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Vatican City, Jan 8, 2018 / 06:44 am (CNA/EWTN News).- In a speech to diplomats on Monday, Pope Francis said that the stability of the family is integral for the future, and that such stability is created when founded upon the faithful and lasting rela… […]

Vatican City, Jan 7, 2018 / 04:27 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On Sunday Pope Francis spoke of the importance of remembering the day of our baptism, which he said is more than just a date on the calendar, but is the moment we receive our Christian identity and are immersed in the grace and forgiveness of God.

“The feast of the Baptism of Jesus invites every Christian to remember their own baptism,” the Pope said Jan. 7, explaining that to forget one’s baptism “means exposing oneself to the risk of losing the memory of what the Lord has done for us.”

In the end, we consider the day “only as a fact that happened in the past,” rather than recognizing as the day on which “we became new creatures and are also capable of forgiving and loving whoever offends us and does us harm.”

More than just the day that “sociologically marks the parish register,” the day that we were baptized is the day that “constitutes the demanding identity card of the believer,” he said.

Pope Francis spoke to pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square for his Sunday Angelus address, which this week falls on the Feast of the Baptism of Jesus.

Prior to praying the Angelus, Pope Francis celebrated Mass inside the Sistine Chapel, during which he baptized 34 babies in commemoration of the special feast day, which he does every year.

In his address, the Pope noted how the Feast of the Baptism of Jesus marks the end of the liturgical Christmas season.

Turning to the day’s Gospel, he recalled how those who came to John for baptism recognized their sin and wanted to be cleansed in order to start a new life. Because of this, we understand “the great humility of Jesus,” who did not have sin, but put himself “in line with the penitents, mixed among them to be baptized in the waters of the river.”

By doing this, Jesus what we celebrated at Christmas: his own availability “to immerse himself in the river of humanity, to take upon himself the shortcomings and weaknesses of men, to share with them the desire for freedom and of overcoming everything that distances us from God and makes us strangers to our brothers,” Francis said.

Again pointing to the day’s Gospel reading from Matthew, he noted how it recounts that Jesus, “when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens opened and the Spirit descending upon him like a dove.”

The Holy Spirit, who worked at the beginning of creation and guided Moses and the people through the desert, “now descends in fullness on Jesus in order to give him the strength to fulfill his mission in the world.”

“It is the Holy Spirit who is the author of Jesus’ baptism,” Pope Francis said. “It is the the Holy Spirit who opens the eyes of the heart to the truth, the entire truth. It is the Holy Spirit who pushes our lives on the path of charity.”

The Holy Spirit, he said, “is the gift that the Father has made to each one of us on the day of our baptism. It is the Holy Spirit who transmits to us the tenderness of divine forgiveness.”

Francis noted that it is precisely in the moment when the Jesus makes solidarity with sinners that he hears the voice of his Father, “who confirms his identity and mission.”

In off-the-cuff remarks, the Pope then asked the pilgrims present if they they know the date of their baptism, since most of them likely received the sacrament when they were children. If the answer is no, he told them to “go home and ask your mom or dad, your grandmother or grandfather, your godmother or godfather,” because it is the day of grace and forgiveness that we should all remember.

He closed his address praying that Mary would intercede so that all Christians “can increasingly understand the gift of baptism and commit themselves to living it with coherency, bearing witness to the love of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”

After leading pilgrims in the traditional Angelus prayer, Pope Francis noted how earlier that morning he had “the joy” of baptizing several infants, and prayed that the Mother of God would protect them, “so that, helped by the example of their parents and godparents, they may grow as disciples of the Lord.”

He closed telling pilgrims “don’t forget you homework: what is the day of my baptism? On what day was I baptized?” and asked for prayers.

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Vatican City, Jan 7, 2018 / 02:52 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Keeping with papal tradition, Pope Francis marked the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord by celebrating Mass in the Sistine Chapel, during which he baptized 34 infants, telling parents that love at home is the first requirement of passing on the faith.

“If there is no love at home, if the language of love isn’t spoken between mother and father at home, you can’t do it,” the Pope said Jan. 7, telling parents to “transmit the faith, but do it with the love of the family, at home.”

He celebrated Mass in the Sistine Chapel, as he does each year on the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, during which he baptizes several infants. This year he administered the Sacrament of Baptism on 34 babies, 16 boys and 18 girls.

In his brief, off-the-cuff homily, the Pope told parents that in baptizing their children, they are making the “first step” in the task of transmitting the faith.

“We need the Holy Spirit to transmit the faith, or else we can’t do it,” he said, adding that to transmit the faith “is a grace of the Holy Spirit.”

However, even with the grace of the Holy Spirit, Francis stressed that truly transmitting the faith to one’s children “can only be done in love; in the love of the family, of the father and mother, grandmother and grandfather.”

Catechists come later in life to help in transmitting the faith with “ideas and explanations,” he said, but told parents “don’t forget this: have love.”

He also told parents to be childlike in their own prayer, saying children communicate in the only way they can, but “it’s the language Jesus likes a lot.”

“Jesus advises us to be like them, to speak like them. May your prayers be simple like children,” he said, telling parents that in their own prayer, “say it in your heart like they do” when they cry, and “the Lord will teach you how to be like them, how to speak to them.”

Francis closed his homily telling mothers that if the babies cry and “start to have a concert” because they are uncomfortable or hungry, to breastfeed them without fear or hesitation if it is the latter, “because this is also a language of love.”

After celebrating Mass, the Pope will then make his way to the Apostolic Palace, where he will lead pilgrims in the traditional Angelus prayer, as he does every Sunday.

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Vatican City, Jan 6, 2018 / 02:58 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis marked the Feast of the Epiphany Saturday by encouraging faithful to imitate the actions of the Magi, who weren’t attached to worldly comforts, but were willing to go out and take risks in order to find Jesus.

“Setting out, the second thing the Magi do, is essential if we are to find Jesus,” the Pope said Jan. 6, on the Feast of the Epiphany.

“His star demands a decision to take up the journey and to advance tirelessly on our way,” he said. “It demands that we free ourselves from useless burdens and unnecessary extras that only prove a hindrance, and accept unforeseen obstacles along the map of life.”

Jesus, the Pope said, allows himself to be found by those who are looking for him, however, in order to find him ourselves, “we need to get up and go, not sit around but take risks, not stand still, but set out.”

“Jesus makes demands: he tells those who seek him to leave behind the armchair of worldly comforts and the reassuring warmth of hearth and home.”

Francis noted that “setting out” isn’t always easy, as can be seen by various characters in the Gospel, including Herod, who organized meetings and sent people to gather information about the royal birth that had been prophesied, but himself “does not budge; he stays locked up in his palace.”

Even the priests and scribes, who had the ancient texts and knew the prophesy, were able to tell Herod exactly where to go, yet made no move themselves.

Their temptation, Francis said, is the same as those who have grown accustomed to being believers: “they can talk at length about the faith they know so well, but will not take a personal risk for the Lord.”

“The Magi, on the other hand, talk little and journey much,” he said. “Ignorant of the truths of faith, they are filled with longing and set out. So the Gospel tells us: they ‘came to worship him,’ ‘they set out; they went in, and fell down and worshiped him; they went back.’ They kept moving.”

Pope Francis spoke during Mass for the Feast of the Epiphany, which he celebrated inside St. Peter’s Basilica. In his homily, the Pope focused on three key actions carried out by the Magi in the day’s Gospel: they first saw the star, they set out to follow it, and they then bring gifts to the infant Jesus.

Questioning whether anyone else saw the star that night, Francis observed that “few people raised their eyes to heaven.”

“We often make do with looking at the ground: it’s enough to have our health, a little money and a bit of entertainment,” he said, and wondered aloud if people still dream or long for God and the newness that he brings.

He also asked why, if the star was so bright, no one else had followed it. “Perhaps because the star was not eye-catching, did not shine any brighter than other stars,” he said, noting that Jesus’ star “does not dazzle or overwhelm, but gently invites.”

Asking those present which star they have chosen to follow, Francis noted that some of the stars we choose are bright, but don’t point the way.

“So it is with success, money, career, honors and pleasures when these become our life,” he said, calling them meteors that “blaze momentarily,” but quickly burn out and fade away.

“The Lord’s star, however, may not always overwhelm by its brightness, but it is always there: it takes you by the hand in life and accompanies you. It does not promise material reward, but ensures peace and grants, as it did to the Magi, ‘exceedingly great joy.’”

After seeing the star, the Magi then set out and follow it to Bethlehem, he said, explaining that to do so meant taking a risk, which we are all required to do if we want to find Jesus.

“Following Jesus is not a polite etiquette to be observed, but a journey to be undertaken,” he said, adding that if we ourselves want to find Jesus, “we have to overcome our fear of taking risks, our self-satisfaction and our indolent refusal to ask anything more of life.”

Pope Francis then noted how when the Magi they arrived to Bethlehem, they offered Jesus gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh, saying the Gospel “becomes real when the journey of life ends in giving.”

“To give freely, for the Lord’s sake, without expecting anything in return: this is the sure sign that we have found Jesus,” he said. “To do good without counting the cost, even when unasked, even when you gain nothing thereby, even if it is unpleasant. That is what God wants.”

Jesus, who became small and vulnerable for our sake, also asks us to offer something to “the least of our brothers and sisters,” he said, explaining that these are the people who have nothing to give in return, such as the hungry, the needy, the prisoner, the sick and the stranger.

“We give a gift pleasing to Jesus when we care for a sick person, spend time with a difficult person, help someone for the sake of helping, or forgive someone who has hurt us,” he said, stressing that “these are gifts freely given, and they cannot be lacking in the lives of Christians.”

Francis closed his homily urging those present to look at their hands, which are “so often empty of love,” and to think of a free gift they can give without expecting anything in return. This, he said, “will please the Lord.”

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Vatican City, Jan 5, 2018 / 07:14 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis has kicked off the new year by shedding light on the plight of persecuted religious minorities in Asia, asking that Catholics join him in praying for these people and for religious freedom in their countries.

The video, released Jan. 5, opens by showing images of different scenery and people in Asia as the Pope, speaking in his native Spanish, says that “in the vastly diversified cultural world of Asia, the Church faces many risks and her task is made more difficult by the fact of her being a minority.”

These risks and challenges, he said, “are shared with other minority religious traditions, with whom we share a desire for wisdom, truth and holiness.”

Images of people from various religious confessions praying and lighting incense are then shown, and chains are placed around their hands.

“When we think of those who are persecuted for their religion, we go beyond differences of rite or confession; we place ourselves on the side of the men and women who fight to avoid renouncing their religious identity,” the Pope said, as the chains are broken.

He closed the video asking faithful to join him in praying “for all of them, so that Christians, and other religious minorities in Asian countries, may be able to practice their faith in full freedom.”

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The Pope’s video for January is the second one in three months to focus on Asia, which holds a special place in his heart.

In his November 2017 video, which which highlighted the diverse ethnic and religious background of the Asian continent, Francis prayed for the Church in Asia, which despite the various challenges associated with being a minority, continues to be a source of peace and dialogue between religions.

Between the two videos dedicated to Asia, the Pope made Nov. 27 – Dec. 2 pastoral visit to Burma and Bangladesh, both of which have small minority Catholic populations.

In Bangladesh less than three percent of the population is Catholic, and in Burma it’s less than one percent. In addition to being a minority, the Church in these countries is also composed of people from a variety of ethnic minority backgrounds.

The visit to Burma, also called Myanmar, and Bangladesh, marked the Pope’s third tour of Asia, the first being a visit to South Korea in 2014, and the second a trip to Sri Lanka and the Philippines in 2015.

January’s video, then, is yet another expression of the Pope’s interest and concern for Asia, where the Church is rapidly growing in spite of difficulties.

An initiative of the Jesuit-run global prayer network Apostleship of Prayer, the Pope’s prayer videos are filmed in collaboration with the Vatican Television Center and mark the first time the Roman Pontiff’s monthly prayer intentions have been featured on video.

The Apostleship of Prayer, which produces the monthly videos on the Pope’s intentions, was founded by Jesuit seminarians in France in 1884 to encourage Christians to serve God and others through prayer, particularly for the needs of the Church.

Since the late 1800s, the organization has received a monthly, universal intention from the Pope. In 1929, an additional missionary intention was added by the Holy Father, aimed at the faithful in particular.

However, as of last year rather than including a missionary intention, Pope Francis opted to have only one prepared prayer intention – the universal intention featured in the prayer video – and will add a second intention for an urgent or immediate need should one arise.

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Vatican City, Jan 5, 2018 / 06:14 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On Friday Pope Francis said education is a family matter, and rather than contradicting one another, parents and teachers must collaborate openly and constructively to form children in core values which enable them to face modern challenges.

Speaking of the relationship between education and the family, the Pope said “everyone knows that this relationship has been in crisis for some time, and in certain cases is completely broken.”

At one point there was a mutual reinforcement between the instructions given by teachers and those given by the parents, however, “today the situation has changed.”

“But we cannot be nostalgic for the past,” Pope Francis said. Rather, we must make careful note of the changes that have affected both the family and schools, and renew our commitment “for a constructive collaboration for the good of children and young people.”

If this synergy no longer occurs in a “natural way,” he said it must be promoted with a planning approach, and if necessary with the contribution of experts in the educational field.

To do this, he stressed the need for “a new ‘complicity’ between teachers and parents. Above all to renounce thinking like opposing fronts, blaming each other.”

On the contrary, parents and teachers must put themselves in the shoes of the other, “understanding the objective difficulties that one and the other encounter today in education, thus creating greater solidarity.”

Pope Francis spoke to members of the Italian Association of Catholic Teachers at the conclusion of their national congress, which took place Jan. 3-5 in Rome.

He has stressed the importance of the relationship between parents and their children’s teachers before, using examples from his own past experience to drive the point home.

In his speech Friday, Francis also touched on the importance of building a culture of encounter from a young age and spoke of the need for a more solid education in ecology.

He encouraged those present to strive to build a culture of encounter in “an even more extensive and incisive way” than has been done in the past.

This “cultural challenge” is the basis for primary education, when children are still young, he said, explaining that Christian teachers, whether they are in Catholic or state-run schools, “are called to stimulate in the students an openness to the other as a face, as a person, as a brother and sister to know and respect with their story, with their merits and defects, their richness and limits.”

Francis said this also means forming youth who are open to an interested in the reality around them, who are capable of tenderness and free from the “widespread prejudice” which insists that to be worth something, “you must be competitive, aggressive, harsh toward others, especially toward those who are different,  a stranger or whoever in any way is seen as an obstacle to their own affirmation.”

Unfortunately, this is “the air” that children often breathe, he said, adding that the remedy is to make it so that they can breathe “a different air which is healthier, more human.”

To accomplish this, the relationship between teachers and parents “is very important,” he said.

Pope Francis also pointed to what he sees as the need for a greater ecological education, which he said doesn’t consist of just a few notions that are taught in the classroom, but instead means educating students in a lifestyle based on care for creation and the common home.

He stressed the need for “a lifestyle that is not schizophrenic,” such as that lived by those who care about animals going extinct but ignore the problems faced by the elderly, or those who defend the Amazon forest but neglect workers’ right to a just salary.

“The ecology in which to educate must be integral,” he said, adding that all education “must point to the sense of responsibility: not to transmit slogans that others should implement, but to rouse the taste of experiencing an ecological ethic starting from everyday choices and actions.”

Francis also touched on the importance of making and being part of associations, saying they are a value that shouldn’t be underestimated, but must rather be continually cultivated.

“I urge you to renew your will to be and make associations in the memory of the inspiring principles, in reading the signs of the times and with a gaze open to the social and cultural horizon,” he said, and told participants not to be afraid of the challenges and even conflicts that can often arise in lay associations.

Rather than being hidden, these differences must be confronted “with an evangelic style in search of the true good of the association,” he said, explaining that to be an association “is a value and a responsibility, which right now is entrusted to you.”

Pope Francis closed his speech thanking the participants for their presence and their work, and asked for their prayers.

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Vatican City, Jan 4, 2018 / 05:28 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On Thursday Pope Francis offered his prayer for the 48 people who died in a gruesome bus accident in Pasamayo earlier this week, voicing words of comfort to families of the victims and all who were wounded.

In a Jan. 4 telegram, the Pope said he was “deeply saddened to learn of the painful news of the traffic accident in Pasamayo,” and offered prayers “for the eternal repose of the deceased.”

Signed by Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the telegram conveyed Pope Francis’ consolation “to the families who weep for such a grievous loss,” and assured of his his spiritual closeness to the wounded.

The telegram closed asking that God would “pour out on all the gifts of spiritual serenity and Christian hope,” and imparting Francis’ “heartfelt apostolic blessing” to all those who are affected.

It comes after at least 48 people were killed when a bus collided with a tractor-trailer on a narrow road along Peru’s coast Tuesday.

In the accident, which took place in the Peruvian city of Pasamayo, about 43 miles north of Lima, the bus plunged form the highway onto the rocks below, killing the majority of the 57 passengers on board.

Due to its proximity to the cliff and the heavy fog that frequently shrouds visibility, the stretch of highway where the accident happened is often called “the Devil’s Curve.”

Numerous people have died in previous accidents on that stretch of highway. In 2015 some 37 people died in an accident involving three buses and a truck, and in 2013 at least 51 of Peru’s Quechua indigenous people died when their bus fell from the cliff into a river.

According to the Washington Post, only six people survived Tuesday’s incident, and three are still missing.

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Vatican City, Jan 3, 2018 / 07:00 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- One of the Church’s great media missionaries of the 20th century, Fr. Piero Gheddo, died last month at the age of 88. Gheddo died on Dec. 20, after more than half a century of work in Catholi… […]

Astana, Kazakhstan, Jan 2, 2018 / 12:42 pm (CNA).- Three Kazakhstani bishops signed a statement on Sunday confirming that it is not licit to admit to sacramental communion Catholics who are divorced and illictly remarried, if they are not living according to the long-standing teachings of the Church.

The statement was released in response to norms issued by several groups of bishops since the promulgation of Amoris laetitia.

“It is not licit (non licet) to justify, approve, or legitimize either directly or indirectly divorce and a non-conjugal stable sexual relationship through the sacramental discipline of the admission of so-called ‘divorced and remarried’ to Holy Communion, in this case a discipline alien to the entire Tradition of the Catholic and Apostolic faith,” read the Dec. 31, 2017 letter of the bishops.

“By making this public profession before our conscience and before God who will judge us, we are sincerely convinced that we have provided a service of charity in truth to the Church of our day and to the Supreme Pontiff, Successor of Saint Peter and Vicar of Christ on earth.”

The statement was signed by Archbishop Tomash Peta of Maria Santissima in Astana; his auxiliary, Bishop Athanasius Schneider; and Archbishop Jan Pawel Lenga, Archbishop Emeritus of Karaganda.

It comes nearly a year after the same bishops issued an appeal to prayer that Pope Francis would confirm the Church’s constant practice regarding the indissolubility of marriage.

The three bishops noted that some bishops around the world – such as those of Malta and Sicily – have issued norms allowing for the divorced-and-remarried who have a living spouse yet who are in “stable cohabitation more uxorio” with a third person to “receive the sacrament of Penance and Holy Communion, while continuing to live habitually and intentionally more uxorio with a person who is not their legitimate spouse.”  Those norms have qualified that such permissions are limited to individual cases, at the discretion of a confessor, pastor, or bishop.

More uxorio, which means “in the mode of marriage,” refers in this context to cohabitation and a sexual relationship between those who are not validly married.  

“These pastoral norms have received approval from various hierarchical authorities. Some of these norms have received approval even from the supreme authority of the Church,” they noted. Pope Francis had, in 2016, sent a letter approving of norms from the bishops of the Buenos Aires region of Argentina, which seemed to permit reception of holy communion in particular cases.

The Pope’s letter, and the Buenos Aires norms, were then promulgated in the Acta Apostolicae Sedis, a fact made known last month.

“The spread of these ecclesiastically approved pastoral norms has caused a considerable and ever increasing confusion among the faithful and the clergy, a confusion that touches the central manifestations of the life of the Church, such as sacramental marriage with the family, the domestic church, and the sacrament of the Most Holy Eucharist,” the Kazakh bishops stated.

They said that to admit the divorced-and-remarried to Communion “means in practice a way of approving or legitimizing divorce, and in this meaning a kind of introduction of divorce in the life of the Church.”

Such pastoral norms “are revealed in practice and in time” as a way of spreading the “plague of divorce”, they said, quoting from the Second Vatican Council’s pastoral constitution on the Church in the modern world, Gaudium et spes.

The bishops maintained that the Church should be, rather, “a bulwark and an unmistakable sign of contradiction against the plague of divorce … because of her unconditional fidelity to the doctrine of Christ.”

“An approval or legitimation of the violation of the sacredness of the marriage bond, even indirectly through the mentioned new sacramental discipline, seriously contradicts God’s express will and His commandment,” the Kazakh bishops wrote.

They stated that sexual acts between those who are not married are “always contrary to God’s will and constitute a grave offense”’ and that no circumstance, including diminished guilt, can make such a sexual relationship “a positive moral reality.”

The bishops also emphasized that although the Church cannot judge the internal state of grace of any person, sacramental discipline is not based on this but on their “visible and objective situation”; and that is it morally illicit “to engage in sexual relations with a person who is not one’s legitimate spouse supposedly to avoid another sin.”

They also affirmed that the divorced-and-remarried may be admitted to Communion “only when they with the help of God’s grace and a patient and individual pastoral accompaniment make a sincere intention to cease from now on the habit of such sexual relations and to avoid scandal. It is in this way that true discernment and authentic pastoral accompaniment were always expressed in the Church.”

Furthermore, they said that those who violate their marriage bond with their legitimate spouse may not participate in Communion, and that “the fulfillment of God’s will … constitutes the true spiritual good of the people here on earth and will lead them to the true joy of love in the salvation of eternal life.”

The bishops called the recently proposed pastoral norms “a substantial alteration” of the Church’s 2,000 year discipline, and added: “a substantially altered discipline will eventually lead to an alteration in the corresponding doctrine.”

“The constant Magisterium of the Church … has preserved and faithfully transmitted both in the doctrine (in theory) and in the sacramental discipline (in practice) in an unequivocal way, without any shadow of doubt and always in the same sense and in the same meaning (eodem sensu eademque sententia), the crystalline teaching of Christ concerning the indissolubility of marriage.”

The bishops said that the indissolubility of a ratified and consummated marriage is “the revealed word of God and the faith of the Church,” and that sacramental discipline cannot contradict this, “because of its Divinely established nature.”

The faith naturally “excludes a formal contradiction between the faith professed on the one hand and the life and practice of the sacraments on the other,” they said, citing Vatican II and the writings of St. John Paul II.

“In view of the vital importance that the doctrine and discipline of marriage and the Eucharist constitute, the Church is obliged to speak with the same voice. The pastoral norms regarding the indissolubility of marriage must not, therefore, be contradicted between one diocese and another, between one country and another,” they added, citing St. Irenaeus of Lyons and St. Thomas Aquinas.

The bishops provided ample citations for the existing teaching and practice regarding the indissolubility of marriage, including Bl. Pius IX, Ven. Pius XII, Bl. Paul VI, St. John Paul II, and the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts.

“As Catholic bishops, who … must defend the unity of faith and the common discipline of the Church, and take care that the light of the full truth should arise for all men we are forced in conscience to profess in the face of the current rampant confusion the unchanging truth and the equally immutable sacramental discipline regarding the indissolubility of marriage according to the bimillennial and unaltered teaching of the Magisterium of the Church,” they wrote.

“Being bishops in the pastoral office those, who promote the Catholic and Apostolic faith, we are aware of this grave responsibility and our duty before the faithful who await from us a public and unequivocal profession of the truth and the immutable discipline of the Church regarding the indissolubility of marriage. For this reason we are not allowed to be silent,” stated the Kazakh bishops.

They made their affirmation in the spirit of Ss. John the Baptist, John Fisher, and Thomas More, who were martyred for upholding the indissolubility of marriage, and of Bl. Laura Vicuna, who offered her life for the conversion of her mother, who was living in concubinage.

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Vatican City, Jan 1, 2018 / 03:55 am (CNA/EWTN News).- At the start of the new year, Pope Francis said that having a devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary isn’t just something that is nice or good to do, but is an obligation in the life of a Christ… […]