Cardinals’ council discusses pandemic recovery, curial reform with Pope Francis

Vatican City, Dec 26, 2017 / 07:24 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On Tuesday Pope Francis said there is a strong link between the death of St. Stephan, the Church’s first martyr, and the birth of Christ, who came to offer message that is often uncomfortable and calls us to convert.

“Jesus’ message is uncomfortable and inconvenient for us, because it challenges worldly religious power and provokes consciences,” the Pope said Dec. 26, adding that after his coming, “it’s necessary to convert, to change mentality, to renounce thinking like before…to convert.”

Speaking to pilgrims present in St. Peter’s Square during his Angelus address for the feast of St. Stephan, which is celebrated the day after Christmas, the Pope noted how it might seem like there is no relation between Jesus’ birth and Stephan’s death, however, “there is a strong link.”

When he preached, Stephan put the leaders of the people “into crisis,” Francis said, because “he firmly believed and professed the new presence of God among men.”

In telling the leaders at the time that Jesus would destroy the temple and change the customs that Moses handed down to them, Stephen understood that “the true temple of God is now Jesus, eternal Word come to live in our midst, (who) became like us in all things, apart from sin.”

Despite the accusation that he was preaching the destruction of the temple of Jerusalem and therefore facing death, Stephan stayed “anchored” in the message of Jesus until his last breath, with his final prayers being “Lord Jesus, welcome my spirit” and “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.”

These two prayers, Pope Francis said, are “a faithful echo” of those said by Jesus on the cross, when he prays: “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit,” and “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”

“These words of Stephan were only possible because the Son of God came to earth and died and rose for us,” he said, adding that before this happened, “they were humanly impossible expressions.”

The Pope then noted that the Risen Christ is the only mediator between God and man, and he intercedes for us not just at our death, as he did for St. Stephan, but in every moment of our lives.

“Without him, we can do nothing,” Francis said, explaining that as our mediator, Jesus reconciles us not only with God the Father, but also with each other.

“(Jesus) is the font of love, which opens us to communion with brothers, to love each other, removing every conflict and resentment,” he said, adding that “resentments are an ugly thing, they do so much harm and the do us so much harm!”

This, he said, is the miracle of Jesus: that he removes these resentments and “makes it so that we love each other.”

Francis closed his address asking that Jesus, who was born for each of us, would help us to assume “this dual attitude of trust in the Father and love of neighbor; it is an attitude that transforms life and makes it more beautiful and more fruitful.”

He also prayed that Mary would help us to welcome Jesus as the Lord of our lives and “to become his courageous witnesses, ready to personally pay the price of fidelity to the Gospel.”

After leading pilgrims in the traditional Angelus prayer, the Pope offered a word of thanks for all the well-wishes he has received in recent weeks.

“I express to everyone my gratitude, especially for the gift of prayer. Thank you so much!” he said, adding that “the Lord will reward your generosity!”

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Vatican City, Feb 6, 2017 / 06:45 pm (CNA).- In the wake of President Donald Trump’s recent policy on refugees, U.S. Catholics should stay close to their bishops, who are providing a clear, correct and unified response to the issue, a Vatican off… […]

Pope Francis prayed for migrants and refugees with the delegates of the Synod on Synodality at St. Peter’s Square on Thursday evening, Oct. 19, 2023. / Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/EWTN/Vatican Pool

Vatican City, Oct 20, 2023 / 09:09 am (CNA).

Pope Francis prayed for migrants and refugees with the delegates of the Synod on Synodality just after sunset on Thursday evening.

The simple, 25-minute prayer service took place in a quiet St. Peter’s Square in front of Canadian artist Timothy Schmalz’s “Angels Unawares” sculpture. The bronze statue, installed in the square in 2019, depicts migrants from different times and places in history aboard a boat.

A visibly tired Pope Francis, seated in a wheelchair, was pushed into a closed and mostly empty St. Peter’s Square about 15 minutes early Oct. 19. The 364 delegates and about 90 other synod participants arrived shortly afterward from their meeting in the nearby Paul VI Hall.

The prayer moment was organized as part of the Oct. 4–29 Synod on Synodality at the Vatican and was one of many opportunities for synod members to pray together over the course of the monthlong meeting.

Cardinal Michael Czerny, prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, told journalists earlier in the day that it would be “a beautiful opportunity to prayerfully reenact what we are talking about and trying to appreciate in the synod.”

“The assembly, which is learning how to walk together as a Church, will effectively symbolize walking together with some of the most vulnerable people on our planet: Those who are fleeing, those who are forced to be on the move, those whom we call migrants and refugees,” he said.

The prayer opened with a reading from the Gospel of Luke 10:25-37, which includes the parable of the Good Samaritan.

Pope Francis then gave a short reflection, in which he said: “We can never be grateful enough to St. Luke for passing on to us this parable of the Lord.”

“This parable is also at the heart of the encyclical Fratelli Tutti because it is a key, I would say the key, to moving from the closure of a world to an open world, from a world at war to the peace of another world,” he said.

The pope recalled the many difficulties faced by migrants today, including being taken advantage of by traffickers, “kidnapped, imprisoned, exploited, and enslaved,” and “humiliated, tortured, raped.”

“So many of them die without ever reaching their destination,” he said. “The migration routes of our time are filled with men and women who are wounded and left half-dead, our brothers and sisters whose pain cries out before God.”

Pope Francis pointed out the need to create safe paths for people to migrate and said “it is also necessary to promote a common and co-responsible approach to the governance of migration flows, which appear set to increase in the coming years.”

The lesson from the parable of the Good Samaritan, he explained, is to have compassion: “Like the Good Samaritan, we are called to be neighbors to all the wayfarers of our time, to save their lives, to heal their wounds, and to soothe their pain.”

“For many, tragically, it is too late, and we are left only to weep over their graves, if they even have a grave, or the Mediterranean ends up being their grave. Yet the Lord knows the face of each of them, and he does not forget it,” he said.

Francis concluded his reflection by asking for a moment of silence to remember those who have lost their lives or become enslaved or exploited along migration routes.

Three refugees from Cameroon, Ukraine, and El Salvador and two officials from the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development read the intercessory prayers.

The prayer ended with the recitation of the Our Father and then the pope gave his blessing.

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