Pope‘s words for Filipinos

 

Most of Pope Francis' message during his visit to the Philippines were delivered in Spanish. Here are some excerpts from the remarks he delivered.

During the Mass with clergymen and religious: "The great danger is a certain materialism which can creep into our lives and compromise the witness we offer. Only by becoming poor ourselves, by stripping away our complacency, will we be able to identify with the least of our brothers and sisters."

 

In meeting with families*: "To dream how will your daughter or son be. It is not possible to have a family without such dreams... When you lose this capacity to dream, then you lose the capacity to love and this energy to love is lost."

 

During the Mass for Yolanda survivors in Tacloban*: "So many of you have lost everything. I don’t know what to say to you. But the Lord does know what to say to you. Some of you have lost part of your families. All I can do is keep silent...But please know, Jesus never lets you down. Please know that the love and tenderness of Mother Mary never lets you down."

 

In encounter with the youth*: "Today, with so many means of communications, we are overloaded with information. Is that bad? Not necessarily. It is good and it can help. But there is a real danger of living in a way of accumulating information... We run the risk of becoming museums of young people that have everything but without knowing what to do with them. We don’t need youth museums but we do need holy young people."

 

At the Concluding Mass in Luneta: "We forget to remain, at heart, children of God. That is sin: to forget at heart that we are children of God. For children, as the Lord tells us, have their own wisdom, which is not the wisdom of the world. That is why the message of the Santo Niño is so important. He speaks powerfully to all of us. He reminds us of our deepest identity, of what we are called to be as God’s family."

* — message delivered in Spanish


— Rose-An Jessica Dioquino/RSJ, GMA News

source: gmanetwork.com

Pope Francis urges youth to use information technology wisely

 

Pope Francis on Sunday urged the youth to judiciously use information technology (IT) lest "the psychology of the computer let us think that we know it all."

 

Speaking at an encounter with the youth at the University of Santo Tomas, the pope said having many modern means of communication can help but there is a danger of accumulating information.

 

"Today with so many means of communication, we are overloaded with information. Is that bad? Not necessarily ... It is good and it can help, but there is a real danger of living in a way of accumulating information. We have so much information but maybe we dont know what to do with that information," he said through an interpreter.

 

 

 

He warned of the risk of becoming museums of young people who he said have everything but may not know what they want to do with them.

 

The Pope said the challenge is to learn how to love and "through that love, that information bear fruit."

 

"We dont need youth museum but we do need holy young people," he said.

 

Also, he said the youths should learn to use their hearts, minds and hands - "to think, to feel, to do, and all that harmoniously."

 

The Pope also warned against having the psychology of a computer to "think we know it all."

 

"Let us not have the psychology of a computer to think we know it all," he said. — Joel Locsin/TJD, GMA News

 

source: gmanetwork.com

Pope Francis 'very impressed' by Filipinos' passionate welcome

 

An estimated 800,000 to a million Filipinos gathered between Villamor Air Base in Pasay City to the Apostolic Nunciature in Manila on Thursday to offer Pope Francis a welcome that only the lone predominantly Catholic country in Asia could give.

Fr. Federico Lombardi SJ, the director of the Vatican Press Office, said the Filipino faithful did not at all disappoint.

Wire agency Agence France-Presse described the Filipino reception as "rapturous."
 

"The Pope was very impressed," Lombardi said in a news conference at the Vatican Media Center, a short distance away from the Pope's official residence in Manila.

 

"The first encounter of the Pope [with the Filipino people] was very impressive, important, and touching," he added.

 

Aside from the welcoming party at the air base and the crowd that gathered in front of the nunciature, Filipinos lined the route of the papal motorcade to give the 78-year-old pontiff an ardent receptiion.

Lawyer Francis Tolentino, chairman of the Metro Manila Development Authority and a member of the organizing committee of the papal visit, said the agency estimate of the people that gathered was between 800,000 to a million.

 

President Benigno Aquino III and members of the Cabinet received Pope Francis at Villamor Air Base late Thursday afternoon. 

 

Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle, Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines president Archbishop Socrates Villegas, and other prelates were also at the airbase to welcome the pontiff.

 

Students from various Catholic schools in Parañaque performed three dances to welcome the Pope at the airbase.

Church bells tolled

It was the beginning of a five-day trip in the Catholic Church's Asian heartland that is tipped to attract a world-record papal crowd.

 

Church bells tolled across the former Spanish colony as the charismatic pontiff flew into the capital of Manila after a successful visit to Sri Lanka.

 

Francis smiled as he looked out the window of his plane upon touchdown, greeted by the sight of hundreds of children on the tarmac chanting "Welcome Pope Francis!" and "We love you, Pope Francis!"

 

Francis has said his two-nation tour is aimed at adding momentum to the Church's already impressive growth in Asia, with its support in the Philippines the benchmark for the rest of the region. 

 

Eighty percent of the former Spanish colony's 100 million people practise a famously fervent brand of Catholicism, and the pope is set to enjoy thunderously enthusiastic crowds throughout his stay.

 

"Every step he makes, every car ride he takes, every moment he stays with us is precious for us," Villegas said as he called on all Filipinos to make an effort to see him.

 

Hundreds of thousands of people crowded the route the pope passed as he made a 35-minute trip in a "popemobile" from the airport to the Vatican's embassy to rest overnight.

 

The pope stood on the back of the vehicle, which had no walls, waving and smiling constantly to the crowd.

 

"It's a blessing to see the pope. That's why we're here," school teacher Jeannie Blesado, 35, told AFP.
 

Personally comfort Yolanda survivors
 

Pope Francis has several engagements in Manila but Church leaders said the Holy Father's main intention was to personally comfort the survivors of super typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) in Leyte.

Yolanda, which hit Central Philippines in November 2013, was the strongest typhoon on record to ever make landfall.

 

More than 40,000 policemen and soldiers are deployed different areas to secure the Holy Father during his five-day stay in the country.

 

This is the first time that Pope Francis visited the Philippines, and Southeast Asia since taking the helm of the Roman Catholic Church in March 2013. 

 

The 78-year-old charismatic pontiff went to Sri Lanka for a three-day visit, to kick off his Asian tour, before coming to the Philippines.

 

The first Jesuit Pope who hailed from Argentina gave Sri Lanka its first saint, Catholic priest Joseph Vaz, who led he rebuilding of the Church in the country during he 17th and 18th centuries after the Dutch declared Calvinism as the official religion.

 

The 266th Pope of the Catholic Church is expected to draw some six million people in an open air Mass on Sunday at Rizal Park in Manila. —with a report from Agence France Presse/NB/JST, GMA News

 

source: gmanetwork.com