Vatican City, Mar 2, 2015 / 11:06 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The capacity of all men to commit the most despicable of sins should inspire the self-awareness necessary to accept God's mercy and move forward in the Christian life, Pope Francis said. “We are all sinners,” the pontiff said in his Lenten homily at the Santa Marta residence chapel Mar. 2. He added that it is “a Christian virtue” to be able to judge oneself, according to Vatican Radio's translation. The Holy Father centered his reflection on the theme of mercy as found in the day's Mass readings, such as the Gospel of Luke in which Jesus calls his followers to “Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.” To judge oneself means “not hiding from the roots of sin that are in all of us, the many things we are capable of doing, even if we cannot see them,” Pope Francis said. While it is “easier to blame others” for our sins, he continued, it promotes interior peace and health to consider what “we are capable of doing,” even if at first, “we feel disgust.” “We are all masters, professors of self-justification,” and “have an alibi to explain away our shortcomings, our sins,” while putting on “an innocent face,” he said. “This is no way to lead a Christian life.” One example the Pope gave of the wisdom which comes from being able to judge oneself is “when I feel envy in my heart,” and know that this leads to being “capable of speaking ill of others and morally assassinating them.” This is an essential lesson for the Christian, the Pope said: “If we do not learn this first step in life, we will never, never be able to take other steps on the road of our Christian life, of our spiritual life.” He presents another example of passing by a prison, and thinking the inmates within deserve to be there. “Yet do you know that if it weren’t for the grace of God you would be there?” the Holy Father asked. “Did you ever think that you are capable of doing the things that they have done, even worse?” Pope Francis went on to reflect on the importance of shame before God, a theme which arises in the Monday's first reading taken from the book of Daniel: “O Lord, we are shamefaced, like our kings, our princes, and our fathers, for having sinned against you. But yours, O Lord, our God, are compassion and forgiveness!” “This Lent, it would do us all good to have this dialogue with the Lord,” in which we accuse ourselves, the Pope said. “Let us ask for mercy.” Pope Francis turned back to the Gospel reading, in which Jesus says: “Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven.” “But, who am I to judge, if I am able to do things that are worse?” the Pope asked.   The Holy Father concluded his homily, asking God this Lent to “give us the grace to learn to judge ourselves” in light of our capacity to do the “the most evil things,” and to pray: “Have mercy on me, Lord, help me to be ashamed and grant me mercy, so I may be merciful to others.”   Read more

Vatican City, Mar 1, 2015 / 10:50 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The Transfiguration reveals the glory of Christ and demands a response of listening to and following Jesus, Pope Francis said in his Sunday Angelus address March 1. Last week the faithful were sh... Read more

Vatican City, Feb 28, 2015 / 02:00 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- In an audience with the Confederazione Cooperative Italiane (confederation of Italian co-operatives) Pope Francis called for the “globalization of solidarity” which places the dignity of persons and families at the center of social justice. “To globalize solidarity,” the Pope said during the Feb. 28 gathering, “means thinking about spiraling unemployment, the constant tears of the poor,” and “the need for real, integral progress for the person,” not just in terms of income. First founded in 1919, the Confederazione Cooperative Italiane is a “business incubator” which helps new and start-up companies get off the ground by providing services and resources. Suppressed under Italy's Fascist Regime, it was re-established in 1945. Speaking to the 7,000 people gathered in the Vatican's Paul VI during the audience, comprised of men and women representing various sectors of the work force, Pope Francis offered a few points of encouragement. First, he spoke of the need to prioritize the creation of “new cooperative enterprises,” while developing those that already exist, thereby creating “new possibilities for work” which are currently unavailable. Pope Francis also addressed the need for welfare reform, especially in the area of healthcare. “I know what you have done for years with heart and with passion, in the peripheries of the city and our society, for families, children, the elderly, the sick and disadvantaged,” he said. “Charity is a gift,” the Pope added, “without which one cannot enter into the house of one who suffers.” Turning to the economy, the pontiff discussed “its relationship with social justice,” as well as the “dignity and value of the human person.” Pope Francis spoke of a “certain liberalism” which believes in the necessity to “produce wealth,” regardless of how, in order to “promote some political redistribution on the part of the State.” Such an approach runs the risk of focusing on marking, “without leaving the deadly circuit of the pride of persons and companies who have the money-god at the center,” he said. Rather, in establishing “a new quality of economy,” he said, “one creates the ability for persons to grow in all of their potential.” The pontiff then turned to the need for the cooperative to offer support  for families, emphasizing the need to “help women to realize fully their own vocation and to put into practice their own talents.” Pope Francis went on to say that, notwithstanding, money is necessary for these endeavors, and for this reason he urged members of the cooperative to invest well. He then stressed the importance of organizing resources whereby workers can be paid just wages, thereby allowing families to “live with dignity and calm.” Read more

Vatican City, Feb 28, 2015 / 10:30 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Two years after his historic resignation from the papacy, Benedict XVI's presence continues to be felt by those around him as he keeps his promise to remain in quiet and prayerful service to the Church and the world. “We always know that Pope Emeritus Benedict is present in the Vatican, with his prayers,” said Fr. Scott Borgman, English-language official for the Pontifical Accademy for Life. This presence, he told CNA in a Feb. 10 email interview, “is a very reassuring affection which we experience often.” At 8 p.m. on Feb. 28, 2013, Benedict XVI stepped down from the papal throne, less than three weeks after announcing his resignation to the world.  Earlier that evening, the former pontiff stood from the balcony of Castel Gandolfo's papal residence, overlooking the thousands who had filled the lake town's small main square.  "I wish still with my heart, my love, my prayer, my reflection, with all my inner strength, to work for the common good and the good of the Church and of humanity," Benedict told the crowds in off-the-cuff remarks just hours before his resignation would take effect. Looking peaceful and happy standing a few stories above the square, Benedict XVI assured the world that, in stepping down, he would "simply be a pilgrim” who was “beginning the last part of his pilgrimage on earth."  For the next two weeks, the See of Peter remained vacant until the election of Pope Francis on March 13, 2013. In the two years following his resignation, Benedict’s days have been filled with prayer and study, largely out of the public view. He now goes by the simple title “Father Benedict.” Upon first hearing of Benedict XVI's impending retirement, the first of its kind in centuries, Fr. Borgman explained he was  at once surprised and relieved: “Surprised because no one had seen this for 600 years,” he said, and “relieved because, finally, after years of intense labor, he would be able to rest and serve the Church in another very important way through his prayers.” “He immediately became a kind of benevolent grandfather figure,” Fr. Borgman said. “We all have that image of the slight, humble pontiff with the piercing blue eyes and that saintly smile.”  Throughout his papacy, the Vatican official said, Benedict XVI “infused the Church with life through his humility and service,” from his support for “victims of abuse to his many journeys and diplomatic relations,” as well as his “love for the poor and respect for the deposit of the Faith.” Over the course of his eight-year pontificate, Benedict XVI was often subjected to negative, inaccurate, and editorially selective depictions in the secular press, such as in the areas clerical sex abuse and gay marriage.  “We suffered alongside him with the misrepresentations which were so common in the popular media,” the Vatican official said.   Despite these depictions in the press, however, “history will tell how amazing his contribution has been and will continue to be for those who read his writings,” he said. Fr. Borgman recalled his impression of having personally met Benedict XVI, twice during his pontificate, and  once – accidentally – last September. “I was quite overcome by affection and gratefulness to God for the gift of this great man to the Church,” he recalled. Benedict XVI also served as an important role model for priests, who “benefited greatly from his theology and his teaching on the lives of the Saints,” Fr. Borgman said. “He was extremely paternal for us priests and represents the Supreme Pontiff in a very clear way, but also a personal Father figure.” “As a convert, I am always impressed by the wisdom of God in giving us an earthly Father who unites us and guides us according to what Jesus intended when he founded the Church!” Read more

Vatican City, Feb 28, 2015 / 06:08 am (CNA/EWTN News).- An upcoming presentation of a Vatican-sponsored Pan-Amazonia Network may shed light on how a possible curial office for human ecology would work, if curial reform is shaped as it was presented at the Feb. 12 consistory. The Ecclesial Network of the Pan-Amazonia was established Sep. 9-12 in Brazil with the aim of fostering a new approach to climate, and will be presented in the Vatican March 2. The network involves the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, Caritas Pan-Amazonia, the Department of Social Justice of the Latin American Bishops Conferences, the Bishops Commission for Amazonia, as well as several other realities committed to the preservation of the Amazon rainforest. While the network was born with a regional purpose, its aim is in fact global, and so observers from Europe, Asia, and Africa have been called to take part in the network. A source who works in the Vatican explained to CNA Feb. 27 that “real innovation is that the network wants to involve more developed countries not in order to provide funds – as has been done before – but in order to pursue a real collaboration, and to make the developed countries more aware of the issue of climate change.” It is in the end “a global call for global responsibility,” and the network is an example of “how the Church works,” the source maintained. This kind of approach will likely be fostered in a new department for Human Ecology that should be established within the Vatican ranks. During the Feb. 12-13 consistory, Bishop Marcello Semeraro of Albano, coordinator of the Council of Cardinals, outlined a possible curial reform through the establishment of two super-congregations: Charity, Justice and Peace; and Laity, Family and Life. At least six pontifical councils would merge in the two super-congregations, and each of them would be composed of five secretariats. One of the secretariats within the Congregation for Charity, Justice and Peace may be that for “Human Ecology.” The director of the Holy See press office, Fr. Federico Lombardi, stressed in a media briefing Feb. 13 that human ecology deals with the idea that social and political environments can be deadly for the human person and for human dignity. The phrase 'human ecology' was coined by Benedict XVI, but the notion has been pivotal in the last 50 years of the Church's social teaching. Bl. Paul VI, in his 1967 encyclical Populorum Progressio, linked heavy consumption to injustice, declaring that “no one may appropriate surplus goods solely for his own private use when others lacks the bare necessities of life… The earth belongs to everyone, not the rich”. St. John Paul II added a spiritual dimension in his encyclical Centesimus Annus, criticizing “a style of life which is presumed to be better when it is directed towards having rather than being”, and urged people to “create life-styles in which the quest for truth, beauty, goodness and communion with others for the sake of common growth are the factors which we may use responsibly to satisfy our legitimate needs, material or otherwise, while respecting the intrinsic balance of the creation.” Benedict took over this approach, and indissolubly linked care for the creation to care for the human being, so much that the theme of his 2010 World Day of Peace was “If you want to cultivate peace, protect creation.” According to a source that has advised in the drafting of Pope Francis’ encyclical on ecology, this approach has been also taken over the encyclical, and Pope Francis “was very happy with that.” Pope Francis has said he intends to finalize his encyclical on ecology in March. During an in-flight press conference in January, Pope Francis indicated the encyclical's first draft had been prepared by Cardinal Peter Turkson, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. The Pope then worked on it, and it was sent to theologians, the Secretariat of State, and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. The encyclical will likely provide a background to the new department for human ecology, while its actions and goals may be shaped on the model of the Pan-Amazonia Network that will be presented in the Vatican next week. Read more