Jeanelyn Villavende was raped before her employers beat her to death. Manila condemned her murder, describing it as a "clear violation" of the agreement signed by the two countries in 2018 that ended a diplomatic crisis.
Francis’ message is dedicated "to the theme of narration". God himself is both creator and narrator. "In fact, he pronounces his Word and things exist." "Even the Gospels are stories." The story of Jesus, then, shows how God took man to heart and that for Him "there are no insignificant or small human stories".
East Asia and Asian communities around the world are preparing for lunar New Year celebrations, which begin tomorrow. A new dangerous coronavirus outbreak is however complicating things. Other factors also bode ill for the festivities. In South Korea, many people are stressed out by the New Year. Considered the bearer of good luck for thousands of years, the rat has come to be regarded as a dangerous and disease-carrying fiend.
Intervention of religious leaders at the World Forum to "generate global awareness for change". The Oxfam report highlighted that wealth remains highly concentrated at the top of the distribution pyramid: the wealthiest 1%, in mid-2019, held more than double the net wealth owned by 6.9 billion people.
Sometimes “they are exploited by criminal traffickers; they are treated like numbers and as a threat by some authorities"," many times they do not let them land in ports ". Best wishes to those "in the Far East" who on January 25th celebrate the Lunar New Year.
Francis' message to the World Economic Forum. "We are all members of one human family", from which derives "the moral obligation to take care of each other", as well as the principle "to place the human person and not the search for power or profit, at the center of politics ".
During a meeting with a delegation from the Simon Wiesenthal Center, Francis reiterated the Church's condemnation of anti-Semitism, expressing concerns about “an increase in selfishness and indifference, lack of concern for others and the attitude that says life is good as long as it is good for me, and when things go wrong, anger and malice are unleashed.” For the pontiff, “This creates a fertile ground for the forms of factionalism and populism we see around us, where hatred quickly springs up.”
"When you insist on the will of the Lord you are an idolater, because you prefer what you think, that idol, to the will of the Lord." When you rebel against the "will of the Lord", you are not docile, "it is as if it were a sin of divination". As if, while saying that you believe in God, you went "from the fortune teller to have your hands read 'for safety'".
“Let us learn from John the Baptist not to presume that we already know Jesus, that we already know everything about him,” said Francis. “He, and He alone carried, suffered, atoned for the sin of each of us, the sin of the world, and also my sins. All of them. He carried them all on himself and took them away from us, so that we could finally be free, no longer slaves to evil. Yes, we are still poor, sinners but not slaves, no; children, children of God!”
“Jesus teaches us a simple thing when he goes to the essentials. The essential is health, overall [health]: that of the body and that of the soul. Let us protect that of the body, but also that of the soul. And let's go to that Doctor who can heal us, who can forgive sins. Jesus came for this, [and] gave his life for it.”
Receiving an ecumenical delegation from the Lutheran Church of Finland, Francis said that "hospitality is likewise part of our shared witness of faith in daily life". The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, which begins tomorrow, "shows us this ecumenical virtue, and above all recommends it to us".
"His compassion, He will take upon Himself our problems, our sins, our inner diseases, everything". " “Compassion gets involved, it comes from the heart and gets involved, and it leads you to do something. Compassion is “suffering with”, taking the suffering of the other person upon yourself in order to resolve it, to heal it."
The Church "although persecuted, misunderstood and chained, never tires of welcoming every man and woman with a motherly heart to announce to them the love of the Father who made himself visible in Jesus".
"Inconsistent" Christians and "schizophrenic" pastors who say one thing and do another harm the community. "Those who have responsibility for the people - in this case pastoral responsibility - but are not consistent are guilty of hypocrisy, they are not gentlemen, they have no authority".
Jesus teaches us "the attitude of simplicity, respect, moderation and concealment, required even today of the Lord's disciples".
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