The pontiff writes from the Gemelli Polyclinic to the editor of the Italian daily Corriere della Sera. In illness, ‘war appears even more absurd,’ he reiterates. Human frailty ‘has the power to make us more lucid about what lasts and what passes’. To information professionals: ‘Feel the full importance of words’. Peace is built with ‘commitment, work, silence, words’.
Francis’s conditions are stable at the Rome hospital where he has been treated since 14 February. “I am facing a period of trial, and I join with so many brothers and sisters who are sick: fragile, at this time, like me,” he says in today’s Angelus. He devotes once more thoughts to “countries wounded by war”.
Established by the FABC, the commission is tasked with facilitating collaboration among Asian Churches to translate the path indicated by Pope Francis in their own context. It includes religious and lay people who took part in the Synod in Rome.
Francis shows “slight improvement.” Angelus text speaks of Lent as a “penitential itinerary” and calls for peace in Ukraine, Palestine, Israel and Syria, prey to new violence. Today the Jubilee of the volunteer world, 30,000 in attendance. In the homily read by Card. Czerny, to volunteers, "Serve your neighbor without serving your neighbor."
The Holy See Press Office released the message of the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue to Islamic communities for the Islamic holy month and the feast of Eid al-Fitr. It reads, “in a world in search of hope [. . .] Do we want to be simple co-workers for a better world, or genuine brothers and sisters, bearing common witness to God’s friendship with all humanity?”
Card De Donatis led the imposition of ashes, reading the Pope’s homily sent from Rome’s Gemelli Hospital. In it the pontiff warns against conflicts, identity politics, exploitation of the land and violence, which are “fine dust” that pollute the world. Instead, the hope of Easter allows us not to “fall into sadness and desolation.” Meanwhile, the pontiff's health conditions remain stable but critical.
Pope Francis's Angelus text was released this Sunday from Rome’s Gemelli Hospital. "I feel in my heart the blessing that is hidden within fragility, which teaches us even more to trust in the Lord,” it reads. While his clinical condition remains stable, the pontiff is grateful for the closeness expressed by the faithful around the world. Commenting on today’s Gospel, he urges people to care for and say honest things to others.
In a letter released by the Catholic charity, 124 faith leaders call on the finance ministers of the richest countries in the world to take concrete steps to end the scandal of poor countries spending more on debt repayment than on health and education. The goal is to set up a UN Debt Convention and a public global debt registry.
The pope’s health conditions remain stationary at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital. The text for his general audience was released today, from the Gospel passage about the presentation of Jesus in the Temple and the figures of Simeon and Anna, two elderly people who were able to “rekindle hope”.
Pope Francis has approved the promulgation of the decree on the “offering of life” of Fr Emil Joseph Kapaun, a priest from Kansas who died in 1951 in a North Korean POW camp.
In a statement, the Gemelli Hospital reported “a slight improvement” in the pope’s conditions The Vatican released the pope’s message for the path towards Easter, titled this year “Let us journey together in hope”.
While the world is concerned for his health after yesterday's respiratory crisis, in a text released for the Angelus, Francis invites us to remember the victims of all conflicts and to pray for peace. The pontiff thanks the people around the world who are close to him.
The Catholic communities throughout Asia are close to the pontiff, hospitalised at the Gemelli Polyclinic. He has been diagnosed with bilateral pneumonia, which has required a change in treatment. In the Philippines, the Rappler website has invited readers to share their prayers for Francis in a chat room.
The pontiff is currently in stable conditions in a Rome hospital for bronchitis. For this reason, he did not recite the Angelus today; however, the written text was released. Francis greeted participants in the Jubilee of Artists and the World of Culture, and issued a new appeal for peace. He also thanked all those who are close to him at this time of poor health. The Beatitudes “overturn our worldly mentality,” he said, while “Artists are called to take part in this revolution.”
The pontiff spoke this morning at the end of the Wednesday general audience, despite a bronchitis. “May paths of peace be found,” he said, in Ukraine, Palestine, Myanmar, South Sudan and in the “many countries that are at war”. The catechesis, read by a Vatican official, focused on the visit by the “malodorous” shepherds to the manger, men who “practice the occupation by which God himself makes himself known to his people.”
In a letter to the US bishops, the pontiff explicitly condemns the expulsion plan that “identifies the illegal status of some migrants with criminality.” He appeals to Catholics not to give in to “narratives that discriminate and cause unnecessary suffering”. For him, “Christian love is not a concentric expansion of interests.” He warns that looking only at national identity “distorts social life and imposes the will of the strongest as the criterion of truth”.
Pope Francis was present for this morning's the Jubilee of the Armed, Police and Security Forcesin St Peter's Square, despite bronchitis. In his comments during the Angelus, he spoke of armed service ‘only for self-defence, never to impose dominion over other nations’ and ‘observing international conventions’. An invitation to be vigilant against the temptation of the ‘spirit of war’.
The pontiff released a message today on the occasion of International Day of Prayer and Awareness against Human Trafficking, which the Church will celebrate tomorrow, feast day of Saint Josephine Bakhita. Millions of people in the world are still victims of modern slavery. For Francis, we must learn from young people “to stand alongside the victims and survivors” without becoming accustomed to injustice”.
Pope Francis released his reflection for the event slated for 19 October in the jubilee year. Even “the most developed areas” are in crisis today, but the Gospel can “restore us to a whole, healthy, redeemed humanity.” Francis thanks the missionaries ad gentes and calls for experiencing evangelisation as a “communitarian process”.
Francis, who appeared chilled in the Paul VI Hall, again turned his thoughts to the countries ‘suffering from war’, also mentioning Jordan. To the Polish pilgrims, he invited them to pray for consecrated people in poor and conflicted countries: for many people they are ‘proof that God always remembers them’. The catechesis - read by an official of the secretariat of state - on the Visitation: ‘The Magnificat: praise of faith, hope and joy’.
World leaders met in the Vatican for the World Meeting on Children’s Rights, issuing an appeal for more to be done to implement international conventions and not remain indifferent to the rising number of children without protection. The pontiff announced that he will write a document dedicated to children to “give continuity to this commitment”.
Today, the feast day of the Presentation in the Temple, Francis expressed closeness to bishops to encourage “young couples not to be afraid of bringing children into the world.” Tomorrow the Vatican will host an international summit on children's rights in the presence of world leaders, including from the Middle East and the rest of Asia, centred on “the most pressing questions regarding the life of the little ones.” The pontiff also reiterated his opposition to war, which “destroys everything, it destroys life and induces us to disregard it.”
Best known for kung fu, the monks are the custodians of Zen Buddhism in China. The meeting with the pontiff comes a few days after their temple in Henan held a world conference on meditation and its contribution to peace and the development of relations between peoples.
At the general audience in the Paul VI Hall the appeal for the region of North Kivu, the region of the Democratic Republic of Congo occupied by the M23 rebels supported by Rwanda: ‘Let the violence to people and their property cease’. In the catechesis the example of St Joseph: ‘Let us ask with him the grace to dream God's dreams and responsibly welcome Christ’.
Pope Francis at the Angelus spoke of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp: "The horror cannot be forgotten". In Sudan the "most serious humanitarian crisis in the world". On the Word of God Sunday: "It is alive: walk with us". Catholic Action youth: "It would be nice if the great of the Earth also passed through the Holy Door".
The appeal in the speech delivered this morning in Rome to participants in the Jubilee of Communications. The warning by Filipino Nobel Maria Ressa: ‘Today's powers exploit the great media platforms to make us doubt everything and paralyse people’. Writer Colum McCann: ‘The distance between enemy and neighbour is shortened only by listening to their story’.
Francis picked the 51-year-old cardinal from Kerala, coordinator of apostolic journeys, to succeed Card Ayuso Guixot who passed away last November. This makes him the first Asian at the helm of the Vatican body. In his first statements, he focuses on the path of fraternity and the form of inculturation developed by Fr Roberto De Nobili in India starting in 1500. The Syro-Malabar Church shared with AsiaNews her joy of a fellow member given this task.
The pope’s message for the 59th World Day of Social Communications, observed on 1 June, is released on the feast day of Saint Francis de Sales, patron saint of writers and journalists. In it, Francis calls for a form of “communication that can heal the wounds of our humanity”, which is even more important in this Holy Year in order to “spread hope, even when it is difficult”.
At the audience in the Paul VI Hall, Pope Francis recalled the days - Jan. 18-25 - dedicated to prayer for ecumenism. Again a call for peace in Ukraine, Palestine, Israel and Mynamar. Relief for Gaza's Holy Family parish: “I called yesterday, they were happy. There are 600 people in there." Los Angeles community entrusted to the intercession of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Catechesis on the Annunciation: 'Mary does not seek outside but inside'.
At the Angelus, Pope Francis hails the truce, after 15 months of intense and incessant appeals for peace, hopeful that “what has been agreed will be respected immediately by the parties”. Today Hamas is set to free three young Israeli women, with a list of about 90 Palestinian prisoners still not available. The pontiff calls for humanitarian aid to reach Gaza “faster and in large quantities.”
