This morning, Pope Francis celebrated Mass for some 7,000 poor people in St. Peter’s Basilica, on the first World Day of the Poor.
Afterwards, he joined 1,500 of those who attended Mass for lunch in the Vatican’s audience hall, while the remaining thousands were given lunch in communities across the city, including at the North American College in Rome.
St. Peter’s Basilica has hosted many great events but never one entirely dedicated to the poor. At the end of the Jubilee of Mercy, Pope Francis decreed that every year, near the end of the church’s liturgical year, a World Day of the Poor is to be celebrated in dioceses and churches across the world, because “the poor are at the heart of the Gospel.”
“If in the eyes of the world the poor have little value, they are the ones who open to us the way to heaven; they are our passport to paradise,” Pope Francis said in his homily. “In the poor, we find the presence of Jesus, who, though rich, became poor for us.”
In the poor, we find the presence of Jesus, who, though rich, became poor for us.
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The Mass was attended by poor people from Italy, France, Spain, Germany, Poland as well as migrants and refugees from across the world. Tony, a refugee from Syria, read one of the readings at Mass, while a Brazilian and Peruvian, who are being assisted by scholarships, read two of the prayers of the faithful.
Twelve minors, some of them migrants, served at the Mass, while a family living in precarious conditions, with a one-year-old daughter with cystic fibrosis, brought up the gifts at the offertory. At the offertory, a charitable organization which provides bread for the poor every day, brought up a quantity of bread, which was eaten later at lunch with the pope.
Francis expressed “joy” at celebrating the Eucharist—“the food for life’s journey”—with these attendees. “All of us, none excluded, need this,” he said. “For all of us are beggars when it comes to what is essential: God’s love, which gives meaning to our lives and a life without end.”
Later, commenting on the Gospel story of “the talents,” Pope Francis said: “Let us realize this: We do have talents; in God’s eyes, we are ‘talented.’ Consequently, no one can think that he or she is useless, so poor as to be incapable of giving something to others.”
He told his audience that “God, in whose eyes no child can be neglected, entrusts to each of us a mission.” He gives us talents “to use wisely” and bear fruit. The pope explained that the Gospel tells us the master “was displeased” with the one who did not use his talent but hid it under the ground—“his evil was that of failing to do good.”
A man puts a bandanna on Pope Francis as he arrives to eat lunch with the poor in the Paul VI hall after celebrating Mass marking the first World Day of the Poor at the Vatican Nov. 19. Some 1,200 poor people joined the pope for the meal. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)
The Gospel tells us that “the one who adds new talents is truly ‘faithful’ because he sees things as God does,” said the pope. “He does not stand still, but instead, out of love, takes risks. He puts his life on the line for others; he is not content to keep things as they are. One thing alone does he overlook: his own interest. That is the only right ‘omission.’”
Pope Francis declared that “omission is also the great sin where the poor are concerned” and it is called “indifference.”
“It is when we say, ‘That doesn’t regard me; it’s not my business; it’s society’s problem.’ It is when we turn away from a brother or sister in need, when we change channels as soon as a disturbing question comes up, when we grow indignant at evil but do nothing about it. God will not ask us if we felt righteous indignation, but whether we did some good.”
“We please God,” the pope said, by showing love to “the hungry and the sick, the stranger and the prisoner, the poor and the abandoned, the suffering who receive no help, the needy who are cast aside. On their faces we can imagine seeing Jesus’ own face; on their lips, even if pursed in pain, we can hear his words: ‘This is my body.’”
Pope Francis told his worldwide congregation, “In the poor, Jesus knocks on the doors of our heart, thirsting for our love. When we overcome our indifference, and in the name of Jesus we give of ourselves for the least of his brethren, we are his good and faithful friends, with whom he loves to dwell.”
“We see true goodness and strength: not in closed fists and crossed arms, but in ready hands outstretched to the poor, to the wounded flesh of the Lord. There, in the poor, we find the presence of Jesus. For us it is an evangelical duty to care for them, as our real riches, and to do so not only by giving them bread, but also by breaking with them the bread of God’s word, which is addressed first to them.
To love the poor means to combat all forms of poverty, spiritual and material.
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“To love the poor means to combat all forms of poverty, spiritual and material. And it will also do us good. Drawing near to the poor in our midst will touch our lives. It will remind us of what really counts: to love God and our neighbor. Only this lasts forever, everything else passes away.”
Greeting tens of thousands of pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square after Mass, Francis recalled that Blessed Solanus Casey, O.F.M., was beatified in Detroit yesterday. Of Father Casey he said: “He was a humble and faithful disciple of Jesus, and he distinguished himself by his tireless service to the poor.” Francis prayed that his witness may help priests, religious and lay people “to live with joy the bond between announcement of the Gospel and love of the poor,” as has happened in Rome and in dioceses around the world today.
He concluded with these words: “I hope that the poor will always be at the center of our communities, not only on occasions like this, but always, because they are in the heart of the Gospel, and in them we meet Jesus who speaks to us and appeals to us through their sufferings and their needs.”
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Taken from: https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2017/11/19/pope-francis-indifference-poor-great-sin
A-List actor Jeremy Irons from the latest Batman movie recently went out of his way to slam abortion in an interview.
Influential entertainment figures have tended to rush to US abortion giant Planned Parenthood’s defence and it is therefore uncommon for celebrities to share even modest pro-life beliefs, which is why Irons’ statements drew such ire from abortion activists.
“I think the Church is right to say [abortion’s] a sin,” Irons said in his interview with The Guardian.
He continued, “Abortion harms a woman – it’s a tremendous mental attack, and physical, sometimes. But we seem to get that muddled. In a way, thank God the Catholic Church does say we won’t allow it, because otherwise nobody’s saying that it’s a sin.”
Popular feminist blog Jezebel called Irons a “stupid fartbag” for his anti-abortion statements, claiming they were out of touch.
Starwipe, an offshoot of the US satirical site The Onion, mocked outrage over his statements with an article Public Outraged That Jeremy Irons Holds Same View On Abortion As Half Of Congress. And more than half of Americans, too.
Irons did hold back and did not suggest that women should not be able to get an abortion altogether, but for the Tinseltown world of Hollywood his statement is rare.
Catholic Church leaders in Poland are working to restore protections for all unborn babies in the European nation.as Poland’s national faith for 1,050 years, the church bishops are urging legislators to pass a measure to ban all abortions, according to the Associated Press. The celebration is happening this week.
“In this jubilee year of Poland’s baptism, we urge all people of goodwill, believers and nonbelievers, to take action to ensure full legal protection of unborn lives,” the bishops said.
In Poland, abortion is legal in cases of rape, life or health of the mother or severe fetal deformities. A new citizen-lead measure would make abortion illegal except to save the mother’s life.
A few weeks ago, Catholic priests read a statement by the bishops in support of the bill. According to the Catholic news group The Tablet:
The bishops’ statement, read in churches on 3 April, said Poland’s 1993 law, which restricts abortions to cases of rape, incest, severe foetal damage or threats to a woman’s life, could not be sustained and should be replaced by a total ban.
“Catholics’ position on this is clear, and unchangeable. One needs to protect every person’s life from conception to natural death,” they said.
“We ask the lawmakers and the government to initiate the legislation.”
The pro-life measure already has received wide-spread support. Poland Prime Minister Beata Szydlo told Radio Poland that she supports the citizen bill, and Jaroslaw Kaczynski, leader of the ruling Law and Justice Party in Poland, said he plans to follow the Catholic leaders’ call to pass the measure. Last week, more than 100 Polish journalists also signed an open letter to the members of the parliament, supporting the ban and encouraging legislators to change the current law.
On December 12, police once again arrested well-known Canadian pro-life activist Mary Wagner as she attempted to plead with women at an abortion clinic to keep their babies.
If you are receiving this email, you may be from Canada, or from another Commonwealth country -- or even beyond. That's perfect.
We want to send a message of support and hope - not just to Mary - but to the whole world (especially Commonwealth countries), saying human life is sacred and precious, no matter where in the world its dignity is defended.
So, as we celebrate Advent, please remember Mary Wagner and sign our letter of encouragement to her in prison:
Mary Wagner went to the abortion clinic with pro-life literature and a bag full of red roses to give to women comtemplating abortion. She voluntarily submitted to arrest after choosing to continue counseling women at the clinic after being asked to leave. We don't know for sure, but Mary's actions may have convinced some women, who were scheduled to abort their children that morning, to change their minds.
When asked in the past why she has risked arrest to protect babies, Mary has answered: “People have often asked me if I could not simply stay outside the area I am forbidden to enter, and in that way, avoid arrest. But this question forgets something: the children scheduled to be killed will have no one to stand up for them. We will stop being present to them and to their mothers out of obedience to an immorally imposed restriction by those entrusted with authority.”
Thank you for taking time to write a letter to a peaceful pro-life activist who will spend the night in jail tonight. After signing the petition, please say a prayer for Mary Wagner and for the end of abortion in Canada and around the world!
Parishioners prepared: A Hobart parishioner holds a copy of the Australian Bishops’ pastoral letter on marriage, distributed in Hobart earlier this year
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Former minister moved in Senate that Catholic church should have right to distribute Don’t Mess with Marriage booklet.
A motion to protect the Catholic church’s right to distribute an anti-marriage equality booklet that marriage equality advocates have labelled “divisive” has been shot down by the Senate.
A former cabinet minister turned Coalition backbencher, Eric Abetz, put up the motion in the Senate on Thursday supporting the church’s pamphlet campaign.
The motion stated that: “The Senate, while not expressing a view on the contents of the booklet issued by the Australian Catholic bishops conference entitled Don’t Mess with Marriage, fully supports the rights of members of the Catholic church, including Archbishop Julian Porteous, to distribute it.”
It was brought on by Abetz with the support of a number of crossbenchers, including the independent senator John Madigan, Liberal Democrat David Leyonhjelm, Family First senator Bob Day, and Palmer United party’s Dio Wang.
Despite the crossbench support, Labor and the Greens joined forces to block the motion before it got put to a vote.
Abetz was scathing, saying that the two parties shut down the basic right of freedom of speech.
“Free speech is a key pillar of our society and the tricky tactics used by Labor in an effort to shut down debate and run a protection racket for the extreme Greens flies in the face of the open discussion we should be having about marriage,” he said.
“The motion firmly supports not only the right of the Catholic archbishop of Hobart and the Australian Catholic bishops conference but all Australians to engage in open discussion about the truth of marriage.
“I will continue to fight to uphold the institution of marriage and defend the right of people to speak up in defence of this vitally important societal institution.”
He promised to bring back the motion in the next sitting week.
The letter from Catholic bishops of Australia was distributed directly to Catholic schools earlier this year.
It said that only the union between a man and woman can make a person “whole”.
“Same-sex friendships are of a very different kind: to treat them as the same does a grave injustice to both kinds of friendship and ignores the particular values that real marriages serve,” it said.
“ ‘Messing with marriage’, therefore, is also ‘messing with kids’. It is gravely unjust to them. The principal ‘public’ significance of the marriage-based family is precisely in being the nursery for raising healthy, well-rounded, virtuous citizens.”
The Greens senator Robert Simms told Guardian Australia that the pamphlet promoted the idea that same-sex parents were “deficient”.
“I think it’s totally out of step with society,” he said. “It really does fan divisions in the community.”
The Tasmanian anti-discrimination commissioner is assessing a complaint on the booklet.
Labor senator Claire Moore said it was “simply not appropriate for the Senate to determine a position on this matter” while a case was being decided.
Abetz said the church’s right to “teach its flock” its beliefs on marriage were being “shut down” by organisations.
“Those who always hector us about tolerance show the most extreme intolerance,” he said, referring to the Greens. “It is vital that there be an expression from this Senate about the right of freedom to speech and the right to express certain views.”
Simms said: “The Australian Greens support free speech in this country, but we recognise that freedom of speech is a limited concept in any democracy.
“We believe that the right to express a view should be balanced against the rights of members of our community to feel safe and secure from persecution and discrimination.”
Abetz, from the conservative right of the Liberal party, has fought hard for the Parliament to retain the existing definition of marriage, which states that it is exclusively between a man and a woman.
The Coalition has pledged to hold a public poll on marriage equality after the next federal election, although whether or not the result of the plebiscite will be binding on parliamentarians has not yet been settled.
ROME — Pope Francis on Wednesday called on the world’s religions to join forces in the fight against fundamentalism and extremism, arguing instead for a focus on “positive values” such as the promotion of peace, care for the poor, and environmental protection.
The pontiff was speaking to a delegation of Jews, Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists on hand for an event marking the 50th anniversary of a landmark document from the Second Vatican Council on interfaith relations.
“An attitude of suspicion or condemnation of religion has spread due to violence and terrorism,” Pope Francis told the religious leaders.
Given that, he said, it’s necessary to focus on the positive values that religions espouse.
“The world looks at us believers, exhorting us to cooperate with each other and with men and women of good will who don’t profess any religion,” he said, “asking us to provide an answer on many issues.”
Francis’ appeal came during his weekly audience as he celebrated the anniversary ofNostra Aetate(“In Our Time”), a 1,600-word declaration from Vatican II that represented a turning point in relations between the Catholic Church and other religions, particularly Judaism.
“The real and proper transformation that took place in the last 50 years regarding the relations between Christians and Hebrews deserves a special thanks to God,” Francis said.
“Indifference and opposition have changed into collaboration and benevolence,” he said. “From enemies and strangers, we’ve become friends and brothers.”
According to the pontiff, whose two closest friends from Argentina are Jewish Rabbi Abraham Skorka and Islamic leader Omar Abboud, the declaration marked the path of rediscovering the Hebrew roots Christianity has, saying “no” to every form of anti-Semitism, and “condemning every insult, discrimination, and persecution.”
Francis also said the declaration was “an expression of the Church’s esteem for followers of other religious traditions, and [of] her openness to dialogue in the service of understanding and friendship.”
The pope concluded by saying that the future of interreligious dialogue rests in prayer.
“Without the Lord, nothing is possible,” he said. “With him, all becomes possible.”
“May our prayer adhere fully to the will of God,” Francis added, “who desired that all men and women recognize themselves as brothers and sisters, and live as such, forming a human family that lives in the harmony of diversity.”
After the audience, leaders from the main religions present held a press conference, hailing Nostra Aetate as a historic document.
Abdellah Redouane, director of the Islamic Cultural Center of Italy, said it had opened the doors of dialogue and cooperation.
Rabbi David Rosen, Director of the American Jewish Committee’s Department of Interreligious Affairs said Nostra Aetate brought an “amazing transformation” of Jewish/Catholic relations, which he argued was a success because it also addressed relations with other religions.
“A relation with Judaism is intrinsic to the very nature of the Church,” Rosen said. “In God’s mysterious wisdom, this revolution could only succeed with the Church addressing relations with all other religions.”
The message of Nostra Aetate, Rosen said, is that “there’s no relationship, no matter how bad and how poisonous, that cannot be transformed and made into a blessed one.”
The leaders also had words of praise for the Argentine pontiff.
“Pope Francis is a leader for all believers,” Muslim leader Rasoul Rasoulipour told journalists on Wednesday.
“His leadership is a revolution for all religious leaders,” Rasoulipour said. “How much is he a humble leader is a key point.”
Fox News commentator announces that she’s becoming Catholic.
Bob Smietana
[posted 10/9/2015 06:51PM ]
Fox News’ highly reluctant Jesus follower has found a new church.
Kirsten Powers, USA Today columnist and contributor to Fox News, announced her decision on a live broadcast of “The Five.”
“Tomorrow night at 7 o’clock, I'm becoming Catholic!” she told viewers.
Powers, who grew up in the Episcopal Church, became an evangelical about 9 years ago, after attending Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York. Listening to Tim Keller preach opened the door for her to believe in God.
“I came to realize that even if Christianity wasn't the real thing, neither was atheism,” she wrote in a 2013 testimony for CT. “I began to read the Bible. My boyfriend would pray with me for God to reveal himself to me.”
For a while, Powers felt no connection to God. That changed during an overseas trip, where Powers said Jesus spoke to her. Eventually she joined a Bible study, an experience that changed her life.
“I'll never forget standing outside that apartment on the Upper East Side and saying to myself, ‘It’s true. It's completely true,’” she wrote it 2013. “The world looked entirely different, like a veil had been lifted off it. I had not an iota of doubt. I was filled with indescribable joy.”
Powers gave few details about her decision to become Catholic. She did thank Father Jonathan Morris, pastor of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church in the Bronx, on Twitter.
More than 100,000 adults a year join the Catholic Church, according to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) at Georgetown University. Seven percent of Catholics and 11 percent of mass attenders are converts, according to CARA, and those converts are among the most active Catholics.
Overall, about half of Americans say they have a “close connection” to the Catholic Church, according to a September 2015 Pew Research Report. One in 10 (9%) are former Catholics.
(Vatican Radio) God does not abandon the righteous, while those who sow evil are like strangers, whose names heaven remembers not. This is the lesson Pope Francis drew from the readings of the day at Mass Thursday morning in the chapel of the Casa Santa Marta in the Vatican.
Click below to hear our report
A courageous young mother with a husband and three children – and a tumor – “one of the ugly ones” – that keeps her nailed to her bed. “Why?” An elderly woman, prayerfully pious in her heart, whose son was murdered by the Mafia.
Why do good things happen to bad people?
Pope Francis on Thursday used this perennial query of the heart that loves good and desires to know God’s plan, as the way into the mystery of iniquity and its relation to God’s providence, justice and mercy. Drawing on the reading from the prophet, Malachi, in which the Lord rebukes the people, saying, “You have defied me in word, says the LORD, yet you ask, ‘What have we spoken against you?’ You have said, ‘It is vain to serve God, and what do we profit by keeping his command, and going about in penitential dress in awe of the LORD of hosts? Rather must we call the proud blessed; for indeed evildoers prosper, and even tempt God with impunity,’” Pope Francis said:
“How many times do we see this reality in bad people, in people who do evil, and seem to do well in life: they are happy, they have everything they want, they want for nothing. Why Lord? This is one of the many questions we have. Why does this brazen evildoer who cares nothing for God nor for neighbor, who is an unjust person – even mean – and things go well in his whole life, he has everything he wants, while we, who want to do good, have so many problems?”
The Lord watches over the righteous
Pope Francis discovered the answer in the responsorial Psalm – Psalm 1 – which proclaims, “Blessed the man who follows not the counsel of the wicked Nor walks in the way of sinners, nor sits in the company of the insolent, But delights in the law of the LORD.” Pope Francis went on to say:
“Now we do not see the fruits of this suffering people, this people carrying the cross, as on that Good Friday and Holy Saturday the fruits of the crucified Son of God, the fruits of His sufferings were yet to be seen: and whatever He does, turns out well; and what does the Psalm say of the wicked, of those for whom we think everything is going fine? ‘Not so the wicked, not so; they are like chaff which the wind drives away. For the LORD watches over the way of the just, but the way of the wicked vanishes.’”
Only an adjective
This ruin, this scattering and oblivion, which is the end of the wicked, is one Pope Francis found dramatically and emphatically stressed in the Gospel parable of Lazarus – the symbol of misery with no escape, to whom the rich reveler refused even the scraps from his table:
“It is curious: that [rich] man’s name is never spoken. He is just an adjective: he is a rich man (It. ricco, Gr. πλούσιος). Of the wicked, in God’s record book, there is no name: he is an evil one, a con man, a pimp ... They have no name. They only have adjectives. All those, who try to go on the way of the Lord, will rather be with His Son, who has the name: Jesus Saviour. It is a name that is difficult to understand, inexplicable for the trial of the Cross and for all that He suffered for us.”
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has warned against having a hard heart that is closed to God’s mercy.
Speaking on Tuesday morning during Mass at the Casa Santa Marta before joining the Synod Fathers gathered in the Vatican Synod Hall, the Pope urged the faithful not to put one’s own convictions or a list of commandments before the Lord’s mercy.
Drawing inspiration from the first reading of the Book of Jonah, the Pope pointed out that Jonah is initially resistant to God’s will, but eventually learns that he must obey the Lord.
Remarking on the fact that the city of Nineveh converts thanks to Jonah’s preaching, Pope Francis said “it really was a miracle, because in this case he abandons his stubbornness, his rigidity, to obey the will of God, and he did what the Lord commanded him.”
And afterwards, the Pope said, after the conversion of Nineveh, Jonah “who was not a man who was docile to the Spirit of God, was angry”. The Pope said he even rebuked the Lord.
So, Pope Francis observed, the story of Jonah and Nineveh unfolds in three chapters: the first “is Jonah’s resistance to the mission the Lord entrusts him with”; the second “is his obedience” and the ensuing miracle; in the third chapter, “there is resistance to God’s mercy”.
The Pope went on to say that Jesus too was misunderstood because of his mercy.
He recalled that Jesus lived with the Doctors of the Law who did not understand why he did not let the adulteress be stoned, they did not understand why he dined with publicans and sinners, “they did not understand. They did not understand mercy”.
Pope Francis said that the Psalm that we prayed today tells us to “wait for the Lord because with the Lord there is mercy, and redemption.”
“Where the Lord is – Francis concluded – there is mercy”. And, he added, as Ambrose said: “Where his ministers are there is rigidity. The rigidity that defies mission, which challenges mercy “:
“As we approach the Year of Mercy, let us pray the Lord to help us understand his heart, to understand what ‘mercy’ means, what it means when He says: ‘I want mercy, not sacrifice!’” he said.
(CNS photo/L’Osservatore Romano)
(CNS photo/L’Osservatore Romano)
(Vatican Radio) God does not abandon the righteous, while those who sow evil are like strangers, whose names heaven remembers not. This is the lesson Pope Francis drew from the readings of the day at Mass Thursday morning in the chapel of the Casa Santa Marta in the Vatican.
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has warned against having a hard heart that is closed to God’s mercy.