Franco Pisano

The story of Adam and Eve warns that "the tempter is a bad payer, he pays badly". "God’s plan regarding humanity is for the good. Yet in our everyday lives we experience the presence of evil: it is an everyday experience." It is important to "teach children to pray. To make the sign of the Cross, which is the first prayer”.

The theme of the rite, which will be broadcast worldwide from the Lourdes Grotto in the Vatican gardens, at 5.30 pm, will be "Devoted and with one accord to prayer, together with Mary (cf. Acts 1:14)". The Virgin will be asked for help and assistance in the pandemic.

Francis wrote a letter for the 25th anniversary of John Paul II encyclical ‘Ut unum sint,’ noting that “many steps have been taken in these decades to heal the wounds of centuries and millennia.” The pontiff mentions two initiatives, an ecumenical Vademecum for Bishops, which will be published in the autumn, and the launch of a journal, Acta Œcumenica.

Francis' message to the Pontifical missionary societies which " are and must be experienced as an instrument of service for the mission of the particular Churches, against the backdrop of the mission of the universal Church". "Missionary ervour ever be obtained as the result of reasoning or calculation."

In Bangladesh, where the coming storm is expected to be the most powerful storm since Cyclone Sidr killed some 3,500 people in 2007, about two million people have already been evacuated and 12,078 cyclone centres set up. In India, where West Bengal is expected to be the most affected, police said many people are unwilling to go to shelters fearing contracting COVID-19.

Life "must always be defended and protected" and despite difficult days, it is full of a grace to marvel at. "The beauty and mystery of Creation generate in the heart of man the first movement that arouses prayer".

Francis sent a video message to young people in the Archdiocese of Krakow for the centenary celebrations of the birth of the Karol Wojtyła. “Love and care for the family is a characteristic feature of John Paul II. His teachings are a secure point of reference for finding concrete solutions to the difficulties and challenges that modern-day families face.”

Francis celebrates mass in the chapel of St. Peter's Basilica where Pope Wojtyla's tomb is on the 100th anniversary of his birth (May 18, 1920). "Let us pray to him today that he give us all, especially the pastors of the Church to all, the grace of prayer, the grace of proximity and the grace of justice-mercy, mercy-justice".

Worldliness is “a proposal of life that enters everywhere, even in the Church.” The Pope called for prayers for those whose acts of mercy puts them at risk of contagion when they bury the dead.

In the message for the World Day for Migrants and Refugees, Francis writes that they represent a "pastoral challenge", in that "you need to know to understand", "you need to be close to serve", "to be reconciled you have to listen", "to grow you need to share ","to be involved in order to promote" and "to collaborate in order to build".

“May the Lord free us from any disturbance of those who put faith, the life of faith under casuistry prescriptions, prescriptions that make no sense. I refer to these prescriptions which make no sense, not to the Commandments. That free us from this spirit of rigidity that takes away your freedom."

The initiative aims to be a response to the crisis that is making it increasingly difficult "to guarantee the sons and daughters of the Lebanese people access to education which, especially in small towns, has always been guaranteed by ecclesiastical institutions" .