Pope Francis

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https://cruxnow.com/vatican/2020/02/northwest-bishops-experience-encouragement-fraternity-unity-with-pope/

Northwest bishops experience encouragement, fraternity, unity with pope
Catholic News Service  Feb 3, 2020

ROME - Bishops from the northwestern United States spent more than two and half hours with Pope Francis and came away talking about his small gestures and, especially, his understanding and encouragement.

Sixteen bishops - including auxiliaries and retired bishops - from Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana and Alaska met Francis Feb. 3 at the beginning of their weeklong ad limina visit to the Vatican.

Three spoke to Catholic News Service afterward but declined to give specifics about the topics covered out of respect for the pope, they said.

Archbishop Alexander K. Sample of Portland told CNS that even though he had heard from other bishops about Francis’s unique style for the ad limina visits and his desire for a free, open discussion, “I never imagined it, just the fraternity that was in the room. It was remarkable.”

The pope started things off, he said, by telling them “to not hold anything back” because they, as brother bishops, needed “to be able to talk to each other like this” and have “a very open and honest exchange with one another.”
 

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https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2020-02/pope-grand-imam-document-human-fraternity-anniversary.html

1st anniversary of Document on Human Fraternity
03 February 2020, 14:55

Pope Francis and the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar signed the Document on Human Fraternity on 4 February 2019. It highlights the need for a sense of fraternity amongst all men and women of goodwill who are invited to promote justice and peace, guaranteeing human rights and religious freedom.
By Amedeo Lomonaco and Linda Bordoni

The “Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together", signed in Abu Dhabi a year ago by Pope Francis and the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Ahmad Al-Tayyeb,  was widely hailed as a milestone, not only regarding relations between Christianity and Islam, but as a blue-print indicating the way to a culture of dialogue and collaboration between faiths.
 
https://www.vaticannews.va/en/vatican-city/news/2020-02/prefect-dicastery-for-communication-speeach-abu-dhabi-human.html
Prefect of Vatican Communications on the Document on Human Fraternity
03 February 2020, 16:26

https://www.vaticannews.va/en/world/news/2020-02/human-fraternity-document-arab-media-convention.html
Arab Media Convention for Human Fraternity
03 February 2020, 22:25

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https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2020-02/pope-francis-rome-capital-italy-150-anniversary.html

Pope Francis urges Rome to be city of fraternity, peace
03 February 2020, 18:25

Pope Francis celebrates the 150th anniversary of the declaration of the city of Rome as the capital of Italy as “providential”, and invites residents to make the Eternal City a place of solidarity and peace.
By Devin Watkins

The nascent Kingdom of Italy declared Rome as its capital on 3 February 1871, soon after the city fell to the Italian forces led by Giuseppe Garibaldi.
This spelled an end to papal control over Rome and the papal states.

Pope Francis called the proclamation of Rome as Italy’s capital “a providential event, which led to polemics and problems at the time. But it changed Rome, Italy, and the Church herself: a new story began.”
 

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https://www.vaticannews.va/en/vatican-city/news/2020-02/vatican-sends-medical-masks-to-china-for-coronavirus.html

Vatican sends medical masks to China
03 February 2020, 17:05

The Vatican sends hundreds of thousands of masks to China in an attempt to help stall the spread of the Coronavirus.

The joint initiative of the Office of Papal charities and the Missionary Centre of the Chinese Church in Italy has seen hundreds of thousands of masks sent to China. According to a Press Statement by the Holy See Press Office, the masks have been sent to Hubei, Zhejiand and Fujian provinces, which appear to be the areas most affected by this virus.

Health officials believe the virus was initially transmitted from animals to humans, but that human-to-human transmission of the flu-like illness is now occurring.
 

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https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope-francis/mass-casa-santa-marta/2020-02/pope-at-mass-experiencing-god-s-love-for-us.html

Pope at Mass: Experiencing God’s love for us
04 February 2020, 11:44

David’s sorrow for the death of his son, who had fought against him, is a prophecy of God the Father’s love for us — a love that extends even to Jesus’ death on the Cross. That was the message of Pope Francis at the morning Mass at Casa Santa Marta on Tuesday.
By Vatican News

“My son Absalom! If only I had died instead of you!” This was the anguished cry of David, weeping at news of the death of his son. The Second Book of Samuel tells of the end of the long battle Absalom had waged against his own father, King David, in order to replace him on the throne. Pope Francis described how David had had to flee Jerusalem, “barefoot, his head uncovered, insulted by some, while others threw stones at him, because all the people were with this son who had deceived the people, had seduced the heart of the people with promises”.
 
Pope Francis recalled the verse from the Gospel where Jesus wept over Jerusalem. Jesus weeps for us, the Pope said, “because we don’t let Him love us”. Pope Francis concluded his homily with an invitation: “In the moment of temptation, in the moment of sin, in the moment when we are far from God, let us try to hear this voice: ‘My son, my daughter, why?’”

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Video, with English text, at the link

https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2020-02/pope-francis-human-fraternity-convention-message-uae.html
Pope Francis welcomes presentation of Human Fraternity Award
04 February 2020, 16:15

Pope Francis sends a video message to participants in the Arab Media Convention for Human Fraternity, which is taking place in Abu Dhabi.
By Vatican News

In his message, the Pope celebrated the first anniversary of the signing of the Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together.

He said the anniversary is a chance to renew hopes for “a better future for humanity, a future free from hatred, rancor, extremism, and terrorism, in which the values of peace, love and fraternity prevail.”

The Pope expressed his appreciation for the support offered by the United Arab Emirates to the Higher Committee for Human Fraternity, which is tasked with promoting the values set out in the document.

Pope Francis also said he was pleased to participate in the presentation of the International Human Fraternity Award, which aims to encourage “all virtuous exemplars of men and women who in this world embody love through actions and sacrifices made for the good of others, no matter how different they may be in religion, or ethnic and cultural affiliation.”

The Pope closed his message asking God to bless every effort that benefits humanity “and helps us move forward in fraternity.”
 

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Video at the link

https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2020-02/pope-at-audience-being-poor-in-spirit-is-true-freedom.html
Pope at Audience: Being poor in spirit is true freedom
05 February 2020, 10:24

Pope Francis reflects on the Beatitude “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” as he continues his catechesis on the Beatitudes during the weekly General Audience.
By Christopher Wells

In his catechesis on the first Beatitude — “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” — Pope Francis said “there is a poverty that we must accept, that of our own being; and a poverty that we must seek instead, from the things of this world”.
A paradoxical proclamation

Jesus’ “way to happiness”, the Pope said, begins with a “paradoxical proclamation… a strange object of bliss”. So we must ask ourselves, What is meant by the word “poor”? Matthew’s use of the expression “poor in spirit” shows us that Jesus is not talking simply about economic poverty, but of a spiritual understanding of our poverty. “Those who are ‘poor in spirit’”, the Pope said, “are those who are and who feel themselves to be poor, beggars, in the depths of their being”.
 
https://zenit.org/articles/pope-at-general-audience-being-poor-in-spirit-means-recognize-fragility-ask-forgiveness-welcome-occasion-for-god-given-grace/
Pope at General Audience: Being Poor in Spirit Means Recognizing Fragility, Asking Forgiveness & Welcome Grace
February 05, 2020 11:22  Deborah Castellano Lubov

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https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2020-02/pope-francis-pass-inclusion-workshop-finance.html

Pope urges global finance leaders to reduce economic inequality
05 February 2020, 16:57

Pope Francis is calling on the architects of the global financial system to reduce rising income inequality by prioritizing the needs of the poor who are left behind by the globalization of indifference.
By Devin Watkins

Finance ministers from France, Argentina, Mexico, Paraguay, and El Salvador; a Nobel economics laureate; and the director of the International Monetary Fund are among global leaders who took part in a Vatican workshop on Wednesday.

The event – entitled “New Forms of Solidarity” – was held at the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences.

It provided a forum for key players in the global financial system to discuss rising inequality through “inclusion, integration, and innovation”.

In his address to participants, Pope Francis laid out several dangers lurking behind prevailing economic models, as well as several ways to build bridges between the rich and the poor.
 
https://www.vaticannews.va/en/vatican-city/news/2020-02/vatican-conference-economy-stiglitz.html
Vatican Conference plots new paths for a just economy
05 February 2020, 16:48

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Archbishop Georg Gänswein, private secretary to pope emeritus Benedict XVI

Hmmm...
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/vatican-gnswein-has-not-taken-leave-as-head-of-papal-household-21698
Vatican has 'no information' on Gänswein leave of absence report
By Hannah Brockhaus

Vatican City, Feb 5, 2020 / 08:10 am (CNA).- After a German Catholic weekly reported that Archbishop Georg Gänswein was asked to take a leave of absence from his position as head of the papal household, the Vatican has said it cannot confirm the report, and the archbishop is still in his job.

Die Tagespost reported Feb. 5 that the German archbishop had recently been asked by Pope Francis to "focus on his role as private secretary to pope emeritus Benedict XVI."

A Vatican source told CNA that the Die Tagepost report was on the mark. Gänswein has been requested to “stay away from his office [as prefect of the papal household] indefinitely,” the source said.

But the Holy See press office told CNA Wednesday that it has "no information" regarding Ganswein being on a leave of absence from the prefecture.

Regarding the archbishop's absence from papal audiences in recent weeks, the press office stated "it is due to an ordinary redistribution of the various commitments and duties of the Prefect of the Papal Household, who, as you know, is also the personal secretary of the Pope emeritus."
 
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/breaking-pope-francis-puts-archbishop-gaenswein-on-leave-report-says
Pope Francis puts Archbishop Gänswein on leave: report
German newspaper Die Tagespost reports that Pope Benedict's secretary has been placed on leave after the controversy over the celibacy book.
Wed Feb 5, 2020 - 6:50 am EST

https://www.ncronline.org/news/vatican/vatican-confirms-redistribution-duties-archbishop-g-nswein
Vatican confirms 'redistribution' of duties for Archbishop Gänswein
Feb 5, 2020
by Joshua J. McElwee

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Archbishop Georg Gänswein, private secretary to pope emeritus Benedict XVI

https://www.ncregister.com/blog/edward-pentin/solving-the-archbishop-gaenswein-suspension-puzzle
Feb. 6, 2020
Solving the Archbishop Gänswein Suspension Puzzle
In late January, Pope Francis asked Archbishop Georg Gänswein to step away from his duties as prefect of the Pontifical Household and devote more time to his role as personal secretary to Benedict XVI.
Edward Pentin
 
For the past two weeks, the archbishop has not been seen assisting Pope Francis at his audiences.

Archbishop Gänswein, although quite shocked by the decision, inside sources say, and curious to know how the job of prefect would be managed without him, agreed to the instruction.

The Pope also later refused to reinstate him, saying it would be better if he continued assisting the Pope Emeritus for the time being, and that the role of prefect would continue to be carried out in his absence by Msgr. Leonardo Sapienza, regent of the Pontifical Household.

The Vatican’s statement is therefore partially correct in the sense that Archbishop Gänswein has not been given total leave from his duties as he continues to assist Benedict and there is still a possibility he could return as prefect.

But at the moment he appears to have been given an indefinite leave from the latter, which would appear to amount to more than just an “ordinary redistribution of the various commitments and duties.”

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https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2020-02/pope-fairs-can-showcase-the-beauty-of-culture.html

Pope: Fairs can showcase the beauty of culture
06 February 2020, 13:15

Pope Francis tells the Global Association of the Exhibition Industry that fairs and exhibitions offer significant opportunities for showcasing to the wider world the rich diversity and beauty of local cultures and ecosystems.
By Vatican News

The Global Association of the Exhibition Industry or UFI is an international network of the world’s leading tradeshow organisers and fairground owners. The Association is in Rome on the occasion of its global executive summit.

Global exhibitions and solidarity

Pope Francis on Thursday greeted participants in the Vatican, telling them that “global exhibitions contribute to the growth of a culture of encounter, that strengthens bonds of solidarity and fosters mutual enrichment between the members of our human family”.

The Pope highlighted that in the case of their area of expertise, “it has been shown that fairs and exhibitions not only have positive effects on regional economies and labour markets, but also offer significant opportunities for showcasing to the wider world the rich diversity and beauty of local cultures and ecosystems.”
 

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https://www.vaticannews.va/en/vatican-city/news/2020-02/global-compact-education-vatican-seminar.html

Vatican event paves the way to Global Compact on Education
06 February 2020, 16:10

A two-day event in the Vatican paves the path to a global event scheduled to take place next spring and that aims to create a global alliance for the future of humanity and for our common home.
By Linda Bordoni

The Global Compact on Education is an initiative, promoted by the Vatican and by Pope Francis who has invited leaders of world religions, international and humanitarian organizations as well as representatives of all branches of civil society to commit to shape the future of humanity by forming mature individuals who can overcome division and care for the planet.

When and where

The date is 14 May 2020, the place is the Vatican. The Pope issued the invitation in a message in September 2019 in which he said “Never before has there been such need to unite our efforts in a broad educational alliance, to form mature individuals capable of overcoming division and antagonism, and to restore the fabric of relationships for the sake of a more fraternal humanity.”  In the lead-up and following the event, which takes place on the fifth anniversary of the encyclical “Laudato Sì”, a series of thematic seminars and workshops have been organized relating to human rights, peacebuilding, interreligious dialogue as well as issues directly concerning the Pact for Education.

‘Education. The Global Compact.’

The Pontifical Academy for Social Sciences is hosting one of these on 6 and 7 February entitled “Education. The Global Compact”.
 

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https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2020-02/pope-francis-audience-croatia-prime-minister-plenkovic.html

Pope receives in audience Croatian Prime Minister
06 February 2020, 17:35

The talks at the Vatican Secretariat of State centred on the main commitments of the six-month presidency of Croatia of the Council of the European Union and various international and regional issues.
Vatican News

Pope Francis on Thursday received in audience Prime Minister Andrej Plenković of Croatia, who subsequently met Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, accompanied by Vatican Secretary for Relations with States, Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher.

In a press release, the Holy See Press Office said that during the cordial talks in the Secretariat of State, both sides “expressed appreciation for the good bilateral relations that exist and the intention to further develop collaboration in areas of mutual interest”. 
 

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Video, with English text, at the link

https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2020-02/pope-francis-prayer-intention-february-2020.html
Pope's February prayer intention: Hear the cries of migrants
06 February 2020, 16:00

Pope Francis on Thursday released a video message accompanying his prayer intention for February, which this month is "Hear the cries of migrants".

In his prayer intention for the month of February 2020, Pope Francis calls the entire world to hear the cries of migrants, many of whom are victims of criminal human trafficking.

It has become the custom of Pope Francis to release a video message detailing his prayer intention for each month.

The full text of his intention is below:
 

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https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/pope-francis-has-final-word-on-mccarrick-reports-release-parolin-says-99372

Parolin: On McCarrick report release, Pope Francis has 'final word'
By Hannah Brockhaus

Vatican City, Feb 6, 2020 / 12:20 pm (CNA).- Pope Francis will make the final decision on when to publish a highly-anticipated report on former cardinal Theodore McCarrick, the Vatican's Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin said Thursday.

“I think that [the report] will come out soon, I cannot tell you exactly when,” Parolin told a small group of journalists Feb. 6.

Speaking on the sidelines of a conference on holiness, the cardinal said “we are trying to speed up the time to arrive” at the publication of the report on the Vatican's internal investigation into the disgraced former cardinal.

Parolin did confirm that he expects the document to be released “in the near future.”

“However, the publication depends on the pope. The work that is done is done, but the pope must give the final word,” he added.

The Vatican announced that it would conduct an internal review of files on McCarrick’s career in October 2018. McCarrick was a cardinal and the archbishop of two major American sees before he was found guilty of serial sexual abuse and laicized in 2019, following a canonical process.
 

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https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope-francis/mass-casa-santa-marta/2020-02/pope-francis-mass-santa-marta-humility-humiliation.html

Pope at Mass: there is no humility without humiliation
07 February 2020, 11:57

Commenting on the day’s Gospel, Pope Francis exhorts Christians to follow the path of humiliation as indicated by Jesus and John. He also urges pastors not to give in to worldliness, to the “temptation to climb”.
By Robin Gomes

Don’t be “afraid of humiliation”.  Let us ask the Lord to send us “some” to “make us humble”, so we can “imitate Jesus better”.  The Pope’s exhortation came at Mass, Friday morning, at Casa Santa Marta, in the Vatican.

The way of Jesus

Reflecting on the day’s Gospel of Mark on the beheading of St. John the Baptist, the Pope explained how he was sent by God to show “the way of Jesus”. The “last of the prophets”, the Pope said, had the grace to say: “This is the Messiah”.

He explained that the task of John the Baptist was not so much to preach that Jesus would come and prepare the people as to bear witness to Christ and to do so with his life.  The Pope said that bearing witness to the path chosen by God for our salvation is the path of humiliation.  St. Paul explains this very clearly in his Letter to the Philippians: “Jesus annihilated himself to death, death on a cross”. And this death on the cross, this way of annihilation, of humiliation, the Pope said, is also our way, the way forward that God indicates for Christians
 
The way of the world

Emphasizing that one cannot be “humble without humiliation”, the Holy Father invites Christians to learn from the day’s Gospel.

Pope Francis explained that when we try to draw attention to ourselves in the Church and in the community in order to have a position or something, it is the way of the world, a worldly way, which is not the way of Jesus.  He said this “temptation to climb” can also happen to pastors. This, the Pope said, is an injustice he cannot tolerate. “If a shepherd does not follow this humble path, he is not a disciple of Jesus,” Pope Francis said, adding, “he is a climber in a cassock”.  “There is no humility without humiliation”.

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https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2020-02/pope-global-compact-education-conference-vatican.html

Pope: ‘Education concerns the future of humanity’
07 February 2020, 14:58

Pope Francis says poverty, discrimination, climate change, the globalization of indifference and the exploitation of human beings all prevent the flourishing of millions of children, thus his call to join forces to achieve a broad educational covenant.
By Linda Bordoni

Despite the objectives formulated by the UN and other international bodies, Pope Francis said humanity is in need of a renewed educational covenant “aimed at forming mature persons capable of mending the fabric of human relationships and creating a more fraternal world.”

He was addressing participants at the end of a two-day conference in the Vatican on Friday entitled “Education. The Global Compact”. The Conference was one of a series of events leading up to the signing of a “Global Compact for Education”, promoted by the Pope, in the Vatican on 14 May 2020. “Poverty, discrimination, climate change, the globalization of indifference and the exploitation of human beings all prevent the flourishing of millions of children,” he said. 
 
https://zenit.org/articles/pope-francis-cites-need-to-achieve-broad-educational-compact/
Pope Francis Cites Need to Achieve ‘Broad Educational Compact’
‘Forming Mature Persons Capable of Mending the Fabric of Human Relationships and Creating a More Fraternal World’
February 07, 2020 16:36  Jim Fair

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https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/popes-exhortation-on-amazon-synod-to-come-out-next-week-31640

Pope's exhortation on Amazon synod to come out next week
By Hannah Brockhaus

Vatican City, Feb 7, 2020 / 05:46 am (CNA).- Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation on the Amazon region will be published Feb. 12, the Vatican announced Friday.

The document, which follows October’s Synod of Bishops on the Amazon, is highly anticipated for how the pope will respond to the recommendation to allow the ordination of married men to the priesthood for ministry in the region.

The synod’s final document had also called for women to be considered for diaconal ordination and contained strong appeals on environmental issues and the rights of indigenous peoples, which Francis’ letter is also expected to address.

Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, secretary general of the Synod of Bishops, and Cardinal Michael Czerny, special secretary of the Amazon synod, will hold a press conference in the afternoon Feb. 12 to present the document.

Several others will also speak, including Fr. Adelson Araújo dos Santos, a theologian and professor at the Pontifical Gregorian University and participant in the Amazon synod.

The Synod of Bishops on the Amazon was a meeting of bishops and advisors, convened at the Vatican Oct. 6-27, 2019, to discuss ecological, political, and pastoral issues for the Church in the Amazon region, which spans across nine countries in South America.
 
https://cruxnow.com/vatican/2020/02/popes-amazon-document-due-wednesday-amid-married-priest-row/
Pope’s Amazon document due Wednesday amid married priest row
Nicole Winfield  Feb 7, 2020

https://zenit.org/articles/popes-post-synodal-exhortation-on-the-amazon-to-be-presented-next-week/
Pope’s Post-Synodal Exhortation on the Amazon to Be Presented Next Week
Title of Papal Document Is ‘Querida Amazonia’ (‘Dear Amazon’)
February 07, 2020 13:50  Deborah Castellano Lubov

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Update:  the Benedict XVI-Cardinal Sarah book, From the Depths of Our Hearts: Priesthood, Celibacy and the Crisis of the Catholic Church

https://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/cardinal-sarah-the-priesthood-today-is-in-mortal-danger

Feb. 8, 2020
Cardinal Sarah: The Priesthood Today ‘Is in Mortal Danger’

In an exclusive English-language interview, the African cardinal discusses his new book, the status of the Catholic priesthood, and addresses those who say he opposes Pope Francis.
Edward Pentin

VATICAN CITY — Cardinal Robert Sarah has made a further impassioned plea not to weaken the mandatory celibacy rule for priests, saying it would be a catastrophe that would amount to an “attack on the Church and her mystery.”

In an exclusive Feb. 7 interview with the Register in advance of the publication later this month of the English edition of From the Depths of Our Hearts: Priesthood, Celibacy and the Crisis of the Catholic Church, his new book on the priesthood with Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, the Guinean cardinal explains why he and Benedict wrote the book — namely to warn that separating celibacy from the priesthood, even just as an exception, would remove the priest’s imitation of Christ as spouse of the Church and turn her into a “mere human institution.”

And, in advance of next Wednesday’s release of Pope Francis’ post-apostolic exhortation on the Pan-Amazon synod, Cardinal Sarah, the prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, also explains how the exception proposed at the synod is different to previous exceptions and the situation with the Eastern Churches, and he notes that even when there were married priests in the early Church, they lived chaste lives.
 

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Photo gallery at the link

https://www.vaticannews.va/en/church/news/2020-02/super-nuns-talitha-kum-day-prayer-human-trafficking.html

SUPER NUNS: the fearless sisters fighting human trafficking
08 February 2020, 12:00

Marking the International Day of Prayer and Awareness Against Human Trafficking on 8 February, Pope Francis meets members of Talitha Kum network and the Galileo Foundation to launch the SUPER NUNS community that aims to raise funds for the sisters engaged in rescuing victims of trafficking and help them restore their lives.
By Linda Bordoni and Sr. Bernadette Reis

Pope Francis has repeatedly shone the spotlight on the scourge of human trafficking and appealed for concrete and concerted action to root out its causes and protect the millions of victims of the modern slave trade.

To commemorate the International Day of Prayer and Awareness against Human Trafficking, the Pope met with members of Talitha Kum, the Galileo Foundation, Edelman and ESPO. Sr Gabriella Bottani, Talitha Kum's international coordinator, explained the new initiative to Pope Francis. Artist Stephen Powers showed the first image that will be used on the platform and asked him to autograph it.

The highlight of the private audience happened when Pope Francis activated the "Super Nuns" page on the Patreon platform with a click on the laptop.