis has made an appeal for global leaders to rally in ending the siege, allowing civilians to evacuate and humanitarian aid to get in.

“In these days my thought is often turned to the beloved and martyred Syria, where the war has exploded again, especially in Eastern Ghouta,” the Pope said Feb. 25, noting that this month marks one of the most violent since the Syrian conflict erupted seven years ago.

Thousands of innocent lives have been claimed by the ongoing, bloody war, with several hundred more being added just this past week, many of whom are women, children and elderly, he said.

“Hospitals have been hit, people can’t get enough to eat…all of this is inhumane,” Francis said, stressing that “evil cannot be fought with another evil.”

The Pope then issued “a heartfelt appeal” for global leaders to work to stop the violence, to allow humanitarian aid such as food and medicine into the area, and to ensure that the sick and wounded would be evacuated.

Francis’ appeal comes a week after Russian-backed Syrian forces launched a series of deadly airstrikes and artillery fire on besieged Easter Ghouta enclave, which sits just northeast of Damascus.

Home to some 400,000 people, Eastern Ghouta is the last rebel-held area east of Damascus and has been a target of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces since 2013 in a bid to drive the rebels out.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the fresh eruption of conflict in the area, which began Feb. 18, has so far left more than 500 civilians dead, of whom 121 are children. Aid groups also report that several hospitals in the area are now out of commission.

After three days of deliberation to come up with a ceasefire deal, the U.N. Security Counsel yesterday voted unanimously in favor of a resolution calling for a 30-day calm to allow residents of the suburb to evacuate, and food and medicine to enter.

However, reports indicate that just hours after the deal was accepted, the Syrian government launched a new  ground and air offensive in the area.

Pope Francis’ appeal, which he made during his Angelus address for the Second Sunday of Lent, asked pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square to join him in praying that his plea would be answered “without delay.” He then led pilgrims in a moment of silence before reciting a Hail Mary.

In his address, he focused on the transfiguration of Jesus in the day’s Gospel reading from Mark, saying the announcement that he would be rejected, put to death and would then rise on the third day “put Peter and the group of the disciples into crisis,” since they had been expecting a powerful Messiah who would rule the nations.

However, instead, Jesus presents himself “as a humble and meek servant of God and of men,” who was to give his life in sacrifice through persecution, suffering and a violent death.

The transfiguration, Francis said, ultimately helps the disciples to face the Passion of Christ in a positive way, “without being overwhelmed” by it. It also helps both the disciples, and us, to understand that while Jesus’ Passion is “a mystery of suffering,” it’s above all “a gift of infinite love on the part of Jesus.”

“The event of Jesus who transfigures himself on the mountain also helps us to better understand his resurrection,” the Pope said, explaining that if the transfiguration and God’s declaration that “this is my beloved Son” had not happened before Jesus’ Passion, neither this nor Jesus’ rising in the Paschal mystery would be easily understood.

In order to understand these events, he said, “it’s necessary to know in advance that he who suffers and who is glorified is not only a man, but the Son of God, who with his love faithful to death has saved us.”

Francis said that it’s important, especially during Lent, to go up the mountain with Jesus and be with him and listen to his voice, allowing oneself to be transformed by the Holy Spirit.

“It’s the experience of contemplation and prayer, of living not in avoidance of daily struggles, but of enjoying familiarity with God, in order to take up with renewed vigor the tiring path of the cross, which leads us to the resurrection.”

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