Awareness of our goodness and sinfulness leads us to God’s redemptive love

In one of the interviews Pope Francis gave onboard a plane headed back to Rome, he responded with, “Who am I to judge?” when presented with the case of a homosexual cleric. The context in which the statement was made is equally important.

Before this, the Pope was talking about the need for a theology of sin in the light of the cleric’s case. Here the Pope makes a distinction between a crime and sin.

He talks about the necessary process of the investigation he had conducted as prescribed by canon law to address the crime. Then he goes on to condemn child abuse as a crime and makes a distinction with regard to sin if a person undergoes conversion.

In this specific context of a possible conversion, he makes the statement, “Who am I to judge?” He then quotes the catechism of the Catholic Church that says, “These persons must never be marginalized and they must be integrated into society.”

‘Who am I to judge?’

Pardon this long introduction to our reflection on this Sunday’s Gospel, the story of the woman caught in the act of adultery.

I suppose we can say that the basic principle and foundation of Pope Francis’ “Who am I to judge?” statement is Christ’s “Neither do I condemn you.”

The beauty and power of this statement of Christ, again, is best appreciated in its broader context. What precedes the statement is Christ saying, “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone,” as a response to the lobby group of the scribes and Pharisees. He then tells the woman, “Go and sin no more.”

Perhaps this is a good starting point for our reflection on a “theology” of sin. Let us begin with the end in mind. An authentic Christian “theology” of sin must lead us to God’s love, mercy and forgiveness—in short, redemption.

What I offer for our reflection is self-awareness and self-acceptance: to be aware of our blessings and goodness that lead us to the awareness of God’s love that is gracious and creative; and to accept that we are also flawed and sinful that leads us to the awareness of God’s love that is merciful, forgiving and redemptive. (This is an Ignatian teaching.)

Key to this framework of awareness and acceptance is the word “self.” This leads us to a personal awareness and acceptance of “our” blessings and sins. In both cases we can accept and be embraced by the personal love of God for us.

In the latter, a personal confession of our sinfulness leads us to a personal openness to and acceptance of God’s merciful, forgiving and redemptive love—a “love that comes to us in Christ.”

Truth

Note that all this is rooted and grounded in the truth—the truth of who we are or, in Ignatian parlance, a realistic knowledge of the self, blessed and sinful yet “loved and loved greatly” by God.

Coming face to face with the truth is a process of humility and a moment of the greatest humility. As Teresa of Avila put it, humility is truth.

The process of humility strips us of both the good and the bad. The stripping of the bad is obvious, but the stripping of the good is also important, and, perhaps because of its subtlety, becomes trickier.

We saw this in the older brother last Sunday in the “Parable of the Prodigal Son” where he complained about his being good for years yet not being rewarded. His being good led him to envy not so much his “bad” brother but the “unreasonable,” and “unfair” love of the father.

Doing more

As the cliché goes, the greatest enemy of the best is the good. As Ignatius dramatically processes this in one meditation before Christ Crucified, we must ask: What have I done for you? What am I doing for you? What more should I do for you?

The “more,” which always aims for “more,” makes the good not enough. For the woman in today’s Gospel, it was good that she was not condemned and stoned, but this was not enough. Christ adds, “Go and sin no more.”

This brings us to the next point for reflection in our “theology” of sin. Sin, we often say, is missing the mark, from the Greek “hamartia.” The Filipino word is “kasalanan” or  “sala” which means to go against, to transgress, to be lost.

Sin is the image of digressing, or not being true to our authentic self. Sin is forgetting who we are in our relationship with God, forgetting how much God loves us.

This love of God is mysteriously yet powerfully and clearly expressed in Christ’s “judgment” of the woman: “Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more.”

In the coming weeks leading to Holy Week, let us remember the story of the woman caught in sin. It is our story.

We are all the characters in the story: the scribes and Pharisees who “lobby” and accuse; the woman who sinned yet stands silently before her accusers and her God; and if we choose, we can be the person Christ loved and continues to love us.

source: lifestyle.inquirer.net

Pope Francis opens Catholic Holy Year dedicated to mercy

VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis on Tuesday launched an extraordinary Catholic Jubilee year by opening a "Holy Door" in the walls of St Peter's, embracing a 700-year-old tradition while urging the Church to reach out and embrace the modern world with mercy.

"This is the door of the Lord. Open to me the gates of justice," the Argentinian pontiff said before being helped up three marble steps to push the giant bronze doors open.

In a break with tradition that reflected Francis's modernising instincts, the order to open the doors was delivered in Italian rather than Latin.

The 78-year-old then paused on the threshold of the renaissance basilica for two minutes of silent prayer before walking inside in an act to be carried out by hundreds of thousands of pilgrims in the coming months.

Francis was followed through the door by his predecessor, the now-retired Benedict XVI, 88, and by hundreds of cardinals, bishops and male and female members of religious orders.

Clutching a walking stick in his right-hand and looking extremely pale, Benedict was helped into the basilica on the arm of a young cleric.

Amid heightened security following recent terror attacks around the world, an estimated 50,000 pilgrims packed into St Peter's square and surrounding streets to watch Francis open the usually bricked-up wall in the facade of the renaissance basilica.

Many had tears rolling down their cheeks or eyes clenched shut in prayer as Francis ordered the door open for the first time since the last Jubilee, in 2000.

The first pilgrims had been in the square since before dawn in search of a prime spot to watch the latest enactment of a ceremony laden with religious symbolism.

"To pass through the Holy Door means to rediscover the infinite mercy of the Father who welcomes everyone and goes out personally to encounter each of them," Francis said in a homily during the preceding mass.

Francis also underlined the significance of his decision to start the Jubilee on the 50th anniversary of the end of the second Vatican Council, a gathering of bishops credited with a modernisation of the Church that Francis is attempting to emulate.

Francis said the 1960s council had allowed the Church to emerge from self-enclosure.

"It was the resumption of a journey of encountering people where they live: in their cities and homes, in their workplaces," he said.

"Wherever there are people, the Church is called to reach out to them and to bring the joy of the gospel."

For Francis's predecessor, the German-born Joseph Ratzinger, Tuesday's ceremony represented a rare public outing.

The Emeritus Pope, as he is officially known, has lived in seclusion within the Vatican since retiring in 2013 as failing health left him incapable of running an institution beset by the clerical sex abuse scandal and internecine bickering in its upper echelons.

Tuesday's celebrations will conclude in the evening when images by some of the world's greatest environmental photographers will be projected onto the facade of Saint Peter's in an initiative linked to the ongoing global climate conference in Paris.

Mercy not judgement
The Jubilee, which runs until November 20, 2016, was called by Francis with the express goal of changing the way the Church is perceived by the faithful, lapsed believers and the rest of the world.

"How much wrong we do to God and his grace when we speak of sins being punished by his judgment before we speak of their being forgiven by his mercy," he said on Tuesday.

"We have to put mercy before judgment ... Let us set aside all fear and dread, for these do not befit men and women who are loved."

In a surprise move reflecting that aim, Francis announced in September that for the duration of the Jubilee, priests would be given special dispensation to absolve women who have had abortions.

In addition, some 800 priests around the world are to be designated "missionaries of mercy" tasked with encouraging higher levels of confession amongst believers.

Those involved have been selected for their ability to preach well, understand human frailty and ensure the confessional is not experienced "like a torture chamber" as the pope has put it.

Francis's push for a less judgemental, more understanding Church has encountered fierce resistance from traditionalists opposed to any relaxation of teaching on hot-button subjects such as homosexuality, divorce and unmarried cohabitation.

Traditionally, Catholics were expected to make a pilgrimage to Rome to benefit from the indulgences on offer to the faithful who pass through the Holy Doors during Jubilee years.

Francis has effectively done away with this custom by ordering cathedrals around the world to open their own Holy Doors. That will happen on Sunday, when Francis himself opens the door at one of Rome's major churches, St John Lateran. —Agence France-Presse

source: gmanetwork.com

Pope says Church doors must stay open despite terror fears

Pope Francis said Wednesday that the doors of Catholic churches around the world must remain open, despite increased security fears in the aftermath of the Paris attacks.

"Please, no armored doors in the Church, everything open," the 78-year-old pontiff told pilgrims in St Peter's square, Italy's AGI news agency reported.

"There are places in the world where doors should not be locked with a key. There are still some but there are also many where armored doors have become the norm.

"We must not surrender to the idea that we must apply this way of thinking to every aspect of our lives," Francis said.

"To do so to the Church would be terrible."

The pope did not explicitly refer to last week's attacks on Paris, which he has condemned as "inhuman."

His comments came in the context of intense discussion in Italy about the security of the Vatican and Rome, which are seen as potential targets for Islamist militants.

Francis's comments also had a spiritual significance -- he has urged the Church to keep its doors open to lapsed believers who are considering returning and to the hundreds of thousands of migrants arriving in Europe from Africa, the Middle East and South Asia.

Italy announced this week that it would close airspace over Rome to drones for the duration of the upcoming Catholic jubilee year, which is expected to bring more than a million extra visitors to the Italian capital.

The move reflects fears a remote-controlled aircraft could be used by Islamic State or other militant groups to stage a potentially spectacular attack on the home of the Catholic church.

Security has also been stepped up at airports and train stations and some 700 extra troops deployed in public spaces in Rome.

Individuals purporting to be Islamic State militants have made a number of threats against Rome on social media and in the group's propaganda outlets.

Italian officials say they take such statements seriously but that they have never received evidence of a credible, specific plot to bomb Rome, the Vatican or the Pope. —Agence France-Presse

source: gmanetwork.com

Vatican sacks priest after he comes out as gay

VATICAN CITY - The Vatican dismissed a priest from his post in a Holy See office on Saturday after he told a newspaper he was gay and urged the Catholic Church to change its stance on homosexuality.

Monsignor Krzystof Charamsa was removed from his position at the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican's doctrinal arm where he had worked since 2003, a statement said.

Charamsa, 43, and a Polish theologian, announced he was gay and had a partner in a long interview with Italy's Corriere della Sera newspaper on Saturday.

He later held a news conference with his partner, a Spanish man, and gay activists at a Rome restaurant. They had planned a demonstration in front of the Vatican but changed the venue several hours before it was due to have started.

The Vatican said Charamsa's dismissal had nothing to do with his comments on his personal situation, which it said "merit respect".

But it said giving the interview and the planned demonstration was "grave and irresponsible" given their timing on the eve of a synod of bishops who will discuss family issues, including how to reach out to gays.

It said his actions would subject the synod, which Pope Francis is due to open on Sunday, to "undue media pressure".

The issue of homosexuality and the Church has dominated the aftermath of the pope's visit to the United States last week.

In Saturday's interview, Charamsa said his partner had helped him come to terms with his sexuality and knew he would have to give up the priesthood, although the Vatican statement made no reference to this outcome.

"It's time for the Church to open its eyes about gay Catholics and to understand that the solution it proposes to them — total abstinence from a life of love — is inhuman," he was quoted as saying.

The Catholic Church teaches that homosexuality is not a sin but that homosexual acts are.

The Vatican has been embarrassed by controversy over the pope's meeting with Kim Davis, a Kentucky county clerk who went to jail in September for refusing to honor a US Supreme Court ruling and issue same-sex marriage licences.

The Vatican said on Friday that "the only real audience" the pope had during his visit to Washington was with a small group that included a gay couple. — Reuters

Pope Francis meets with the homeless at DC’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral

After addressing the Joint Session of the US Congress, Pope Francis' schedule relaxes a little as he now has time to meet ordinary Americans before he flies to New York later in the day. He is heading to St. Patrick's Cathedral in Washington D.C., where he will meet the homeless beneficiaries of the Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Washington's St. Maria’s Meals program.

According to reports, the group will set up 55 tables for the homeless and needy to have lunch. Pope Francis is expected to bless the meal and interact with the diners.

The Vatican will livestream the event, which is expected to start at 11:10 p.m. Manila time. You can watch it here.


After this event, Pope Francis will fly to New York City, where he will conduct evening prayer at St. Patrick's Cathedral at 6:45 a.m. Friday (Manila time). — BM, GMA News

source: gmanetwork.com

What the Pope can do

 

In the Philippines, Pope Francis will have the mother of all pulpits.

 

He will surely use it to convey words of comfort for the afflicted. But will he also have a message that will shake up the comfortable, even a gentle prick of the conscience that will recognize the deep social injustices afflicting the only Catholic nation in Asia?

 

Most of the world already knows better than to expect only soothing sentiments from this pontiff. Of course, few here expect the Christmas scolding he gave Vatican officials for "arrogance" and "hypocrisy," among other choice weaknesses. 

 

But he must know that he faces a rare opportunity to make a lasting impact on a country with structural inequities comparable to the worst in his native Latin America.

 

If he saw images from the latest Nazareno procession, he will be acutely aware that a lack of religious fervor is not one of our problems. What is glaringly obvious is that our society does not practice what has been preached by many generations of priests on our shores.

 

It's interesting that he chose to combine Sri Lanka and the Philippines in a single trip: the former has a Catholic minority and will treat him not much differently from any popular head of state. Then he flies to the Philippines, where he will have a sense of what the Second Coming could be like.

 

The first Jesuit Pope will not be content with bringing inspiration. He wants to get stuff done. There are indications that climate change and poverty will be his major themes, especially when he visits Leyte and survivors of Typhoon Yolanda.

 

What many papal observers await is how he will frame his message. He has denounced the worst effects of capitalism, evident in what is happening to the planet and the world's poor. But will the Philippines be merely a showcase of the fate of others if they do not heed his call to address these twin ills?

 

Or will he inspire Filipinos to do more than seek his blessings and to solve worldy problems in our backyard?

 

Nearly everyone I've spoken with about the papal visit has a wish list for what can be done during this historic event. Some of my favorites;

 

1. Denounce torture by the state, which the Pope's own country Argentina has had to struggle to overcome. The Philippine police, the same force that the Pope will see protecting him in large numbers, is notorious for its abuse of ordinary citizens, with torture a common occurrence and occasionally a form of entertainment, as an Amnesty International report asserted late last year. No police officer has yet been convicted of torture.

 

2. Admonish erring priests, apologize on their behalf and call for their punishment. It could very well be that our culture of impunity is rooted in the socially influential, such as men of the cloth, being above the law. 

 

3. "Be more scientific." In addition to trusting in God, the Pope can urge Filipinos to trust in education and our own drive to deal with our problems. It's pointless to blame God for disasters; He gave us the will and mind to adapt and mitigate. As the Pope himself has said, "God is not a magician with a magic wand." A believer in evolution and the Big Bang theory, Pope Francis is a model for how to be a man of science and a man of faith at the same time. 

 

4. "Clean as you go." As he prepares a major encyclical this year on the environment, the "green pontiff" can demonstrate his moral power before the multitudes in Luneta. The papal crowd need not be like the Nazareno crowd or any other large public gathering in the Philippines. It can refrain from leaving garbage, now and forever. 

source: gmanetwork.com

Francis, the revolutionary pope

 

It’s less than a week before Pope Francis steps foot in the Philippines to visit Yolanda survivors and other members of the Filipino faithful. Before his historic visit, GMA News Online looks back at why the Pontiff—the first Jesuit and the first non-European and Latin American pope in 1,300 years—is shaping up to be a revolutionary leader of the Catholic Church. 

 

Before he became Pope Francis, the pontiff was Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina, the son of a rail worker father and a housewife mother. He led a simple life as the Archbishop of Buenos Aires before he was elected to the papacy in March 2013. 

 

Moments after his election, Pope Francis made history by taking on the name Francis, after Saint Francis of Assisi, who was known to have shunned wealth to live in poverty.

 

Throughout his almost two-year leadership, Pope Francis has proven to be a pope to watch, one that has breathed life back into a tired church with his views on controversial issues, including the treatment of gays and lesbians, evolution, divorce and others.

 

LGBTs should be respected

 

In a remarkable change from his predecessor Benedict, who said homosexuality was an intrinsic disorder, Francis said that when homosexuals told him they were always condemned by the Church and felt "socially wounded," he told them "the Church does not want to do this."

 

Pope Francis defended gays from discrimination by saying he was in no position to judge members of the Lesbian, Gay Bisexual and Transgender community.
 

"If a person is gay and seeks God and has good will, who am I to judge him?" the pope said.

 

"The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains this very well. It says they should not be marginalized because of this (orientation) but that they must be integrated into society," he said in 2013.

 

However, the Pope also referred to the Catholic Church's universal Catechism, which says that while homosexual orientation is not sinful, homosexual acts are.

 

"The problem is not having this orientation. We must be brothers. The problem is lobbying by this orientation, or lobbies of greedy people, political lobbies, Masonic lobbies, so many lobbies. This is the worse problem," he said.

 

Evolution not in contradiction with God

 

Another issue where Pope Francis diverted from the longtime stance of the Catholic Church is on the topic of evolution.

In October of last year, Pope Francis embraced evolution and said the Big Bang Theory is not at odds with God’s teachings.

 

Addressing a meeting of the Pontificial Academy of Sciences, an independent body housed in the Vatican and financed largely by the Holy See, Francis said scientific explanations for the world did not exclude the role of God in creation.

 

"The beginning of the world is not the work of chaos that owes its origin to something else, but it derives directly from a supreme principle that creates out of love," he said.

 

"The 'Big Bang', that today is considered to be the origin of the world, does not contradict the creative intervention of God, on the contrary it requires it," he said.

 

"Evolution in nature is not in contrast with the notion of [divine] creation because evolution requires the creation of the beings that evolve," the pope added.

 

Abortion still horrific

 

Yet while he has embraced views that some may call revolutionary for the 2,000-year-old Catholic Church, there are some issues on which Pope Francis stays with the script. A notable issue which the Church has long condemned is the practice of abortion. 

 

Last year, Pope Francis, pushed by critics, called the act “horrific.”

 

"It is horrific even to think that there are children, victims of abortion, who will never see the light of day," he said in a section of the speech about the rights of children around the world.

 

Abortion, he said, was part of a "throwaway culture" that had enveloped many parts of the world.

 

"Unfortunately, what is thrown away is not only food and dispensable objects, but often human beings themselves, who are discarded as unnecessary," he said.

 

Moral renewal

 

Pope Francis has also proved that he was not immune to criticizing those in his backyard. In his New Year’s message, Pope Francis cited the need for moral upheaval in Rome and in the Vatican itself.

 

“The Curia needs to change, to improve ... a Curia that does not criticize itself, that does not bring itself up to date, that does not try to improve, is a sick body," the Pope said.
 

Francis even went as far as to say that some in the Curia acted as if they were "immortal, immune or even indispensable," an apparent reference to retired cardinals who remain in the Vatican and continue to exert influence.

 

With all of his pronouncements that have brought the Catholic Church into the light of the 21st Century, it’s no wonder the world’s Catholics have embraced Francis as the “people’s pope.” —KG, GMA News

 

source: gmanetwork.com

Pope condemns Paris shooting, says stop spread of hate

 

VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis condemned as "abominable" the attack on Wednesday that killed 12 people at the Paris offices of a weekly satirical magazine known for lampooning Islam, calling on everyone to stop the spread of hate.

"The Holy Father expresses his firmest condemnation of the horrible attack," chief Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said in statement.

Francis "calls on everyone to oppose every method of spreading hate" because it "radically undermines the fundamental good of peaceful coexistence of people despite national, religious and cultural differences".

"Whatever its motivation might be, homicidal violence is abominable (and) is never justified," the spokesman said, reflecting the sentiments of the pope.

The leader of the 1.2 billion-member Roman Catholic Church was "participating in the prayers and sufferings of the injured and the families of the dead", the spokesman said.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Vatican's deputy spokesman, Father Ciro Benedettini, called the Paris attack "abominable because it is both an attack against people as well as against freedom of the press."  — Reuters

Pope, on Christmas Eve, urges world to be open to God

VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis ushered the world's 1.2 billion Roman Catholics into Christmas on Wednesday, urging them to allow God to enter their lives to help combat darkness and corruption.

The 78-year-old Argentine pope led a solemn Christmas Eve Mass for thousands of people in St. Peter's Basilica. It is the second Christmas season for the pope, who was elected last year as the first non-European pontiff in 1,300 years.

He has brought an air of simplicity to the Vatican, refusing many of the trappings of office, and has made plain his determination to reform the Vatican and bring the Church's hierarchy closer to rank-and-file Catholics.

In his homily, Francis, wearing white vestments, said Christmas is a time to remember that God's message of peace "is stronger than darkness and corruption"

"The question put to us simply by the infant's presence is, 'Do I allow God to love me?'" he said. "Do we have the courage to welcome with tenderness the difficulties and problems of those who are near to us ...?"

"How much the world needs tenderness today!" he said.

On Thursday morning, the pope will deliver his traditional Christmas Day "Urbi et Orbi" (to the city and the world) blessing and message from the central balcony of St. Peter's Square to tens of thousands of people.

The pope has a busy year ahead of him. He has a number of international trips planned, including to Sri Lanka and the Philippines in January. He is also due to visit Africa, the United States and Latin America.

Next month Pope Francis is due to announce the names of a new batch of cardinals, the elite princes of the Church who are eligible to enter a secret conclave to elect a new pope after his death or resignation.

Another key project due to take shape in 2015 is the reform of the Curia, the Vatican's central administration.

In Christmas greetings on Monday to the Vatican's top administrators, Pope Francis delivered a stinging critique of Vatican bureaucracy and outlined 15 illnesses plaguing the Curia, including "spiritual Alzheimer's". — Reuters

A brief guide to the Catholic Church’s sainthood procedure

VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis on Sunday proclaimed the sainthood of two of his predecessors, John XXIII, who reigned from 1958 to 1963, and John Paul II, who was pontiff from 1978 to 2005.

Here is a brief summary of how the Roman Catholic Church recognizes sainthood.

The process that can lead to sainthood, known as a "cause," cannot usually start until five years after a person's death.

In some cases, this five-year waiting period can be waived by a pope if there is overwhelming evidence that the person under consideration lived a holy life.

Pope John Paul waived the five-year period for Mother Teresa of Calcutta, who died in 1997, and Pope Benedict waived it for the sainthood cause of Pope John Paul, who died in 2005.

In the early years of the Church, a saint could be declared such by acclamation by the people or by cardinals or by papal decree.

Today, the Vatican department that studies sainthood causes is known as the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. Its origins date back to 1588 but the department has been modified several times over the years.

After the Congregation accepts the name of a person to be considered for sainthood, that person is given the title "Servant of God."

If initial investigations show that the candidate for sainthood lived what is known as a life of "heroic virtues" that person is given the title "Venerable."

Historical and theological commissions in the Congregation study the person's life, read his or her writings and interview people who knew the person.

At this point, in order for the procedure to continue, a miracle is needed.

Miracles are not performed by prospective saints but by God. The Church believes that, because a prospective saint is in heaven, he or she can intercede with God to perform the miracle on someone on earth who has prayed to the prospective saint.

A miracle is usually a medically inexplicable healing. A medical commission appointed by the Vatican determines if there was any medical explanation for the healing or not.

Miracles are not necessary if a person was a martyr, someone killed in what the Church calls "hatred of the faith."

If a miracle is determined for those who were not martyrs, the person can be "beatified" and is given the title "Blessed."

John XXIII was beatified in 2000 and John Paul was beatified in 2011.

A second, distinct miracle must take place after the beatification in order to proceed to sainthood.

John Paul is credited with two miracles—the inexplicable healing of a French nun who was suffering from Parkinson's disease and the healing of a Costa Rican woman who was suffering from a brain aneurysm. Both had prayed to him after he died.

John XXIII, on the other hand, is credited with only one miracle—the healing of an Italian nun who was stricken by a stomach disease doctors had determined would be fatal.

In the case of Pope John XXIII, Pope Francis waived the requirement of a second miracle, ruling that after more than half a century since his death, there was no doubt that John was a holy man. — Reuters

source: gmanetwork.com

Pope Francis breaks protocol, goes to confession in public

VATICAN CITY -- Pope Francis surprised his own master of ceremonies on Friday by confessing his sins to an ordinary priest in St. Peter's Basilica.

The pope was presiding at service intended to show the importance he attaches to the sacrament of reconciliation, commonly known as confession.

After reading a sermon, he was to have gone to an empty confessional booth to hear confessions from ordinary faithful as some 60 priests scattered around the huge church did the same.

His master of ceremonies, Monsignor Guido Marini, pointed him toward the empty booth but the pope went straight to another one, knelt before a surprised priest, and confessed to him for a few minutes.

He then went back to the empty one and heard the confessions of a number of faithful.

The pope goes to confession regularly but in private. -- Reuters

source: gmanetwork.com

Pope tells cardinals to shun intrigue, cliques of a royal court

VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis urged cardinals, who make up the top echelon of the Roman Catholic Church, on Sunday to shun the intrigue, gossip and cliques typical of a royal court.

Since his election nearly a year ago, Francis has often told his top aides not to live or behave like a privileged class. The eight-year papacy of his predecessor, Benedict, was marked by mishaps and missteps, which were often blamed on a dysfunctional Vatican bureaucracy and intrigue befitting a Renaissance court.

On Sunday, Francis celebrated a mass with 18 of the 19 new cardinals who were elevated to that rank on Saturday. One could not attend because of illness.

"A cardinal enters the Church of Rome, not a royal court," Francis said in his sermon, welcoming the men into the elite group that help him run the Church in the Vatican and around the world.

"May all of us avoid, and help others to avoid, habits and ways of acting typical of a court: intrigue, gossip, cliques, favouritism and preferences," he said during a solemn ceremony in St. Peter's Basilica.

It was the second consecutive day that Francis had warned cardinals to shun worldly temptations in the corridors of clerical power, either at home or in the nerve centre of the 1.2 billion-member Church.

At the induction ceremony on Saturday, which was attended by ex-pope Benedict, Francis urged the cardinals to avoid rivalries and factions. It was the first time Francis and Benedict, who resigned on Feb. 28, 2013, had been together for a liturgical celebration.

The "Vatileaks" scandal, in which Benedict's butler was arrested for leaking the pope's private papers to the media, alleged corruption in the Holy See, something the Vatican denied.

"Jesus did not come to teach us good manners or to behave as if we were at a social gathering," Francis told them.

United in simplicity and service

He asked the new cardinals to remain united among themselves and with him as they advise and help him run the Church in the Vatican and beyond in a spirit of simplicity and service.

Since his election last March as the first non-European pope in 1,300 years, Francis has attempted to infuse the Vatican and the Church with his simple style.

Last month, when he announced the names of the new cardinals, he quickly followed up with a letter to each asking that they not see their appointment as a promotion and not to waste money holding celebratory parties.

Francis, who has called for a "poor Church, and for the poor", has set the example himself. He has opted to live in a simple boarding house rather than the Apostolic Palace, and travels in a blue Ford Focus rather than a luxury car.

Cardinals are the pope's closest advisers in the Vatican and around the world. Apart from being Church leaders in their home countries, those who are not based in the Vatican are members of key committees in Rome that decide policies that can affect the lives of all Roman Catholics.

Sixteen of the new appointees are "cardinal electors" who join 106 existing cardinals who are also under 80 and thus eligible to enter a conclave to elect a pope from among their own ranks.

They come from Italy, Germany, Britain, Nicaragua, Canada, Ivory Coast, Brazil, Argentina, South Korea, Chile, Burkina Faso, the Philippines and Haiti. The non-electors come from Italy, Spain and Saint Lucia. — Reuters

Pope pays pre-Christmas visit to children in Rome hospital

ROME - Pope Francis on Saturday paid a pre-Christmas visit to dozens of children at a Catholic pediatric hospital in Rome, observing a decades-old papal tradition.

Stopping in the hospital's chapel, the pope was given a basket containing handwritten messages from the children.

"Thank you for your dreams and prayers that you have put in this basket," the pope said, according to a Vatican statement. "Let's entrust them together to the Lord, who knows them more than anyone."

Heading into the various wards during the visit of nearly three hours, the 77-year-old pontiff waved away photographers, saying: "I'm here for the patients."

The Vatican-owned hospital, Bambino Gesu (Baby Jesus), is Europe's largest pediatric research center, with a staff of 2,600 serving some 27,000 patients each year.

Pope John XXIII began the tradition of papal visits to Bambino Gesu at Christmastime in 1958. — Agence France-Presse

source: gmanetwork.com

Pope urges Catholic priests to help poor, shun careerism

VATICAN CITY  - Beginning a busy programme of Easter events, Pope Francis on Thursday urged Catholic priests to devote themselves to helping the poor and suffering instead of worrying about careers as Church "managers".

Francis' homily at his first Holy Thursday service as Roman Catholic leader was the latest sign since his surprise election two weeks ago of his determination that the 1.2 billion-member Church should be closer to the poor.

"We need to go out, then, in order to experience our own anointing (as priests) ... to the outskirts where there is suffering, bloodshed, blindness that longs for sight, and prisoners in thrall to many evil masters," he said during a Mass in St. Peter's Basilica.

The 76-year-old former Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio of Argentina has inherited a Vatican rocked by a scandal in which documents leaked to the media spoke of alleged corruption in its administration and depicted prelates as fighting among themselves to advance their careers.

At the Mass, the start of four days of hectic activities leading up to Easter this Sunday, Francis said priests should not get bogged down in "introspection" but step outside of themselves and concentrate on those who need their help.

"Those who do not go out of themselves, instead of being mediators, gradually become intermediaries, managers. We know the difference: the intermediary, the manager ... doesn't put his own skin and his own heart on the line, he never hears a warm, heartfelt word of thanks," he said.

In the next few weeks, Francis is expected to start making changes in the Curia, the central bureaucracy that was at the heart of the so-called "Vatileaks" scandal.

The new pope delivered his appeal for priests to live simply and closest to the needy on the day when the Catholic Church commemorates when Jesus founded the priesthood at the Last Supper on the night before he died.

Speaking to about 1,600 priests from Rome who attended the Mass, he said those who did not live in humility close to the people risked becoming "collectors of antiques or novelties - instead of being shepherds living with 'the smell of the sheep'"

The pope took the name Francis after St. Francis of Assisi, who is associated with austerity and helping the poor. The new pontiff has already set a clear tone for a humbler papacy and Church.

Later on Thursday, he will wash and kiss the feet of 12 young inmates at a youth prison on the outskirts of Rome, at a Holy Thursday ceremony commemorating Jesus's gesture of humility towards his apostles on the night before he died.

All popes in living memory have held the service either in St. Peter's or the Basilica of St. John in Lateran, which is the pope's cathedral church in his capacity as bishop of Rome.

The four days leading up to Easter are the most hectic in the Church's liturgical calendar.

On Friday Francis will preside at two Good Friday services including the traditional "Via Crucis" (Way of the Cross) procession around the ancient Colosseum in Rome.

He celebrates an Easter eve service on Saturday night and on Easter Sunday, the most important day in the Church's liturgical calendar, he will deliver his first "Urbi et Orbi" (to the city and the world) message to a large crowd in St. Peter's Square.  — Reuters

source: gmanetwork.com