Pope Francis

[grace-land]

http://www.news.va/en/news/pope-says-using-gods-name-to-justify-violence-is-b

Pope says using God's name to justify violence is blasphemy
2015-11-15 Vatican Radio

(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Sunday condemned the violence and hatred behind the terror attacks in France which left 129 people dead and several hundred others injured. Speaking to the crowds gathered in St Peter’s Square for his weekly Angelus address, the Pope said he wished to express his deepest condolences to the French President and especially to all those whose family members were killed or wounded in the multiple attacks on Friday night.
 
Pope Francis said such barbarity leaves us stunned as we wonder how human hearts can think up and carry out such atrocities which “have shocked not only France but the whole world”. The Pope stressed again that “the way of  violence and hatred does not resolve the problems of humanity”, adding that whoever uses God’s name to justify that path is guilty of blasphemy.

Pope Francis invited all those listening to his words to join him in prayer, entrusting to God’s mercy the innocent victims of this tragedy. Leading the faithful in the recitation of the Ave Maria, he prayed that Mary, the Mother of Mercy, would inspire all our hearts with wisdom and peace.
---------------
http://www.zenit.org/en/articles/angelus-address-on-today-and-the-end-times
Angelus Address: On Today and the End Times
Rome,  November 15, 2015

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbSmSMN6WmI
Angelus Domini 2015.11.15

[grace-land]

http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2015/11/15/pope_says_look_to_jesus_and_not_to_horoscopes_for_guidance/1187052

Pope says look to Jesus and not to horoscopes for guidance
15/11/2015 16:44

At his Angelus address on Sunday Pope Francis reflected on the readings for this penultimate Sunday of the Church’s liturgical year which speak in apocalyptic terms about the coming of God’s kingdom at the ‘end times’.

The final goal of our lives here on earth, the Pope said, is our encounter with the Risen Christ. “How many of you think about that?” he asked the crowds gathered in a sunny St Peter’s Square. The problem is not when these apocalyptic warning signs of the end of this world will occur, he said, but whether we will be ready for that encounter. Similarly, the problem is not how the end of the world will happen, but how we should behave in the meantime.
 

[grace-land]

http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2015/11/15/catholics,_lutherans_must_ask_forgiveness_and_work_together/1187062

Catholics, Lutherans must ask forgiveness and work together
15/11/2015 18:38

(Vatican Radio) Catholics and Lutherans must ask each other for forgiveness for the scandal of past divisions, as they walk together today in the service of the poor and needy. That was Pope Francis’ message on Sunday as he visited Rome’s Evangelical Lutheran Church for an evening prayer service.

After answering questions from several members of the Lutheran community, the Pope spoke of the way Jesus guides us all with love, urging us to put service of the poor at the heart of our lives and ministries.

Speaking off the cuff, Pope Francis also recalled the persecutions that Catholics and Lutherans carried out against each other in the past, saying that today we must ask for forgiveness and choose instead to serve together, just as Jesus chose to serve us. Let us ask the Lord to help us walk together, the Pope said, not focusing on what divides us, but on the need to reconcile our differences in service of those most in need.

In his written words to the Lutheran community, Pope Francis also spoke about the importance of shared prayers, joint liturgies and other ways in which Christians can worship together. He highlighted the week of prayer for Christian unity in January and the day of prayer for creation on September 1st as two moments during which Catholics and Lutherans can advance on the path of this spiritual ecumenism.
 
http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2015/11/15/catholics,_lutherans_preparing_joint_reformation_anniversary/1187072
Catholics, Lutherans preparing joint Reformation anniversary event
15/11/2015 19:49

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itRHmP8HLX0
Visit to the Lutheran Evangelical Church of Rome - 2015.11.15

[grace-land]

video at the link

http://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/2015/11/life-is-bigger-than-explanations-to.html

Sunday, November 15, 2015
"Life Is Bigger Than Explanations" – To Rome's Lutherans, Pope Talks Conscience on Communion

 
Among the handful chosen to take part in today's Q&A, Francis heard from a member of the mostly German-Swiss congregation who, speaking of her marriage to a Catholic, addressed "the hurt we've felt together due to [their] difference of faith" and asked about their ability "to finally participate together in Communion."

In an answer that's almost certain to resonate broadly across the ecumenical scene (and elsewhere, quite possibly show his hand on his intended course following last month's Synod on the Family), the pontiff – clearly wrestling with the plea – pointedly appealed less to the standard prohibition of the Eucharist for Protestant communities than to the woman's discernment in conscience.
 
All that said, as Cardinal Walter Kasper looked on between the current Ecumenism Czar Cardinal Kurt Koch and the Papal Vicar for Rome, Cardinal Agostino Vallini, below is the fullvideo of the exchange on intercommunion, and an English translation of the Pope's reply, which the congregation greeted with warm smiles and an ovation:

The question on sharing the Lord’s Supper isn’t easy for me to respond to, above all in front of a theologian like Cardinal Kasper – I’m scared!

I think of how the Lord told us when he gave us this mandatum to “do this in memory of me,” and when we share the Lord’s Supper, we recall and we imitate the same as the Lord. And there will be the Lord’s Supper in the final banquet in the new Jerusalem – it’ll be there! But that will be the last one… in the meantime, I ask myself and don’t know how to respond – what you’re asking me, I ask myself the question. To share the Lord’s banquet: is it the goal of the path or is it the viaticum [etym. “to accompany you on the journey”] for walking together? I leave that question to the theologians and those who understand.

It’s true that in a certain sense, to share means that there aren’t differences between us, that we have the same doctrine – underscoring that word, a difficult word to understand. But I ask myself: but don’t we have the same Baptism? If we have the same Baptism, shouldn’t we be walking together? And you’re a witness of a likewise profound journey, a journey of marriage: itself a journey of family and human love and of a shared faith, no? We have the same Baptism.

When you feel yourself a sinner – and I’m much more of a sinner – when your husband feels he’s sinned, you go forward to the Lord and ask forgiveness; your husband does the same and also goes to the priest and asks absolution, [thus] I’m healed and kept alive in my Baptism. When you pray together, that Baptism grows, becomes stronger. When you teach your kids who is Jesus? Why did Jesus come? What did Jesus do for us?, you’re doing the same thing, whether in the Lutheran language or the Catholic one, but it’s the same.

The question [Pope draws question mark with his finger]…. The supper? There are questions that only if one is sincere with oneself and the little theological light one has, must be responded to on one’s own. See for yourself. This is my body. This is my blood. Do it in remembrance of me – this is a viaticum that helps us to journey on.

I once had a great friendship with a bishop who went a little wrong – 48 years old, he married [then had] two children. This made for great discomfort in him – a Catholic wife, Catholic children, him a bishop. He accompanied them on Sunday, his wife and children, to Mass, and then went to worship with his community…. It was a step toward his participation in the Lord’s Supper. Then he went forward, then the Lord called him [to realize] “I’m not right.”

I can only respond to your question with a question: what can I do with my husband that the Lord’s Supper might accompany me on my path? It’s a problem that each must answer [for themselves], but a pastor-friend once told me that “We believe that the Lord is present there, he is present” – you believe that the Lord is present. And what's the difference? There are explanations, interpretations, but life is bigger than explanations and interpretations. Always refer back to your baptism – one faith, one baptism, one Lord: this Paul tells us; and then consequences come later.

I would never dare to give permission to do this, because it’s not my own competence. One baptism, one Lord, one faith. Talk to the Lord and then go forward. [Pauses] And I wouldn't dare – I don’t dare say anything more.
 

[grace-land]

http://www.news.va/en/news/pope-mass-we-dont-put-our-christian-identity-up-fo

Pope Mass: We don't put our Christian identity up for auction
2015-11-16 Vatican Radio

(Vatican Radio) The single thought, humanism that takes the place of Jesus, destroys the Christian identity. We don't put that identity card up for auction. Those were the words of Pope Francis on Monday during  Mass at the Casa Santa Marta.

Worldliness leads to the single thought and apostasy

The first reading of the day from the first Book of the Maccabees, tells of "a root of evil" that arose in those days: the Hellenistic King Antiochus Epiphanes imposes pagan customs in Israel, to the " chosen people ", that is, the" Church of that time. " Pope Francis commented that, "the image of the root is under the ground." The "phenomenology of the root" is this: "What is not seen does not seem to do any harm, but then it grows and shows its true nature." "It was a rational root" that pushed some Israelites to ally with neighbouring nations to be protected: "Why so many differences? Because since we went our own way many evils have come upon us. We go to them, we are equal. " The Pope explained this reading with three words: "Worldliness, apostasy, persecution". Worldliness in life is to do what the world does. It’s saying: "We put up for auction our identity card; we are equal to everyone. " Thus, many Jews "disowned the faith and fell away from the Holy Alliance." And what "seemed so rational- 'we are like everyone else, we are normal' - became their destruction":
 

[grace-land]

http://www.news.va/en/news/ratzinger-prize-2015-nabil-el-khoury-and-fr-mario

Ratzinger Prize 2015: Nabil el-Khoury and Fr. Mario de Franca Miranda

Vatican City, 16 November 2015 (VIS) – At midday today in the Holy See Press Office, a press conference was held to present the “Ratzinger Prize”, instituted by the “Vatican Foundation: Joseph Ratzinger-Benedict XVI”, to be awarded on 21 November to Professor Nabil el-Khoury, Lebanon, and Fr. Mario de Franca Miranda, S.J., Brazil. The speakers at the conference were Archbishop Luis Francisco Ladaria Ferrer, S.J., member of the Foundation's Scientific Committee, Msgr. Giuseppe Scotti, president of the Foundation, and Professor Pietro Luca Azzaro, executive secretary.

Nabil el-Khoury is professor of philosophy and comparative literature at the Lebanese University in Beirut, where he has taught since 1977, and at the University of Tubingen, Germany. He is the translator into Arabic of the Opera omnia of Joseph Ratzinger-Benedict XVI. He has held courses at the Eberhard Karls University of Tubingen, the Catholic University of Eichstatt-Ingolstadt, the Johannes Gutenburg University of Mainz, and the University of Freiburg in Germany, and the University of Salzburg in Austria.
 

[grace-land]

http://www.catholicnews.com/services/englishnews/2015/pope-says-to-keep-christ-in-christmas.cfm

Keep Christ in Christmas, fight pressure to conform to world, pope says
By Carol Glatz Catholic News Service
11.16.2015 9:28 AM ET

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Keeping the "Christ" in "Christmas" is part of not giving in to pressure to conform to the "norm" and become like nonbelievers, Pope Francis said in a morning homily.

Giving in to the things of the world is like saying, "Let's put our ID up for auction. We are the same as everyone," the pope said.

Celebrating an early morning Mass Nov. 16, Pope Francis warned against the very small, hidden way worldliness takes root in a culture and then leads to apostasy and religious persecution.

In fact, "the liturgy in these final days of the liturgical year" urges people to be careful of the "poisonous roots" that lead people away from God, he said.
 

[grace-land]

http://ncronline.org/news/vatican/francis-suggests-lutherans-can-discern-taking-catholic-communion-individually

Francis suggests Lutherans might discern taking Catholic communion individually
by Joshua J. McElwee    |  Nov. 16, 2015

Rome --   Pope Francis has strikingly suggested that Lutherans married to Catholics can personally discern whether to take Communion in the Catholic church, saying it is not his role to give permission to such persons but to encourage them to listen to what God is telling them about their situations.
 
In a moving ecumenical visit to Rome’s Evangelical Lutheran church Sunday afternoon, the pontiff also called for “reconciled diversity” between the Christian denominations and said both must ask forgiveness of each other for historic persecutions.

The pope’s words about the issue of communion for Lutherans will likely attract wide attention, as Catholic teaching currently prohibits members of other Christian denominations from taking communion in the church in normal circumstances.
 
Earlier in the visit, Francis responded to a question from a young child who asked what he likes most about being pope.

“The thing that I like, sincerely, is to be a priest, to be a pastor,” responded the pontiff. “I don’t like office work. I don’t like that work. I don’t like doing protocol … but I must do it.”

“Dialogue with children -- this I like,” he continued. “You are a kid and maybe you might understand me. You [kids] are concrete; you don’t make questions that live in the air.”

“That’s why I like being a priest and … what I like most is to be with children, to speak with them, and to learn so much,” he said. “You learn so much. I like to be the pope with the style of a priest.”

“I love so much to go to prison, but not to put me in jail!” Francis later joked, speaking of how he likes to visit prisoners.

“Why speak with prisoners?” he asked. “Maybe you will understand that which I will say to you -- every time I go to a prison I ask myself: ‘Why them and not me?’ And there I feel the salvation of Jesus Christ, the love of Jesus Christ for me.”

“Because it is he who has saved me,” said the pope. “I am not less of a sinner than them, but the Lord has taken me in hand. And this, I feel it.”

“Being pope is being bishop, being priest, being pastor,” said Francis. “If a pope doesn’t act like a bishop, if a pope doesn’t act like a priest, doesn’t act like a pastor, he will be a very intelligent person, very important, will have much influence in society, but I think -- I think! -- that in his heart he is not happy.”

[grace-land]

http://www.news.va/en/news/pope-warns-against-temptations-of-leading-a-double

Pope warns against temptations of leading a double life
2015-11-17 Vatican Radio

(Vatican Radio) The importance of safeguarding our Christian identity and not living double lives: that was the theme at the heart of Pope Francis’ homily at the Santa Marta Mass on Tuesday morning. The Pope based his words on the daily readings which focus on the need for coherence between our spiritual and our temporal lives.

Pope Francis began by reflecting on the elderly Jewish Rabbi Eleazar who chose to be martyred rather than submit to the unjust laws that we read about in the second book of Macceabees. The 90 year old Eleazar refused to eat pork meat and rejected the offer of his “worldly” friends to compromise his integrity, choosing instead to die a martyr’s death.

Spiritual worldliness, Pope Francis said, tempts us towards an inconsistent lifestyle, in which we pretend to be one thing but live in another way. It may be difficult to recognize, he said, but just as woodworm slowly destroys things, so worldliness slowly leads us to lose our Christian identity.

Worldliness, he went on, leads to inconsistency between the things we say – “Oh, I’m a good Catholic, Father, I go to Mass every Sunday” – and the things we do at work, such as offering or receiving bribes for example. This is not being consistent, the Pope said, rather it leads to a double life which distances us from God and destroys our Christian identity.
 

[grace-land]

http://www.news.va/en/news/holy-door-at-st-john-lateran-being-prepared-for-ju

Holy Door at St. John Lateran being prepared for Jubilee of Mercy
2015-11-17 Vatican Radio

(Vatican Radio) The Holy Door of the Papal Basilica of St. John Lateran was on Monday freed from the brick wall which had hidden it since the year 2000.

After the opening prayer of Cardinal Agostino Vallini, the workers carefully tore down the wall, which protects the door in the years between Jubilees.

Inside, they recovered a zinc box which contained the documents certifying the closure of the door at the end of the Year 2000 Jubilee.  The box also contained 41 medals with the emblem of Pope John Paul II: A gold  one minted in 2000; 23 silver ones representing the years of the pontificate of John Paul II at the time of the last Jubilee; and 17 bronze ones , one for each year since 1983, the year of the previous Jubilee.

In addition to Cardinal Vallini, the ceremony was attended by the Cathedral Chapter of the Lateran; the Master of Liturgical Celebrations of the Pope, Monsignor Guido Marini; and the President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization, Archbishop Rino Fisichella.

The Basilica of Saint John Latern is the Cathedral of the Diocese of Rome, and the Holy Door will be officially opened by Pope Francis on 13 December, the first Sunday of the Jubilee of Mercy, which begins with the opening of the Holy Door at St. Peter’s Basilica on 8 December, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception.
 

[grace-land]

http://www.catholicnews.com/services/englishnews/2015/pope-francis-to-visit-rome-synagogue.cfm

Accepting invite from Rome's Jewish community, pope to visit synagogue
By Carol Glatz Catholic News Service
11.17.2015 9:10 AM ET

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Francis will visit Rome's synagogue and meet with the city's Jewish community Jan. 17, the Vatican announced.

Invited by Rome's Chief Rabbi Riccardo Di Segni, Pope Francis will be the third pope to visit the synagogue; St. John Paul II made his landmark visit in 1986 and Pope Benedict XVI visited in 2010.

The Jan. 17 visit falls on Italy's annual day for Christian-Jewish dialogue -- a day that has been observed for more than 20 years in Italy to reflect on relations between Catholics and Jews, and recall the Jewish roots of the Christian faith. A similar day of dialogue is also celebrated in Poland, Austria, the Netherlands and Switzerland.

Jan. 17 is also the date Rome's Jewish community commemorates "Lead Mo'ed" when a torrential rain in 1793 saved Jews from a Roman mob's attempt to attack them.
 

[grace-land]

http://www.thetablet.co.uk/news/2833/0/vatileaks-ii-author-refuses-to-appear-in-front-of-pope-s-prosecutors

Vatileaks II author refuses to appear in front of Pope's prosecutors
17 November 2015 16:30 by Christopher Lamb in Rome

One of the authors of a book based on leaked financial documents from the Vatican is refusing to appear in front of prosecutors for the Holy See while another went before them on Monday but refused to answer questions.

Gianluigi Nuzzi, author of Merchants in the Temple, received a summons to to appear before magistrates today but said he would not appear.

He and Emiliano Fittipaldi, the author of another book based on leaks have been placed under investigation for “possible participation in the crime of dissemination of news and confidential documents.”

Fittipaldi, who has written Avarice, tweeted that yesterday afternoon he went to the Vatican for questioning. But he told journalists yesterday that he refused to asnwer questions during the interrogation citing his right under Italian law to protect his sources. "I'd rather go to jail than reveal one of Avarice's sources," he said.
 

[grace-land]

http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/parolin-on-isis-threats-vatican-may-be-a-target-but-were-not-backing-down-58982/

Parolin on ISIS threats: Vatican may be a target, but we're not backing down

Vatican City, Nov 17, 2015 / 10:17 am (CNA/EWTN News).- In wake of Friday’s violent terror attacks in Paris, the Vatican’s Secretary of State said that while the small country is also on extremists’ horizons, they won’t let themselves be “paralyzed” by fear.

He also backed global military action against ISIS militants,   who claimed responsibility for Friday’s attack, by echoing Pope Francis’ declaration in August 2014 on his way back from South Korea that “stopping the unjust aggressor is legitimate” when it comes to international intervention in Iraq.

“What happened in France highlights the fact that no one can consider themselves excluded from (the threat of) terrorism,” Cardinal Pietro Parolin told French paper La Croix in an interview published Nov. 15.
 

[Sister]

http://ncronline.org/news/vatican/francis-suggests-lutherans-can-discern-taking-catholic-communion-individually

Francis suggests Lutherans might discern taking Catholic communion individually
by Joshua J. McElwee    |  Nov. 16, 2015

Rome --   Pope Francis has strikingly suggested that Lutherans married to Catholics can personally discern whether to take Communion in the Catholic church, saying it is not his role to give permission to such persons but to encourage them to listen to what God is telling them about their situations.
 
In a moving ecumenical visit to Rome’s Evangelical Lutheran church Sunday afternoon, the pontiff also called for “reconciled diversity” between the Christian denominations and said both must ask forgiveness of each other for historic persecutions.

The pope’s words about the issue of communion for Lutherans will likely attract wide attention, as Catholic teaching currently prohibits members of other Christian denominations from taking communion in the church in normal circumstances.
 
Earlier in the visit, Francis responded to a question from a young child who asked what he likes most about being pope.

“The thing that I like, sincerely, is to be a priest, to be a pastor,” responded the pontiff. “I don’t like office work. I don’t like that work. I don’t like doing protocol … but I must do it.”

“Dialogue with children -- this I like,” he continued. “You are a kid and maybe you might understand me. You [kids] are concrete; you don’t make questions that live in the air.”

“That’s why I like being a priest and … what I like most is to be with children, to speak with them, and to learn so much,” he said. “You learn so much. I like to be the pope with the style of a priest.”

“I love so much to go to prison, but not to put me in jail!” Francis later joked, speaking of how he likes to visit prisoners.

“Why speak with prisoners?” he asked. “Maybe you will understand that which I will say to you -- every time I go to a prison I ask myself: ‘Why them and not me?’ And there I feel the salvation of Jesus Christ, the love of Jesus Christ for me.”

“Because it is he who has saved me,” said the pope. “I am not less of a sinner than them, but the Lord has taken me in hand. And this, I feel it.”

“Being pope is being bishop, being priest, being pastor,” said Francis. “If a pope doesn’t act like a bishop, if a pope doesn’t act like a priest, doesn’t act like a pastor, he will be a very intelligent person, very important, will have much influence in society, but I think -- I think! -- that in his heart he is not happy.”

grace-land, I find the Pope's thoughts on communion wonderful.  This is one area where I have disagreed.  Communion is between the Lord and the one partaking and I have never felt I could or should challenge the worthiness.

 

[grace-land]

Sister!   

I'm looking forward to seeing what happens in 2017 between the Catholic Church and the Lutheran Church.  It might lead to meaningful dialogues with other denominations, too.   

http://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/ecumenical-and-interreligious/ecumenical/lutheran/declaration-on-the-way.cfm

Declaration on the Way

Declaration on the Way: Church, Ministry and Eucharist

What is this Declaration on the Way?

This is a unique ecumenical text that draws on 50 years of Lutheran-Catholic dialogue in preparation for the 500th Reformation anniversary coming in 2017. Major sources are dialogues at the global level. But, as happened in the formation of the 1999 Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification, there's mutual reinforcement between global and more local conversations, including those in the U.S.

What does the Declaration say?

The heart of the Declaration is the Statement of Agreements. On church, ministry and Eucharist, the Declaration draws together a litany of 32 consensus statements, where Catholics and Lutherans already have said there are not church-dividing differences between them. An elaboration of these agreements grounds them in the dialogues' work. Finally, a more tentative section identifies some "remaining differences" – not intending to be comprehensive but suggesting some ways forward.

What does the Declaration hope to do?

By demonstrating how far Lutherans and Catholics have come together on three crucial topics, the Declaration indicates much ground that need not be retraced again, and it offers these Agreements to the churches to be received into their common life.  In this way it helps inspire continuing work toward the visible Christian unity, which is Christ's prayer.

Where does the Declaration stand now for our churches?

In October 2015 the statement of Agreements was unanimously affirmed by the ELCA

Conference of Bishops, which requested the Church Council also accept them and forward the Declaration to the 2016 ELCA Churchwide Assembly for reception. The text has been shared with The Lutheran World Federation.

Also in October, the 32 Agreements were unanimously affirmed by the Committee on Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which commended the Declaration on the Way to Cardinal Kurt Koch, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, for further reflection and action.

Read the Declaration

An electronic version of Declaration on the Way is available for download. Find the Executive Summary for Declaration on the Way below.
 

[grace-land]

http://www.news.va/en/news/pope-francis-greets-solidarity-trade-union-at-gene

Pope Francis greets Solidarity Trade Union at general audience
2015-11-18 Vatican Radio

(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Wednesday greeted members of Poland’s Independent Self-governing Trade Union Solidarność ("Solidarity"), praising it for its 35-year commitment to the world of labour – “both physical and intellectual” – as well as it work for the protection of the fundamental rights of the person and society.

Founded in 1980, it was the first non-Communist trade union in the countries belonging to the Soviet-dominated Warsaw Pact. The activities of Solidarność helped lead to the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989.

“Be faithful to this commitment, so that political or economic interests do not prevail over the values which constitute the essence of human solidarity,” Pope Francis told them while greeting pilgrims from Poland during his general audience.
 

[grace-land]

http://www.news.va/en/news/pope-francis-audience-appeals-for-children-religio

Pope Francis: audience appeals for children, religious
2015-11-18 Vatican Radio

(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis made a pair of appeals on Wednesday at his General Audience: one for the World Day of the Rights of the Child, to be marked this coming Friday, November 20th; the other, for the upcoming Feast of the Presentation of Our Lady, November 21st, on which the Church offers special thanks for all the men and women, who have answered the Lord’s call to serve him in monastic, cloistered, and contemplative life.

Speaking of the UN-sponsored World Day for the Rights of the Child, sometimes styled Universal Children’s Day, Pope Francis said, “It is everyone’s duty to protect children,” especially from abuse in all its forms, particularly the shackles of slavery and the brutality of forced military service. “I hope the international community shall be vigilant over the living conditions of children, especially where they are exposed to recruitment by armed groups; I also hope the international community will help families ensure every child the right to schooling and a wholesome upbringing.”
 

[grace-land]

http://www.news.va/en/news/pope-francis-at-audience-door-to-gods-mercy-never

Pope Francis at Audience: Door to God's Mercy never closed
2015-11-18 Vatican Radio

(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis held his weekly General Audience on Wednesday, during which he focused his catechetical reflections on the upcoming Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy, which opens on December 8th, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception.

In an impassioned address to the thousands of faithful pilgrims and tourists on hand, in which he departed frequently from his prepared text to emphasize his points, Pope Francis said, “If the door of God’s mercy is always open, even so must be the doors of our churches, the love of our communities, our parishes, our institutions, our dioceses, for when they are, we can all go out to bring this mercy of God [to those who most need it]. The Jubilee Year recalls the great door of God’s mercy, but also the small doors of our churches – open to let the Lord in – or to let the Lord out, who is often the prisoner of our structures, our selfishness, and of so many things.”
 
http://www.zenit.org/en/articles/general-audience-on-the-door-of-mercy
GENERAL AUDIENCE: On the Door of Mercy
Rome,  November 18, 2015

[grace-land]

http://www.news.va/en/news/holy-door-at-st-peters-basilica-unveiled-for-jubil

Holy Door at St. Peter's Basilica unveiled for Jubilee of Mercy
2015-11-18 Vatican Radio

(Vatican Radio)  The Holy Door at St. Peter’s Basilica on Tuesday evening was freed of the brick wall which has hidden it since the Holy Year of 2000.

The Recognitio ceremony took place on Tuesday evening and was led by the Basilica’s Cardinal Archpriest Angelo Comastri.

After a procession and short prayer service led by Cardinal Comastri, workers began to carefully remove the wall, extracting a small, metal box which conserved mementos from the Great Jubilee of the year 2000.

The zinc box contained several documents certifying the closure of the Holy Door at the end of the last Holy Year. Also included were the keys which will allow Pope Francis to open the Holy Door on December 8th of this year, as well as the parchment deed, some bricks, and several commemorative medals.
 

[grace-land]

http://www.news.va/en/news/pope-francis-the-lord-weeps-for-the-sins-of-a-worl

Pope Francis: the Lord weeps for the sins of a world at war
2015-11-19 Vatican Radio

(Vatican Radio) “The whole world is at war,” and the rejection of the “path of peace” means that God Himself, that Jesus Himself, weeps. This was the message of Pope Francis to the faithful following the readings of the day at Mass on Thursday morning in the Casa Santa Marta.

“Jesus wept.” These were the words with which the Holy Father’s remarks following the readings of the day began on Thursday in the chapel of the Santa Marta residence in the Vatican, echoing the words of St. Luke the Evangelist, from whose Gospel the Gospel reading was taken.

A world festively bedecked

Jesus approaches Jerusalem, and seeing the city on a hill from a distance, weeps, and says, “If this day you only knew what makes for peace–but now it is hidden from your eyes.” Pope Francis repeated the words of Our Lord to the Holy City, and then added:

“Today Jesus weeps as well: because we have chosen the way of war, the way of hatred, the way of enmities. We are close to Christmas: there will be lights, there will be parties, bright trees, even Nativity scenes – all decked out – while the world continues to wage war. The world has not understood the way of peace.”