Vatican City, Dec 8, 2015 / 09:06 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- On Tuesday the façade and dome of St. Peter’s Basilica were illuminated with images portraying man’s relation to nature – an event inspired by Pope Francis’ recent encyclical on care for our common home and set to coincide with major Church events. Titled “Fiat Lux (Let there be light): Illuminating Our Common Home,” the three-hour display took place the evening of Dec. 8, which marked a major day for the Church. Not only does the Church celebrate the feast of the Immaculate Conception, one of the most important Marian feast days, but this year the feast also signaled the launch of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy. Pope Francis inaugurated the Holy Year by saying Mass in St. Peter’s Square in the morning before opening the basilica’s Holy Door, which is only opened during jubilee years. The jubilee will close Nov. 20, 2016, on the Solemnity of Christ the King. Set to coincide with both the launch of the Jubilee of Mercy and the COP-21 climate change summit in Paris, the “Fiat Lux” event was the product of a humanitarian coalition of Paul G. Allen's Vulcan Inc., the Li Ka Shing Foundation and Okeanos, as well as The Oceanic Preservation Society, Obscura Digital, and the World Bank Group's Connect4Climate initiative. A Dec. 4 statement from Vulcan Inc. called the initiative “a gift of contemporary public art,” and said “beautiful images of our shared natural world will be projected onto the façade of St. Peter's Basilica,” telling “the visual story of the interdependency of humans and life on earth with the planet.” The statement added that the display is being done “in order to educate and inspire change around the climate crisis across generations, cultures, languages, religions and class.” The “themes of climate change, human dignity and the earth's living creatures” found in Laudato si' was the inspiration for the “large-scale architectural public art installation,” according to the statement. Its organizers expressed hope that the images shown on St. Peter's Basilica will encourage people throughout the world “to join a global movement to protect our common home.” Carole Tomko, vice president of Vulcan, Inc., commented that “it is our hope that this beautiful and contemporary work of public art will inspire citizens of the world to join together in a moment of compassion and to activate a global movement to protect humankind, our common home and precious endangered species.” And Lucia Grenna, program manager of Connect4Climate, said, “We are proud … to work with our creative partners to highlight the biggest issues facing mankind: poverty and climate change. This artistic display will tell a powerful visual story of the interdependency of all life on earth with our environment and we hope inspire the teams in Paris to push for the most ambitious deal possible.” According to Our Common Home's Frequently Asked Questions, “The gift is designed as a beautiful contemporary artistic interpretation of Pope Francis’ Encyclical 'Laudato Si’' and the Integral Ecology message, and will serve as the backdrop for the opening of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy.” Among the photographers and filmmakers featured in the Dec. 8 light display are Sebastião Salgado (Genesi and Contrasto), Joel Sartore (National Geographic Photo Ark), Yann Arthus Bertrand (Human), David Doubilet, Ron Fricke and Mark Magidson (Samsara), Howard Hall, Shawn Heinrichs, Greg Huglin, Chris Jordan, Steve McCurry, Paul Nicklen, and Louie Schwartzberg. The Vatican’s Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin is currently in Paris for the Nov. 30-Dec. 11 COP-21 summit on climate change. In his speech for the opening of the conference, Cardinal Parolin urged global leaders to orient their discussion toward a clear ethical objective, one that puts the human person, the poor in particular, at the center. He said one of the key pillars for a “global and transformative agreement” on how to address the problem of climate change consists of “the adoption of a clear ethical orientation, which inspires the motives and goals of the agreement to be implemented,” with the poor as a special focus. Leaders from 150 nations, in addition to 40,000 delegates from 195 countries, are participating in the talks, CNN reports. The goal of the discussion is to reach an agreement on legally binding reductions of greenhouse gas emissions. The reductions are intended to hold global average temperatures under a two degrees Celsius increase over preindustrial global temperatures, according to CNN.   Read more

Vatican City, Dec 8, 2015 / 04:50 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis has officially commenced the Jubilee of Mercy, calling those who pass through the newly-opened Holy Door to rediscover God’s mercy and experience the mystery of his love. “This Extraordinary Holy Year is itself a gift of grace,” Pope Francis said in his homily for Mass, just before opening the Holy Door in St. Peter’s Basilica. “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. This will be a year in which we grow ever more convinced of God’s mercy.” Mercy, he said, must be placed before judgment, though “God’s judgment will always be in the light of his mercy.” “In passing through the Holy Door, then, may we feel that we ourselves are part of this mystery of love,” he said. “Let us set aside all fear and dread, for these do not befit men and women who are loved. Instead, let us experience the joy of encountering that grace which transforms all things.”   Pope Francis opens the Holy Door of St. Peter's Basilica for the Jubilee of Mercy https://t.co/iX1Ua296hx — Catholic News Agency (@cnalive) December 8, 2015 The Dec. 8 opening of the Jubilee of Mercy, an Extraordinary Holy Year, coincided with the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception.  The Holy Year will close Nov. 20, 2016 with the Solemnity of Christ the King. The Jubilee was officially inaugurated by the opening of the Holy Door in St. Peter’s Basilica. Pilgrims who pass through the door -- which is only opened during Jubilee years -- can receive a plenary indulgence under the usual conditions. Pope Francis presided over the rite of the Holy Door’s opening before passing through himself. He was followed by retired pontiff Benedict XVI, who attended the rite in one of his rare public appearances. The opening of the door is meant to symbolically illustrate the idea that the Church’s faithful are offered an “extraordinary path” toward salvation during the time of jubilee. Pope Francis in his homily spoke of the Holy Door in connection to the day’s Gospel, which recounts the angel Gabriel announcing to Mary she would be the mother of God. “We carry out this act, so simple yet so highly symbolic, in the light of the word of God which we have just heard,” Pope Francis said. “That word highlights the primacy of grace...God’s grace enfolded her and made her worthy of becoming the Mother of Christ.” When Gabriel entered Mary’s home, “even the most profound and impenetrable of mysteries became for her a cause for joy, faith and abandonment to the message revealed to her,” the Pope continued. Pope Francis’ reflection in his homily centered on the Immaculate Conception, celebrated Tuesday, and described the feast as an expression of “the grandeur of God’s love.” “Not only does he forgive sin, but in Mary he even averts the original sin present in every man and woman who comes into this world.” “The fullness of grace can transform the human heart and enable it to do something so great as to change the course of human history,” he said. The Pope made reference to the day’s first Mass reading, the Genesis account of man’s fall in the Garden of Eden. “The words of Genesis reflect our own daily experience: we are constantly tempted to disobedience, a disobedience expressed in wanting to go about our lives without regard for God’s will,” he said. “Yet the history of sin can only be understood in the light of God’s love and forgiveness. Were sin the only thing that mattered, we would be the most desperate of creatures.” “The promised triumph of Christ’s love enfolds everything in the Father’s mercy,” the Pope said. “The Immaculate Virgin stands before us as a privileged witness of this promise and its fulfillment.” Pope Francis concluded his homily recalling the 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council’s closing, which is also commemorated Dec. 8. He stressed that the Jubilee of Mercy is a challenge for us to the “openness” inspired by the Council. The Council was “a genuine encounter between the Church and the men and women of our time,” in which the Holy Spirit “impelled the Church to emerge from the shoals which for years had kept her self-enclosed so as to set out once again, with enthusiasm, on her missionary journey.” “Wherever there are people, the Church is called to reach out to them and to bring the joy of the Gospel,” the Pope said. “The Jubilee challenges us to this openness, and demands that we not neglect the spirit which emerged from Vatican II, the spirit of the Samaritan, as Blessed Paul VI expressed it at the conclusion of the Council.” In his Angelus address delivered after the opening of the Holy Door, Pope Francis called the faithful to look on the Immaculate Conception as a reminder that, “in our life, everything is a gift. Everything is mercy.” “May the Blessed Virgin, the first fruits of the saved, the model of the Church, holy and immaculate Bride, loved by the Lord, help us to rediscover the mercy of God more and more, in a way characteristic of Christians.” The Pope said the opening of the Jubilee of Mercy is an occasion to look on the Immaculate Conception “with trusting love, to contemplate her in all her splendor, (and imitate) her faith.” “In the Immaculate conception of Mary, we are invited to recognize the dawn of the new world, transformed from the saving work of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”   Read more

Vatican City, Dec 8, 2015 / 03:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- A two-day Vatican workshop over the weekend explored the unique challenges faced by women as they balance work with family life, and what true equality for women looks like in the workplace. “It was easy in the old days to know who your enemy was. Everybody just called it 'the man' – 'the man' didn't want you to advance. But now it's not that simple,” said Helen Alvaré, law professor at George Mason University and participant in the two-day workshop. “Women have access (to work) in so many parts of the world, not everywhere,” she added, “yet those positions don't take account of the jobs women prefer. Those jobs are underpaid.” Alvaré was one of the presenters  at the Dec. 4-5- Vatican event titled “Women and Work.” Sponsored by the Pontifical Council for the Laity, the symposium focused on the dichotomy between the needs of work and family faced by women today. Alvaré is founder of the group  “Women Speak for Themselves,” and was also one of the main organizers of the 2014 post-synodal Vatican conference, entitled Humanum, on the complimentary between men and women. The aim of the conference was to promote full inclusion for women in the workplace, especially in the face of discrimination such as pay disparities and that faced by mothers in the workplace, in different countries worldwide. “We don't just want to have great ideas we want to make them action,” Alvaré said, “We’ve been in the workforce outside the home for decades now. Why hasn't almost anything changed?” While women continue to face challenges in workplace, Alvaré said the antagonist in these scenarios is not always the same. “My job would be asking: who is supposedly the enemy today? Sometimes it’s ourselves, sometimes it’s a western version of feminism, sometimes it’s still the man, sometimes it’s our own materialism: where do we begin with all of that?” She stressed the need for global action, as demonstrated in various grassroots initiatives, “to make public and private policies suit women priorities,” rather than “a workplace designed strictly for men without childcare responsibilities.” Archbishop Filippo Santoro  of Taranto, Italy, who also participated in the symposium, pointed to what he called a connection between the defense of life and the defense of creation. “The defense of life and the defense of the dignity of man serves for the physical life but also for the life of the environment. It is vital to have an alliance between defense for life and defense for the environment.” “We see the necessity of women in their condition can work, but not as an alternative of her natural characteristic which is the capacity to form a family,” said the archbishop. “There needs to be a new sensibility.” “Man should look and learn from the sensibility of women with her attention,” the archbishop said. He stressed the importance of emphasizing “the richness of the female universe, which is not just for the life of the family but indicated a perspective that is true to for the whole life.” Ahead of the conference, Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin sent a telegram to the workshop participants on behalf of Pope Francis. The message expressed the Holy Father's hope that the symposium would “help to affirm the indispensable role of women in the family and the formation of children,” and “the essential contribution of women workers in the building up of economic structures and a politics worthy of humanity, and identifying concrete suggestions and positive models for the harmonization of work commitments and family needs.” Pope Francis has often spoke on the need to protect the rights of workers, including those of women. Some one hundred people gathered for the workshop, which explored various themes such as pay gaps and other forms of discrimination against women in the workplace. The conference marks the twentieth anniversary of St. John Paul II's letter to women, published June 29, 1995.Photo credit: www.shutterstock.com. Read more

Vatican City, Dec 7, 2015 / 05:09 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- As a Vatican City trial over the leaking of private documents continues, the director of the Holy See Press Office has defended the trial and the judicial systems of the Vatican City State after th... Read more

Vatican City, Dec 7, 2015 / 05:00 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- One of the central aims of the Jubilee of Mercy will be to reorient the Sacrament of Confession back to the center of the Church's pastoral life, explained one official involved in organizing the year-long event.   “Mercy is the tangible expression of God's love in the world,” said Fr. Geno Sylva, official for the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization (PCPNE).   “By placing ourselves in situations to reflect upon this love and to experience the grace of this love in the Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation, (we find) the strength, the courage, and the compassion to be instruments of mercy to others.”   “I really believe that by recognizing and experiencing how incredibly patient and forgiving God is with each one of us in our imperfections and failings, we can become ever more patient and forgiving of those with whom we live, work, and interact every day,” he told CNA.   The Jubilee of Mercy is an Extraordinary Holy Year that will officially commence December 8 – the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception – with the opening of the Holy Door in St. Peter's Basilica. It will close Nov. 20, 2016 with the Solemnity of Christ the King.   The Pontifical Council is charged with putting Pope Francis' vision for the Year of Mercy into practice – both in the Vatican and abroad.   “The Holy Father wants the Jubilee of Mercy to be an opportunity to place the sacrament of God’s mercy - which is the sacrament of penance and reconciliation - into the central pastoral life for the Church,” Fr. Sylva said.   “We know that, unfortunately, Catholics don’t take advantage of the sacrament as much as they should, and so this is an opportunity for us to remind people of God’s desire to forgive us and that he’s always there to forgive us no matter the sin.”   To help emphasize the role of the Sacrament of Penance during the Jubilee, Pope Francis has called the Church to send out “Missionaries of Mercy” – priests with the faculties to pardon sins in cases otherwise reserved for the Holy See.   These priests, whom the Pope will send out on Ash Wednesday, 2016, will serve as “a visible sign of the importance of the sacrament of reconciliation in our lives of faith,” Fr. Sylva said.   “It is the responsibility of the (Pontifical Council) to select the Missionaries of Mercy,” Fr. Sylva said. He explained that many of those selected have applied to the Council, along with a letter of recommendation from the bishop showing how they “epitomize and embody” a missionary of mercy, as described in Pope Francis' Bull for the Jubilee released earlier this year.   He added that some priests selected as “Missionaries of Mercy” did not apply, but were recommended to the Pontifical Council.   Pope Francis has extended the sacrament of confession's availability to the world in other ways as well. For instance, all priests will automatically have the faculties to remit the penalty of excommunication attached to the sin of abortion, without having to receive permission from their bishops. The Pope has also granted faculties to priests of the Society of Pius X to hear confessions during the Jubilee as a step towards reconciling the traditionalist fraternity with the Holy See.   One of the characteristics of any Jubilee Year is the opening of Holy Door in St. Peter's Basilica, which allows those who pass through to obtain a plenary indulgence under the usual conditions. The official “Holy Doors” are only found in the four major basilicas of Rome. For the Jubilee of Mercy, however, Pope Francis has asked that the tradition of the Holy Door be available at the local level.   “The Holy Father has stressed that this Jubilee is not only to be celebrated in Rome but in all of the particular churches of the world,” Fr. Sylva said.   “This is why he has asked every bishop in the world to choose in his diocese a Holy Door, a Door of Mercy, so that all people may have a chance to make a pilgrimage through a Door of Mercy.”   “Each of the Jubilee initiatives is an invitation to bask in what Pope Francis has called the balm of God's mercy,” Fr. Geno said.   The Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization is overseeing visits to the Holy Door in St. Peter's Basilica, and encourages pilgrims to register at their website.   “Because there’s going to be so many people that’ll want to get through the Holy Door, we just want to make sure that it’s really prayerful,” Fr. Sylva said. “It’s a spiritual journey of conversion that people are making, and so it’ll be reserved and people will be given enough time.”   In addition to approving “missionaries of mercy” and helping pilgrims cross through the Holy Door of St. Peter's, the Pontifical Council is also tasked with charitable initiatives worldwide.   For instance, Fr. Sylva explained, the Pope has asked the council to establish an agricultural college in Burkina Faso, West Africa, which teaches young people to provide for themselves through agriculture.   “The Holy Father would like us to leave behind, after the Jubilee of Mercy, really concrete signs of God’s mercy, he said.   The Pope first announced the Year of Mercy on March 13, the second anniversary of his pontifical election, during a Lenten penitential liturgy in St. Peter’s Basilica.   On April 11, the Holy Father officially proclaimed the Jubilee Year with the release of the Bull of Indiction.   Mercy is a theme that is dear to Pope Francis, and is the central topic of his episcopal motto “miserando atque eligendo,” which he chose when ordained a bishop in 1992.   Read more