Vatican City, Aug 13, 2015 / 12:31 am (CNA/EWTN News).- In a whirlwind trip, Lucas Schaerer and his family – friends of Pope Francis from his time in Buenos Aires – traveled to the Vatican, where the Pope baptized their daughters, Simona and Charo. “The ceremony was beautiful and simple…Francis celebrated Mass and then we went to a sitting room, where we spoke for a long time,” Argentinian journalist Mercedes Ninci, a close friend of the couple, recalled in comments posted to the Vatican blog Il Sismografo Aug. 12. Ninci, who works for Radio Mitre’s “El Diario de Mariana,” is the godmother to newborn Simona, and was present in the chapel of the Vatican’s Saint Martha guesthouse for the baptisms. According to the journalist, Lucas and his wife Ana have known the Pope for some time, and are both active members in “The Alameda” Foundation. Dedicated to fighting against human and drug trafficking, the organization is well-known in Latin America, and has always had Francis’ strong support. In an interview with Ciudad.com published Aug. 10, Ninci recalled how Lucas and Ana sent the Pope a sonogram image of their baby when they found out they were pregnant. Once the Pope received it, she said, he offered to baptize the baby when she was born. When the time came, everything happened “suddenly,” she said, and recounted that just a few days before they left “Lucas called me asking if I wanted to be the godmother of the baby, Simona, and told me (the baptism) was in the Vatican.” Everything happened quickly and “with almost no money,” Ninci said, explaining that since they didn’t have time to find a place to stay when they got to Rome, Pope Francis arranged for them to stay in a convent that hosts pilgrims. After arriving to the Eternal City Aug. 5, the couple returned to Buenos Aires on the 10th. In addition to baptizing the newborn Simona, Francis also baptized Ana’s older daughter, Charo, who is 9. Also a member of “The Alameda” foundation, Ninci said that she had met the Pope while he was still in Buenos Aires, but that they never developed a close friendship. Now, after being present for the Mass and speaking with the Pope after, “it was amazing to meet a simple and profoundly human shepherd,” she said in the comments posted to Il Sismografo. One thing that Ninci said immediately caught her attention was that when the Pope walked in to greet them he was alone, appearing without the usual entourage that normally comes with people in a position like his. In her responses to Ciudad.com, the journalist said she was excited to be with someone “so simple and dedicated to the people, so detached from power.” She recalled how the Pope spoke a lot about his own family and childhood, specifically his mother, father and four siblings. Francis also said a lot of things that “made me think,” Ninci explained, such as “to win war you must not to start it.” “I, the warrior that I am, live battling for things I shouldn't,” she said. “Now that I've come back I haven't fought with anyone, at least not yet.” However, Ninci said the most important and exciting thing the Pope told her was when he said, “The fact that you are a poor journalist speaks well of you.” On seeing the Pope so down to earth and detached from his office, “spiritually and attitudinally it did me well,” she said. Read more

Vatican City, Aug 12, 2015 / 05:20 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Moments of rest and celebration were the focal point of Pope Francis’ Wednesday general audience, during which he spoke out against a profit-centered mentality and encouraged families to live life at a more human pace. “Celebration is a precious gift from God. It's a precious gift God has made for the human family. Let's not ruin it,” the Pope said Aug. 12. He spoke to pilgrims gathered in the Vatican’s Paul VI audience hall for his second general audience after taking a break for the month of July. As part of his continued series of catecheses on the family, Francis announced he would shift focus to the different rhythms of family life, such as celebration, work and prayer. Beginning with celebration, the Pope noted that it is God’s own invention, as can be seen in the biblical account of creation when God himself rested from his work on the seventh day. God teaches us the importance “of dedicating time to contemplating and enjoying the fruits of our labors, not only in our employment or profession, but through every action by which we as men and women cooperate in God’s creative work,” he said. Francis emphasized that to celebrate doesn't mean “to escape or be overcome by laziness,” but rather involves returning our gaze to the fruits of our labor with both gratitude and benevolence. Celebration, he said, “is above all a loving and grateful look at work well done,” and means taking time to pause and be with friends and loved ones. He added that celebration is a time to watch our children grow, to look at the home we have built, and think: “how beautiful!” The Pope observed that it is also possible to celebrate in times of difficulty, even if it means celebrating “with a lump in the throat.” Pope Francis turned to the workplace, explaining that – without interrupting our work – celebrations can “infiltrate” the environment when we honor events such as a birthday, a marriage, a new baby, a farewell or a welcome. Such moments of familiarity put a brief stop to “the gear of the production machine: they do us good!” he said. True moments of celebration make us take a break from the daily grind and remind us that we have been created in the image and likeness of God, who is not a slave of work, but the Lord of work, the Pope observed. “We must never be slaves to work but rather its master,” he stressed, and lamented how millions of men, women and children are exploited and forced to work as slaves due to an obsession with economic profit. This over-emphasis on gain and technical efficiency “attacks human rhythms of life and denies man the time for what's really important,” he said, explaining that God wants to set us free from these vices. “Life has human rhythms,” the Pope added. “Let us banish this idea of a celebration centered on consumption and on debauchery and let us regain its sacred value, seeing it as a privileged time in which we can encounter God and others.” Francis pointed to Sundays as a particularly important time for rest, because “in them we find God.” Going to Mass brings the grace of Jesus Christ to each of our celebrations, he said, since it is in the Eucharist that we encounter his presence, love and sacrifice. The Eucharistic celebration, he said, is Jesus’ way of being with us and forming us into a community. “Everything is transfigured by his grace: work, family, the joys and trials of each day, even our sufferings and death.” Pope Francis cautioned that the ideologies of profit and consumption want to “eat up” the celebration, and turn it into another way to make and spend money. “But is this why we work? The greed of consuming, which leads to waste, it's a bad virus which, among other things, in the end makes us more tired than before,” he said. Francis concluded by praying that the family always be recognized as a privileged place where the gifts that come from our celebrations are understood, guided and sustained, particularly Sunday Mass. ”May the Lord allows us to live the time of rest, celebrations, the Sunday feast, with the eyes of faith, as a precious gift which illuminates family life,” he said. Read more