Kim Jong-un's regime motivated the decision with the need to protect its athletes from the pandemic. It is the first country to make such a decision. South Korea and Japan hoped to use the Olympic demonstration to reopen a channel of dialogue with Kim.
Pyongyang launches two missiles in test for Joe Biden
| NORTH KOREAKim Jong-un's sister threatens Seoul and Washington
| KOREA - USAPope Francis and the universal Church are called upon to stop the closure of Catholic orphanages for mentally and physically disabled children. It is time to review the Sino-Vatican Agreement. After hopes were raised, everything is now being betrayed in the name of politics.
"We see it in certain groups that come to an agreement to bring about changes in the life of the Church, all the media that inform ... But prayer is not seen". General audience dedicated to "The Church teacher of prayer". Monasteries "vital cells, not only for the ecclesial fabric but for society itself".
The perspective of synodality "active participation of all the faithful in the mission of the Church". For women "an important role to play in the human formation of future priests". The issue of celibacy "must be addressed on the horizon of vocation". Clericalism "a danger for both priests and the faithful: it identifies the priesthood with power and not with service".
On Divine Mercy Sunday, Pope Francis celebrates mass in the church of Santo Spirito in Sassia with a congregation of missionaries of Mercy, prisoners and detainees, migrants and refugees, nurses and hospital nuns. "Jesus brings about “the resurrection of the disciples” through his mercy. The peace of Jesus makes the disciples pass "from remorse to mission". Pooling resources "is not communism, it is pure Christianity". " Let us not live a oneway faith, a faith that receives but does not give, a faith that accepts the gift but does not give it in return." The Regina Caeli and the greeting to those present.
A commentary on the Gospel of the Second Sunday of Easter, B (John 20, 19-31).
Message from Francis to the global symposium "Faith and Flourishing: Strategies for Preventing and Healing Child Sexual Abuse." May the initiative contribute "to a greater awareness of the gravity and extent of child sexual abuse".
In a letter sent to the participants in the 2021 Spring Meeting of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, Francis calls for the search for the common good to guide finance. Wealthy nations should pay their "ecological debt", "We particularly need a vaccine solidarity that is rightly financed".
“When we pray, we never do it alone: even if we don't think about it, we are immersed in a majestic river of invocations that precedes us and continues after us”. Francis recalled "in prayer the victims of the floods that hit Indonesia and East Timor in recent days". Vatican Athletics continue in their commitment to "spreading the culture of fraternity in the sports field".
Young people killed in Myanmar, oppressed in Bangkok, imprisoned in Hong Kong, with no prospects for the economic crisis ...Pope Francis’ long list of social "plagues". Easter is not a vague symbol or psychological consolation. Nor is it just a past event.
At the Regina Caeli, which replaces the Angelus during the Easter period, Pope Francis explains that "Christ’s tomb was not opened by some physical phenomenon, rather by the Lord’s intervention". "All the plans and resistances of Christ’s enemies and persecutors have been in vain". The guards choose to remain silent "in the name of the god of money". “Take every opportunity to be witnesses of the joy and peace of the Risen Lord”. Greetings to the elderly and the sick.
“In embracing the cross, Jesus bestowed meaning on our sufferings,” said Francis in his Easter message and Urbi et Orbi blessing. The pontiff expressed hope for people with COVID-19, the poor affected by the economic crisis, young people, migrants. He also mentioned certain countries and places: Haiti, Myanmar, Syria, Yemen, Libya, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, Palestine, Iraq, Nagorno Karabakh, eastern Ukraine, Sahel, Nigeria, Tigray, and Cabo Delgado. Without citing any one country, Francis remembered all the places where religious freedom is denied.
Commentary on the Gospel of the Resurrection (John 20:1-9).
Pope Francis celebrated the Easter Vigil at the Altar of the Chair. “Going to Galilee” means to be able to “always start over”. “In these dark months of the pandemic, let us listen to the Risen Lord as he invites us to begin anew and never lose hope.” “[F]aith is not an album of past memories; Jesus is not outdated.” Galilee is “the setting of daily life [. . .] Jesus, the Risen Lord, loves us without limits and is there at every moment of our lives.”
Once again an empty St Peter's Square is the backdrop to the liturgy. Meditations and prayers are proposed by the Agesci Scouts “Foligno I” (Umbria) and by the Roman parish of Holy Martyrs of Uganda.
