Vatican

Vatican City, Nov 12, 2017 / 05:36 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On Sunday Pope Francis encouraged people not to wait to reflect on their lives, but to ask themselves: If this was my last day on earth, am I prepared? Am I cooperating with God’s grace?

“It would be nice to think a little bit: one day will be the last. If it was today, am I prepared?” he asked Nov. 12. “Here, therefore, is the meaning of being wise and prudent: it is not to wait for the last moment of our life to cooperate with the grace of God, but to do it already, from now.”

The basis of the Pope’s Angelus reflection on preparing for the Kingdom of Heaven was the day’s Gospel passage of the parable of the ten virgins: five wise and five foolish.

In the parable, which he said, “tells us the condition to enter the Kingdom of Heaven,” we hear the story of five virgins who are wise and prudent, bringing oil for their lamps while they wait for the bridegroom. The other five, however, are foolish and are not prepared with oil.

Therefore, when the arrival of the bridegroom is announced the five foolish virgins realize, too late, that they are not prepared. Thus, the wise virgins enter into the banquet hall with the bridegroom and the door is closed on the foolish.

“What does Jesus want to teach us with this parable?” Francis asked. He reminds us to be prepared to meet the Lord, which means not only having faith, but also living a Christian life, “full of love, charity, for our neighbor.”

In the parable, the oil is a symbol for charity, he explained, which acts as a light for our faith, making it shine and become fruitful. On the other hand, if we live a life based on self-centeredness and our own interests, then our lives are made sterile and our faith “extinguished.”

“If, however, we are vigilant and try to do good, with gestures of love, sharing, service to our neighbor in difficulty, we can remain calm while we wait for the bridegroom’s coming,” he reassured.

Thought “the Lord may come at any time,” he continued, “even the sleep of death does not scare us because we have the oil reserve accumulated with the good works of every day.”

Look to the Virgin Mary, he said, who inspires us, through charity, to be active in our faith, “so that our lamp may shine here, on the earthly path, and then forever, at the wedding feast in paradise.”

Following the Angelus, Pope Francis spoke about Vicente Queralt Lloret and 20 companions and José María Fernández Sánchez and 38 companions, who were beatified in Madrid on Nov. 11.

Some were members of the Congregation of the Mission: priests, brothers and novices, he said. And others were laity who belonged to the Miraculous Medal Association. They were all martyred during the religious persecution of the Spanish Civil War between 1936 and 1937.

“We give thanks to God for the great gift of these exemplary witnesses of Christ and the Gospel,” he said.

Francis then concluded by greeting different pilgrim groups, including groups from Washington, Philadelphia, Brooklyn and New York. When he did, a group broke out in song for a moment, which the Pope paused to listen to. He then thanked them for the song before asking for prayers and wishing everyone a good lunch.

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Vatican City, Nov 11, 2017 / 11:16 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The future of the Church and the world is dependent on the good of the family, said Pope Francis in a video message Saturday.

“The love between a man and woman is one of the most generative… […]

Vatican City, Nov 10, 2017 / 12:16 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- On Friday, leading Vatican and secular diplomats urged world leaders to freeze investment into nuclear arms production, and to instead fund peace and development initiatives.

“Every day we are bombarded with bad news about the atrocities that we humans can do, harming each other and nature, about the increasing drumbeat of a possible nuclear conflagration and the fact that humanity stands on the precipice of a nuclear holocaust,” Cardinal Peter Turkson said Nov. 10.

Fears over a potential global catastrophe are rising to a level not seen since the days of the Cuban Missile Crisis, he said.

Ongoing discussion about nuclear weapons is “critical,” Turkson said, adding that the decisions made by global leaders about peace and war in the coming months and years “will have profound consequences for the very future of humanity and our planet.”

Head of the Vatican’s dicastery for Integral Human Development, Turkson gave the opening keynote speech at a Nov. 10-11 conference on nuclear disarmament that his department is organizing.

He noted that the conference overlaps with U.S. President Donald Trump’s visit to Asia – which includes stops in South Korea, China, Vietnam and the Philippines – as the U.S. faces heightened tensions with North Korea.

The Vatican conference has been in the works for several years, and was not intentionally planned to overlap with Trump’s Asia visit. The timing, the cardinal jested, is a coincidence that could be seen as an act of “divine providence.”

The two-day symposium on nuclear disarmament is the first global gathering to address the topic since the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons was passed in New York on July 7. Prior to the treaty, nuclear arms were the only weapons of mass destruction not explicitly banned by any international document.

The treaty passed with 122 votes in favor, with Singapore being the only abstention. However, 69 countries – all the nuclear weapon states and NATO members apart from the Netherlands – did not take part in the vote.

In addition to Cardinal Turkson and Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, who also spoke in the opening panel, other participants in the summit include Masako Wada, one of the last survivors of the Hiroshima nuclear attack, 11 Nobel Peace Laureates, representatives from the U. N. and NATO, diplomats from Russia, the United States, South Korea, and Iran, weapons experts and foundation leaders.

Representatives of bishops’ conferences and other Christian organizations are also attending, including a delegation of professors and students from U.S. and Russian universities.

In comments to journalists on the opening day of the event, Beatrice Fihn, Executive Director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), said that despite elevated tensions, the signing of the July treaty is a sign of hope, showing that the majority of countries in the world reject nuclear weapons.

In 2017, Fihn’s organization was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of its work drawing attention to the humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons, and for its effort to achieve the treaty.

Fihn said she believes it is possible to have a world without nuclear weapons. “We built these weapons (and) we can take them apart,” she said, adding that the world has given up certain chemical and biological weapons in the past.

Izumi Nakamitsu, U.N. High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, said the U.N. is grateful to both Pope Francis and the Holy See for organizing the conference.

“Any gathering of world leaders and civil society actors and governments to discuss ways to pursue a nuclear weapons-free zone will be very helpful for the cause of U.N. disarmament activities,” she said, and voiced eagerness to discuss what can practically be done to eradicate nuclear weapons.

Nakamitsu said the U.N. believes the only solution to the North Korean nuclear crisis is a political one, and that talks on disarmament, arms control and non-proliferation create much-needed “breathing space” for trying to find these political solutions.

“So we’re not giving up at all on disarmament, but quite the contrary, because the situation is very difficult, we think disarmament discussions are more important.”

Cardinals Turkson and Parolin both emphasized the need for an integral development aimed at promoting human dignity and the common good as the solution to current nuclear tensions.

Quoting former U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower’s 1953 speech after the death of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, Turkson said “every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.”

International peace and stability, Cardinal Turkson said, cannot be based on “a false sense of security, on the threat of mutual destruction or total annihilation, or on simply maintaining a balance of power.”

Rather, he said, peace must be built on justice, development, respect for human rights, the care of creation, participation in public life, mutual trust, support of peaceful institutions, access to education and health, dialogue and solidarity.

Cardinal Parolin echoed these ideas, emphasizing the role of education and dialogue in creating “a culture of life and peace based on the dignity of the human being and the primacy of the law.”

He added that “only a concerted effort on the part of all nations will stop these senseless rivalries and promote fruitful, friendly dialogue between nations.”

In a Nov. 10 statement addressed to Pope Francis on the occasion of the conference, five of the 11 Nobel Prize Laureates participating in the conference said they hope the event will help launch “a new international legal regulation and further stigmatize those weapons and the states that so far refuse to give them up.”

They praised the joint role of civil society, religious communities and various international organizations and states in advancing the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which aims to put an end to weapons “that are capable of obliterating life as we know it in the blink of an eye.”

An “inclusive and equitable” international security system which leaves no country feeling that they must depend on nuclear arms is needed, they said, and stressed the necessity to ask oneself “what ethical and moral human beings can possibly believe that it is fine to give machines the ability to kill humans.”

In order to avoid an “impending third revolution in warfare,” the weapons must be eliminated before they ever make it to battle, they said.

And this requites prioritizing the human person over the creation of wealth and realizing that “real security comes from placing the focus on meeting the needs of individuals and communities – human security and promoting the common good.”

Signatories included Professer Mohamed El Baradei; Mrs. Mairead Maguire; Professor Adolfo Perez Esquivel; Professor Jody Williams, and Professor Muhammad Yunus.

In comments to journalists Nov. 10, Yunus, who is from Bangladesh, said Pope Francis’ message on peace and nuclear disarmament is critical. The Pope’s voice, he said, “is respected all over the world, and when he says something, people listen.”

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Vatican City, Nov 10, 2017 / 05:18 am (CNA/EWTN News).- In a key speech on the global effort to eradicate nuclear arms, Pope Francis called the weapons immoral and said they should be made illegal in war, but he also voiced hope that despite pessimism, things are moving in the right direction.

In a Nov. 10 audience with participants in a Vatican symposium on nuclear disarmament, the Pope said “a healthy realism continues to shine a light of hope on our unruly world,” particularly on the nuclear front.

Pointing to the international treaty passed at the United Nations in July, Francis said this is a concrete sign that progress is being made in the effort to eliminate nuclear arms, and called the treaty “a historic vote,” in which the majority of the international community “determined that nuclear weapons are not only immoral, but must also be considered an illegal means of warfare.”

The employment of nuclear devices, whether intentionally or through accidental detonation, he said, would cause “catastrophic humanitarian and environmental effects.”

Organized by the Pontifical Council for Integral Human Development, the Nov. 10-11 symposium is the first global gathering on this topic since the approval of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons at the United Nations July 7.

Until the treaty, nuclear weapons were the only weapons of mass destruction not explicitly banned by any international document. As the Pope pointed out in his speech, chemical weapons, biological weapons, anti-human mines and cluster bombs had all been explicitly prohibited in previous international conventions.

He praised the treaty as also being largely the result of humanitarian initiatives sponsored by the collaboration of civil society, states, international organizations, churches, academies and experts.

Ultimately, to achieve a world without nuclear weapons requires a change of heart, not just laws, he said, saying we must renew our focus on the integral development of the human person as an “indissoluble unity of soul and body, of contemplation and action.”

This approach gives hope that it’s possible, the Pope said, adding that the perspective goes contrary to our own pessimism and the criticisms of those who see the effort to totally eliminate weapons of mass destruction as “idealistic.”

Quoting St. John XXIII’s 1963 encyclical “Pacem in Terris,” Francis said, “unless this process of disarmament be thoroughgoing and complete, and reach men’s very souls, it is impossible to stop the arms race, or to reduce armaments, or – and this is the main thing – ultimately to abolish them entirely.”

Reiterating the many statements he’s made on the topic, Pope Francis said the escalation of the arms race and the expense it requires means money is taken away from what should be the real priorities: “the fight against poverty, the promotion of peace and the undertaking of educational, ecological and healthcare projects.”

As a permanent observer to the United Nations, the Holy See has played an integral role in the negotiations of the treaty banning nuclear weapons. This role has included casting a procedural vote on the treaty earlier this year, which is a right the Holy See doesn’t have for every issue, further underlining the their concern regarding nuclear weapons.

During talks on nuclear weapons at the U.N. headquarters in New York, Pope Francis said the treaty, which was still being negotiated at the time, was inspired by “ethical and moral arguments,” and was an “exercise in hope.”

On that occasion, he voiced his hope that the treaty would be “a decisive step along the road towards a world without nuclear weapons.” And while this is “a significantly complex and long-term goal, it is not beyond our reach.”

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Vatican City, Nov 9, 2017 / 04:29 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Archbishop Protase Rugambwa was appointed secretary of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples on Thursday. He had previously served as the congregation’s adjunct secretary and president of the Pontifical Mission Societies.

The Nov. 9 appointment makes Archbishop Rugambwa, 57, second in the congregation, behind Cardinal Fernando Filoni, who is 71.

Archbishop Rugambwa was born in Bunena, Tanzania, in 1960. He studied at Kibosho Senior Seminary and St. Charles Lwanga Segerea Senior Seminary, and was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Rulenge in 1990.

He served as a parochial vicar, a teacher at a minor seminary, and a hospital chaplain. He obtained a doctorate in pastoral theology from the Pontifical Lateran University in 1998, and then served as vocations director and vicar general of his diocese.

In 2008 he was consecrated Bishop of Kigoma, where he served until he was transferred to the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples in 2012.

Pope Francis on Thursday also appointed Father Giovanni Pietro Dal Toso to fill the vacancy left by Archbishop Rugambwa’s appointment. He was also appointed Titular Archbishop of Foratiana.

A priest of the Bolzano-Bressanone diocese, Fr. Dal Toso had worked at the Pontifical Council Cor Unum from 1996 until it was suppressed Jan. 1.

Previously known as Propaganda Fidei, the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples is responsible for the work of spreading the Gospel in mission territories.

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Vatican City, Nov 9, 2017 / 02:54 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Former trafficking victim Rani Hong, who was kidnapped and sold into slavery at seven years old, is speaking out, saying we’ve raised awareness, but now it’s time to put our knowledge into action to help victims.

“As we all learn together, we need to move forward, beyond just raising awareness,” she said. “Now it’s time to act on behalf of children around the world.”

Kidnapped from her village in southern India, she said that when she first started telling her story as an adult, people didn’t always believe her, “because they couldn’t believe that the issue of slavery still exists today.”

But now, several years later, she said people have become much more educated on the issue, and after education should come action. “I want people all around the world to be able to take concrete action to make a difference in a child’s life.”

Hong’s story begins in India when she was a young child. A well-respected woman in the community approached her mother offering to clothe, feed, shelter, and educate her daughter during a difficult time. So she went down the street to live with the woman, her mother and family visiting every day.

But one day, Hong said, she was gone. The woman was in fact recruiting children in the streets of India and had sold her across the border into another state.

Held in a cage to teach her submission, she said in a Vatican press conference Nov. 6: “I did not know the language, I did not know anybody. I was disoriented and afraid and alone. I was crying for my mother and nobody came to rescue me.”

“We’re talking about a human being, myself, being captive. This is what the industry of human trafficking does,” she told journalists. By the time she was eight years old she had become sick and near death from the beatings and starvation she had endured to get her to submit to her trafficker.

Since she was no longer considered valuable for forced labor and her trafficker wanted “one more profit,” Hong was sold into illegal international adoption.

Statistics tell us that today human slavery is a 150-billion-dollar industry, Hong said, with around 40 million people enslaved around the world. And “no country is exempt.”

“We’re talking about buying and selling people,” she emphasized.

From there she was adopted by a woman in the United States and this is where she was able to start to heal and slowly start building her life again, she said. Amazingly, through what she terms “a miracle of God,” she was also able to find her birth mother and family in India in 1999.

It was finding her birth family, she noted, that inspired her to do something to help, with her faith in God giving her the strength to heal and to be able to share her story.

“My faith helped me to get stronger. And every day it’s a challenge. Every day I have to make a choice to do something and to have faith” that we can make a change, she said.

Now she and her husband, also a survivor of child slavery, have a non-profit organization called the Tronie Foundation, which works with business partners to help ensure supply chains do not use slavery and forced labor.

One practical initiative they’ve developed is the “Freedom Seal,” which helps consumers identify products from manufacturers independently audited to ensure fair labor practices.

Hong also speaks to lawmakers about creating and implementing laws to protect victims, help survivors, and prosecute traffickers. In 2011 she was appointed UN special advisor to the global initiative to fight human trafficking.

She was also invited to the Vatican to participate in a Nov. 5-6 workshop centered on helping former victims and run by the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences. She said being at the Vatican was a “huge step forward,” and hopefully inspired the academy and others to take on the issue with even more force.

“Because today, I speak for those without a voice,” she underlined. “The millions of children around the world who are not here and able to tell their story.”

Material from EWTN News Nightly and Vaticano was used in this article.

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Vatican City, Nov 9, 2017 / 11:16 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Meeting with the community of a Ukrainian Greek Catholic seminary in Rome on Thursday, Pope Francis encouraged them build up justice and peace in their homeland.

“Today the world is wounded by wars and violence,” the Pope reflected Nov. 9 during his meeting at the Vatican’s Clementine Hall with the community of the Ukrainian Pontifical College of Saint Josaphat.

“In particular, your beloved Ukrainian nation, whence you came and where you will return at the end of your Roman studies, is experiencing the drama of war, which generates great suffering.”

He added that “strong is the aspiration to justice and to peace, which bars any form of prevarication, social or political corruption, realities for which the poor always pay the price. God sustains and encourages those who are committed to realizing a society characterized ever more by justice and solidarity.”

Pope Francis’ meeting with the college, which serves seminarians and priests of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, comes 85 years after its present building as opened on Rome’s Janiculum Hill, at the request of Pius XI.

Francis recalled his predecessor’s particular concern for the faithful living in areas of suffering and persecution; at the time of the college’s founding, Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union.

“In the years of his pontificate, Pius XI always and firmly raised his voice in defending the faith, the freedom of the Church, and the transcendent dignity of every human person,” Francis said. “He clearly condemned, through speeches and letters, the atheistic and inhumane ideologies that bloodied the twentieth century. He brought to light their contradictions by indicating the Church as the high road of the Gospel, and also putting into practice the search for social justice, an indispensable dimension of the fully human redemption of peoples and nations.”

He invited the seminarians “to study the social doctrine of the Church, so as to mature in discernment and judgement of the social realities in which you are called to operate.”

While the call to peace may seem unreachable, Pope Francis said that “by loving and anouncing the Word, you will become true pastors of the communities entrusted to you, and it will be the lamp that illuminates your heart and your home, whether you prepare for the celibate or married priesthood, according to tradition of your Church.”

Considering the war, corruption, and strife among Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches which Ukraine is facing, Francis told the seminarians “to ensure your heart lies always in wide horizons, which have the measure of the whole world … love and care for your traditions, but avoid any form of sectarianism.”

He recalled the rainbow as a sign of God’s covenant with humanity which calls man “to learn to love and respect each other, to abandon their weapons, to reject war and all kinds of abuse.”

“If you walk this way and teach others to do the same, especially in the fundamental ecumenical dialogue, I am certain that from the heavenly homeland all the bishops and priests – some formed at your college – who have given their lives or have suffered persecution because of their fidelity to Christ and to the Apostolic See will smile at you and support you.”

Pope Francis also recalled his relationship with Fr. Stefan Czmil, from whom he came to appreciate the Divine Liturgy of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.

Fr. Czmil was born in Sudova Vyshnia in what was then Austria-Hungary in 1914 and grew up in the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.

Drawn to the example of St. John Bosco and his work, he decided to join the Salesians in order to educate poor young people in Ukriaine.

In 1930 Pope Pius XI granted permission for Eastern rite candidates to the Salesians to retain their rite and Church traditions and Fr. Czmil was sent to northern Italy for formation. He was professed as a member of the Salesians in 1935.

He studied for the priesthood in Italy during World War II and was ordained a priest of the order in 1945. While in Italy he helpd many Ukrainian refugees to find new homes.

In 1948 he was sent to Argentina to serve Ukrainian immigrants, where he met a young Jorge Bergoglio.

“This was good for me, because the man spoke of persecutions, of sufferings, of ideologies that were persecuting Christians,” Pope Francis told the seminarians. “And he taught me to open myself to a different liturgy, which I keep always in my heart for its beauty.”

Fr. Czmil was later sent back to Rome, where he was secretly consecrated a bishop in 1977. He died the following year.

Francis recalled that while he was in Buenos Aires, Major Archbishop Shevchuk had asked him for testimonies with which to open the cause for canonization of Fr. Czmil.

“I wanted to remember him today because it is just to give thanks before you for the good he did me,” the Pope told the seminarians.

“I accompany you with my blessing, invoking peace and ecumenical harmony for Ukraine.”

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Vatican City, Nov 9, 2017 / 06:52 am (CNA/EWTN News).- In a move likely to have some Vatican employees fuming, Pope Francis has decided to ban the sale of cigarettes inside the City State on the grounds that the Holy See cannot profit from a proven health hazard.

In a Nov. 9 statement, Vatican spokesman Greg Burke said the reason for the decision “is very simple: the Holy See cannot contribute to an activity that clearly damages the health of people.”

Available for sale exclusively at “Palazzo della Stazione,” the building that sits in front of the Vatican’s small train station, the cigarettes have until now been sold at a lower price than in tobacco stores around Rome, making it an ideal place for smokers holding a Vatican employee card to pick up their next pack.

However, citing numbers from the World Health Organization, Burke noted how each year some seven million people throughout the world die due to smoking-related causes.

Despite the fact the cigarettes sold to Vatican employees and pensioners has been a source of revenue for the Holy See, “no profit can be legitimate if it puts lives at risk,” Burke said.

The sale of cigarettes inside the Vatican will officially cease as of 2018, but the sale of larger cigars, with which smoke is not inhaled, was not mentioned in the statement.

While Pope Francis himself doesn’t smoke, the habit is practically considered a national vice in Italy, and many even within the Vatican can be found to have a pack or two on hand.

However, the Pope’s decision to crack-down on cigarette sales in the Vatican brings him on par with other European countries who have enforced comprehensive smoke-free laws, the most strict being found in Ireland, the UK, Greece, Bulgaria, Malta, Spain and Hungary.

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Vatican City, Nov 9, 2017 / 02:22 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The Vatican on Thursday announced that Albino Luciani – better know as Pope John Paul I – has moved forward on the path to sainthood, and can now officially be called “Venerable” by faithful around the world.

Announced in a Nov. 9 communique from the Vatican, the Pope’s decision to green light the cause was made the day before, during a Nov. 8 meeting with Cardinal Angelo Amato, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.

With Francis’ approval of his heroic virtue, “Papa Luciani,” who until now has held the title “Servant of God,” can now be called “Venerable,” which is the step before beatification.

In addition to John Paul I, other causes to move forward are the martyrdom of Giovanni Brenner, a diocesan priest killed in Hungary in 1957 and the martyrdom of Sr. Leonella Sgorbati, killed in hatred of the faith in Somalia in 2006.

Other causes approved of heroic virtue are Bernard of Baden; Fr. Gregorio Fioravanti; Fr. Tommaso Morales Perez of Venezuela; Italian layman Marcellino da Capradosso and American Sr. Teresa Fardella, foundress of the Daughters of Mary of the Most Holy Crown.

Born Oct. 17, 1912, in Italy’s northern Veneto region, Albino Luciani made history when he was elected Pope Aug. 26, 1978, and took a double name after his two immediate predecessors, St. John XXIII and Bl. Paul VI.

He sent shock waves around the world when he died unexpectedly just 33 days later, making his one of the shortest pontificates in the history of the Church.

The first Pope to born in the 20th century, he is also the most recent Italian-born Pontiff and is often referred to as “the Smiling Pope” by those who knew him or remember his election.

Despite living in relative poverty, he entered the minor seminary in Feltre in 1923, when he was just 11 years old, and entered the Gregorian Seminary at Belluno five years later, in 1928.

He was ordained a priest July 7, 1935, and after serving in a parish for a few months, in December of that year he was named instructor of religion at the Technical Institute for Miners in Agordo. He became vice-rector of the Belluno seminary just two years later, in 1937 – a position he would hold for the next 10 years.

At the same time, he also became an instructor at the seminary and continued to pursue his own studies in theology. When his time as vice-rector was complete in 1947, he obtained a docorate degree in Sacred Theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.

That same year, at just 36 years of age, he was named chancellor of the diocese of Belluno and given the title “Monsignor.” That year he was also nominated secretary for the diocesan synod of bishops.

A year later, in 1948, he was named Pro Vicar General of the Belluno diocese and director of their office for catechesis. He was named Vicar General of Belluno six years later, in 1954.

In 1958, Luciani was named Bishop of the Vittorio Veneto diocese by St. John XXIII, and was consecrated by the Pope himself in St. Peter’s Basilica.

Luciani was among the bishops present from around the world for the opening of the Second Vatican Council in 1962, and he attended each of the four sessions before the Council’s close in 1965.

In 1969 he was named Patriarch of Venice by Bl. Pope Paul VI, one of the few patriarchates in the Latin Church. The Archbishop of Venice is typically made a cardinal, and Luciani received his red hat from Paul VI in 1973.

He participated in the 1971 Synod of Bishops on “The Ministerial Priesthood and Justice in the World” in 1971, and in 1972 was elected Vice President of the Italian Bishops’ Conference, a position he held until 1975.

The last year of his life was a whirlwind in which he participated in the Sept. 30-Oct. 29 1977, Synod of Bishops on “Catechesis in Our Time” and voted in the August 1978 conclave that elected him as Pope after the death of Paul VI.

He had hardly given four general audiences when he died just 33 days into his pontificate – 34 including the day of his election, which counts canonically.

The sudden nature of his death gave rise to various theories of foul play at the time of his passing. However, a book published Nov. 7 by Italian journalist Stefania Falasca, the vice-postulator of his cause, has debunked the conspiracies and insinuations of murder.

In her book, released in Italian and titled “John Paul I: the Chronicle of a Death,” Falasca provides both documentation and testimony indicating that the late Pope suffered a brief, unknown cardiac episode the night before he died, which was likely linked to a previous heart problem he thought had been resolved, but was most likely the cause of his death.

Although the cause for canonization of a Pope is typically opened by Rome, in 2003 the Bishop of the Belluno diocese, Vincenzo Savio, requested to have the cause opened there, since Luciani had spent the majority of his ministry there, and was only in Rome for a month before his death.

The request was accepted, and Diocese of Belluno officially opened John Paul I’s cause in November 2003. The lengthy document detailing the late Pope’s life and virtues was submitted to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints on his birthday, Oct. 17, 2016.

With the approval of his heroic virtue, the path is now open for Pope John Paul I’s beatification, which requires that there be miracles attributed to his intercession. One miracle is needed for him to be beatified and declared “Blessed,” and two are needed for his canonization as a Saint.

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Vatican City, Nov 9, 2017 / 12:08 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis praised St. Frances Cabrini in the preface to a book about her life for her foresight in addressing the needs of migrants, saying she’s an example of how to treat people with both charity and justice.

The saint combined “great charity with a prophetic spirit,” the Pope noted. “Frances Cabrini, precisely for this reason, is very present today and teaches us the way to deal with the momentous phenomenon of migration by combining charity and justice.”

Not only did she realize that mass migration “was not a temporary phenomenon,” he continued, she also saw “the emergence of a new historical era” in which modern transport would allow easier movement of large populations.

“Frances understood that modernity would be marked by these immense migrations and uprooted human beings, in a crisis of identity, often desperate and lacking resources to face the society in which they would have to enter,” he said.

In the face of this crisis, she established hospitals, convents, and schools for poor Italian immigrants to the US, to help them learn the rules and laws of their new society while retaining their dignity and their religious roots.

“These were the goals that she wanted to achieve for all migrants,” Pope Francis said. “Goals that are still valid today, and which pass through the recognition and respect of one’s own and others’ religious roots.”

Now the sisters in her religious order have continued her work, even if the country of origin of immigrants to the U.S. has changed, he pointed out.

This December marks the 100th anniversary of the death of St. Frances Cabrini.

Pope Francis wrote the preface to a new edition of a Cabrini biography called Tra terra e cielo (“Between heaven and earth”), issued for the centennial of her death.

Pope Francis frequently invokes the 20th century saint in his speeches for her example of how to welcome and care for migrants while also helping them integrate with the culture of their new country.

He most recently spoke about her legacy and its relevance in a September letter to the order she founded, the Institute of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, saying the centennial of her death is “one of the main events marking the journey of the Church.”

“Both because of the greatness of the figure commemorated and because of the contemporary nature of her charism and message, not just for the ecclesial community but for society as a whole.”

With the “inevitable tensions” caused by the high levels of migration around the world today, Mother Cabrini becomes a contemporary figure, he continued.

An Italian missionary, St. Frances Cabrini died Dec. 22, 1917 after spending much of her life working with Italian immigrants in the United States.

She spent nearly 30 years traveling back and forth across the Atlantic Ocean as well as around the United States setting up orphanages, hospitals, convents, and schools for the often marginalized Italian immigrants. Her feast is celebrated Nov. 13.

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