Pope Francis

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https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope-francis/mass-casa-santa-marta/2019-10/pope-francis-mass-christ-love-not-soap-opera.html

Pope at Mass: Christ’s love is not like a soap opera
31 October 2019, 13:21

In his homily at Mass in the Casa Santa Marta on Thursday, Pope Francis reflects on God’s love for each of us in Jesus, saying tenderness is the key to understanding the love of Christ.
By Vatican News

The Holy Spirit helps us to understand “the love of Christ for us” and to prepare our hearts to “allow ourselves to be loved” by the Lord.

Pope Francis made that point during Mass on Thursday, as he reflected on the First Reading (Rm 8:31b-39).

St Paul, he said, could seem to some to be “too proud” or “too sure of himself” when he affirms that “anguish, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword” will succeed in separating us from Christ.
 

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https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2019-10/pope-view-the-other-not-as-an-enemy-but-with-intrinsic-dignity.html

Pope: View the other not as an enemy, but with intrinsic dignity
31 October 2019, 12:28

Pope Francis on Thursday meets participants of the Fifth International Course of Formation of Catholic Military Chaplains on International Humanitarian Law. He tells them to spare no effort to make sure the norms of international humanitarian law are accepted in the hearts of those entrusted to their pastoral care.

Greeting the participants of this week’s formation course - entitled, “The Loss of Personal Freedom in the Context of Armed Conflicts: The Mission of the Military Chaplain”- Pope Francis began by reiterating the need “to reject the temptation of viewing the other as merely an enemy to be destroyed, and not as a person endowed with intrinsic dignity, created by God in his image.”
 

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https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2019-10/pope-don-gnocchi-foundation-competence-compassion.html

Pope to Don Gnocchi Foundation: Combine competence and compassion
31 October 2019, 14:19

Pope Francis receives in audience members of the Don Carlo Gnocchi Foundation, comprising managers, doctors, workers, and volunteers, as well as patients and their families.
By Vatican News

The Don Carlo Gnocchi Foundation is a non-profit organization that manages 28 nursing homes, healthcare and rehabilitation centres across Italy. It was founded over 60 years ago by an Italian priest, Don Carlo Gnocchi, who died in 1956 and was declared Blessed in 2009.
 

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https://www.vaticannews.va/en/church/news/2019-10/feast-of-our-lady-of-loreto-added-to-general-calendar.html

Pope adds feast of Our Lady of Loreto to Roman Calendar
31 October 2019, 12:00

Pope Francis decrees that the feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Loreto shall be observed as an optional memorial on December 10, coinciding with the start of the Holy Year of the Lauretan Jubilee.
By Vatican News 

The Solemn Proclamation of the Lauretan Jubilee "Maria Regina et Janua Coeli" took place during Mass at the Basilica of the Holy House on Thursday, in the Italian city of Loreto.

Msgr. Krzysztof Nykiel, Regent of the Apostolic Penitentiary, celebrated the Mass at 10 AM.

Afterwards, a decree of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments was proclaimed which inscribed the celebration of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Loreto into the General Roman Calendar.

The decree notes that the Shrine of the Holy House of Loreto, venerated by generations of pilgrims and honoured by numerous Popes, “recalls the mystery of the Incarnation, leading all those who visit it to consider ‘the fullness of time’, when God sent his Son, born of a woman, as well as to meditate both on the words of the Angel announcing the Good News and on the words of the Virgin in response to the divine call”.

The Congregation has also published the liturgical texts for the memorial.
 

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Video, with English text, at the link

https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2019-10/pope-francis-scholas-occurrentes-meaning-of-death.html
Pope Francis: ‘We begin to die when we forget about death’
31 October 2019, 20:30

In a video message sent on Thursday, Pope Francis reflects on the meaning of death, saying the question is really one about life.
By Devin Watkins

Pope Francis sent a video message to participants in the 4th World Meeting of Young People, organized by Scholas Occurrentes and World ORT.

The encounter began in Mexico City on 28 October.

The end came on Thursday, coinciding with Halloween, and just ahead of the Feast of All Saints on Friday and the Feast of All Souls on Saturday, which is known in Mexico as Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead).

End versus aim

In his message (original in Spanish), the Pope took the occasion to reflect on “the end”, using a similarity in terms found in Romance languages (el final: the [temporal] end vs. el fin: the aim or end goal).
 

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https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2019-10/pope-at-lateran-university-all-called-to-build-peace.html

Pope at Lateran University: All called to build peace
31 October 2019, 18:13

Pope Francis inaugurates the exhibit “Calligraphy for Dialogue: Promoting the Culture of Peace through Culture and Art” at the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome.
By Vatican News

“We cannot remain indifferent, limiting ourselves to invoking peace”, said Pope Francis said on Thursday night. Rather, “educating for peace requires us to give relieve to those, unfortunate many [people], who are condemned to death or forced to abandon their loved ones, their homes, their countries of origin”.

He was speaking at the inauguration of a new exhibit entitled, “Calligraphy for Dialogue: Promoting the Culture of Peace through Culture and Art”, where 24 works by Saudi artist, Othman Alkhuzaiem, invite visitors to contemplate dialogue and peace through the beauty of calligraphic art.
 

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http://www.ncregister.com/blog/edward-pentin/full-english-text-of-amazon-synods-final-document

Oct. 31, 2019
Full English Text of Amazon Synod’s Final Document
An unofficial working translation of the document provided by the Vatican
Edward Pentin

Here below is a scanned copy of the text. The Vatican is expected to publish an official English translation in the coming days or weeks.
 
The voting numbers for each of the paragraphs can be found here.
 
__________________
Link to scanned copy--     
www.ncregister.com/images/uploads/Pentin-SYNODFINAL.pdf

Link to voting numbers for each paragraph--
http://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/it/bollettino/pubblico/2019/10/26/0821/01709.html

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https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2019-11/pope-francis-angelus-all-saints-holiness-gift-call.html

Pope at All Saints Angelus: ‘Holiness is both gift and call’
01 November 2019, 12:09

At the Angelus prayer on Friday, Pope Francis reflects on the Solemnity of All Saints, and reminds us that holiness is both a gift and an invitation.
By Devin Watkins

“Today's Solemnity of All Saints reminds us that we are all called to holiness.”

That was how Pope Francis summed up the feast, in his Angelus address to pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square.

He said the Saints are not some distant, unreachable human beings. But rather they trod the same difficult path of life along which we travel, with all its successes and failures.

Holiness, said the Pope, cannot be achieved through our own strength. It is “the fruit of God’s grace and our free response to it”, making it both a gift and a call.
 
https://zenit.org/articles/angelus-address-on-the-solemnity-of-all-saints/
Angelus Address: On the Solemnity of All Saints
November 01, 2019 15:39  Jim Fair

Vdeo at the link below--
Pope Francis - Angelus prayer 2019-11-01
https://www.youtube.com/user/vatican

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https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2019-11/pope-francis-catacombs-priscilla-all-souls-day.html

Pope to celebrate Mass in Roman catacombs on All Souls Day
01 November 2019, 14:27

Pope Francis is set to visit the Catacombs of Priscilla, in Rome, on Saturday, to mark the Commemoration of all the Faithful Departed with the celebration of Holy Mass.
By Devin Watkins

Large numbers of early Christian martyrs were buried in the Catacombs of Priscilla, which was known as the regina catacumbarum – the “queen of the catacombs”.

At the Angelus on Friday, Pope Francis announced plans to celebrate Mass in this ancient Roman cemetery on Saturday, the feast of All Souls.

“In these days in which there unfortunately circulate negative cultural messages regarding death and the dead, I invite you not to neglect, if possible, a visit and a prayer in a cemetery.”

He called it “an act of faith.”
 

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https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2019-11/laurentian-jubilee-a-call-to-holiness.html

Lauretan Jubilee: A call to holiness
01 November 2019, 10:42

Mass is celebrated on Friday at the Basilica of the Holy House in Loreto, Italy for the solemn proclamation of the Lauretan Jubilee. The Holy Year will begin on December 8 and end on December 10, 2020. The feast of Our Lady of Loreto will also be inscribed in the Roman Calendar on 10 December.

For a century pilots and travelers have prayed to the Virgin Mary to keep them safe while in the air. Marking this milestone anniversary of the declaration of Our Lady of Loreto as the patron saint of aviation and aviators, Pope Francis earlier this year conceded a Lauretan Jubilee for all air travelers, and for pilgrims who come to the Shrine of the Holy House.
 

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Zenith translation of final document:  Chapter Three

https://zenit.org/articles/amazon-synod-zenit-translation-of-final-document-chapter-three/
Amazon Synod: Zenit Translation of Final Document, Chapter Three
Full Document Published in Several Installment
November 01, 2019 03:25

Here is the third installment of Zenit’s English translation of the Final Document and Voting on the Final Document of the Synod of Bishops handed to the Holy Father Francis, at the end of the Special Assembly of the Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazonian Region (October 6-17, 2019) on the theme: “Amazonia: New Pathways for the Church and for An Integral Ecology”:

This installment includes the third chapter of the final synod document. Zenit will publish the remainder of the text in the following days. We will publish the official Vatican English version when it is available.
******
CHAPTER III
NEW PATHS OF CULTURAL CONVERSION

“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (Jn 1:14)
 

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https://zenit.org/articles/all-souls-pope-francis-celebrates-mass-in-catacombs-of-priscilla/

All Souls: Pope Francis Celebrates Mass in Catacombs of Priscilla
Holy Father’s First Visit to a Catacomb
November 02, 2019 19:32

Today in the afternoon, at the commemoration of all the faithful departed, the Holy Father went to the Catacombs of Priscilla, in Via Salaria, Rome, to celebrate Holy Mass.

At 4.00 pm the Eucharistic Celebration took place in the small Basilica of San Silvestro Papa. The Benedictine nuns who guarded the Catacombs of Priscilla and about a hundred of them were present.

At the end of the celebration Pope Francis, before returning to the Vatican at 5.30 pm, went down to the catacombs below for a brief visit, pausing for a few moments before the representation of the Madonna dating back to the mid-third century, and, in the cryptoporticus, in front of the Greek chapel. On his return to the Vatican, the Holy Father Francis went to the Caves of the Vatican Basilica for a moment of prayer in private, for the deceased Pontiffs.

We publish below the transcript of the homily that the Holy Father gave in his arm during the Holy Mass:

Homily of the Holy Father
 
Video at the link below--
Pope Francis – Catacombs of Priscilla - Holy Mass for all the faithful departed 2019.11.02
https://www.youtube.com/user/vatican

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https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2019-11/pope-at-angelus-the-merciful-gaze-of-jesus-leads-to-conversion.html

Pope at Angelus: The merciful gaze of Jesus leads to conversion
03 November 2019, 13:57

Pope Francis says Jesus’ merciful gaze rests upon us even before we ourselves realize our need for salvation.
By Christopher Wells

At the Angelus on Sunday, Pope Francis reflected on the Gospel account of Jesus’ meeting with Zacchaeus in Jericho.

Zacchaeus was a tax collector, and for this reason was considered a public sinner. When he heard that Jesus was coming through Jericho, he “wanted to see who Jesus was” – he didn’t expect to meet Him, Pope Francis said, “but was curious: he wanted to see this person about Whom he’d heard such wonderful things”. Because he was a short man, Zacchaeus climbed a tree to get a look at the Lord.
 
https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2019-11/pope-calls-for-prayers-for-ethiopian-christians.html
Pope prays for Christians and other victims of violence in Ethiopia
03 November 2019, 13:07

https://zenit.org/articles/angelus-address-on-jesus-meeting-with-the-sinful-tax-collector-zacchaeus/
Angelus Address: On Jesus’ Meeting with the Sinful Tax Collector Zacchaeus
November 03, 2019 14:51  Virginia Forrester

Video, with English commentary, at the link below--
Pope's Angelus of 3 November 2019
https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope-francis/angelus/2019-11/pope-s-angelus-of-3-november-2019.html
or
Pope's Angelus of 3 November 2019
https://www.youtube.com/user/vatican

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… ad limina visit of the US bishops – the national church's first report to Pope Francis...

http://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/2019/11/dialogue-is-our-method-as-popes-us-exam.html
Sunday, November 03, 2019
"Dialogue Is Our Method" – As Pope's US "Exam" Begins, The Style Is The Substance

If you're thinking the "Main Event" is over, in reality, it's just beginning....

Only now, see, will this scribe need to "bilocate."

Eighteen months in the making, the all-important ad limina visit of the US bishops – the national church's first report to Pope Francis – begins early tomorrow as the bishops of New England celebrate Mass in St Mary Major. Already, however, this edition has broken precedent: in a first, the visitors are staying at the pontiff's residence, the Domus Santa Marta behind the Vatican walls, as opposed to their traditional lodgings up the Hill at the (USCCB-run) North American College – in other words, this time they're in Peter's House, not their own.

Last conducted under Benedict XVI in 2011-12, this visit has the added facet of a historic milestone, coinciding with the bicentennial of the first Stateside ad limina, made in 1820-21 by Ambrose Marechal, the French-born Sulpician who had become third archbishop of Baltimore.
 
A cycle set to be repeated 15 times between now and mid-February (with only a brief pause for Christmas), the weeklong treks by each of the USCCB regions combine prayer at the major basilicas – above all, before the tombs of Peter and Paul, the act which gives this exercise its name – with extensive group meetings at each Curial dicastery: a total of 16 offices, but only five of them mandatory for all the visiting prelates.

On top of the required stops at the Vatican's "foreign ministry" in the Secretariat of State and the Congregations for the Doctrine of the Faith, Bishops, Clergy and Catholic Education, all the regions will have a scheduled time with the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors – a first as it was founded in 2014. Yet according to early indications, attending the session with the child-protection dicastery is only mandatory for some of the groups.

Of course, however, the highlight of each region's pilgrimage will be its audience with the Pope – an unscripted "free dialogue" with Francis after each prelate introduces himself, and one for which the pontiff has blocked out an extraordinary two and a half hours for each US group. (As Papa Bergoglio's ad limina audiences generally run about an hour shorter, the length here is ostensibly due to the need for translation.)
 
http://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/2019/05/with-us-vatican-checkup-on-tap-reports.html
Thursday, May 16, 2019
With US' Vatican "Checkup" On Tap, The Reports Come Due

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Video, with English commentary, at the link

https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2019-11/pope-at-requiem-mass-the-resurrection-aim-and-purpose-of-life.html
Pope at Requiem Mass: the Resurrection is the aim and purpose of life
04 November 2019, 13:22

Pope Francis celebrates a Requiem Mass in St Peter’s Basilica for Cardinals and Bishops who have died during the past year. In his homily, he provides three stimuli for reflecting on the Resurrection.
By Vatican News

The Pope’s homily focused on the liturgical readings for the Mass, all of which remind us “we were not born for death, but for resurrection”. He began by asking how we respond to the call “to rise again”, and then provided three points for reflection, starting with the St John’s Gospel, and Jesus’ promise that “Whoever comes to me I will never cast out”.
 
https://zenit.org/articles/holy-father-presides-over-mass-in-memory-of-deceased-cardinals-and-bishops-during-the-year/
Holy Father Presides Over Mass in Memory of Deceased Cardinals and Bishops During the Year
Full Text of Homily
November 04, 2019 16:01

YouTube video at the link below--
Pope Francis-Holy Mass for deceased Cardinals and Bishops 2019-11-04
https://www.youtube.com/user/vatican

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https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2019-11/pope-francis-catholic-universities-purify-all-knowledge.html

Pope to Catholic Universities: Educate students to social, relational responsibility
04 November 2019, 12:16

Pope Francis receives members of the International Federation of Catholic Universities, and reminds them that the fruits of study must have a relational and social purpose.
By Vatican News

“New Frontiers for University Leaders: The Future of Health and the University Ecosystem”. This is the theme of a forum being held in Rome, dedicated to the topics and challenges currently driving university transformation.

University challenges

Pope Francis outlined some of those challenges in his discourse. They include preparing new generations to become qualified professionals, but also “proponents of the common good, creative and responsible leaders in social and civil life, with a proper vision of the person and the world”, he said.

Universities today “need to consider what contribution they can and must make to the integral health of the person and to an inclusive ecology”, said the Pope.

Catholic universities, in particular, need to become places “where solutions for civil and cultural progress for individual persons and for humanity, marked by solidarity, are pursued with perseverance and professionalism”, he said.
 
https://zenit.org/articles/pope-cites-importance-of-three-languages-in-education/
Pope Cites Importance of ‘Three Languages’ in Education
Address to Participants in International Federation of Catholic Universities (FIUC) Convention
November 04, 2019 16:31  Jim Fair

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https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2019-11/pope-francis-interview-valente-mission-book.html

The Pope and mission: “Without Jesus we can do nothing”
04 November 2019, 13:30

At the end of the Extraordinary Missionary Month, we are providing a few extracts from the book-length interview of Gianni Valente from Fides News Agency with Pope Francis, in which the Pope emphasizes that “Either the Church evangelizes or she is not Church”. The book, published by Libreria Edictrice Vaticana and Edizioni San Paolo will be available in bookstores as of November 5th.

“The joy of the Gospel fills the hearts and lives of all who encounter Jesus”. Thus begins the Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii gaudium, published by Pope Francis in November 2013, eight months after the Conclave during which he was elected Bishop of Rome and Successor of Peter. That programmatic text of his pontificate invited everyone to re-harmonize every action, reflection and ecclesial initiative with “the proclamation of the Gospel in today's world”. Six years later, the Holy Father called for an Extraordinary Missionary Month to be held in October 2019, and at the same time convened the Special Assembly of the Synod of Bishops in Rome dedicated to the Amazon Region, with the intention of suggesting new  paths for the proclamation of the Gospel in the "green lung", martyred by predatory exploitation that violates and inflicts wounds “on our brothers sisters, and on sister earth” (Holy Father’s homily for the closing Mass of the Synod for the Pan-Amazon Region).

During this period, Pope Francis has included in his public discourses insistent references to the specific nature of the Church’s mission in the world. For example, the Holy Father has repeated numerous times that evangelization is not “proselytism”, and that the Church grows “by attraction” and by “witness” – a host of expressions all of which are oriented toward suggesting by association what is the dynamism of each apostolic work, and what its source can be.

Pope Francis speaks about all this, and much more, in the book-length interview entitled Without Him We Can Do Nothing: a Conversation about Being Missionaries in Today’s World. Here, Fides News Agency provides a few pre-publication excerpts.
 

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Update:  … ad limina visit of the US bishops – the national church's first report to Pope Francis...

In time of crisis, Church must be renewed, U.S. archbishop says
Junno Arocho Esteves  Nov 4, 2019
CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE

ROME - At times of great crisis in the Catholic Church, God intervened to renew it through the example and witness of saints, said Archbishop Leonard P. Blair of Hartford, Connecticut.

“We feel very keenly today, all of us, the weight of human sinfulness, of infidelity, of scandal, of the sin that weighs down the Church,” Blair said in his homily Nov. 4 during a    Mass at the Rome Basilica of St. Mary Major.

Nevertheless, he said, the life and example of St. Charles Borromeo, who was among the saints who spearheaded the Counter-Reformation, is “a model of faith” that bishops can look to be inspired to find “courage, hope and joy.”

Blair was the principal celebrant and homilist of the first Mass that the bishops of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont celebrated during their visits ad limina apostolorum - to the threshold of the apostles.
 

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Update:  Zenith translation of final document:  Chapter Four

https://zenit.org/articles/amazon-synod-zenit-translation-of-final-document-chapter-four/
Amazon Synod: Zenit Translation of Final Document, Chapter Four
Full Document Published in Several Installment
November 04, 2019 17:10

Here is the fourth installment of Zenit’s English translation of the Final Document and Voting on the Final Document of the Synod of Bishops handed to the Holy Father Francis, at the end of the Special Assembly of the Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazonian Region (October 6-17, 2019) on the theme: “Amazonia: New Pathways for the Church and for An Integral Ecology”:

This installment includes the fourth chapter of the final synod document. Zenit will publish the remainder of the text in the following days. We will publish the official Vatican English version when it is available.
******
CHAPTER IV
NEW WAYS OF ECOLOGICAL CONVERSION

“I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly” (Jn 10:10)
 

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https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/austrian-man-claims-he-threw-pachamama-statues-into-the-tiber-68401

Austrian man claims he threw 'Pachamama' statues into the Tiber
By Courtney Mares

Vatican City, Nov 4, 2019 / 03:14 am (CNA).- In a video uploaded on YouTube Nov. 4, a young man from Austria claims that he was one of the two men who took five controversial statues from a church near the Vatican and threw them into the Tiber River.

“I came to a conclusion together with a friend of mine… we should go to Rome. We should get the statues out of the church. They do not belong in a Catholic church,” Alexander Tschugguel said in the YouTube video Nov. 4.

In the five-minute video, entitled “Why we threw the Pachamama idols into the Tiber river,” Tschugguel describes how he came to see the carved images in Santa Maria in Traspontina as a violation of the First Commandment.

The statues, which were identical carved images of a naked pregnant Amazonian woman, had been displayed in the Carmelite church of Santa Maria in Traspontina, close to the Vatican, and used in several events, rituals, and expression of spirituality taking place during the Oct. 6-27 Amazonian synod.
 
Videos at the link
https://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/breaking-man-who-threw-pachamama-idol-into-tiber-speaks-out
Mon Nov 4, 2019 - 8:24 am EST
BREAKING: Man who threw Pachamama idol into Tiber speaks out