VOLUME 2, ISSUE 2  •  FEBRUARY 20, 2016

Table of Contents

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VATICAN NEWS

Pope celebrates Our Lady of Guadalupe, confirms Mexico trip

What is Pope Francis going to say in Mexico about immigration?

Pope Francis: I want to help bring peace to Mexico

‘First in history’ – Pope Francis to meet Russian Patriarch in Cuba

Four reasons why Pope Francis will meet with Patriarch Kirill

Full text of joint declaration signed by Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill

‘We are brothers’ – Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill hold historic meeting

Pope Francis has a new book for kids

Full text of Pope Francis’ address to authorities, representatives of civil society, and diplomatic corps in Mexico City

Pope to Mexican leaders: Remember your young people

Full text of Pope Francis’ address to the bishops of Mexico

Pope Francis to Mexican bishops: Follow example of Our Lady of Guadalupe

Full text of Pope Francis’ homily at Mass in the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe

At Guadalupe Mass, Pope highlights Mary’s ‘yes’

Pope Francis prays before Our Lady of Guadalupe

The unscripted message of Pope Francis in Mexico

Full text of Pope Francis’ homily at Mass at the Study Center of Ecatepec

Don’t let the devil steal God’s dream for you, Pope Francis says in Ecatepec

Pope Francis in Mexico: Let gratitude to God shape your lives

Full text of Pope Francis’ address to the Federico Gómez children’s hospital

At a Mexico children’s hospital, Pope Francis prays with young patients

Full text of Pope Francis’ homily at Mass with representatives of the indigenous communities of Chiapas

Pope in Mexico: Don’t anesthetize the hope of your youth

Full text of Pope Francis’ remarks during meeting with families

Even wounded families are better than isolation, Pope Francis says

Full text of Pope Francis’ homily at Mass with priests, men and women religious, consecrated people, and seminarians

Resignation is from the devil, Pope warns Mexican priests, religious

Full text of Pope Francis’ address to young people

What Pope Francis told a stunningly large crowd of Mexican youth

Ten things you may have missed from the Pope’s visit to Chiapas

Did St. Therese of Lisieux send roses to Pope Francis in Mexico?

Full text of Pope Francis’ address to penitentiary inmates

Full text of Pope Francis’ address to labor leaders

No one is beyond God’s mercy, Pope tells inmates in Juarez

The moment when Pope Francis got angry in Mexico

How Pope Francis proposes to fight drug violence in Mexico

Full text of Pope Francis’ homily at final Mass in Mexico

Pope Francis’ grief at the U.S.-Mexico border

If Trump only builds walls he’s not Christian, Pope Francis says

Pope Francis: Abortion is evil, not the solution to Zika virus

Full text of Pope Francis’ in-flight interview from Mexico to Rome

What did Pope Francis actually say about contraception?

WORLD NEWS

Pilgrims beware! Mexican bishops warn against papal ticket scams

From a Mexican prison, a single mother will tell Pope Francis her story

After deadly prison riot in Mexico, archbishop asks for prayers

How millions of keys in Mexico are being used to honor Pope Francis

How a shoeshiner-turned-journalist touched the heart of Pope Francis

Our Lady of Guadalupe Basilica comes to Google street view

This little girl only has half a heart, but she’s full of joy for Pope Francis

U.S. NEWS

Pope Francis’ trip will include a U.S.-Mexico border Mass

Twitter is preparing for the Pope’s visit to Mexico

For Antonin Scalia, faith and work did not conflict

FEATURES

The astonishing secret history of the Pope who fought Hitler

A chat with Joseph Fiennes, star of historical thriller ‘Risen’

The Doritos commercial and the revival of voluntarism

Fasting and the Taste for God

SCRIPTURE READINGS

Sunday • February 21, 2016

Monday • February 22, 2016

Tuesday • February 23, 2016

Wednesday • February 24, 2016

Thursday • February 25, 2016

Friday • February 26, 2016

Saturday • February 27, 2016

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Volume 2, Issue 2 • February 20, 2016

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VATICAN NEWS

Pope celebrates Our Lady of Guadalupe, confirms Mexico trip

by Ann Schneible (CNA/EWTN News) • December 12, 2015

Pope Francis celebrates Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on Dec. 12, 2015. (Daniel Ibanez)

Vatican City — Pope Francis officially announced the date he would venerate the shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico during his homily for the Marian feast at the Vatican.

Speaking at the Dec. 12 Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica, the Pope said he will venerate the shrine on Feb. 13, 2016, where he will pray that Christian communities may be “oases and sources of mercy,” and a witness to charity “that does not allow exclusions.”

The Pope will travel to Mexico from Feb. 12-18, the Vatican announced Saturday. During a recent press briefing, Francis said his next trip would likely be to Mexico, although the details had not been finalized.

In his homily for Mass celebrated for the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Pope Francis asked for Mary’s intercession in cultivating mercy during this Jubilee year, and entrusting the sufferings and joys of the people of the Americas to her care.

“God delights and pleases especially in Mary,” the Pope said, speaking in his native Spanish. “She has experienced Divine mercy, and welcomed the very source of this mercy in her womb: Jesus Christ.”

“She who has always lived intimately united with her Son, knows better than anyone what he wants: that all men be saved, and God’s tenderness and consolation will not fail anyone.”

Pope Francis entrusted to Mary the “sufferings and joys of people throughout the Americas,” who love her as their mother, under the title of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

“We ask (Mary) that this jubilee year will be a cultivation of merciful love in the hearts of individuals, families, and nations.”

Pope Francis also appealed to Mary that “we may become merciful, and that Christian communities may be oases and sources of mercy, witnessed a charity that does not allow exclusions.”

“I beg her to guide the footsteps of the American people, a pilgrim people looking for the Mother of mercy, and ask her to reveal to us her Son, Jesus.”

Veneration of Our Lady of Guadalupe goes back to the 16th century, and surrounds a miraculous image of Mary left on a tilma, made from a piece of poor-quality cactus cloth.

As the story goes, a “Lady from Heaven” appeared to Saint Juan Diego, a poor Indian from Tepeyac, on a hill northwest of Mexico City. Over the course of a series of apparitions in 1531, the Woman, who identified herself as the Mother of the True God, instructed Juan Diego to have the bishop build a church on the site.

As a sign, the now-famous image of Our Lady of Guadalupe was imprinted miraculously on his tilma. Both the image and the tilma remain intact after more than 470 years.

Pope Francis centered much of his homily Saturday on God’s mercy toward sinners.

God’s loves us with “gratuitous love,” and expects nothing in return, the pontiff said. God’s merciful love, which is synthesized in the Gospel message and the faith of the Church, is his most “striking” attribute.

Pope Francis explained that the word “mercy” is derived from the words “misery” and “heart.”

“The heart indicates the capacity to love,” he said. “Mercy is love which embraces the misery of the human person. It is a love that ‘feels’ our poverty as its own.”

“The Word became flesh” out of a desire to share our frailties, the Pope said. “He wanted to experience our human condition, to carry upon the cross with all the pain of human existence.”

“Such is the depth of compassion and mercy,” the Pope said. There is no sin that can take away God’s “merciful closeness,” or prevent him “from unleashing the grace of conversion,” provided we ask for it, he noted.

Indeed, sin reveals the radiance of the love of God, who sacrificed his own Son in order to ransom the enslaved. Citing the words of St. Paul, who says “The Lord is near,” the Pope assured those present that there is no reason to worry.

“The greatest mercy lies in His being in our midst,” he said. “Walking with us, he shows us the path of love, lifts us up from our falls, sustains us in our weariness, accompanies us in all circumstances of our existence.”

The Pope cited Paul’s letter to the Philippians, which says “the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

“This is the source of our peaceful and happy life,” the Pope said. “Nothing can steal this peace and joy, despite the sufferings and trials of life.

In off-script remarks, the pontiff added: “The Lord, with his tenderness, opens us with his heart, opens us with his love. The Lord is allergic to rigidity.”

Pope Francis invited the faithful to cultivate this sense mercy, peace, and hope in the journey through the liturgical season of Advent, illuminated by the light of the recently-begun Jubilee of Mercy.

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VATICAN NEWS

What is Pope Francis going to say in Mexico about immigration?

by Elise Harris (CNA/EWTN News) • January 27, 2016

Pope Francis venerates an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe during a Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on Dec. 12, 2015. (Daniel Ibanez/CNA)

Vatican City — As Pope Francis’ weeklong visit to Mexico draws near, anticipation is building not just for the presence of the Successor of Peter, but also for how he will respond to hot-button topics such as immigration.

“There is a great joy and expectation for the trip of Pope Francis to Mexico. He is the first Latin American Pope, and the Mexican people feel very close to him,” Mariano Palacios Alcocer, Mexico’s ambassador to the Holy See, told CNA in an interview.

One of the most significant moments in the Pope’s trip, he said, will be on the last day when Francis celebrates a U.S.-Mexico border Mass in Ciudad Juárez. Set at Benito Juarez Stadium, near the border, the Mass is expected to draw hundreds of thousands of pilgrims from both countries.

“We consider that the theme of migration is an issue that is in the Pope’s agenda,” Alcocer said, explaining that for the Mexican people, the Pope’s visit to Lampedusa coupled by his constant appeals for migrants and those fleeing persecution is proof that his message is one of “respecting the human dignity of the emigrants and their families,” which the Vatican has always promoted.

He said that while the issue is close to the Roman Pontiff’s heart, Mexicans don’t expect him to give a lecture or to take a political line.

“For us the visit of the Pope is of purely pastoral character and should trigger in the different countries initiatives which are in favor of their citizens.”

Pope Francis is scheduled to visit Mexico Feb. 12-17, just over two weeks from now. In addition to visiting the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe, which he has said is the primary reason for the visit, Francis will also travel to the border U.S. border city Ciudad Juárez, as well as Chiapas, one of the poorest regions in the country.

He follows in the footsteps of his predecessors St. John Paul II, who visited Mexico a total of five times during his pontificate, as well as Benedict XVI, who traveled to the country in 2012.

Mexico, a majority Catholic country, will celebrate 24 years of full diplomatic relations with the Holy See in February. Out of the country’s 120 million citizens, 100 million belong to the Catholic Church. With 15 million of these citizens immigrating to the U.S., the Pope’s trip is extremely significant, Alcocer said.

In addition to immigration, the Pope is also expected to address other major topics for Mexico such as the issues indigenous people face, the role of the family, and youth.

Besides the Feb. 17 border Mass, other significant events in Ciudad Juárez will be the Pope’s visit to a prison and his meeting with workers the same day, the ambassador noted.

The visit to the prison, he said, “will be an exercise of mercy for people deprived of their liberty,” and noted that one of the unique qualities of Francis’ visit to Mexico is that it is the first trip he will make during the Holy Year of Mercy.

Francis’ meeting with workers will be an opportune time to address problems related to production, capital, employment and the economy, Alcocer said. The fact that the encounter will take place in Juárez makes it all the more significant, because it sits on “one of the most contrasted borders in the world” in terms of economic development.

“The most powerful economy in the world (sits) on one side of the Bravo River, and the world of development, or of countries on a path of development, on the other,” he said referring to the Rio Grande, which forms the border between the State of Texas and Mexico.

Another important part of the Pope’s trip will be his visit to Chiapas, which is one of the poorest regions in Mexico, the ambassador explained.

The visit is symbolic not only for its historical significance, but also due to the fact that it serves as a primary entry point for Central American immigrants, who come primarily from Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador.

Originally part of Guatemala, Chiapas annexed itself to Mexico in 1824 after the Federal Republic of Central America gained its independence from the First Mexican Empire. Chiapas therefore represents “the first exercise of direct democracy of the Latin American continent … this is a very important historical element,” Alcocer said.

Another important part of the Pope’s visit to the region is his meeting with families, which will take place Feb. 15.

“It’s very important that the national meeting of families also develops in Chiapas, because many of the Central American immigrants, and Mexican immigrants who have to go to the United States, have as a consequence the rupture of the familial nucleus,” he said.

The immigrants who come to Mexico from Central America frequently leave behind their families and board the long train known as “the beast,” which is a network of Mexican freight trains frequently used by U.S.-bound immigrants who want to pass through Mexico more quickly.

However, despite the gravity of issues surrounding immigration and the economy, Alcocer said the most fundamental aspect of the Pope’s trip is his visit to the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

Veneration of Our Lady of Guadalupe dates back to the 16th century, and surrounds a miraculous image of Mary left on a tilma, made from a piece of poor-quality cactus cloth.

It all started when a “Lady from Heaven” appeared to Saint Juan Diego, a poor Indian from Tepeyac, on a hill northwest of Mexico City. Over the course of a series of apparitions in 1531, the woman, who identified herself as the Mother of the True God, instructed Juan Diego to have the bishop build a church on the site.

As a sign, the now-famous image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, was imprinted miraculously on his tilma. Both the image and the tilma remain intact after more than 470 years.

“The Madonna of Guadalupe is the most prayed to advocate in the whole world,” the ambassador said, noting that the image is especially dear to the Mexican people, who have “a very deep popular piety.”

“The Madonna of Guadalupe is a sociological religious phenomenon that is so important that it actually attracts even non-Catholics or non-practicing Catholics who consider themselves ‘guadalupanos,’” or firm devotees of the devotion.

Mexican society as a whole has a high regard both for Our Lady of Guadalupe as well as for Pope Francis as a religious figure, Alcocer observed.

“This recognition of the fundamental role of the pontiff brings about great expectations of the visit of the Pope in Mexico,” he said, adding that “Mexico was the door to evangelization on the America continent.”

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VATICAN NEWS

Pope Francis: I want to help bring peace to Mexico

by Elise Harris (CNA/EWTN News) • February 3, 2016

Pope Francis at the general audience in St. Peter’s Square on Feb. 3, 2016. (Daniel Ibanez/CNA)

Vatican City — Pope Francis will leave for Mexico in just over a week. In a new interview with a Mexican news agency, he told citizens of the crime-ridden country that while there, he hopes to be a messenger of peace, which must be fought for daily.

“Violence, corruption, war, children who cannot go to school because of their countries at war, trafficking, arms manufacturers who sell weapons so that the wars in the world can continue.”

“More or less this is the climate in which we are living in the world today,” the Pope said in an interview with Mexican news agency Notimex State, published Feb. 3.

The interview marks the first time Pope Francis has participated in a collective interview, in which he responded to four questions posed by 33 people from various states across Mexico.

Francis recorded his answers to the questions, which were raised by some 16 women and 17 men, on Jan. 22, in his residence at the Vatican’s Saint Martha guesthouse.

Echoing the well-known prayer named after his patron, “The Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi,” the Pope said that “I would like to be an instrument of peace in Mexico,” but said that he won’t be able to do it alone.

“It is obvious that I cannot do it alone, it would be crazy if I said that, but with all of you, an instrument of peace,” he said, adding that peace is something that is “kneaded with your hands” every day through small gestures of charity.

“Peace is born from tenderness, peace is born from understanding, peace is born or made with dialogue, not in rupture,” he said, and emphasized the importance of dialogue in the various areas and environments of one’s life.

He also encouraged Mexico’s citizens to pray to Our Lady of Guadalupe, “Mexico’s mother,” for assistance in achieving peace in the country, which has been plagued by increasing violence and drug trafficking for years.

“I would ask each of you the question: do I ask the Virgin of Guadalupe, Mexico’s mother, Empress of America, do I ask her for peace? Do I ask her to make peace, in that place, in that person?” he asked.

The Pope said he’s going to pray to Our Lady of Guadalupe on behalf of Mexico’s citizens, “that she gives you peace of heart, of family, of city and of country.”

Pope Francis is scheduled to visit Mexico from Feb. 12-17, just over a week from now. In addition to visiting the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe, which he has said is the primary reason for the visit, Francis will also travel to the border U.S. border city Ciudad Juárez, as well as Chiapas, one of the poorest regions in the country.

In the interview, Francis said that he’s not coming to Mexico as a “Wise Man” with a list of messages, ideas or solutions to problems, but rather as “a pilgrim” who wants to receive from the people and culture he encounters.

“I’m going to look for the wealth of faith that you have, I’ll try to be contaminated by that wealth of faith,” he said, adding that Mexico has an “idiosyncrasy, a way of being that is the result of a very long journey, of a history that was slowly forged” with both joy and sorrow, success and failure.

Above all, Mexico has the wealth of refusing to be “orphans” because of their Mother, he said, referring to the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe. This, Francis said, is perhaps “the greatest wealth that I will seek.”

Veneration of Our Lady of Guadalupe dates back to the 16th century, and surrounds a miraculous image of Mary left on a tilma, made from a piece of poor-quality cactus cloth.

It all started when a “Lady from Heaven” appeared to Saint Juan Diego, a poor Indian from Tepeyac, on a hill northwest of Mexico City. Over the course of a series of apparitions in 1531, the woman, who identified herself as the Mother of the True God, instructed Juan Diego to have the bishop build a church on the site.

As a sign, the now-famous image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, was imprinted miraculously on his tilma. Both the image and the tilma remain intact after more than 470 years.

The Pope said that when he thinks of Our Lady of Guadalupe, he things of “safety and tenderness.”

He said that he frequently prays to her whenever he has a problem or when he doesn’t know how to react to a bad situation. When these things happen, the Pope said he likes to repeat Mary’s words to St. Juan Diego during one of her apparitions: “Do not be afraid. Am I not here who am your Mother?”

“This is what I feel: that she is a Mother, that she cares, protects, carries a people forward, conducts a family, that she gives warmth to the home, tenderly caresses and takes away the fear. That’s what I feel in front of the image.”

Pope Francis explained that during one of his two previous visits to the shrine before his election, someone attempted to explain the symbolic image to him, but he declined and preferred to sit in silence before the “talkative” image.

This time, which marks his third visit to the shrine, the Pope asked for a similar favor: “What I would ask is that this time … you leave me alone for a little while before the image. It is the favor I ask.”

In his final response, Francis offered a few of his own expectations for Mexicans, primarily that they wouldn’t keep their faith inside to themselves, but would instead go out “to the streets,” and become visible in public life.

“Faith must grow and go out and put itself into daily life, a public faith. And faith becomes stronger when is public, especially in times of crisis,” he said.

“There is a great blessing and a desire – expressed by you – of faith jumps out, that faith is a missionary faith, that faith is not bottled, like a tin can,” he said, explaining that faith is born from an encounter with Jesus, our savior.

From this encounter, faith then “has to go out on the street,” including our schools, places of work, and even our conversations with others, he said.

The Pope alluded to the Cristero War of the 1920s, saying that Mexico has “martyrs in your history who have given their lives to follow this path,” and encouraged them not to stay locked up inside with Jesus, but to let him out, because “if we don’t go out, he doesn’t go out.”

He said that to renew one’s faith in this way means not being afraid of conflicts, but instead means searching for solutions.

While this might have its risks, the Pope reminded Mexicans of Mary’s words to Juan Diego: “do not be afraid to go out, do not be afraid my little son, my little daughter. Am I not here who am your Mother?”

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VATICAN NEWS

‘First in history’ – Pope Francis to meet Russian Patriarch in Cuba

by Elise Harris (CNA/EWTN News) • February 5, 2016

Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill and Pope Francis. (Patriarchia.Ru and Alexey Gotovsky/CNA)

Vatican City — On Friday the Vatican announced that while on his way to Mexico, Pope Francis will stop in Cuba to meet with Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill in the first-ever meeting between a Pope and a leader of the Russian Orthodox Church.

“The Holy See and the Patriarchate of Moscow are pleased to announce that, by the grace of God, His Holiness Pope Francis and His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia will meet on February 12 next,” a joint Feb. 5 press release from the Vatican and the Russian Orthodox Church read.

Kirill, patriarch of Moscow and all Rus’ and Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church, will arrive to Havana Feb. 11 for an official visit to South America. His Feb. 11-22 visit includes stops in Cuba, Brazil, Chile and Paraguay.

Pope Francis himself will arrive to Havana’s José Martí International Airport the next day while on his way to Mexico, where he will be on an official visit until Feb. 17.

The Pope will be greeted by both the Patriarch and Cuban president Raul Castro at the airport. From there, they will head to the presidential room of the airport, where Francis and Kirill will have a lengthy private conversation and sign a joint declaration.

In the press release, it was noted that the encounter is the fruit of “a long preparation,” and will be “the first in history and will mark an important stage in relations between the two Churches.”

Eastern Churches split with Rome during the Great Schism of 1054.

While Roman Pontiffs have met with other Orthodox Church leaders since, this marks the first time a Pope has met with the Russian Orthodox Patriarch since the patriarchate was founded 400 years ago.

Both the Holy See and the Moscow Patriarchate expressed their hope that the meeting “will also be a sign of hope for all people of good will,” and invited all Christians “to pray fervently for God to bless this meeting, that it may bear good fruits.”

In a Feb. 5 press briefing on the encounter, Vatican spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi S.J. told journalists that when Pope Francis arrives to Havana, he will be greeted with the usual protocol.

Among those present to greet the Pope when he lands will be Cuban president Raul Castro, Cardinal Kurt Koch, President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, as well as the president of the Cuban bishops conference, Archbishop Dionisio García Ibáñez of Santiago de Cuba.

The private meeting between the two is expected to last “a couple of hours,” Fr. Lombardi said, noting that the time allotted for the encounter lasts from around 2:15-4:25p.m. Afterward, they will head to a separate room to sign a joint-declaration and exchange gifts.

Two interpreters will assist in the conversation: one in Spanish, and one in Russian. The declaration, however, will be drafted in Russian and Italian.

Once the joint-declaration has been signed and the gifts exchanged, Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill will each give short speech. The Pope will give his speech in Spanish, and the patriarch in Russian.

According to the Vatican spokesman, the speeches will not be long and complicated, but more like a “spontaneous expression of their feelings for this beautiful occasion.”

Delegations from both the Pope and the patriarch, consisting of roughly 10-15 people each, will be presented before Francis boards the plane again around 5:30p.m., bound for Mexico. Both Patriarch Kirill and Cuban President Raul Castro will see him off.

Fr. Lombardi said that while the stop in Havana has been added, Pope Francis’ trip to Mexico has otherwise not been modified, and he should stay on schedule.

Also present for the encounter in Cuba will be Hilarion Alfeyev, who currently serves as Metropolitan of Volokolamsk, is the chairman of the Department of External Church Relations and is a permanent member of the Holy Synod of the Patriarchate of Moscow.

In an interview with Corriere della Sera in June 2015, Metropolitan Hilarion hinted that a possible meeting between the Pope and Patriarch Kirill could be close. He told the agency that “such a meeting is getting closer every day, but it must be well prepared.”

Fr. Lombardi confirmed that meeting between the two was “not improvised,” but has in fact been in the works “for a long time … a couple of years.”

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VATICAN NEWS

Four reasons why Pope Francis will meet with Patriarch Kirill

by Catholic News Agency’s Vatican Observer Andrea Gagliarducci (CNA/EWTN News) • February 11, 2016

Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church. (Nickolay Vinokurov via shutterstock.com)

Vatican City — The first, historic meeting between a Pope and a Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church does not come from nowhere. Both the Russian Orthodox Patriarchate and the Holy See have been working on such an event for decades.

In at least three cases under recent Popes, such a meeting seemed about to take place. Once under St. John Paul II and twice under Benedict XVI. But then nothing happened.

Why, then, did the Feb. 11 meeting suddenly become possible? There are at least four different reasons.

The need to counter anti-Christian persecution

Both the Catholic Church and Russian Orthodox Church have spoken out clearly to stop the “genocide” of Christians that is taking place in parts of the world. It is now time to join their voices.

Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, head of the Department for External Relations of the Russian Orthodox Church, clearly spelled out the situation in a Feb. 5 press conference.

He said that “the situation as it has developed today in the Middle East, in North and Central Africa and in some other regions, in which extremists are perpetrating a real genocide of the Christian population, has required urgent measures and closer cooperation between Christian Churches.”

Metropolitan Hilarion added that “in the present tragic situation, it is necessary to put aside internal disagreements and unite efforts to save Christianity in the regions where it is subjected to the most severe persecution.”

Metropolitan Hilarion’s reference to “internal disagreements” alludes to that part of Russian Orthodoxy that always rejected the possibility of a meeting with the Pope.

For Metropolitan Hilarion, the problems with the Catholic Church still hold. He said the “principle problem” in relations between the two Churches and the “principal obstacle” for a meeting between the two primates has lied in the “Uniate” controversy.

The term refers to the Eastern Catholic Churches who were previously Eastern Orthodox Churches. The question was exacerbated during the conflict in the Ukraine. So much so that the same Metropolitan Hilarion took the floor at the Catholic Church’s 2014 synod of bishops to complain about the Greek Catholic Church in Ukraine. He objected that the Church was active in dioceses of the Moscow patriarchate.

The metropolitan’s actions seemed to freeze relations between the Catholic Church and the Russian Orthodox Church.

However, the desire for a meeting between the Patriarch and the Pope was great, according to Father Giovanni Guaita, who worked for the Russian Orthodox Church Department for External Affairs.

“Despite any possible division, in the face of religious fundamentalism and of terrorism … it is clear that Christians must be more united,” he stressed.

The priest told CNA Feb. 7 that the upcoming meeting will show “that Christians must be more united in responding to religious fundamentalism and in denouncing the persecution of Christians.”

Likely, the joint declaration will mostly deal with an appeal against the persecution of Christians.

The need to counter global immorality

Fr. Guaita cited a second reason why the meeting needed to take place now.

“While the world is experiencing a sort of moral liberalism, the Catholic Church and the Russian Orthodox Church are a rampart for traditional values, and for this reason they are more united together. Together, they can launch a message of morality to the world.”

In this sense, he said, the choice of Cuba is meaningful.

“There are still not the right conditions for this meeting to take place in Russia or in Italy. But America is the new world. While Europe is the continent of divisions, America provides the image of a much younger continent. The choice of Cuba can represent a message of hope, the signal that we can start again from new relationships.”

Will these new relationships overcome the Ukrainian issue? It is hard to know. While everything appeared to be set for the announcement of the meeting with the Pope, the Russian Orthodox Synod issued Jan. 28 a strongly worded declarations that reiterated the attacks on the Greek Catholic Church in the Ukraine.

For this reason, the head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk of Kiev-Halych, said Feb. 5 that he does not expect that the meeting will bring any particular changes.

Archbishop Shevchuk then underscored that “the meeting cannot be an end in itself, but must rather be an instrument, a necessary means for honest and open dialogue.” He added that he is “pleased that we are no longer considered an obstacle and aren’t being used to justify one’s unwillingness to engage in such dialogue.”

The Russian government needs a foreign affairs boost

During the Ukrainian conflict, the issue of the Ukrainian Church became a political issue, given that the Russian Orthodox Church has always sided with the Russian administration. According to a source close to the Patriarchate of Moscow, “the Russian Orthodox Church has often acted as a sort of shadow ministry for the Foreign Affairs of the Russian administration.”

At the moment, Russia’s diplomatic situation is isolated. Relations with Turkey are very poor after a Russian warplane was shot down the last November. Many in the international community oppose Russia’s strong support for Syrian president Bashar Assad.

Facing this diplomatic isolation, Russian president Vladimir Putin met with Pope Francis in Rome two times in three years: in November 2013 and in June 2015. In both cases, they spoke about the Middle East situation, with a special view to Syria, and about persecuted Christians.

“Putin is presenting himself as the champion of the protection of persecuted Christians, and the Russian Orthodox Church helps him keep this image vivid,” a source close to the Patriarchate told CNA Feb. 9. In the end, “the meeting between Patriarch Kirill and Pope Francis shows that Russia is open, and that the Pope is close and sensitive to Russia.”

The Russian Orthodox Church looks ahead to the Pan-Orthodox Synod

The Russian Orthodox Patriarchate also finally agreed to meet with the Pope for reasons of ecclesiastical politics. As the June gathering of the Pan-Orthodox Council approaches, Patriarch Kirill must show himself to be as close to Rome as Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, who promoted and organized the Pan-Orthodox Council.

Patriarch Bartholomew proved to be closer than ever to the Catholic Church during the Pope Francis pontificate. He was the first Orthodox Patriarch ever to take part to a Papal installation Mass. He was present at the global prayer for peace with Pope Francis in the Vatican Gardens in June 2014. He hosted the Pope at his headquarters in Istanbul during the papal visit to Turkey in November 2014.

This way, Patriarch Bartholomew gained authority among the Orthodox Churches and was able to organize the Pan-Orthodox Council. This is a long-standing dream for the Constantinople Patriarchate that until now was unachievable.

After meeting Pope Francis, Patriarch Kirill can go to the Pan-Orthodox Synod on a par with Patriarch Bartholomew. Both the Patriarchate of Moscow and the Patriarchate of Constantinople can claim a privileged and special relationship with the Catholic Church.

Is a Moscow visit still a dream for the Pope?

In the end, Moscow and Rome are generally improving their relations. Rather than hold an ecumenical meeting, they are going to renew their relations with a common commitment to help persecuted Christians.

A further step would be an advancement in ecumenical dialogue. The last theological document was issued in Ravenna, Italy by a Catholic-Orthodox mixed commission. Both parties agreed that the Pope of Rome has a sort of primacy, and presides in charity for the other Christian churches. But still, there is not any agreement about how this primacy must be exercised.

In the end, a papal trip to Moscow still seems to be a dream. At least, it is not on the agenda yet.

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VATICAN NEWS

Full text of joint declaration signed by Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill

by CNA/EWTN News • February 12, 2016

Pope Francis meets with Patriarch Kirill in Havana, Cuba on Feb. 12, 2016. (CNA)

Havana, Cuba — In a historic first, Pope Francis on Friday met with Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill. The Feb. 12 meeting took place in Havana, Cuba, a stop added at the start of the Holy Father’s Feb. 12-17 trip to Mexico. In addition to meeting privately, Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill signed a joint declaration. The full text of the declaration is below:

Joint Declaration of Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia

“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God the Father and the fellowship of the holy Spirit be with all of you” (2 Cor 13:13).

1. By God the Father’s will, from which all gifts come, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and with the help of the Holy Spirit Consolator, we, Pope Francis and Kirill, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, have met today in Havana. We give thanks to God, glorified in the Trinity, for this meeting, the first in history.

It is with joy that we have met like brothers in the Christian faith who encounter one another “to speak face to face” (2 Jn 12), from heart to heart, to discuss the mutual relations between the Churches, the crucial problems of our faithful, and the outlook for the progress of human civilization.

2. Our fraternal meeting has taken place in Cuba, at the crossroads of North and South, East and West. It is from this island, the symbol of the hopes of the “New World” and the dramatic events of the history of the twentieth century, that we address our words to all the peoples of Latin America and of the other continents.

It is a source of joy that the Christian faith is growing here in a dynamic way. The powerful religious potential of Latin America, its centuries – old Christian tradition, grounded in the personal experience of millions of people, are the pledge of a great future for this region.

3. By meeting far from the longstanding disputes of the “Old World”, we experience with a particular sense of urgency the need for the shared labour of Catholics and Orthodox, who are called, with gentleness and respect, to give an explanation to the world of the hope in us (cf. 1 Pet 3:15).

4. We thank God for the gifts received from the coming into the world of His only Son. We share the same spiritual Tradition of the first millennium of Christianity. The witnesses of this Tradition are the Most Holy Mother of God, the Virgin Mary, and the saints we venerate. Among them are innumerable martyrs who have given witness to their faithfulness to Christ and have become the “seed of Christians”.

5. Notwithstanding this shared Tradition of the first ten centuries, for nearly one thousand years Catholics and Orthodox have been deprived of communion in the Eucharist. We have been divided by wounds caused by old and recent conflicts, by differences inherited from our ancestors, in the understanding and expression of our faith in God, one in three Persons – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We are pained by the loss of unity, the outcome of human weakness and of sin, which has occurred despite the priestly prayer of Christ the Saviour: “So that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you … so that they may be one, as we are one” (Jn 17:21).

6. Mindful of the permanence of many obstacles, it is our hope that our meeting may contribute to the re – establishment of this unity willed by God, for which Christ prayed. May our meeting inspire Christians throughout the world to pray to the Lord with renewed fervour for the full unity of all His disciples. In a world which yearns not only for our words but also for tangible gestures, may this meeting be a sign of hope for all people of goodwill!

7. In our determination to undertake all that is necessary to overcome the historical divergences we have inherited, we wish to combine our efforts to give witness to the Gospel of Christ and to the shared heritage of the Church of the first millennium, responding together to the challenges of the contemporary world. Orthodox and Catholics must learn to give unanimously witness in those spheres in which this is possible and necessary. Human civilization has entered into a period of epochal change. Our Christian conscience and our pastoral responsibility compel us not to remain passive in the face of challenges requiring a shared response.

8. Our gaze must firstly turn to those regions of the world where Christians are victims of persecution. In many countries of the Middle East and North Africa whole families, villages and cities of our brothers and sisters in Christ are being completely exterminated. Their churches are being barbarously ravaged and looted, their sacred objects profaned, their monuments destroyed. It is with pain that we call to mind the situation in Syria, Iraq and other countries of the Middle East, and the massive exodus of Christians from the land in which our faith was first disseminated and in which they have lived since the time of the Apostles, together with other religious communities.

9. We call upon the international community to act urgently in order to prevent the further expulsion of Christians from the Middle East. In raising our voice in defence of persecuted Christians, we wish to express our compassion for the suffering experienced by the faithful of other religious traditions who have also become victims of civil war, chaos and terrorist violence.

10. Thousands of victims have already been claimed in the violence in Syria and Iraq, which has left many other millions without a home or means of sustenance. We urge the international community to seek an end to the violence and terrorism and, at the same time, to contribute through dialogue to a swift return to civil peace. Large – scale humanitarian aid must be assured to the afflicted populations and to the many refugees seeking safety in neighbouring lands.

We call upon all those whose influence can be brought to bear upon the destiny of those kidnapped, including the Metropolitans of Aleppo, Paul and John Ibrahim, who were taken in April 2013, to make every effort to ensure their prompt liberation.

11. We lift our prayers to Christ, the Saviour of the world, asking for the return of peace in the Middle East, “the fruit of justice” (Is 32:17), so that fraternal co – existence among the various populations, Churches and religions may be strengthened, enabling refugees to return to their homes, wounds to be healed, and the souls of the slain innocent to rest in peace.

We address, in a fervent appeal, all the parts that may be involved in the conflicts to demonstrate good will and to take part in the negotiating table. At the same time, the international community must undertake every possible effort to end terrorism through common, joint and coordinated action. We call on all the countries involved in the struggle against terrorism to responsible and prudent action. We exhort all Christians and all believers of God to pray fervently to the providential Creator of the world to protect His creation from destruction and not permit a new world war. In order to ensure a solid and enduring peace, specific efforts must be undertaken to rediscover the common values uniting us, based on the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

12. We bow before the martyrdom of those who, at the cost of their own lives, have given witness to the truth of the Gospel, preferring death to the denial of Christ. We believe that these martyrs of our times, who belong to various Churches but who are united by their shared suffering, are a pledge of the unity of Christians. It is to you who suffer for Christ’s sake that the word of the Apostle is directed: “Beloved … rejoice to the extent that you share in the sufferings of Christ, so that when his glory is revealed you may also rejoice exultantly” (1 Pet 4:12 – 13).

13. Interreligious dialogue is indispensable in our disturbing times. Differences in the understanding of religious truths must not impede people of different faiths to live in peace and harmony. In our current context, religious leaders have the particular responsibility to educate their faithful in a spirit which is respectful of the convictions of those belonging to other religious traditions. Attempts to justify criminal acts with religious slogans are altogether unacceptable. No crime may be committed in God’s name, “since God is not the God of disorder but of peace” (1 Cor 14:33).

14. In affirming the foremost value of religious freedom, we give thanks to God for the current unprecedented renewal of the Christian faith in Russia, as well as in many other countries of Eastern Europe, formerly dominated for decades by atheist regimes. Today, the chains of militant atheism have been broken and in many places Christians can now freely confess their faith. Thousands of new churches have been built over the last quarter of a century, as well as hundreds of monasteries and theological institutions. Christian communities undertake notable works in the fields of charitable aid and social development, providing diversified forms of assistance to the needy.

Orthodox and Catholics often work side by side. Giving witness to the values of the Gospel they attest to the existence of the shared spiritual foundations of human co – existence.

15. At the same time, we are concerned about the situation in many countries in which Christians are increasingly confronted by restrictions to religious freedom, to the right to witness to one’s convictions and to live in conformity with them. In particular, we observe that the transformation of some countries into secularized societies, estranged from all reference to God and to His truth, constitutes a grave threat to religious freedom. It is a source of concern for us that there is a current curtailment of the rights of Christians, if not their outright discrimination, when certain political forces, guided by an often very aggressive secularist ideology, seek to relegate them to the margins of public life.

16. The process of European integration, which began after centuries of blood – soaked conflicts, was welcomed by many with hope, as a guarantee of peace and security. Nonetheless, we invite vigilance against an integration that is devoid of respect for religious identities. While remaining open to the contribution of other religions to our civilization, it is our conviction that Europe must remain faithful to its Christian roots. We call upon Christians of Eastern and Western Europe to unite in their shared witness to Christ and the Gospel, so that Europe may preserve its soul, shaped by two thousand years of Christian tradition.

17. Our gaze is also directed to those facing serious difficulties, who live in extreme need and poverty while the material wealth of humanity increases. We cannot remain indifferent to the destinies of millions of migrants and refugees knocking on the doors of wealthy nations. The unrelenting consumerism of some more developed countries is gradually depleting the resources of our planet. The growing inequality in the distribution of material goods increases the feeling of the injustice of the international order that has emerged.

18. The Christian churches are called to defend the demands of justice, the respect for peoples’ traditions, and an authentic solidarity towards all those who suffer. We Christians cannot forget that “God chose the foolish of the world to shame the wise, and God chose the lowly and despised of the world, those who count for nothing, to reduce to nothing those who are something, that no human being might boast before God” (1 Cor 1:27 – 29).

19. The family is the natural centre of human life and society. We are concerned about the crisis in the family in many countries. Orthodox and Catholics share the same conception of the family, and are called to witness that it is a path of holiness, testifying to the faithfulness of the spouses in their mutual interaction, to their openness to the procreation and rearing of their children, to solidarity between the generations and to respect for the weakest.

20. The family is based on marriage, an act of freely given and faithful love between a man and a woman. It is love that seals their union and teaches them to accept one another as a gift. Marriage is a school of love and faithfulness. We regret that other forms of cohabitation have been placed on the same level as this union, while the concept, consecrated in the biblical tradition, of paternity and maternity as the distinct vocation of man and woman in marriage is being banished from the public conscience.

21. We call on all to respect the inalienable right to life. Millions are denied the very right to be born into the world. The blood of the unborn cries out to God (cf. Gen 4:10).

The emergence of so-called euthanasia leads elderly people and the disabled begin to feel that they are a burden on their families and on society in general.

We are also concerned about the development of biomedical reproduction technology, as the manipulation of human life represents an attack on the foundations of human existence, created in the image of God. We believe that it is our duty to recall the immutability of Christian moral principles, based on respect for the dignity of the individual called into being according to the Creator’s plan.

22. Today, in a particular way, we address young Christians. You, young people, have the task of not hiding your talent in the ground (cf. Mt 25:25), but of using all the abilities God has given you to confirm Christ’s truth in the world, incarnating in your own lives the evangelical commandments of the love of God and of one’s neighbour. Do not be afraid of going against the current, defending God’s truth, to which contemporary secular norms are often far from conforming.

23. God loves each of you and expects you to be His disciples and apostles. Be the light of the world so that those around you may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father (cf. Mt 5:14, 16). Raise your children in the Christian faith, transmitting to them the pearl of great price that is the faith (cf. Mt 13:46) you have received from your parents and forbears. Remember that “you have been purchased at a great price” (1 Cor 6:20), at the cost of the death on the cross of the Man – God Jesus Christ.

24. Orthodox and Catholics are united not only by the shared Tradition of the Church of the first millennium, but also by the mission to preach the Gospel of Christ in the world today. This mission entails mutual respect for members of the Christian communities and excludes any form of proselytism.

We are not competitors but brothers, and this concept must guide all our mutual actions as well as those directed to the outside world. We urge Catholics and Orthodox in all countries to learn to live together in peace and love, and to be “in harmony with one another” (Rm 15:5). Consequently, it cannot be accepted that disloyal means be used to incite believers to pass from one Church to another, denying them their religious freedom and their traditions. We are called upon to put into practice the precept of the apostle Paul: “Thus I aspire to proclaim the gospel not where Christ has already been named, so that I do not build on another’s foundation” (Rm 15:20).

25. It is our hope that our meeting may also contribute to reconciliation wherever tensions exist between Greek Catholics and Orthodox. It is today clear that the past method of “uniatism”, understood as the union of one community to the other, separating it from its Church, is not the way to re – establish unity. Nonetheless, the ecclesial communities which emerged in these historical circumstances have the right to exist and to undertake all that is necessary to meet the spiritual needs of their faithful, while seeking to live in peace with their neighbours. Orthodox and Greek Catholics are in need of reconciliation and of mutually acceptable forms of co – existence.

26. We deplore the hostility in Ukraine that has already caused many victims, inflicted innumerable wounds on peaceful inhabitants and thrown society into a deep economic and humanitarian crisis. We invite all the parts involved in the conflict to prudence, to social solidarity and to action aimed at constructing peace. We invite our Churches in Ukraine to work towards social harmony, to refrain from taking part in the confrontation, and to not support any further development of the conflict.

27. It is our hope that the schism between the Orthodox faithful in Ukraine may be overcome through existing canonical norms, that all the Orthodox Christians of Ukraine may live in peace and harmony, and that the Catholic communities in the country may contribute to this, in such a way that our Christian brotherhood may become increasingly evident.

28. In the contemporary world, which is both multiform yet united by a shared destiny, Catholics and Orthodox are called to work together fraternally in proclaiming the Good News of salvation, to testify together to the moral dignity and authentic freedom of the person, “so that the world may believe” (Jn 17:21). This world, in which the spiritual pillars of human existence are progressively disappearing, awaits from us a compelling Christian witness in all spheres of personal and social life. Much of the future of humanity will depend on our capacity to give shared witness to the Spirit of truth in these difficult times.

29. May our bold witness to God’s truth and to the Good News of salvation be sustained by the Man – God Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour, who strengthens us with the unfailing promise: “Do not be afraid any longer, little flock, for your Father is pleased to give you the kingdom” (Lk 12:32)!

Christ is the well – spring of joy and hope. Faith in Him transfigures human life, fills it with meaning. This is the conviction borne of the experience of all those to whom Peter refers in his words: “Once you were ‘no people’ but now you are God’s people; you ‘had not received mercy’ but now you have received mercy” (1 Pet 2:10).

30. With grace – filled gratitude for the gift of mutual understanding manifested during our meeting, let us with hope turn to the Most Holy Mother of God, invoking her with the words of this ancient prayer: “We seek refuge under the protection of your mercy, Holy Mother of God”. May the Blessed Virgin Mary, through her intercession, inspire fraternity in all those who venerate her, so that they may be reunited, in God’s own time, in the peace and harmony of the one people of God, for the glory of the Most Holy and indivisible Trinity!

Bishop of Rome, Pope of the Catholic Church

Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia

12 February 2016, Havana (Cuba)

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VATICAN NEWS

‘We are brothers’ – Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill hold historic meeting

by CNA/EWTN News • February 12, 2016

Pope Francis meets with Patriarch Kirill in Havana, Cuba on Feb. 12, 2016. (L’Osservatore Romano)

Havana, Cuba — Christian brotherhood and unity were the focus of Pope Francis and Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill when they met on Friday afternoon in Havana.

“We spoke as brothers,” Pope Francis said. “We have the same baptism. We are bishops. We spoke of our Churches.”

“We agreed that unity is created by journeying together,” he told a gathering of Catholic and Orthodox clergy and reporters after his meeting with the patriarch.

He characterized the Feb. 12 conversation as open and authentic. It focused on “a series of initiatives that I believe are viable and can be realized.”

The Pope praised the patriarch’s humility, brotherhood, and deep desire for unity.

The first-ever meeting between a Pope and a Patriarch of Moscow was held privately. Afterwards they signed a joint declaration that focused on several topics.

The declaration focused at length on anti-Christian persecution, especially in in the Middle East and North Africa. It lamented the hostilities in Ukraine. The declaration also voiced concern about the threat of secularism to religious freedom and the Christian roots of Europe.

Other topics of discussion included poverty, the crisis in the family, abortion and euthanasia. The Pope and the patriarch exhorted young Christians to live their faith in the world.

Patriarch Kirill characterized the private meeting as an open discussion “with full awareness of the responsibility of our Churches, for the future of Christianity, and for the future of human civilization.”

He said the conversation “gave us the opportunity to understand and hear the positions of the other.”

“The results of this allow me to assure you that the two Churches will continue to work closely together with Christians in all the world, and with full responsibility to work together against war, so that human life can develop in the entire world.”

Their conversation also aimed to strengthen “the bases of personal and family morality” through “the participation of the Church in the life of modern human society, that glorifies the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

The Pope told Patriarch Kirill before their private meeting “we’re brothers. It’s clear that this is the will of God.”

At the close of their remarks, Pope Francis thanked Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, Cardinal Kurt Koch and their teams who had worked to organize the meeting. Metropolitan Hilarion heads the Russian Orthodox Church’s external church relations department, while Cardinal Koch heads the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.

“I do not wish to go forth from here without expressing my sense of gratitude for Cuba and for the Cuban people and for their president Raul Castro,” the Pope added. “I thank him for his acts of openness and readiness to give space for this, these talks of unity.”

He prayed: “Let all of this be done for the glory of God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and for the good of the holy people of God, under the protection of the Holy Mother of God.”

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VATICAN NEWS

Pope Francis has a new book for kids

by Elise Harris (CNA/EWTN News) • February 13, 2016

Book cover for “Dear Pope Francis: The Pope Answers Letters from Children Around the World.” (Loyola Press)

Vatican City — Already in his brief, three-year pontificate Pope Francis has a track record of papal firsts, but in March he will add yet another to his list: authoring a children’s book.

“This book could be useful to the entire family. The questions are deep, fresh, sharp – involving desires of understanding, but also tough feelings and experiences to be faced and lived,” Fr. Antonio Spadaro SJ told CNA Feb. 9.

“Ultimately I hope people see that the Pope’s message is universal. Whether his responses are read by children or adults, I hope that his focus on peace, joy, and mercy is understood and felt by all.”

On March 1 Jesuit-run Loyola Press will release the book “Dear Pope Francis: The Pope Answers Letters from Children Around the World,” alongside Jesuit publishing houses in 11 other countries.

A collection of 30 letters and drawings from children around the world aged 6-13, the book contains both head-scratching questions from the youth, as well as Pope Francis’ answers.

“This book is the very first book by a Pope for children ever,” Fr. Spadaro said, explaining that it’s not just a collection of things he said before in other settings, but is “something original, thought (of) as a book with answers to questions, but also drawings.”

Spadaro, editor of the Jesuit journal La Civiltà Cattolica, has worked on the book alongside Loyola Press in Chicago, who conceived the idea.

Pope Francis gave the project the official thumbs-up last May, when executives from Loyola Press traveled to Rome to pop the question on whether he would ever consider writing a children’s book.

“What really struck me is that when I asked Pope Francis about this project he immediately said yes,” Fr. Spadaro said.

Once the Pope agreed to participate, things got going, he said. Loyola Press immediately reached out to both priests and lay people around the world in order to put the publisher in contact with children who would write the letters.

The 259 letters that arrived to the Vatican came from across the globe, including countries such as Albania, China, Nigeria, the Philippines and a school for displaced children in Syria.

Fr. Spadaro affirmed that the responses given “are the Pope’s words,” and noted that at one point, before his trip to the United States last September, Francis was reading the children’s’ questions, and admitted that “these are tough.”

He recalled that afterward, during the prayer vigil for the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia, the Pope had said: “A young person once asked me – you know how young people ask hard questions! – ‘Father, what did God do before he created the world?’ Believe me, I had a hard time answering that one.”

When Pope Francis told the story, “he was referring to the experience of this book,” Fr. Spadaro explained. “This is true. He realized that he wanted to give the kids a deeper answer than something right off the top of his head.”

Due to the Pope’s time constraints, he didn’t have time to respond to all 259 letters, but was advised on which ones to select with the help of a special group of parents, grandparents, teachers, Jesuits, writers and children.

As the Pope read the letters, Fr. Spadaro said that Francis paid special attention to the drawings the children had made.

“He commented to me (on the) details, colors (and) shapes,” the priest said, adding that “sometimes Francis captured, with finesse, the meaning of a question more from images than from words.”

When the book is published March 1, it will be released in 14 languages, including English, Italian, Spanish, Polish, Portuguese, Hungarian and French, though Fr. Spadaro said he expects the number to grow.

On Feb. 22, eight children whose letters appear in the book, plus a few siblings, will meet with Pope Francis in a private audience at the Vatican. They will present him with the finished book, as well as all 259 letters collected for the project.

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VATICAN NEWS

Full text of Pope Francis’ address to authorities, representatives of civil society, and diplomatic corps in Mexico City

by CNA/EWTN News • February 13, 2016

Pope Francis speaking in Mexico City, Mexico on Feb. 13, 2016. (EWTN)

Mexico City, Mexico — Below is the full text of Pope Francis’ Feb. 13 address to authorities, representatives of civil society and the diplomatic corps in Mexico City:

Mr. President, Members of Government of the Republic, Distinguished Authorities, Representatives of Civil Society, Brothers in the Episcopate, Ladies and Gentlemen,

I thank you, Mr. President, for your words of welcome. I am happy to set foot on Mexican soil which holds a special place in the heart of the Americas. Today I come as a missionary of mercy and of peace but also as a son who wishes to pay homage to his mother, the Blessed Virgin of Guadalupe, and place himself under her watchful care. Endeavouring to be a good son, following in our mother’s footsteps, I wish in turn to pay my respects to this people and to this land which is so rich in culture, history, and diversity. Through you, Mr President, I would like to greet and embrace the Mexican people in its numerous expressions and in the most diverse of situations it experiences. Thank you for welcoming me to your land. Mexico is a great country. It is blessed with abundant natural resources and with an enormous biodiversity that extends across its vast territory. Its privileged geographical position makes it a reference point for America; and its indigenous, mestizo and criollo cultures endow it with its own identity that facilitates a cultural richness not always easy to find and, particularly, to value. The ancestral wisdom shown by your multiculturalism is, by far, one of your greatest biographical resources. It is an identity that learned gradually how to shape itself amid diversity and that now constitutes, without any doubt, a rich patrimony to be valued, encouraged and protected. I believe and I dare to say that Mexico’s principal richness today has a young face; yes, this richness is your young people. Just over half of the population is made up of youth. This makes it possible to contemplate and plan for a future, for a tomorrow. This offers hope and future prospects. A people with a youthful population is a people able to renew and transform itself; it is an invitation to look to the future with hope and, in turn, it challenges us in a positive way here and now. This reality inevitably leads us to think about one’s own responsibilities when it comes to constructing the kind of Mexico we want, the Mexico that we want to pass on to coming generations. It also leads us to the realization that a hope-filled future is forged in a present made up of men and women who are upright, honest, and capable of working for the common good, the “common good” which in this twenty-first century is not in such great demand. Experience teaches us that each time we seek the path of privileges or benefits for a few to the detriment of the good of all, sooner or later the life of society becomes a fertile soil for corruption, drug trade, exclusion of different cultures, violence and also human trafficking, kidnapping and death, bringing suffering and slowing down development. The Mexican people anchors its hope in an identity which has been shaped in the trying and difficult moments of its history. It was forged by the wonderful witness of citizens who understood that, in order to overcome situations born of the obstinacy of individualism, it was necessary to have agreement between the political, social and financial institutions, and of all men and women committed to the common good and the promotion of the dignity of the human person. An ancestral culture together with encouraging human resources such as yours, should be a stimulus to find new forms of dialogue, negotiation, and bridges that can lead us on the way of committed solidarity. Starting with those who call themselves Christians, it is a commitment to which all of us must give of ourselves, for the construction of a “political life on a truly human basis” (Gaudium et Spes, 73), and a society in which no one feels a victim of the culture of waste. Leaders of social, cultural and political life have the particular duty to offer all citizens the opportunity to be worthy contributors of their own future, within their families and in all areas where human social interaction takes place. In this way they help citizens to have real access to the material and spiritual goods which are indispensable: adequate housing, dignified employment, food, true justice, effective security, a healthy and peaceful environment. This is not just a question of laws which need to be updated and improved – something always necessary – but rather a need for urgent formation of the personal responsibility of each individual, with full respect for others as men and women jointly responsible in promoting the advancement of the nation. It is a task which involves all Mexicans in different spheres, public or private, collective or individual. I assure you, Mr President, that in this effort, the Government of Mexico can count on the cooperation of the Catholic Church, which has accompanied the life of this nation and which renews its commitment and willingness to serve the great causes of mankind: the building of the civilization of love. I am ready to travel around this beautiful and wide country as a missionary and as a pilgrim who wishes to renew with all of you the experience of mercy as a new horizon of opportunity which inevitably brings justice and peace. I also entrust myself to the gaze of Mary, the Blessed Virgin of Guadalupe, so that by her intercession, the merciful Father may grant that these days and the future of this land be an opportunity for encounter, unity and peace. Thank you.

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VATICAN NEWS

Pope to Mexican leaders: Remember your young people

by Ann Schneible (CNA/EWTN News) • February 13, 2016

Pope Francis greets pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square during the Wednesday general audience on May 28, 2014. (Daniel Ibáñez/CNA)

Mexico City, Mexico — Pope Francis marked his first full day in Mexico by urging the nation’s leaders and diplomats to protect the future of the nation’s young people.

“A people with a youthful population is a people able to renew and transform itself; it is an invitation to look to the future with hope and, in turn, it challenges us in a positive way here and now,” the Pope said Saturday.

Young people make up more than half the nation’s population, the pontiff observed, emphasizing the responsibility to forge a future through the work of men and women today “who are upright, honest, and capable of working for the common good.”

“Experience teaches us that each time we seek the path of privileges or benefits for a few to the detriment of the good of all, sooner or later the life of society becomes a fertile soil for corruption, drug trade, exclusion of different cultures, violence and also human trafficking, kidnapping and death, bringing suffering and slowing down development.”

The Feb. 13 meeting at the National Palace with Mexico’s president Enrique Peña Nieto, the country’s diplomatic corps, and civil and social authorities, was the first event of the Pope’s second day in Mexico.

Pope Francis’ Feb. 12-17 trip to Mexico is his first as pontiff. He is the third Pope to visit the nation: St. John Paul II visited Mexico five times over the course of his 27 year pontificate, and Benedict XVI in 2012.

During his address, Pope Francis reminded the authorities that his visit to Mexico is “as a missionary of mercy and of peace,” and as a “son who wishes to pay homage to his mother, the Blessed Virgin of Guadalupe, and place himself under her watchful care.”

The Pope paid his respects to the Mexican people, and the “land which is so rich in culture, history, and diversity.”

A nation “with abundant natural resources and with an enormous biodiversity,” Mexico’s geographical location and indigenous multiculturalism fosters an “ancestral wisdom” one of the country’s “greatest biographical resources,” the Pope said.

“It is an identity that learned gradually how to shape itself amid diversity and that now constitutes, without any doubt, a rich patrimony to be valued, encouraged and protected.”

Throughout its history, the Mexican people overcame challenges brought about by the “obstinacy of individualism” by recognizing the need for “political, social and financial institutions” to be in agreement with “all men and women committed to the common good and the promotion of the dignity of the human person.”

Pope Francis presented Mexico’s “ancestral culture” and “human resources” role in promoting “new forms of dialogue, negotiation, and bridges” toward “committed solidarity.”

Beginning with Christians, this commitment aims at the “construction of a ‘political life on a truly human basis,’” the Pope said – citing the Vatican II document Gaudium et spes – “and a society in which no one feels a victim of the culture of waste.”

Pope Francis emphasized the role of “social, cultural and political” leaders in helping their citizens have access to essential goods: “adequate housing, dignified employment, food, true justice, effective security, a healthy and peaceful environment.”

“This is not just a question of laws which need to be updated and improved – something always necessary – but rather a need for urgent formation of the personal responsibility of each individual, with full respect for others as men and women jointly responsible in promoting the advancement of the nation.”

The Pope assured the president that the Mexican government “can count on the cooperation of the Catholic Church, which has accompanied the life of this nation and which renews its commitment and willingness to serve the great causes of mankind: the building of the civilization of love.”

Pope Francis concluded his address, reiterating that he has come to Mexico “as a missionary and as a pilgrim,” and has entrusted himself to Our Lady of Guadalupe during his visit.

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VATICAN NEWS

Full text of Pope Francis’ address to the bishops of Mexico

by CNA/EWTN News • February 13, 2016

Pope Francis speaking in Mexico City, Mexico on Feb. 13, 2016. (EWTN)

Mexico City, Mexico — Below is the full text of Pope Francis’ Feb. 13 address to the bishops of Mexico:

I am pleased to have this opportunity of meeting you the day after my arrival here in this beloved country, which, following in the footsteps of my predecessors, I also have come to visit. How could I not come! Could the Successor of Peter, called from the far south of Latin America, deprive himself of seeing la Virgen Morenita? I thank you for receiving me in this Cathedral, a larger casita (“little house”) and yet always sagrada (“sacred”), as the Blessed Virgin of Guadalupe had requested. I also thank you for your kind words of welcome. I know that here is found the secret heart of each Mexican, and I enter with soft footsteps as is fitting for one who enters the home and soul of this people; and I am deeply grateful for you having opened your doors to me. I know that by looking into the eyes of the Blessed Virgin I am able to follow the gaze of her sons and daughters who, in her, have learned to express themselves. I know that no other voice can speak so powerfully to me of the Mexican heart as the Blessed Mother can; she guards its highest aspirations and most hidden hopes; she gathers its joys and its tears. She understands its various languages and she responds with a Mother’s tenderness because these men and women are her own children. I am happy to be with you here, near Cerro del Tepeyac, in a way close to the dawn of evangelization in this continent. Please allow la Guadalupana to be the starting point of everything I will say to you. How I wish She herself would convey to you all that is dear to the Pope’s heart, reaching the depths of your own pastoral hearts, and through you, to each of the particular Churches present in this vast country of Mexico. The Pope for some time has nourished a desire to see la Guadalupana just as Saint Juan Diego did, and successive generations of children after him. And I have desired, even more, to be captured by her maternal gaze. I have reflected greatly on the mystery of this gaze and I ask you to receive in these moments what pours forth from my heart, the heart of a Pastor. A gaze of tenderness Above all, la Virgen Morenita teaches us that the only power capable of conquering the hearts of men and women is the tenderness of God. That which delights and attracts, that which humbles and overcomes, that which opens and unleashes, is not the power of instruments or the force of law, but rather the omnipotent weakness of divine love, which is the irresistible force of its gentleness and the irrevocable pledge of its mercy. A rather inquisitive and famous literary figure of yours, Octavio Paz, said that in Guadalupe great harvests and fertile lands are no longer prayed for, but instead a place of rest where people, still orphaned and disinherited, may seek a place of refuge, a home. With centuries having gone by since the founding event of this country and the evangelization of the continent, it may be asked: has the need been diluted or even forgotten for that place of rest so ardently desired by the hearts of Mexicans entrusted to your care? I know the long and painful history which you have gone through has not been without much bloodshed, impetuous and heartbreaking upheavals, and violence and incomprehension. With good reason my venerable and saintly predecessor, who felt at home here in Mexico, wished to remind us: “Like rivers that are sometimes hidden and plentiful, converge at times and at others reveal their complementary differences, without ever merging completely: the ancient and rich sensitivity of the indigenous peoples loved by Juan de Zumárraga and Vasco de Quiroga, whom many of these peoples continue to call fathers; Christianity, rooted in the Mexican soul; and modern rationality of the European kind, which wanted so much to exalt independence and freedom” (John Paul II, Address, Welcoming Ceremony, 22 January 1999). And in this history, the maternal place of rest which continually brought life to Mexico, although sometimes seeming like “a net of a hundred and fifty-three fish” (cf. Jn 21:11), was never without fruit, was always able to heal the divisions which threatened. For this reason I invite you to begin anew from that need for a place of rest which wells up from the spirit of your people. The restful place of the Christian faith is capable of reconciling a past, often marked by loneliness, isolation and rejection, with a future, continually relegated to a tomorrow which just slips away. Only in that place of faith can we, without renouncing our own identity, “discover the profound truth of the new humanity, in which all are called to be children of God” (John Paul II, Homily, Canonization of Juan Diego). Bow down then, quietly and respectfully, towards the profound spirit of your people, go down with care and decipher its mysterious face. The present, so often mixed with dispersion and festivity, is it not for God a preparatory stage, for him who alone is fully present? Familiarity with pain and death, are they not forms of courage and pathways to hope? And the view that the world is always and uniquely in need of redemption, is this not an antidote to the proud self-sufficiency of those who think they can do without God? Naturally, for this reason it is necessary to have an outlook capable of reflecting the tenderness of God. I ask you, therefore, to be bishops who have a pure vision, a transparent soul, and a joyful face. Do not fear transparency. The Church does not need darkness to carry out her work. Be vigilant so that your vision will not be darkened by the gloomy mist of worldliness; do not allow yourselves to be corrupted by trivial materialism or by the seductive illusion of underhanded agreements; do not place your faith in the “chariots and horses” of today’s Pharaohs, for our strength is in “the pillar of fire” which divides the sea in two, without much fanfare (cf. Ex 14:24-25). The world in which the Lord calls us to carry out our mission has become extremely complicated. And even the proud notion of cogito, which at least did not deny that there was a rock on the sand of being, is today dominated by a view of life which more than ever many consider to be hesitant, itinerant and lawless because it lacks a firm foundation. Frontiers so passionately invoked and upheld are now open to the irony of a world in which the power of some can no longer survive without the vulnerability of others. The irreversible hybridization of technology brings closer what is distant; sadly, however, it also distances what should be close. It is in this very world that God asks you to have a view capable of grasping that plea which cries out from the heart of your people, a plea which has its own calendar day, the Feast of crying out. This cry needs a response: God exists and is close in Jesus Christ. Only God is the reality upon which we can build, because, “God is the foundational reality, not a God who is merely imagined or hypothetical, but God with a human face” (Benedict VI, Address to CELAM, 13 May 2007). Observing your faces, the Mexican people have the right to witness the signs of those “who have seen the Lord” (cf. Jn 20:25), of those who have been with God. This is essential. Therefore, do not lose time or energy in secondary things, in gossip or intrigue, in conceited schemes of careerism, in empty plans for superiority, in unproductive groups that seek benefits or common interests. Do not allow yourselves to be dragged into gossip and slander. Introduce your priests into a right understanding of sacred ministry. For us ministers of God it is enough to have the grace to “drink the cup of the Lord”, the gift of protecting that portion of the heritage which has been entrusted to us, though we may be unskilled administrators. Let us allow the Father to assign the place he has prepared for us (Mt 20:20-28). Can we really be concerned with affairs that are not the Father’s? Away from the “Father’s affairs” (Lk 2:48-49) we lose our identity and, through our own fault, empty his grace of meaning. If our vision does not witness to having seen Jesus, then the words with which we recall him will be rhetorical and empty figures of speech. They may perhaps express the nostalgia of those who cannot forget the Lord, but who have become, at any rate, mere babbling orphans beside a tomb. Finally, they may be words that are incapable of preventing this world of ours from being abandoned and reduced to its own desperate power. I think of the need to offer a maternal place of rest to young people. May your vision be capable of meeting theirs, loving them and understanding what they search for with that energy that inspired many like them to leave behind their boats and nets on the other side of the sea (Mk 1:17- 18), to leave the abuses of the banking sector so as to follow the Lord on the path of true wealth (cf. Mt 9:9). I am particularly concerned about those many persons who, seduced by the empty power of the world, praise illusions and embrace their macabre symbols to commercialize death in exchange for money which, in the end, “moth and rust consume” and “thieves break in and steal” (Mt 6:19). I urge you not to underestimate the moral and antisocial challenge which the drug trade represents for Mexican society as a whole, as well as for the Church. The magnitude of this phenomenon, the complexity of its causes, its immensity and its scope which devours like a metastasis, and the gravity of the violence which divides with its distorted expressions, do not allow us as Pastors of the Church to hide behind anodyne denunciations. Rather they demand of us a prophetic courage as well as a reliable and qualified pastoral plan, so that we can gradually help build that fragile network of human relationships without which all of us would be defeated from the outset in the face of such an insidious threat. Only by starting with families, by drawing close and embracing the fringes of human existence in the ravaged areas of our cities and by seeking the involvement of parish communities, schools, community institutions, political communities and institutions responsible for security, will people finally escape the raging waters that drown so many, either victims of the drug trade or those who stand before God with their hands drenched in blood, though with pockets filled with sordid money and their consciences deadened. A vision that can build In the mantle of the Mexican spirit, God, with the thread of mestizo characteristics, has woven and revealed in la Morenita the face of the Mexican people. God does not need subdued colours to design this face, for his designs are not conditioned by colours or threads but rather by the permanence of his love which constantly desires to imprint itself upon us. Therefore, be bishops who are capable of imitating this freedom of God who chooses the humble in order to reveal the majesty of his countenance; capable of reproducing this divine patience by weaving the new man which your country awaits with the fine thread made of the men and women you encounter. Do not be led by empty efforts to change people as if the love of God is not powerful enough to bring about change. Rediscover the wise and humble constancy that the Fathers of faith of this country passed onto successive generations with the language of divine mystery. They did this by first learning and then teaching the grammar needed to dialogue with God; a God concealed within centuries of searching and then brought close in the person of his Son Jesus Christ, who is our future and who is recognized as such by so many men and women when they behold his bloody and humiliated face. Imitate his gracious humility and his bowing down to help us. We will never comprehend sufficiently how, with the mestizo threads of our people, God has woven the face by which he is to be known. We can never be thankful enough. I ask you to show singular tenderness in the way you regard indigenous peoples and their fascinating but not infrequently decimated cultures. Mexico needs its American-Indian roots so as not to remain an unresolved enigma. The indigenous people of Mexico still await true recognition of the richness of their contribution and the fruitfulness of their presence. In this way they can inherit that identity which transforms them into a single nation and not only an identity among other identities. On many occasions, much has been said about a supposedly failed future of this nation, about a labyrinth of loneliness in which it is imprisoned by its geography as well as by a fate which ensnares it. For some, all of this is an obstacle to the plan for a unified face, an adult identity, a unique position among the concert of nations and a shared mission. For others, the Church in Mexico is also regarded as being either condemned to suffer the inferior position to which it was relegated in some periods of its past, as for example when its voice was silenced and efforts were made to eradicate it; or condemned to venture into expressions of fundamentalism thus holding onto provisional certainties while forgetting to nest its heart in the Absolute and be called in Christ to unite everyone and not just a portion (cf. Lumen Gentium 1:1). On the other hand, never cease to remind your people of how powerful their ancient roots are, roots which have allowed a vibrant Christian synthesis of human, cultural and spiritual unity which was forged here. Remember that the wings of your people have spread on various occasions to rise above changing situations. Protect the memory of the long journey undertaken so far and know how to inspire the hope of attaining new heights because the future will bear a land “rich in fruit” even if it involves considerable challenges (Num 13:27-28). May your vision, always and solely resting upon Christ, be capable of contributing to the unity of the people in your care; of favouring the reconciliation of its differences and the integration of its diversities; of promoting a solution to its endogenous problems; of remembering the high standards which Mexico can attain when it learns to belong to itself rather than to others; of helping to find shared and sustainable solutions to its misfortunes; of motivating the entire nation to not be content with less than what is expected of a Mexican way of living in the world. A vision that is close and attentive, not dormant I urge you to not fall into that paralyzation of standard responses to new questions. Your past is a source of riches to be mined and which can inspire the present and illumine the future. How unfortunate you are if you sit on your laurels! It is important not to squander the inheritance you have received by protecting it through constant work. You stand on the shoulders of giants: bishops, priests, religious and lay faithful “unto the end”, who have offered their lives so that the Church can fulfil her own mission. From those heights you are called to turn your gaze to the Lord’s vineyard to plan the sowing and wait for the harvest. I invite you to give yourselves tirelessly and fearlessly to the task of evangelizing and deepening the faith by means of a mystagogical catechesis that treasures the popular religiosity of the people. Our times require pastoral attention to persons and groups who hope to encounter the living Jesus. Only the courageous personal conversion of our communities can seek, generate and nourish todays disciples of the Lord (cf. Aparecida, 226, 368, 370). Hence it is necessary for us Pastors to overcome the temptation of aloofness and clericalism, of coldness and indifference, of triumphalism and self-centredness. Guadalupe teaches us that God is known by his countenance, and that closeness and humble bowing down are more powerful than force. As the wonderful Guadalupana tradition teaches us, la Morenita gathers together those who contemplate her, and reflects the faces of those who find her. It is essential to learn that there is something unique in every person who looks to us in their search for God. We must guard against becoming impervious to such gazes but rather gather them to our hearts and guard them. Only a Church able to shelter the faces of men and women who knock on her doors will be able to speak to them of God. If we do not know how to decipher their sufferings, if we do not come to understand their needs, then we can offer them nothing. The richness we have flows only when we encounter the smallness of those who beg and this encounter occurs precisely in our hearts, the hearts of Pastors. The first face I ask you to guard in your hearts is that of your priests. Do not leave them exposed to loneliness and abandonment, easy prey to a worldliness that devours the heart. Be attentive and learn how to read their expressions so as to rejoice with them when they feel the joy of recounting all that they have “done and taught” (Mk 6:30). Also, do not step back when they feel humiliated and can only cry because they “have denied the Lord” (cf. Lk 22:61-62), and offer your support, in communion with Christ, when one of them, disheartened, goes out with Judas into “the night” (cf. Jn 13:30). As bishops in these situations, your paternal care for your priests must never be found wanting. Encourage communion among them; seek the perfection of their gifts; involve them in great ventures, for the heart of an apostle was not made for small things. The need for familiarity abides in the heart of God. Our Lady of Guadalupe therefore asks for a casita sagrada, a “small holy home”. Our Latin American populations know well the diminutive forms of expression and use them willingly. Perhaps they need to use the diminutive forms because they would feel lost otherwise. They have adapted themselves to feeling small and have grown accustomed to living modestly. When the Church congregates in a majestic Cathedral, she should not fail to see herself as a “small home” in which her children can feel comfortable. We remain in God’s presence only when we are little ones, orphans and beggars. A “small home”, casita, is familiar and at the same time “holy”, sagrada, for it is filled by God’s omnipotent greatness. We are guardians of this mystery. Perhaps we have lost the sense of the humble ways of the divine and are tired of offering our own men and women the casita in which they feel close to God. On occasion, a disregard for the sense of omnipotent greatness has led to a partial loss of reverential fear towards such great love. Where God lives, man cannot enter without being invited in and he can only enter “taking off his shoes” (cf. Ex 3:5), so as to confess his unworthiness. Our having forgotten this “taking off our shoes” in order to enter, is this perhaps not the root cause of that lost sense of the sacredness of human life, of the person, of fundamental values, of the wisdom accumulated along the centuries, and of respect for the environment? Without rescuing within the consciences of men and women and of society these profound roots and without reclaiming those generous efforts to promote legitimate human rights, the vital sap will be lacking; and it is a sap that comes only from a source which humanity itself cannot procure. A holistic and unified vision Only by looking at la Morenita can Mexico be understood in its entirety. And so I invite you to appreciate that the mission which the Church entrusts to you demands a vision embracing the whole. This cannot be realized in an isolated manner, but only in communion. La Guadalupana has a ribbon around her waist which proclaims her fecundity. She is the Blessed Virgin who already has in her womb the Son awaited by men and women. She is the Mother who already carries the humanity of a newborn world. She is the Bride who prefigures the maternal fruitfulness of Christ’s Church. You have been entrusted with the mission of enrobing the Mexican nation with God’s fruitfulness. No part of this ribbon can be despised. The Mexican episcopate has made significant strides in these years since the Council; it has increased its members; it has promoted permanent formation which is consistent and professional; there has been a fraternal atmosphere; the spirit of collegiality has matured; the pastoral efforts have had an influence on your local Churches and on the conscience of the nation; the shared pastoral initiatives have been fruitful in vital areas of the Church’s mission, such as the family, vocations, and the Church’s presence in society. While we are encouraged by the path taken during these years, I would ask you not to lose heart in the face of difficulties and not to spare any effort in promoting, among yourselves and in your dioceses, a missionary zeal, especially towards the most needy areas of the one body of the Mexican Church. To rediscover that the Church is mission is fundamental for her future, because only the “enthusiasm and confident admiration” of evangelizers has the power to attract. I ask you, therefore, to take great care in forming and preparing the lay-faithful, overcoming all forms of clericalism and involving them actively in the mission of the Church, above all making the Gospel of Christ present in the world by personal witness. Of great benefit to the Mexican people will be the unifying witness of the Christian synthesis and the shared vision of the identity and future of its people. In this sense, it is important for the Pontifical University of Mexico to be increasingly involved in the efforts of the Church to ensure a universal perspective; for without this, reason, which tends to compartmentalize, will renounce its highest ideal of seeking the truth. The mission is vast, and to carry it forward requires multiple paths. I strongly reiterate my appeal to you to preserve the communion and unity that exist among you. Communion is the essential form of the Church, and the unity of her Pastors offers proof of its truth. Mexico and its vast, multifaceted Church, stand in need of bishops who are servants and custodians of that unity built on the word of God, nourished by his Body and guided by his Spirit who is the life-giving breath of the Church. We do not need “princes”, but rather a community of the Lord’s witnesses. Christ is the only light; he is the well-spring of living water; from his breath comes forth the Spirit, who fills the sails of the ecclesial barque. In the glorified Christ, whom the people of this country love to honour as King, may you together kindle the light and be filled by his presence which is never extinguished; breathe deeply the wholesome air of his Spirit. It falls to you to sow Christ in this land, to keep alive his humble light which enlightens without causing confusion, to ensure that in his living waters the thirst of your people is quenched; to set the sails so that the Spirit’s breeze may fill them, never allowing the barque of the Church in Mexico to run aground. Remember: the Bride knows that the beloved Pastor (cf. Song 1:7) will be found only where there are verdant pastures and crystal clear streams. She does not trust those companions of the Bridegroom who, sometimes out of laziness or inability, lead the sheep through arid lands and areas strewn with rocks. Woe to us pastors, companions of the Supreme Pastor, if we allow his Bride to wander because we have set up tents where the Bridegroom cannot be found! Allow me a final word to convey the appreciation of the Pope for everything you are doing to confront the challenge of our age: migration. There are millions of sons and daughters of the Church who today live in the diaspora or who are in transit, journeying to the north in search of new opportunities. Many of them have left behind their roots in order to brave the future, even in clandestine conditions which involve so many risks; they do this to seek the “green light” which they regard as hope. So many families are separated; and integration into a supposedly “promised land” is not always as easy as some believe. Brothers, may your hearts be capable of following these men and women and reaching them beyond the borders. Strengthen the communion with your brothers of the North American episcopate, so that the maternal presence of the Church can keep alive the roots of the faith of these men and women, as well as the motivation for their hope and the power of their charity. May it never happen, that, hanging up their lyres, their joys become dampened, they forget Jerusalem and are exiled from themselves (cf. Ps 136). I ask you to witness together that the Church is the custodian of a unifying vision of humanity and that she cannot consent to being reduced to a mere human “resource”. Your efforts will not be in vain when your dioceses show care by pouring balm on the injured feet of those who walk through your territories, sharing with them the resources collected through the sacrifices of many; the divine Samaritan in the end will enrich the person who is not indifferent to him as he lies on the side of the road (cf. Lk 10:25-37). Dear brothers, the Pope is sure that Mexico and its Church will make it in time to that rendezvous with themselves, with history and with God. Perhaps some stone on the way may slow their pace and the struggle of the journey may call for rest, but nothing will make them lose sight of the destination. For how can someone arrive late when it is their mother who is waiting? Who is unable to hear within themselves that voice, ‘am I not here, I who am your Mother’?

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VATICAN NEWS

Pope Francis to Mexican bishops: Follow example of Our Lady of Guadalupe

by Maggie Maslak (CNA/EWTN News) • February 13, 2016

Pope Francis celebrates Mass for the Feast of the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple in St. Peter’s Basilica on Feb. 2, 2015. (Daniel Ibáñez/CNA)

Mexico City, Mexico — Pope Francis met with the bishops of Mexico on Saturday at the Metropolitan Cathedral of the Assumption of Mary, where he highlighted the intercessory power of Our Lady of Guadalupe and encouraged the country’s clergy to overcome their challenges through perseverance and unity.

“I know that by looking into the eyes of the Blessed Virgin, I am able to follow the gaze of her sons and daughters who, in her, have learned to express themselves,” Pope Francis stated.

“I know that here is found the secret heart of each Mexican,” he continued, saying “please allow la Guadalupana to be the starting point of everything I will say to you.”

Pope Francis’ words to the Mexican bishops come during his first apostolic voyage to the country of Mexico from Feb. 12-17. Earlier in the day, he met with President Enrique Pena Nieto and other civil authorities at the National Palace, and will later celebrate Mass at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

Pope Francis’ predecessors St. John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI both visited Mexico during their pontificates, making Pope Francis the third Pope in history to visit the country.

During his meeting, Pope Francis underscored the profound impact of Our Lady of Guadalupe, saying “no other voice can speak so powerfully to me of the Mexican heart … she guards its highest aspirations and the most hidden hopes.”

The Holy Father also pointed to Our Lady of Guadalupe as an example to all religious and clergy, because she “teaches us that the only power capable of conquering the hearts of men and women is the tenderness of God.”

He encouraged the Bishops of Mexico to follow this path of ministry, evangelization and unity that Our Lady of Guadalupe has set. Just like Our Lady of Guadalupe, Pope Francis told the bishops that they too are entrusted “with the mission of enrobing the Mexican nation with fruitfulness.”

“I think of the need to offer a maternal place of rest to young people. May your vision be capable of meeting theirs, loving them and understanding what they search for,” Pope Francis stated.

“Introduce your priests into a right understanding of sacred ministry. Let us allow the Father to assign the place that he has prepared for us,” Pope Francis continued, asking the bishops to particularly guard the hearts of their priests.

Pope Francis additionally noted his concern for those “seduced by the empty power of the world,” who are blinded by the lure of money and the violence of drug trade. The phenomenon of this dangerous power poses a specific challenge to the pastors of the church of Mexico, the Holy Father stated.

“Only by starting with families, by drawing close and embracing the fringes of human existence … will people finally escape the raging waters that drown so many,” he said, asking the bishops to pay particular attention to the family.

The Pope encouraged the Bishops of Mexico to nurture humility, patience and unity with their communities “by weaving the new man which your country awaits with the fine thread made of the men and women you encounter.”

Despite the country’s at times lonely and painful history, the Holy Father encouraged the Mexican bishops to “never cease to remind your people of how powerful their ancient roots are, roots which have allowed a vibrant Christian synthesis of human, cultural and spiritual unity which was forged here.”

“It is important not to squander the inheritance you have received by protecting it through constant work,” Pope Francis told the bishops, saying “it falls to you to sow Christ in this land.”

“Mexico and its vast, multifaceted Church, stand in need of bishops who are servants and custodians of that unity built on the word of God, nourished by his Body and guided by his Spirit who is the lifegiving breath of the Church,” Pope Francis stated.

The Holy Father also touched on the topic of migration, recalling the millions of men and women who gamble their lives in pursuit of a new future. He noted the risks of migration and the heartbreak of separated families for the promise of a new life.

“May your hearts be capable of following these men and women and reaching them beyond borders,” he told the bishops, saying their “efforts will not be in vain when your dioceses show care by pouring balm on the injured feet of those who walk through your territories.”

Although Mexico faces many struggles and challenges, Pope Francis asked the Bishops to embrace the future with a unified vision without losing sight of the destination.

“I would ask you not to lose heart in the face of difficulties and not to spare any effort in promoting, among yourselves and in your dioceses, a missionary zeal, especially towards the most needy areas of the one body of the Mexican Church,” the Pope stated.

“So I invite you to appreciate that the mission which the Church entrusts to you demands a vision embracing the whole. This cannot be realized in an isolated manner, but only in communion.”

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Full text of Pope Francis’ homily at Mass in the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe

by CNA/EWTN News • February 13, 2016

The image of Our Lady of Guadalupe inside the Basilica Shrine. (Eduardo Santos/CNA)

Mexico City, Mexico — Below is the full text of Pope Francis’ Feb. 13 homily at Mass in the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City:

We have just heard how Mary went to meet her cousin Elizabeth. She sets out without delay, without doubts, without lessening her pace, to be with her relative who was in the last months of her pregnancy. Mary’s encounter with the angel did not hold her back since she did not consider herself privileged, or make her hesitate in leaving those around her. On the contrary, it renewed and inspired an attitude for which Mary is, and always, will be known: she is the woman who says “yes”, a “yes” of surrender to God and, at the same time, a “yes” of surrender to her brothers and sisters. This is the “yes” which prompted her to give the best of herself, going forth to meet the others. Listening to this Gospel passage in this place has a special significance. Mary, the woman who gave her “yes”, wished also to come to the inhabitants of these American lands in the person of the Indian Saint Juan Diego. Just as she went along the paths of Judea and Galilee, in the same way she walked through Tepeyac, wearing the indigenous garb and using their language so as to serve this great nation. Just as she accompanied Elizabeth in her pregnancy, so too she has and continues to accompany the development of this blessed Mexican land. Just as she made herself present to little Juan, so too she continues to reveal herself to all of us, especially to those who feel, like him, “worthless” (cf. Nican Mopohua, 55). This specific choice, we might call it preferential, was not against anyone but rather in favour of everyone. The little Indian Juan who called himself a “leather strap, a back frame, a tail, a wing, oppressed by another’s burden” (Ibid.), became “the ambassador, most worthy of trust”. On that morning in December 1531, the first miracle occurred which would then be the living memory of all this Shrine protects. On that morning, at that meeting, God awakened the hope of his son Juan, and the hope of his People. On that morning, God roused the hope of the little ones, of the suffering, of those displaced or rejected, of all who feel they have no worthy place in these lands. On that morning, God came close and still comes close to the suffering but resilient hearts of so many mothers, fathers, grandparents who have seen their children leaving, becoming lost or even being taken by criminals. On that morning, Juan experienced in his own life what hope is, what the mercy of God is. He was chosen to oversee, care for, protect and promote the building of this Shrine. On many occasions he said to Our Lady that he was not the right person; on the contrary, if she wished the work to progress, she should choose others, since he was not learned or literate and did not belong to the group who could make it a reality. Mary, who was persistent – with that persistence born from the Father’s merciful heart – said to him: he would be her ambassador. In this way, she managed to awaken something he did not know how to express, a veritable banner of love and justice: no one could be left out in the building of that other shrine, the shrine of life, the shrine of our communities, our societies and our cultures. We are all necessary, especially those who normally do not count because they are not “up to the task” or “they do not have the necessary funds” to build all these things. God’s Shrine is the life of his children, of everyone in whatever condition, especially of young people without a future who are exposed to endless painful and risky situations, and the elderly who are unacknowledged, forgotten and out of sight. The Shrine of God is our families in need only of the essentials to develop and progress. The Shrine of God is the faces of the many people we encounter each day … Visiting this Shrine, the same things that happened to Juan Diego can also happen to us. Look at the Blessed Mother from within our own sufferings, our own fear, hopelessness, sadness, and say to her, “What can I offer since I am not learned?”. We look to our Mother with eyes that express out thoughts: there are so many situations which leave us powerless, which make us feel that there is no room for hope, for change, for transformation. And so, some silence does us good as we pause to look upon her and repeat to her the words of that other loving son: “Simply looking at you, O Mother, to have eyes only for you, looking upon you without saying anything, telling you everything, wordlessly and reverently. Do not perturb the air before you; only cradle my stolen solitude with your loving Motherly eyes, in the nest of your pure ground. Hours tumble by, and with much commotion, the wastage of life and death sinks its teeth into foolish men. Having eyes for you, O Mother, simply contemplating you with a heart quietened by your tenderness that silence of yours, chaste as the lilies.” (liturgical hymn) And in looking at her, we will hear anew what she says to us once more, “What, my most precious little one, saddens your heart?” (Nican Mopohua, 107). “Yet am I not here with you, who have the honour of being your mother?” (Ibid., 119). Mary tells us that she has “the honour” of being our mother, assuring us that those who suffer do not weep in vain. These ones are a silent prayer rising to heaven, always finding a place in Mary’s mantle. In her and with her, God has made himself our brother and companion along the journey; he carries our crosses with us so as not to leave us overwhelmed by our sufferings. Am I not your mother? Am I not here? Do not let trials and pains overwhelm you, she tells us. Today, she sends us out anew; today, she comes to tell us again: be my ambassador, the one I send to build many new shrines, accompany many lives, wipe away many tears. Simply be my ambassador by walking along the paths of your neighbourhood, of your community, of your parish; we can build shrines by sharing the joy of knowing that we are not alone, that Mary accompanies us. Be my ambassador, she says to us, giving food to the hungry, drink to those who thirst, a refuge to those in need, clothe the naked and visit the sick. Come to the aid of your neighbour, forgive whoever has offended you, console the grieving, be patient with others, and above all beseech and pray to God. Am I not your mother? Am I not here with you? Mary says this to us again. Go and build my shrine, help me to lift up the lives of my sons and daughters, your brothers and sisters.

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At Guadalupe Mass, Pope highlights Mary’s ‘yes’

by CNA/EWTN News • February 13, 2016

Pope Francis speaks to religious communities at the Training Center School of Love in Kkottongnaeon, South Korea on Aug. 16, 2014. (Alan Holdren/CNA)

Mexico City, Mexico — Pope Francis’ historic first pilgrimage to the Basilica Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City brought reflections of obedience, surrender, and hope as the Holy Father celebrated Mass on Feb. 13.

“We have just heard how Mary went to meet her cousin Elizabeth. She sets out without delay, without doubts, without lessening her pace, to be with her relative,” Pope Francis stated during his homily on Feb. 13, pointing to the Gospel of Luke.

Mary “is the woman who says ‘yes’ … this is the ‘yes’ which prompted her to give the best of herself, going forth to meet the others,” the Holy Father continued.

Pope Francis offered these reflections while celebrating Mass at the Basilica Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe during his 6-day papal trip to the country of Mexico.

During his homily, Pope Francis noted that listening to that particular Gospel passage on Mary “in this place has a special significance.” He went on to highlight Mary’s availability to those in need, saying her obedient surrender to God helped her serve her brothers and sisters.

“Just as she accompanied Elizabeth in her pregnancy, so too she has and continues to accompany the development of the blessed Mexican land,” Pope Francis stated, saying Mary reveals herself particularly to those who feel worthless.

When Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared to St. Juan Diego on Tepeyac Hill in December 1531, Pope Francis recalled that “the first miracle occurred which would then be the living memory of all this Shrine protects.”

“On that morning, God roused the hope of the little ones, of the suffering, of those displaced or rejected, of all who feel they have no worthy place in these lands,” the Pope stated.

Pope Francis also noted that St. Juan Diego first experienced true mercy and hope through Our Lady of Guadalupe. Although St. Juan Diego often thought “he was not the right person,” Mary remained persistent in her requests and made him “her ambassador.”

Because of St. Juan Diego’s lowliness, the miracle of Our Lady of Guadalupe was able to proclaim that “we are all necessary, especially those who normally do not count because they are not ‘up to the task,’” the Holy Father stated.

“God’s Shrine is the life of his children, of everyone in whatever condition, especially of young people without a future who are exposed to endless painful and risky situations, and the elderly who are unacknowledged, forgotten and out of sight,” Pope Francis said.

The unworthiness of St. Juan Diego can be an example to everyone, the Pope continued, saying Mary favors her children who feel rejected, “assuring us that those who suffer do not weep in vain.”

“Look at the Blessed Mother from within our own sufferings, our own fear, hopelessness, sadness, and say to her, ‘What can I offer since i am not learned?’” the Holy Father said.

The Pope then reflected on a liturgical hymn, asking to have “eyes for you, O Mother, simply contemplating you with a heart quietened by your tenderness, that silence of yours, chaste as the lilies.”

The Holy Father also noted that Mary wants all her children to “be ambassadors” like St. Juan Diego, by giving food to the hungry, refuge to those in need, clothing the naked and helping the sick.

“Today, she sends us out anew; today, she comes to tell us again: be my ambassador, the one I send to build many new shrines, accompany many lives, wipe away many tears,” Pope Francis stated.

“Mary says this to us again. Go and build my shrine, help me to lift up the lives of my sons and daughters, your brothers and sisters.”

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Pope Francis prays before Our Lady of Guadalupe

by CNA/EWTN News • February 13, 2016

Pope Francis prays at a General Audience at the Vatican on Sept. 25, 2013. (Elise Harris/CNA)

Mexico City, Mexico — After Mass at the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Pope Francis spent some time in prayer before the image of Our Lady.

The Pontiff offered a bouquet of yellow flowers and sat praying silently for about 20 minutes before the image of the tilma of the Virgin of Guadalupe in the so-called “dressing room” of the Virgin of Guadalupe.

A few minutes before, the Pope blessed a crown for Our Lady of Guadalupe, which was placed to near the flowers.

Pope Francis is in Mexico Feb. 12-17. It is his first papal visit to the country.

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The unscripted message of Pope Francis in Mexico

by CNA/EWTN News • February 13, 2016

Pope Francis at the general audience in St. Peter’s Square on Dec. 16, 2015. (Daniel Ibanez/CNA)

Mexico City, Mexico — Upon arriving in Mexico the evening of Feb. 12, Pope Francis traveled to the Apostolic Nunciature, where he spent the night – but not without a surprise.

Shortly after arriving, the Pope came out to greet the crowds, speaking in a short, unscheduled address about the Blessed Mother.

With hundreds of people gathered, the Holy Father spent about 10 minutes addressing the crowd. He prayed with them and blessed them.

Francis asked those present to pray “for the people that I love and also for those that I do not love and for those that are angry, jealous or envious.”

The Pope also asked for prayers to the Mother of God for those that “have harmed us” so that the “Lord may give us the strength” to forgive them.

The Holy Father then gave his blessing and reminded those gathered that “tomorrow is Saturday, it is a day that’s kind of free and then the day after is Sunday which is a day of rest and we have a lot of activities. We have to all be rested.”

“Tomorrow we will get together again, but do not forget, while on the way home and before going to sleep, remember what I told you: the people that we love, those that we do not, and those that have harmed us so that the Virgen may bless them.

“Good night, rest well, and may God Bless you,” Francis concluded.

Pope Francis’ Feb. 12-17 trip to Mexico is his first as pontiff. He is the third Pope to visit the nation: St. John Paul II visited Mexico five times over the course of his 27 year pontificate, and Benedict XVI in 2012.

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Full text of Pope Francis’ homily at Mass at the Study Center of Ecatepec

by CNA/EWTN News • February 14, 2016

Pope Francis. (Daniel Ibañez/CNA)

Ecatepec, Mexico — Last Wednesday we began the liturgical season of Lent, during which the Church invites us to prepare ourselves to celebrate the great feast of Easter. This is a special time for recalling the gift of our baptism, when we became children of God. The Church invites us to renew the gift she has given us, to not let this gift lie dormant as if it were something from the past or locked away in some “memory chest.” Lent is a good time to recover the joy and hope that make us feel beloved sons and daughters of the Father. The Father who waits for us in order to cast off our garments of exhaustion, of apathy, of mistrust, and so clothe us with the dignity which only a true father or mother knows how to give their children, with the garments born of tenderness and love.

Our Father, he is the Father of a great family; he is our Father. He knows that he has a unique love, but he does not know how to bear or raise an “only child.” He is the God of the home, of brotherhood, of bread broken and shared. He is the God who is “Our Father,” not “my father” or “your stepfather.”

God’s dream makes its home and lives in each one of us so that at every Easter, in every Eucharist we celebrate, we may be the children of God. It is a dream which so many of our brothers and sisters have had through history. A dream witnessed to by the blood of so many martyrs, both from long ago and from now.

Lent is a time of conversion, of daily experiencing in our lives of how this dream is continually threatened by the father of lies, by the one who tries to separate us, making a divided and fractious society. A society of the few, and for the few. How often we experience in our own lives, or in our own families, among our friends or neighbors, the pain which arises when the dignity we carry within is not recognized. How many times have we had to cry and regret on realizing that we have not acknowledged this dignity in others. How often – and it pains me to say it – have we been blind and impervious in failing to recognize our own and others’ dignity.

Lent is a time for reconsidering our feelings, for letting our eyes be opened to the frequent injustices which stand in direct opposition to the dream and the plan of God. It is a time to unmask three great temptations that wear down and fracture the image which God wanted to form in us:

There are three temptations of Christ … three temptations for the Christian, which seek to destroy what we have been called to be; three temptations which try to corrode us and tear us down.

Wealth: seizing hold of goods destined for all, and using them only for “my own people”. That is, taking the “bread” based on the toil of others, or even at the expense of their very lives. That wealth which tastes of pain, bitterness and suffering. This is the bread that a corrupt family or society gives its own children.

Vanity: the pursuit of prestige based on continuous, relentless exclusion of those who “are not like me”. The futile chasing of those five minutes of fame which do not forgive the “reputation” of others.

“Making firewood from a felled tree” gives way to the third temptation:

Pride: or rather, putting oneself on a higher level than one truly is on, feeling that one does not share the life of “mere mortals,” and yet being one who prays every day: “I thank you Lord that you have not made me like those others …”.

Three temptations of Christ … Three temptations which the Christian is faced with daily. Three temptations which seek to corrode, destroy and extinguish the joy and freshness of the Gospel. Three temptations which lock us into a cycle of destruction and sin.

And so it is worth asking ourselves:

To what degree are we aware of these temptations in our lives, in our very selves?

How much have we become accustomed to a lifestyle where we think that our source and life force lies only in wealth?

To what point do we feel that caring about others, our concern and work for bread, for the good name and dignity of others, are wellsprings of happiness and hope?

We have chosen Jesus, not the evil one; we want to follow in his footsteps, even though we know that this is not easy. We know what it means to be seduced by money, fame and power. For this reason, the Church gives us the gift of this Lenten season, invites us to conversion, offering but one certainty: he is waiting for us and wants to heal our hearts of all that tears us down. He is the God who has a name: Mercy. His name is our wealth, his name is what makes us famous, his name is our power and in his name we say once more with the Psalm: “You are my God and in you I trust.” Let us repeat these words together: “You are my God and in you I trust.”

In this Eucharist, may the Holy Spirit renew in us the certainty that his name is Mercy, and may he let us experience each day that “the Gospel fills the hearts and lives of all who encounter Jesus,” knowing that “with Christ and in Christ joy is constantly born anew” (cf. Evangelii Gaudium, 1).

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Don’t let the devil steal God’s dream for you, Pope Francis says in Ecatepec

by CNA/EWTN News • February 14, 2016

Pope Francis venerates the Cross on Good Friday, 2015. (L’Osservatore Romano)

Ecatepec, Mexico — Lent is a time of conversion, and a time to guard against the devil, who tries to rob us of God’s dream that we become his sons and daughters. That is what Pope Francis said on Sunday when he visited the violent, crime-ridden Mexican suburb of Ecatepec.

“Lent is a good time to recover the joy and hope that make us feel beloved sons and daughters of the Father,” the Pope said Feb. 14.

God the Father, he continued, “waits for us in order to cast off our garments of exhaustion, of apathy, of mistrust, and so clothe us with the dignity which only a true father or mother knows how to give their children.”

He said that “God’s dream” makes its home and lives within each one of us, “so that at every Easter, in every Eucharist we celebrate, we may be the children of God.”

However, Francis also noted that Lent is “a time of conversion,” and of experiencing daily “how this dream is continually threatened by the father of lies, by the one who tries to separate us, making a divided and fractious society.”

Pope Francis offered his reflections during Mass in the Mexican city of Ecatepec. His Feb. 14 visit to the city is part of his wider, Feb. 12-17 voyage to Mexico that will take him to other Mexican hot zones such as Morelia and Ciudad Juarez.

Ecatepec is one of the most crowded and impoverished parts of Mexico. It is known for its shanty living conditions and violence, particularly toward women. In fact, the city currently has one of highest rates of killings and disappearances of women in the entire country.

Pope Francis has previously mentioned that in coming to Mexico, he wanted to visit places no other Pope had, apart from Mexico City and the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe. And he did just that, choosing to visit the cities most affected by problems of violence, drug trafficking and immigration.

He delivered his homily at the Mass at the Study Center of Ecatepec. There, Pope Francis said that during the season of Lent, the Church invites us to renew the gift of our baptism, and not let it “lie dormant as if it were something from the past or locked away in some memory chest.”

He said that the devil is constant seeking to divide, and cautioned attendees against falling into the temptation of creating “a society of the few, and for the few.”

Francis lamented the many times people have cried with regret after realizing they haven’t acknowledged the dignity of others, as well as how we are frequently “blind and impervious in failing to recognize our own and others’ dignity.”

“Lent is a time for reconsidering our feelings, for letting our eyes be opened to the frequent injustices which stand in direct opposition to the dream and the plan of God,” he said. He added that Lent is also a time to “unmask” three temptations that “wear down and fracture” the image God wanted to form in us.

He said these temptations are the same ones Jesus is faced with in the day’s Gospel, taken from Luke: wealth, vanity and power.

In the life of a Christian, these temptations “seek to destroy what we have been called to be” and “try to corrode us and tear us down,” the Pope said.

He said that the temptation for wealth consists of taking what is meant for all and using it for one’s own purpose. Namely, it means “taking the bread based on the toil of others, or even at the expense of their very lives.”

“That wealth which tastes of pain, bitterness and suffering. This is the bread that a corrupt family or society gives its own children,” Francis said.

Vanity, on the other hand, is “the pursuit of prestige based on continuous, relentless exclusion of those who ‘are not like me’,” he said. Pride means putting oneself on a higher level than one is truly on.

Francis stressed that these temptations are something we face every day. He questioned those present on how aware they are of the temptations in their own lives.

“We cannot dialogue with the devil. Only the strength of God’s word can defeat him,” he said.

The Pope told the faithful not to lose hope, because “we have chosen Jesus, not the evil one; we want to follow in his footsteps, even though we know that this is not easy.”

“We know what it means to be seduced by money, fame and power,” he said. He explained that it’s because of these temptations that the Church gives us the gift of the Lenten season and invites us to conversion.

The Church, he said, offers us one certainty in God: “(that) he is waiting for us and wants to heal our hearts of all that tears us down. He is the God who has a name: Mercy.”

Jesus is our true wealth, Francis said. He noted that “his name is what makes us famous, his name is our power and in his name we say once more with the Psalm: ‘You are my God and in you I trust.’

Pope Francis closed his homily by praying that the Holy Spirit would renew in all “the certainty that his name is Mercy, and may he let us experience each day that the Gospel fills the hearts and lives of all who encounter Jesus.”

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Pope Francis in Mexico: Let gratitude to God shape your lives

by CNA/EWTN News • February 14, 2016

Pope Francis at the Wednesday general audience in St. Peter’s Square on Aug. 26, 2016. (L’Osservatore Romano)

Ecatepec, Mexico — Thanksgiving was the focus of Pope Francis’ Sunday Angelus remarks in Mexico. He invited the Mexican faithful to help make their country “a land of opportunities” while not forgetting their origins.

The Pope reflected on the first Mass reading from Deuteronomy, in which Moses gave directions to the people.

“At harvest time, at the time of abundance and first fruits, do not forget your beginnings,” Francis said Feb. 14. “Thanksgiving is something which is born and grows among a people capable of remembering. It is rooted in the past, and through good and bad times, it shapes the present.”

Hundreds of thousands of people had gathered for Mass at the Ecatepec Study Center, where Pope Francis continued his Feb. 12-17 visit to Mexico.

“On this festive day we can celebrate how good the Lord has been to us. Let us give thanks for this opportunity to be together, to present to our Good Father the first fruits of our children, our grandchildren, of our dreams and our plans; the first fruits of our cultures, our languages and traditions, the first fruits of our concerns”

Pope Francis’ remarks included the importance of memory and remembrance in a living faith.

“Today, at the invitation of Moses, as a people we want to remember, we want to be the people that keeps alive the memory of God who passes among his People, in their midst,” the Pope continued. “We look upon our children knowing that they will inherit not only a land, a culture and a tradition, but also the living fruits of faith which recalls the certainty of God’s passing through this land. It is a certainty of closeness and solidarity, a certainty which helps us lift up our heads and ardently hope for the dawn.”

“I too join you in this remembrance, in this living memory of God’s passing through your lives,” he said.

The Pope continued to encourage Mexicans to work together to overcome problems in their country.

“I invite you once again today to be on the front line, to be first in all the initiatives which help make this blessed land of Mexico a land of opportunities, where there will be no need to emigrate in order to dream, no need to be exploited in order to work, no need to make the despair and poverty of many the opportunism of a few, a land that will not have to mourn men and women, young people and children who are destroyed at the hands of the dealers of death.”

Pope Francis cited Blessed Pope Paul VI’s words in Mexico during his October 1970 visit:

“A Christian cannot but show solidarity … to solve the situation of those who have not yet received the bread of culture or the opportunity of an honorable job … he cannot remain insensitive while the new generations have not found the way to bring into reality their legitimate aspirations.”

Francis invoked Our Lady of Guadalupe, saying Mexico is “filled with the perfume of la Guadalupana, a mother who has always gone before us in love.”

He prayed that she will “help us to bear radiant witness to communion, service, ardent and generous faith, justice and love of the poor, that the joy of the Gospel may reach to the ends of the earth, illuminating even the fringes of our world.”

The Pope then led the congregation of hundreds of thousands of people in praying the Angelus.

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Full text of Pope Francis’ address to the Federico Gómez children’s hospital

by CNA/EWTN News • February 14, 2016

Pope Francis at the General Audience address in St. Peter’s Square on May 13, 2015. (Daniel Ibanez/CNA)

Mexico City, Mexico — Madam First Lady, Madam Secretary for Health, Director, Members of the Board of Governors, Families here present, Dear Children, Friends one and all, Good afternoon.

I thank God for granting me this opportunity to come and visit you, to join you and your families in this hospital. To share a little of your life and of those who work here: the doctors, nurses, personnel, and volunteers who help. Thank you.

There is a very brief passage in the Gospel which tells us something of Jesus’ childhood. He was very small, just like some of you. One day, his parents, Joseph and Mary, took him up to the Temple to present him to God. And while there they met an old man called Simeon who, upon seeing Jesus, was very moved and filled with joy and gratitude. He took Jesus in his arms and held him close, and began to bless the Lord. Looking at Jesus inspired him in two ways: the feeling of gratitude and the desire to bless.

Simeon is “the uncle” who teaches us these two attitudes: gratitude and then blessing.

For my part (and not only because of my age), I feel I can relate well with these two lessons of Simeon. On the one hand, entering here and seeing your eyes, your smiles, your faces, has filled me with a desire to give thanks. Thank you for the kind way that you welcomed me, thank you for recognizing the tenderness with which you are cared for and accompanied. Thank you for the efforts of many who are doing their best so that you can get better quickly.

It is very important that we feel cared for and accompanied, to feel loved and to know that all these workers here are looking for the best way to care for us. To each of these people, I say, “Thank you”.

And at the same time, I wish to bless you. I ask God to bless you, and to accompany you and your families, and all those people who work in this home and try to ensure that your smiles grow day by day. May God bless each person … not only doctors but also those who provide “kindness-therapy” thus making the time spent here more enjoyable.

Have you ever heard of the Indian Juan Diego? When his uncle was sick, he was quite worried and distressed. Then, the Virgin of Guadalupe appeared to him and said, “Let not your heart be disturbed or upset by anything. Am I not here with you, I who am your mother?”

We have Mary as our Mother, and so let us ask her to give us the gift of her son, Jesus. Let us close our eyes and ask her to give us what our hearts seek today, and then let us pray together,

Hail Mary …

May the Lord and the Blessed Virgin of Guadalupe remain with you always. Thank you very much. And please, do not forget to pray for me.

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At a Mexico children’s hospital, Pope Francis prays with young patients

by CNA/EWTN News • February 14, 2016

Pope Francis hugs a child at Mexico City’s Federico Gomez Pediatric Hospital on Feb. 14, 2016. (CTV)

Mexico City, Mexico — Pope Francis on Sunday visited a pediatric hospital in Mexico City. He met the children being treated there, gave them rosaries and prayed with them.

In simple language, he spoke to the children about Jesus’ childhood.

“He was very small, just like some of you,” he said.

The Pope thanked God that he could visit the children and their families in the hospital “to share a little of your life and of those who work here.”

The Pope visited the Federico Gomez Pediatric Hospital in Mexico City Feb. 14.

There, he recounted to the children the biblical story of the Presentation. When Joseph and Mary took Jesus to the temple, they presented him to Simeon who was “very moved and filled with joy and gratitude.”

“He took Jesus in his arms and held him close, and began to bless the Lord. Looking at Jesus inspired him in two ways: the feeling of gratitude and the desire to bless,” the Pope explained.

He described Simeon as “the uncle” who teaches the attitudes of gratitude and blessing.

“For my part (and not only because of my age), I feel I can relate well with these two lessons of Simeon,” he said.

“On the one hand, entering here and seeing your eyes, your smiles, your faces, has filled me with a desire to give thanks. Thank you for the kind way that you welcomed me, thank you for recognizing the tenderness with which you are cared for and accompanied,” he said. “Thank you for the efforts of many who are doing their best so that you can get better quickly.”

“I ask God to bless you, and to accompany you and your families, and all those people who work in this home and try to ensure that your smiles grow day by day. May God bless each person … not only doctors but also those who provide ‘kindness-therapy’ thus making the time spent here more enjoyable.”

He linked the children’s illnesses to Mexico’s famous Marian apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

“Have you ever heard of the Indian Juan Diego? When his uncle was sick, he was quite worried and distressed. Then, the Virgin of Guadalupe appeared to him and said, ‘Let not your heart be disturbed or upset by anything. Am I not here with you, I who am your mother?’”

“We have Mary as our Mother, and so let us ask her to give us the gift of her son, Jesus. Let us close our eyes and ask her to give us what our hearts seek today, and then let us pray together,” he said.

He led the gathering in praying the Hail Mary.

“May the Lord and the Blessed Virgin of Guadalupe remain with you always.”

After his remarks, he moved through the hospital. He greeted the children, embraced them and blessed them. He gave medicine to one of the children.

At one point, a child sang the “Ave Maria” in a capella style.

He then visited the hospital’s chemotherapy wing to make a private visit to the children being treated there.

Pope Francis will be in Mexico Feb. 12-17.

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Full text of Pope Francis’ homily at Mass with representatives of the indigenous communities of Chiapas

by CNA/EWTN News • February 15, 2016

Pope Francis gives the homily at Mass with indigenous communities of Chiapas on Feb. 15, 2016. (Eduardo Berdejo/CNA)

Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Mexico — Below is the full text of Pope Francis’ Feb. 15 homily at Holy Mass with representatives of the indigenous communities of Chiapas in the municipal sport center in Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Mexico:

Li smantal Kajvaltike toj lek – The law of the Lord is perfect; it revives the soul. Thus begins the psalm we have just heard. The law of the Lord is perfect and the psalmist diligently lists everything that the law offers to those who hear and follow it: it revives the soul, it gives wisdom to the simple, it gladdens the heart, and it gives light to the eyes.

This is the law which the people of Israel received from the hand of Moses, a law that would help the People of God to live in the freedom to which they were called. A law intended to be a light for the journey and to accompany the pilgrimage of his people. A people who experienced slavery and the Pharaoh’s tyranny, who endured suffering and oppression to the point where God said, “Enough! No more! I have seen their affliction, I have heard their cry, I know their sufferings” (cf. Ex 3:9). And here the true face of God is seen, the face of the Father who suffers as he sees the pain, mistreatment, and lack of justice for his children. His word, his law, thus becomes a symbol of freedom, a symbol of happiness, wisdom and light. It is an experience, a reality which is conveyed by a phrase prayed in Popol Vuh and born of the wisdom accumulated in these lands since time immemorial: “The dawn rises on all of the tribes together. The face of the earth was immediately healed by the sun” (33). The sun rose for the people who at various times have walked in the midst of history’s darkest moments.

In this expression, one hears the yearning to live in freedom, there is a longing which contemplates a promised land where oppression, mistreatment and humiliation are not the currency of the day. In the heart of man and in the memory of many of our peoples is imprinted this yearning for a land, for a time when human corruption will be overcome by fraternity, when injustice will be conquered by solidarity and when violence will be silenced by peace.

Our Father not only shares this longing, but has himself inspired it and continues to do so in giving us his son Jesus Christ. In him we discover the solidarity of the Father who walks by our side. In him, we see how the perfect law takes flesh, takes a human face, shares our history so as to walk with and sustain his people. He becomes the Way, he becomes the Truth, he becomes the Life, so that darkness may not have the last word and the dawn may not cease to rise on the lives of his sons and daughters.

In many ways there have been attempts to silence and dull this yearning, and in many ways there have been efforts to anaesthetize our soul, and in many ways there have been endeavours to subdue and lull our children and young people into a kind of lassitude by suggesting that nothing can change, that their dreams can never come true. Faced with these attempts, creation itself also raises an objection: “This sister now cries out to us because of the harm we have inflicted on her by our irresponsible use and abuse of the goods with which God has endowed her. We have come to see ourselves as her lords and masters, entitled to plunder her at will. The violence present in our hearts, wounded by sin, is also reflected in the symptoms of sickness evident in the soil, in the water, in the air and in all forms of life. This is why the earth herself, burdened and laid waste, is among the most abandoned and maltreated of our poor; she ‘groans in travail’ (Rom 8:22)” (Laudato Si’, 2). The environmental challenge that we are experiencing and its human causes, affects us all (cf. Laudato Si’, 14) and demands our response. We can no longer remain silent before one of the greatest environmental crises in world history.

In this regard, you have much to teach us. Your peoples, as the bishops of Latin America have recognized, know how to interact harmoniously with nature, which they respect as a “source of food, a common home and an altar of human sharing” (Aparecida, 472).

And yet, on many occasions, in a systematic and organized way, your people have been misunderstood and excluded from society. Some have considered your values, culture and traditions to be inferior. Others, intoxicated by power, money and market trends, have stolen your lands or contaminated them. How sad this is! How worthwhile it would be for each of us to examine our conscience and learn to say, “Forgive me!” Today’s world, ravaged as it is by a throwaway culture, needs you!

Exposed to a culture that seeks to suppress all cultural heritage and features in pursuit of a homogenized world, the youth of today need to cling to the wisdom of their elders!

Today’s world, overcome by convenience, needs to learn anew the value of gratitude!

We rejoice in the certainty that “The Creator does not abandon us; he never forsakes his loving plan or repents of having created us” (Laudato Si’, 13). We rejoice that Jesus continues to die and rise again in each gesture that we offer to the least of our brothers and sisters. Let us be resolved to be witnesses to his Passion and his Resurrection, by giving flesh to these words: Li smantal Kajvaltike toj lek – the law of the Lord is perfect and comforts the soul.

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VATICAN NEWS

Pope in Mexico: Don’t anesthetize the hope of your youth

by Ann Schneible (CNA/EWTN News) • February 15, 2016

Pope Francis celebrates Mass with indigenous communities of Chiapas, Feb. 15, 2016. (Eduardo Berdejo/CNA)

Mexico City, Mexico — In today’s throwaway culture, young people are being anesthetized against the desire for a better world, Pope Francis said Monday, celebrating Mass in Mexico’s Chiapas region.

“In many ways there have been endeavours to subdue and lull our children and young people into a kind of lassitude by suggesting that nothing can change, that their dreams can never come true,” the Pope said.

The pontiff spoke of the attempts to “silence and dull this yearning” and to “anaesthetize” the soul, especially in young people.

“Exposed to a culture that seeks to suppress all cultural heritage and features in pursuit of a homogenized world, the youth of today need to cling to the wisdom of their elders!”

The Feb. 15 Mass was celebrated at the San Cristóbal de las Casas municipal sport’s center with representatives of the indigenous communities of Chiapas, marking the start of Pope Francis’ third full day in Mexico.

He centered his homily on the Psalm from the day’s Mass: “The law of the Lord is perfect; it revives the soul.”

The law referred to here is that which was given by Moses to the people of Israel – who had endured slavery, suffering, and oppression – to help them “live in the freedom to which they were called,” he explained.

“And here the true face of God is seen, the face of the Father who suffers as he sees the pain, mistreatment, and lack of justice for his children,” he said.

“His word, his law, thus becomes a symbol of freedom, a symbol of happiness, wisdom and light.”

Pope Francis observed how the experiences of the people of Israel are reminiscent of a prayer originating from the Popol Vuh, a work originating from the Guatemalan highlands.

“The sun rose for the people who at various times have walked in the midst of history’s darkest moments,” he said.

“In this expression, one hears the yearning to live in freedom, there is a longing which contemplates a promised land where oppression, mistreatment and humiliation are not the currency of the day.”

“In the heart of man and in the memory of many of our peoples is imprinted this yearning for a land, for a time when human corruption will be overcome by fraternity, when injustice will be conquered by solidarity and when violence will be silenced by peace.”

This longing, he said, is shared by the Father, who “himself inspired it and continues to do so in giving us his son Jesus Christ,” in whom “we discover the solidarity of the Father who walks by our side.”

“In him, we see how the perfect law takes flesh, takes a human face, shares our history so as to walk with and sustain his people.”

“He becomes the Way, he becomes the Truth, he becomes the Life, so that darkness may not have the last word and the dawn may not cease to rise on the lives of his sons and daughters.”

Meanwhile, efforts are made dissuade people, especially the youth, against the yearning for fraternity, justice. As a result, “creation itself also raises an objection,” the Pope said.

He added, quoting his encyclical on the environment, Laudato, Si: “The violence present in our hearts, wounded by sin, is also reflected in the symptoms of sickness evident in the soil, in the water, in the air and in all forms of life.”

“We can no longer remain silent before one of the greatest environmental crises in world history,” he said.

While the people throughout Latin America “know how to interact harmoniously with nature,” they have often, “in a systematic and organized way … been misunderstood and excluded from society,” the Pope said, addressing the region’s bishops.

“Some have considered your values, culture and traditions to be inferior. Others, intoxicated by power, money and market trends, have stolen your lands or contaminated them.”

“How sad this is! How worthwhile it would be for each of us to examine our conscience and learn to say, ‘Forgive me!’”

He stressed the responsibility toward the world which has become ravaged “by a throwaway culture.”

“Today’s world, overcome by convenience, needs to learn anew the value of gratitude!

Pope Francis’ Feb. 12-17 trip to Mexico is his first as pontiff. He is the third Pope to visit the nation: St. John Paul II visited Mexico five times over the course of his 27 year pontificate, and Benedict XVI in 2012.

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Full text of Pope Francis’ remarks during meeting with families

by CNA/EWTN News • February 15, 2016

Pope Francis arrives at San Cristobal de las Casas, Mexico on Feb. 15, 2016. (Marko Vombergar/ALETEIA)

Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Mexico — Below is the full text of Pope Francis’ prepared remarks for the meeting with families in the “Víctor Manuel Reyna” stadium in Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Mexico on Feb. 15, 2016. The Pope’s few unscripted remarks have also been added to the prepared remarks that he delivered.

Dear brothers and sisters,

I am grateful to be here, on Chiapaneca soil. It feels good to be here on this soil, on this land; it is good to be here in this place which, with you here, has a family flavour, a home flavour. I give thanks to God for your faces and your presence; I give thanks to God because of the heart-beat of his presence in your families. With you it has the flavor of family. I also thank you, families and friends, for giving us your witness, for opening to us the doors of your homes and your lives; you have allowed us to sit with you sharing both in the bread that nourishes you and in the sweat of your brow as you face the difficulties of every day. It is the bread representing the joys, the hopes and the hard sweat with which you confront sadness, disillusion and failings. I thank you for allowing me to enter into your families, your homes, and to sit at your tables.

Manual, before thanking you for your testimony I want to thank your parents, both of them, on their knees before you assuming their role. Can you see what the importance of this image? Parents, on their knees, before their son who is sick. Let us never forget this image. From time to time, when they argue about something – what husband and wife do not argue, and more so when the mother in law gets involved, what matters is that they love each other and they have demonstrated that they love each other and are capable of love from being on their knees, in front of their sick child. Thank you friends for this testimony that you have given and continue forward.

Manuel, I thank you for your witness and especially for your example. I liked the expression you used “to put your heart into it” [echarle ganas] describing the attitude you took after speaking with your parents.

You began to put your heart into your life, your family, your friends; you put your heart into us gathered here. I believe that this is what the Holy Spirit always wants to do in our midst: to put a new heart into us, giving us reasons to keep on taking risks for the family, dreaming and building a life that has this sense of home, of family. Can we encourage them? This is something which God the Father has always dreamt of and for which he has fought for a very long time. When everything seemed lost that afternoon in the Garden of Eden, God the Father put a new heart into that young couple and told them that everything was not lost. When the people of Israel felt that they could not go on journeying through the desert, God the Father put his heart into it by giving them manna from heaven. When the fullness of time came, God the Father put his heart into it by giving humanity the eternal gift of his Son. Similarly, all of us here have had this experience, in different moments and different ways; God the Father has put his heart into it for us. We can ask ourselves: why? Because he cannot do otherwise. Our God the Father does not know how to do anything else except encourage us and love us. He knows how to put his best into us; why? Because his name is love, his name is gift, his name is self-giving, his name is mercy. This he has shown us with complete power and clarity in Jesus, his Son, who risked everything to the end so as to once again make possible the Kingdom of God. A Kingdom that invites us to share in a new mindset, that puts into motion a dynamic power capable of opening the heavens, capable of opening our hearts, our minds, our hands and capable of challenging us with new possibilities. This is a Kingdom which has the feeling of family, the flavour of a life shared. In Jesus and with Jesus this Kingdom is possible. He is capable of changing our perspectives, attitudes, and feelings, which are often watery and dull, into the wine of joy and celebration. He can heal our hearts and invite us again and again, seventy times seven, to begin anew. He can make all things new. Manuel, you asked me to pray for the many adolescents who are disillusioned and on a wrong path, many who are deflated, tired and without aspirations. And as you yourself rightly said, this attitude often comes from a feeling of loneliness, from not having someone to talk to. Think about it fathers, think about it mothers. Do you talk to your sons and daughters or are you always busy and in a hurry? Do you play with you sons and daughters? And this reminds me of the witness which Beatrice gave us. If I am not mistaken Beatrice, you said: “the struggle has always been difficult because of uncertainty and loneliness”. How many times did you feel pointed out or judged? Think in all the people, all the women that have experienced what happened to Beatriz.. Uncertainty, insufficiency, and often not having the bare essentials, can lead to despair, can make us deeply anxious because we cannot see a way forward, especially when we have children in our care. Uncertainty is not only a threat to our stomach (which is already serious), but it can also threaten our soul, demoralizing us and taking away our energy so that we seek apparent solutions that in the end solve nothing. And you were courageous Beatriz! Thank you!There is a kind of uncertainty which can be very dangerous, which can creep in surreptitiously; it is the uncertainty born of solitude and isolation.

And isolation is always a bad counsellor. Manuel and Beatriz, unknowingly, used the same expression; both showed us that very often the greatest temptation we face is to cut ourselves off, and far from putting our heart into things, this attitude of isolation ends up, like a moth, drying up our souls. The way to overcome the uncertainty and isolation which makes us vulnerable to so many apparent solutions, can be found on different levels. One is through legislation which protects and guarantees the bare necessities of life so that every home and every person can develop through education and dignified employment. There is, on the other hand, what the witness of Humberto and Claudia made evident when they explained how they tried to convey to others the love of God that they experienced through service and generous giving. Laws and personal commitment make good duo that can break the spiral of uncertainty. You kept moving forward, you prayed, and you are with Jesus, and you are involved in the life of the Church. You used a beautiful expression: we comulgate with the weak one, the sick, the imprisoned. Thank you, thank you. Today we see how on different fronts the family is weakened and questioned. It is regarded as a model which has done its time, but which has no place in our societies; these, claiming to be modern, increasingly favor a model based on isolation. And in our societies in is being injected … they are called free societies, democratic, sovereign, and they are injecting destructive ideologies into the family, into the nucleus of the family which is the foundation of a healthy society. It is true that living in family is not always easy, and can often be painful and stressful but, as I have often said referring to the Church, I prefer a wounded family that makes daily efforts to put love into play, to a society that is sick from isolationism and habitual afraid of love. I prefer a family that makes repeated efforts to begin again, to a society that is narcissistic and obsessed with luxury and comfort.

How many children do you have? No, no we do not have any children because, you know, we like to go on vacation, see the sites, I want to by myself a second home … luxury and comfort and children are left out and when they want to have a child, the time has already passed. What damage this does! I prefer a family with a tired face because of their dedication to the family with faces done up than those that have not known love and compassion.

I prefer a man and a woman, with wrinkly faces because of the fights of everyday life that after 50 years they continue to love each other and there you have them and the son that learned the lesson, and has now been married for 25 years. Those are the families, when I asked Aniceto and his wife who had more patience during those more than 50 years, they said both. Because in the family, to be able to accomplish what they have done, you have to have patience, love and know how to forgive one another.

But Father, a perfect family never argues. That’s a lie. It is ok from time to time to argue and let a plate fly overhead, that’s ok. Do not be afraid of that. The only advice that I can give is to not allow a day to end without asking for forgiveness because if the day ends in war, you will wake up to a cold war and a cold war is very dangerous for a family because it is undermining from below. Wrinkles from matrimonial fidelity. Thank you for the your testimony of more than 50 years, thank you. And speaking about wrinkles – to change the subject – I remember the testimony of a great actress, a movie star, a Latina. When she was already 60 something, she began to have some wrinkles on her face and they told her that she should get a little work done to be able to continue to work. Her answer was very clear: these wrinkles costed me a lot of work! A lot of effort! A lot of pain and a full life! No way do I want to touch them, they are the footprints of my history. She continued to be a great actress!

In marriage, the same thing happens. Marriage has to renew itself every day. Like I said, I prefer families with wrinkles and wounds, with scars but that keeps moving forward. Because these wounds, these scars, these wrinkles are the fruits of fidelity, of a love that is not always easy. Love is not always easy, no, but it is the most beautiful that a man and a woman can have, true love, for life.

I have been asked to pray for you and I want to start right now, with you. You dear Mexicans have something special, you have an advantage. You have the Mother: the Guadalupana wanted to visit these lands, that gives us a certainty of having her intercession so that this dream called a family is not lost in insecurity and loneliness. She is Our Mother and is always available to defend our families and to defend our future. She is always available to strengthen our hearts and give us to her Son. Because of this, I invite you to take her hand and say to her: Hail Mary Full of Grace …

Let us not forget about Saint Joseph, a little quiet, a worker who was always in front, always caring for the family. Thank you. May God bless you and in this familiar celebration, let the marriages present, in silence, renew their matrimonial vows and the engaged ask for the grace of a faithful family, full of love.

I prefer a family with tired faces from generous giving, to faces with makeup that know nothing of tenderness and compassion. I have been asked to pray for you and I want to do so now, with you. You Mexicans have something extra; you run ahead with an advantage. You have a Mother, la Guadalupana.

She wanted to visit this land and this gives us the certainty of her intercession so that our dream, which we call the family, may not be lost through uncertainty or solitude. She is always ready to defend our families, our future; she is always ready to put her heart into it by giving us her Son. For this reason, I invite you to join our hands and say together: “Hail Mary …”.

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VATICAN NEWS

Even wounded families are better than isolation, Pope Francis says

by CNA/EWTN News • February 15, 2016

Pope Francis greets the Chiapas community at San Cristóbal de Las Casas on Feb. 15, 2016. (L’Osservatore Romano)

Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Mexico — Although families today deeply struggle in a society rife with dysfunction and pain, this fundamental relationship is still essential for our lives and preferable to being alone, Pope Francis said.

“Today we see how on different fronts the family is weakened and questioned,” the Pope said Monday while meeting with families in Mexico’s southern city of Tuxtla Gutiérrez.

“It is regarded as a model which has done its time, but which has no place in our societies; these, claiming to be modern, increasingly favor a model based on isolation.”

“It is true that living in family is not always easy, and can often be painful and stressful but, as I have often said referring to the Church, I prefer a wounded family that makes daily efforts to put love into play, to a society that is sick from isolationism and habitually afraid of love.”

The pontiff continued: “I prefer a family that makes repeated efforts to begin again, to a society that is narcissistic and obsessed with luxury and comfort. I prefer a family with tired faces from generous giving, to faces with makeup that know nothing of tenderness and compassion.”

Pope Francis met with families at the “Victor Manuel Reyna” Stadium in the capital of Mexico’s Chiapas state during his third full day of his Feb 12-17 trip to the country.

The Pope listened to testimonies ranging from a young man with muscular dystrophy, to a divorced and remarried couple, a family struggling to obtain basic goods for their families, and a single mother who refused to undergo abortions despite pressure to do so.

Halfway through the witnesses, the Pope – to wild cheers from crowd – paused to bless a wheelchair-bound young man who the pontiff’s security detail lifted on to the stage.

Responding to a series of testimonies given just before his address, Pope Francis expressed his gratitude for being in Chiapeneca, which has the “flavor” of family and a home.

“I give thanks to God because of the heart-beat of his presence in your families,” he said.

He also thanked the families for their witness and hospitality. “You have allowed us to sit with you sharing both in the bread that nourishes you and in the sweat of your brow as you face the difficulties of every day.”

“It is the bread representing the joys, the hopes and the hard sweat with which you confront sadness, disillusion and failings. I thank you for allowing me to enter into your families, your homes, and to sit at your tables.”

One of the people who gave testimony was Manuel, a teenager in a wheelchair who suffers from muscular dystrophy.

The Pope responded to Manuel by name, acknowledging how he had put his “heart” into his life, his family, and his friendships.

“I believe that this is what the Holy Spirit always wants to do in our midst: to put a new heart into us, giving us reasons to keep on taking risks, dreaming and building a life that has this sense of home, of family.”

“This is something which God the Father has always dreamt of and for which he has fought for a very long time.”

The Pope reflected on examples throughout Scripture in which God placed a “new heart” into the people: he assured Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden that all was not lost; he gave manna to the people of Israel as they journeyed through the desert.

Finally, “when the fullness of time came, God the Father put his heart into it by giving humanity the eternal gift of his Son.”

“Similarly, all of us here have had this experience, in different moments and different ways; God the Father has put his heart into it for us,” the Pope said.

God “cannot do otherwise,” he said: “Because his name is love, his name is gift, his name is self-giving, his name is mercy.”

This is shown in his Son, Jesus, in whom and with whom the “Kingdom of God” possible.

This Kingdom, the Pope said, “invites us to share in a new mindset, that puts into motion a dynamic power capable of opening the heavens, capable of opening our hearts, our minds, our hands and capable of challenging us with new possibilities.”

“This is a Kingdom which has the feeling of family, the flavor of a life shared.”

Jesus “is capable of changing our perspectives, attitudes, and feelings, which are often watery and dull, into the wine of joy and celebration,” the Pope continued.

“He can heal our hearts and invite us again and again, seventy times seven, to begin anew. He can make all things new.”

Pope Francis responded to Manuel’s request for prayers for those adolescents who are disillusioned and “on a wrong path,” many of whom “are deflated, tired and without aspirations.”

“This attitude often comes from a feeling of loneliness, from not having someone to talk to,” the Pope said.

He then turned to the testimony given by a woman named Beatrice, a single mother who had expressed her own struggle with uncertainty and loneliness.

“Uncertainty, insufficiency, and often not having the bare essentials, can lead to despair, can make us deeply anxious because we cannot see a way forward, especially when we have children in our care,” the Pope said.

Such uncertainty not only affects our “stomach,” but our soul as well, “demoralizing us and taking away our energy so that we seek apparent solutions that in the end solve nothing.

This dangerous form of certainty is “born of solitude and isolation,” he said: “And isolation is always a bad counselor.”

“Very often the greatest temptation we face is to cut ourselves off, and far from putting our heart into things, this attitude of isolation ends up, like a moth, drying up our souls,” the Pope said, reflecting on the two testimonies.

He touched on the various ways of overcoming “uncertainty and isolation” which makes people vulnerable: Legislation which ensures access to the basic necessities of life, including education and employment.

Pope Francis then reflected on the witness of Humberto and Claudia, a divorced and remarried couple who, in accordance to Church teaching, abstains from receiving the Eucharist.

“Laws and personal commitment make good duo that can break the spiral of uncertainty.”

The Pope concluded his address by reminding the Mexican people of their “advantage”: Our Lady of Guadalupe, before leading those present in reciting the Hail Mary.

“She is always ready to defend our families, our future; she is always ready to put her heart into it by giving us her Son.”

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Full text of Pope Francis’ homily at Mass with priests, men and women religious, consecrated people, and seminarians

by CNA/EWTN News • February 16, 2016

Pope Francis celebrates Mass with religious at Venustiano Carranza Stadium in Morelia, Mexico on Feb. 16, 2016. (David Ramos/CNA)

Morelia, Mexico — Below is the full text of Pope Francis’ Feb. 16 homily during Mass with priests, men and women religious, consecrated people and seminarians at “Venustiano Carranza” Stadium in Morelia, Mexico.

There is a saying which goes “tell me how you pray, and I will tell you how you live; tell me how you live and I will tell you how you pray. Because showing me how you pray, I will learn to find the God for whom you live, and showing me how you live, I will learn to believe in the God to whom you pray”. For our life speaks of prayer and prayer speaks of our life; our life speaks through our prayer and our prayer speaks through our life. Praying is something learned, just as we learn to walk, to speak, to listen. The school of prayer is the school of life and in the school of life we progress in the school of prayer.

And Paul to his disciple Timothy, when he taught him or exhorted him to live the faith, he said to him to remember his mother and his grandmother. And the seminarians when they entered the seminary, many times they asked me: Father, but I would like to have a more intense prayer life, more mental prayer. Look, keep praying as you were taught at home and after, step by step, your prayer will grow as you grow in life. Prayer you learn, just like with life.

Jesus wished to introduce his companions into the mystery of Life, into the mystery of His life. He showed them by eating, sleeping, curing, preaching and praying, what it means to be Son of God. He invited them to share his life, his interiority, and in his presence among them he allowed them to touch, in his flesh, the life of the Father. He helped them to experience, in his gaze, in his going out in power, the newness of saying “Our Father”. In Jesus this expression has no trace of routine or mere repetition. On the contrary, it contains a sense of life, of experience, of authenticity. With these two words, “Our Father”, he knew how to live praying and to pray living.

Jesus invites us to do the same. Our first call is to experience this merciful love of the Father in our lives, in our experiences. His first call is to introduce us into the new dynamic of love, of sonship. Our first calling is to learn to say, “Our Father”, that is, Abba.

“Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel!”, says Saint Paul, “Woe to me!”. For to evangelize, he continues, is not a cause for glory but rather a need (1 Cor 9:16).

He has invited us to share in his life, his divine life, and woe to us if we do not share it, woe to us if we are not witnesses to what we have seen and heard, woe to us. We are not and do not want to be “administrators of the divine”, we are not and do not want to be God’s employees, for we are invited to share in his life, we are invited to enter into his heart, a heart that prays and lives, saying, “Our Father”. What is our purpose if not to say with our lives, “Our Father”?

He who is Our Father, it is he to whom we pray every day with insistence: Lead us not into temptation. Jesus himself did the same thing. He prayed that his disciples – yesterday’s and today’s – would not fall into temptation. What could be one of the sins which besets us? What could be one of the temptations which springs up not only in contemplating reality but also in living it? What temptation can come to us from places often dominated by violence, corruption, drug trafficking, disregard for human dignity, and indifference in the face of suffering and vulnerability?

What temptation might we suffer over and over again when faced with this reality which seems to have become a permanent system?

I think we can sum it up in a word, “resignation”. Faced with this reality, the devil can overcome us with one of his favourite weapons: resignation. A resignation which paralyzes us and prevents us not only from walking, but also from making the journey; a resignation which not only terrifies us, but which also entrenches us in our “sacristies” and false securities; a resignation which not only prevents us from proclaiming, but also inhibits our giving praise. A resignation which not only hinders our looking to the future, but also thwarts our desire to take risks and to change. And so, “Our Father, lead us not into temptation”.

How good it is for us to tap into our memories when we are tempted. How much it helps us to look at the “stuff” of which we are made. It did not all begin with us, nor will it all end with us, and so it does us good to look back at our past experiences which have brought us to where we are

And in this remembering, we cannot overlook someone who loved this place so much, who made himself a son of this land. We cannot overlook that person who could say of himself: “They took me from the tribunal and put me in charge of the priesthood for my sins. Me, useless and quite unable to carry out such a great undertaking; me, who didn’t know how to use an oar, they chose

me to be the first Bishop of Michoacán” (Vasco Vázquez de Quiroga, Pastoral Letter, 1554).

With you, I would like to recall this evangelizer, first known as “the Spaniard who became

an Indian”.

The situation of the Purhépechas Indians, whom he described as being “sold, humiliated, and homeless in marketplaces, picking up scraps of bread from the ground”, far from tempting him to listless resignation, succeeded in kindling his faith, strengthening his compassion and inspiring him to carry out plans that were a “breath of fresh air” in the midst of so much paralyzing injustice.

The pain and suffering of his brothers and sisters became his prayer, and his prayer led to his response. Among the Indians, he was known as “Tata Vasco”, which in the Purhépechan language means, Father, dad, daddy …

It is to this prayer, to this expression, that Jesus calls us.

Father, dad, daddy … lead us not into the temptation of resignation, lead us not into the temptation of losing our memory, lead us not into the temptation of forgetting our elders who taught us by their lives to say, “Our Father”.

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VATICAN NEWS

Resignation is from the devil, Pope warns Mexican priests, religious

by Ann Schneible (CNA/EWTN News) • February 16, 2016

Pope Francis celebrates Mass with religious at Venustiano Carranza Stadium in Morelia, Mexico, Feb. 16, 2016. (David Ramos/CNA)

Mexico City, Mexico — In the face of corruption, violence, and atrocities against the human person, resignation becomes the “devil’s favorite weapon,” Pope Francis told priests, religious, and seminarians on the fourth day of his journey to Mexico.

“What temptation can come to us from places often dominated by violence, corruption, drug trafficking, disregard for human dignity, and indifference in the face of suffering and vulnerability?” the Pope asked.

Centering his homily on the day’s Gospel account of Jesus teaching his disciples the Our Father, the pontiff reflected on the line, “Lead us not into temptation,” and decried the temptation toward resignation.

“What temptation might we suffer over and over again when faced with this reality which seems to have become a permanent system?”

“Faced with this reality, the devil can overcome us with one of his favorite weapons: resignation,” the Pope said, explaining that resignation provokes fear, entrenches us in “false securities,” and prevents us from enacting change.

Pope Francis made these remarks during Mass in the city of Morelia, a central Mexican city rife with violence and corruption.

He stressed the importance of learning from the past in confronting temptation.

“How good it is for us to tap into our memories when we are tempted,” the pontiff reflected. “How much it helps us to look at the “stuff” of which we are made.”

“It did not all begin with us, nor will it all end with us, and so it does us good to look back at our past experiences which have brought us to where we are today.”

Pope Francis’ visit to Mexico’s Michoacán State comes on the second to last day of his Feb. 12-17 trip to Mexico, his first since his election to the papacy.

Throughout his homily, the Pope stressed the balance between prayer and the way we live our lives.

“For our life speaks of prayer and prayer speaks of our life,” he said; “our life speaks through our prayer and our prayer speaks through our life.”

Praying is something to be learned, the Pope explained. “The school of prayer is the school of life and in the school of life we progress in the school of prayer.”

Jesus sought to introduce his companions “into the mystery of His Life,” he said. “He showed them by eating, sleeping, curing, preaching and praying, what it means to be Son of God.”

Inviting his companions into “his interiority,” Jesus introduced them to the “newness of saying ‘Our Father,’” the pontiff explained, an expression which “contains a sense of life, of experience, of authenticity.”

With these words, Jesus “knew how to live praying and to pray living,” the Pope said, and he “invites us to do the same.”

“Our first call is to experience this merciful love of the Father in our lives, in our experiences,” and then share the Gospel with others, he added.

“He has invited us to share in his life, his divine life, and woe to us if we do not share it, woe to us if we are not witnesses to what we have seen and heard, woe to us.”

“We are not and do not want to be ‘administrators of the divine’,” or “God’s employees,” Pope Francis said.

Rather, “we are invited to share in his life,” and “enter into his heart.” In turn, we are called to live out the words: “Our Father.”

Pope Francis recalled the legacy of 16th century Bishop Vasco Vázquez de Quiroga, the first bishop of Michoacán.

The bishop did not respond to the dire situation experienced by the indigenous Purhépechas Indians with “listless resignation,” the Pope said.

Rather, it “succeeded in kindling his faith, strengthening his compassion and inspiring him to carry out plans that were a “breath of fresh air” in the midst of so much paralyzing injustice.”

“The pain and suffering of his brothers and sisters became his prayer, and his prayer led to his response,” the Pope said of the bishop, who came to be known as “Tata Vasco,” meaning “Father, dad, daddy.”

“It is to this prayer, to this expression, that Jesus calls us,” Pope Francis concluded: “lead us not into the temptation of resignation, lead us not into the temptation of losing our memory, lead us not into the temptation of forgetting our elders who taught us by their lives to say, ‘Our Father’.”

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Full text of Pope Francis’ address to young people

by CNA/EWTN News • February 16, 2016

Pilgrims await the Pope in Morelia, Mexico before Mass on Feb. 16, 2016. (David Ramos/CNA)

Morelia, Mexico — Below are Pope Francis’ prepared remarks to young people in the “José María Morelos y Pavón” stadium in Morelia, Mexico.

Dear young friends,

Good afternoon. When I arrived in this country I received a warm welcome. I saw something which I have sensed for a long time: the vitality, the joy, and the festive spirit of the Mexican people. And now [ahorita] … after listening to you, but particularly after seeing you, I am also certain about something else, something I said to the President of the nation when I arrived. One of Mexico’s greatest treasures is that it has a youthful face: its young people. Yes, you are the wealth of this land. I did not say the hope of this land, but its wealth.

You cannot live in hope, or look to the future if you do not first know how to value yourselves, if you do not feel that your life, your hands, your history, is worth the effort. Hope is born when you are able to experience that all is not lost; and for this to happen it is necessary to start “at home”, to begin with yourself. Not everything is lost. I am not lost; I am worth something, I am worth a lot. The biggest threats to hope are those words which devalue you, which make you feel second rate. The biggest threat to hope is when you feel that you do not matter to anybody or that that you have been left aside. The biggest threat to hope is when you feel that, either being present or absent, you make no difference. This kills, this crushes us and opens the door to much suffering. The principal threat to hope is to allow yourself to believe that you begin to be valuable when you start wearing the right clothes, the latest brands and fashions, or when you enjoy prestige, are important because you have money; but in the depths of your heart you do not believe that you are worthy of kindness or love. The biggest threat is when a person feels that they must have money to buy everything, including the love of others. The biggest threat is to believe that by having a big car you will be happy.

You are the wealth of Mexico, you are the wealth of the Church. I understand that often it is difficult to feel your value when you are continually exposed to the loss of friends or relatives at the hands of the drug trade, of drugs themselves, of criminal organizations that sow terror. It is hard to feel the wealth of a nation when there are no opportunities for dignified work, no possibilities for study or advancement, when you feel your rights are being trampled on, which then leads you to extreme situations. It is difficult to appreciate the value of a place when, because of your youth, you are used for selfish purposes, seduced by promises that end up being untrue.

Nonetheless, despite all this, I will never tire of saying, You are the wealth of Mexico.

Don’t think I am saying this because I am good, or I because I have concise ideas about it; no dear friends, it is not like that. I say this to you and I am convinced of it. And do you know why? Because, like you, I believe in Jesus Christ. And it is he who continually renews in me this hope, it is he who continually renews my outlook. It is he who continually invites me to a conversion of heart. Yes, my friends, I say this because in Jesus I have found the One who is able to bring out the best in me. Hand in hand with him, we can move forward, hand in hand with him we can begin again and again, hand in hand with him we find the strength to say: it is a lie to believe that the only way to live, or to be young, is to entrust oneself to drug dealers or others who do nothing but sow destruction and death. Hand in hand with Jesus Christ we can say: it is a lie that the only way to live as young people here is in poverty and exclusion; in the exclusion of opportunities, in the exclusion of spaces, in the exclusion of training and education, in the exclusion of hope. It is Jesus Christ who refutes all attempts to render you useless or to be mere mercenaries of other people’s ambitions.

You have asked me for a word of hope, and the one word I have to give you, is Jesus Christ. When everything seems too much, when it seems that the world is crashing down around you, embrace his Cross, draw close to him and please, never let go of his hand; please, never leave him. Hand in hand with him it is possible to live fully, by holding his hand it is possible to believe that it is worth the effort to give your best, to be leaven, salt and light among your friends, neighbourhoods, and your community. For this reason, dear friends, holding the hand of Jesus I ask you to not let yourselves be excluded, do not allow yourselves to be devalued, do not let them treat you like a commodity. Of course, you may not be able to have the latest car model at the door, you will not have pockets filled with money, but you will have something that no one can take away from you, which is the experience of being loved, embraced and accompanied. It is the experience of being family, of feeling oneself as part of a community.

Today the Lord continues to call you, he continues to draw you to him, just as he did with the Indian, Juan Diego. He invites you to build a shrine. A shrine that is not a physical place but rather a community, a shrine called “Parish”, a shrine called, “Nation”. Being a community, a family, and knowing that we are citizens is one of the best antidotes to all that threatens us, because it makes us feel that we are a part of the great family of God. This is not an invitation to flee and enclose ourselves, but, on the contrary, to go out and to invite others, to go out and proclaim to others that being young in Mexico is the greatest wealth, and consequently, it cannot be sacrificed.

Jesus would never ask us to be assassins; rather, he calls us to be disciples. He would never send us out to death, but rather everything in him speaks of life. A life in a family, life in a community; families and communities for the good of society.

You are the wealth of this country, and when you doubt this, look to Jesus, he who destroys all efforts to make you useless or mere instruments of other people’s ambitions.

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VATICAN NEWS

What Pope Francis told a stunningly large crowd of Mexican youth

by CNA/EWTN News • February 16, 2016

Pope Francis meets with youth in José María Morelos y Pavón stadium on Feb. 16, 2016. (David Ramos/CNA)

Morelia, Mexico — In his visit to Morelia – one of Mexico’s most violent cities – Pope Francis had a strong message for the country’s youth: rather than allowing themselves to be used and trampled on, he told them to recognize their value and to place their hope in Jesus.

One of Mexico’s greatest treasures “is that it has a youthful face: its young people … you are the wealth of this land,” the Pope told them Feb. 16.

However, “I did not say the hope of this land, but its wealth,” he added.

This, he said, is because “you cannot live in hope, or look to the future if you do not first know how to value yourselves, if you do not feel that your life, your hands, your history, is worth the effort.”

Hope is born when a person is able to experience “that all is not lost,” he said, explaining that in order for this to happen, it’s necessary “to begin with yourself.”

Pope Francis traveled to the city of Morelia on his fourth full day of his Feb. 12-17 visit to Mexico. Located in the north central part of Mexico’s Michoacán state, Morelia is a hotbed of drug-related violence and organized crime that is greatly in need of the Pope’s message of peace.

Francis met with an estimated 50,000 young people after celebrating Mass for priests, religious and seminarians in Morelia’s Venustiano Carranza Stadium and visiting the city’s cathedral earlier that morning.

Before speaking, the Pope listened to testimonies from the youth, who recounted the difficulties of trying to build strong families amid a society overcome with corruption and violence, and which lacks the opportunity for adequate education and work.

In his address, Francis told the youth that the biggest threat to their hope are “those words which devalue you, which make you feel second-rate.”

“The biggest threat to hope is when you feel that you do not matter to anybody or that you have been left aside. The biggest threat to hope is when you feel that, either being present or absent, you make no difference,” he said.

Francis told the youth that hope is also threatened when they start to believe their value is measured by money, prestige and material possessions, while in the depths of their heart they believe they are really not worthy of either kindness or love.

However, the Pope also acknowledged that it’s hard to understand or feel valued “when you are continually exposed to the loss of friends or relatives at the hands of the drug trade, of drugs themselves, of criminal organizations that sow terror.”

It’s hard to feel like the wealth of the nation when there are no opportunities for decent work or study, he noted, adding that the difficulty is exacerbated when, as youth, “you feel that your rights are being trampled on” or that “you are used for selfish purposes, seduced by promises that end up being untrue,” which leads to extreme situations.

But despite all this, “I will never tire of saying, you are the wealth of Mexico,” Francis said, and clarified that he’s not saying this because he’s nice, but because he’s convinced that it’s the truth.

He said that Jesus Christ is the one who renews this hope in him, and that if we take the Lord’s hand and walk with him, we can move forward and begin again.

With Jesus, “we find the strength to say: it is a lie to believe that the only way to live, or to be young, is to entrust oneself to drug dealers or others who do nothing but sow destruction and death,” Pope Francis explained.

It’s Jesus Christ who shows us that poverty and exclusion are not the only paths available for young people, he said, adding that the Lord is the one who “refutes all attempts to render you useless or to be mere mercenaries of other people’s ambitions.”

Francis told the youth that when life seems too heavy and they feel like the world “is crashing down around you,” to run to Jesus and to embrace his Cross.

“Draw close to him and please, never let go of his hand; please, never leave him,” Francis pleaded, and asked the youth to not allow themselves to be excluded, devalued or treated like a commodity.

“You may not be able to have the latest car model at the door, you will not have pockets filled with money, but you will have something that no one can take away from you, which is the experience of being loved, embraced and accompanied,” he said.

The Pope closed telling the youth that they are being called by the Lord just as St. Juan Diego was, to build a shrine. This shrine, he said, is not a physical place, but rather a community and a nation.

“Being a community, a family, and knowing that we are citizens is one of the best antidotes to all that threatens us, because it makes us feel that we are a part of the great family of God,” he said.

He stressed that “Jesus would never ask us to be assassins; rather, he calls us to be disciples. He would never send us out to death, but rather everything in him speaks of life,” and encouraged the youth to remember that they are the wealth of their nation.

“And when you doubt this, look to Jesus, he who destroys all efforts to make you useless or mere instruments of other people’s ambitions.”

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VATICAN NEWS

Ten things you may have missed from the Pope’s visit to Chiapas

by CNA/EWTN News • February 16, 2016

Pope Francis greets the Chiapas community at San Cristóbal de Las Casas on Feb. 15, 2016. (L’Osservatore Romano)

Mexico City, Mexico — On Feb. 15, Pope Francis visited Chiapas State in southeast Mexico. Spending the day in San Cristóbal de las Casas and Tuxtla Gutiérrez, he showed his affection for the native communities and for the weakest among them. Here are some great moments you might have missed:

1. A crown and necklace of flowers for the Pope

A group of indigenous people welcomed Pope Francis at the airport in Tuxla. They gave him three gifts of great symbolic value: a “staff of office” with three points representing the Holy Trinity, a crown and a necklace of flowers with the Vatican colors of yellow and white. According to their custom, these gifts are given to very beloved persons.

2. An impressive altar

The colorful altarpiece for the papal Mass reflected the art of Chiapas. The altar’s lower section was decorated with beautiful pictures of flowers.

3. Chiapan Marimbas

A group of musicians played large xylophone-like instruments called marimbas to accompany the orchestra during the Mass Pope Francis celebrated at San Cristóbal de las Casas.

4. Ritual dance

At end of Communion, the faithful performed a traditional ritual dance permitted in the liturgy. The dance was a simple and joyful moment, and its origins go back to pre-Columbian times.

5. The wooden crosier

Pope Francis used a wooden crosier made from cedar during the Mass at San Cristóbal de las Casas. The inspiration for its design comes from the staff that shepherds use with their sheep. The staff’s upper part features a cross tilted forward and carved roses representing Our Lady of Guadalupe.

6. A flying skullcap

The wind lifted off the Pope’s white zucchetto during his homily. Msgr. Guido Marini, the Papal Master of Ceremonies, took action as soon as he saw it happen. He retrieved the zucchetto and held on to it for a few moments.

7. The song “Pescador de Hombres,” Fishers of Men

When the Holy Father was at the cathedral in San Cristóbal de las Casas, he met with the sick and elderly. The congregation welcomed him with the song “Pescadores de Hombres.” The song is also found in some American hymnals in Spanish and English.

This song was one of Saint John Paul II’s favorites. He heard it for the first time in Polish and thought it had been composed in his native language. However, he later learned that the song was originally composed in Spanish. Its composer, Cesáreo Gabarain, wrote the song more than 35 years ago.

8. A shower of gifts

At the cathedral of San Cristóbal de las Casas, Pope Francis approached the faithful to greet them and bless them. He received various gifts such as baskets, bags embroidered with indigenous designs and many letters.

9. A giant welcome sign

At the heliport annex at the “Victor Manuel Reyna” stadium in Tuxtla Gutiérrez there was a massive welcome sign for Pope Francis. It read: “Chiapas welcomes you with open arms and heart.”

10. A blessing of solidarity

During the Pope’s meeting with families at the Victor Manuel Reyna Stadium, a group of people brought over to the stage a boy in a wheelchair. The Pope went over to the edge of the stage and with the help of the papal guards he blessed the boy.

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Did St. Therese of Lisieux send roses to Pope Francis in Mexico?

by CNA/EWTN News • February 17, 2016

Pope Francis lays flowers at the foot of the statue of Our Lady of Lujan on May 8, 2013. (Stephen Driscoll/CNA)

Mexico City, Mexico — When Pope Francis made a surprise stop at a cloistered monastery Sunday morning, he received a gift from the nuns who live there: a large bouquet of white roses.

But was there more to this gesture than meets the eye?

A year ago when Pope Francis travelled to the Philippines, he revealed that before each trip or when he has a concern, he asks for a rose from Saint Therese of Lisieux. He has a special devotion for the saint.

“When I don’t know how things are going to go, I have the custom of asking Saint Therese of the Child Jesus to take the problem into her hands and send me a rose,” the pontiff explained to journalists in January 2015.

There’s a special story behind the roses he received in Mexico.

His visit to the monastery was not on the agenda, and the nuns there were not expecting him. The visit’s organizers gave just a few minutes’ notice to the nuns of the Visitation Order of Holy Mary. They did not know that he would stop to greet them as he passed by their convent on his way to Ecatepec.

There are 50 nuns of various ages who live at the monastery. The last time they left the monastery was to vote in the Mexican general elections. In 2002, when Saint John Paul II visited the country, he passed by the monastery as well but he did not stop. The nuns thought that the same thing would happen again.

“It was really something exceptional because we never leave the cloister,” one of the nuns told CNA by phone. She requested anonymity out of respect for the cloister.

“It was a very great grace to have the pope’s visit at our monastery door. The people told us that he had left the nunciature. They let us know he would be coming down the street and the security staff told us that if we would like to, we should open the doors just in case.”

The nun continued, explaining that the community “had not prepared anything for greeting the Pope. One of the people who comes to daily Mass brought us white roses that day. People are always coming to give us things, and we were going to place them before Our Lord.”

“At that moment, our mother superior just happened to have those roses in her hand, and when there she was right in front of the Pope, she just spontaneously gave them to him.”

The religious did not know about the story of the Pope and the roses of Saint Therese of Lisieux. They were surprised to hear of it.

The Pope spent several minutes greeting all the religious.

“He told the mother superior that it was a great blessing that we were giving our lives (to God) and praying for the Church and for him,” the nun reported.

Pope Francis blessed the most elderly sisters. Then he went up to the novices.

“He told them to learn from the older ones and to be faithful. Then he told us not to forget to pray for him and he gave us his blessing,” the nun told CNA.

She sees the providential encounter with the Pope as a confirmation of her vocation.

“It’s worth it to sacrifice your life, not to be involved in the things of the world, to sacrifice yourself in the cloister. The Pope stopped to see us, he invited us to value our lives, our tradition as contemplative nuns. He exhorted us to be faithful.”

She said the Pope’s unexpected visit “obliges us much more to pray, to be constant in our prayer.” She said it encouraged the nuns to give themselves “day after day, in our hidden life so the Church may have life and bless our Holy Father.”

There are 90 Visitation monasteries in the whole world, with eight convents in Mexico. Or all the cloistered religious in the country, their order has the most novices.

“When the pope left, we returned to our cloister and gathered together to sing a Te Deum in thanksgiving for this visit. We prayed a Salve Regina for the pope’s visit to Mexico. We sang a Magnificat for the blessing this means for our order, and even though he came to just this monastery, the blessing is for all of our communities.”

The order of the Visitation of Holy Mary is a religious institute of contemplative life founded by Saint Francis de Sales and Saint Jane Francis de Chantal in 1610 in France.

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Full text of Pope Francis’ address to penitentiary inmates

by CNA/EWTN News • February 17, 2016

Pope Francis addressing inmates in Juarez, Mexico on Feb. 17, 2016. (EWTN)

Juarez, Mexico — Below is the full version of the prepared remarks from Pope Francis’ address to inmates in Juarez, Mexico, Feb. 17, 2016.

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

I am coming to the end of my visit to Mexico, and I could not leave without greeting you and celebrating with you the Jubilee of Mercy.

I am deeply grateful for your words of welcome, which express your many hopes and aspirations, as well as your many sorrows, fears and uncertainties.

During my visit to Africa, I was able to open the door of mercy for the whole world in the city of Bangui. United to you and with you today, I want to reiterate once more the confidence that Jesus urges us to have: the mercy that embraces everyone and is found in every corner of the world.

There is no place beyond the reach of his mercy, no space or person it cannot touch.

Celebrating the Jubilee of Mercy with you is recalling the pressing journey that we must undertake in order to break the cycle of violence and crime. We have already lost many decades thinking and believing that everything will be resolved by isolating, separating, incarcerating, and ridding ourselves of problems, believing that these policies really solve problems. We have forgotten to focus on what must truly be our concern: people’s lives; their lives, those of their families, and those who have suffered because of this cycle of violence.

Divine Mercy reminds us that prisons are an indication of the kind of society we are. In many cases they are a sign of the silence and omissions which have led to a throwaway culture, a symptom of a culture that has stopped supporting life, of a society that has abandoned its children.

Mercy reminds us that reintegration does not begin here within these walls; rather it begins before, it begins “outside”, in the streets of the city. Reintegration or rehabilitation begins by creating a system which we could call social health, that is, a society which seeks not to cause sickness, polluting relationships in neighbourhoods, schools, town squares, the streets, homes and in the whole of the social spectrum. A system of social health that endeavours to promote a culture which acts and seeks to prevent those situations and pathways that end in damaging and impairing the social fabric.

At times it may seem that prisons are intended more to prevent people from committing crimes than to promote the process of rehabilitation that allows us to address the social, psychological and family problems which lead a person to act in a certain way. The problem of security is not resolved only by incarcerating; rather, it calls us to intervene by confronting the structural and cultural causes of insecurity that impact the entire social framework.

Jesus’ concern for the care of the hungry, the thirsty, the homeless and prisoners (cf. Mt 25:34-40) sought to express the core of the Father’s mercy. This becomes a moral imperative for the whole of society that wishes to maintain the necessary conditions for a better common life. It is within a society’s capacity to include the poor, infirm and imprisoned, that we see its ability to heal their wounds and make them builders of a peaceful coexistence. Social reintegration begins by making sure that all of our children go to school and that their families obtain dignified work by creating public spaces for leisure and recreation, and by fostering civic participation, health services and access to basic services, to name just a few possible measures.

Celebrating the Jubilee of Mercy with you means learning not to be prisoners of the past, of yesterday. It means learning to open the door to the future, to tomorrow; it means believing that things can change. Celebrating the Jubilee of Mercy with you means inviting you to lift up your heads and to work in order to gain this space of longed-for freedom.

We know that we cannot turn back, we know that what is done, is done. This is the way I wanted to celebrate with you the Jubilee of Mercy, because it does not exclude the possibility of writing a new story and moving forward. You suffer the pain of a failure, you feel the remorse of your actions and in many cases, with great limitations, you seek to remake your lives in the midst of solitude. You have known the power of sorrow and sin, and have not forgotten that within your reach is the power of the resurrection, the power of divine mercy which makes all things new.

Now, this mercy can reach you in the hardest and most difficult of places, but such occasions can also perhaps bring truly positive results. From inside this prison, you must work hard to change the situations which create the most exclusion. Speak with your loved ones, tell them of your experiences, help them to put an end to this cycle of violence and exclusion. The one who has suffered the greatest pain, and we could say “has experienced hell”, can become a prophet in society. Work so that this society which uses people and discards them will not go on claiming victims.

I wish also to encourage those who work in this Centre or others like it: the directors, prison guards, and all who undertake any type of work in this Centre. And I am also grateful for the efforts made by the chaplains, consecrated persons and lay faithful who have dedicated themselves to keeping alive the hope of the Gospel of Mercy in the prison. Never forget that all of you can be signs of the heart of the Father. We need one another to keep on moving forward.

Before giving you my blessing, I would like for us all to pray a moment in silence. From the depths of our hearts, may each one of us ask God to help us believe in his mercy.

And I ask you, do not forget to pray for me.

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Full text of Pope Francis’ address to labor leaders

by CNA/EWTN News • February 17, 2016

Pope Francis addresses labor leaders in Juarez, Mexico on Feb. 17, 2016. (Alan Holdren/CNA)

Juarez, Mexico — Below is the full text of Pope Francis’ prepared remarks for his Feb. 17 meeting with the world of labour at the Bachilleres College in the state of Chihuahua.

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

I wanted to meet with you here in this land of Juárez, because of the special relationship this city has with the world of labour. I am grateful not only for your words of welcome and for your testimonies, which reveal the anxieties, joys and hopes of your lives, but also for this opportunity to share and reflect together. Anything we can do to foster dialogue, encounter, and the search for better alternatives and opportunities is already an accomplishment to be valued and highlighted. Obviously more needs to be done, and today we do not have the luxury of missing any chance to encounter, discuss, confront or search. This is the only way we will be able to build for tomorrow, to create sustainable relationships capable of providing the needed framework that, little by little, will rebuild the social bonds so damaged by a lack of communication and by a lack of the minimal respect necessary for a healthy coexistence. So I thank you, and I hope that this occasion may serve to build the future. May it be a good opportunity to forge the Mexico that its people and children deserve.

I would like to dwell on this latter point. Here today there are various workers’ organizations and representatives of Commerce Chambers and business associations. At first sight they could be considered as adversaries, but they are united by the same responsibility: seeking to create employment opportunities which are dignified and truly beneficial for society and especially for the young of this land. One of the greatest scourges for young people is the lack of opportunities for study and for sustainable and profitable work, which would permit them to work for the future. In many cases, this lack of opportunity leads to situations of poverty. This poverty then becomes the best breeding ground for the young to fall into the cycle of drug trafficking and violence. It is a luxury which no one can afford; we cannot allow the present and future of Mexico to be alone and abandoned.

Unfortunately, the times we live in have imposed the paradigm of economic utility as the starting point for personal relationships. The prevailing mentality advocates for the greatest possible profits, immediately and at any cost. This not only causes the ethical dimension of business to be lost, but it also forgets that the best investment we can make is in people, in individual persons and in families. The best investment is creating opportunities. The prevailing mentality puts the flow of people at the service of the flow of capital, resulting in many cases in the exploitation of employees as if they were objects to be used and discarded (cf. Laudato Si’, 123). God will hold us accountable for the slaves of our day, and we must do everything to make sure that these situations do not happen again. The flow of capital cannot decide the flow and life of people.

When faced with tenets of the Church’s Social Doctrine, it is objected frequently: “These teachings would have us be charitable organizations or that we transform our businesses into philanthropic institutions”. The only aspiration of the Church’s Social Doctrine is to guard over the integrity of people and social structures. Every time that, for whatever reason, this integrity is threatened or reduced to a consumer good, the Church’s Social Doctrine will be a prophetic voice to protect us all from being lost in the seductive sea of ambition. Every time that a person’s integrity is violated, society, in a certain sense, begins to decline. This is against no one, but in favour of all. Every sector has the obligation of looking out for the good of all; we are all in the same boat. We all have to struggle to make sure that work is a humanizing moment which looks to the future; that it is a space for building up society and each person’s participation in it. This attitude not only provides an immediate improvement, but in the long run it will also transform society into a culture capable of promoting a dignified space for everyone. This culture, born many times out of tension, is creating a new style of relationships, a new kind of nation.

What kind of world do we want to leave our children? I believe that the vast majority of us can agree. This is precisely our horizon, our goal, and we have to come together and work for this. It is always good to think about what I would like to leave my children; it is also a good way to think of others’ children. What kind of Mexico do you want to leave your children? Do you want to leave them the memory of exploitation, of insufficient pay, of workplace harassment? Or do you want to leave them a culture which recalls dignified work, a proper roof, and land to be worked? What type of culture do we want for those who will come after us? What air will they breathe? An air tainted by corruption, violence, insecurity and suspicion, or, on the contrary, an air capable of generating alternatives, renewal and change?

I know that the issues raised are not easy, but it is worse to leave the future in the hands of corruption, brutality and the lack of equity. I know it is often not easy to bring all parties together in negotiations, but it is worse, and we end up doing more harm, when there is a lack of negotiations and appreciation. I know it is not easy to get along in an increasingly competitive world, but it is worse to allow the competitive world to ruin the destiny of the people. Profit and capital are not a good over and above the human person; they are at the service of the common good. When the common good is used only in the service of profit and capital, the only thing gained is known as exclusion.

I began by thanking you for this opportunity to be together. I wish now to invite you to dream of Mexico, to build the Mexico that your children deserve; a Mexico where no one is first, second, or fourth; a Mexico where each sees in the other the dignity of a child of God. May our Lady of Guadalupe, who made herself known to Juan Diego, and revealed how the seemingly abandoned were her privileged witnesses, help and accompany us in this our work.

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No one is beyond God’s mercy, Pope tells inmates in Juarez

by Elise Harris (CNA/EWTN News) • February 17, 2016

Pope Francis meets with inmates at Cereso State Prison in Juarez City, Mexico on Feb. 17, 2016. (L’Osservatore Romano)

Juarez, Mexico — On his last day in Mexico, Pope Francis traveled to a city notorious for its violence and drug activity, meeting with inmates at a prison to deliver the message that no matter what their regrets, it’s never too late to start again.

“United to you and with you today, I want to reiterate once more the confidence that Jesus urges us to have: the mercy that embraces everyone and is found in every corner of the world,” the Pope said Feb. 17.

“There is no place beyond the reach of his mercy, no space or person it cannot touch.”

Pope Francis traveled to Ciudad Juarez, which borders the U.S. city of El Paso, Texas, on the last day of his Feb. 12-17 visit to Mexico, which is the first international trip he has made during the Jubilee of Mercy.

His stop in the city is symbolic, both because it is known for serious problems with drug cartels and violence, and because of the high numbers of undocumented immigrants from Mexico and Central Am erica who daily cross into the United States through the Juarez-El Paso border, often seeking to escape violence in their home countries.

After telling youth in Mexico’s crime-ridden city of Morelia yesterday not to give in to the lies of drug dealers or be used by people with selfish interests, he told the prisoners that even though they have perhaps chosen this path, there is still hope that they, and society, can change.

He pointed to the ongoing Jubilee of Mercy, saying that to celebrate it with them is a reminder of the “pressing journey that we must undertake in order to break the cycle of violence and crime.”

“We have already lost many decades thinking and believing that everything will be resolved by isolating, separating, incarcerating and ridding ourselves of problems, believing that these policies really solve problems,” he said.

However, what we have forgotten, Francis continued, is that our focus and true concern ought to be people’s lives, the lives of their families, as well as those “who have suffered because of this cycle of violence.”

The Pope said that prisons often say something about the society in which they are located. In many cases, he noted, prisons serve as a sign of “the silence and omissions” that have led to a throwaway culture that has ceased to support life and which has abandoned its children.

Mercy, then, serves as a reminder that reintegration doesn’t begin inside the prison walls, but rather outside “on the streets.”

“Reintegration or rehabilitation begins by creating a system which we could call social health, that is, a society which seeks not to cause sickness, polluting relationships in neighborhoods, schools, town squares, the streets, homes and in the whole of the social spectrum,” he said.

Jesus’ own concern for the hungry, homeless and prisoner was an expression of the core of God’s mercy, Pope Francis said, adding that this ought to serve as a “moral imperative” for a society that wants better the conditions of everyday life.

Included in these conditions, he said, are the guarantee that all children have access to school, that everyone has an opportunity for dignified work, and that public spaces are created for leisure and recreation.

Francis said that to celebrate the Jubilee of Mercy means leaning “not to be prisoners of the past,” but rather to “open the door to the future” and believe that change is possible.

“We know that we cannot turn back, we know that what is done, is done,” he said, explaining that he wanted to celebrate the Jubilee of Mercy with them there “because it does not exclude the possibility of writing a new story and moving forward.”

Despite suffering the pain of failure, the sorrow of sin and remorse for what they may have done in the past, Pope Francis said that the power of the Resurrection and of the Divine Mercy that “makes all things new” is still within their reach.

“This mercy can reach you in the hardest and most difficult of places, but such occasions can also perhaps bring truly positive results,” he said, reflecting on the capacity of those who have suffered to be bring about change in society.

Francis closed his speech by leading inmates in a moment of silent prayer, asking that each one pray for God “to help us believe in his mercy.”

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The moment when Pope Francis got angry in Mexico

by CNA/EWTN News • February 17, 2016

A visibly upset Pope Francis after a rowdy crowd caused him to fall on a disabled boy during an event in Morelia, Mexico. (YouTube)

Mexico City, Mexico — A visibly upset Pope Francis had some tough words for a rowdy crowd when their shoving caused him to fall on a disabled boy during an event in Mexico.

Following an encounter with young people in the city of Morelia, Pope Francis took time to greet those in the crowd, distributing rosaries as he went.

At one point, the jostling of the crowd trying to grab a rosary from the pontiff was so severe that the Pope lost his balance, falling forward on a boy in a wheelchair.

“What’s going on with you? Don’t be selfish! Don’t be selfish!” Francis said forcefully as he got back up.

Father Federico Lombardi, director of the Vatican Press Office, later told the media that the Pope’s response was natural, given the circumstances.

“It’s a very human reaction, very normal … anyone in a similar situation would have reacted that way, especially after a long day of activities,” he said.

The spokesman said that after many meetings where the Pope “was giving everything he had to be kind with everyone, he is pulled down from one side and started to fall – this really is something that can put you on edge.”

Fr. Lombardi said the event is ultimately of little importance and noted that the pontiff continued on with his activities with the same enthusiasm and affection as before.

Pope Francis was in the city of Morelia on his fourth full day of his Feb. 12-17 visit to Mexico. He also spent time visiting a children’s hospital and prison, praying before the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City, and meeting with young people, workers, religious and civil authorities.

His final major event will be a Feb. 17 Mass in Ciudad Juárez, a city plagued by drug violence which borders the U.S. city of El Paso, Texas.

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How Pope Francis proposes to fight drug violence in Mexico

by CNA/EWTN News • February 17, 2016

Pope Francis speaks to Mexican Bishops at Metropolitan Cathedral in Mexico City on Feb. 13, 2016. (L’Osservatore Romano)

Juarez, Mexico — Speaking to laborers in the Mexican City of Juarez on Wednesday, Pope Francis laid out several key areas of focus in fighting what he called “the cycle of drug trafficking and violence.”

“One of the greatest scourges for young people is the lack of opportunities for study and for sustainable and profitable work, which would permit them to work for the future,” the Pope said Feb. 17.

He said that this lack of opportunity frequently leads to situations of poverty, which then becomes “the best breeding ground for the young to fall into the cycle of drug trafficking and violence.”

This, the Pope said, “is a luxury which no one can afford; we cannot allow the present and future of Mexico to be alone and abandoned.”

Pope Francis met with members of Mexico’s workforce Feb. 17 in Ciudad Juarez on his last day in the country. Juarez borders the U.S. city of El Paso, Texas, and is a major destination for thousands of immigrants from Mexico and Central America who want to enter the United States.

The Pope’s visit to Juarez is the last in a series of daytrips he has made to some of the poorest and most violent areas of the country, including the state of Chiapas and the city of Morelia in Mexico’s Michoacán state.

His final stop in Juarez has special meaning not only because of the border Mass he will celebrate later in the afternoon, but also because of the sharp distinction between the economic state of the two countries on each side of the border.

Before speaking to the workers, Pope Francis listened to the testimonies of both a married couple who work, and high-level businessman.

Daisy Flores Gamez and her husband Jesus Varela Arturo Gurrola expressed their concern that economic problems are making it increasingly more difficult to balance family life and true care for one’s children. They also said that, in their opinion, the decline and conflict of values is due to the absence of parents in the home.

The Pope also heard from Juan Pablo Castanon, national president of the Business Coordinating Council, who shared his concerns on problems related to poverty and unemployment, and stressed the importance of developing technology, but not allowing it to take the place of people.

In his speech to the workers, Pope Francis said that “more needs to be done” in fostering a culture of dialogue, encounter and inclusion.

“Unfortunately, the times we live in have imposed the paradigm of economic utility as the starting point for personal relationships,” he said, noting that the current mentality pushes for “the greatest possible profits, immediately and at any cost.”

This mentality not only destroys the ethical dimension of business, but also ignores the fact that the best investment to be made is in people – both as individuals and as families, he said.

When the flow of people is put “at the service of the flow of capital,” the result is the exploitation of employees “as if they were objects to be used and discarded,” Francis said, quoting his environmental encyclical, Laudato Si.

God, he added, “will hold us accountable for the slaves of our day, and we must do everything to make sure that these situations do not happen again.”

Francis noted that some people object to the social doctrine of the Church, saying it reduces business to mere charity organizations or “philanthropic institutions.”

However, he stressed, the “only aspiration of the Church’s Social Doctrine is to guard over the integrity of people and social structures.”

“Every time that, for whatever reason, this integrity is threatened or reduced to a consumer good, the Church’s Social Doctrine will be a prophetic voice to protect us all from being lost in the seductive sea of ambition,” he said.

Pope Francis warned that each time a person’s integrity is violated, it begins a process of declination for society as a whole. Therefore, every sector of society is obliged look out for the good of everyone.

“We are all in the same boat. We all have to struggle to make sure that work is a humanizing moment which looks to the future,” he said, and asked those present what kind of world and what kind of Mexico they want to leave for their children.

“Do you want to leave them the memory of exploitation, of insufficient pay, of workplace harassment? Or do you want to leave them a culture which recalls dignified work, a proper roof, and land to be worked?”

He also asked whether they would leave behind air “tainted by corruption, violence, insecurity and suspicion, or, on the contrary, an air capable of generating alternatives, renewal and change?”

Francis acknowledged that the issues he raised are not easy to face, but said that leaving the future in the hands of corruption, brutality and inequity would be worse.

Even though it’s difficult to bring different sides together to negotiate, more harm is done by refusing to negotiate, the Pope said. He added that while getting along can be hard in an increasingly competitive world, it would be worse if society allows this competition to destroy people.

“Profit and capital are not a good over and above the human person; they are at the service of the common good,” he said. When the common good is used only to serve profit and capital, “the only thing gained is known as exclusion.”

Francis closed his speech by inviting the citizens of Mexico to build a country “that your children deserve; a Mexico where no one is first, second or fourth; a Mexico where each sees in the other the dignity of a child of God.”

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Full text of Pope Francis’ homily at final Mass in Mexico

by CNA/EWTN News • February 17, 2016

Pope Francis celebrates Mass for the Canonization of St. John Paul II and St. John XXIII on April 25, 2014. (Stephan Driscoll/CNA)

Juarez, Mexico — Below is the full text of Pope Francis final homily in Mexico from the Feb. 17 Mass at the Ciudad Juárez fairgrounds.

In the second century Saint Irenaeus wrote that the glory of God is the life of man. It is an expression which continues to echo in the heart of the Church. The glory of the Father is the life of his sons and daughters. There is no greater glory for a father than to see his children blossom, no greater satisfaction than to see his children grow up, developing and flourishing. The first reading that we have just heard points to this. The great city of Nineveh, was self-destructing as a result of oppression and dishonour, violence and injustice. The grand capital’s days were numbered because the violence within it could not continue. Then the Lord appeared and stirred Jonah’s heart: the Father called and sent forth his messenger. Jonah was summoned to receive a mission. “Go”, he is told, because in “forty days Nineveh shall be overthrown” (Jon 3:4). Go and help them to understand that by the way they treat each other, ordering and organizing themselves, they are only creating death and destruction, suffering and oppression. Make them see this is no way to live, neither for the king nor his subjects, nor for farm fields nor for the cattle. Go and tell them that they have become used to this degrading way of life and have lost their sensitivity to pain. Go and tell them that injustice has infected their way of seeing the world. “Therefore, go Jonah!”. God sent him to testify to what was happening, he sent him to wake up a people intoxicated with themselves.

In this text we find ourselves before the mystery of divine mercy. Mercy, which always rejects wickedness, takes the human person in great earnest. Mercy always appeals to the latent and numbed goodness within each person. Far from bringing destruction, as we so often desire or want to bring about ourselves, mercy seeks to transform each situation from within. Herein lies the mystery of divine mercy. It seeks and invites us to conversion, it invites us to repentance; it invites us to see the damage being done at every level. Mercy always pierces evil in order to transform it.

The king listened to Jonah, the inhabitants of the city responded and penance was decreed. God’s mercy has entered the heart, revealing and showing wherein our certainty and hope lie: there is always the possibility of change, we still have time to transform what is destroying us as a people, what is demeaning our humanity. Mercy encourages us to look to the present, and to trust what is healthy and good beating in every heart. God’s mercy is our shield and our strength.

Jonah helped them to see, helped them to become aware. Following this, his call found men and women capable of repenting, and capable of weeping. To weep over injustice, to cry over corruption, to cry over oppression. These are tears that lead to transformation, that soften the heart; they are the tears that purify our gaze and enable us to see the cycle of sin into which very often we have sunk. They are tears that can sensitize our gaze and our attitude hardened and especially dormant in the face of another’s suffering. They are the tears that can break us, capable of opening us to conversion.

This word echoes forcefully today among us; this word is the voice crying out in the wilderness, inviting us to conversion. In this Year of Mercy, with you here, I beg for God’s mercy; with you I wish to plead for the gift of tears, the gift of conversion.

Here in Ciudad Juárez, as in other border areas, there are thousands of immigrants from Central America and other countries, not forgetting the many Mexicans who also seek to pass over “to the other side”. Each step, a journey laden with grave injustices: the enslaved, the imprisoned and extorted; so many of these brothers and sisters of ours are the consequence of a trade in human beings.

We cannot deny the humanitarian crisis which in recent years has meant the migration of thousands of people, whether by train or highway or on foot, crossing hundreds of kilometres through mountains, deserts and inhospitable zones. The human tragedy that is forced migration is a global phenomenon today. This crisis, which can be measured in numbers and statistics, we want instead to measure with names, stories, families. They are the brothers and sisters of those excluded as a result of poverty and violence, drug trafficking and criminal organizations. Being faced with so many legal vacuums, they get caught up in a web that ensnares and always destroys the poorest. Not only do they suffer poverty but they must also endure these forms of violence. Injustice is radicalized in the young; they are “cannon fodder”, persecuted and threatened when they try to flee the spiral of violence and the hell of drugs. Then there are the many women unjustly robbed of their lives.

Let us together ask our God for the gift of conversion, the gift of tears, let us ask him to give us open hearts like the Ninevites, open to his call heard in the suffering faces of countless men and women. No more death! No more exploitation! There is still time to change, there is still a way out and a chance, time to implore the mercy of God.

Just as in Jonas’ time, so too today may we commit ourselves to conversion; may we be signs lighting the way and announcing salvation. I know of the work of countless civil organizations working to support the rights of migrants. I know too of the committed work of so many men and women religious, priests and lay people in accompanying migrants and in defending life. They are on the front lines, often risking their own lives. By their very lives they are prophets of mercy; they are the beating heart and the accompanying feet of the Church that opens its arms and sustains.

This time for conversion, this time for salvation, is the time for mercy. And so, let us say together in response to the suffering on so many faces: In your compassion and mercy, Lord, have pity on us … cleanse us from our sins and create in us a pure heart, a new spirit (cf. Ps 50).

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Pope Francis’ grief at the U.S.-Mexico border

by CNA/EWTN News • February 17, 2016

Pope Francis celebrates Mass with religious at Venustiano Carranza Stadium in Morelia, Mexico on Feb. 16, 2016. (L’Osservatore Romano)

Ciudad Juarez, Mexico — At the Mexico-U.S. border town of Ciudad Juarez, Pope Francis told hundreds of thousands of people present to beg God for the “gift of tears” over the suffering of others, especially forced migration.

“Let us together ask our God for the gift of conversion, the gift of tears, let us ask him to give us open hearts,” he said during the Feb. 17 Mass at Benito Juárez stadium.

“No more death! No more exploitation!”

Pope Francis drew on the day’s reading from Jonah in which God calls upon the prophet to go and convert the Ninevites, whose city was “self-destructing as a result of oppression and dishonor, violence and injustice.”

“God sent him to testify to what was happening, he sent him to wake up a people intoxicated with themselves,” he said.

Jonah’s message to the Ninevites and God’s divine mercy saved the people from self-destruction, proving that “there is always the possibility of change, we still have time to transform what is destroying us as a people, what is demeaning our humanity.”

This account presents us with the very mystery of divine mercy, the pontiff said.

“Mercy always appeals to the latent and numbed goodness within each person … It seeks and invites us to conversion, it invites us to repentance; it invites us to see the damage being done at every level. Mercy always pierces evil in order to transform it,” he said.

Pope Francis traveled to Ciudad Juarez, the Mexican city which borders El Paso, Texas, to celebrate Mass during the final day of his Feb. 12-17 visit to Mexico. Hundreds of thousands of people attended the Mass, which included faithful on both sides of the border.

At this place, along with many other border cities between the neighboring countries where thousands of Mexicans and Central Americans try to enter the United States, the story of the Ninevites’ conversion “echoes forcefully among us today” and invites us to conversion, Pope Francis said.

“In this Year of Mercy, with you here, I beg for God’s mercy; with you I wish to plead for the gift of tears, the gift of conversion,” he said.

“To weep over injustice, to cry over corruption, to cry over oppression,” the Pope said. “They are tears that can sensitize our gaze and our attitude hardened and especially dormant in the face of another’s suffering. They are the tears that can break us, capable of opening us to conversion.”

So often the humanitarian crisis of forced migration is measured with numbers and statistics, but in order to open our hearts to conversion, the Holy Father said, “we want to instead measure with names, stories, families.”

This journey, filled with “legal vacuums,” always “ensnares” and “destroys the poorest.”

The young are especially vulnerable in the flight of forced migration, he said calling them “cannon fodder” who are “persecuted and threatened when they try to flee the spiral of violence and the hell of drugs.”

He praised civil and religious organizations dedicated to “accompanying migrants” and “defending life” calling them “signs lighting the way and announcing salvation” just as Jonah did.

“By their very lives they are prophets of mercy; they are the beating heart and the accompanying feet of the Church that opens its arms and sustains,” Pope Francis said.

He closed urging those present to ask for God’s mercy and grace, saying that it’s not too late for conversion.

“This time for conversion, this time for salvation, is the time for mercy,” he said. “And so, let us say together in response to the suffering on so many faces: In your compassion and mercy, Lord, have pity on us … cleanse us from our sins and create in us a pure heart, a new spirit.”

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If Trump only builds walls he’s not Christian, Pope Francis says

by Elise Harris and Alan Holdren (CNA/EWTN News) • February 18, 2016

Pope Francis and Donald Trump. (Stephen Driscoll/CNA, Tinseltown via shutterstock.com)

Aboard the papal plane — During his inflight news conference en route from Juarez to Rome, Pope Francis responded to recent criticism from Republican U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump, who called the Pope “political” and has threatened to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexican border.

“A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian. This is not in the Gospel,” the Pope said Feb. 18.

Pope Francis was asked to respond to comments from Donald Trump, who had referred to the Pope as a “pawn” for the Mexican government. Trump says that he will build a wall along the border of the United States and Mexico to prevent undocumented immigrants from entering the U.S.

The Pope spoke to journalists on his return flight from Mexico’s Ciudad Juarez to Rome. He paid an official Feb. 12-17 visit to the country, which climaxed with the celebration of Mass at the U.S.-Mexico border Mass in Juarez City.

Immigration is a theme close to Francis’ heart. A son of Italian immigrants, the Argentine pontiff frequently speaks out asking world leaders to overcome an attitude of indifference and to welcome incoming migrants with dignity and respect.

The Pope also touched on the issue in his speech to U.S. Congress last September, telling lawmakers not to be “fearful of foreigners,” and reminding them of the many positive contributions immigrants make to the life of society. He also pointed out that many of them are descendants of immigrants themselves.

However, in a Feb. 11 interview with Fox Business Network, Donald Trump criticized the Pope’s sympathy toward immigrants, as well as his decision to celebrate a Mass at the U.S.-Mexico border.

“I think the Pope is a very political person, I think he doesn’t understand the problems our country has,” he said.

Trump said the Pope doesn’t understand the “danger” of having an open border with Mexico, and suggested that Mexico’s leaders seduced the Pope into the Mass in order to keep the border the way it is, “because they’re making a fortune and we’re losing.”

In addition to his comments about Pope Francis, Trump has repeatedly made offensive remarks toward immigrants, and has threatened not only to build a wall along the border, but to make Mexico pay for it when he does.

In a June 28 interview with CNN, Trump suggested that should he be elected, he would build a 2,500km (1,553 ft.) wall along the U.S.-Mexican border because, in his opinion, “a wall is needed in certain areas.”

He said that Mexico “makes a fortune” off the U.S., and that a wall “is a tiny little peanut compared to that. I would do something very severe unless they contributed or gave us the money to build the wall.”

In his comments to journalists onboard the papal plane, Pope Francis jested, saying he is grateful to have been called a politician, since Aristotle defined the human person as “animal politicus,” meaning, “a political animal.”

“At least I am a human person,” he said, adding that as for being a pawn of the Mexican government, he’ll leave that “up to your judgment and that of the people.”

While he can’t tell anyone who vote for, Francis said that what he can say is that “this man is not Christian if he has said things like that.” The Pope said that we have to see if Trump really said things the way he did, but that in the meantime he’s willing to give him “the benefit of the doubt.”

On Wednesday Vatican spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi responded to Trump’s criticism of the Pope’s sympathy toward immigrants, calling the presidential candidate’s remarks “very strange” and suggesting that he get more perspective.

“The pope always talks about migration problems all around the world, of the duties we have to solve these problems in a humane manner, of hosting those who come from other countries in search of a life of dignity and peace,” Lombardi said.

He noted that Pope Francis frequently makes similar remarks to leaders across Europe, which is something Trump would know “if he came to Europe.”

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Pope Francis: Abortion is evil, not the solution to Zika virus

by CNA/EWTN News • February 18, 2016

Pope Francis aboard the papal flight from Mexico to Rome on Feb. 17, 2016. (Alan Holdren/CNA)

Vatican City — On his return flight from Mexico, Pope Francis strongly rejected abortion as a response to the fears surrounding the Zika virus outbreak.

“Abortion is not the lesser of two evils. It is a crime. It is to throw someone out in order to save another. That’s what the Mafia does. It is a crime, an absolute evil,” the Pope said Feb. 18.

A journalist had asked the Pope about authorities’ proposals to respond to the Zika virus infection through abortion or “avoiding pregnancy.”

“Don’t confuse the evil of avoiding pregnancy by itself, with abortion. Abortion is not a theological problem. It is a human problem, it is a medical problem. You kill one person to save another, in the best case scenario. Or to live comfortably, no?”

The Pope responded to questions from journalists on the return flight from Mexico. He had visited the country from Feb. 12-17.

The pontiff expanded on the evil of abortion.

“It’s against the Hippocratic oaths doctors must take. It is an evil in and of itself, but it is not a religious evil in the beginning, no, it’s a human evil. Then obviously, as with every human evil, each killing is condemned,” he said.

The Pope’s comments addressed a question from the journalist Paloma García Ovejero of the Spanish radio network Cadena COPE. She had noted the concern in Latin American and European countries regarding the Zika virus.

“The greatest risk would be for pregnant women. There is anguish,” the journalist said. “Some authorities have proposed abortion, or else to avoid pregnancy. As regards avoiding pregnancy, on this issue, can the Church take into consideration the concept of ‘the lesser of two evils’?”

There is a major outbreak of the mosquito-borne Zika virus in Brazil and Latin America. The virus infection in pregnant women may be linked to birth defects in unborn babies such as microcephaly. Some pro-abortion groups have used this possible link as a justification to push for an expansion of legislated abortion.

Pope Francis in his response also addressed avoiding pregnancy. He discussed it “in terms of the conflict between the Fifth and Sixth Commandment.”

In the Catholic numbering, the Fifth Commandment bars killing while the Sixth Commandment bars adultery. The Catechism of the Catholic Church addresses elective contraception in a marital union under the Sixth Commandment.

“Paul VI, a great man, in a difficult situation in Africa, permitted nuns to use contraceptives in cases of rape,” Pope Francis said. He added that avoiding pregnancy is “not an absolute evil.”

“In certain cases, as in this one, such as the one I mentioned of Blessed Paul VI, it was clear.”

The case he referenced took place in the early 1960s, when the Vatican granted a dispensation to religious sisters living in the Belgian Congo who were in grave danger of rape to use oral contraceptives.

The logic behind the decision was that while birth control is normally immoral because it attempts to separate the unitive and procreative aspects of the sexual act, the nuns were trying to resist the act altogether. Because rape is an act of violent aggression rather than a freely chosen act, the contraception was part of a legitimate attempt at self-defense.

Normally, if a married couple faces a serious reason to avoid pregnancy, the Church teaches that they may do so through Natural Family Planning, a process that involves identifying a woman’s fertile periods and abstaining from sexual activity during those times.

The Pope also called for stronger work to combat the mosquitos and the Zika virus they spread.

“I would also urge doctors to do their utmost to find vaccines against these two mosquitoes that carry this disease. This needs to be worked on.”

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Full text of Pope Francis’ in-flight interview from Mexico to Rome

by CNA/EWTN News • February 18, 2016

Pope Francis on flight to Mexico with journalists on Feb. 12, 2016. (Alan Holdren/CNA)

Vatican City — In his hour-long inflight news conference on his way from Juarez to Rome, Pope Francis touched on a wide range of hot-button topics, including immigration, pedophilia, the spread of the Zika virus and his meeting with Patriarch Kirill.

In the 60 minute interview, the Pope answered 12 questions posed in English, Spanish and Italian while on his overnight flight from Mexico’s Ciudad Juarez to Rome.

Among the more salient themes of the interview are Francis’ praise of retired pontiff Benedict XVI’s efforts in fighting the clerical abuse crisis and his condemnation of abortion as a quick-fix to the Zika virus outbreak.

He also responded to Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s criticism of his stance on immigration, saying that if a person only seeks to build walls, they are not really a Christian.

Below is the full English transcription:

Fr. Lombardi: Holy Father, thank you for being here, as at the end of every trip, for the summary conversation, a broad look at the trip that has occurred, and for your availability to respond to so many questions from our international community. We have, like usual, asked the different language groups to organize and prepare a few questions, but naturally we begin with our colleagues from Mexico.

Maria Eugenia Jimenez Caliz, Milenio (Mexico): Holy Father, in Mexico there are thousands of “desaparecidos,” (disappeared) but the case of 43 (students) of Ayotzinapa is an emblematic case. I would like to ask you, why didn’t you meet with their families? Also, (please send) a message for the families of thousands of the “desaparecidos.”

Pope Francis: If you read the messages attentively, I made reference continuously to the killings, the death, the life taken by all of these narcotrafficking gangs and human smugglers. I spoke of this problem as one of the wounds that Mexico suffers. There was an attempt to receive one of these groups, and there were many groups, even opposed among themselves, with infighting, so I preferred to say that I would see all of them at the Mass in Juarez or at another (Mass). It was practically impossible to meet all of these groups, which on the other hand were also fighting among themselves. It’s a situation that’s difficult to understand, especially for me because I’m a foreigner, right? I think that even the Mexican society is a victim of all of this, of these crimes of “cleaning” people, of discarding people. I spoke about it in four speeches even and you can check for it there. It’s a great pain that I’m taking, because this nation doesn’t deserve a drama like this one.

Javier Solorzano, Canal 11 (Mexico): The subject of pedophilia, as you know, in Mexico has very dangerous roots, very hurtful. The case of Father Maciel left a strong mark, especially on the victims. The victims continue to feel unprotected by the Church. Many continue to be men of faith. Some are still even in the priesthood. I want to ask you, what do you think of this subject? Did you at any moment consider meeting with the victims? And, in general, this idea that when the priests are detected in cases of this nature, what is done is that they are moved to another parish, nothing more? Thanks.

Pope Francis: OK, I’m going to start with the second. First, a bishop who moves a priest to another parish when a case of pedophilia is discovered is a reckless (inconsciente) man and the best thing he can do is to present his resignation. Is that clear?

Secondly, going back, the Maciel case, and here, I allow myself to honor the man who fought in moments when he had no strength to impose himself, until he managed to impose himself. Ratzinger. Cardinal Ratzinger deserves applause. (applause) Yes, applause for him. He had all of the documentation. He’s a man who as the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith had everything in his hands. He conducted all the investigations, and went on, went on, went on, until he couldn’t go any further in the execution. But, if you remember, 10 days before the death of St. John Paul II, in that Via Crucis of Holy Friday, he said to the whole Church that it needed to clean up the dirt of the Church. And in the Pro-Eligendo Pontefice Mass, despite knowing that he was a candidate, he wasn’t stupid, he didn’t care to “make-up” his answer, he said exactly the same thing. He was the brave one who helped so many open this door. So, I want to remember him because sometimes we forget about this hidden works that were the foundations for “taking the lid off the pot.”

Thirdly, we’re doing quite a lot with the Cardinal Secretary of State (Pietro Parolin), and with the group of nine cardinal advisors. After listening, I decided to name a third secretary adjunct for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to take charge solely of these cases, because the Congregation isn’t able to keep up with all the cases it has.

Also, an appeals tribunal was constituted by Monsignor Scicluna which is dealing with the cases of second instance when there are recourses, because the first recourses are done by the plenary of the (Congregation of the) Doctrine of the Faith, the “feria quarta,” they call it, that gathers on Wednesdays. When there is recourse, it goes back to first instance, and it’s not fair. So, the second instance is also a legal matter, with a defending lawyer, but we need to work faster, because we’re behind with the cases, because cases continue to appear.

Another thing that is working very well is the commission for the protection of minors. It’s not exclusively devoted to cases of pedophilia, but the protection of minors. There, I spent an entire morning with six of them, two German, two British and two Irish. Abused men and women. Victims. And I also met with victims in Philadelphia. So we’re working. But I thank God because the lid is off the pot, and we have to continue taking it off. We need to take consciousness.

And, the final thing I would like to say that it’s a monstrosity, because a priest is consecrated to lead a child to God, and he eats him in a diabolical sacrifice. He destroys him.

Javier Solorzano: And on Maciel?

Pope Francis: Well, about Maciel, going back to the congregation (Editor’s note: The Legion of Christ, order founded by then-Fr. Marciel Maciel), there was an intervention and today the government of the congregation is semi-involved. That is, the superior general, who is elected by a council, by the general chapter, and the other two are selected by the Pope. In this way, we are helping to review old accounts.

Phil Pullella, Reuters: Today, you spoke very eloquently about the problems of immigration. On the other side of the border, there is a very tough electoral battle. One of the candidates for the White House, Republican Donald Trump, in an interview recently said that you are a political man and he even said that you are a pawn, an instrument of the Mexican government for migration politics. Trump said that if he’s elected, he wants to build 2,500 kilometers of wall along the border. He wants to deport 11 million illegal immigrants, separating families, etcetera. I would like to ask you, what do you think of these accusations against you and if a North American Catholic can vote for a person like this?

Pope Francis: Thank God he said I was a politician because Aristotle defined the human person as ‘animal politicus.’ At least I am a human person. As to whether I am a pawn, well, maybe, I don’t know. I’ll leave that up to your judgment and that of the people. And then, a person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian. This is not in the Gospel. As far as what you said about whether I would advise to vote or not to vote, I am not going to get involved in that. I say only that this man is not Christian if he has said things like that. We must see if he said things in that way and in this I give the benefit of the doubt.

Jean-Louis de la Vaisserie, AFP (France): The meeting with the Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill and the signing of the joint declaration was greeted by the entire world as an historic step. But now today in the Ukraine, Greek Catholics feel betrayed. They speak of a political document that supports Russian politics. In the field, the war of words has reignited. Do you think you’ll be able to go to Moscow? Were you invited by the patriarch? Or, (will you) go to Crete to greet the Pan-Orthodox Council in the spring?

Pope Francis: I’ll begin with the end. I will be present … spiritually. And with a message. I would like to go greet them there at the pan-orthodox synod. They are brothers, but I must respect them. But, I know that they want to invite Catholic observers and this is a good bridge, but behind the Catholic observers I will be praying with my best wishes that the Orthodox move ahead because they are brothers and their bishops are bishops like us.

Then, Kirill, my brother. We kissed each other, embraced, and then a conversation for an hour (Fr Lombardi corrects) … two hours. Old age doesn’t come on its own. (laughs) Two hours where we spoke as brothers, sincerely and no one knows what was spoke about, only what we said at the end publicly about how we felt as we spoke.

Secondly, that statement, that declaration about Ukraine. When I read this, I was a little bit worried because it was Sviatoslav Schevchuk who said that the Ukrainian people, some Ukrainians, also many Ukrainians felt disappointed and betrayed. I know Sviatoslav very well. In Buenos Aires, we worked together for four years. When he was elected – at 42 years old, eh, good man – he was elected major archbishop, he came back to Buenos Aires to get his things. He came to me and he gave me an icon - little like this – of Our Lady of Tenderness. And he told me, ‘This has accompanied me my entire life. I want to leave it to you who accompanied me over the last four years. It’s one of the few things I had brought from Buenos Aires and I keep it on my desk. That is, he’s a man whom I respect and also familiarity. We use “tu” with each other (Editor’s note: “tu” is the informal way of addressing someone in Italian – they speak as friends) and so on.

So, for this it seemed strange to me and I remembered something I said here to you: to understand a piece of news, a statement, you need to seek the hermeneutic of everything.

But, when you said this, it was said in a statement from January 14th, last February, last Sunday … an interview made by brother … I don’t remember … a priest, a Ukrainian priest, in Ukraine it was conducted and it was published. That news, the interview is one page, two, a little bit more, give or take. That interview is on the last page, a little like this. I read the interview and I’ll say this: Schevchuk, in the dogmatic part declares himself to be a son of the Church and in communion with the bishop of Rome and the Church. He speaks of the Pope and his closeness of the Pope and of himself, his faith, and also of the Orthodox people there. The dogmatic part, there’s no difficulty. He’s Orthodox in the good sense of the word, that is in Catholic doctrine, no.

And then, as in an interview like this one, everyone has the right to say his things and this wasn’t done in the meeting, because the meeting, it was a good thing and we have to move forward. This, he didn’t do in the meeting, the encounter was a good thing and we must move forward. This, the second chapter, the personal ideas that a person has. For example, this, what I said about the bishops who move pedophile priests, the best thing they can do is resign. This isn’t a dogmatic thing, but this is what I think. So, he has his personal ideas. They’re for dialoguing and he has a right to have them.

Thirdly … ah, all of what he’s speaking about is in the document, that’s the issue. On the fact of the meeting: the Lord chose to move it ahead, the embrace and all is well. The document. It’s a debatable document and there’s also another addition. In Ukraine, it’s a moment of war, of suffering, with so many interpretations. I have named the Ukrainian people, asking for prayers, closeness, so many times both in the Angelus and in the Wednesday audience. There is this closeness. But the historical fact of a war, experienced as … I don’t know if … well, everyone has their own idea of this war, who started it, what to do and it’s evident that this is a historical issue, but also a personal, historical, existential issue of that country and it speaks of the suffering. And, there I insert this paragraph. You can understand the faithful, because Stanislav told me that so many faithful have written to me saying that they are deeply disappointed and betrayed by Rome. You can understand that a people in this situation would feel this, no? The final document but it is a jotting down of some things. Pardon, it’s debatable on this question of Ukraine. But there, it says to make the war stop, that they find agreements. Also, I personally said that the Minsk accords move forward and are not eliminated. “With the elbows what wasn’t written with the hands.” (Original phrase in Italian: “Con il gomito quello che non e scritto con le mani”)

The Church of Rome, the Pope has always said, ‘Seek peace.’ I also received both presidents. Equality, no. And so for this when he says that he’s heard this from his people, I understand it. I understand it. But, that’s not the news. The news is everything.

If you read the entire interview, you’ll see that there are serious dogmatic things that remain, there’s a desire for unity, to move ahead in the ecumenical – and he’s an ecumenical man. There are a few opinions. He wrote to me when he found out about the trip, the encounter, but, as a brother, giving his opinion as a brother. I don’t mind the document how it is. I don’t dislike it in the sense that we need to respect the things that everyone has the freedom to think and in (the context of) this situation that is so difficult. From Rome, now the nuncio is on the border where they’re fighting, helping soldiers and the wounded. The Church of Rome has sent so much help there. It’s always peace, agreements. We must respect the Minsk accords and so on. This is the entirety. But, don’t get scared by that phrase. And this is a lesson that a piece of news must be interpreted with the hermeneutic of everything and not just a part.

de la Vaisserie: did the Patriarch invite you to come to Moscow sometime?

Pope Francis: Patriarch Kirill. I would prefer – because if I say one thing, I have to say another and another and another. I would prefer that what we spoke about, us, alone, will remain only what we said in public. This is a fact. And if I say this, then I’ll have to say another and another … no! The things I said in public, the things he said in public. This is what can be said about the private conversation. To say it, it wouldn’t be private. But, I tell you, I walked out of it happy, and he did too.

Carlo Marroni, Il Sole 24 (Italy): Holy Father, my question is about the family, a subject which you addressed often during this trip. The Italian parliament is discussing a law on civil unions, a subject that is provoking strong political clashes but also a strong debate in society and among Catholics. In particular, I would like to know your thoughts on the subject of adoption by civil unions and therefore on the rights of children and of sons and daughters in general.

Pope Francis: First of all, I don’t know how things stand in the thinking of the Italian parliament. The Pope doesn’t get mixed up in Italian politics. At the first meeting I had with the (Italian) bishops in May 2013, one of the three things I said was: with the Italian government you’re on your own. Because the pope is for everybody and he can’t insert himself in the specific internal politics of a country. This is not the role of the pope, right? And what I think is what the Church thinks and has said so often – because this is not the first country to have this experience, there are so many – I think what the Church has always said about this.

Paloma García Ovejero, Cadena COPE (Spain): Holy Father, for several weeks there’s been a lot of concern in many Latin American countries but also in Europe regarding the Zika virus. The greatest risk would be for pregnant women. There is anguish. Some authorities have proposed abortion, or else to avoiding pregnancy. As regards avoiding pregnancy, on this issue, can the Church take into consideration the concept of “the lesser of two evils?”

Pope Francis: Abortion is not the lesser of two evils. It is a crime. It is to throw someone out in order to save another. That’s what the Mafia does. It is a crime, an absolute evil. On the ‘lesser evil,’ avoiding pregnancy, we are speaking in terms of the conflict between the fifth and sixth commandment. Paul VI, a great man, in a difficult situation in Africa, permitted nuns to use contraceptives in cases of rape.

Don’t confuse the evil of avoiding pregnancy by itself, with abortion. Abortion is not a theological problem, it is a human problem, it is a medical problem. You kill one person to save another, in the best case scenario. Or to live comfortably, no? It’s against the Hippocratic oaths doctors must take. It is an evil in and of itself, but it is not a religious evil in the beginning, no, it’s a human evil. Then obviously, as with every human evil, each killing is condemned.

On the other hand, avoiding pregnancy is not an absolute evil. In certain cases, as in this one, or in the one I mentioned of Blessed Paul VI, it was clear. I would also urge doctors to do their utmost to find vaccines against these two mosquitoes that carry this disease. This needs to be worked on.

Jurgen Erbacher, ZDF (Germany): Holiness, you will soon receive the Charlemagne Prize, and that’s the main European one. What do you say to Europe, which now seems to be falling to pieces, first with the crisis of the euro and now that of the refugees? Maybe you have a word for us in this situation of European crisis?

Pope Francis: First, about the Charlemagne Prize. I had the habit of not accepting prizes or honors, but always, not out of humility, but because I don’t like them. Maybe it’s a little crazy, but it’s good to have it, but I just don’t like them. But in this case, I don’t say (I was) forced, but convinced by the holy and theological headstrongness of Cardinal Kasper, because he was chosen, elected by Aachen to convince me. And I said yes, but in the Vatican. And I said I offer it for Europe, as a co-decoration for Europe, a prize so that Europe may do what I desired at Strasburg; that it may no longer be “grandmother Europe” but “mother Europe.”

Secondly, reading the news the other day about this crisis and so on – I read little, I just glance through one newspaper – I won’t say the name so as not to create jealousy, but it is known! – Just 15 minutes, then I get information from the Secretariat of State and so on. And, there was one word that I liked, and I don’t know if they will approve it or not, but it was “the re-foundation of the European Union.” I thought of the great fathers, but today where is there a Schuman, an Adenauer, these great ones who after the war founded the European Union. I like this idea of the re-foundation of the European Union, maybe it can be done, because Europe – I do not say is unique, but it has a force, a culture, a history that cannot be wasted, and we must do everything so that the European Union has the strength and also the inspiration to make it go forward. That’s what I think.

Anne Thompson, NBC (USA): Some wonder how a Church that claims to be merciful, how can the Church forgive a murderer easier than someone who has divorced and remarried?

Pope Francis: I like this question! On the family, two synods have spoken. The Pope has spoken on this all year in the Wednesday Catechisms. The question is true, you posed it very well. In the post-synod document that will be published, perhaps before Easter – it picks up on everything the synod – in one of the chapters, because it has many – it spoke about the conflicts, wounded families and the pastoral (care) of wounded families. It is one of the concerns. As another is the preparation for marriage. Imagine, to become a priest there are eight years of study and preparation, and then if after a while you can’t do it, you can ask for a dispensation, you leave, and everything is OK. On the other hand, to make a sacrament (marriage), which is for your whole life, three to four conferences … Preparation for marriage is very important. It’s very, very important because I believe it is something that in the Church, in common pastoral ministry, at least in my country, in South America, the Church has not valued much.

For example, not so much anymore but some years ago in my homeland there was a habit, something called ‘casamiento de apuro,’ a marriage in haste because the baby is coming and to cover socially the honor of the family. There, they weren’t free and it happened many times this marriage is null. As a bishop I forbade my priests to do this. Priests, when there was something like this, I would say, let the baby come, let them continue as fiancées, and when they feel like they can continue for the rest of their lives, then they could go ahead. There is a lack there.

Another very interesting chapter is the education of children: the victims of problems of the family are the children. The children. Even of problems that neither husband nor wife have a say in. For example, the needs of a job. When the dad doesn’t have free time to speak to his children, when the mother doesn’t have time to speak with her children. When I confess a couple who have kids, a married couple, I ask, ‘how many children do you have?’ Some get worried and think the priest will ask why I don’t have more. I would make a second question, ‘Do you play with your children?’ The majority say, ‘but father, I have no time. I work all day.’ Children are victims of a social problem that wounds the family. It is a problem … I like your question.

Another interesting thing from the meeting with families in Tuxtla. There was a couple, married again in second union integrated in the pastoral ministry of the Church. The key phrase used by the synod, which I’ll take up again, is ‘integrate’ in the life of the Church the wounded families, remarried families, etcetera. But of this one mustn’t forget the children in the middle. They are the first victims, both in the wounds, and in the conditions of poverty, of work, etcetera.

Thompson: Does that mean they can receive Communion?

Pope Francis: This is the last thing. Integrating in the Church doesn’t mean receiving communion. I know married Catholics in a second union who go to church, who go to church once or twice a year and say I want communion, as if joining in Communion were an award. It’s a work towards integration, all doors are open, but we cannot say, ‘from here on they can have communion.’ This would be an injury also to marriage, to the couple, because it wouldn’t allow them to proceed on this path of integration. And those two were happy. They used a very beautiful expression: we don’t receive Eucharistic communion, but we receive communion when we visit hospitals and in this and this and this. Their integration is that. If there is something more, the Lord will tell them, but it’s a path, a road.

Antoine Marie Izoard, I.Media (France): Holiness, good evening. I permit myself first off, joking, to tell you how much we Vaticanistas are hostages of the schedule of the Holy Father and we can’t play with our children. Saturday is the jubilee audience, Sunday the Angelus and from Monday through Friday we have to go work. And also a hug to Alberto, who with Fr. Lombardi 20 years ago hired me at Vatican Radio. We’re in family here.

A question that is a bit “risqué,” Holiness. Numerous media have evoked and made a lot of noise on the intense correspondence John Paul II and the American philosopher, Ana Teresa Tymieniecka, who had a great affection, it’s said, for the Polish Pope. In your viewpoint, can a Pope have such an intimate relationship with a woman? And also, if you allow me, you who have an important correspondence, have you known this type of experience?

Pope Francis: I already knew about this friendship between St. John Paul II and this philosopher when I was in Buenos Aires. It was known. Also her books are known. John Paul II was a restless man. Then, I would also say that a man who does not know how to have a relationship of friendship with a woman – I’m not talking about misogynists, who are sick – well, he’s a man who is missing something.

And in my own experience, including when I ask for advice, I would ask a collaborator, a friend, I also like to hear the opinion of a woman because they have such wealth. They look at things in a different way. I like to say that women are those who form life in their wombs – and this is a comparison I make – they have this charism of giving you things you can build with. A friendship with a woman is not a sin. (It’s) a friendship. A romantic relationship with a woman who is not your wife, that is a sin. Understand?

But the Pope is a man. The Pope needs the input of women, too. And the Pope, too, has a heart that can have a healthy, holy friendship with a woman. There are saint-friends – Francis and Clare, Teresa and John of the Cross – don’t be frightened. But women are still not considered so well; we have not understood the good that a woman do for the life of a priest and of the church in the sense of counsel, help of a healthy friendship.

Franca Giansoldati, Il Messaggero (Italy): Holiness, good evening. I return back to the topic of the law that is being voted on in the Italian parliament. It is a law that in some ways is about other countries, because other countries have laws about unions among people of the same sex. There is a document from the Congregation for the Doctrine for the Faith from 2003 that dedicates a lot of attention to this, and even more, dedicates a chapter to the position of Catholic parliamentarians in parliament before this question. It says expressly that Catholic parliamentarians must not vote for these laws. Considering that there is much confusion on this, I wanted to ask, first of all, is this document of 2003 still in effect? And what is the position a Catholic parliamentarian must take? And then another thing, after Moscow, Cairo. Is there another thawing out on the horizon? I’m referring to the audience that you wish for with the Pope and the Sunnis, let’s call them that way, the Imam of Al Azhar.

Pope Francis: For this, Msgr. Ayuso went to Cairo last week to meet the second to the Imam and to greet the Imam. Msgr. Ayuso, secretary to Cardinal Tauran of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue. I want to meet him. I know that he would like it. We are looking for the way, always through Cardinal Tauran because it is the path, but we will achieve it.

About the other, I do not remember that 2003 document from the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith well but every Catholic parliamentarian must vote according their well-formed conscience. I would say just this. I believe it is sufficient because – I say well-formed because it is not the conscience of ‘what seems to me.’ I remember when matrimony for persons of the same sex was voted on in Buenos Aires and the votes were tied. And at the end, one said to advise the other: ‘But is it clear to you? No, me neither, but we’re going to lose like this. But if we don’t go there won’t be a quorum.’ The other said: ‘If we have a quorum we will give the vote to Kirchner.’ And, the other said: ‘I prefer to give it to Kirchner and not Bergoglio.’ And they went ahead. This is not a well formed conscience.

On people of the same sex, I repeat what I said on the trip to Rio di Janeiro. It’s in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

Javier Martinez-Brocal, Rome Reports (Italy): We’re not back to Rome yet but we are thinking about future trips, about preparing our suitcases again. Holy Father, when are you going to go to Argentina, where they have been waiting for you for a long time? When will you return to Latin America? Or go to China? Then, a quick comment, you spoke many times during this trip about dreaming – what do you dream about? And what is your nightmare?

Pope Francis: China. (laughs) To go there. I would love that. I would like to say something just about the Mexican people. It is a population that has a wealth, such great wealth, a people that surprises. They have a culture, a culture that goes back millennia. Do you know that today, in Mexico, they speak 65 languages, counting the indigenous languages, 65. It is a people of great faith. They have also suffered religious persecution. There are martyrs, now I will canonize two. It is a population that you can’t explain, you can’t explain it because the word ‘people’ is not a logical category, it’s a mythical category. The Mexican people, you cannot explain this wealth, this history, this joy, the capacity to celebrate amid these tragedies that you have asked about. I can say another thing, that this unity, that this people has managed not to fail, not to end with so many wars, things, things that are happening now. There in the city of Juarez there was a pact of 12 hours of peace for my visit. After that they will continue to fight among themselves, no? Traffickers. But a people that still is together with all that, you can only explain with Guadalupe. And I invite you to seriously study the facts of Guadalupe. The Madonna is there. I cannot find another explanation. And it would be nice if you as journalists – there are some books that explain the painting what it is like, the significance, and that is how you can understand better this great and beautiful people.

Caroline Pigozzi, Paris Match (France): Good evening, Holy Father. Two things, I wanted to know what did you ask Guadalupe? Because you were there a long time in the chapel praying to Guadalupe. And then something else, do you dream in Italian or Spanish?

Pope Francis: I’d say I dream in Esperanto (laughs). I don’t know how to respond to that. Truly. Sometimes I remember some dreams in another language, but dreaming in languages no, but figures yes, my psychology is this way. With words I dream very little, no? And, the first question was?

(Guadalupe)

I asked for the world, for peace, so many things. The poor thing ended up with her head like this (raises arms around head). I asked forgiveness, I asked that the Church grows healthy, I asked for the Mexican people. And another thing I asked a lot for: that priests be true priests, and sisters true sisters, and bishops true bishops. As the Lord wants. This I asked a lot for, but then, the things a child tells his mother are a bit of a secret. Thanks, Carolina.

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VATICAN NEWS

What did Pope Francis actually say about contraception?

by CNA/EWTN News • February 18, 2016

Pope Francis at the Vatican on April 3, 2014. (Daniel Ibáñez/CNA)

Vatican City — Despite a rush of headlines claiming Pope Francis is softening the Church’s stance on contraception, a closer look at his recent remarks could suggest otherwise.

During an in-flight press conference on his way back from Mexico, Pope Francis was asked by a reporter about the threat of Zika virus in many Latin American countries.

Noting that the virus may be linked to birth defects when transmitted from a pregnant woman to her unborn baby, the reporter asked the Holy Father about proposals involving “abortion, or else avoiding pregnancy” in areas where Zika virus is prevalent.

The Pope responded by emphatically stating that abortion is “a crime” and “absolute evil” that cannot be justified. He also spoke on the topic of avoiding pregnancy.

“Paul VI, a great man, in a difficult situation in Africa, permitted nuns to use contraceptives in cases of rape,” he said.

Seven sentences later, he added another comment. Not mentioning contraception specifically, he simply said that “avoiding pregnancy is not an absolute evil. In certain cases, as in this one, or in the one I mentioned of Blessed Paul VI, it was clear.”

Numerous news outlets suggested that the Pope was introducing a change – or at least a softening – in previous teaching.

However, Dr. Melissa Moschella, a philosophy professor at The Catholic University of America, suggested that this may not be the case.

When talking about avoiding pregnancy in connection with the Zika virus, the Pope may not necessarily have been implying artificial contraceptive use, but may have been referencing Natural Family Planning, she said.

Normally, if a married couple faces a serious reason to avoid pregnancy, the Church teaches that they may do so through Natural Family Planning, a process that involves identifying a woman’s fertile periods and abstaining from sexual activity during those times.

Moschella also explained that in the Africa case referenced by Pope Francis, the dispensation for the nuns was “not really an exception if you understand the rule.”

The case in question took place in the early 1960s, when the Vatican granted a dispensation to religious sisters living in the Belgian Congo who were in grave danger of rape due to civil unrest to use oral contraceptives.

“In the case of rape, the person who’s raped – from the moral perspective – has not engaged in a sexual act,” Moschella said. Rather, rape is an act of violence and a “violation of the woman’s body without any free choice or acceptance on her part.”

“(I)n the sense, the sperm that’s been introduced as a result of the rape is a kind of further intrusion, unwelcome and non-voluntarily allowed into the woman’s body. So it’s a further kind of intrusion of the violence.”

To understand the distinction, the professor continued, one must first understand the purpose of human sexuality and why the Church opposes contraception.

“(W)hat sex means, from the Catholic perspective, is I give myself totally, completely to you in the kind of relationship that would be fulfilled by having and bearing children together,” she explained. “And if you do that while at the same time intentionally holding back your fertility, in a sense you’ve contradicted what it is that you’re doing with your body. It’s kind of like nodding yes while thinking no, kind of lying with your body language.”

As a result, birth control is immoral because it violates the very nature of sex – trying to engage in sex without the natural possibility of pregnancy.

“But that doesn’t happen in the case of rape,” Moschella stressed. “In the case of rape, there has been no voluntary sex act on the part of the woman.”

As a result, birth control would be viewed not as an immoral contraceptive measure seeking to separate the unitive and procreative aspects of sex, but rather part of an act of self-defense, as the women seek to resist the act altogether.

This is also, she noted, why some actions – such as the use of spermicide or attempts to delay ovulation if it has not yet occurred – may be acceptable even after instances of rape, as long as they do not involve the risk of killing an already-formed human embryo.

However, Moschella said that this is “really different” from the situation surrounding the Zika virus.

“(I)n cases of Zika virus, you’re talking about women who are voluntarily engaging in sexual relations and then using contraceptives to prevent those voluntary sexual acts from being fertile. And that does contradict the meaning of the sexual act, and so involves a kind of lack of integrity that’s harmful to the person and harmful to the relationship.”

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Pilgrims beware! Mexican bishops warn against papal ticket scams

by CNA/EWTN News • January 19, 2016

Francis at the Wednesday General Audience in St. Peter’s Square on June 24, 2015. (Daniel Ibanez/CNA)

Mexico City, Mexico — Following the rise of fraudulent papal ticket “sales” online, the Mexican Conference of Catholic Bishops has reminded the faithful that tickets to attend events during Pope Francis’ trip are free.

Pope Francis will visit Mexico in a highly anticipated trip Feb. 12-18. In the weeks leading up to his trip, various scams have arisen, including several efforts on Facebook to encourage people to “buy” tickets to the papal events for several hundred dollars.

Countering these efforts, the Mexican bishops released a press statement reminding the faithful that tickets for all events with the Pope have already been designed and “besides being stamped FREE, have certain security features and information about when and where to enter the event and what items cannot be brought in.”

The tickets are already being printed and will be delivered in late January to the bishops of the 93 dioceses of Mexico “so that each bishop can distribute them in his respective diocese as he deems appropriate, also trying to include those who do not participate in the Church,” the bishops said.

The allocation of tickets takes into account “the number of inhabitants in each diocese, the number of Catholics, religious men and women, seminarians, deacons and priests, as well as the geographic proximity to where the Mass or event will be held.”

“It is important to reiterate that the tickets are absolutely FREE,” the Mexican prelates emphasized.

The bishops renewed their call to young people who want to participate in this trip as volunteers and encouraged them to sign up on the website for the visit: papafranciscoenmexico.org.

They explained that a very significant moment during the visit “will be the pope’s meeting with Mexican young people on February 16 at 4 p.m., at the José María Morelos y Pavón Stadium in Morelia. Young people who are not close to the Church or part of it will also be able to participate.”

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From a Mexican prison, a single mother will tell Pope Francis her story

by CNA/EWTN News • February 4, 2016

Pope Francis delivers the Angelus address in St. Peter’s Square on Jan. 6, 2016. (L’Osservatore Romano)

Ciudad Juarez, Mexico — Évila Quintana Molina is a single mother in a Mexican prison. She has never spoken in public, to protect her little daughter from being teased by other children. But when she was chosen to give her testimony to Pope Francis, her eight-year-old daughter encouraged her to go ahead.

“What’s more, I want to be there with you,” her daughter Camilla told her.

On Feb. 17, she will address Pope Francis on the last day of his visit to Mexico. Évila Quintana is imprisoned at Social Rehabilitation Center Number Three in Ciudad Juarez. About 800 prisoners are housed there, including some 100 women. Around 200 of the inmates’ relatives will also be in attendance.

Évila Quintana had been a university student who worked in a bank and took care of her daughter. In 2010, she was jailed on accusations of money laundering.

She said going to prison was her entrance into very hostile territory. She had never been in jail, not even to visit someone. It was a very difficult stage that she managed to overcome, especially for the sake of her child.

“My little daughter sees this … I ask her if she’s ashamed of me and she says no, that she never would be. On the contrary, (she says) that I’m a very brave woman,” Évila said.

The 34-year-old woman told the Mexican daily news outlet Presencia Digital that her case is still in legal proceedings and so she held back details of her case. However, she says that she now believes she has a God of justice who will determine how much time she will spend in prison.

She recounted the day she heard she had been chosen to speak to the Pope. She was working in the store at the women’s prison when she was called in for a hearing. She did not know what it was for.

“I thought: ‘what’s happened now?’”

She read a piece of paper they gave her. After a few hours they told her she had been chosen to give a testimony to the Pope.

Évila Quintana asked the hearing: “Do you think I really deserve this? Because I’m really a sinner. To stand up in a public place and offer him a few words, I think this is a huge responsibility, and I am a sinner for real.”

The person at the hearing answered: “I’m not the one who chose you, it was God.”

The woman acknowledged that she is not a practicing Catholic. But she said she knows that “God is always with me, this is part of my getting closer to his Church again, to come back.”

Writing her speech for the Pope was another matter.

“They told me you’ve got to tell him what was it like going to prison, your time there, your feelings as a mom, how you’re getting through it, how you feel, what a visit is like for you. They gave me three topics to talk on and I had to develop them, and I said, ‘how am I going to relate to a holy person?’” she told Presencia Digital.

The young mother could not find anything to write about. Then she remembered that when she was arrested in Mexico City, she read a Bible verse she paraphrased as saying, “you need to talk to the prisoners, as if you were in the jail with them.”

“I think this is what I’m going to base my speech on,” Évila Quintana thought.

More than material things, she emphasized, prisoners need “a phone call, and occasionally asking you how you’re doing. Those things are important.”

In Pope Francis’ travels as “a missionary of mercy” he is “emulating the footsteps of Christ,” she said. “He’s trying to be with everyone who has a spiritual need.”

“I’m part of his people, and so he serves as a pastor who starts to gather together his little sheep to get them back on the path … we’re part of the people of God, we’re part of society, we need a period of time to rejoin society, but we’re not outside of God’s people,” she reflected.

To prepare for her speech, Évila Quintana tried to think of what she had in common with the Pope. Help came in the form of a phone call from Camilla.

“My daughter told me, ‘you and the Pope have the same birthday.’”

Évila Quintana was still concerned that children will be cruel to her daughter if they learn her mother is in jail. She tried her best to keep the news quiet that she was going to speak in front of the Pope.

However, her daughter had a different view.

“Mommy, I’m not going to be ashamed at all. What’s more, I want to be with you,” were Camilla’s words. She will be next to her mother on Feb. 17, when she addresses the Pope.

Évila Quintana said that Pope Francis’ visit will help all of Mexico. Ciudad Juarez, as a border city, has been “very much harmed by violence.”

“I believe that he is bringing a message of peace,” she said.

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After deadly prison riot in Mexico, archbishop asks for prayers

by CNA/EWTN News • February 12, 2016

(Thomas Hawk via Flickr CC BY-NC 2.0)

Mexico City, Mexico — Archbishop Rogelio Cabrera López of Monterrey has asked the entire community to unite in prayer in response to the riot that took place at a local prison that left a tragic toll of 52 dead and 12 injured.

“We want to invite the entire community to join us in prayer for our brothers who are inmates and for their families, who are going through anguished moments,” the archbishop said in a statement.

The riot took place in the early morning Feb. 11 at the Topo Chico prison located in Monterrey in Mexico’s northern Nuevo Leon State.

Nuevo Leon Gov. Jaime Rodríguez Calderón confirmed to CNN the number of dead. He indicated there were no women or children among them. The authorities are working to determine the identity of the dead and injured.

The Archbishop of Monterrey asked that the situation be properly controlled and that appropriate authorities provide information about the prison’s situation.

“Given this deplorable incident,” he said, “we humbly unite ourselves to the call that the relatives of the inmates have made for a thorough review of the situation in the rehabilitation centers in our state.”

Archbishop Cabrera’s statement concluded with a request for all the priests who took part in Ash Wednesday observances to “lift up their prayers for this intention in today’s Masses.”

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How millions of keys in Mexico are being used to honor Pope Francis

by CNA/EWTN News • February 12, 2016

(Yutaka Seki via Flickr CC BY 2.0)

Mexico City, Mexico — A well-known Mexican artist is collecting millions of keys for an unusual reason.

He will use the keys to create a 16-foot-tall bronze statue of Pope Francis.

The statue’s design shows Francis holding in his left hand a white dove as it takes flight.

Pedro Francisco Rodriguez, a famous sculptor in the Juarez area, is in charge of the project. To collect the bronze keys, project volunteers have placed containers in different shopping centers. All people who want to participate can drop off their keys there. Any shortfall in material will be completed by donations from local businesses, Father Hesiquio Trevizo, a spokesman for the Diocese of Juarez, said at a January press conference.

Some of the shopping centers chosen include the Rio Grande Mall, Gran Patio Zaragoza, Las Misiones, Galerias Tec, Plaza Monumental, and Plaza las Americas, among others.

The sculptor said he began work in late December. He hopes to have the statue ready by April 2016.

When he is finished, the sculpture will be white, Rodriguez explained.

Fr. Trevizo said that organizers of the project do not know where the statue will be installed. They will search for a place where all the faithful and pilgrims can see and appreciate it.

Pope Francis is visiting Mexico February 12-17. The last city on his schedule is Juarez, which is situated on the U.S. border across from El Paso, Texas.

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How a shoeshiner-turned-journalist touched the heart of Pope Francis

by CNA/EWTN News • February 13, 2016

Pope Francis meets journalist and former shoeshiner Noel Diaz on Feb. 12, 2016. (CNA)

Mexico City, Mexico — During the Feb. 12 papal flight to Mexico, Pope Francis received an unprecedented gesture of affection from a Mexican journalist: a shoe shining, accompanied by a story from the journalist’s youth.

Noel Díaz was born in Tijuana, and had a difficult childhood. He later emigrated to the United States, where now he is a prosperous businessman and founded the Catholic radio-television station, “El Sembrador” in California.

Now Noel is accompanying the papal trip to Mexico and yesterday – in his meeting with the pontiff on board the plane – told the Pope a story from his life, and offered to Pope Francis tools to clean shoes.

Noel told the Pope that when he was only eight years old and was about to receive his First Communion, he heard that his mother – who was single – couldn’t buy him a suit for the ceremony. It was then that he decided to work in the streets as a shoeshiner.

Pope Francis listened with attention. Noel then asked him permission to shine his shoes. The Pope accepted, and he knelt with brush and cloth to polish the Holy Father’s black shoes.

In statements to CNA, Noel explained that in shining Pope Francis’ shoe, he wanted to recall “everyone who, with dignity and effort, works every day to bring food into their homes.”

“Many times, one doesn’t realize the suffering of so many people who work in the streets as peddlers,” Noel said. “My mother was a peddler.”

Noel crossed the border with his mother as an illegal immigrant, and was deported twice. “After many years, we were legalized. I asked the Pope that he pray a lot for immigrants, that those who have gone many years without seeing their mother or father can see them,” he said. Noel’s mother died in 2010.

As a Mexican, Noel has a lot of hope for this papal visit. “The Pope travels as a pilgrim of mercy and peace. I hope that his words reverberate with the Mexican people and that we Catholics engage more. The Pope does not come to resolve the problems but to come to be a voice that the people want to listen to,” he said.

Noel asked the Pope what laity can do to help in his mission. The Pontiff asked them to “leave the caves” – to go out from their comfort zone into the peripheries.

“It was a very nice experience. The Pope, undoubtedly was moved and I had the pleasure of having shined the shoes of the Pope,” Noel concluded.

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Our Lady of Guadalupe Basilica comes to Google street view

by CNA/EWTN News • February 15, 2016

Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City, Mexico. (Eduardo Berdejo/CNA)

Mexico City, Mexico — A virtual pilgrimage for Pope Francis’ trip now offers a new street-view perspective of key sites and churches. The project is thanks to a partnership between the Archdiocese of Mexico and tech giant Google.

Miguel Alva, the director of marketing for Google in Mexico, explained the project.

“When we started looking at key messages from Pope Francis throughout the entire term that he’s been serving, we saw a lot about opening the doors of the Church,” he told CNA Feb. 13.

“So we started doing a project with street view, using street view technology to capture about 80 different churches, emblematic churches in Mexico. That includes, for the first time, the cathedral in Mexico City and also the Basilica for Our Lady of Guadalupe.”

Alva has worked closely alongside the Archdiocese of Mexico to prepare for Pope Francis’ Feb. 12-17 visit.

Once the Pope made the official announcement of his visit during Mass on the Dec. 12 feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Google immediately received a letter from Cardinal Norberto Rivera, archbishop of Mexico. The cardinal asked for help to make the visit go viral.

The archdiocese asked the tech company “for any advice that we could provide to take this entire visit to digital,” Alva said. The local Church made it a priority reach a new audience, specifically the youth, “who are basically online and not necessarily on traditional media.”

“So we went back and started giving some advice on their website, making it fully mobile and also including some of our platforms to make this visit better for any user,” he continued.

Working on the project “has been just amazing,” Alva said. The Google team was given special access to places that are normally closed to the public.

Now these places are available online to people all over the world.

This, Alva said, is “a symbol (and) a gift we want to give the Pope and people all over the world.”

“If you are in bed because you are sick and you want to do a pilgrimage to Our Lady of Guadalupe, now you can do it,” he said. All that’s needed is to go into Google’s street view of the basilica and start navigating.

Viewers can take a virtual walk through the entire complex of Tepeyac, and go straight “to the feet of the Virgin, having that moment to reflect and to pray with the Virgin.”

Francis himself visited the Guadalupe shrine on Saturday. He has said many times that the primary reason he is traveling to Mexico is to visit the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, miraculously imprinted on the tilma of St. Juan Diego 470 years ago.

Google Calendar users can schedule the Pope’s entire agenda in Mexico into their own calendar. They can set reminders on their phone or computer to alert them of the activities they don’t want to miss.

Additionally, Google Maps has laid out all the routes Pope Francis is set to take while on the ground. This will allow those who want to see the Pope the ability to find him. For those who want to avoid the crowds, the maps offer detour routes.

The Pope’s public events are being transmitted live on YouTube, as well as on the official Spanish website of the Pope’s visit.

One of the perks of the new street view tour is that pilgrims can also follow the path of participants in the Jubilee of Mercy. They can virtually pass through the Holy Doors at the entrance of the cathedral of Mexico City and the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

Alva said that so far, Google’s traffic in Spanish has jumped during the Pope’s visit. Traffic increases are seen primarily in Mexico, Latin America, Spain and among Hispanics in the U.S.

“We’ve been monitoring the different tools and we see a high traffic. Its people who not only go in, but they also spend a lot of time,” Alva said.

Normally, the average person doesn’t spend long on the sites they visit. However, for the Pope’s trip, the numbers have consistently been above five minutes.

While the official website for the Pope’s visit is only available in Spanish, people from 123 countries have accessed it.

The main traffic comes from primarily Spanish speaking countries, or countries with a Spanish speaking population, with Mexico in the lead. This is followed by the U.S., Argentina, Spain, Colombia, Guatemala, Canada, Brazil and Italy.

Alva said that the website has also been accessed from countries such as Andorra, Azerbaijan, Japan and even the city of Macau in China.

This isn’t the first time the Catholic Church – or the Vatican – have partnered with Google for a project. In fact, last year Pope Francis participated in a Feb. 5, 2015, Google Hangout session with seven special needs youth from around the world.

It marked the pontiff’s second hangout session since becoming pope. His first was held with high school students in September 2014. That event helped promote the “Scholas Social” website, dedicated to raising funds for educational projects that promote interaction between schools with various social challenges.

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This little girl only has half a heart, but she’s full of joy for Pope Francis

by CNA/EWTN News • February 18, 2016

Sabrina Puig embraces Pope Francis. (Karla Robles screenshot)

Mexico City, Mexico — Sabrina Puig is eight years old. Due to a rare condition, she only has half a heart. But when Pope Francis passed by, she ran to him.

Sabrina and her mother, Karla Robles, were behind the crowd barrier outside the apostolic nunciature in Mexico City when the Pope visited there Sunday.

When the Pope left the nunciature, the people began to push forward. Sabrina saw her chance.

“Then she began to run towards the Pope,” Karla said.

Sabrina passed through the security fence outside of the apostolic nunciature in Mexico City and ran towards Pope Francis. She hugged him forcefully.

“I was very excited,” Karla said to CNA. “Sabrina told me ‘I hugged him! I hugged him!’ She was very happy. She slept with a rosary distributed to those who were near the Pope. She was even asking why the Pope had to live in Rome.”

The young girl has a disease called hypoplastic left heart syndrome, a disability in which one side of the heart does not develop. She has had four operations and depends on the intervention of doctors to survive.

Her mother told CNA that the girl can do the same daily activities as any other person, although she tires more quickly. She also can’t exercise much.

Her family has help from the Kardias Foundation, which cares for children with heart issues.

Thanks to the foundation, both Sabrina and her mother were able to wait for the pontiff outside of the nunciature. They were joined by with nine other children and their parents.

“We were fortunate to be in front of the door, where they seated us,” Karla said. “I did not know it, but the yellow section was for the sick. The Pope knew that they needed his greeting and blessing, I think that’s why he came.”

Karla said that Sabrina is now more interested in the Catholic faith. She is “very proud to have had this opportunity.”

It was very emotional for me. It is a memory that will last a lifetime,” Karla said.

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Pope Francis’ trip will include a U.S.-Mexico border Mass

by CNA/EWTN News • December 14, 2015

Pope Francis waves to the crowds at the general audience in St. Peter’s Square on Sept 2, 2015. (Daniel Ibanez/CNA)

El Paso, TX — The Diocese of El Paso, Texas announced Monday that a cross-border Mass will take place during Pope Francis’ visit to Mexico in February.

The Holy Father’s schedule for the trip, released Sunday by the Vatican, includes a Feb. 17 Mass in the border city of Ciudad Juarez, at Benito Juarez Stadium near the border.

Bishop Mark J. Seitz of the Diocese of El Paso said in a statement that he and other area bishops are working to have lay faithful present at a Mass that includes both sides of the border. The dioceses of both El Paso, Texas and Las Cruces, NM are across the Rio Grande river from Juarez.

“I am presently in conversation with our local civic leaders about celebrating Mass with Pope Francis at the border … which will include the faithful on both sides of the border,” he said.

The Mass at the Mexico-U.S. border is expected to draw hundreds of thousands of pilgrims from both countries and would be a significant milestone in Pope Francis’ February trip. The Benito Juarez Stadium has a capacity of 220,000, and tickets for the event are expected to be made available sometime in the next week.

While the Diocese of El Paso is not organizing a pilgrimage to Mexico for the Pope’s visit, the faithful are being encouraged to check with their local parishes about organized trips to the event.

Bishop Seitz said he is “thrilled” that the Pope is making a stop at the border region, and that he has “many hopes” for the Holy Father’s visit.

“In spite of the borders and boundaries that exist, we see ourselves as one great Catholic community, and so we are immensely grateful and honored that our Universal Pastor, Pope Francis, has chosen to come to our area,” he said.

“Pope Francis’ visit will undoubtedly call attention to many realities that are lived on both sides of the U.S. – Mexico border, particularly the plight of so many migrants and refugees fleeing violence and poverty in their home countries, in search of better lives for themselves and their children.”

Bishop Seitz also expressed his “great excitement” for the Mexican people upon the announcement of the Pope’s trip. As a country with an 80 percent Catholic population, Mexicans are known for their “special love and affection for our popes,” the bishop said, which he expects will be as strong as ever with the first Latin American pope.

Other highlights of the Pope’s Feb. 12-18 trip to the country include the veneration of the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mass with the indigenous community of Chiapas, and a visit to a prison in Ciudad Juarez.

Besides the Mass, Bishop Seitz said he is also calling on all parishes in his dioceses to take up special collections in order to financially support the Diocese of Juarez’s expenses in hosting Pope Francis.

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Twitter is preparing for the Pope’s visit to Mexico

by CNA/EWTN News • February 13, 2016

Twitter’s special emojis for each city in Mexico Pope Francis will visit. (CNA)

Mexico City, Mexico — The social network Twitter is prepared for Pope Francis’ historic trip to Mexico, with special emojis emblematic of each city the pontiff will visit.

During his Feb. 12-17 trip to the country, Pope Francis will visit Mexico City, Ecatepec, Tuxtla Gutierrez, San Cristobal de las Casas, Morelia and Ciudad Juarez. Some 87 percent of Mexico’s 110 million inhabitants are Catholic.

The official Twitter blog confirmed that each site the Pope visits will have its own emoji, which will automatically be seen by all those who tweet with the predominant hashtag of each.

The hashtag #PapaenMex activates an icon of the Pope’s face with Flag of Mexico as the background, while #PapaenCDmx reveals the “Angel of Independence” characteristic of Mexico City. The hashtag #PapaenCHPS shows an emoji of the Cathedral of San Marcos, located in Tuxtla Gutierrez, Chiapas, while #PapaenMich shows the Cathedral of Morelia, in Michoacan. And #PapaenCDJ activates an icon of the Cathedral of Ciudad Juarez, dedicated to the Virgin of Guadalupe.

Pope Francis is an active user of Twitter, with more than 11 million followers on his Spanish account alone, and more than 26 million combined on his nine different language accounts.

The Mexican Bishops’ Conference has also opened an official account of the Pope’s visit to Mexico, @ConElPapa.

CNA will have a team of reporters providing live coverage of the papal trip. You can follow them on Twitter: Alan Holdren (@AlanHoldren), Eduardo Berdejo (@Eberdejor) and David Ramos (@YoDash).

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For Antonin Scalia, faith and work did not conflict

by Matt Hadro (CNA/EWTN News) • February 15, 2016

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. (Stephen Masker via Flickr CC BY 2.0)

Washington, D.C. — The late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was a man of deep Catholic faith who saw his work through the eyes of vocation, said those who knew him.

“I think he’s an excellent example of someone who is a public servant because of his faith, and understands that he is living out the vocation. He’s not just doing a job, but he is living out his calling,” said Kevin Walsh, a law professor at the University of Richmond who once clerked for Scalia at the Supreme Court.

“Justice Scalia was a person of deep and sincere Catholic faith. It is clear that this faith, and the teachings of the Church, shaped his views about ethics, morality, and policy,” Richard Garnett, a professor of law at the University of Notre Dame, told CNA in a statement.

But while his faith was a powerful driving factor in life, Scalia “insisted, though, that it was not the job or the place of a Catholic judge to reach ‘Catholic’ outcomes in cases,” Garnett emphasized. Rather, he focused on interpreting existing law as it was originally intended.

“In his view, the responsibility for making sure that our laws and policies are fair, just, and moral lies with ‘we the people’ and the representatives we elect,” he said. “In our system, he thought, judges should limit themselves to identifying and interpreting the laws that are given; they should not re-shape those laws, even to make them better.”

Justice Scalia passed away at age 79 on Saturday at a ranch in West Texas of apparently natural causes. The Diocese of El Paso confirmed that he received Last Rites after his death. Scalia, appointed to the Court in 1986, was the longest-serving Supreme Court justice on the bench and one of five Catholic justices.

The son of an Italian immigrant, he was baptized in the Cathedral of the Diocese of Trenton, N.J. and attended Xavier Catholic High School in New York City and Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. He and his wife had nine children, including Fr. Paul Scalia who is a priest in the Diocese of Arlington.

After his death, Catholic legal scholars and bishops all praised Scalia’s intellectual acumen and deep Catholic faith.

Bishop David O’Connell of Trenton, Scalia’s home diocese, called him “a devout Catholic” who “was widely regarded as one of the brightest American legal minds in recent decades” in a statement on the diocesan website.

“He was a man of extraordinary legal genius and fidelity to the Constitution,” stated Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia. However, he added, “the larger part” of Scalia’s character “was his enduring Christian character. His life as a husband, father, friend, scholar and judge was shaped profoundly by his Catholic faith. What made him ‘great’ in the only way that finally matters was his moral integrity.”

Bishop James Conley of Lincoln recalled his admiration of Scalia from a one dinner where he sat next to the justice and conversed with him.

“I have a graduate degree in moral theology, and still, the depth of his reflections, and the obvious extent of his research, astounded me. No one, no matter his politics, can credibly deny Scalia’s genius,” he said in an op-ed in the Southern Nebraska Register.

And Scalia was open about his faith. His 2013 interview with New York Magazine raised eyebrows when he candidly revealed his belief in the existence of the devil.

“Hey, c’mon, that’s standard Catholic doctrine!” he told the surprised interviewer. “I mean, Jesus Christ believed in the Devil! It’s in the Gospels!”

Although he was a man of deep faith, however, Scalia did not invoke his faith to reach “Catholic” decisions at the Court, scholars maintained.

“He understood that he held an office, as a matter of public trust, and that that office had limits,” Walsh said. “His job was to apply the federal law of our country as faithfully as he could.”

An example of Scalia affirming this was his 2007 keynote address at a Villanova Law School conference, as reported by the journal First Things, where he said that “there is no such thing as a ‘Catholic judge’.”

“The bottom line is that the Catholic faith seems to me to have little effect on my work as a judge,” he said. “Just as there is no ‘Catholic’ way to cook a hamburger, I am hard pressed to tell you of a single opinion of mine that would have come out differently if I were not Catholic.”

In a 2002 essay for First Things on the morality of the death penalty, he prefaced it with this statement:

“Before proceeding to discuss the morality of capital punishment, I want to make clear that my views on the subject have nothing to do with how I vote in capital cases that come before the Supreme Court.

That statement would not be true if I subscribed to the conventional fallacy that the Constitution is a ‘living document’ – that is, a text that means from age to age whatever the society (or perhaps the Court) thinks it ought to mean.”

Scalia’s emphasis on interpreting the law as it was originally written and intended drew criticism from some Catholics that he was a “legal positivist” who ignored or downplayed the moral content of the law to focus on its original meaning. Walsh argued that is a misinterpretation.

“I think what he [Scalia] drew from Natural Law was an understanding that there are moral benefits to positive law, to adhering to things that were decided in the past, to use them to resolve disputes now,” he explained. “That there is a serious moral underpinning to insisting on sticking with the law, even when it doesn’t lead to outcomes that you prefer.”

The interpretation of human law for the citizenry – as seen in Scalia’s work – was emphasized by St. Thomas Aquinas, Walsh added. Law, in the classical sense, “is an ordinance of reason for the common good made by one with authority and promulgated,” Walsh said.

“And Justice Scalia’s jurisprudence really brings out the significance of promulgation in human law, that is, put out there in a form that could be understood, put out there in a form that you can hold the government, as well as the governed, to, set forth in authoritative text there to be applied by judges and other government officials.”

And Scalia, in interpreting the law as it was written, was uncomfortable with some actions he ruled were constitutional, Walsh noted. In Texas v. Johnson, he sided with the majority opinion that the burning of an American flag was protected under the First Amendment as a lawful expression of free speech.

“It would have pained him to see a flag being burned,” Walsh said, but he ruled that way “because our Constitution protects people from not being punished for expressing views that people disagree with. And that was a difficult vote for him in one sense, but not at all once he knew what the law required.”

Other critics might charge that Scalia’s “conservative” Catholic faith improperly influenced his decisions on abortion, marriage, and religious freedom, but that too is misguided, Garnett said.

“No one is perfectly consistent, of course, but it seems clear that Justice Scalia did not see his votes and opinions in cases as opportunities to impose Catholicism,” he said.

For instance, Scalia’s dissent in Planned Parenthood v. Casey – where in 1992 the Court upheld the Roe ruling that decided a woman’s legal right to have an abortion – was based on his opinion that a legal right to abortion was not in the Constitution, not that it was immoral.

“That is, quite simply, the issue in this case: not whether the power of a woman to abort her unborn child is a ‘liberty’ in the absolute sense; or even whether it is a liberty of great importance to many women. Of course it is both. The issue is whether it is a liberty protected by the Constitution of the United States. I am sure it is not,” he wrote.

Ultimately, Justice Scalia’s commitment to truth and serving the common good is an example for all lay Catholics to follow, wrote Bishop Conley.

“Of course, Catholics do not need to agree with every decision or viewpoint Antonin Scalia offered,” he said. “But like Justice Scalia did, all Catholics have an obligation to form their consciences according to the teaching of the Church, and to commit themselves to serving the common and public good.”

“In the face of great injustices, he offered himself – his intellect, his energies, and his judgment – for the sake of the common good. Every Catholic is called to imitate Scalia’s commitment to religious liberty, the family, and the unborn,” he continued.

“Like Justice Scalia, each one of us is called to seek justice and truth. We are called to support the right to life and the dignity of the human person. We are called to actively engage in public and political life, not in spite of our faith, but because of it.”

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The astonishing secret history of the Pope who fought Hitler

by Kevin J. Jones (CNA/EWTN News) • February 5, 2016

Pope Pius XII and Adolf Hitler. (Public domain and Everett Historical via shutterstock.com)

Washington, D.C. — Pope Pius XII’s secret support for the attempted overthrow of Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler is the subject of a new book that draws on wartime documents and interviews with the American intelligence agent who wrote them.

“This book is the truth – as best I could establish it in a number of years of research – about the Pope’s secret operations in World War II,” historian Mark Riebling told CNA Feb. 2.

“Its main premise is that Pius opted to resist Hitler with covert action instead of overt protest. As a result, he became involved in three separate plots by German dissidents to remove Hitler.”

“I thought this idea – that the Church engaged in secret operations during the bloodiest years in history, in the most controversial part of its recent history – was not just a footnote; it was something worth pursuing,” he said.

Riebling tells this story in his book “Church of Spies: The Pope’s Secret War Against Hitler,” published by Basic Books in September 2015. A Spanish-language version will be published by publisher Stella Maris in February 2016.

In the late 1990s, debate over whether Pius XII did enough to counter the Nazis reached a high point with the publication of the deeply controversial book, “Hitler’s Pope,” by British journalist John Cornwell. The book was highly critical of Pius XII, charging that he was culpably silent – if not an accomplice – in the rise of Nazism.

“If you read the fiercest critics of the Nazi-era Church, the major ones all concede that Pius XII hated Hitler and worked secretly to overthrow him,” Riebling said. “Yet they say this in their books in just a clause, a sentence, or a paragraph. To me, this episode merited more curiosity.”

“If ‘Hitler’s Pope’ wanted to help rid the world of Hitler, what’s the story?”

Riebling said there were several sources of inspiration for the book. During his Catholic upbringing, he learned the long history of the Church: in its first centuries, Christianity was an underground organization. In post-Reformation England, the Jesuits were involved in clandestine work.

This history prompted him to ask how a historian would document it and find evidence.

He also drew inspiration from the story of James Jesus Angleton, a famous U.S. intelligence officer who during World War II ran an operation to penetrate the Vatican for the Office of Strategic Services, the Central Intelligence Agency’s predecessor.

During research on his previous book, “Wedge: The Secret War between the FBI and CIA,” Riebling discovered wartime documents from Angleton’s Rome section of the Office of Strategic Services.

“There were at least ten documents implicating Pius XII and his closest advisers in not just one, but actually three plots to remove Hitler – stretching from 1939 to 1944. These were typed up by someone using a very distinct nickname.”

That nickname, “Rock,” belonged to Ray Rocca. Rocca served as Angleton’s deputy in Rome and for most of his later career. His career included responsibility for the Central Intelligence Agency’s records concerning the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

“So, here’s a guy who had been in the Vatican; who had been charged with penetrating the Vatican; and who knew a thing or two about assassination probes. I thought: here’s an interesting guy to get to know,” Riebling said. Rocca did not violate his oath of secrecy, but his interviews with Riebling are among the book’s sources.

According to Riebling, his book does not charge that the Pope “tried to kill Hitler.” Rather, the Pope’s actions were more subtle.

“Pius becomes a key cog in conspiracies to remove a ruler who is a kind of Antichrist, because good people ask for his help, and he searches his conscience, and he agrees to become an intermediary for the plotters – their foreign agent, as it were – and thereby he becomes an accessory to their plots.”

The historian described these actions as “some of the most astonishing events in the history of the papacy.”

Pius XII had connections with three plots against Hitler. The first, from October 1939 to May 1940, involved German military conspirators. From late 1941 to spring of 1943 a series of plots involving the German Jesuits ended when a bomb planted on Hitler’s plane failed to explode.

The third plot again involved German Jesuits and also German military colonel Claus von Stauffenberg. Although the colonel successfully planted a bomb near the Nazi dictator, it failed to kill Hitler. The priests had to flee after the failed attempt. Those unable to escape were executed.

During his research, Riebling discovered that Pius XII secretly recorded the conversations held in his office. Transcripts of the Pope’s talks with German cardinals in March 1939 show that he was deeply concerned that German Catholics would choose Hitler instead of the Church.

“The cardinals asked Pius to appease Hitler, so that German Catholics won’t break away and form a state church, as happened in Tudor England,” Riebling said.

“Pius heeded the German episcopate’s advice. Instead of protesting openly, he would resist Hitler behind the scenes.”

Pius XII’s agents provided the Allies with useful intelligence about Hitler’s war plans on three occasions, including Hitler’s planned invasion of Russia. In all three cases, the Allies did not act on the information.

For their part, the Nazis regarded Pius XII with suspicion since his election in 1939.

“He worked hard to allay those suspicions, to minimize persecutions of German Catholics. But the Nazis never dropped their guard,” Riebling said.

At one point Hitler planned to invade the Vatican, kidnap the Pope and bring him to Germany. Leading Nazi Heinrich Himmler “wanted to have the Holy Father publicly executed to celebrate the opening of a new soccer stadium,” Riebling said.

“Pius became aware of these plans, through his secret papal agents; and, in my view, that influenced the Holy Father’s decision to become involved with the anti-Nazi resistance.”

For Riebling, the assassination plots against Hitler were an admission of weakness, “because it’s saying that we can’t solve the problem by some other means.”

“Knowing what I do about Pius XII, and having researched him for many years, I believe he wanted to be a saint. He wanted people in Germany to be saints,” he added.

“When he heard that a priest was arrested for praying for the Jews and sent off to a concentration camp, he said: ‘I wish everyone would do that.’”

“But he didn’t say it publicly,” the writer acknowledged. The Pope’s words were made in secret in a letter to a German bishop.

“So I think what really happened here is: Pius XII wanted to lead a Church of saints. But had to settle for a Church of spies.”

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A chat with Joseph Fiennes, star of historical thriller ‘Risen’

by Ann Schneible (CNA/EWTN News) • February 10, 2016

Official poster for ‘Risen.’ (Sony Pictures Digital Productions, Inc.)

Rome, Italy — The lead actor of “Risen,” a film told through the eyes of a Roman soldier who is forced to confront the resurrection of Christ, calls it a story for believers and nonbelievers alike – notwithstanding its strong Christian themes.

“The film presents us with the element of a second chance, of forgiveness, of redemption,” Joseph Fiennes told CNA. “Whether you’re a believer or not, I think there’s a huge value in understanding the quality of redemption.”

Fiennes, known for his leading role in the 1998 award-winning film “Shakespeare in Love,” plays the character of Clavius, a Roman tribune charged by Pontius Pilate to investigate the disappearance of Jesus’ body.

“Clavius as a man who’s deeply conditioned in death, in killing, in warfare,” he said. Over the course of the film, “he is challenged through a series of interrogations to look at and examine himself and his own conditioning.”

A Catholic himself who is married in the Church, Fiennes noted the film’s unique approach to the story’s consistency with Scripture – at a time when many films take a more revisionist approach to biblical stories.

“It has a balance between being very creative cinema – it’s a beautiful, epic, big film, it’s a Hollywood blockbuster in that sense – but at the same time it’s respectful of Scripture.”

This balanced approach to the material stems from the filmmakers’ commitment to the integrity of the subject material. Those involved in the film, he said, “have sweated and given their nth degree of energy to serve up and make this entertaining and respectful.”

Fiennes was recently in Rome with his family to screen the film. While in the city he attended the Feb. 3 weekly general audience, and spoke of being moved to tears upon meeting with Pope Francis.

“I wanted to say, ‘Hey, Pope Francis,’ but I cried like a baby,” Fiennes recounted. “I was reduced to a very humble set of feelings, because it was not about what was said: There’s a presence. That was a blessing for myself and my family and everyone there to be a part of that.”

“Risen” will be released in the United States and Canada on Feb. 19.

See the rest of CNA’s interview with Joseph Fiennes below:

CNA: What attracted you to this project?

Fiennes: I think there are a number of answers to that question. Firstly, Kevin Reynolds, a veteran director, we had a long conversation and after that conversation he very kindly offered me (the role) – which is one of the rare times, if maybe the only time, a director’s been in the room and said: ‘Would you like to do the film?’ And I knew there and then: yes I did.

(It was) not only after having spoken with Kevin, but also because, for me, the two interesting things about the script is that, (first,) we begin at the Crucifixion.

Pretty much all films I’ve seen that depict the life of Christ end with the Crucifixion, almost like the filmmakers don’t know what to do after. And, it’s a very heavy place to end. It’s a very upsetting place to end, believer or nonbeliever. It’s a very powerful image. So, we start with the Crucifixion, and we go to the Resurrection and the Ascension. As the title Risen (implies that it) might explore the theme of resurrection, it also I think imbues the film with a sense of uplift.

Maybe we need more dialogue in terms of our faith, in terms of those who are believers, or even nonbelievers, about that aspect, and what that might mean if you were interpreting. You don’t have to believe it; maybe you could draw a metaphor from it. But, I think there’s a positivity here which for me is fresh in the telling of Christ.

The other thing is it’s true to Scripture, or respectful of Scripture. Some films in the past have not been. I like that it has a balance between being very creative cinema – it’s a beautiful, epic, big film, it’s a Hollywood blockbuster in that sense – but at the same time it’s respectful of Scripture. So that’s a first time balance as well.

CNA: Could you talk about the journey of your character? And, how much of your own personal life and faith journey contributes to the journey of Clavius?

Fiennes: As you know, my character is a nonbeliever. He believes in the law of Roman gods, in particular Mars. He views Yeshua (Jesus), his followers, and all that they stand for, as Zealots and terrorists.

I came to this from a completely different angle. It’s nothing to do with me. I had to go the other way. I had to invent and articulate the research I had found. The historical research that gave me great value to making the character was how a man, military tribune, would think and act in that time and age.

I didn’t bring my self to the part. I invented Clavius. And when he goes on a change, maybe I could come closer to him, but for me, in my mind, I wasn’t myself. I’m this Tribune.

CNA: As an actor in Hollywood, you’ve said this film has an appeal for believers nonbelievers alike. Are we perhaps at time when there’s more receptivity to films about faith? Specifically, to films that don’t have an agenda, or that aren’t seeking to change the story?

Fiennes: The Biblical narrative has played a part in the history of cinema for a long time. There’s always been a hunger, I think.

Now, they’ve always been films for their age. Maybe they’ve been over-the-top old fashioned, Evangelical, and now maybe they’ve gone the other way – they’re too revisionist, and too original, and don’t adhere to Scripture. I think we’ve got a nice balance here, and maybe it is a film for the time and age.

I think less about religion, and I think (about) the word “conditioning”: that we’re all conditioned, whether we know it or not. To have a dialogue and a self-observation of one’s conditioning is important, because we’re only going to come up against another person’s conditioning, and that might bring tension and conflict.

The more that we can understand our conditioning, the more that we can invite ourselves to look at someone else’s culture and belief through their eyes, the less conflict there will be.

I see Clavius as a man who’s deeply conditioned in death, in killing, in warfare. He is challenged through a series of interrogations to look at and examine himself and his own conditioning.

It’s less about religion for me. I like to use the term, it’s a more neutral term, conditioning for me. I think religion might throw up a kind of resistance, but I think if one talks about conditioning we can all kind of understand that.

Conditioning can be not a big heavy thing. (For instance:) I’ve got a brand new pair of shoes, by mistake you step on it and you make them muddy and dirty, I’m conditioned to go “Hey, what are you doing?” That’s my conditioning, I have a response. So, maybe we have to learn to find the pause before we react, because reaction is our conditioning.

That for me is what I love about Clavius. He’s conditioned, and de-conditioned in order to take on the understanding of philosophy elsewhere.

CNA: You’ve been taking part in the various screenings of this film, and meeting with people who are seeing it for the first time. What has been surprising in how people are responding to the film?

Fiennes: Our producers and directors and actors, right across the board … have sweated and given their nth degree of energy to serve up and make this entertaining and respectful.

The surprising thing for me is that we’re dealing with a very sacred narrative. It seems to me that we have not caused division or dislocation or disenfranchisement, which is incredible. The overwhelming response has been positive.

Now, some people will love it, some people will kind of go: “Yeah, it’s okay.” But no one has gone to the other length. And, when you’re dealing with this narrative, I find that we’ve been very lucky. Something has guided us towards a place where I feel that the auditorium watching the film could be a complete diverse mix of atheists, agnostics, hard-core believers, and they will all enjoy and take something away from it. That, to me, is very rare.

And from all the interviews, and everything I’m getting: People are liking it.

CNA: Something I noticed during (the Feb. 3 Rome) screening was how some people were moved to tears during the film. Obviously, the majority of people in that screening were Catholic, but it would be interesting to see the impact it would have on people who don’t have any religion.

Fiennes: That’s what we’re really interested in: Will it reach that wide audience? I hope it does, because there’s great value for everybody.

But, I think just on a cinematic level, it’s a feast. It’s beautiful to look at, it’s wonderfully shot by a great Italian cinematographer and cameraman, Lorenzo (Senatore).

CNA: You had the opportunity to meet Pope Francis at the general audience. Could you tell us a little bit about what that was like?

Fiennes: I didn’t know what to expect. I guess I was a little bit in a dream. Honestly, I’m buying Pampers for my girl with my wife on Wednesdays. Wednesday mornings I’m not in Rome at the Vatican meeting the Pope.

I’m a huge admirer of Pope Francis and everything he stands for. I think he’s an incredibly connected spiritual and authentic being. As well as that, he clearly has the heart of the people because he is a modern voice and, (because of) everything he stands for, (people) feel a connection. He is tangible.

The pomp and the ceremony (at the Vatican) can distance ordinary people, and he breaks through that. This is incredible.

I wanted to say, “Hey, Pope Francis,” but I cried like a baby. I was reduced to a very humble set of feelings, because it was not about what was said: There’s a presence. That was a blessing for myself and my family and everyone there to be a part of that. And what a generous man to do that every day, or on Wednesdays, or across the world and travel. To look you in the eye, and give (that) the time and energy to millions: this takes a very connected being to do that.

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The Doritos commercial and the revival of voluntarism

by Bishop Robert Barron • February 11, 2016

I’m sure by now you’ve heard about the absurd reaction of the National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL) to the lighthearted Super Bowl commercial produced to advertise Doritos. In the thirty-second clip, a pregnant mother, undergoing an ultra-sound, is annoyed by her husband who is absent-mindedly munching Doritos while their baby’s image is displayed on the screen. But as the father moves the corn chip, the baby in the womb moves with it; and when the mother throws the bag across the room, the child reacts so keenly and purposively that he decides this is the moment to be born.

Cute, funny, harmless, right? Oh not according to NARAL, who complained (and one is compelled here to stifle laughter) that the commercial dangerously “humanized” the fetus. We are tempted to ask, “What do you think was gestating in the womb? A monkey? A rabbit?”

It has, of course, long been established scientifically that even a conceptus (a fertilized ovum) is already in full possession of human DNA distinct from that of his parents. Moreover, the developing embryo has a heartbeat and her own circulatory system 22 days after conception; at 20 weeks, the baby in the womb is capable of hearing his mother’s voice, and responding to light, music, and other external stimuli. So though the Doritos commercial is, of course, playful, it exaggerates something quite real.

Yet according to NARAL, the child in the womb should not be “humanized,” lest the absolute right to murder that child at any stage of its pre-natal development should be denied. And mind you, that right, in our country, extends even to the moment when the baby is emerging from the womb (partial birth abortion), indeed to the time after his birth, since many states place no restrictions on the killing of a newborn who has miraculously survived the abortion procedure (cf. born alive legislation). For many people, the bottom line is this: all objective evidence to the contrary, the unborn are not human because defenders of abortion don’t want them to be.

And here, philosophically speaking, is the rub. There is an ancient and enduring philosophical position that goes by the name of voluntarism, which is to say, the systematic favoring of the will over the intellect. In the Middle Ages, this view is on display in certain theologians, who insisted that God’s will is his primary attribute and therefore that the divine choice trumps all, including the evident truths of reason. William of Occam, for example, famously distinguished between God’s potentia absoluta (absolute power) and his potentia ordinata (ordained power). The former is what God, in the pure sense of the term, could do, his totally rangy capacity; while the latter designates what God actually did. So, for example, God in fact commanded us not to commit adultery and he in fact made a world in which circles cannot be squares and vice versa. But in his absolute power, presumably, he could have determined that adultery is a virtue and that square circles are possible. This late medieval theorizing was picked up on by the founder of modern philosophy, René Descartes, who speculated that 2+2 in point of fact is equal to 4 but that God could determine, should he please, that it be equal to 5.

A philosopher who had no sympathy for this nonsense was St. Thomas Aquinas, who held that God’s freedom is grounded in the truth of his being. God can indeed do anything, but he can’t do the impossible, precisely because the impossible is a modality of non-being. To say that God cannot make 2+2 equal to 5 or turn adultery into a virtue is not to limit God; it is to say that whatever he wills is consistent with the integrity of his own being. In a word, Aquinas insisted that the will and the intellect are partners and that freedom, accordingly, ought always to be consistent with the truth of things.

In 2006, Pope Benedict XVI, who as an academic was very familiar with the controversy I have just rehearsed, gave an oration at the University of Regensburg that came down on the side of Thomas Aquinas. The central theme of his presentation was the essential role that reason ought to play in relation to religion. At the heart of his argument was the concern that voluntarism was asserting itself in the religious realm (God’s absolute power) and that this was conducing to violence, since without a common consensus regarding the truth, all that rival groups can do is resort to force, the assertion of the will.

I hope it is becoming clear why I feel this somewhat arcane academic discussion is of crucial relevance in our time. As silly as it is to say that 2+2 could be equal to 5, it is just as silly to say that a child in the womb is anything but human. What makes both assertions possible is the claim that will (whether God’s or our own) supposedly trumps intellect, that the sheer desire that something be true can make it true. And what makes all of this more than merely silly is, as Pope Benedict saw, that the divorce between will and mind unleashes violence, indeed potentia absoluta.

The revival of voluntarism is on rather massive display in our society and the principle of the primacy of the will is behind much of our discussion of moral issues. As has always been the case, this has led to a distortion of speech and to the unchaining of some pretty dark forces.

Bishop Robert Barron is an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and the founder of Word on Fire Catholic Ministries (wordonfire.org). He is the creator of two award-winning documentary series, Catholicism and Catholicism: The New Evangelization.

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Fasting and the Taste for God

by Sr. Joan L. Roccasalvo, C.S.J. • February 17, 2016

In the epic film, “Gandhi,” Mahatma’s fifty-day fast is undertaken to bring about reconciliation between Hindus and Muslims. His extreme act of self-denial draws worldwide attention. “If you want something from God, fast; if you want to relieve calamity, fast,” Gandhi believes.

From primitive times, fasting has been practiced for three reasons: the magical, the ethical and the religious. As a religious discipline or in accordance with prescribed law, fasting is understood as the complete or partial abstention from food. Refraining from eating meat or meat products is known as abstinence. It is said that fasting among adults sharpens the intellect and strengthens the will and concentration.

Fasting in Judaism and Islam

Jews fast on designated holydays of the year to atone for sin. In the Hebrew Scriptures, fasting was practiced especially in times of war, famine, drought, and for deliverance from pestilence. Islamic law has adapted Jewish practices. During the month of Ramadan, Muslims fast for twenty-nine light hour days during which time they abstain from eating, drinking liquids, smoking, and sexual contact.

Early Christianity

From the early days of the Church, prayer, fasting, and almsgiving were understood as one great act of worship. Last week in this column, the public prayer of the Church was considered.

Why did the early Christians observe the fast and hold it in such high regard? They fasted to imitate Christ in his passion and death. Fasting was seen as a powerful weapon in the fight against evil spirits according to Our Lord’s comment: “This kind of demon can come out only through prayer and fasting” (Mk 9:29). Christians also saved food to give as an offering to the needy, an act of mercy for the poor.

According to Josef Jungmann, S.J., “in the beginning, fasting was not taken as a strict obligation. It was taken for granted as something which everyone observed, rather like civilized people who realize the obligation of rules of politeness, although they are nowhere prescribed” (The Early Liturgy, 254-256).

In the fourth century, St. Athanasius of Alexandria exhorts the faithful to keep the Lenten fast: “Anyone who neglects to observe the Forty Days Fast is not worthy to celebrate the Easter Festival” (“Festal Letter,” XIX, 9).

After the Council of Nicaea in 325, many of the Fathers discussed the forty-day fast. From the time of Augustine and John Chrysostom, Lent was characterized by (1) a period of fasting, sharing, and prayer for the whole Christian people, (2) a preparation for catechumens to be baptized, (3) a period of preparation of penitents for their reconciliation. Later the axiom arose in the Maronite Church: “during Lent, we fast from the world.”

Fasting was followed by feasting. The former represented a physical diminishment; the latter, a celebration of life.

The Taste for God

Taste refers to the appetite and is most commonly understood in the physical sense as the intake of food and liquid. In its basic understanding, taste identifies what is bitter, sweet, salty, and sour. The goal of taste is enjoyment and union with what is tasted. The loss of taste is an unnerving disorder but can be cured by stimulating the taste buds with natural remedies and, if necessary, medication.

During Lent, Catholics and other Christians reduce their intake of alcohol and delectable foods abstaining as well from meat on prescribed days. Feeling the pangs of hunger can suggest a hunger for God, our full and complete satisfaction. Fasting from a created reality frees us from that object, revitalizes the spirit, and brings self-mastery and interior freedom.

To embrace Lenten asceticism is to avoid those things which over stimulate the senses — not only food but also entertainment and the excessive use of electronic devices. The practice of Lenten asceticism is meant to intensify one’s taste for God. Good or bad, taste is an analogous word extending to clothing, and one’s choice of companions, and entertainment.

Good Taste

Good taste is restrained; bad taste is excessive. Good taste varies with the faculties of an individual that develop from early childhood. The adage, taste may not be questioned or disputed (de gustibus non disputandum est), has its limits and is not absolute. Sound taste is based on objective criteria and the particulars of truth; it is not arbitrary.

Good taste gives the sense of what is fitting, harmonious, and beautiful, a sense of what is polite and tactful. It displays social or aesthetic value. Good taste applies to table manners and public courtesy, caring for the body, and to dispositions and judgments of the mind that reveal one’s choices.

Impeccable Taste

A person who develops himself or herself according to the beautiful gradually learns to acquire the art of discrimination. A person with impeccable taste “has an eye for quality analogous to the eye of the connoisseur; he or she can infallibly distinguish art from kitsch, and excellent quality from average or merely good quality,” writes Hans Urs von Balthasar.

The Taste for God and Acedia

The Psalmist exhorts us to “taste and see how good the Lord is” (Ps 34:8). Here taste, used in the spiritual sense, participates in the act of faith. The goal of spiritual taste is enjoyment in God’s presence and communion with the divine. Those who disdain the things of God, those with no taste for God or for spiritual things suffer from acedia or spiritual sloth; acedia is “a loathing of the spiritual good as if it is something contrary to ourselves” (Rebecca Konyndyk DeYoung, “Acedia’s Resistance to the Demands of Love: Aquinas on the Vice of Sloth”). Acedia, one of the seven deadly sins, was first discussed by the fourth-century desert fathers. Through the ages, it has been a problem, but with the current figure of 23% of non-affiliated Americans, perhaps acedia is more prevalent now than in earlier years.

Acedia is an aversion and a restless resistance to God and the Good that sees both as the burden of commitment. Acedia regrets God’s call to friendship and discipleship. It’s too much trouble to work at one’s relationship with God. It is distaste for and disgust with spiritual things because of the physical effort involved in pursuing them. Acedia is an oppressive sorrow that so weighs down a person that he or she wants to do nothing. It is a form of nihilism. These are all classic signs of acedia, a state that recalls the early verses of “The Hound of Heaven” a long poem by Francis Thompson, an English poet, ascetic, and drug addict. He later made his peace with God but not before expressing his odyssey in this famous poem. The first lines are given below:

The Hound of Heaven

I fled Him, down the nights and down the days;

I fled Him, down the arches of the years;

I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways

Of my own mind; and in the mist of tears

I hid from Him, and under running laughter.

Up, vistaed hopes I sped;

And shot, precipitated,

Adown Titanic glooms of chasmèd fears,

From those strong Feet that followed, followed after.

But with unhurrying chase

And unpreturbèd pace

Deliberate speed, majestic instancy,

They beat – and a Voice beat

More instant than the Feet –

“All things betray thee, who betrayest Me.”

…

Acedia and Joy

Spiritual sloth is opposed to joy. If there are people who live in a state of acedia, there are also those joyful ones who walk with purpose and hope. ”In him, they live, and move, and breathe, and have their being” (Acts 17:28). They can readily pray Psalm 63:2-3, 9:

“O God, you are my God, for you I long;

for you my soul is thirsting.

My body pines for you!

Like a dry, weary land without water …

My soul clings to you;

Your right hand holds me fast.”

Sr. Joan L. Roccasalvo, a member of the Congregation of St. Joseph, Brentwood, NY, holds degrees in philosophy (Ph.L.), musicology (Ph.D.), theology (M.A.), and liturgical studies (Ph.D.). She has taught at all levels of Catholic education and writes with a particular focus on a theology of beauty and the sacred arts. Her e-mail address is jroccasalvo@optonline.net.

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SUNDAY • FEBRUARY 21, 2016

Second Sunday of Lent

First Reading (Gn 15:5-12, 17-18; NRSVCE)

The Lord God brought Abram outside and said, “Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” And he believed the Lord; and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness.

Then he said to him, “I am the Lord who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess.” But he said, “O Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it?” He said to him, “Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” He brought him all these and cut them in two, laying each half over against the other; but he did not cut the birds in two. And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.

As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and a deep and terrifying darkness descended upon him.

When the sun had gone down and it was dark, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates.”

Second Reading (Phil 3:17 — 4:1; NRSVCE)

Brothers and sisters, join in imitating me, and observe those who live according to the example you have in us. For many live as enemies of the cross of Christ; I have often told you of them, and now I tell you even with tears. Their end is destruction; their god is the belly; and their glory is in their shame; their minds are set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will transform the body of our humiliation that it may be conformed to the body of his glory, by the power that also enables him to make all things subject to himself.

Therefore, my brothers and sisters, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, my beloved.

Gospel Reading (Lk 9:28b-36; NRSVCE)

Jesus took with him Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray. And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white. Suddenly they saw two men, Moses and Elijah, talking to him. They appeared in glory and were speaking of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. Now Peter and his companions were weighed down with sleep; but since they had stayed awake, they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him. Just as they were leaving him, Peter said to Jesus, “Master, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah”— not knowing what he said. While he was saying this, a cloud came and overshadowed them; and they were terrified as they entered the cloud. Then from the cloud came a voice that said, “This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!” When the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. And they kept silent and in those days told no one any of the things they had seen.

MONDAY • FEBRUARY 22, 2016

Feast of the Chair of Saint Peter

First Reading (1 Pt 5:1-4; NRSVCE)

Now as an elder myself and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as one who shares in the glory to be revealed, I exhort the elders among you to tend the flock of God that is in your charge, exercising the oversight, not under compulsion but willingly, as God would have you do it — not for sordid gain but eagerly. Do not lord it over those in your charge, but be examples to the flock. And when the chief shepherd appears, you will win the crown of glory that never fades away.

Gospel Reading (Mt 16:13-19; NRSVCE)

Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, but others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

TUESDAY • FEBRUARY 23, 2016

Tuesday of the Second Week of Lent

First Reading (Is 1:10, 16-20; NRSVCE)

Hear the word of the Lord,

you rulers of Sodom!

Listen to the teaching of our God,

you people of Gomorrah!

Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean;

remove the evil of your doings

from before my eyes;

cease to do evil,

learn to do good;

seek justice,

rescue the oppressed,

defend the orphan,

plead for the widow.

Come now, let us argue it out,

says the Lord:

though your sins are like scarlet,

they shall be like snow;

though they are red like crimson,

they shall become like wool.

If you are willing and obedient,

you shall eat the good of the land;

but if you refuse and rebel,

you shall be devoured by the sword;

for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

Gospel Reading (Mt 23:1-12; NRSVCE)

Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat; therefore, do whatever they teach you and follow it; but do not do as they do, for they do not practice what they teach. They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on the shoulders of others; but they themselves are unwilling to lift a finger to move them. They do all their deeds to be seen by others; for they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long. They love to have the place of honor at banquets and the best seats in the synagogues, and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and to have people call them rabbi. But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all students. And call no one your father on earth, for you have one Father — the one in heaven. Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Messiah. The greatest among you will be your servant. All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted.”

WEDNESDAY • FEBRUARY 24, 2016

Wednesday of the Second Week of Lent

First Reading (Jer 18:18-20; NRSVCE)

Then the people said, “Come, let us make plots against Jeremiah — for instruction shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, let us bring charges against him, and let us not heed any of his words.”

Give heed to me, O Lord,

and listen to what my adversaries say!

Is evil a recompense for good?

Yet they have dug a pit for my life.

Remember how I stood before you

to speak good for them,

to turn away your wrath from them.

Gospel Reading (Mt 20:17-28; NRSVCE)

While Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside by themselves, and said to them on the way, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death; then they will hand him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified; and on the third day he will be raised.”

Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came to him with her sons, and kneeling before him, she asked a favor of him. And he said to her, “What do you want?” She said to him, “Declare that these two sons of mine will sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom.” But Jesus answered, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink?” They said to him, “We are able.” He said to them, “You will indeed drink my cup, but to sit at my right hand and at my left, this is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.”

When the ten heard it, they were angry with the two brothers. But Jesus called them to him and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. It will not be so among you; but whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be your slave; just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.”

THURSDAY • FEBRUARY 25, 2016

Thursday of the Second Week of Lent

First Reading (Jer 17:5-10; NRSVCE)

Thus says the Lord:

Cursed are those who trust in mere mortals

and make mere flesh their strength,

whose hearts turn away from the Lord.

They shall be like a shrub in the desert,

and shall not see when relief comes.

They shall live in the parched places of the wilderness,

in an uninhabited salt land.

Blessed are those who trust in the Lord,

whose trust is the Lord.

They shall be like a tree planted by water,

sending out its roots by the stream.

It shall not fear when heat comes,

and its leaves shall stay green;

in the year of drought it is not anxious,

and it does not cease to bear fruit.

The heart is devious above all else;

it is perverse —

who can understand it?

I the Lord test the mind

and search the heart,

to give to all according to their ways,

according to the fruit of their doings.

Gospel Reading (Lk 16:19-31; NRSVCE)

Jesus said to the Pharisees, “There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man’s table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores. The poor man died and was carried away by the angels to be with Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried. In Hades, where he was being tormented, he looked up and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side. He called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in agony in these flames.’ But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in agony. Besides all this, between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who might want to pass from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us.’ He said, ‘Then, father, I beg you to send him to my father’s house — for I have five brothers — that he may warn them, so that they will not also come into this place of torment.’ Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.’ He said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’”

FRIDAY • FEBRUARY 26, 2016

Friday of the Second Week of Lent

First Reading (Gn 37:3-4, 12-13a, 17b-28a; NRSVCE)

Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his children, because he was the son of his old age; and he had made him a long robe with sleeves. But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably to him.

Now his brothers went to pasture their father’s flock near Shechem. And Israel said to Joseph, “Are not your brothers pasturing the flock at Shechem? Come, I will send you to them.”

So Joseph went after his brothers, and found them at Dothan. They saw him from a distance, and before he came near to them, they conspired to kill him. They said to one another, “Here comes this dreamer. Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits; then we shall say that a wild animal has devoured him, and we shall see what will become of his dreams.” But when Reuben heard it, he delivered him out of their hands, saying, “Let us not take his life.” Reuben said to them, “Shed no blood; throw him into this pit here in the wilderness, but lay no hand on him”— that he might rescue him out of their hand and restore him to his father. So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe, the long robe with sleeves that he wore; and they took him and threw him into a pit. The pit was empty; there was no water in it.

Then they sat down to eat; and looking up they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, with their camels carrying gum, balm, and resin, on their way to carry it down to Egypt. Then Judah said to his brothers, “What profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and not lay our hands on him, for he is our brother, our own flesh.” And his brothers agreed. When some Midianite traders passed by, they drew Joseph up, lifting him out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver.

Gospel Reading (Mt 21:33-43, 45-46; NRSVCE)

Jesus said to the chief priests and the elders of the people, “Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a watchtower. Then he leased it to tenants and went to another country. When the harvest time had come, he sent his slaves to the tenants to collect his produce. But the tenants seized his slaves and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other slaves, more than the first; and they treated them in the same way. Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him and get his inheritance.’ So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death, and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time.”

Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the scriptures:

‘The stone that the builders rejected

has become the cornerstone;

this was the Lord’s doing,

and it is amazing in our eyes’?

Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom.”

When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they realized that he was speaking about them. They wanted to arrest him, but they feared the crowds, because they regarded him as a prophet.

SATURDAY • FEBRUARY 27, 2016

Saturday of the Second Week of Lent

First Reading (Mi 7:14-15, 18-20; NRSVCE)

Shepherd your people with your staff,

the flock that belongs to you,

which lives alone in a forest

in the midst of a garden land;

let them feed in Bashan and Gilead

as in the days of old.

As in the days when you came out of the land of Egypt,

show us marvelous things.

Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity

and passing over the transgression

of the remnant of your possession?

He does not retain his anger forever,

because he delights in showing clemency.

He will again have compassion upon us;

he will tread our iniquities under foot.

You will cast all our sins

into the depths of the sea.

You will show faithfulness to Jacob

and unswerving loyalty to Abraham,

as you have sworn to our ancestors

from the days of old.

Gospel Reading (Lk 15:1-3, 11-32; NRSVCE)

Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to Jesus. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

So Jesus told them this parable: “There was a man who had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me.’ So he divided his property between them. A few days later the younger son gathered all he had and traveled to a distant country, and there he squandered his property in dissolute living. When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs. He would gladly have filled himself with the pods that the pigs were eating; and no one gave him anything. But when he came to himself he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger! I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands.”’ So he set off and went to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him. Then the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But the father said to his slaves, ‘Quickly, bring out a robe — the best one — and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!’ And they began to celebrate.

“Now his elder son was in the field; and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. He called one of the slaves and asked what was going on. He replied, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has got him back safe and sound.’ Then he became angry and refused to go in. His father came out and began to plead with him. But he answered his father, ‘Listen! For all these years I have been working like a slave for you, and I have never disobeyed your command; yet you have never given me even a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!’ Then the father said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.’”