Vatican City, May 7, 2015 / 03:19 pm (CNA).- On Thursday Pope Francis demonstrated his keen interest in uniting sports with faith, telling members of Italy's Lazio club not to let training or competitions trump the spiritual essentials. “Sometimes it happens that a guy or a girl, due to training and competitions, forgets about Mass (and) catechesis...this is not a good sign; it means we have lost the scale of values,” the Pope told members of Italian sports club Lazio during a May 7 audience. He spoke to the club on the second of three days meeting with different sports teams and associations, which have become a regular occurrence since his pontificate began. The Pope met with United States basketball team the Harlem Globetrotters during yesterday’s general audience. Between snapping pictures and teaching the Pope how to spin the ball on his finger, the team gave him a jersey with the name “Pope Francis” along with the number 90. Tomorrow he is scheduled to host the Italian Tennis Federation at the Vatican, which will bring the three athlete-filled days to a close. In his speech to the Lazio club, Francis said that despite the many commitments related to sports, “we must also not neglect studies, friendship, service to the poor.” He noted that there are many “beautiful examples” of athletes, including famous champions, who despite a rigid schedule have continued to practice their faith and serve others. Francis praised the club – which is involved in 40 different types of sports – for its focus on different sports disciplines, and said that in Italy, as in his home Argentina, there is a risk of only talking about soccer, and neglecting the rest. “Every sportive discipline has its value, not only social or physical, but also moral, since it offers the possibility to people, especially children and youth, to grow in balance, self-control, sacrifice and loyalty to others,” he said. Last year Lazio’s main rival soccer team, Roma, also held an audience with Pope Francis. The Pope’s attention to sports isn’t surprising, given the fact that he is a well-known soccer fan. His favorite team is San Lorenzo de Almagro, one of the most important teams in Argentina, and he still keeps his associate membership card for the team. As a child and even as archbishop of Buenos Aires the Pope has been devoted to the team. In an April interview with the online sports news site TyC Sports of Argentina, Francis revealed that in 1946 he went to all of the team’s home games. The influence of sports on the now-Pope have stuck, and so far his pontificate has proven that as Pope Francis, athletics are not a mere leisure or recreational activity, but also as an active means of evangelization. Since his election as Bishop of Rome Pope Francis has participated in many events with the educational foundation Scholas Occurentes, which he founded while still Archbishop of Buenos Aires. An initiative designed to encourage social integration and the culture of encounter through technology, arts and sports, Scholas began with just a few youth. Today it has a current worldwide network of 400,000 state and religious schools. Most recently the Pope took part in a February google hangout session with 7 special needs children who have used technology to assist them with their disabilities. It was the second one Francis had participated in. Last year’s interreligious Match for Peace, which is a soccer match the Pope called for in order to encourage global peace efforts, was organized by Scholas alongside the charitable Argentinian P.U.P.I. Foundation. Pope Francis developed a friendship with retired Catholic soccer star Javier “Pupi” Zanetti while archbishop of Buenos Aires, and in an audience with the athlete some time after his election, the idea for the match came out. Zanetti, who was captain of the Argentinean national team and of Inter Milan in Italy, said at the time that the interreligious match was the “explicit wish of Pope Francis.” With Buddhists, Christians – Catholic and Protestant – Jews, Hindus, Muslims and Shintos present among the players, the match served a symbolic move used by the Pope to promote peace at all levels of society. In his audience with Lazio, Pope Francis said that true sport always “encourages the building of a more fraternal and supportive world, helping to overcome situations of injustice and social and human distress.” He encouraged the team to be welcoming, and to value diverse talents, saying “May your sports club always be an open house, where fraternity and harmony among people can be expressed.” Read more

Vatican City, May 6, 2015 / 04:24 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- During a private audience on Tuesday, Pope Francis advanced the causes of canonization of 12 potential saints, two of whom were martyred by communist revolutionaries in Laos in 1960. The May 5 a... Read more

Vatican City, May 6, 2015 / 04:06 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- On Wednesday 32 new Swiss Guards swore an oath of allegiance to Pope Francis, who told them their role is one of courageously imitating Christ which ought to be rooted in prayer. In an audience with the new guards and their families earlier in the week, Pope Francis said it was an occasion “to nurture a meaningful friendship, because you work so close to me.” The friendship of the Pontifical Swiss Guard is special, he said, because it is based on “the love of Christ: that greatest love he referred to when he said: ‘There is no love greater than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends.’” Pope Francis made his comments to the new guards in a Monday audience ahead of their May 6 swearing in ceremony, during which they took an oath of allegiance to Pope Francis, swearing to serve the Church by protecting him and all of his successors. With a motto of “Courage and Loyalty,” the Pontifical Swiss Guard is the oldest standing army in the world. The official swearing-in ceremony took place Wednesday in the San Damaso courtyard of the apostolic palace, where the new members of the Guard made their commitment like hundreds before them on the anniversary of the Sack of Rome. May 6, 1527, is a date that marks the most significant and deadliest event in the history of the guard. In the course of the battle, 147 members lost their lives while fighting the army of the Holy Roman Empire in defense of Pope Clement VII, who was able to escape through a secret passageway leading from the Vatican to Castel Sant’Angelo, which sits on the Tiber River. In his comments to the new guards, Pope Francis noted how God has chosen to build his kingdom in collaboration with men, saying that he needs “willing and courageous people” to do it. He also stressed the importance of frequenting the sacraments in the life of a Swiss Guard, saying that “Christ is the true king. He himself goes forward, and his friends follow him. A soldier of Christ participates in the life of his Lord.” Swiss Guards are called to be companions of Christ and to learn how to “feel with Christ and the Church,” he said, and encouraged them to step-up their prayer life by reading scripture and praying the rosary. “What I tell everyone, I'll tell you too: always keep a small Gospel close at hand, read it as soon as you have a calm moment. It will help you in your personal prayer, especially the Rosary, during the honor guard,” he said. Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin presided over a special Mass for the new guards in St. Peter’s Basilica just a few hours before their official May 6 swearing in. In his homily, the cardinal reminded the guards that their task is not a mere job or profession, but a vocation they are called to live out in a time marked by “anxiety and lack of guidance” in which commitment and loyalty seem “to become secondary or particularly difficult to achieve.” Cardinal Parolin recalled the death of the fallen guards during the Sack of Rome, noting that their heroic sacrifice constitutes the most “meaningful and emotional” moment of each guard, who on the battle’s anniversary vows to serve the Successor of Peter “with all of his strength.” To have Mass before swearing their oaths serves as an act of thanksgiving and trust in the Lord, he said, “knowing that it's God who enkindles in us the will and the work (because) in him every good work has it's beginning and it's end.” During the swearing-in ceremony each, new guard approaches the flag off the Swiss Guard when his name is called out. Firmly grasping the banner with his left hand, the new guard raises his right hand opens three fingers as a symbol of his faith in the Holy Trinity. After making the gesture, the guard proclaims the oath, saying: “I, (name of the new guard), swear diligently and faithfully to abide by all that has just been read out to me, so grant me God and so help me his Saints.” Patron saints of the Swiss Guard include St. Martin, St. Sebastian and St. Nicholas of Flue, known as the “Defensor Pacis et pater patriae.” Read more

Vatican City, May 6, 2015 / 12:42 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis will receive Cuban president Raul Castro Sunday morning May 10, in a “strictly private” audience, Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi announced. The meeting will tak... Read more

Vatican City, May 6, 2015 / 10:10 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Marriage is more than the wedding ceremony, the flowers, the dress, the photos, Pope Francis said in his weekly general audience: it is a participation in the Church's mission. “Men and women, courageous enough to carry this treasure in the 'earthen vessels' of our humanity... are an essential resource for the Church, as well as for the whole world!” Speaking to the crowds gathered in Saint Peter's Square for his weekly catechesis, the Pope explained that each marriage which demonstrates the beauty of the sacrament enriches the life of the Church. In the same way, it “is impoverished when marriage is disfigured in any way.” Since the end of last fall, Pope Francis has been centering his Wednesday catechesis on the theme of family as part of the lead-up to the World Day of Families in September, as well as October’s Synod of Bishops on the Family. During his May 6 address, the pontiff referenced Saint Paul's Letter to the Ephesians, in which the apostle makes the analogy between the love between spouses and Christ's love for the Church: namely, that “a husband is to love his wife as Christ loved the Church, by giving himself completely for her.” The spiritual sense of this analogy is “revolutionary,” yet also simple and attainable for all who trust in God's grace, the Pope said. Regardless of their limitations and sins, men and women are able to live out their marriage, the pontiff said, because it “has been inscribed in creation’s design by God.” “The Christian vocation to love, without reserve and without measure, with Christ's grace, is the basis of the free consent which constitutes marriage,” he added. Pope Francis also reflected on another characteristic of marriage: the choice to “marry in the Lord.” This decision, he said, carries with it a “missionary dimension,” through the willingness to be a channel of God's grace and blessings for everyone. Christian spouses are participants in the Church's mission, the Pope said, insofar as they live for all people, not just for themselves. Pope Francis challenged the faithful to ask themselves whether they – as believers and pastors – accept the “unbreakable bond” between Christ and the Church, and the history of marriage and family. “Are we prepared to seriously accept this responsibility, which is that every marriage follows the path of love which Christ has with the Church?” he asked.   Read more