2016-07-29T19:46:00+00:00

Krakow, Poland, Jul 29, 2016 / 01:46 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Speaking form the balcony of the bishop's palace in Krakow, Pope Francis told youth gathered below that the horror lived by prisoners in the Auschwitz extermination camp isn’t over, but still continues in those who suffer various forms of cruelty today. “I don't want to make you bitter, but I have to tell the truth. The cruelty of Auschwitz and Birkenau has not ended. Even today many people are tortured,” the Pope said July 29. Many prisoners, he said, “are tortured immediately, in order to make them talk. Today there are men and women in overcrowded prisons. They live like animals. This cruelty is there today.” He spoke at the close of his second full day in Poland, where he is spending July 27-31 for World Youth Day. He’s appearing on the balcony of the archbishop’s palace each night after he returns in order to address the crowd of youth gathered below. St. John Paul II began the tradition by speaking to youth from the balcony each time he visited his homeland as Pope. It was continued by Benedict XVI when he visited Poland in 2006, and is now Francis is following in the steps of his predecessors. Earlier in the morning Francis went to the Auschwitz and Birkenau extermination camps, where an estimated 1.5 million people lost their lives during the Nazi occupation. He later stopped by a children’s hospital to visit with the young patients and give them his blessing. After leaving the hospital, Pope Francis traveled to Krakow’s Blonia Park, where the youth participating in WYD performed a live reenactment of the Stations of the Cross. In his speech to youth at the balcony window, Pope Francis noted how they are closed the day uniting to the suffering Jesus. However, Jesus didn’t just suffer 2,000 years ago, but “he suffers today,” the Pope said. There are many people who suffer, including “the sick the homeless, the hungry, those who are doubtful in life, who don't feel happiness or salvation, or who feel the weight of their own sin,” he said, noting that Jesus also suffers in the sick children he visited at the hospital earlier in the day. “Jesus also suffers there, in many children...and that question always comes to mind: why do children suffer? There are no answers for these things.” Francis then reflected on his visit to Auschwitz and Birkenau, where there was so much pain and “cruelty,” asking “is it possible that us men, created in God's image, are capable of doing these things?” The same cruelty exists today, he said, explaining that this can be seen wherever there is war. “In many places in the world, where there is war the same thing happens,” he said. However, Francis also noted that Jesus chose to come into this reality, and to carry the weight of this cruelty on his shoulders. He also asks us to pray, the Pope said, offering his prayers for “all of the Jesus' there are in the world: the sick, the hungry, the thirsty, those in doubt, those who are alone, who feel the weight of many doubts and wounds.” These people, he said, “suffer a lot,” and asked the youth to also pray for the many sick children in the world, “who carry the cross as a child,” and for all men and women “who today are tortured in many countries in the world, for the prisoners who are piled up as if they are animals.” Jesus took all of this upon himself, including our sin, Pope Francis said. He stressed the fact that we’re all sinners who carry the weight of our sins, and jestingly told the youth that if they don’t feel like a sinner, to raise their hand. “We are all sinners, but Jesus loves us. And when there are tears, the child looks for their mother,” he said, and led the youth in praying a Hail Mary, each in their own language, before giving his blessing and wishing them a good night. Read more

2016-07-29T18:38:00+00:00

Paris, France, Jul 29, 2016 / 12:38 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- At a Mass said for the victims of Tuesday's church attack in France, the Archbishop of Paris appealed for hope as he remembered Father Jacques Hamel, who was killed by two Islamic State terrorists as he was celebrating the Eucharist. At the July 27 Mass for the victims of Saint-Étienne du Rouvray said at Notre Dame de Paris, Cardinal Andre Vingt-Trois recalled the words of one of the readings of the day from the prophet Jeremiah: “Would you be a mirage for me, like doubtful waters?”   “In this terrible time we're going through, how can we make our own this cry to God of the prophet Jeremiah, in the midst of attacks of which he was the object?  How can we not turn against God and not demand an account from him?” the cardinal reflected. He also said that to cry out to to the Lord “is not to lack faith in God. It is, on the contrary, to continue to speak to him and to call upon him in the precise moment when events seem to call into question his power and his love. It is to continue to affirm our faith in him, our trust in the Face of love and mercy he has shown in his son Jesus Christ.” “Those who wrap themselves in the trappings of religion to mask their deadly project, those who want to proclaim to us a God of death, a Moloch who would rejoice in the death of a man and who would promise paradise to those who kill while invoking him, those people cannot expect humanity to yield to their mirage.” In his homily, Cardinal Vingt-Trois recalled that “the hope written by God on the heart of man has a name: it is called life. Hope has a face, the face of Christ giving his life in sacrifice so that men may have life in abundance.” “Hope has a project, the project of gathering humanity into one people, not by extermination but by  conviction and by the call to freedom. It is this hope in the midst of trial that forever blocks for us the path to despair, vengeance, and death.” For the cardinal “it's this hope that animated the ministry of Father Jacques Hamel when he celebrated the Eucharist, during which he was savagely executed. It is this hope that sustains the Christians in the Middle East when they have to flee in the face of  persecution and they choose to leave everything behind rather than renounce their faith.” Referring to World Youth Day being held in Poland, the cardinal also said that “it is this hope that dwells in the hearts of hundreds of thousands of young people gathered around Pope Francis in Krakow. It's this hope to allows us to not succumb to hatred when we are caught up in the storm.” “It is this conviction that was savagely wounded at Saint-Étienne du Rouvray, and it is thanks to this conviction that we can resist the temptation to nihilism and a taste for death. It is thanks to this conviction that we refuse to become delirious with conspiracy theories and allow our society become gangrenous with the virus of suspicion.” “Where shall we find the strength to face dangers if we cannot rely on hope?” he then asked. Finally, the Archbishop of Paris emphasized that “for we who believe in the God of Jesus Christ, this hope is trusting in the word of God as the prophet Jeremiah received it and relayed it: 'Though they fight against you, they shall not prevail, for I am with you,to save and rescue you. I will rescue you from the hand of the wicked, and ransom you from the power of the violent.'” Fr. Hamel was killed July 26 after two armed gunmen stormed a church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray in Normandy during Mass. The assailants entered the church and took the celebrating priest and four others hostage. Local law enforcement reported that the priest’s throat was slit in the attack, and that both of the hostage takers were shot dead by police. The French bishops designated July 29 as a day of fasting following the attack. Fr. Hamel, who was 86, was ordained a priest in 1958. His funeral Mass will be said Aug. 2 in the cathedral of Rouen. Read more

2016-07-29T18:20:00+00:00

Rome, Italy, Jul 29, 2016 / 12:20 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis sat quietly in one of Auschwitz's most ominous prison cells, praying in what had been the inhumane living space of St. Maximilian Kolbe, a Catholic priest martyred during the Holocaust. St. Maximilian was one of over a million people estimated to have died in the Auschwitz concentration camps, where the Pope paid a visit on July 29 during his trip to Poland. This August marks the 75th anniversary of his death. Although the majority of those incarcerated in the death camps were Jews, targeted by the Nazi regime for extermination, many of the victims were Catholics, including priests and religious sisters. St. Maximilian, a Franciscan friar, died in 1941 after asking to take the place of another prisoner who was destined for execution. The following year, Edith Stein, the German Jewish philosopher turned Catholic Carmelite nun, was also killed at Auschwitz, most likely in the gas chambers upon her arrival.   They are joined by countless other Catholics who lost their lives during the Holocaust, many of them for trying to rescue Jews from the Nazis. The sacrifices of these Catholics, both living and dead, were quietly remembered throughout  Pope Francis' pilgrimage to the infamous Auschwitz death camp. He prayed at length in the prison cell where the St. Maximilian had been kept during his incarceration. He also greeted a group known as the “Righteous among the Nations” – non-Jewish men and women who had risked their lives to save Jews from the Nazi extermination. According according to several biographies, the young St. Maximilian had been personally called to martyrdom by the Virgin Mary. In his account, Mary came to him in an apparition holding two crowns, indicating for him to choose: one was white, representing purity, the other red, for martyrdom. He chose both.   Following the German invasion of Poland, St. Maximilian was arrested twice, first in 1939 and again in 1941, at which point he was sent to Auschwitz. That August, 10 prisoners were sentenced to death by starvation in punishment for another inmate's escape. After hearing one of the men lament leaving behind his wife and children, Fr. Kolbe volunteered to die in his place. Survivors of the camp testified that the starving prisoners could be heard praying and singing hymns, led by the priest. After two weeks, on the night before the feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the camp officials decided to hasten Fr. Kolbe's death, injecting him with carbolic acid. He was canonized 40 years later, on Oct. 10, 1982. Edith Stein, known formally as St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, is another martyr of the Auschwitz death camp. She was born into a Jewish family in Breslau, Poland, but abandoned her faith as a teenager. A brilliant academic, Stein advanced in a career in philosophy, and studied under the likes of phenomenologists Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger. Influenced by the writings of St. Teresa of Ávila, she converted to Catholicism in 1922, and entered the disclaced Carmelite monastery 1933. In 1942, Sr. Teresa Benedicta was arrested along with her sister Rosa, and the members of her religious community, in retaliation against a protest letter by the Dutch Bishops which decried the Nazi treatment of Jews. It is believed that she perished in the Auschwitz gas chambers upon her arrival Aug. 9, 1942, along with her sister and the rest of the community. Pope Francis' pilgrimage to Auschwitz also paid homage to the sacrifice of the Ulma family, even though they were not killed in the concentration camp.   The visit was conducted almost entirely in silence, except for the recitation of Psalm 130 – “Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord” – delivered by Fr. Stanislaw Ruszala, a Polish priest from the village of Markowa, where the young Catholic family had been slaughtered by the Nazis for harboring Jews.   Jozef Ulma was murdered during the Nazi occupation, alongside his wife Wiktoria and seven children, including their unborn child. The Nazis also slaughtered the eight members of the Jewish Goldman, Gruenfeld and Didner families being harbored by the Ulmas. Pope Francis is not the first pontiff to visit the Auschwitz camps. The camps were visited by Polish-born St. John Paul II in 1979, and later by Benedict XVI in 2006. Read more

2016-07-29T17:56:00+00:00

Krakow, Poland, Jul 29, 2016 / 11:56 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The Way of the Cross shows Christ's embrace of everyone who hungers, suffers, and dies – and the imperative for Christians to do works of mercy. Those were Pope Francis’ words for young people at World Youth Day in Krakow on Friday. “Jesus himself chose to identify with these our brothers and sisters enduring pain and anguish by agreeing to tread the ‘way of sorrows’ that led to Calvary,” the Pope said July 29. “By dying on the cross, he surrendered himself into to the hands of the Father, taking upon himself and in himself, with self-sacrificing love, the physical, moral and spiritual wounds of all humanity.” “By embracing the wood of the cross, Jesus embraced the nakedness, the hunger and thirst, the loneliness, pain and death of men and women of all times,” he continued. The Pope spoke to thousands of young people gathered in a field in Krakow’s Blonia Park. He reflected on the question: “Where is God?” “Where is God, if evil is present in our world, if there are men and women who are hungry and thirsty, homeless, exiles and refugees?” he asked. “Where is God, when innocent persons die as a result of violence, terrorism and war?” He asked where God is in the face of cruel and deadly disease, in the exploitation and suffering of children, and in “the anguish of those who doubt and are troubled in spirit.” “These are questions that humanly speaking have no answer,” Pope Francis said. “We can only look to Jesus and ask him. And Jesus’ answer is this: ‘God is in them.’ Jesus is in them; he suffers in them and deeply identifies with each of them. He is so closely united to them as to form with them, as it were, ‘one body’.” The Pope told young people of the importance of the spiritual and corporal works of mercy, saying they open us to God’s mercy and help us appreciate that “without mercy we can do nothing.” These are the only answers to evil, he said. “In the face of evil, suffering and sin, the only response possible for a disciple of Jesus is the gift of self, even of one’s own life, in imitation of Christ; it is the attitude of service. Unless those who call themselves Christians live to serve, their lives serve no good purpose. By their lives, they deny Jesus Christ,” the Pope declared. The Pope stressed the importance of both the corporal and spiritual works of mercy. “We are called to serve the crucified Jesus in all those who are marginalized, to touch his sacred flesh in those who are disadvantaged, in those who hunger and thirst, in the naked and imprisoned, the sick and unemployed, in those who are persecuted, refugees and migrants,” he said. “There we find our God; there we touch the Lord.” He said the credibility of Christians is at stake in how they welcome both those who suffer physically and those who suffer spiritually. “The Way of the Cross is the way of fidelity in following Jesus to the end, in the often dramatic situations of everyday life,” he added. “It is a way that fears no lack of success, ostracism or solitude, because it fills ours hearts with the fullness of Jesus.” Christ brings this path even to societies that are divided, unjust, and corrupt. “The Way of the Cross is not a sadomasochistic habit. The Way of the Cross alone defeats sin, evil and death, for it leads to the radiant light of Christ’s resurrection and opens the horizons of a new and fuller life. It is the way of hope, the way of the future,” the Pope said. “Those who take up this way with generosity and faith give hope and a future to humanity.” “And I would like you to be sowers of hope,” he added. “Dear young people, on that Good Friday many disciples went back crestfallen to their homes,” he concluded. “Others chose to go out to the country to forget the cross.” “I ask you – and respond, each of you, silently in your hearts – how do you want to go back this evening to your own homes, to the places where you are staying? Your tents? How do you want to go back this evening to be alone with your thoughts? The world is watching us. Each of you has to answer the challenge that this question sets before you.” He added special mention of those attending World Youth Day from war-torn Syria: “Tonight Jesus, and we with him, embrace with particular love our brothers and sisters from Syria who have fled from the war. We greet them, and we welcome them with fraternal affection and friendship.” Read more

2016-07-29T17:13:00+00:00

Krakow, Poland, Jul 29, 2016 / 11:13 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis sent a video message to Cuban youth unable to attend World Youth Day on Friday, encouraging them to have hope and to bring the Gospel to life. “Young Cubans: open yourselves to great things! Do not be afraid,” the Pope said July 29 in his message to the some 1,400 youth who are gathered in Havana for a celebration that coincides with World Youth Day. “Dream that with you, the world can be different! Dream that Cuba, with you, can be different, and better every day. Do not give up! In this endeavour it is important that you open your heart and mind to the hope that Jesus gives.” The Church in Cuba has organized a gathering for those who could not travel to Krakow for the encounter with Pope Francis, adopting the same themes and providing catecheses, the Way of the Cross, and opportunities to pass through a Holy Door and gain the plenary indulgence offered for the Jubilee of Mercy. “With great hope I join with you in this moment, in which you are in harmony with the universal Church whose young heart is in Krakow,” the Pope said. “I trust that these days will be, for all, a special occasion to foster the culture of encounter, the culture of respect, the culture of understanding and of mutual forgiveness.” Pope Francis exhorted them to “never forget that this hope is suffered; hope knows how to suffer to carry out a project, but likewise do not forget that it gives life, it is fruitful. And with this, hope will not be fruitless; rather, it will give life to others, it will create a homeland, a Church, it will do great things.” He said, “Hope is instrumental in building ‘social friendship’, even though people may think differently. It is not necessary for us all to think in the same way.” “We must all join together in ‘social friendship’, even with those who think in a different way. But we all have something in common: the wish to dream, and this love for the homeland. The important thing, regardless of whether we are the same or different, is to build this ‘social friendship’ with all; to build bridges, to work together. Build bridges!” The Pope encouraged Cuba's youth to “live the experience of listening carefully to the Gospel and then bringing it alive in your own lives, in the lives of your family and friends. … When you pray the Via Crucis , remember that we cannot love God if we do not love our brothers. When you pass through the Holy Door, let yourself be infused with this love.” By doing this “you will learn always to look upon others with mercy, closeness and tenderness, especially those who suffer and those who are in need of help,” he said. “Stand before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament; because in him, and only in him, will you find the strength to follow the most beautiful and constructive plan of our lives; because love is constructive, love destroys not even the enemy, love always builds up.” He recalled St. John Paul II's exhortation to “be not afraid”, telling them to “remember that the Master’s most beautiful wish is that you will be afraid of nothing.” “Boys and girls, do not be afraid of anything, be free of the bonds of this world and proclaim to all, to the elderly, the sorrowful, that the Church weeps with them, and that Jesus is able to give them new life, to revive them.” Read more

2016-07-29T16:29:00+00:00

Krakow, Poland, Jul 29, 2016 / 10:29 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The day after a priest was brutally murdered in France, a panel at World Youth Day in Poland discussed the importance of religious freedom worldwide. The panel left an Iraqi archbishop deeply impressed at how Catholic youth from around the world \are not only aware of the persecution of Christians – particularly in the Middle East – at the hands of ISIS, but are anxious to demonstrate their solidarity. Archbishop Bashar Warda of Erbil, Iraq, was greeted with one standing ovation after another as he spoke to thousands of young people at World Youth Day (WYD) about the targeting of Christians in his country. World Youth Day is a weeklong gathering of young Catholics from around the world that will conclude on Sunday with a Mass celebrated by Pope Francis. The panel discussion took place Tuesday at Tauron Arena Kraków, the site for English-speaking pilgrims to World Youth Day. The arena has been dubbed "Mercy Center" for the week, and is being sponsored by the Knights of Columbus and a number of partners. Pope Francis will visit the arena before he departs for Rome on Sunday. Christians now suffering in the Middle East “will be so moved to learn of this tremendous support, and they will be encouraged in hope knowing that so many youth around the world care about them, and care that they continue to be allowed to practice their faith in the place where Jesus himself lived, in the place where his language is still spoken,” said Archbishop Warda of Erbil, Iraq, immediately after the panel discussion. In addition to Archbishop Warda, the panel included Archbishop of Baltimore William Lori, who has served as the chairman of the U.S. Bishops’ Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty; author and commentator George Weigel; and Vice President of the NGO Roads of Success, Jacqueline Isaac. An American of Egyptian descent, Isaac has spent more than a decade advocating for the rights of minorities and women across the Middle East, and recently testified before the U.K. Parliament and U.S. Congress. The discussion had a particular poignancy as it was held in the wake of the murder of Father Jacques Hamel in France. Despite the pain that follows such an act, panelists called for a spirit of forgiveness and reconciliation, especially with those who are carrying out violence and intimidation against Christians. “We are to be the carriers of [God's] light and his love," said Isaac. "And I promise you that it will radiate and break through the darkness.” Archbishop Lori observed that Christians would rather use the gift of freedom to evangelize or serve the poor instead of fighting legal battles over the right to practice the faith. He also noted that the implications of the struggle are usually far removed from the every-day lives of the young. He asked: “What should our response be in the face of the secular view of religious liberty, where liberty is considered the ‘right’ to discriminate?” We can't go along with that point of view. Without religious freedom, life becomes a hard place, where no one and nothing stands.” Weigel emphasized that "religious freedom is not freedom of worship alone.” He pointed out that "religious conviction, not only leads us to worship, it leads us to educate, leads us to serve, leads us to heal, it leads us to religious communities that have a right to be themselves.” Mercy Centre has been organized by the Knights of Columbus – the world’s largest Catholic fraternal service organization with nearly two million members – together with the Sisters of Life and the Saint John Paul II National Shrine in Washington, D.C., and other groups. The Knights of Columbus, with 4,000 members in Poland, is also celebrating its 10th anniversary in that country this year. For more information and a complete listing of World Youth Day programming, visit wydenglishsite.org or follow #WYDMercyCentre #kofc on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.  This press release was provided to CNA by the Knights of Columbus. Read more

2016-07-29T16:29:00+00:00

Krakow, Poland, Jul 29, 2016 / 10:29 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The day after a priest was brutally murdered in France, a panel at World Youth Day in Poland discussed the importance of religious freedom worldwide. The panel left an Iraqi archbishop deeply impressed at how Catholic youth from around the world \are not only aware of the persecution of Christians – particularly in the Middle East – at the hands of ISIS, but are anxious to demonstrate their solidarity. Archbishop Bashar Warda of Erbil, Iraq, was greeted with one standing ovation after another as he spoke to thousands of young people at World Youth Day (WYD) about the targeting of Christians in his country. World Youth Day is a weeklong gathering of young Catholics from around the world that will conclude on Sunday with a Mass celebrated by Pope Francis. The panel discussion took place Tuesday at Tauron Arena Kraków, the site for English-speaking pilgrims to World Youth Day. The arena has been dubbed "Mercy Center" for the week, and is being sponsored by the Knights of Columbus and a number of partners. Pope Francis will visit the arena before he departs for Rome on Sunday. Christians now suffering in the Middle East “will be so moved to learn of this tremendous support, and they will be encouraged in hope knowing that so many youth around the world care about them, and care that they continue to be allowed to practice their faith in the place where Jesus himself lived, in the place where his language is still spoken,” said Archbishop Warda of Erbil, Iraq, immediately after the panel discussion. In addition to Archbishop Warda, the panel included Archbishop of Baltimore William Lori, who has served as the chairman of the U.S. Bishops’ Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty; author and commentator George Weigel; and Vice President of the NGO Roads of Success, Jacqueline Isaac. An American of Egyptian descent, Isaac has spent more than a decade advocating for the rights of minorities and women across the Middle East, and recently testified before the U.K. Parliament and U.S. Congress. The discussion had a particular poignancy as it was held in the wake of the murder of Father Jacques Hamel in France. Despite the pain that follows such an act, panelists called for a spirit of forgiveness and reconciliation, especially with those who are carrying out violence and intimidation against Christians. “We are to be the carriers of [God's] light and his love," said Isaac. "And I promise you that it will radiate and break through the darkness.” Archbishop Lori observed that Christians would rather use the gift of freedom to evangelize or serve the poor instead of fighting legal battles over the right to practice the faith. He also noted that the implications of the struggle are usually far removed from the every-day lives of the young. He asked: “What should our response be in the face of the secular view of religious liberty, where liberty is considered the ‘right’ to discriminate?” We can't go along with that point of view. Without religious freedom, life becomes a hard place, where no one and nothing stands.” Weigel emphasized that "religious freedom is not freedom of worship alone.” He pointed out that "religious conviction, not only leads us to worship, it leads us to educate, leads us to serve, leads us to heal, it leads us to religious communities that have a right to be themselves.” Mercy Centre has been organized by the Knights of Columbus – the world’s largest Catholic fraternal service organization with nearly two million members – together with the Sisters of Life and the Saint John Paul II National Shrine in Washington, D.C., and other groups. The Knights of Columbus, with 4,000 members in Poland, is also celebrating its 10th anniversary in that country this year. For more information and a complete listing of World Youth Day programming, visit wydenglishsite.org or follow #WYDMercyCentre #kofc on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.  This press release was provided to CNA by the Knights of Columbus. Read more

2016-07-29T15:48:00+00:00

Krakow, Poland, Jul 29, 2016 / 09:48 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis paid a visit to the patients of a children's hospital in Krakow on Friday, where he expressed his solidarity with the sick and lauded the hospital in its caring for “the smallest and most needy,” showing his gratitude to those present for “this sign of love.” “To serve with love and tenderness persons who need our help makes all of us grow in humanity. It opens before us the way to eternal life,” the Pope said July 29 to the patients, their families, and their caretakers. “Those who engage in works of mercy have no fear of death,” he added. The Pope's visit to the Prokocim University Pediatric Hospital took place on the second full day of his July 27-31 visit to Poland, where he is leading World Youth Day festivities in Krakow. Francis also stressed the need for social and political concerns to center on the needs of society's most disadvantaged. “This is the sign of true civility, human and Christian: to make those who are most disadvantaged the centre of social and political concern,” he said. “Sadly, our society is tainted by the culture of waste, which is the opposite of the culture of acceptance. And the victims of the culture of waste are those who are weakest and most frail; and this is indeed cruel.” During the visit, he met with some 50 child patients, their families, and the medical personnel who care for them. The Roman Pontiff presented the hospital with a painting by Pietro Casentini depicting Christ, St. Peter, and the disciples in Capernaum facing the crowds of sick and disabled people.   In his short address, Pope Francis expressed his desire “to draw near to all children who are sick, to stand at their bedside, and embrace them.” “I would like to listen to everyone here, even if for only a moment, and to be still before questions that have no easy answers. And to pray.” The Pope observed how the Gospel gives many examples of Christ's going out to meet and embrace the sick. He compared the Lord's compassionate attentiveness to that of a mother who cares for her sick child. The Roman Pontiff expressed his wish that Catholics would follow Christ's example in drawing near to the sick, “in silence, with a caress, with prayer.” The Pope also addressed the loneliness families sometimes feel in providing care for their loved ones. “Let us multiply the works of the culture of acceptance, works inspired by Christian love, love for Jesus crucified, for the flesh of Christ,” he said in response. The Pope offered his encouragement to all medical professionals, chaplains, and volunteers who have made it a “personal life decision” to respond to the Gospel's call to “visit the sick.” “May the Lord help you to do your work well, here as in every other hospital in the world,” he said, going off the cuff to remember in particular the many religious sisters who spend their lives serving in hospitals. “May he reward you by giving you inner peace and a heart always capable of tenderness.” Read more

2016-07-29T11:40:00+00:00

Krakow, Poland, Jul 29, 2016 / 05:40 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis paid a solemn visit to the Auschwitz and Birkenau concentration camps on Friday, where over a million people are believed to have lost their lives. At the memorials, he gave no speech and prayed in silence, but instead wrote in the guest book two simple lines begging for God's mercy and forgiveness. "Lord have mercy on your people! Lord, forgiveness for so much cruelty!" the Pope wrote in the “Memory Book” shortly after praying in the darkened cell of St. Maximilian Kolbe, a Catholic priest martyred in Auschwitz. The pontiff's day began with a stop at the original camp (known as Auschwitz I), where he prayed for several minutes in silence in the courtyard of the complex. He was then taken by car to the camp's infamous Block 11 building. There, he was welcomed by Poland’s Prime Minister Beata Szydlo. He then individually greeted a group of ten men and women who had survived the Holocaust. The Pope was given a candle which he used to light a bronze lamp at the site. The lamp, which contains images of the Auschwitz fence line, as well as the Heart of Jesus, was his gift to the Auschwitz museum. The pontiff then entered the Block 11 –  a brick building where prisoners were tortured – and briefly visited the various rooms. He stopped for a lengthy period of time to pray in St. Maximilian Kolbe's cell.   Francis was then taken by car to the Birkenau camp – otherwise known as Auschwitz II. Little now remains of the camp, which had been the site of the Nazi gas chambers, where hundreds of thousands of prisoners were killed, and the crematoriums where their bodies where incinerated. The Pope silently paid homage before the row of commemorative plaques which now mark the site. He walked slowly past each plaque, before lighting a candle and praying for a moment in silence. After this, a man chanted the Psalm 130, which reads: “Out of the depths, I cry to you, O Lord.” Finally, following his prayer at the memorial, Francis met with a group of 25 non-Jewish men and women who had risked their lives to save Jews from mass extermination at the hands of the Nazis. Because of their actions during World War II, they have been given the honorific title “Righteous among the Nations” by the State of Israel for their role in helping the Jews during the Holocaust. Also present at the ceremony were survivors of the Holocaust, like Lidia, 75, who recounted to journalists being brought to Auschwitz at three years old, where she was stripped naked and tattooed with a number on her arm. It took nearly 20 years for her to be reunited with her mother following the liberation of the camps by allied forces. The July 29 Papal visit was made to two out of the three main Auschwitz camps, where as many as 1.5 million people are believed to have died under the Nazi regime. Pope Francis' visit to the camps marks the second full day of his July 27-31 trip to Poland, where he is leading World Youth Day celebrations in Krakow. Read more

2016-07-29T11:40:00+00:00

Krakow, Poland, Jul 29, 2016 / 05:40 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis paid a solemn visit to the Auschwitz and Birkenau concentration camps on Friday, where over a million people are believed to have lost their lives. At the memorials, he gave no speech and prayed in silence, but instead wrote in the guest book two simple lines begging for God's mercy and forgiveness. "Lord have mercy on your people! Lord, forgiveness for so much cruelty!" the Pope wrote in the “Memory Book” shortly after praying in the darkened cell of St. Maximilian Kolbe, a Catholic priest martyred in Auschwitz. The pontiff's day began with a stop at the original camp (known as Auschwitz I), where he prayed for several minutes in silence in the courtyard of the complex. He was then taken by car to the camp's infamous Block 11 building. There, he was welcomed by Poland’s Prime Minister Beata Szydlo. He then individually greeted a group of ten men and women who had survived the Holocaust. The Pope was given a candle which he used to light a bronze lamp at the site. The lamp, which contains images of the Auschwitz fence line, as well as the Heart of Jesus, was his gift to the Auschwitz museum. The pontiff then entered the Block 11 –  a brick building where prisoners were tortured – and briefly visited the various rooms. He stopped for a lengthy period of time to pray in St. Maximilian Kolbe's cell.   Francis was then taken by car to the Birkenau camp – otherwise known as Auschwitz II. Little now remains of the camp, which had been the site of the Nazi gas chambers, where hundreds of thousands of prisoners were killed, and the crematoriums where their bodies where incinerated. The Pope silently paid homage before the row of commemorative plaques which now mark the site. He walked slowly past each plaque, before lighting a candle and praying for a moment in silence. After this, a man chanted the Psalm 130, which reads: “Out of the depths, I cry to you, O Lord.” Finally, following his prayer at the memorial, Francis met with a group of 25 non-Jewish men and women who had risked their lives to save Jews from mass extermination at the hands of the Nazis. Because of their actions during World War II, they have been given the honorific title “Righteous among the Nations” by the State of Israel for their role in helping the Jews during the Holocaust. Also present at the ceremony were survivors of the Holocaust, like Lidia, 75, who recounted to journalists being brought to Auschwitz at three years old, where she was stripped naked and tattooed with a number on her arm. It took nearly 20 years for her to be reunited with her mother following the liberation of the camps by allied forces. The July 29 Papal visit was made to two out of the three main Auschwitz camps, where as many as 1.5 million people are believed to have died under the Nazi regime. Pope Francis' visit to the camps marks the second full day of his July 27-31 trip to Poland, where he is leading World Youth Day celebrations in Krakow. Read more




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