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Coveting wealth and possessions blind us to the ‘true goods of life,’ Pope Francis says

July 31, 2022 Catholic News Agency 3
Pope Francis reflected on the dangers of coveting wealth and possessions during his Angelus reflection in St. Peter’s Square in Rome on July 31, 2022. / Vatican Media

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 31, 2022 / 06:32 am (CNA).

A day after returning to Rome from his weeklong trip to Canada, Pope Francis on Sunday reflected on the dangers of coveting wealth and possessions.

In Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus responds to a man who wants his brother to share his inheritance with him. “Take care to guard against all greed,” Jesus tells the crowd, “for though one may be rich, one’s life does not consist of possessions” (Lk. 12:15).

The Holy Father noted that rather than entering into the details of the man’s situation, he “goes to the root of the divisions caused by the possession of things”: covetousness.

“What is covetousness? It is the unbridled greed for possessions, always desiring to be rich,” the pope said, speaking to pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square before the weekly recitation of the Angelus.

“This is an illness that destroys people, because the hunger for possessions creates an addiction. Above all, those who have a lot are never content, they always want more, and only for themselves. But this way, the person is no longer free: he or she is attached to, a slave, of what paradoxically was meant to serve them so as to live freely and serenely,” Pope Francis warned.

“Rather than being served by money, the person becomes a servant of money.”

The pope identified covetousness as a “dangerous illness for society as well,” pointing to the greed that fuels wars and in particular the “scandal” of the arms trade.

“And so, let us try to ask ourselves: Where am I at with my detachment from possessions, from wealth?” the pope asked. “Do I complain about what I lack, or do I know how to be content with what I have? In the name of money or opportunity, am I tempted to sacrifice relationships and sacrifice time with others? And yet again, does it happen that I sacrifice legality and honesty on the altar of covetousness?”

Pope Francis reflected on the dangers of coveting wealth and possessions during his Angelus reflection in St. Peter's Square in Rome on July 31, 2022. Vatican Media
Pope Francis reflected on the dangers of coveting wealth and possessions during his Angelus reflection in St. Peter’s Square in Rome on July 31, 2022. Vatican Media

The pope next shifted to focus on the “richness” of God.

“And so, we might think, so, no one should desire to get rich? Certainly, you can; rather, it is right to want it. It is beautiful to become rich, but rich according to God! God is the richest of anyone,” he said.

“He is rich in compassion, in mercy. His riches do not impoverish anyone, do not create quarrels and divisions. It is a richness that knows how to give, to distribute, to share. Brothers and sisters, accumulating material goods is not enough to live well, for Jesus says also that life does not consist in what one possesses (see Lk 12:15). It depends, instead, on good relationships – with God, with others, and even with those who have less.”

The pope continued: “So, let us ask ourselves: For myself, how do I want to get rich? Do I want to get rich according to God or according to my covetousness? And, returning to the topic of inheritance, what legacy do I want to leave? Money in the bank, material things, or happy people around me, good works that are not forgotten, people that I have helped to grow and mature?”

Pope Francis concluded by asking Our Lady, who shared in God’s riches, to “help us understand what the true goods of life are, the ones that last forever.”

Following his reflection, the pope thanked all those who assisted him on his trip to Canada, while assuring those suffering from the war in Ukraine that they remain in his prayers.

“Also, during this journey, I did not cease praying for the suffering and battered Ukrainian people, asking God to free them from the scourge of war,” Pope Francis said.

“If one looked at what is happening objectively, considering the harm that war brings every day to those people, and even to the entire world, the only reasonable thing to do would be to stop and negotiate,” he added. “May wisdom inspire concrete steps toward peace.”

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Don’t blame misfortunes on God, instead turn to conversion, Pope Francis says

March 20, 2022 Catholic News Agency 2
Pope Francis, during his Angelus address on March 20, 2022, called on the world’s leaders to end the “abhorrent” war in Ukraine. / Vatican Media

Boston, Mass., Mar 20, 2022 / 08:34 am (CNA).

Jesus implores us not to blame God for misfortunes and points us instead to conversion as a solution to evils which oppress us, Pope Francis said Sunday. 

“We must be careful: When evil oppresses us, we risk losing our clarity and, to find an easy answer to what we are unable to explain, we end up putting the blame on God,” Pope Francis said to crowds gathered in St. Peter’s Square for his March 20 Angelus address. “And so often the very bad habit of using profanities comes from this.”

“How often we attribute to Him our woes and misfortunes in the world, to Him who instead leaves us always free and hence never intervenes imposing, but only proposing; He who never uses violence and instead suffers for us and with us,” he said.

Pope Francis’s comments included reflections on Sunday’s reading from the thirteenth Chapter in the Gospel of Luke.

In that reading, the pontiff said, Jesus “refuses and contests strongly the idea of blaming God for our evils: Those persons who were killed by Pilate and those who died when the tower collapsed on them were not any more at fault than others, and they were not victims of a ruthless and vindictive God, which does not exist!”

When bad things happen to us, we should not blame God, he said. Jesus tells us “we need to look inside ourselves,” he added. “It is sin that produces death; our selfishness can tear apart relationships; our wrong and violent choices can unleash evil.”

The Lord offers a “true solution,” Pope Francis said, which is “conversion.” Citing the Gospel reading, he said, “If you are not converted, [Jesus] says, you will all perish in the same way.”

God can never be the source of evil, he said, because, citing Psalm 103, God does not treat us according to our sins, but according to his mercy.

Mercy is God’s “style,” Pope Francis said. “He can’t treat us otherwise. He always treats us with mercy.”

Pope Francis offered an invitation to “turn from evil,” to “renounce the sin that seduces us,” and to “open” ourselves to the “logic of the Gospel.”

Where “love and fraternity reign, evil has no more power,” he said.

Pope Francis said that converting is not easy and Jesus knows this. Jesus wants to help in this conversion, he added.

Jesus knows that, oftentimes, “people repeat the same mistakes and the same sins,” and that can bring discouragement,” Pope Francis said.

“Sometimes our commitment to do good can seem useless in a world where evil seems to rule,” he added.

But Jesus encourages us by telling a parable that shows God’s patience, he said. Jesus “offers the consoling image of [a] fig tree that does not bear fruit during the accorded season, but it is not cut down. Jesus “gives it more time, another possibility,” the pope observed.

Pope Francis told the crowd that he enjoys “thinking that a nice name for God could be ‘the God of another possibility’: God always gives us another opportunity, always, always.”

God does not “cut us out of his love” nor does he “lose heart or tire of offering us again His trust with tenderness,” he said. “God believes in us! God trusts us and accompanies us with patience, the patience of God with us. He does not get discouraged, but always instills hope in us.”

Pope Francis said that “God is Father” and “looks after you like a father,” while noting that God does not look at the “achievements you have not yet reached” but rather “encourages your potential.”

“He does not dwell on your past, but confidently bets on your future,” he said. “This is because God is close to us.”

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Pope Francis: Ask the Holy Spirit to awaken your desire to pray

March 13, 2022 Catholic News Agency 0
Pope Francis waves to crowd gathered for the Angelus at St. Peter’s Square on March 13, 2022. / Vatican Media

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Mar 13, 2022 / 07:37 am (CNA).

Noting that Luke’s Gospel reveals that Peter, James, and John had fallen asleep prior to Jesus’ Transfiguration, Pope Francis urged the faithful during his Angelus reflection Sunday to call on the Holy Spirit to awaken their desire to pray.

“The drowsiness of the three disciples appears to be a discordant note. The same apostles then fall asleep in Gethsemane too, during the anguished prayer of Jesus, who had asked them to keep watch (cf. Mk 14:37-41). This somnolence in such important moments is surprising,” the pope observed on March 13, the ninth anniversary of his pontificate, speaking to a large crowd gathered in St. Peter’s Square.

“However, if we read carefully, we see that Peter, John and James fall asleep before the Transfiguration begins, that is, while Jesus is in prayer. The same will happen in Gethsemane. This is evidently a prayer that continued for some time, in silence and concentration. We may think that at the beginning they too were praying, until tiredness prevailed,” he continued.

Pope Francis observed that as followers of Jesus, we are prone to the same weaknesses as the apostles, and often miss the opportunity to converse with God at important moments of our lives.

“Perhaps in the evening, when we would like to pray, to spend some time with Jesus after a day of rushing around and being busy. Or when it is time to exchange a few words with the family and we no longer have the strength. We would like to be more awake, attentive, participatory, not to miss precious opportunities, but we can’t, or we manage it somehow but poorly,” he said.

“The strong time of Lent is an opportunity in this regard,” Pope Francis continued. “It is a period in which God wants to awaken us from our inner lethargy, from this sleepiness that does not let the Spirit express itself. Because — let us bear this in mind — keeping the heart awake does not depend on us alone: It is a grace and must be requested.

“The three disciples of the Gospel show this: They were good, they had followed Jesus onto the mountain, but by their own strength they could not stay awake. This happens to us too.”

Crowds gather at St. Peter's Square on March 13, 2022 for Pope Francis' Angelus. Vatican Media
Crowds gather at St. Peter’s Square on March 13, 2022 for Pope Francis’ Angelus. Vatican Media

The good news is that the Holy Spirit desires to help us do what we cannot accomplish on our own.

“Like [the apostles], we too are in need of God’s light, that makes us see things in a different way: It attracts us, it reawakens us, it reignites our desire and strength to pray, to look within ourselves, and to dedicate time to others,” the pope said.

“We can overcome the tiredness of the body with the strength of the Spirit of God. And when we are unable to overcome this, we must say to the Holy Spirit: ‘Help us, come, come, Holy Spirit. Help me: I want to encounter Jesus, I want to be attentive, awake.’ Ask the Holy Spirit to bring us out of this slumber that prevents us from praying.”

In conclusion, Pope Francis posed a simple challenge.

“In this Lenten time, after the labors of each day, it will do us good not to switch off the light in the room without placing ourselves in the light of God. To pray a little before sleeping,” he urged.

“Let’s give the Lord the chance to surprise us and to reawaken our hearts. We can do this, for instance, by opening the Gospel and letting ourselves marvel at the Word of God, because the Scripture enlightens our steps and enflames the heart. Or we can look at the crucified Jesus and wonder at the boundless love of God, who never tires of us and has the power to transfigure our days, to give them a new meaning, a new, unexpected light,” he said.

“May the Virgin May help us to keep our heart awaken to welcome this time of grace that God offers to us.”

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Pope Francis: In the name of God, ‘stop this massacre’ in Ukraine

March 13, 2022 Catholic News Agency 1
Banner calling for the consecration of Russia is displayed during Pope Francis’ Angelus in St. Peter’s Square on March 13, 2022. / Vatican Media

Denver Newsroom, Mar 13, 2022 / 07:19 am (CNA).

Pope Francis on Sunday called for an end to the “harrowing war” in Ukraine, condemning in particular the “barbarism” of Russia’s reported attacks last week on civilians— including pregnant women and children— in the eastern city of Mariupol. 

“With an aching heart I add my voice to that of the common people, who implore the end of the war,” the pope said March 13, addressing the crowd gathered in St. Peter’s Square in Rome following the Angelus, a Marian prayer.

“In the name of God, listen to the cry of those who suffer, and put an end to the bombings and the attacks! Let there be real and decisive focus on the negotiations, and let the humanitarian corridors be effective and safe. In the name of God, I ask you: stop this massacre!”

Pope Francis waves to crowd gathered for the Angelus at St. Peter's Square on March 13, 2022. Vatican Media
Pope Francis waves to crowd gathered for the Angelus at St. Peter’s Square on March 13, 2022. Vatican Media

The pope’s words come following numerous reports last week of civilian casualties in Mariupol, amid Russia’s attempt to seize the strategically-located city as part of its ongoing invasion of Ukraine, which began on Feb. 24. 

On Wednesday, March 9, a Russian strike on a maternity hospital in Mariupol killed at least three people and injured at least 17, according to local officials. Amid heavy loss of life in the city, there have been reports of civilians being buried in mass graves. 

Pope Francis said that Mariupol, a city of 400,000 which was founded and named for the Virgin Mary, “has become a city martyred” amid the assault. 

“Faced with the barbarism of the killing of children, and of innocent and defenseless citizens, there are no strategic reasons that hold up: the only thing to be done is to cease the unacceptable armed aggression before the city is reduced to a cemetery,” the pope said. 

The pope’s words echoed those of a prominent Catholic leader in Ukraine, Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, who lamented March 10 what he described as the “mass murder” of Ukrainians following Russia’s full-scale invasion. The following day, March 11, Shevchuk said the assault is “becoming a war primarily against the civilian, peaceful population.”

As of Sunday, the United Nations Refugee Agency had estimated that 2.5 million people have fled Ukraine since the war began, many seeking refuge in Poland. Pope Francis urged the welcoming of refugees, “in whom Christ is present.”

He also asked all diocesan and religious communities to “increase their moments of prayer for peace.” 

“God is only the God of peace, he is not the God of war, and those who support violence profane his name. Now let us pray in silence for those who suffer, and that God may convert hearts to a steadfast will for peace,” the pope concluded. 

According to recent reports, a Russian rocket attack early Sunday on a military base near Lviv, a city near the Polish border, killed at least 35 people and injured 134. 

Since the start of the invasion, Pope Francis has called for peace. He recently urged Catholics worldwide to pray and fast for Ukraine on Ash Wednesday, which marked the beginning of Lent on March 2. He also dispatched two Vatican Cardinals to Ukraine, where among other things they have met with refugees.

March 13, 2022 marked the ninth anniversary of Francis’ election as pope.

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