Philippines

Francis concludes the Way of the Cross with a prayer that recalls those Christians "killed, burned alive, slaughtered and beheaded", the corrupt, the elderly abandoned and the dead migrants at sea, but also the faces of the religious and consecrated who abandon everything to help others and volunteers who generously help the needy and downtrodden.

Lost in a presumptuous prometheanism that proclaims itself capable of curing all possible evils, the world is aging and becoming increasingly immobile. In front of difficulties and obstacles, mankind needs to regain the courage to trust and to take a risk. The Easter proclamation contains a strength capable of helping life to blossom even in those places dominated by death and repression: among Iraq’s refugees; China’s Christians; the poor of the Philippines.

Francis celebrated the ‘Missa in coena Domini’ at a centre for asylum seekers. “Even today, here, there are two gestures: this, of all of us together, Muslims, Hindus, Catholics, Copts, Evangelical brothers and sisters – children of the same God – we want to live in peace, integrated.” Instead, “Three days ago, an act of war, of destruction in a European city, by people who do not want to live in peace.” But "Behind that [other] gesture, there are manufacturers, arms dealers who want blood, not peace; they want the war, not fraternity."

The Islamist, Salafi-tinged fever is spreading everywhere. Any fight against terrorism smacks of hypocrisy if the countries that support and finance Wahhabism, namely Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey, are not criticised. Integration requires strict rules, as in Austria and Sweden. Local mosques cannot get foreign funding, sermons must be in the local language, and imams must be trained locally. France and Belgium, secular states, penalise Catholics and favour Muslims for votes and contracts.

Celebrating the Chrism Mass Francis invites us to bring the "Lord’s Mercy everywhere". It is the task of every Christian and, priests must embody it so it touches everyone personally, in particular the "discarded and the oppressed". "We are oppressed, not by threats and pressures, like so many poor people, but by the allure of a thousand commercial advertisements which we cannot shrug off to walk ahead".

The capital’s archbishop met inmates in prison where he opened the Holy Door and celebrated Mass. “We are all capable of betrayal but let’s not forget that we’re also capable of loving,” he said. The Church in the Philippines has been engaged in pastoral outreach in the country’s overcrowded and poorly maintained prisons for years.

A WIN / Gallup International survey reveals that the Pope is respected not only by Christians, but by members of all religions: also atheists and agnostics think favorably of him. The Philippines is the most enthusiastic country: 93% of respondents think "very favorably" of the Pope.

Francis appeals for everyone "to persevere in prayer and to ask the Lord in this Holy Week to comfort the hearts afflicted and convert the hearts of these people blinded by this cruel fundamentalism". In the Paschal Triduum "everything speaks of mercy", the love of God who "has no limits," it is "to the very end."

Francis issues a message. Al-Azhar slams attacks that "violate the tolerant teachings of Islam". Explosions at the airport and a metro station kill 34 and wound almost 200 people. “For 20 minutes we just stood there, not knowing what to do . . . There was nothing, neither police nor ambulances,” says Lebanese witness.

At the beginning of Holy Week, Pope Francis urges us to look at the crucifix, the "cathedra of God", where "the Son of God", "emptied" and "humbled" himself" and encourages us to "learn about the humble love which saves and gives life, so that we may give up all selfishness, and the seeking of power and fame". The Pope brings to mind "the many marginalized, the many refugees" left to die in indifference. Tens of thousands of young people in preparation for the World Youth Day in Krakow in July.

Meeting 10 thousand members of the Neocatechumenal Way Francis speaks of unity and glory and the world. The centrality of communion in the Church, which expresses its fertility "through the ministry and guidance of pastors". Glory is the one that "is revealed on the Cross: it is love that irradiates and spreads from there." "God is not attracted by sophistication, indeed, he detests it; but He loves the world He has created, and loves His children in the world as they are, wherever they live, even if they are 'distant'".

There is a "glimmer of hope" that begins with the promise of God to Abraham and ends with Jesus. It is a virtue that "flows beneath the water of life, but that sustains us so we do not drown in life’s many difficulties, so we do not miss that desire to find God, to find that wonderful face that everyone will see one day".