On the last day of June, a month that the Catholic Church dedicates to the Sacred Heart, the pope asked people to continue praying for Ukraine, Palestine, Israel, Myanmar, and other parts of the world where there is much suffering caused by war. / Credit: Vatican Media

Rome Newsroom, Jun 30, 2024 / 09:59 am (CNA).

Pope Francis prayed for the intercession of the Sacred Heart of Jesus on Sunday to convert “the hearts of those who want war” to projects of dialogue and peace.

On the last day of June, a month that the Catholic Church dedicates to the Sacred Heart, the pope asked people to continue praying for Ukraine, Palestine, Israel, Myanmar, and other parts of the world where there is much suffering caused by war.

Pope Francis also asked people to remember the suffering of persecuted Christians during his Angelus address on June 29. 

“Today we remember the protomartyrs of Rome. We too live in a time of martyrdom even more than in the first centuries,” he said.

“In many parts of the world, many of our brothers and sisters suffer from discrimination and persecution because of their faith, thus fertilizing the Church. Others face a ‘martyrdom with white gloves.’ Let us support them and be inspired by their witness to the love of Christ.”

Reflecting on Sunday’s Gospel in which Jesus healed a bleeding woman and raised a girl from the dead, the pope urged everyone to remember that the Lord draws close to our suffering and wounds.

“In the face of bodily and spiritual sufferings, of the wounds our souls bear, of the situations that crush us, and even in the face of sin, God does not keep us at a distance,” Pope Francis said.

“On the contrary, he draws near to let himself be touched and to touch us, and he always raises us from death. He always takes us by the hand to say: daughter, son, arise!”

Pope Francis asked people to reflect on whether they keep a distance from people who are suffering or draw close to them to offer them a helping hand to lift them up in imitation of Jesus. 

He urged people to look to the heart of God so that the Church and society do not exclude anyone but offer everyone the opportunity to “be welcomed and loved without labels [and] without prejudice.”

“Let us fix in our hearts this image Jesus gives us: God is one who takes you by the hand and lifts you up, one who lets himself be touched by your pain and touches you to heal you and restore your life. He does not discriminate against anyone because he loves everyone,” Francis said.

“Let us pray to the Holy Virgin. May she who is the mother of tenderness, intercede for us and for the whole world.”

Pope Francis presides over Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on the solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul, June 29, 2024. / Credit: Vatican Media

Vatican City, Jun 29, 2024 / 09:45 am (CNA).

On the solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul, Pope Francis invited the Catholic faithful — including the recently appointed metropolitan archbishops who received their blessed pallium today — to “open the doors” of the Church and follow the example of the two great apostles of Rome so that all people can know and experience the love of God.

“The Jubilee will be a time of grace, during which we will open the holy door so that everyone may cross the threshold of that ‘living sanctuary’ who is Jesus,” the Holy Father preached during his homily at the papal Mass celebrated in Vatican City on June 29.

Reflecting on the Mass readings of the day, addressing thousands gathered within St. Peter’s Basilica amid scaffolded renovation projects in preparation for the upcoming 2025 Jubilee Year of Hope, Pope Francis emphasized the significance of “deliverance” and the grace of God in the lives of these two great evangelizers.

When St. Peter was freed from prison he “realizes that it is the Lord who opens the doors. He always goes before us. The doors of the prison opened by themselves by the power of God,” the pope said.

Following his dramatic conversion after encountering the risen Christ in Damascus, Pope Francis said St. Paul discovered the “grace of weakness” and ended his forceful persecution of the Church. The experience of Paul’s own weaknesses led him to lean on God’s strength when he preached the Gospel.

“Paul employs the image of ‘open doors’ in his journey to Antioch with Barnabas,” he said. “They gathered the Church together and declared all that God had done with them and how he had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles.”

During his homily, the Holy Father reminded the cardinals, archbishops, priests, religious men and women, and lay faithful present at Mass to “learn the wisdom of opening doors” and to not succumb to “a consoling, inward-looking religiosity.”

“Today some movements in the Church present us with a disillusioned spirituality,” he said. “On the contrary, the encounter with the Lord ignites in the life of all a burning zeal for evangelization.”

Following the celebration of the Mass, Pope Francis individually presented 33 of the 42 recently appointed metropolitan archbishops their pallium, a vestment made of lamb’s wool that symbolizes their authority and unity with the pope’s pastoral mission to evangelize and care for the people of God.

The metropolitan archbishops who were able to attend the papal Mass in Vatican City were seated next to the bronze station of St. Peter, also adorned in liturgical vestments this day, as a reminder of their own ministerial authority and responsibility of service to the Church.

A special Angelus

In spite of the 93-degree-Fahrenheit heat, thousands of pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square to be present for the pope’s special Angelus address for the solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul.

“We see St. Peter depicted holding two large keys, as in the statue here in this square,” he said. “Those keys represent the ministry of authority that Jesus entrusted to him in the service of all the Church. Because authority is a service, and authority that is not service is dictatorship.”

He also encouraged his listeners to help everyone “find the way” to enter the house of God by cultivating virtues that would serve others, such as patience, constancy, and humility.

“The mission that Jesus entrusts to Peter is not that of barring the doors to the house, permitting entry only to a few select guests, but of helping everyone find the way to enter, in faithfulness to the Gospel of Jesus. For everyone: Everyone, everyone, everyone can enter!”

Following his address, Pope Francis gave his special greetings to all the people of Rome, for whom today is a prominent holiday, but particularly expressed his closeness to those who are sick, elderly, alone, or in prison. He also asked for prayers for those who are wounded and suffering because of war. 

“I greet each one and invite everyone to have the experience of Peter and Paul — that the love of Christ that saves lives will push them to share this life with joy and gratuity,” he said.

A 1775 painting of the fireworks over Castel Sant’Angelo in Rome, painted by Jakob Philipp Hackert. / Credit: Public Domain

Rome Newsroom, Jun 29, 2024 / 05:00 am (CNA).

For the past 500 years, the Vatican has celebrated the solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul with a bang with a spectacular fireworks show influenced by Michelangelo and Gian Lorenzo Bernini.

While many associate fireworks with the Fourth of July, the Vatican had already been celebrating this week with fireworks for nearly 300 years at the time when Americans were signing the Declaration of Independence in 1776.

Each year on June 29, fireworks are launched from atop Castel Sant’Angelo, the papal fortress originally commissioned by Roman Emperor Hadrian, in celebration of the co-patron saints of Rome, St. Peter and St. Paul. 

The fireworks show, called “The Girandola,” has captured the imagination of many artists over the centuries whose sketches and paintings illustrate the event with more pizzazz than the myriad of iPhone photos of fireworks today.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art (MET) in New York has multiple images of the Vatican fireworks in its collection, including a 1579 etching by Giovanni Ambrogio Brambilla of Castel Sant’Angelo bursting with flames at every level as a crowd looks on from the relative safety of the other side of the Tiber River.

According to Rome-based art historian Elizabeth Lev, the Girandola fireworks display dates back to the pope who built the Sistine Chapel and opened the Capitoline Museums, Pope Sixtus IV, Francesco della Rovere.

“In 1481 he decided to give the Romans a theatrical display of lights and sound that would rival the other great cities of Italy — Venice and Florence,” Lev told CNA.

Pope Julius II continued the tradition in the early 16th century. His papal master of ceremonies, Paride di Gassis, described the fireworks display, saying it looked as “if the sky itself was tumbling down.”

While there are competing theories as to the extent and dates of Michelangelo’s participation in the fireworks display, Lev points to the publication of one of the first printed books on metallurgy in Europe, “De La Pirotechnia,” written by Vannoccio Biringuccio in 1536, which gave us the terms “Roman candle” and “Catherine Wheel” still used for fireworks today.

“At that time, Pope Paul III was living in the Castel Sant’Angelo, Michelangelo was working on the Last Judgment and myriad other assignments. The last chapter of ‘De La Pirotechnia’ discusses fireworks, and it would make sense to pair the famous technician with Michelangelo, who had … embraced his talents as a painter as the consultant for color and effects,” she said.

“The culmination with the 4,000 to 6,000 rockets creating a fountain of fire sounds like the kind of effect Michelangelo would have enjoyed, although we have no words from him on the subject nor drawings of projected displays.”

According to the MET, the Vatican held the fireworks show each year in celebration of Easter, the solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul, and whenever a new pope was elected.

The great Baroque sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini, who gave us the fountains in Piazza Navona, the baldacchino in St. Peter’s Basilica, and the sculpture of St. Teresa in Ecstasy, also designed fireworks in his spare time.

“A producer of plays amid his many other activities, Bernini loved the movement that fire, water, light, and air could bring to art,” Lev said.

Bernini designed fireworks in 1641 inspired by the eruption of the Stromboli volcano off the north coast of Sicily, indicating the number of rockets and colors that would achieve the best effect, she explained.

“With his fiery personality and passionate love for dramatic effects, it would be safe to say that the Girandola was made for Bernini and Bernini was made for the Girnadola,” Lev added.

Charles Dickens later witnessed the Vatican fireworks show during his 1844–45 visit to Italy in which he stayed in Rome during Holy Week.

Dickens described the “great display of fireworks from Castle of St. Angelo” in his 1846 book “Pictures from Italy.”

“The show began with a tremendous discharge of cannon; and then, for 20 minutes or half an hour, the whole castle was one incessant sheet of fire, and labyrinth of blazing wheels of every color, size, and speed: while rockets streamed into the sky, not by ones or twos, or scores, but hundreds at a time,” he wrote.

“The concluding burst — the Girandola — was like the blowing up into the air of the whole massive castle, without smoke or dust,” Dickens said.

The Roman tradition continued through the end of the 19th century, when it was decided to suspend it due to extensive damage done to the historic rooms within Castel Sant’Angelo. However, the fireworks show was revived in 2008 and now lights up the Eternal City each year as it celebrates its patron saints.

The firework show will take place this year at 9:30 p.m. on June 29 and will last about 20 minutes to conclude a day of festivities, prayers, and processions in Rome.

In celebration of the upcoming feast of the protomartyrs of Rome, a Eucharistic procession was held on June 27, 2024, through the streets of Vatican City. / Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/EWTN News

ACI Prensa Staff, Jun 28, 2024 / 17:10 pm (CNA).

On the occasion of the feast of the holy protomartyrs of Rome, which the Church celebrates every June 30, the traditional Mass and Eucharistic procession took place in Vatican City.

Holy Mass, celebrated on June 27 in the Church of Our Lady of Mercy at the Teutonic Cemetery, was offered by Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, president emeritus of the Pontifical Council for Culture.

At the end, a solemn Eucharistic procession took place, with the accompaniment of the Pontifical Musical Band along the avenues of Vatican City.

Members of the Pontifical Academy Cultorum Martyrum, numerous faithful, representatives of the Swiss Guard, and the gendarmerie as well as members of the Association of Sts. Peter and Paul participated in this traditional procession.

Who were the holy protomartyrs of Rome?

On June 30, the Church commemorates the holy protomartyrs of Rome, who died during the first persecution against the Catholic Church, which was unleashed in the second half of the first century.

They suffered terrible torments and gave their lives just to call themselves “Christians,” followers of Jesus of Nazareth.

Consequently, they were granted the title of “protomartyrs” — a term from ancient Greek — which means “first martyrs” or “first witnesses.”

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

Archbishops wear the pallium they received from Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Basilica, June 29, 2014. / Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/CNA

Rome Newsroom, Jun 28, 2024 / 16:40 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis will bless vestments known as “pallia” during Mass on the solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican on Saturday, June 29.

Each blessed pallium — bands made of white wool adorned with six black silk crosses — will be placed on the shoulders of the 42 new metropolitan archbishops who were appointed during the last year, including two Americans. 

Only metropolitan archbishops and the Latin-rite patriarch of Jerusalem are imposed with the white pallium with black crosses as a symbol of communion, authority, and unity with the pope and his pastoral mission to be a shepherd for the people of God.

The tradition of the papal blessing of the pallia for select bishops began in the sixth century, but it was not until the ninth century that all metropolitan bishops were mandated to wear the woolen vestment.

Since 2015, the imposition of the pallia on metropolitan archbishops takes place in their home countries, rather than at the Vatican, as a sign of “synodality” with local churches.

Two Americans — Archbishop Thomas Robert Zinkula of Dubuque, Iowa, and Archbishop Christopher J. Coyne of Hartford, Connecticut — will receive the pallium this year.

Following the announcement of Zinkula’s appointment, Jim Thill, a deacon at Holy Spirit Parish in Dubuque, told the Telegraph Herald: “He is my idea of a shepherd for the Church. He is highly educated and has had a lot of accolades, but he has never lost the common touch. He is just one of the people.”

In May as he officially assumed the office of archbishop of Hartford, Coyne asked for the prayers and made a pledge to “strive everyday to be a faithful image of the Good Shepherd, who welcomes the lost and protects those who struggle.”

The following metropolitan archbishops were appointed during the past year and will receive the pallium:

1. Cardinal Archbishop Protase Rugambwa of Tabora, Tanzania

2. Archbishop Jozef Jonáš Maxim of Prešov of the Byzantines, Slovakia

3. Archbishop Rui Manuel Sousa Valério, SMM, patriarch of Lisbon, Portugal

4. Archbishop João Santos Cardoso of Natal, Brazil

5. Archbishop Guy Desrochers, CSR, of Moncton, Canada

6. Archbishop Gustavo Bombín Espino, OSST, of Toliara, Madagascar 

7. Archbishop Ciro Miniero of Taranto, Italy

8. Archbishop Thomas Robert Zinkula of Dubuque, Iowa 

9. Archbishop Zdenko Križić, OCD, of Split-Makarska, Croatia

10. Archbishop Linus Neli of Imphal, India

11. Archbishop Héctor Rafael Rodríguez Rodríguez, MSC, of Santiago de los Caballeros, Dominican Republic

12. Archbishop Gregório Ben Lâmed Paixão, OSB, of Fortaleza, Brazil

13. Archbishop Prosper Kontiebo, MI, of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso 

14. Archbishop Fernando Natalio Chomalí Garib of Santiago de Chile, Chile 

15. Archbishop Víctor Hugo Basabe of Coro, Venezuela

16. Archbishop Florencio Roselló Avellanas, OdeM, of Pamplona and Tudela, Spain

17. Archbishop Giorgio Ferretti of Foggia-Bovino, Italy 

18. Archbishop Biagio Colaianni of Campobasso-Boiano, Italy

19. Archbishop Herwig Gössl of Bamberg, Germany 

20. Archbishop Udo Markus Bent of Paderborn, Germany

21. Archbishop Vincent Aind of Ranchi, India 

22. Archbishop Abel Liluala of Pointe-Noire, Democratic Republic of Congo

23. Archbishop Gélase Armel Kema of Owando, Democratic Republic of Congo

24. Archbishop Davide Carbonaro, OMD, of Potenza-Muro Lucano-Marsico Nuovo, Italy 

25. Archbishop Josef Nuzík of Olomouc, Czech Republic 

26. Archbishop Luis Alberto Huamán Camayo, OMI, of Huancayo, Peru

27. Archbishop Rex Andrew C. Alarcon of Caceres, Philippines 

28. Archbishop Riccardo Lamba of Udine, Italy

29. Archbishop Gabriel Blamo Jubwe of Monrovia, Liberia 

30. Metropolitan Archbishop Hironimus Pakaenoni of Kupang, Indonesia

31. Archbishop Josafá Menezes da Silva of Aracaju, Brazil

32. Archbishop Félicien Ntambue Kasembe, CICM, of Kananga, Democratic Republic of Congo

33. Archbishop Raphael p’Mony Wokorach, MCCJ, of Gulu, Uganda

34. Archbishop Carlos Alberto Breis Pereira, OFM, of Maceió, Brazil

35. Archbishop Gherardo Gambelli of Florence, Italy

36. Archbishop Christopher J. Coyne of Hartford, Connecticut

37. Archbishop José Mário Scalon Angonese of Cascavel, Brazil

38. Archbishop Sergio Hernán Pérez de Arce Arraigada, SC, of Concepción, Chile 

39. Archbishop Ignace Bessi Dogbo of Abidjan, Ivory Coast

40. Archbishop Paulus Budi Kleden, SVD, of Ende, Indonesia

41. Archbishop Elect Mosese Vitolio Tui, SDB, of Samoa-Apia, Samoa

42. Archbishop Benjamin Phiri of Ndola, Zambia

Mosaics by alleged abuser Father Marko Rupnik are displayed at the shrine in Lourdes, France. / Credit: Courtney Mares/CNA

CNA Staff, Jun 28, 2024 / 15:05 pm (CNA).

The pope’s top adviser on sexual abuse by clergy is asking Vatican officials not to use art by a former Jesuit priest accused of sexually abusing women — even as some Church officials continue to do so. 

Cardinal Seán O’Malley, the archbishop of Boston and head of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, sent a letter to the dicasteries that govern day-to-day affairs of the Roman Curia expressing hope that “pastoral prudence would prevent displaying artwork in a way that could imply either exoneration or a subtle defense” of those of accused of abuse. 

“We must avoid sending a message that the Holy See is oblivious to the psychological distress that so many are suffering,” O’Malley wrote in a letter to leaders of the Curia on Wednesday, June 26, according to the commission he heads. 

The letter — which was made public Friday, June 28, one day before O’Malley turns 80 and therefore must give up his Vatican posts — refers to Father Marko Rupnik, 69, a Slovenian priest and former Jesuit whose mosaic art decorates Catholic churches around the world. 

Rupnik has been accused by about two dozen women, mostly former nuns, of sexually abusing them during the past three decades. He has not publicly responded to the accusations. 

Vatican News, an official news outlet of the Holy See, published an image of a mosaic of St. Irenaeus made by Rupnik with a note that the original is in the office of the papal nuncio in Paris. 

Vatican News also published images of Rupnik’s art on May 26, June 1, and June 7, as the National Catholic Register, CNA’s sister news partner, has reported.

Paolo Ruffini, prefect of the Dicastery for Communication, defended using Rupnik’s art during an appearance in Atlanta on June 21, arguing that removing it wouldn’t help his accusers.

“I think that, as Christians, we have to understand that the closeness to the victims is important, but I don’t know that this is the way of healing: again and again talking about this problem of art that is healing others maybe, I don’t know, but maybe, yes. Maybe yes,” Ruffini said, as the Register reported.

“There are people that are praying in sanctuaries of many churches all around the world” in front of Rupnik’s mosaics, he said.

In June 2023, the Jesuits expelled Rupnik from the society, saying that they found the credibility of allegations against him to be “very high” and that the priest had refused “to come to terms with his past” and “to enter a path of truth.” 

A lawyer who represents five of the priest’s accusers said this week she sent a letter to bishops of dioceses where the priest’s mosaics are displayed asking them to remove them “out of respect for the victims and for the very nature of the place of prayer.” 

“Father Rupnik … is accused by numerous women of having inflicted spiritual, psychological, physical, and sexual abuse on them, and his mosaics, which are found in the places where every believer gathers in prayer to have contact with the Father, cause disturbance in the hearts of the faithful,” states the letter by Italian lawyer Laura Sgrò.

Rupnik incurred an automatic excommunication in 2019 for giving absolution to a woman he had sex with — an offense seen by the Vatican as an abuse of the sacrament of confession. But the excommunication was lifted after only a month, and afterward, in 2020, Rupnik preached a Lenten meditation for fellow clerics in Rome, including Pope Francis. 

Pope Francis is a Jesuit, as Rupnik was until last year, and the two have reportedly been on friendly terms in the past. 

The outcry over Rupnik led Pope Francis to declare in January 2023 that he “had nothing to do with” how Rupnik’s case had been handled. 

Rupnik is currently a priest of the Diocese of Koper in his native Slovenia. 

Many of the accusations against the priest were initially dismissed because they are beyond the Vatican’s ordinary statute of limitations for abuse of adults. But in October 2023, Pope Francis lifted the statute of limitations in this case, allowing the Vatican’s investigation of Rupnik to proceed.

Archbishop Carlo Vigano. / Credit: Edward Pentin/National Catholic Register

CNA Staff, Jun 28, 2024 / 14:45 pm (CNA).

Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò on Friday said he will not participate in a Vatican summons to face charges of schism, reiterating his claims that Pope Francis is not the legitimate pope of the Catholic Church. 

The archbishop had previously revealed he received an email from the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith informing him of the trial. The deadline for Viganò to appear before the Vatican expired today.

The former papal nuncio to the United States — who garnered headlines in 2018 for alleging that senior Church officials covered up abuses committed by former cardinal Theodore McCarrick — has repeatedly rejected the authority of Pope Francis since then and has called on him to resign. 

In a lengthy statement shared on social media June 28, Viganò accused Pope Francis of “heresy and schism” over his promotion of COVID-19 vaccines and his overseeing of the 2018 Vatican-China deal on the appointment of bishops. 

He also said he has “no reason to consider myself separate from communion with the holy Church and with the papacy, which I have always served with filial devotion and fidelity.”

“I maintain that the errors and heresies to which [Francis] adhered before, during, and after his election, along with the intention he held in his apparent acceptance of the papacy, render his elevation to the throne null and void,” Viganò wrote. 

Viganò, who has been in hiding for years, announced on social media June 20 that he had been summoned to Rome to answer formal charges of schism. 

Schism is a canonical crime defined in the Code of Canon Law as “the withdrawal of submission to the supreme pontiff or from communion with the members of the Church subject to him.” Heresy, on the other hand, is “the obstinate denial or doubt, after baptism, of a truth which must be believed by divine and Catholic faith.”

The specific charges outlined against Viganò, according to a document he himself posted, involve making public statements that allegedly deny the fundamental elements necessary to maintain communion with the Catholic Church. This includes denying the legitimacy of Pope Francis as the rightful pontiff and outright rejection of the doctrines established during the Second Vatican Council.

Viganò had previously in a June 21 statement said he has “no intention of subjecting myself to a show trial,” further saying he has not sent any materials in his defense to the dicastery, “whose authority I do not recognize, nor that of its prefect, nor that of the person who appointed him.”

Pope Francis meets with priests of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (Dehonians) on June 27, 2024, at the Vatican. / Credit: Vatican Media

ACI Prensa Staff, Jun 27, 2024 / 16:15 pm (CNA).

During an audience with Pope Francis on June 27, the priests of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (Dehonians) received devotional counsel from the Holy Father: They should make frequent visits, in humble silence, to their chapels for quiet prayer.

The audience took place on the occasion of the 25th general chapter of the congregation. Addressing the priests, Pope Francis invited them to make chapter decisions that take into account the value of sacramental life, “of being assiduous in listening to and meditating on the word of God, of the centrality of personal prayer and community, especially adoration, as a means of personal and fraternal growth and also as a service to the Church.”

“May the chapel be the most frequented room in your religious houses, especially as a place of humble and receptive silence and quiet prayer, so that the beats of the heart of Christ may guide the rhythm of your days, modulate the tones of your conversations, and sustain the zeal of your charity,” the Holy Father told the assembled priests.

The pope also stressed that the heart of Jesus “beats with love for us from eternity and his pulse can join ours, restoring us to calm, harmony, energy, and unity, especially in difficult moments.”

The Holy Father encouraged the priests not to be afraid in difficult times and to be close to the Lord “so that unity can be achieved in times of temptation.”

For this to happen, he stressed, “we need to give him space, with fidelity and constancy, silencing in us vain words and useless thoughts, and bringing everything before him.”

‘Gossip is a plague that destroys from within’

Pope Francis reiterated that gossip “is a plague, it seems small, but it destroys from within. Be careful. Never gossip about another, never! There is a good remedy for chatter: Bite your tongue, so that your tongue becomes swollen and doesn’t let you speak.”

The pope also highlighted the importance of prayer and said that without it there is no progress, “you’re not up on your feet: neither in religious life, nor in the apostolate! Without prayer nothing is done.”

Later, Pope Francis addressed the following questions to the priests: “How can we be missionaries today, in a complex time, marked by great and multiple challenges? How can you say, in the various areas of the apostolate in which you operate, something significant to a world that seems to have lost its heart?”

“Here is the secret of a credible proclamation, of an effective proclamation: letting the word ‘love’ be written, like Jesus, in our flesh, that is, in the concreteness of our actions, with tenacity, without being stopped by judgments that afflict us, distressing problems and the evil that wounds, with inexhaustible affection for each brother and sister, in solidarity with Christ the Redeemer in his desire to make reparation for the sins of all humanity.”

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

Pope Francis meets with members of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America on June 27, 2024, at the Vatican. / Credit: Vatican Media

ACI Prensa Staff, Jun 27, 2024 / 15:45 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis received on June 27 the members and advisers of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America (CAL), to whom he proposed imitating the example of St. Juan Diego to “build bridges of reconciliation, inclusion, and fraternity.”

In his welcoming address, the Holy Father recalled that “the Second Vatican Council has called us to a profound renewal.”

The synodal style of the Church in Latin America

Quoting Benedict XVI, the pope noted that the reform of the Church is always an “ablatio”: “a removal, so that the ‘nobilis forma’ (noble form), the face of the Bride, and along with it also that of the Bridegroom, the living Lord, becomes visible.”

Only in this way, the Holy Father continued, “does the divine penetrate and only in this way does a congregation arise, an assembly, a meeting, a purification, that pure community that we long for: a community in which one ‘I’ is no longer against another ‘I.’”

The Holy Father explained that with the apostolic constitution Praedicate Evangelium he wanted precisely to collaborate with this “ablatio” to renew the Roman Curia and, among other things, make the CAL a “diakonía” (service) that allows the Church in Latin America to experience the pastoral care and affection of the successor of Peter.

The pontiff noted that the CAL is currently called to be “an active subject that promotes the necessary transformation that we all need, that is, to help with discretion, prudence, and effectiveness so that we live synodality, to walk together moved by the Spirit of the Lord in Latin America."

The pope said that in this way they must promote with all their interlocutors, both in the Holy See and in CELAM (the Latin American Bishops’ Conference), CEAMA (the Ecclesial Conference of Amazonia), CLAR (the Latin American and Caribbean Confederation of Religious), the bishops’ conferences, and all the ecclesial organizations that directly or indirectly serve the Church in Latin America, “a synodal style of thinking, feeling, and doing.”

St. Juan Diego as a source of inspiration

To accomplish this, he invited the members and advisers of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America to have St. Juan Diego as a source of inspiration: “As we know, he was an extremely modest and simple Indigenous man. The Virgin doesn’t choose him because of his erudition, because of his organizational capacity, or because of his relationship with power.”

“On the contrary, Holy Mary of Guadalupe is moved because he knows he is very small. The awareness of his inability, accompanied by the discovery of the great love and closeness that the Virgin Mary has for him, allows St. Juan Diego to go look for the bishop and helps him to speak to him with charity and clarity about what the Lady from heaven asks of him.”

Pope Francis noted that the bishop, who also has a ministry to fulfill, requests a sign to be able to believe him. “St. Juan Diego obeys and finds on Tepeyec Hill the sign that was sought.” 

According to the Holy Father, in these scenes “we can see with simplicity and depth simultaneous synodality and communion.”

“The faithful layman announces the good news, trusting fundamentally in the ecclesial and supernatural dimension of his mission, and not so much in his own strengths. This is a beautiful experience of synodal conversion! This same trust also allows him to accept, without complications, the responsibility that the bishop has within the community.”

For Pope Francis, the result of this exercise of synodality and communion “is not only the roses that appear in front of everyone, not only is it the miraculous image printed on the saint’s tilma, but the beginning of a process of fraternal reconciliation between peoples who are inimical to each other.”

“This is the inspiring style,” the Holy Father said, “that CAL must promote throughout the Latin American region and, when required, even beyond it. Inspire, do not impose. Inspire, motivate, and engender freedom so that each ecclesial and social reality may discern its own path, also following the movements of the Spirit, in communion with the universal Church.”

“CAL must build bridges of reconciliation, of inclusion, of fraternity! Bridges that allow ‘walking together’ to be not a mere rhetorical expression but an authentic pastoral experience!” the pontiff exclaimed.

Finally, in view of the 2025 Jubilee, Pope Francis encouraged the commission members to invite the people of God to “be on pilgrimage and announce the message of hope that the entire region is urged to hear and rediscover.”

“May Holy Mary of Guadalupe sustain us and encourage us to persevere in the joint effort to make the Church a community increasingly in the style of Jesus,” he said.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

null / Credit: Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Jun 27, 2024 / 14:20 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis this week called on the faithful to a conversion of heart that extends Christian charity to all of God’s creation and urged them to commit themselves to protecting the environment.

The Holy Father made the remarks as part of a papal message delivered ahead of the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation. That observance, established by the pope in 2015, is held on Sept. 1 every year. 

Christians, the pope said, bear witness to their faith in part “by caring for the flesh of suffering humanity.” Christianity acknowledges that “everything is ordered to the glory of God,” Francis said; the spirit of “universal fraternity and Christian peace,” he argued, “should also be extended to creation.”

The Holy Spirit “guides us and calls us to conversion,” Francis said, “to a change in lifestyle in order to resist the degradation of our environment and to engagement in that social critique which is above all a witness to the real possibility of change.”

Care for creation, the pope said, is not merely an ethical issue but a theological one, one that is marked by the “act of love” in which God created human beings. 

“To hope and act with creation, then, means to live an incarnational faith, one that can enter into the suffering and hope-filled ‘flesh’ of others, by sharing in the expectation of the bodily resurrection to which believers are predestined in Christ the Lord,” the pope said. 

By living out this imperative, “our lives can become a song of love for God, for humanity, with and for creation, and find their fullness in holiness,” he wrote. 

The theme for the 2024 day of prayer is “Hope and Act with Creation,” with the motif drawn from St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans.

The pope said in 2015 that the day offers the faithful “a fitting opportunity to reaffirm their personal vocation to be stewards of creation, to thank God for the wonderful handiwork which he has entrusted to our care, and to implore his help for the protection of creation as well as his pardon for the sins committed against the world in which we live.” 

The establishment of the day in 2015 was also seen as a sign of unity with the Orthodox Church, which established Sept. 1 as a day to celebrate creation in 1989.