Pope Francis

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Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon Region, Vatican, Oct. 6-27, 2019

https://www.vaticannews.va/en/vatican-city/news/2019-10/amazon-synod-briefing-education-rights-of-nature.html
Amazon Synod Briefing: Education and the rights of Nature
17 October 2019, 16:45

Synod participants continue their discussions in small working groups on Thursday morning, and a panel of experts share their experiences during a briefing at the Holy See Press Office.
By Vatican News

Those experiences all came directly from the Amazon Region thanks to the four guests on the panel: they included an indigenous educator from Guyana, an expert in indigenous spirituality, and a specialist in indigenous rights, both from Brazil.

Ms Leah Rose Casimero

Ms Leah Rose Casimero coordinates a bilingual education programme for Wapichan children in Guyana. In her presentation, she spoke of how education systems have been “imposed” on her people “along with everything else”. The time has come, she said, “to take our future into our own hands”.

This implies “creating something better for our children” in terms of culture, traditional knowledge, and language, she said. In her educational model, language is not taught as a subject, but as the medium itself.

Ms Casimero is herself Wapichan and said indigenous people are not often listened to. This is not the case in the Synod, however, where she feels people respect one another, speaking and listening “as partners”.

Ms Patricia Gualinga

Ms Patricia Gualinga is an indigenous leader of the Kichwa community in Sarayaku, Ecuador. In her intervention she called for an “institutional commitment” to save the Amazon. Confirming it is one of the most important biomes on the planet, she said this kind of commitment would be “for the benefit of all humanity”.

The Church is present in the Amazon Region, said Ms Gualinga, but needs to be even closer to the indigenous people “who are in the forefront” and who risk being “persecuted and killed”. Nature, she concluded, is our common home.

Dr Felicio de Araujo Pontes Junior

Dr Felicio de Araujo Pontes Junior is a specialist in indigenous rights who works in Brazil. He described how he provides legal protection to indigenous people living in the forests, and along the rivers of the Amazon, when they come into conflict with “development models that are imposed on the region”.

Fr Justino Sarmento Rezende, S.D.B.

Fr Justino Sarmento Rezende has been a Salesian priest for 25 years, and is an expert in indigenous and inculturated pastoral spirituality in Brazil. His presentation focused on creating an Amazonian Church with “a new face”. He spoke of “giving value to tradition and cultures”, and said he dreams of developing “new ways of evangelizing”. Fr Rezende concluded by inviting journalists present in the Vatican Press Office to “Come to the Amazon and see for yourselves!”.

Archbishop Roque Paloschi

Archbishop Roque Paloschi of Porto Velho in Brazil said his intervention at the Synod had dealt with the issue of “indigenous people living in voluntary isolation”. He quoted Pope Francis’ Encyclical, Laudato sì, when it addresses the dangers of allowing cultures to disappear, and repeated the need to “protect our vulnerable brothers and sisters” in the Amazon Region.
 

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Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon Region, Vatican, Oct. 6-27, 2019

Video, with English translation, at the link
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/key-amazon-synod-organization-accepting-funds-from-american-multi-billion-dollar-pro-abortion-charity
Oct 17, 2019 - 11:26 am EST
Key group behind Amazon Synod accepting funds from large U.S. pro-abortion charity
Diane Montagna

ROME, October 17, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) — A co-founding organization of REPAM, the ecclesial network responsible for the planning and execution of the Amazon Synod being held at the Vatican, has received over $2 million dollars from an American multi-billion-dollar, pro-abortion and pro-gender theory foundation, it emerged at today’s synod press briefing.

At the Oct. 17 presser, Edward Pentin of the National Catholic Register brought to the attention of Archbishop Roque Paloschi, of Porto Velho, Brazil, the findings of Brazilian journalist Bernardo Küster who has discovered that the CIMI (the Missionary Council of Indigenous Peoples) has “received significant funding from the Ford Foundation.” Archbishop Paloschi is president of the organization.

“It’s well known, especially in the United States, that the Ford Foundation is an overtly pro-abortion organization that also advocates gender ideology — both of which the Church strongly opposes,” the Vatican journalist said. 

Holding up evidence in the Vatican press hall of grants CIMI received from the foundation, Pentin continued: “Looking at the Ford Foundation grants database, it shows that from 2010 to 2015, the CIMI received close to a million dollars from the Ford Foundation.”
 
“CIMI’s local branch — the Indigenous Council of Roraima — has received $1.2m from 2006 until last year,” he added.

“Could you tell us, therefore, why your organization, which is also part of the Brazilian bishops’ conference, is accepting funding from such an organization? And is any of that funding being used to fund REPAM and therefore this Synod?,” Pentin asked the archsbishop.

In his response, Archbishop Paloschi did not deny receiving funding from the Ford Foundation, but instead acknowledged that “the figures are on the internet.”
 
http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/ford-foundation
Oct. 17, 2019
Pro-Abortion Ford Foundation Major Funder of Key Synod Organizations
The Register has learned that organizations belonging to REPAM, which has held the primary role in organizing the synod’s proceedings, have received millions of dollars in grants from the U.S. foundation.
Edward Pentin

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https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2019-10/pope-francis-amazon-exhibition-inauguration-vatican-museums.html

Pope: beauty and art foster brotherhood, openness
18 October 2019, 17:09

Pope Francis inaugurating the Ethnological Museum at the Vatican Museums on October 18, 2019. 
Pope Francis on Friday inaugurated the “Anima Mundi” Ethnological Museum of the Vatican Museums.
By Robin Gomes

“Beauty unites us. It invites us to live human brotherhood,  countering the culture of resentment, racism and nationalism which is always lurking.”  Pope Francis made the point Friday evening while inaugurating the “Anima Mundi” Ethnological Museum and the Amazonia Exhibition at the Vatican Museums.

“May this Ethnological Museum preserve its specific identity over time and remind everyone of the value of harmony and peace between peoples and nations,” he wished, hoping that its art collection will “make the voice of God resound in those who visit this collection”.

The inauguration of the museum and the exhibition were timed for the October 6-27 Synod for the Pan-Amazon Region, currently taking place in the Vatican.

Home for all

Commenting on the words “Anima Mundi”, the Latin for “The Soul of the World”, the Pope said the Vatican Museums are called to be a living "house", with doors open to the peoples of the whole world, where everyone feels represented and where the gaze of the Church leaves no one out.

The Pope said that those who enter the “Anima Mundi” Ethnological Museum should feel there is room for them, their people, tradition and culture.  The European, the Indian, the Chinese, the native of the Amazonian or Congolese forest, of Alaska, of the Australian deserts or of the islands of the Pacific, he said, are all represented in the shadow of the dome of St Peter's, close to the heart of the Church and the Pope. This is because art is not something uprooted but is born from the heart of peoples. It is a message from the heart of peoples to the heart of peoples.
 

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Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon Region, Vatican, Oct. 6-27, 2019

https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2019-10/synod-for-the-amazon-pope-meets-with-group-of-indigenous-people.html
Synod for the Amazon: Pope meets with group of indigenous people
18 October 2019, 08:07

Pope meets with group of indigenous people at the Synod  (AFP or licensors)
Pope Francis meets with a group of indigenous people participating in the Synod for the Pan-Amazon Region and confirms the need to inculturate the Gospel.
By Vatican News

On Thursday afternoon around 3.30pm, Pope Francis met with about 40 indigenous people, some of them participants at the Synod for the Amazon, others engaged in parallel cultural activities currently underway in Rome. The group was accompanied by Brazilian Cardinal Claudio Hummes, and Archbishop Roque Paloschi of Porto Velho, Brazil.

According to a statement by the Director of the Holy See Press Office, Matteo Bruni, the meeting opened with two brief speeches, read by a woman and a man, representing the indigenous people. “They expressed their gratitude to the Holy Father for convoking the Synod, and asked for help in implementing their desire to ensure a peaceful and happy life for their peoples, caring for their land, and protecting its waters, for their descendants to enjoy”.
 

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Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon Region, Vatican, Oct. 6-27, 2019

https://www.vaticannews.va/en/vatican-city/news/2019-10/amazonian-synod-reports-of-the-small-groups-presented.html
Amazon Synod: reports of small working groups
18 October 2019, 17:02

Synod Hall
The 13th General Congregation took place on Thursday afternoon, October 17, and was devoted to the presentation of reports prepared in the small working groups. 177 Synod Fathers were present, as well as Pope Francis. The contributions, submitted to the General Secretariat of the Synod, do not constitute an official document of the Synod. Rather, they are a summary of the discussions that took place among the Synod participants.
Vatican News

The Synod is a precious gift of the Spirit for the Amazon and for the whole Church, both from the theological and pastoral point of view, and for the inescapable task of caring for our common home. It is a Kairos, a time of grace, a favourable opportunity for the Church to reconcile with the Amazon. This is the common thread that unites the twelve reports of the small working groups that was presented in the Synod Hall on Thursday afternoon.

A universal Synod

All the publicly read texts express the hope that in the Amazon a new synodal path will develop and that from the assembly of bishops in the Vatican a new start will be made with an ardent missionary passion typical of a true outward looking Church. The hope is that the Amazonian "good life" will meet with the experience of the Beatitudes: in fact, in the light of the Word of God, it reaches its full realization. There are many and varied concrete proposals from the various groups that need clarification: the current one is not only a regional Synod, but universal, what happens in the Amazon affects the whole world.
 

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Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon Region, Vatican, Oct. 6-27, 2019

Original texts of the synod ‘small circle’ reports from the four language groups--in original languages

https://zenit.org/articles/synod-on-the-amazon-2019-italian-relatio-texts-group-a-b/
Synod on the Amazon 2019: Italian Relatio Texts: Group A & B 
In Original Language
October 18, 2019 15:37

Here are the original texts of the synod ‘small circle’ reports from the Italian-speaking groups A and B. Thursday afternoon, during the course of 13th General Congregation on the Synod on the Amazon, the Reports of the 12 Minor Circles were presented. These ‘Minor Circles’ met in recent days to reflect in the light of the contributions that emerged during the debate held in the previous General Congregations. Translations will be provided as soon as possible: 

https://zenit.org/articles/synod-on-the-amazon-2019-portuguese-relatio-texts-groups-a-b-c-d/
Synod on the Amazon 2019: Portuguese Relatio Texts: Groups A, B, C & D 
In Original Language
October 18, 2019 15:48

Here are the original texts of the synod ‘small circle’ reports from the Portuguese-speaking groups A, B, C and D. Thursday afternoon, during the course of 13th General Congregation on the Synod on the Amazon, the Reports of the 12 Minor Circles were presented. These ‘Minor Circles’ met in recent days to reflect in the light of the contributions that emerged during the debate held in the previous General Congregations. Translations will be provided as soon as possible: 

https://zenit.org/articles/synod-on-the-amazon-2019-relatio-text-of-english-french-group/
Synod on the Amazon 2019: Relatio Text of English/French Group 
In Original Language of Spanish
October 18, 2019 15:43 

Here is the original text of the synod ‘small circle’ report from the English & French-speaking group. Thursday afternoon, during the course of 13th General Congregation on the Synod on the Amazon, the Reports of the 12 Minor Circles were presented. These ‘Minor Circles’ met in recent days to reflect in the light of the contributions that emerged during the debate held in the previous General Congregations. ZENIT’s Deborah Lubov asked during today’s press conference why it had been written in Spanish when all the other groups prepared their texts in their own languages, but Fr. Giacomo Costa, S.J., explained that they had the resources to prepare it in Spanish within their group, and therefore avoided that their text would have to be translated, so that the other Spanish and Portuguese groups could completely understand it.

A translation will be provided as soon as possible: 

https://zenit.org/articles/synod-on-the-amazon-2019-spanish-relatio-texts-groups-a-b-c-d-e/
Synod on the Amazon 2019: Spanish Relatio Texts: Groups A, B, C, D & E 
In Original Language
October 18, 2019 15:54

Here are the original texts of the synod ‘small circle’ reports from the Spanish-speaking groups A, B, C, D & E. Thursday afternoon, during the course of 13th General Congregation on the Synod on the Amazon, the Reports of the 12 Minor Circles were presented. These ‘Minor Circles’ met in recent days to reflect in the light of the contributions that emerged during the debate held in the previous General Congregations. Translations will be provided as soon as possible: 

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Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon Region, Vatican, Oct. 6-27, 2019

https://www.vaticannews.va/en/vatican-city/news/2019-10/amazon-synod-press-conference-ecological-conversion.html
Amazon Synod Press Conference: Ecological conversion and God’s dream
18 October 2019, 17:36

The Holy Press Office hosts a press conference on Friday during which four Synod participants share some of the issues that have emerged in the small working groups.
By Vatican News

Synod participants have been examining a variety of issues in their so-called “circuli minores”. They shared the fruit of their discussions at Friday’s press conference. But, as Jesuit Fr Giacomo Costa, Secretary of the Synod Information Commission, confirmed, the results of these discussions do not yet represent “the perspective of the Synod”. At this stage, he said, participants are still expressing their “personal thoughts and observations”, while the Synod continues to “consider everyone’s contribution”.

Renewing consecrated life

Sr Daniela Adriana Cannavina is Secretary General of CLAR in Colombia. She opened the press conference summarizing some of the proposals that emerged in her small working group. These include the need to renew and strengthen consecrated life in the Amazon Region. Religious men and women working in the region bring with them the “voice of experience with the indigenous people”, she said.

A Synod focusing on the Amazon has repercussions for the Universal Church, continued Sr Daniela. Which is why we need to “go beyond our fears and concerns, and make changes”, responding to the realities of the Amazon Region as “mystics and prophets”, she said.
 

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Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon Region, Vatican, Oct. 6-27, 2019

https://cruxnow.com/amazon-synod/2019/10/18/amazon-synod-reports-support-dissent-on-married-priests-and-women-deacons/
Amazon synod reports support, dissent on married priests and women deacons
Crux Staff  Oct 18, 2019

ROME - In any synod of bishops, the first cycle of results from the small working groups is generally the best bellwether of real sentiment inside the meeting. Judging from Friday’s reports, the Oct. 6-27 Synod of Bishops on the Amazon, there’s overwhelming consensus on most points, such as Pope Francis’s call for an “integral ecology.”

Yet even within that climate of basic harmony, there were also suggestions of at least some disagreement on two hot-button questions: Married priests and women deacons.

Some members of the synod, the first Italian working group said, “ask that in Christian communities with a consolidated path of faith, mature, respected and known persons, preferably indigenous, whether celibate or with a stable and consolidated family, be ordained, in order to ensure the availability of the sacraments that guarantee and sustain the Christian life.”

That request, it said, arose from hearing the voices of people consulted during the preparatory phase of the synod who asked “to be able to celebrate the holy Eucharist frequently and, possibly, stably, as an irrevocable right of the lay faithful.”

The group is led by Father Dario Bossi, a Comboni missionary in Brazil.

The Spanish-language groups almost unanimously voiced openness to the ordination of the viri probati and many also backed the idea of the women’s diaconate, praising the prominent role women play in indigenous communities in the Amazon.
 

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Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon Region, Vatican, Oct. 6-27, 2019

https://cruxnow.com/amazon-synod/2019/10/19/womens-role-in-amazon-church-does-not-depend-on-diaconate-sisters-say/
Women’s role in Amazon church does not depend on diaconate, sisters say
Barbara Fraser  Oct 19, 2019
CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE

(Credit: Barbara J. Fraser/CNS.)
ROME - Whether or not the Synod of Bishops for the Amazon helps open the door to ordaining women deacons, women will continue to play a fundamental role in ministry in the church in the region, religious sisters said.

The Catholic Church does not need “to create ministries (for women), because women are already present” as ministers in remote communities, Sister Mary Agnes Mwangi, a Consolata Missionary who works in Brazil, told journalists Oct. 18.

Mwangi is one of 10 sisters elected by the International Union of Superiors General to be observers at the synod. Unlike the religious men elected by their superiors general, the women are not voting members of the synod.

Besides guiding their families, women build solidarity in their communities and are involved in education, both informally and as schoolteachers, Mwangi said. They also serve as catechists, lead liturgies of the Word, prepare people to receive the sacraments and “do a lot of listening,” she said.

Thirty-two religious and laywomen are participating in the synod, said Capuchin Sister Daniela Adriana Cannavina, secretary-general of the Latin American and Caribbean Confederation of Religious.
 

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Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon Region, Vatican, Oct. 6-27, 2019

https://www.vaticannews.va/en/vatican-city/news/2019-10/synod-amazonia-schonborn-presence-pastors-pentecostals-women.html
Amazon Synod: Cardinal Schönborn on “viri probati” and permanent deacons
19 October 2019, 11:00

Cardinal Cardinal Christoph Schönborn of Vienna
Synod Father Cardinal Christoph Schönborn of Vienna is part of the group responsible for drafting the final document of the Special Assembly on the Amazon. He speaks to Vatican Radio about his intervention at the Synod and about his ideas regarding new forms of ministry.
By Linda Bordoni

Pope Francis this week made four personal nominations of members to the group responsible for drafting the final document of the Amazon synod. Amongst them is Cardinal Christoph Schönborn of Vienna.

The drafting committee is now meeting to assemble into a document the recommendations of the small working groups from their discussions during the synod.

The final document of the synod will then be voted on, on the second-to-last day of the gathering. It will then be given to Pope Francis for him to use or not use as he desires in the writing of a post-synodal exhortation.

Linda Bordoni asked the Cardinal about the challenges of bringing together such a great variety of voices into a cohesive narrative.
 

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Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon Region, Vatican, Oct. 6-27, 2019

https://cruxnow.com/amazon-synod/2019/10/19/synods-most-debated-figure-was-back-at-saturdays-way-of-the-cross/
Synod’s most debated figure was back at Saturday’s “Way of the Cross”
Inés San Martín  Oct 19, 2019

(Credit: Crux/Ines San Martin.)
ROME - Even before the Oct. 6-27 Synod of Bishops on the Amazon began, perhaps its single most controversial personality has been an inanimate object - a small wooden carving of a naked pregnant woman, described by a Vatican spokesman as a simple representation of life, but reviled by traditionalist critics as a graven pagan image.

At the beginning of the contretemps, some defenders of the symbolism tried to describe the image as an indigenous depiction of the Virgin Mary, but that hypothesis likewise was shot down by Vatican spokesmen.

The now-famous image was back on Saturday during a Via Crucis procession, or “Way of the Cross,” joined by several bishops taking part in the synod as well as members of indigenous communities in the Amazon, to meditate on the suffering of the peoples who live in the rainforest and of the earth itself.

Saturday’s prayer, focused on the passion and death of Jesus Christ, began with those in attendance in a circle with a crucifix held high. At the center, a canoe with the pregnant woman was surrounded by pictures of the martyrs of the Amazon, including missionary bishops, priests, religious and laity who died protecting the indigenous and the rainforest.
 

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Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon Region, Vatican, Oct. 6-27, 2019

https://cruxnow.com/amazon-synod/2019/10/19/synod-bishops-to-renew-vatican-iis-pact-of-the-catacombs-for-the-poor/
Synod bishops to renew Vatican II’s “Pact of the Catacombs” for the poor
Inés San Martín  Oct 19, 2019

(Credit: AP Photo/Andrew Medichini.)
ROME - Some 54 years ago, 42 bishops participating in the Second Vatican Council signed what’s known as the “Pact of the Catacombs,” committing to living simply like the poorest of their parishioners.

Early Sunday morning in Rome, some of the 180 bishops participating in the Oct. 6-27 Synod of Bishops on the Amazon will make a pilgrimage to the Catacombs of Domitilla on the outskirts of Rome to renew that promise.

The information was first published by the Brazilian news site Dom, and Crux confirmed it Saturday with Peruvian Cardinal Pedro Barreto Jimenez, who said the gesture is not about “renewing the Pact of the Catacombs, but about renewing the path of the Church with Jesus, with Mary, in poverty, in humility, as he lived it.”

“The Pact of the Catacombs is to go back to the joy of the Gospel to which Pope Francis calls,” Barreto said Saturday. “We’re going to renew that same spirit of the Gospel” embraced by the original group of bishops, led by Archbishop Helder Cámara of Olidna and Recife in Brazil.

This time, the driving force behind the catacombs declaration is also a prelate from Brazil, though of Austrian origins: retired Bishop Erwin Kräutler of Xingu, Brazil, which is located in the Amazon. Sunday’s Mass will be celebrated by Brazilian Cardinal Claudio Hummes, the relator, or chairman, of the Synod of Bishops on the Amazon.

The original pact influenced Liberation Theology in Latin America, as it was explicitly critical of capitalism and amounted to a promise from the bishops to give all their time and means to pastoral service.
 

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https://cruxnow.com/church-in-the-usa/2019/10/18/majority-of-hispanics-in-u-s-no-longer-catholic-new-study-finds/

Majority of Hispanics in U.S. no longer Catholic, new study finds
Charles Collins  Oct 18, 2019

A new study shows that the percentage of Catholics in the United States has fallen from nearly one-in-four to one-in-five, with the added news that Hispanics in America are no longer majority-Catholic.

The Pew Research Center survey released Oct. 17 noted that in general, religious practice in the country has declined at a “rapid pace.”

Based on telephone surveys conducted in 2018-2019, Pew found that 65 percent of Americans now call themselves Christian, down 12 percentage points from a decade ago; in addition, those having no religion - describing themselves as atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular” - are now 26 percent of the population, up from 17 percent a decade ago.

Self-described Protestants went from 77 to 65 percent in that time period; Catholics went from 23 percent to 20 percent

Although Catholic leaders might feel some comfort knowing they aren’t experiencing the same sort of decline as Protestants, they must be worried by the large number of Hispanic Catholics leaving the Church.
 
https://www.pewforum.org/2019/10/17/in-u-s-decline-of-christianity-continues-at-rapid-pace/
October 17, 2019
In U.S., Decline of Christianity Continues at Rapid Pace
An update on America's changing religious landscape

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https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2019-10/pope-at-world-mission-day-mass-life-as-mission-and-as-gift.html

Video, with English commentary, at the link
Pope at World Mission Day Mass: Life as mission and as gift
20 October 2019, 11:21

Pope Francis during the Mass for World Mission Sunday
Pope Francis celebrates Mass on World Mission Sunday. In his homily, he challenges us to reflect on the meaning of our mission.
By Vatican News

In 1926, Pope Pius XI decided the Church needed a special day on which to pray for missionaries, and to renew her commitment to the missions. Today, World Mission Day is celebrated on the penultimate Sunday in October, all around the globe, as a sign of support and solidarity for missions and missionaries everywhere.

A noun, a verb and an adjective

In his homily during Mass for World Mission Day, Pope Francis chose to reflect on three words taken from this Sunday’s readings: “a noun, a verb and an adjective”. The noun he selected is “the mountain”. It appears in the first reading from Isaiah, and again in the Gospel, “when Jesus, after His resurrection, tells His disciples to meet Him on the mount of Galilee”. It seems, said Pope Francis, “that the mountain is God’s favourite place for encountering humanity”.

The Pope recalled other mountains in the Scriptures: Mount Sinai and Mount Carmel, Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, His transfiguration on Mount Tabor, His crucifixion on Mount Calvary, and His ascension into heaven from the Mount of Olives. “The mountain is also the place where Jesus spent several hours in prayer to unite heaven and earth”, said the Pope, “and to unite us, His brothers and sisters, with the Father”.
 
https://zenit.org/articles/pope-on-world-missions-day-go-and-make-disciples-of-all-nations/
Pope on World Mission Day: ‘Go and make disciples of all nations’ 
October 20, 2019 15:04•Jim Fair

YouTube video at the link below--
Pope Francis-Holy Mass to mark the World Mission Day 2019-10-20
https://www.youtube.com/user/vatican

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https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2019-10/pope-at-angelus-hear-the-call-to-mission-towards-all-peoples.html

Pope at Angelus: Every baptized person cooperates in the proclamation of the Word
20 October 2019, 12:32

Pope Francis reflects on the call to mission at Sunday's Angelus  (Vatican Media)
On World Mission Day, Pope Francis renews the call for a missionary commitment on the part of the whole Church.
By Christopher Wells

World Mission Day “is a good opportunity for every baptized person to become more aware of the need to cooperate in proclaiming the Kingdom of God through a renewed commitment”, Pope Francis said at the Angelus on Sunday.

The Holy Father reflected on a passage from the second Reading in the Mass of the Day: “Preach the Word, be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke, and encourage – with great patience and careful instruction”, taken from St Paul’s Second Letter to St Timothy. “The tone is heartfelt,” Pope Francis said. “Timothy must feel responsible for the proclamation of the Word”.
 
https://zenit.org/articles/angelus-address-on-world-mission-day/
Angelus Address: On World Mission Day 
October 20, 2019 15:18•Virginia Forrester

Video, with English commentary, at the link below--
Pope's Angelus of 20 October 2019
https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope-francis/angelus/2019-10/pope-s-angelus-of-20-october-2019.html
or
Pope Francis - Angelus prayer 2019-10-20
https://www.youtube.com/user/vatican

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https://cruxnow.com/vatican/2019/10/20/leaked-documents-detail-200-million-vatican-deal-for-swanky-london-property/

Leaked documents detail $200 million Vatican deal for swanky London property
John L. Allen Jr.  Oct 20, 2019

ROME - Against the backdrop of a Synod of Bishops on the Amazon dedicated to the defense of some of the world’s most impoverished people, the Vatican finds itself rocked by yet another financial scandal after publication Sunday of seamy details about a $200 million purchase of a swanky 183,000-square-foot apartment building in the Chelsea district of London.

“Hundreds of millions of Euro destined for the least and the poor are still administered opaquely and with no transparency, as if the Vatican were a merchant bank in an offshore country,” the report claims.

For Pope Francis, who came to office in 2013 on a reform mandate and who launched a sweeping reorganization of Vatican finances early in his papacy, the revelations are the latest index of how much remains to be done in terms of injecting accountability when it comes to money management.

The report in L’Espresso, a widely read Italian news magazine, was authored by journalist Emiliano Fittipaldi, who was charged by the Vatican in 2015 with illicit divulgation of confidential information amid what came to be known as the “Vatileaks II” scandal. Fittipaldi and fellow journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi were eventually absolved for lack of jurisdiction.

The L’Espresso account is based on confidential reports from Vatican investigators obtained by Fittipaldi, suggesting the possibility of yet another “Vatileaks” scandal involving the leaking of supposedly secret documentation.
 

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Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon Region, Vatican, Oct. 6-27, 2019

Photo gallery at the link
https://www.vaticannews.va/en/church/news/2019-10/a-group-of-synod-fathers-renews-the-pact-of-the-catacombs.html
A group of Synod Fathers renews the “Pact of the Catacombs”
20 October 2019, 17:04

Sinod Fathers in the Catacombs of Domitilla
Following in the footsteps of some of the Council Fathers in 1965, a group of participants in the Synod on the Amazon goes to the Catacombs of Domitilla to reaffirm the preferential option for the poor.
By Vatican News

On 16 November 1965, just a few days before the closing of the Second Vatican Council, forty-two Council Fathers celebrated Mass in the Catacombs of Domitilla, to ask God for the grace “to be faithful to the spirit of Jesus” in the service of the poor. After the celebration of the liturgy, they signed the “Catacombs’ Pact of the Poor and Servant Church”. Later, more than 500 Council Fathers added their names to the pact.

Following in the footsteps of the Council Fathers, tracing out new paths

More than 50 years later, the legacy of those Council Fathers was taken up by a group of participants in the Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon region, which is focused on the theme “New paths for the Church and for an integral ecology”. Cardinal Claudio Hummes, the General relator for the Synod, presided at Mass in the catacombs, after which the Synod Fathers present signed a new “Pact of the Catacombs for the Common Home. For a Church with an Amazonian face, poor and servant, prophetic and Samaritan”.
 
https://cruxnow.com/amazon-synod/2019/10/20/amazon-bishops-pledge-poverty-spurning-plastics-and-taking-the-bus/
Amazon bishops pledge poverty, spurning plastics and taking the bus
Inés San Martín  Oct 20, 2019

https://cruxnow.com/news-analysis/2019/10/20/vatican-iis-forgotten-apostle-of-the-poor-stages-comeback-at-amazon-synod/
Vatican II’s forgotten apostle of the poor stages comeback at Amazon synod
John L. Allen Jr.  Oct 20, 2019

[grace-land]

https://cruxnow.com/vatican/2019/10/21/controversial-amazon-statue-stolen-from-church-thrown-in-romes-tiber-river/

Controversial Amazon statue stolen from church, thrown in Rome’s Tiber River
Christopher White  Oct 21, 2019

(Credit: CNS)
ROME - A wood carving statue of a naked pregnant woman that has been at the heart of brewing controversies since before the Vatican’s major summit on the Amazon region began was stolen from a Roman Church on Monday and tossed in the Tiber River.

News of the incident, along with a video of it, was first reported by LifeSite News and Church Militant, traditionalist websites that have been frequently critical of the image.

Critics of the statue have repeatedly characterized it as a graven pagan image, while other defenders of it initially characterized it as an indigenous statue of the Virgin Mary. A Vatican spokesperson has since repeatedly said that the image is “simple representation of life.”

The nearly four-minute video first shows the statue present before the altar at the Church of Santa Maria in Traspontina and moments later shows two men carrying it toward a bridge near Castel Sant’Angelo, the mausoleum of the Roman Emperor Hadrian that has been used by popes as both a castle and fortress.

Moments later, pieces of the statue are placed on the bridge and one by one, knocked into the muddy waters below.
 
Video at the link below--
Pachamama idols thrown into the Tiber river!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoB_gjuZgf8

[grace-land]

Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon Region, Vatican, Oct. 6-27, 2019

Names of members in the small language groups...

http://magister.blogautore.espresso.repubblica.it/2019/10/18/sinodo-senza-censure-i-nomi-dei-componenti-dei-circoli-linguistici-e-l%e2%80%99intervento-%e2%80%9cfuori-le-mura%e2%80%9d-di-un-cardinale/?refresh_ce
18 ott
Sinodo senza censure. I nomi dei componenti dei circoli linguistici e l’intervento di un cardinale “fuori le mura”
 
CIRCOLO ITALIANO “A”

Marc Ouellet, cardinale prefetto della congregazione per i vescovi,
 Pietro Parolin, cardinale segretario di Stato,
 Christoph Schönborn, cardinale arcivescovo di Vienna,
 Beniamino Stella, cardinale prefetto della congregazione per il clero,
 Fernando Filoni, cardinale prefetto di “Propaganda fide”,
Angelo Bagnasco, cardinale arcivescovo di Genova,
 Giuseppe Bertello, cardinale presidente del governatorato della Città del Vaticano,
 Marcello Semeraro, vescovo di Albano e segretario del “C9”,
Paul R. Gallagher, segretario per i rapporti con gli Stati,
 Flavio Giovenale, vescovo di Cruzeiro do Sul (Brasile), moderatore,
 Marco Mellino, segretario del collegio dei cardinali,
 Dario Bossi, superiore dei missionari comboniani in Brasile, membro della REPAM, relatore,
 Antonio Spadaro, S.I., direttore de “La Civiltà Cattolica”,
Giacomo Costa, S.I., segretario della commissione per l’informazione,
 Guzmán Carriquiry, già segretario della pontificia commissione per l’America latina.
 

[grace-land]

Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon Region, Vatican, Oct. 6-27, 2019

Working Translations by Zenit of Italian groups--A and B

https://zenit.org/articles/synod-on-the-amazon-2019-italian-relatio-texts-group-a/
Synod on the Amazon 2019: Italian Relatio Texts: Group A
Working Translation by Zenit
October 21, 2019 16:07

https://zenit.org/articles/synod-on-the-amazon-2019-italian-relatio-texts-group-b/
Synod on the Amazon 2019: Italian Relatio Texts: Group B 
Working Translation by Zenit
October 21, 2019 16:20