Pope: Day of Social Communications, "Fear not, for I am with you"

Francis says his meditation at the ‘Thirst for Peace: Faiths and Cultures in Dialogue’ meeting. "The victims of war, which sullies people with hate and the earth with arms, plead for peace; our brothers and sisters, who live under the threat of bombs and are forced to leave their homes into the unknown, stripped of everything, plead for peace.”

At Mass this morning Francis recalls Christ’s council: "Be children of light and not of darkness; guard the light that was given as a gift on the day of Baptism ". In all of us there is "a piece of mafia", “that takes advantage of the trust of others to plot evil."

At the end of the Angelus prayer, Pope Francis urges people to take part in the Assisi meeting  on September 20 as "a day of prayer for peace". In life we choose "between two roads: between honesty and dishonesty, between fidelity and infidelity, between selfishness and selflessness, between good and evil." A greeting to the participants in the National Eucharistic Congress of Genova. The beatification of Elizabeth Sanna.

Francis celebrates Mass in Santa Marta in the presence of the papal representatives from around the world, in Rome for the Jubilee. Their’s "is a vagabond’s life , constantly on the move. But you must remember three ways of going out: physically, culturally and spiritually. Never forget this ."

Francis met participants at the annual training course organised jointly by the Congregation for Bishops and the Congregation for Eastern Churches. Mercy is a "summary of what God offers to the world."

"We are afraid to accept and bear the ultimate consequences to the flesh of Christ. a spiritualistic piety is easier, a gossamer pietism; but to enter into the logic of the flesh of Christ, this is difficult. And this is the logic of the day after tomorrow. We will be resurrected as Christ is risen, with our flesh".

The regime acknowledges hundreds of people dead or missing, as well as tens of thousands of displaced people. The United Nations estimates that about 107,000 people are homeless. Countless buildings, roads and bridges have been destroyed. With everything going into its nuclear programme, the regime has no money and so it has ordered the deportation of 100,000 “volunteers” from other provinces to help people affected by typhoon Lion Rock.

For three days, 106 papal representatives will take part in seminars and moments of spirituality. Francis will receive them on Saturday, but the diplomats will have more opportunities to meet with him. A Jubilee day will be held on 18 November for the nunciature employees.

In the current "crisis of a great orphahood", "We Christians have a Mother, the same as Jesus; we have a Father, the same as Jesus. We are not orphans. "

 

"It is not the spirit of Jesus”, who  instead "reaches out to the humble, to the little ones, the poor, the needy, because he himself  became small and humble. He includes the poor and the suffering because He himself is poor and tried by pain". Those who pass through the Door of Mercy seek Jesus, the friendship of Jesus. "This path expresses the conversion of every disciple who endeavors to follow Jesus. And conversion is always a discovery of God's mercy."

Francis celebrated Mass in suffrage for Father Jacques Hamel, killed July 26 in the church of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, and the entire community of Rouen. "Today in the Church there are more Christian martyrs than in the early days. Today there are Christians who are murdered, tortured, imprisoned, slaughtered because they will not deny Jesus Christ".

A statement from the Episcopal Commission for Justice and Peace calls on regional actors to eliminate all nuclear weapons from the peninsula: "You cannot justify the development of such weapons for national defense, or the desire for peace, it is a contradiction." The North must put an end to its provocations, while the South "has to apply sanctions to encourage dialogue, not to crush the people." Criticism of neighboring countries: "Do not use Pyongyang tests as an excuse to spread bombs throughout Asia".

"Not just see but look. Not just hear but listen. Not just meet and pass by but stop. And don’t just say ‘what a shame, poor people,’ but allow ourselves to be moved by pity.  And then draw near, touch and say in the language that comes to each one of us in that moment, the language of the heart: ‘Do not weep,’ and donate at the very least a drop of life".

Five days of rain kill 133 people in North Korea, with hundreds of thousands displaced. South Korea announces plan to destroy the north’s capital in case of attack. Japan warns that it will not stand idle by and watch Kim’s follies. For its part, North Koera wants the US to recognise its nuclear status. Source tells AsiaNews “they are running out of basic foodstuff, and there is a risk of famine again.”

"Sewing jealousies, ambitions, ideas, but to divide! Or sow greed. " And as happens after a war "everything is destroyed. And the devil goes away happy. And we - naive, we are to his game. " "The divisions in the Church do not let the Kingdom of God grow; do not let the Lord show how good He is. "