Cardinal Cupich to conduct visit of Vatican dicastery on behalf of Pope Francis

Pope Francis presides over a Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome on July 23, 2023, for the World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly. / Pablo Esparza/EWTN

Rome Newsroom, Jul 23, 2023 / 08:30 am (CNA).

A common struggle for elderly Mass-goers is being able to hear in church. It seems, then, that the unveiling of a new sound system in St. Peter’s Basilica couldn’t have had better timing. It was inaugurated on July 23, after 10 months of work, just in time for the papal Mass for the third World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly.

Some 80 new speakers and a state-of-the-art digital system replaced the previous sound system, installed nearly 25 years ago in the lead-up to the year 2000 jubilee.

The new system allows for “precise” and “perfect” sound, cutting down on the echo and reverberation that is typical of such a large space, according to the lead architect, Carlo Carbone.

With the new system, the sound seems to come from the altar, giving the congregation a more “natural” experience during the liturgies, he said. Voices and singing are heard more precisely as the sound distribution has been improved. “Before this renovation, there was an unnatural volume,” Carbone said. “The sound was overwhelming, as if coming from everywhere.”

The Dicastery for Communication’s Technology Department worked with the technical offices of the Fabbrica di San Pietro and Bose Professional to bring about the upgrade.

According to Vatican News, Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, the archpriest of St. Peter’s Basilica, said the project was “a great team effort, a beautiful synergy,” with the collaboration of experts from various fields.

Much of the work was done in the evening hours after the basilica was closed to the public. And it was no small effort. The sub-floor wiring that had accumulated over the last 70 years was replaced with 200 kilometers (about 125 miles) of fibers. The sound system now allows for some 20 distinct areas that can be engaged simultaneously or separately, depending on the celebration. It also seamlessly interfaces with the radio and television broadcasting systems.

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Vatican City, Feb 14, 2018 / 09:33 am (CNA/EWTN News).- At Mass for Ash Wednesday, Pope Francis invited everyone to live the 40 days of Lent as a time to “pause” from things which keep us from virtue and to return home to the loving and merciful embrace of God the Father.

“Return without fear to those outstretched, eager arms of your Father, who is rich in mercy, who awaits you. Return without fear, for this is the favorable time to come home,” the Pope said Feb. 14.

“[Lent] is the time for allowing one’s heart to be touched…” he continued, explaining how “persisting on the path of evil only gives rise to disappointment and sadness. True life is something quite distinct and our heart indeed knows this. God does not tire, nor will he tire, of holding out his hand.”

Marking the start of the Lenten season Feb. 14, Pope Francis prayed the Stations of the Cross at St. Anselm Church in Rome before processing the short way to the Basilica of Santa Sabina for the celebration of Mass, benediction, and the imposition of ashes.

The traditional procession is composed of cardinals, bishops, priests, the Benedictine monks of St. Anselm, the Dominican friars of Santa Sabina, and lay people. As they make their way between the two churches, they sing the Litany of the Saints.

The practice of beginning the Lenten season of prayer and penance this way was started by Pope John XXIII when he came for the opening of the Pontifical Liturgical Institute in 1961.

In his homily at Mass, Pope Francis criticized distrust, apathy and resignation, stressing that Lent is the ideal time to uproot these and other temptations from our hearts. He listed out different ways we can do this through the actions of pausing, seeing, and returning to the Father.

He offered several suggestions of how to pause, including refraining from showing off, or from an attitude which gives rise to unproductive thoughts and self-pity, and which lead us to forget our call to encounter others and share in their burdens.

He also urged an end to the desire “to control everything, know everything, destroy everything,” which he said stems from a lack of gratitude for our life and what we’ve already been given.

Lent is also a good time for the “creative power of silence” in order to “leave behind the unrest and commotion that fill the soul with bitter feelings which never get us anywhere,” he advised.

“Pause from this compulsion to a fast-paced life that scatters, divides and ultimately destroys time with family, with friends, with children, with grandparents, and time as a gift… time with God,” he stated.

The Pope also called out “haughty looks” and “fleeting and pejorative comments,” and urged a break from words stemming from a lack of “tenderness, compassion and reverence for the encounter with others, particularly those who are vulnerable, hurt and even immersed in sin and error.”
Francis urged people instead to look upon and contemplate those actions which promote faith, hope and charity, and to look upon the faces of the vulnerable and in need, like families who, despite hardship, still strive to make their homes “a school of love.”

He also advised people to see the faces of children and youth, yearning for a future, to see the faces of the elderly reflecting “God’s wisdom at work,” and to see the faces of sick people and their caretakers, whose vulnerability reminds us of the value of every person.

“See the remorseful faces of so many who try to repair their errors and mistakes,” he continued, “and who from their misfortune and suffering fight to transform their situations and move forward.”

Finally, the Pope encouraged everyone to take time during Lent to “see and contemplate the face of Crucified Love.”

“See and contemplate the real face of Christ crucified out of love for everyone, without exception,” he said. “For everyone? Yes, for everyone. To see his face is an invitation filled with hope for this Lenten time, in order to defeat the demons of distrust, apathy and resignation.”

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Vatican City, Sep 27, 2017 / 04:13 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- On the Feast of St. Vincent de Paul, Pope Francis said that charity is central to the Church’s mission, and we are called to share it with the world, especially those in need.

“All of us, in truth, are called to water ourselves upon the rock that is the Lord and to quench the world’s thirst with the charity that springs from Him,” the Pope said Sept. 27.

“Charity is at the heart of the Church, it is the reason for its action, the soul of its mission.”

As Benedict XVI wrote in the encyclical Caritas in Veritate: “Charity is the main path of the Church’s social doctrine. Every responsibility and commitment outlined by this doctrine is attuned to charity which, according to Jesus’ teaching, is the synthesis of all the Law,” he said.

Pope Francis sent the message Wednesday for the 400th anniversary of the start of the charism of the Vincentian Family, a group of organizations founded by or under the inspiration of St. Vincent de Paul, whose feast is Sept. 27.

A 17th-century French priest, St. Vincent is known as the patron of Catholic charities for his apostolic work among the poor and marginalized.

“Inflamed by the desire to make Jesus known to the poor,” St. Vincent “intensely devoted” himself to the announcement of the Gospel, especially through missionary work, charity, and the care and formation of priests, Francis said.

In his message, he compared St. Vincent to a tiny mustard seed, which sprouted and spread through his charitable works, the priests he taught, and the religious orders he founded.

Like St. Vincent, “you are called to reach the peripheries of the human condition,” Pope Francis said, “to bring not your own capacities, but the Spirit of the Lord, ‘Father of the poor.’”

“He spreads you into the world as seeds that sprout on dry land, as a consolation balm for those who are hurt, as a fire of charity to warm up many hearts choked by abandonment and hardened because they are discarded.”

St. Vincent still speaks to us and to the Church today, his testimony inviting us to be on the road, working to sow the love of God in the hearts of others, even the unpleasant, the Pope said.

“I ask for the Church and for you the grace to find the Lord Jesus in the hungry brother, the thirsty, the stranger, the one stripped of clothing and dignity, the sick and imprisoned, but also the doubtful, the ignorant, the obstinate in sin, the afflicted, the offensive, the bad-tempered and the annoying.”

He also asked that from the “glorious wounds of Jesus,” the “dying seed that gives life,” and the “wounded rock from which water flows,” members of the Vincentian Family would find the strength and joy to go out of themselves and into the world, facing challenges with creativity.

Because “as St. Vincent said, ‘love is creative even to infinity.’”

“This is the way to follow,” the Pope said, “because the Church is always more and more mother and teacher of charity, growing and overflowing in mutual love towards all.”

“We ask for smallness of heart, full availability, and docile humility. It pushes us to fraternal communion between us and our courageous mission in the world.”

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