After his Angelus on Sept. 15, 2024, Pope Francis appealed for the release of the remaining Hamas hostages and said he is praying for the victims and their families. / Credit: Vatican Media.
Rome Newsroom, Sep 15, 2024 / 09:36 am (CNA).
During … […]
Pope Francis waves to pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square for his Angelus address on Aug. 4, 2024. / Credit: Vatican Media
Rome Newsroom, Aug 4, 2024 / 10:03 am (CNA).
During his first Angelus address of the month, Pope Francis asked his listeners on Sunday to seek the path of charity, “which keeps nothing for itself but shares everything.”
“Material things do not give fullness to life. They are important but they do not fill life. Only love can do that,” the Holy Father said to crowds of local and international pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square on Aug. 4.
Reflecting on Sunday’s Gospel reading (John 6:24-35) — which recounts how many people followed Jesus because they were looking for bread to eat and not because they believed in him or his miracles — the pope challenged his listeners to ask themselves: “What kind of relationship do I have with material things? Am I a slave to them? Or do I use them freely as instruments to give and receive love?”
Alongside the virtue of charity, Pope Francis said gratitude and generosity are essential qualities that enable a Christian to grow in the love of God and others.
“Am I able to say thank you? Thank you to God and my brothers and sisters for the gifts I have received? And do I know how to share them with others?” he asked.
During his address, the pope also spoke about how a selfish and disordered attachment to money and material goods can be a source of conflict and division within families.
“How sad, on the other hand, when they [families] fight over inheritance. I’ve seen many cases of this. It’s sad,” he said. “For money, they don’t speak to each other for years!”
With a prayer to Mary, the Holy Father petitioned the Mother of God “to teach us to make everything an instrument of love” for the good of others.
On Sunday the Holy Father asked pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square to pray for justice through the intercession of the newly beatified 18th-century Maronite historian Patriarch Estephan Douaihy and for the people suffering in Lebanon, the Holy Land, Palestine, and Israel due to violent conflict.
The pontiff also expressed his concern about the ongoing political unrest and protracted humanitarian crises occurring in Venezuela and Myanmar and asked for prayers for those who have recently died or are left homeless in India due to torrential rains and floods.
Before departing from the window in the Apostolic Palace overlooking St. Peter’s Square from which the pope prays his Sunday Angelus with the public, he asked the crowds of waving and cheering pilgrims to pray for him.
“I continue to pray for you, please do the same for me. I wish you all a lovely Sunday, but please don’t forget to pray for me!” he said.
Pope Francis delivers a message to pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square for his Sunday Angelus on June 23, 2024, at the Vatican. / Credit: Vatican Media
Rome Newsroom, Jun 23, 2024 / 10:26 am (CNA).
Jesus does not spare us from difficulties … […]
Pope Francis waves to pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square for his Angelus address on Sunday, June 16, 2024. / Credit: Vatican Media
Vatican City, Jun 16, 2024 / 08:23 am (CNA).
In Pope Francis’ reflection on Sunday’s Gospel, the pope encour… […]
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.
Pope Francis waves to pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square during his Sunday Angelus on March 17, 2024. / Credit: Vatican Media
Vatican City, Mar 17, 2024 / 09:07 am (CNA).
Pope Francis said Sunday that God’s glory and our true happiness are… […]
Pope Francis waves to pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square on Feb. 25, 2024, during his weekly Angelus reflection. The pope canceled his audiences the day before due to mild flu conditions, according to the Vatican. / Credit: Vatican Media
Rome Newsroom, Feb 25, 2024 / 09:55 am (CNA).
A day after canceling his audiences due to what the Vatican called a “mild flu-like condition,” Pope Francis appeared in good form during his weekly Angelus address Sunday, marking the second anniversary of the war in Ukraine with a call for peace while urging the faithful to “never direct your eyes away from the light of Jesus.”
“How many victims, injuries, destruction, anguish, tears in a period that is becoming terribly long and of which the end is not yet in sight,” the pope said about the war, which began with Russia’s invasion on Feb. 24, 2022, adding that the conflict has “unleash[ed] a global wave of fear and hatred.”
“While I renew my deepest affection for the tormented Ukrainian people and pray for everyone, in particular for the numerous innocent victims,” Pope Francis said, “I implore that that bit of humanity be found that allows us to create the conditions for a diplomatic solution in search of a just and lasting peace.”
The Vatican said Pope Francis canceled his audiences on Feb. 24 as a “precaution.” When the Vatican said that Francis had a “mild flu” in November, the pope underwent precautionary testing at a Rome hospital. The 87-year-old pope canceled a trip to Dubai in December after his doctors advised him not to travel because of a bronchial infection.
But on Sunday he was back in public view for the weekly Angelus. Reflecting on the Gospel reading for the second Sunday in Lent — Mark’s account of the Transfiguration — the pope described the apostles’ mountaintop experience with Jesus as a transformative moment where Christ “physically manifests himself there in all his light.”
The Transfiguration, he said, sums up all of Jesus’ works up until that point of his ministry, while foreshadowing his Passion.
“The preaching of the Kingdom, the forgiveness of sins, the healings, and the performed signs were, indeed, sparks of a greater light, namely, of the light of Jesus,” the pope said from the window of his study in the Apostolic Palace, overlooking nearly 20,000 pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square.
The Holy Father stressed that it is an event that reminds all Christians that “God is light,” which allows us to “seek his face, that is full of mercy, fidelity, and hope.” In this way we can keep Christ fixed as a singular point of reference as “we journey through life.”
The pope declared: “Always keep the luminous face of Christ before our eyes,” adding, “never direct your eyes away from the light of Jesus.”
Pope Francis suggested that this encounter with the living God is done principally through “prayer, listening to the Word, the Sacraments, especially Confession and the Eucharist.” But, underscoring the sacramental dimension, is also a deeply personal, human element.
It is a call for the faithful, the pope suggested, to seek God in one another, noting that it can serve as a “Lenten resolution” that enables us to become “seekers of the light of Jesus.”
“But it also helps to look people in the eyes,” he continued, “learning to see God’s light in everyone and cultivating the ability to marvel at this beauty that shines in each one, without exception: in those close to us and in those we do not know; in the happy gazes of those who are joyful and in the tears of those who are sorrowful; in the sad and dimmed eyes of those who are tried by life and of those who have lost their enthusiasm; and even in those whom we find it difficult to look in the face, preferring to turn away.”
Pope Francis delivers the Sunday Angelus from the window of his study overlooking St. Peter’s Square, Jan. 28, 2024. / Credit: Vatican Media
Vatican City, Jan 28, 2024 / 12:18 pm (CNA).
Pope Francis warned on Sunday that the devil wants to “chain our souls” and enslave us with many temptations, while “Jesus came to free us from all of these chains.”
In his Angelus address on Jan. 28, the pope said that “the devil always takes away your freedom” and named some of the temptations that the evil one uses to ensnare us.
Pope Francis encouraged people to learn how to “say ‘no’ to the temptations of evil before they creep into the soul” by invoking the name of Jesus.
When facing a temptation, do not attempt to “negotiate with the devil,” Pope Francis said.
“We must call on Jesus,” he underlined. “Call on him where we feel the chains of evil and fear tighten most strongly.”
“There are many chains in our life,” the pope explained.
“I am thinking of addictions, which enslave [so we are] always dissatisfied, and devour energy, goods, and affections; I am thinking of dominant fashions, which push us toward impossible perfectionism, consumerism, and hedonism, which commodify people and spoil their relationships.”
“And other chains: There are the temptations and conditioning that undermine self-esteem, serenity, and the ability to choose and love life,” he said.
Pope Francis added that another chain is “fear, which makes one look at the future with pessimism and impatience, which always casts blame on others.”
He said that “the idolatry of power” is a “very ugly chain” that creates conflicts and can lead to weapons that kill, the manipulation of thought, or economic injustices.
“And Jesus came to free us from all these chains,” Pope Francis said.
“Jesus has the power to cast out the devil. Jesus frees us from the power of evil.”
In his reflection on Sunday’s Gospel, Pope Francis described how Jesus freed a person possessed by an “evil spirit” in Mark’s Gospel, noting that the possession tormented her and caused her to scream.
“This is what the devil does: He wants to possess us in order to ‘chain our souls,’” he said.
Pope Francis noted that in the Gospel, Jesus casts out the devil, “but does not dialogue with him,” noting that during the temptation in the desert, Jesus only answered with words from Scripture.
“The Lord, with the strength of his Spirit, wishes to repeat to the evil one today too: ‘Go away! Leave that heart alone. Do not divide the world, families, communities; let them live peacefully, so that the fruits of my Spirit may flourish, not yours,’ so says Jesus, ‘so that love, joy, meekness may reign among them, and instead of violence and cries of hatred there may be freedom and peace.’”
“So let’s ask ourselves: Do I really want freedom from those chains that tighten my heart? … Do I invoke Jesus, do I allow him to act in me, to heal me inside? May the Holy Virgin protect us from evil,” he said.
Speaking from a window in the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace to the crowd gathered below in St. Peter’s Square, Pope Francis prayed for peace in Ukraine, Palestine, and Israel.
Pope Francis made an impassioned plea for reconciliation in Myanmar, marking three years since the country’s military coup.
“For three years now, the crying of pain and the noise of weapons have taken the place of the smile that characterizes the population of Myanmar. I therefore join the voice of some Burmese bishops, ‘so that the weapons of destruction are transformed into tools for growth in humanity and justice,’” he said.
“Peace is a path and I invite all parties involved to take steps of dialogue and to clothe themselves with understanding, so that the land of Myanmar reaches the goal of fraternal reconciliation. The transit of humanitarian aid is allowed to guarantee the necessities of every person.”
Pope Francis also expressed his closeness to the Catholic community in Istanbul, where one man died in an armed attack during Sunday Mass.
The pope added that he was relieved to hear of the release of six religious sisters who were kidnapped in Haiti last week and called for an end to all acts of violence in the country, urging the international community to support Haiti’s peaceful development.
Pope Francis gives his Angelus address on Dec. 24, 2023. / Vatican Media
CNA Staff, Dec 24, 2023 / 11:40 am (CNA).
On Christmas Eve, Pope Francis urged Christians not to confuse Christmas with consumerism but to celebrate the birth of Christ by… […]
A member of the crowd in St. Peter’s Square holds up a baby Jesus figure for a blessing by Pope Francis at his Sunday Angelus Dec. 17, 2023. / Credit: Vatican Media
Rome Newsroom, Dec 17, 2023 / 12:00 pm (CNA).
Pope Francis reflected on St. John the Baptist as a luminous figure who testifies to the light and teaches us that “only in God do we find the light of life” during his Angelus address Dec. 17 on the third Sunday of Advent, or Gaudete Sunday.
Observing this as the first lesson that we can learn from John the Baptist, the Holy Father told pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican that the second is that “through service, consistency, humility, witness of life” we “can be a lamp that shines and helps others find the way on which to meet Jesus.”
Today’s message built upon the Holy Father’s Angelus message from the previous Sunday, where he highlighted John’s ministry as a voice that “is linked to the genuineness of his experience and the clarity of his heart.”
Expanding on this observation, the pontiff noted that John’s mission is characterized by his “frank language” and is underscored by his “sincere behavior, his austerity of life.” Thus it is through his example that the Holy Father suggested we look to John the Baptist as a figure who “motivate[s] us to rise above mediocrity and to be in turn models of good living for others.”
Expanding upon this point, the pope noted that we can see John as a “luminous” figure not only because he is “upright, free, and courageous” but because he submitted himself to God’s will, to carry out a mission to pronounce the light that is “Jesus, the Lamb of God” who “redeems, frees, heals, and enlightens.”
To that end, the luminosity of John is not self-aggrandizing, but instead he is at the service of others, a voice “who accompanies his brothers and sisters to the Word; he serves without seeking honors or the spotlight.” In this way the pope encouraged the faithful to look at John as a counterpoint to “other famous and powerful people” who “invested a lot in appearances.”
Drawing a connection between the biblical context and today, the pope noted that “in every age the Lord sends men and women like this,” but he asked the faithful: “Do we know how to recognize them? Do we try to learn from their witness, allowing ourselves to be challenged? Or rather, do we allow ourselves to be bedazzled by fashionable people?”
Following the recitation of the Angelus prayer, the Holy Father noted that on Saturday, Dec. 16, Argentine Cardinal Eduardo Francisco Pironio was beatified. The pope described Pironio as a “humble and zealous pastor, witness of hope, defender of the poor” who “collaborated with St. John Paul II in the promotion of the laity and in the World Youth Days.”
“May his example help us to be an outgoing Church, which becomes a traveling companion for everyone, especially the weakest,” the pope added.
The Mass of beatification was presided over by the 78-year-old Spanish Cardinal Vérgez Alzaga at the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Luján in Argentina, where Pironio is buried.
Also after the Angelus the pope sharply condemned the reported killing of two women outside a Catholic church in Gaza City on Saturday, allegedly by an Israeli sniper.
“I continue to receive very serious and painful news from Gaza,” the pope lamented. “Unarmed civilians are subjected to bombings and shootings. And this even happened inside the parish complex of the Holy Family, where there are no terrorists but families, children, sick and disabled people, nuns.”
“Someone says, ‘It’s terrorism, it’s war.’ Yes, it’s war, it’s terrorism. This is why Scripture states that ‘God stops wars … breaks bows and breaks spears,’” the pope said. “Let us pray to the Lord for peace.”
© Catholic World Report