Franco Pisano

Everyone "knows that we are sinners", but "it is not easy" to concretely accuse ourselves of being sinners. "There are people who live by talking about others, accusing others and never thinking about themselves and when I go to confession how do I confess, like a parrot? 'Bla, blah, blah ... I did this, this ...' But does the heart touch you what you did? So often, no ".

"The industry of distraction flourishes and advertising paints an ideal world of a giant playground where everyone enjoys themselves. The dominant concept of life today does not have the center of gravity in activity and commitment but in evasion". "We need to reconcile ourselves to our own history". "True peace is not to change our personal history but to welcome it and enrich it".

Our hearts are like a "battlefield", where two different "spirits" contend: one, which is God-like, leads us "to good works, to charity, to fraternity", the other, which is worldly, pushes us "towards vanity, pride, self-sufficiency, gossip".

Francis resumed the celebration of Mass in the chapel of Casa Santa Marta. The attitude of Jesus in the synagogue of Nazareth teaches us that "truth is meek, the truth is silent, the truth is not noisy. What Jesus did was not easy; but the dignity of Christians is anchored in God’s power.”

Francis’ Message for today's IV World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, on the theme: "Water, particularly in two aspects: respect for water as a precious element and access to water as a human right" .

The Ecumenical Patriarchate released a message for this year’s Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation. “It is impossible to truly care for human beings while at the same time destroying the natural environment as the very foundation of life, essentially undermining the future of humanity.”

At the general audience, Francis retraces the highlights of his recent visit to Ireland. The families present at the IX World Meeting "an eloquent sign of the beauty of the dream of God for the entire human family". "Deeply marked by the meeting with some survivors: there were eight; and on several occasions I asked the Lord for forgiveness for these sins, for the scandal and the sense of betrayal [they] have procured".

At the end of the trip to Ireland, Francis renews his appeal for forgiveness for the abuses committed by people in the Church. But a dossier by the former nuncio in the US accuses him of covering the misdeeds of former Cardinal McCarrick and calls for him to resign.

At the Festival of Families, Pope Francis noted that families are founded on the love of Christ. The latter “renews everything [and] is what makes possible marriage and conjugal love marked by fidelity, indissolubility, unity and openness to life.” At the nunciature, the pontiff met with eight sex abuse survivors as well men and women religious and dignitaries.

The pontiff notes that two ‘opposing ideologies” threaten religious freedom and conscience: “secular relativism and religious radicalism – in reality pseudo-religious radicalism.” For him, the “real anger is fighting extremism and intolerance with as much extremism and intolerance, in attitudes as well as words.”

Illustrating the commandment "You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain", Francis affirms that it "calls us to demonstrate, through our actions and words, the greatness and the depth of the holy name with which we have been called". Teaching children to make the sign of the Cross properly.

Letter "to the Holy People of God" on the conclusions of the PA Grand Jury report. "To acknowledge once more the suffering endured by many minors due to sexual abuse, the abuse of power and the abuse of conscience perpetrated by a significant number of clerics and consecrated persons. ". Overcome all forms of clericalism. It, "favored by both priests themselves and lay people, generates a division into the ecclesial body that foments and helps to perpetuate many of the evils we are denouncing today".