Pope Francis

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http://www.news.va/en/news/pope-francis-free-our-hearts-to-welcome-the-lord

Pope Francis: free our hearts to welcome the Lord
2015-06-15 Vatican Radio


(Vatican Radio) Christians must learn to free themselves from ‘worldly noise and passions’ so that they can receive the grace of God in their hearts. That was the focus of Pope Francis’ words during his homily at morning Mass on Monday in the Casa Santa Marta, as Philippa Hitchen reports…

Reflecting on today’s reading from St Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians, Pope Francis noted that the Lord freely gives us his grace and that we must be ready, right now, to receive that gift. We need to prepare our hearts, he said, so that we do not “receive the grace of God in vain”. We must be attentive to God so that we can welcome his Word, rather than causing scandal by our un-Christian behaviour.

How often, the Pope said, do we hear people speak of Christians who go to Mass on Sundays but then behave like pagans, causing scandal to others. But how should we welcome God into our hearts, he asked? By freeing ourselves from all noise and passion that does not come from God and by removing all those things that disturb our peace of mind. In the reading from St Matthew’s Gospel, the Pope said, Jesus explains how we must overturn our “eye for an eye” mentality and offer the other cheek to those who do us wrong.
 

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http://www.news.va/en/news/pope-meets-czech-church-delegates-on-jan-hus-anniv

Pope meets Czech Church delegates on Jan Hus anniversary
2015-06-15 Vatican Radio

(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Monday met with representatives of the Czechoslovak Hussite Church and the Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren, on the occasion of the six hundredth anniversary of the death of the reformer Jan Hus.

In his prepared remarks to the delegation from the Czech Republic, Pope Francis told them that this meeting marking the 600 anniversary of Jan Hus was an opportunity to renew and deepen relations between their Church communities.

Jan Hus was a key predecessor to the Protestant movement of the sixteenth century and was burnt at the stake for heresy.

The Holy Father recalled the words of his predecessor Pope St. John Paul II, about this Church reformer when he expressed his "deep regret for the cruel death imposed on him.

Pope Francis continued by saying that it was necessary to continue to study the person and work of Jan Hus, because today he had become an incentive for dialogue to all Christians and to society, even beyond the borders of the Czech nation.
 

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http://www.news.va/en/news/pope-oil-and-weapons-weigh-more-than-human-lives

Pope: oil and weapons weigh more than human lives
2015-06-15 Vatican Radio

(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis said on Monday that  oil and weapons seem to weigh more on the scale of economic interests than the  lives of thousands of Christians in the Middle East, and while proclaiming peace and justice the world tolerates traffickers of death.

The Pope’s  words of condemnation were pronounced as he greeted participants of ROACO’s 88th Plenary Assembly in the Vatican.

The Assembly, scheduled to last until June 17, gathers representatives of aid projects of the “Reunion of Aid Agencies for the Oriental Churches” (ROACO).

It includes a special session dedicated to Syria with attention also given to Iraq in view of the recent tragic developments in that region.
 

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http://www.news.va/en/news/audience-with-the-president-of-colombia-special-at

Audience with the president of Colombia: special attention to the reconciliation process and prospects for a peace agreement


Vatican City, 15 June 2015 (VIS) – Today in the Vatican Apostolic Palace the Holy Father received in audience the president of the Republic of Colombia, Juan Manuel Santos Calderon, who subsequently met with Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin and Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, secretary for Relations with States.

During the cordial discussions the good relations between the Holy See and the Republic of Colombia were evoked, underlining the contribution the Catholic Church has given and continues to guarantee in favour of the human, social and cultural progress of the population. Among the issues considered, special attention was given to the state of the reconciliation process in the country, the complexity of the negotiations that this entails, and the prospects that could open the way to achieving a peace agreement.
 

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http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1502572.htm

(SECOND UPDATE) Jun-15-2015
Pope accepts resignations of St. Paul archbishop, auxiliary
By Maria Wiering
Catholic News Service

ST. PAUL, Minn. (CNS) -- Pope Francis accepted the resignations June 15 of Archbishop John C. Nienstedt and Auxiliary Bishop Lee A. Piche of St. Paul and Minneapolis and named coadjutor Archbishop Bernard A. Hebda of Newark, New Jersey, a canon lawyer, to be apostolic administrator of the Minnesota archdiocese.

In a statement, Archbishop Nienstedt said he submitted his resignation to Pope Francis "to give the archdiocese a new beginning amidst the many challenges we face."

"The Catholic Church is not our church, but Christ's church, and we are merely stewards for a time," he said. "My leadership has unfortunately drawn away from the good works of his church and those who perform them. Thus, my decision to step down."

On June 5, the Ramsey County Attorney's Office filed criminal and civil charges against the archdiocese alleging it failed to protect three boys who were sexually abused in 2008-2010 by Curtis Wehmeyer, a former priest of the archdiocese.

Wehmeyer was convicted of the abuse and is serving a five-year prison sentence. He was dismissed from the priesthood in March.
 

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http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2015/06/15/vatican_former_nuncio_to_stand_trial_on_abuse_charges/1151701

Vatican: former Nuncio to stand trial on abuse charges
15/06/2015 16:22

(Vatican Radio) The disgraced former Apostolic Nuncio to the Dominican Republic, Józef Wesołowski, has been ordered to stand trial in the Vatican, on charges he possessed child pornography and abused minors. The Charges stem both from his stay in Rome from August 2013 until the moment of his arrest (on 22 September 2014) and from the period he spent in the Dominican Republic, during the five years in which he held the office of Nuncio (24 January 2008 – 21 August 2013). A statement regarding the decision of the Tribunal of Vatican City State follows, below:
 

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http://www.news.va/en/news/statement-from-the-director-of-the-press-office

Statement from the Director of the Press Office

An Italian text of a draft of the Pope’s Encyclical “Laudato Si’” has been published. Please note that it is not the final text, and that the rules of the Embargo remain in place. We ask journalists to respect professional standards, which call for waiting for the official publication of the final text.

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http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2015/06/16/fr_lombardi’s_statement_on_encyclical_leak/1151778

Fr Lombardi’s statement on Encyclical leak
16/06/2015 08:58


Father Federico Lombardi issues a statement following the unauthorized release the Pope's Encyclical.

(Vatican Radio) The director of the Holy See Press Office has issued a statement following the unauthorized release of Pope Francis’ latest encyclical.

“An Italian text of a draft of the Pope’s Encyclical ‘Laudato Si'’ has been published,” said Fr. Federico Lombardi, SJ, in Monday’s statement to journalists. “Please note that it is not the final text, and that the rules of the Embargo remain in place. We ask journalists to respect professional standards, which call for waiting for the official publication of the final text.”
 
News agencies often receive documents and information in advance of their official release. In such cases, journalists are expected to respect the embargo – i.e. the date and time of official release – before publishing any part of their content.

[grace-land]

Uh, oh...

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/deaconsbench/2015/06/holy-see-pulls-press-credentials-for-prominent-vatican-journalist-over-encyclical-leak/

Holy See pulls press credentials for prominent Vatican journalist over encyclical leak
June 16, 2015 by Deacon Greg Kandra

This news broke this morning on Twitter, following yesterday’s leak of a draft of the new encyclical:

Sandro Magister of @espressonline loses his @HolySeePress credentials for disclosing embargoed draft of Encyclical. pic.twitter.com/gcaINTv5eh

— Fr. Manuel Dorantes (@TweetingPriest) June 16, 2015
 

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http://www.cruxnow.com/church/2015/06/16/why-we-wrote-about-the-encyclical/

Why we wrote about the encyclical
By John L. Allen Jr.
Associate editor | June 16, 2015

To the surprise of virtually no one with long memories, a leaked copy of Pope Francis’ encyclical letter on the environment appeared in the Italian press Monday. The Vatican swiftly denounced the move as “heinous,” calling upon journalists to respect the official embargo until midday Thursday Rome time.

The leak sent reporters into a tizzy, trying to discern what their ethical obligations are in such a situation. (As a footnote, for all those who see the media business as lacking scruples, the fact that so much time has been spent noodling out what embargo obligations mean in this context ought to invite a serious re-think.)

This is hardly the first time a major Vatican document has leaked out prior to publication, and the dynamics are virtually always the same — Church officials decry the leak and demand that everyone cool their jets until the official version is released.

Exacerbating things this time around, however, is that the scoop appeared in the widely read Italian news magazine “l’Espresso” under the byline of veteran Vatican commentator Sandro Magister, whom many see as a conservative voice hostile to Pope Francis.

(Magister told The Associated Press that his editor, not he, obtained the document and decided to publish it. Magister said he just wrote the brief introduction.)
 

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http://americamagazine.org/content/dispatches/uproar-rome-over-first-vati-leak-francis-pontificate

Uproar in Rome Over the First Vati-leak in Francis’ Pontificate
Gerard O'Connell | Jun 16 2015 - 3:07pm

The publication of a leaked draft, though not final text, of Pope Francis’ much awaited encyclical on ecology by the Italian weekly, L’Espresso, with an introduction by Sandro Magister—its long-time columnist on Vatican affairs—has sparked uproar and strong reactions not only within the Vatican, but also among reporters accredited to the Holy See’s Press office.

This was the first leak of a major document from the Vatican since Francis became pope on March 13, 2013. Its publication is being widely interpreted in Rome as an attempt to steal the thunder of, or sabotage this important papal encyclical that deals with the degraded condition of planet earth, “our common home,” climate change and other issues that touch major economic interests, particularly in the coal and oil industries, and could have a worldwide impact.

Moreover, since Sandro Magister is known to be closely linked to circles in the Vatican and in the church abroad that are not much in sympathy with the direction being taken by Pope Francis, the leaking and publication of the text is also being interpreted as an act against the Argentine pope and the reforms he is carrying out.

The draft was published online by L’Espresso, around 4:00 p.m. (Rome time), with a brief introduction by Magister who wrote:
..
“Here it is. It suddenly appeared on the on-line site of L’Espresso in the afternoon of Monday, June 15, three days exactly before its announced public baptism. The author of this blog found it on the screen in front of him, the entire text; it appeared from who knows where. And so he accompanied it with some lines of presentation, to introduce it to society as is fitting.”

News of the leaked draft text—in Italian—travelled like wildfire across Rome. People started downloading and reading it. But within an hour, the Director of the Vatican Press Office, Father Federico Lombardi S.J., issued the following statement, and sent it to accredited reporters:
 

[grace-land]

http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2015/06/16/pope_francis_the_theology_of_poverty/1151901

Pope Francis: the theology of poverty
16/06/2015 14:58

(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis said Mass in the chapel of the Casa Santa Marta on Tuesday morning. Following the readings of the day, the Holy Father reflected on the place of poverty in the Gospel, saying that the Gospel becomes incomprehensible if poverty is removed from it, and that it is unfair to label priests who show a pastoral concern for the poor as, “Communists”. 

In the 1st reading, which tells  of how St. Paul  organized a collection in the Church of Corinth, for the benefit of  to the Church of Jerusalem, whose members were facing great hardship. Pope Francis noted that, today as then, poverty is “a word that always embarrasses.” Many times, he said, we hear: “But this priest talks too much about poverty, this bishop speaks of poverty, this Christian, this nun talks about poverty ... aren’t they a little communist, right?” On the contrary, he warned, “Poverty is at the very center of the Gospel: if we remove poverty from the Gospel, no one would be able to understand anything about the message of Jesus.”
 

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http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/17/world/europe/leak-of-pope-francis-encyclical-hints-at-tensions-in-vatican.html?_r=0

Leak of Pope’s Encyclical on Climate Change Hints at Tensions in Vatican
By JIM YARDLEY and ELISABETTA POVOLEDO JUNE 16, 2015

ROME — The unexpected leak of Pope Francis’ much-anticipated environmental encyclical has meant the return of something that not long ago was fairly common around the Vatican but had become often dormant during the two-plus years of Francis’ mostly charmed papacy: intrigue.

Who leaked it and why? Was this the work of frustrated conservatives in the Vatican, as some experts have speculated? Does it portend big fights at a pivotal October meeting in which church officials are expected to grapple with homosexuality and divorce? Or is it just a tempest in a teapot?
 
The immediate focus of attention was Mr. Magister, who writes a widely read blog about the Vatican on the L’Espresso website and is known as one of Francis’ toughest critics. Mr. Magister said he was simply following orders: He wrote a short introduction to the draft after his boss, Luigi Vicinanza, L’Espresso’s editor, got a copy and decided to go public.

“Sure,” Mr. Magister said in an interview, “I’m the one who got suspended. I violated a pledge not to break the embargo. So I didn’t object to the suspension.”

Mr. Vicinanza said he had written on Tuesday to the Rev. Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, explaining that he, not Mr. Magister, was responsible for posting the draft. Mr. Vicinanza told the Vatican spokesman that he did not feel bound to respect the embargo because he had not received the text from the Vatican. He declined to say where he had gotten it.

“There’s no intrigue, just journalism,” Mr. Vicinanza said in a telephone interview.

Many journalists agreed that under similar circumstances, they, too, would have posted the draft. But several Vatican analysts on Tuesday also argued that it was no coincidence that the draft had found its way to Mr. Magister. He wrote a June 1 column that criticized the alleged “inspirers” of the encyclical as being advocates of abortion. He has characterized the Vatican news media as being soft on Francis, while also criticizing the pope on foreign policy and as being overly fixated on himself.

“The light is all for him, the pope,” Mr. Magister wrote in April 2014. “Not the institution, but the person.”
 

[grace-land]

http://www.news.va/en/news/pope-francis-family-a-place-of-consolation

Pope Francis: family a place of consolation
2015-06-17 Vatican Radio

(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis held his weekly General Audience on Wednesday in St. Peter’s Square. In remarks to the pilgrims and tourists gathered for the occasion, the Holy Father continued his series of catechetical reflections on the family. Specifically, this Wednesday’s meditation was devoted to the theme of loss in the family: the pain and suffering that the passing of a family member can bring, and the duty we have to comfort and console those who mourn.

Please find the official English summary of the Holy Father’s remarks, below

********************************
Dear Brothers and Sisters,

            In our ongoing catechesis on the family, I wish to reflect on one of the more dramatic and painful events that every person, without exception, has to deal with, namely, the death of a family member.  Jesus has compassion on those who mourn, as today’s Scripture reading reminds us, because the death of a loved one is never without pain for families; this is especially true of parents who lose a child. Jesus’ presence with the widow at Na’in assures us that he is with us in our darkest moments and that he is with us in our loss and mourning. Through faith in him, in his Resurrection and his abiding presence, we can face our loss, “the sting of death”, as Saint Paul calls it, make sense of it, and have confidence that death does not have the last word. 

[grace-land]

http://www.news.va/en/news/pope-francis-appeal-at-audience-for-refugees

Pope Francis: appeal at Audience for refugees
2015-06-17 Vatican Radio

(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has renewed his call on the international community to take effective action on behalf of refugees. In remarks to pilgrims and tourists gathered for his weekly General Audience in St. Peter’s Square on Wednesday, Pope Francis said, “We pray for the many brothers and sisters who seek refuge far from their native lands, who seek a home where they can live without fear: that they might always be respected in their dignity.”

The Holy Father made his appeal ahead of the UN-sponsored World Refugee Day, marked each year on June 20th. “I Encourage the work of those who bring help to those in need,” said Pope Francis.

The Holy Father concluded saying, “It is my hope that the international community should act in a fitting and effective way to prevent the causes of forced migration.”

Please find Vatican Radio's English translation of the full text of the Holy Father's appeal, below
 

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http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/pope-francis-receive-new-encyclical-with-open-heart-50100/

Pope Francis: Receive new encyclical with 'open heart'

Vatican City, Jun 17, 2015 / 10:18 am (Aid to the Church in Need).- Speaking one day before its official release to the public, Pope Francis is asking for people to have an “open heart” when they read his latest encyclical dedicated to the environment.

“Our 'home' is being ruined, and this hurts everyone, especially the poorest among us,” the pontiff said at the conclusion of his weekly general audience on June 17.

The Pope’s second encyclical will be released June 18. It will deal with creation and the human ecology, examining man's responsibility in caring for the earth.
 
“My appeal, therefore, is for responsibility,” he said, which is “based on the task which God gave to man in creation: 'to till and protect' the 'garden' in which he has been placed.”

 “I invite everyone to receive this new document with an open heart, which places itself along the lines of the Church's social doctrine.”

[grace-land]

http://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/2015/06/and-now-main-event.html

Wednesday, June 17, 2015
And Now, The Main Event

Even if folks on all sides are whipped up and more on this Eco-cyclical Eve, for our purposes, here's what matters most: after a yearlong ramp-up, the schedule for tomorrow's release.

At 11am Rome (5am Eastern/2 Pacific/0900 GMT), the traditional pub-day press conference begins in the Vatican's Synod Hall, its venue moved from the usual Press Office to accommodate a far larger crowd. Upon its start, a livestream of the event will run here, with the video subsequently available on-demand.

Featuring the late addition of Carolyn Woo, the Baltimore-based president of the US' Catholic Relief Services, to the speakers' panel alongside the Holy See's social justice chief Cardinal Peter Turkson, the Orthodox theologian Metropolitan John of Pergamon (representing the Patriarchate of Constantinople), and the German climate-change expert John Schellnhuber, while the session is likely to be heavily in English, whatever isn't will be translated in real time, as well as into Italian, French, Spanish and German.

An hour later – Roman Noon (6am ET/3 PT/1000 GMT) – brings the publication of Laudato Si' itself, translated into eight languages (including, for the first time on a release day, Arabic). The links to the complete text will appear here upon release... and, to be sure, in the possible if not probable event of a crash of the Vatican website, backup plans are ready to go.
 

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http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/06/17/pope-francis-appoints-population-control-extremist-to-vatican-post/

Pope Francis Appoints Population Control Extremist to Vatican Post
17 Jun 2015


AXEL SCHMIDT, FILIPPO MONTEFORTE/AFP/Getty Images

A scientist who believes the world is overpopulated by 6 billion people has been appointed by Pope Francis to the Pontifical Academy of Science.

The Holy See Press office made the announcement today that besides being one of four official presenters of the Pope’s controversial encyclical on the environment Thursday in Vatican City, Hans Joachim Schellnhuber is to join 80 other scientists who are official advisers to the Vatican on scientific matters.

As Breitbart News reported last week, Schellnhuber said in a 2009 speech at the Copenhagen Climate Conference that global warming would devastate Earth’s population and “In a very cynical way, it’s a triumph for science because at last we have stabilized something — namely the estimates for the carrying capacity of the plantet, namely below 1 billion people.”

Schellnhuber is the inventor of something called the “two-degree target” that says governments must not allow global temperatures to rise more than 2 degrees than at the start of the industrial revolution. Any higher and there would be a global die-off.
 

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http://vaticaninsider.lastampa.it/en/world-news/detail/articolo/madre-teresa-mother-teresa-madre-teresa-brasile-brazil-brasil-41750/

06/16/2015
The miracle that could lead to Mother Teresa’s canonization


Mother Teresa of Calcutta

The scientifically inexplicable healing of a Brazilian man suffering from an end-stage malignant brain tumour could be the miracle that earns Mother Teresa her canonization during the Jubilee of Mercy, Vatican Insider has learnt.

A diocesan process is underway in Santos, in the state of São Paulo, for the prodigious event that is said to have taken place and the Congregation for the Causes of Saints is gathering proof, medical reports and eyewitness testimonies. The Vatican has been sent messages from all over the world pointing out miracles that could be attributed to the intercession of the Albanian Blessed who founded the Missionaries of Charity, including one which took place in the US. The most striking miracle of all, however, is the one involving the complete recovery of a faithful from the diocese of Santos, whose CAT scans suddenly and inexplicably showed that the large cancerous tumour that had developed in his brain had completely disappeared after praying intensely to Mother Teresa. The Holy See has decided to look into this particular miracle further as it has the best chances of approval.
 

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http://www.news.va/en/news/pope-we-are-weak-we-must-ask-for-the-strength-to-f

Pope: We are weak, we must ask for the strength to forgive
2015-06-18 Vatican Radio

(Vatican Radio) During his Mass at the Casa Santa Marta on Thursday morning, Pope Francis said Christians must understand that they cannot advance in the Christian life without the help of God. The Pope also noted that if we are to pray well, we must be prepared to forgive our brothers. The three themes of weakness, prayer, and forgiveness were at the heart of his homily.

The Holy Father began his reflection by emphasizing that we all bear a certain weakness, a weakness “we all bear after the wound of original sin.”

Without the help of the Lord we cannot go forward

We are weak, he repeated, “we slip into sin, we cannot go forward without the help of the Lord”:

“He who believes he is strong, who thinks he is capable of getting by on his own is naïve, and in the end remains a man defeated by so much weakness that he carries in himself: the weakness that brings us to ask for help from the Lord because ‘in our weakness we can do nothing without your help,’ [as] we have prayed. We cannot take a step in our Christian life without the help of the Lord, because we are weak. And he who is on the way should take care not to fall because he is weak.”