05/17/2013VATICAN The life of the Church and of the Churches is the mission, pope says In meeting the national directors of the Pontifical Mission Societies, Francis focuses on the duty to bring the Gospel to the world, which includes "educating every Christian, from childhood, to have a genuinely universal and missionary spirit," and giving "special attention to the young Churches, which often operate in a climate of difficulty, discrimination, and persecution, so that they might be sustained and assisted in witnessing the Gospel in word and in deed." Vatican City (AsiaNews)
- The Pontifical Mission Societies (POM), like all Christians, have a duty to
bring the Gospel to those who do not know it because "the Church's life
and mission" is and must continue to be the promotion of a...
05/16/2013VATICAN Pope: Church does not need lukewarm, "backseat" Christians In this morning's Mass, Francis spoke about Saint Paul's apostolic zeal. "Paul is a nuisance. He is a man who, with his preaching, his work, his attitude irritates others, because he bears witness to Jesus Christ". We can ask the Holy Spirit "to give us all this apostolic fervour to be nuisance in the Church's comfort zones and the grace to reach the outer edges of existence."
05/16/2013VATICAN Pope: Money must serve and not rule Addressing a group of ambassadors, Francis criticizes the role that economics and finance have on people and society today, reducing humanity to being consumers and consumer goods. The rejection of God and ethics "considered counterproductive as too human, because it relativizes money and power, as a threat, because it rejects the manipulation and submission of the person."
05/15/2013VATICAN Pope: Pray for priests and bishops so they do not yield to temptation of money and careerism During Mass celebrated this morning, Francis comments on the phrase of St. Paul that exhorts the "elders" of the Church of Ephesus to be vigilant of themselves and their flock, shepherds attentive to the "ravenous wolves." "When a priest, a bishop goes after money, the people do not love him and that's a sign. But he ends up badly." "And when a bishop, a priest travels the road of vanity, enters into the spirit of careerism - which hurts the Church so much – he ends up being ridiculous, he boasts, he likes to be seen, all powerful ... And the people did not love that. "
05/15/2013HOLY LAND Coptic Orthodox priest beating by Israeli police The incident took place on 4 May during Holy Saturday celebrations in Jerusalem. The Patriarchate and local Christians complain of police brutality. For Jerusalem bishop, "denying access to the Holy Sepulchre and mistreating pilgrims, including the elderly and disabled, have nothing to do with security."
05/15/2013VATICAN Pope: you cannot be a “part-time” Christian, "at certain moments, circumstances, choices" At the general audience Francis talks about the truth that the Holy Spirit helps us to get know and that "always and totally involves our daily lives." In an era marked by relativism, Jesus is the answer to the question: is there "the" truth? "The truth does not grab you like an object, the truth is encountered. It is not a possession, it is an encounter with a Person." In his greetings in Italian he announces his desire to visit, Cagliari, Sardinia, "probably in September”, and in particular the shrine of Our Lady of Bonaria, connected to the founding of Buenos Aires.
05/13/2013VATICAN Growth in number of Catholics worldwide, number of priests and seminarians also increase The data from the Statistical Yearbook of the Church. The faithful of Rome have passed, from 1196 in 2010 to 1214 million in 2011, up 1.5%. Asia remains a religiously vibrant continent: number of faithful and priests rise, as do the number of professed religious who are not priests, seminarians, and in contrast to the world's data, the number of nuns.
05/13/2013VATICAN Pope: the Holy Spirit, the "unknown of our faith," is "God reminding us" of our salvation During the Mass celebrated this morning, Francis reflects on the remarks of a group of Christians from Ephesus: "we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit." Even today, "many Christians do not know who the Holy Spirit is, what the Holy Spirit is." The Spirit is "God active in us," a "God who helps us remember" who "awakens our memory." Jesus himself says to the Apostles before Pentecost: the Spirit that God will send in my name, "will remind you of everything I have said."
05/12/2013VATICAN Pope: Fidelity to Christ even unto martyrdom and in mission, as witness of charity During Mass in St Peter's Square, Francis canonises the 800 martyrs of Otranto slaughtered by the Turks in 1480; Sister María Laura Montoya Upegui, the first Colombian saint, teacher and evangeliser of the poor and the Indians; Sister María Guadalupe García Zavala, a Mexican apostle of the poor and the sick. Martyrdom and mission are born from love of God and express themselves in the witness of charity. "[L]let us ask God to sustain those many Christians who, at this time in many parts of the world, continue to endure violence, and give them the courage of fidelity to respond to evil with goodness." Speaking ad-lib, the pope also said, "Individualism eats away at the Christian community and our hearts . . . . How much damage does the easy life and the embourgeoisement of the heart do?" Serving the sick and the abandoned means "touching Christ's flesh." The "sick, the poor, the dying are the flesh of Christ." The pope pleads on behalf of life in the womb and the rights of embryos.
05/10/2013VATICAN - EGYPT Pope: an "ecumenism of suffering" shared by Coptic Orthodox and Catholics in Egypt Francis meets Tawadros II, head of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Egypt, welcoming the establishment of the National Council of Christian Churches "it is an important symbol of the will of all believers in Christ in everyday life to develop more and more fraternal relations and to place themselves in service of the entire Egyptian society of which they are an integral part. "
05/05/2013VATICAN Pope to Confraternities: Be missionaries of God’s love and tenderness towards 'little ones' Francis celebrates mass for the confraternities, an event of the Year of Faith, along with 100 thousand members of the lay associations from around the world. Gospel authenticity, ecclesial spirit, missionary spirit, characterize these groups. Popular piety is a "treasure", a "mysticism", "a legitimate mode of" living the faith "of the Church. Fraternities are evangelizing initiatives," bridges "that lead to Christ, involving" the senses, affections, the symbols of different cultures. " At the Regina Caeli, best wishes for Eastern Churches who today celebrate Easter, also amid "between trials and sufferings." The joy of the Brazilian Church for the beatification of Francisca de Paula De Jesus, known as "NháChica."
05/05/2013VATICAN Pope: Mary, help us to resist the temptation of the "ephemeral" to make definitive choices Francis returns to St. Mary Major for the recitation of the Rosary. Every "good mother", "helps us to grow, to face life, to be free." "A life without challenges does not exist and a boy or a girl who does not know how to face challenges and put himself or herself on the line, has no backbone!". Freedom " not doing all that one wants, letting oneself be dominated by passions, passing from one experience to the next without discernment, following the trends of the moment; freedom does not mean, so to say, throwing all that one does not like from the window. Freedom is given to us so that we make good choices in life! “.
05/03/2013VATICAN Church and all Christians must have courage to pass on the faith, says Pope " When the Church loses courage, the Church enters into a ‘lukewarm’ atmosphere. The lukewarm, lukewarm Christians, without courage ... That hurts the Church so much, because this tepid atmosphere draws you inside, and problems arise among us; we no longer have the horizon, or courage to pray towards heaven, or the courage to proclaim the Gospel. We are lukewarm ... ".
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