Reject racism to ‘live the way’ Creator intended us to live, cardinal says

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Catholic News Service
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A child in Washington writes in chalk, "End racism," as people rally to protest recent violence against people of Asian descent March 21, 2021. (CNS photo/Erin Scott, Reuters)

By Richard Szczepanowski, Catholic News Service

WASHINGTON (CNS) — People must “reject all forms of racism, bigotry and injustice” and recognize “we are each made by God and are deserving of respect and dignity because of just that,” Washington Cardinal Wilton D. Gregory said Feb. 3.

Only then will mankind “live the way we were intended to live by the Creator,” he said in a Black History Month address.

“We each are called to reach beyond ourselves — that which is comfortable and familiar. As a human family, we are to be a good neighbor to one another,” Cardinal Gregory said. “This is the only way to bring about true justice for all American and global citizens.”

He spoke on “Race and the Catholic Church” for an event sponsored by the St. Thomas More Catholic Community at Yale University. The address was delivered via Zoom because of the ongoing pandemic.

“I wish we were together in-person,” he said, because “I believe conversations about race are best had in-person so we can encounter one another as sisters and brothers created in the image and likeness of the Lord, the Creator of the human family.”

Lamenting that “racism, intolerance and discrimination come in a variety of forms — both overt and covert,” Cardinal Gregory noted that when the faithful are open to racial diversity, “they see the inherent beauty of God’s creation in the mosaic of mosaic of skin tones, facial expressions, cultures and ethnicities.”

He pointed out that “some of the very first Catholics (in this country) included free Black Catholics, who arrived from Protestant England on the Eastern shores of Maryland in 1634,” but yet “in the Catholic Church, we do not have a story of unity or history of mutual respect.”

“We are a church and a nation of immigrants who willingly or unwilling fled to or were brought to these shores — some in chains and in bondage,” Cardinal Gregory said.

“Racism is sometimes seen as America’s original sin,” he continued, “and the reality of America’s original sin has denied or limited many African Americans from living out their calling to become full members of the Catholic Church as priests or religious and certainly, to fully attend or teach in higher education.”

Acknowledging “polarization both inside the Catholic Church and in our wider society,” Cardinal Gregory said society is “experiencing a generally accepted, pervasive negative brashness.”

“There is often acceptance of openly, unapologetic racist language, hostility and consistently uncivil behavior,” he said. “Civility is no longer a treasured American virtue we agree to live by. Civility does not come naturally to any of us, but it is a quality that can be cultivated. Civility, charity and service are needed in order for us to successfully work toward common ground that benefits all.”

During Black History Month, observed in February, and every month, he said, “we must work hard to practice civility in our challenging discussions about race and every other issue that touches our families and our communities.”

“The mission of the Catholic Church is to serve all of God’s children regardless of their ethnicity, culture, immigration status, race, or religion,” he added.

Responding to questions from Yale’s St. Thomas More Catholic group and its African American ministry, Cardinal Gregory spoke of how the church can reconcile its past of racism, colonialism and slave ownership.

“We must admit our involvement and admit the sins we have shared in, maybe not personally, but we inherit the legacies that that sin has left in its wake,” he said.

“I am very, very proud of the Jesuits in the United States as they are coming to an acceptance and an understanding of their awful selling of slaves to keep Georgetown University and perhaps other Jesuit institutions afloat,’ the cardinal said. “They are expressing a contrition and a desire to do what is right. Reconciliation and retribution are very difficult, but they (the Jesuits) are willing to walk that path.”

He also referred to the U.S. bishops’ 2018 pastoral letter on racism, “Open Wide Our Hearts,” and other documents the bishops have issued that address racism.

“We have to make known all the statements and the good work the bishops have done,” Cardinal Gregory said. “We haven’t done enough, but what we have done is often unknown.”

In August 2020 during a Mass at St. Matthew’s Cathedral in Washington marking the anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington, then-Archbishop Gregory launched “Made in God’s Image: Pray and Work to End the Sin of Racism,” a new Washington archdiocesan initiative.

It includes a wide range of pastoral activities and outreach for individuals and parishes, such as prayer, listening sessions, faith formation opportunities and social justice work.

When Pope Francis appointed him as Washington’s new archbishop in April 2019 and he was installed the next month, he became the archdiocese’s first African American archbishop. When he was made a cardinal Nov. 28, 2020, he became the nation’s first Black cardinal.

In his address to the Yale group, Cardinal Gregory said parishes must welcome, acknowledge and embrace people of different ethnic backgrounds or races, otherwise it is more than “a lack of welcome” — it is “outright hostility.”

“When we are teaching about the nature of sin, we talk about sin as an action, but sometimes sin is an inaction. We tolerate by our inaction the sin of racism,” he said. “What we as Catholics need to do better is to learn how to welcome people.”

With the church currently hosting listening sessions on synodality in preparation for the October 2023 world Synod of bishops, the cardinal said now is the time “for us talk to one another and to listen to one another.”

“We have to listen to our people and invite them to speak from our hearts. Listening does not mean agreeing. It means opening our hearts to hear and listen to those we disagree with,” Cardinal Gregory said.

“In the Catholic Church there have always been disagreements — theological disagreements, cultural disagreements. It is not new,” he said. “But we have to open our hearts and our eyes to reconcile and unify the church in all of its fullness.”

He said welcoming persons of varied ethnicities or cultures or colors into a parish “is more than simply tolerating people.”

“Our welcome must be an aggressive and straightforward desire to say, ‘We want you here, not to become as we are, but to come as you are’,” Cardinal Gregory said. “We have to say, ‘You have a place at the Lord’s table, and we are enriched to welcome and accept you as you are.'”

He said Catholic young people can help combat racism and discrimination and work to build a better society.

Black History Month is a time to “promote peace, racial harmony, and social justice instead of fear, harm and violence,” Cardinal Gregory said.

He said his wish is that as young people learn of “the injustices and indignities suffered and overcome in our American history,” it would inspire “real hope for us all to do the necessary and sometimes challenging work of our time.”

 

Pope praises projects to recycle objects, reintegrate people into society

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Catholic News Service
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Pope Francis is pictured with members of the Casa dello Spirito e delle Arti Foundation during an audience at the Vatican Feb. 4, 2022. The foundation sponsors projects for people with disabilities, refugees, prisoners, single mothers and those recovering from addiction. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)

By Cindy Wooden, Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Francis and his guests listened as a violinist played a tune from a famous Italian composer on a multicolored violin made by prisoners using the wood of a shipwrecked migrants’ boat.

He also accepted several boxes containing hundreds of hosts for use at Mass; prisoners made some of them, as did residents of communities for people with disabilities, refugees, single mothers and people recovering from addiction.

“You give signals that oppose the throwaway culture, which unfortunately is widespread,” the pope said Feb. 4 as he welcomed members of the Casa dello Spirito e delle Arti Foundation and people involved in the projects they sponsor.

Rather than throwing away both people and things, the pope told them, “you are trying to build, with the ‘rejected stones,’ a house where you can breathe an atmosphere of social friendship and fraternity. Not everything is easy — we know — not everything is ‘roses and flowers.’ Each of us has his or her limits, mistakes and sins. But God’s mercy is greater, and if we welcome each other as brothers and sisters, he forgives us and helps us to move on.”

Supported by the foundation, master violin makers from Stradivari Institute of Cremona went to a Milan prison in 2013 and began teaching prisoners how to make violins. They use wood recuperated from boats that have sunk or been scuttled by the coast guard after attempts to bring migrants across the Mediterranean to Italy.

Oscar-winner composer Nicola Piovani wrote the tune “Il Violino del Mare” (The Violin of the Sea) specifically to be played on one of the unique instruments.

The workshop has expanded, and the prisoners now are using the recuperated wood to make Nativity scenes as well.

The host-making project, with a special press for making wafer thin, embossed hosts, has expanded to 16 different countries with a variety of communities involved. The hosts are given free to local parishes and religious congregations.

One of the latest projects, which began in October, involves making altar wine from the grapes grown in the 2.5-acre vineyard at the Alba prison in northern Italy.

“These are artisanal activities, and they also have a symbolic Christian value,” the pope told his guests. “Preparing hosts for the eucharistic celebration; making musical instruments from the wood recovered from migrants’ boats; carpentry, like St. Joseph and Jesus; the production of wine, which is a symbol of celebration like the wedding at Cana.”

 

Now or never: People must overcome challenges together, pope says

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Catholic News Service
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Pope Francis shakes hands with Sheikh Ahmad el-Tayeb, grand imam of Egypt's Al-Azhar mosque and university, during a document signing at an interreligious meeting in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, in this Feb. 4, 2019, file photo. The pope, Sheikh el-Tayeb and U.S. President Biden marked the International Day of Human Fraternity Feb. 4 on the anniversary of the 2019 meeting in Abu Dhabi. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)

By Carol Glatz, Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The time has come to live in a spirit of fraternity and build a culture of peace, sustainable development, tolerance, inclusion, mutual understanding and solidarity, Pope Francis said.

“Now is not a time for indifference: either we are brothers and sisters or everything falls apart,” he said in a video message marking the International Day of Human Fraternity Feb. 4.

The international celebration is a U.N.-declared observation to promote interreligious dialogue and friendship on the anniversary of the document on human fraternity signed in Abu Dhabi in 2019 by Pope Francis and Sheikh Ahmad el-Tayeb, grand imam of Al-Azhar in Egypt.

The pope, the sheikh and U.S. President Joe Biden all issued messages for the commemoration.

“Fraternity is one of the fundamental and universal values that ought to undergird relationships between peoples, so that the suffering or disadvantaged do not feel excluded and forgotten but accepted and supported as part of the one human family. We are brothers and sisters,” the pope said in Italian in his video message.

People must walk together, aware that, “while respecting our individual cultures and traditions, we are called to build fraternity as a bulwark against hatred, violence and injustice,” he said.

“All of us must work to promote a culture of peace that encourages sustainable development, tolerance, inclusion, mutual understanding and solidarity,” he said.

People of different faiths all have a role to play, he said, because “in the name of God, we who are his creatures must acknowledge that we are brothers and sisters.”

And all of humanity lives “under the same heaven,” so believers in God and all people of goodwill should journey together, he added.

“Do not leave it to tomorrow or an uncertain future,” he said. “This is a good day to extend a hand, to celebrate our unity in diversity — unity, not uniformity, unity in diversity — in order to say to the communities and societies in which we live that the time of fraternity has arrived.”

“The path of fraternity is long and challenging, it is a difficult path, yet it is the anchor of salvation for humanity,” the pope said. “Let us counter the many threatening signs, times of darkness and mindsets of conflict with the sign of fraternity that, in accepting others and respecting their identity, invites them to a shared journey.”

The pope encouraged everyone to dedicate themselves to “the cause of peace and to respond concretely to the problems and needs of the least, the poor and the defenseless. Our resolve is to walk side by side, ‘brothers and sisters all,’ in order to be effective artisans of peace and justice, in the harmony of differences and with respect for the identity of each.”

In his video message, Sheikh el-Tayeb said, “This celebration means a quest for a better world where the spirit of tolerance, fraternity, solidarity and collaboration prevails. It also indicates a hope for providing effective tools to face the crises and challenges of contemporary humanity.”

“We have embarked on this path in the hope for a new world that is free of wars and conflicts, where the fearful are reassured, the poor sustained, the vulnerable protected and justice administered,” he said.

In Biden’s written statement commemorating the day, he encouraged everyone to work together to overcome the global challenges that no one nation or group of people can solve on their own.

“For too long, the narrowed view that our shared prosperity is a zero-sum game has festered — the view that for one person to succeed, another has to fail,” he wrote. “This cramped idea has been a source of human conflict for centuries.”

Problems such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the climate crisis and increased violence, “require global cooperation from people of all backgrounds, cultures, faiths and beliefs. They require us to speak with one another in open dialogue to promote tolerance, inclusion and understanding,” and to guarantee that “all people are treated with dignity and as full participants in society,” he wrote.

“On this day, we affirm — in words and in actions — the inherent humanity that unites us all,” the president wrote. “Together, we have a real opportunity to build a better world that upholds universal human rights, lifts every human being and advances peace and security for all.”

Cardinal Miguel Ayuso Guixot, president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue and member of the Higher Committee of Human Fraternity, said in a statement that the day “is an opportunity to advance the sense of responsibility toward the poor, vulnerable, homeless and oppressed.”

“I hope human fraternity will turn into a global movement of promoting moral values shared by all peoples from all walks of life,” the cardinal said.

 

Vatican official inaugurates nunciature in Abu Dhabi

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Catholic News Service
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Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra, substitute secretary for general affairs in the Vatican Secretariat of State, participates in the inauguration of the new apostolic nunciature in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Feb. 4, 2022. (CNS photo/Vatican Media) EDITORS: BEST QUALITY AVAILABLE.

By Junno Arocho Esteves, Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The opening of a new apostolic nunciature in the United Arab Emirates is a testament to fraternity and goodwill between Muslims and Christians, said Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra.

Speaking at the inaugural ceremony in Abu Dhabi Feb. 4, Archbishop Peña, the substitute secretary for general affairs in the Vatican Secretariat of State, said the new nunciature is also “a further sign of the Holy Father’s solicitude and concern for all the people in this land.”

“May this new embassy of the Holy See serve as a place of encounter and dialogue for our bilateral cooperation for many years to come,” the archbishop said.

Among those present at the inauguration were Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the crown prince and minister of foreign affairs and international cooperation; Bishop Paul Hinder, apostolic vicar for Southern Arabia; and Msgr. Yoannis Gaid, member of the Higher Committee of Human Fraternity.

The Holy See and the United Arab Emirates established diplomatic relations in 2007, but the nuncio resided in Kuwait. Currently the nunciature is headed by Slovenian Msgr. Kryspin Dubiel, who serves as chargé d’affaires.

The opening of the nunciature coincided with the third anniversary of the day that Pope Francis and Sheikh Ahmad el-Tayeb, grand imam of al-Azhar in Egypt, signed a document on promoting dialogue and “human fraternity” during the pope’s 2019 apostolic visit to the United Arab Emirates.

The document, Archbishop Peña said, showed that unity between Muslims and Christians is possible through the “shared belief in God the creator of all things” from which “stems the call for believers to live in fraternity with all people regardless of race, religion or creed and to safeguard creation, our common home.”

“Contrary to any distortion or manipulation of religion, the response to this call can be nothing other than choosing the path of dialogue, which leads to better mutual understanding and cooperation,” he said.

Archbishop Peña said he hoped that the joint declaration would “serve as a framework” for closer ties between the Holy See and the United Arab Emirates and help to “build a more just and peaceful world.”

“These efforts are truly needed today as we continue to see the negative consequences of replacing transcendent truths about the human person and creation with purely superficial and materialistic values,” the archbishop said.

Earlier in the week, Archbishop Peña marked the opening of the nunciature, as well as the feast of the Presentation of the Lord and the World Day of Prayer for Consecrated Life, by celebrating Mass at St. Joseph’s Cathedral in Abu Dhabi.

In his homily Feb. 2, the archbishop conveyed Pope Francis’ greetings and spiritual closeness with the local Catholic community and reflected on “the important role played by consecrated life in the mission of the church,” especially in the United Arab Emirates.

“This land has been blessed by the service of many men and women religious throughout the years, including Bishop Hinder, who is a member of the Franciscan order,” he said.

Archbishop Peña encouraged Catholics in the country to continue to be witnesses of God’s saving message that brings “liberty to those in spiritual captivity or blindness” and “offers truth and authentic unity.”

“I dare say that the Catholic community of Abu Dhabi and the Arabian Peninsula as a whole is also an example of hope-filled patience and Christian living,” he said.

 

Survey finds path to U.S. citizenship for migrants has majority support

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Catholic News Service
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Migrants from Peru and Guatemala turn themselves in to a U.S. Border Patrol agent in Yuma, Ariz., Jan. 21, 2022. (CNS photo/Go Nakamura, Reuters)

By Rhina Guidos, Catholic News Service

Though immigration remains a polemic topic in political circles, just 44% of Americans recently surveyed by the Public Religion Research Institute said it was a “critical issue” in the U.S.

A majority favored a path to citizenship for those who are in the country without legal permission.

By and large, Americans had a positive view of immigrants, saying they strengthen the country, with a minority seeing immigrants as a burden to the U.S., the survey found.

Those were among findings released Feb. 3 by PRRI from a survey examining American perspectives on immigration policy.

The survey, conducted online between Sept. 16 and 29, interviewed a representative sample of 2,508 adults (age 18 and up) living in all 50 states in the United States. It focused on welcoming views about immigration to the U.S. and whether it’s a critical issue at all.

The survey looked at how political affiliation, the kind of media some respondents digested, race and sometimes age affected the answers given. It also asked questions about whether respondents viewed immigration favorably or otherwise.

While a majority of Americans “support offering immigrants living in the U.S. illegally a way to become citizens, provided they meet certain requirements” and nearly two-thirds support “allowing immigrants brought illegally to the U.S.” as children to gain legal resident status, white evangelical Protestants and Republicans resoundingly do not support those policies, the survey found.

Among some of the key findings, PRRI pointed out that “individuals opposed to a pathway to citizenship are more likely to view immigration as a critical issue than those in favor” of such a pathway.

It also found that six in 10 Americans, or 62%, “support offering immigrants living in the U.S. illegally a way to become citizens, provided they meet certain requirements.”

And “only about one in five Americans, or 22%, say immigrants living in the U.S. illegally should be identified and deported.”

Nearly two-thirds, or 64%, of Americans support allowing immigrants brought illegally to the U.S. as children to gain legal resident status, the survey found.

“Only white evangelical Protestants and Republicans do not reach majority support for this policy,” PRRI said.

When it comes to political party, “Republicans have become much more likely to say immigration is a critical issue since 2013,” the survey found, and Democrats have “generally become more supportive of allowing undocumented immigrants to become citizens.”

When it comes to those with religious beliefs, the survey found that “with the exception of white evangelical Protestants, majorities of all religious groups support a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.”

That includes support for that policy from 70% of Hispanic Catholics and 54% of white Catholics. Support from white Catholics for a path toward citizenship has declined from 2013 when 62% said they favored it, even as the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has been steady in its message about supporting the policy.

“A majority of Americans (56%) say that in general, newcomers strengthen American society, compared to four in 10 (40%) who say that newcomers threaten traditional American customs and values,” the survey said.

And while those who view the introduction of new immigrants favorably, support has waned in the last decade and views that see newcomers as a threat have increased.

And, with the exception of white Christians, PRRI said that “majorities (61%) of all religious groups say that newcomers strengthen American society” because of their hard work and talents. A minority, 35%, said immigrants are a burden, taking away jobs, housing and health care.

The margin of error was plus or minus 2.1 percentage points.

 

Biden urges a return to political civility in remarks at prayer breakfast

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Catholic News Service
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President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are seen at the White House in Washington Feb. 1, 2022. (CNS photo/Leah Millis, Reuters)

By Kurt Jensen, Catholic News Service

WASHINGTON (CNS) — President Joe Biden, addressing the National Prayer Breakfast Feb. 3, called for a return to the political civility he said he’d known as a freshman U.S. senator from Delaware.

“We don’t spend as much time with each other as we used to,” he reflected at the gathering.

The breakfast was greatly cut down from its previous incarnations at a Washington hotel.

This year it was held in the auditorium at the Capitol Visitor Center. One of the organizers, Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., called it a “reset,” limiting attendance to members of Congress, breakfast speakers and their spouses.

It was the first time the event was held in person in two years as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The proceedings also were carried live on C-SPAN and other broadcast outlets.

The 70th annual breakfast was low-key and bipartisan. The event always features members of Congress reading Scripture, and this year Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., read from the Gospel of Matthew.

“As president, you should still be able to count on our prayers for the success of our nation,” said Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D. He said the breakfast reflected “the right of each of us to worship the good Lord as we see fit.”

In his brief remarks, Biden, only the second Catholic president in the nation’s history, discussed the losses in his own life, including his son Beau’s death from a brain tumor, adding, “Everyone has had horrible things to deal with. I had a lot of help.”

Biden waxed nostalgic about an earlier time of eating lunches as part of a group in the Senate: “You learn about their losses and their happiness and you learn about them.”

He added, “It’s hard to dislike someone when you know they’re going through something you went through.”

Addressing McConnell directly, he said, “Mitch, I don’t want to hurt your reputation, but we really are friends. And that is not an epiphany we’re having at the moment. You’re a man of your word, you’re a man of honor. Thank you for being my friend.”

Referencing Matthew 20:28, Biden said, “I pray we do what Jesus taught us: to serve rather than be served.”

Concluding, Biden said, “One of the reasons other countries sometimes think we’re arrogant is because we believe anything is possible.”

“Unity doesn’t mean we have to agree on everything, but unity is where enough of us believe in a core of basic things. The common good, the general welfare, a faith in the United States of America.”

Political unity, Biden said, “is elusive,” but “it’s really very necessary. That’s why we’re here — to make the most of our time on earth.”

Keynote speaker Bryan Stevenson, founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, a nonprofit organization advocates for fair and equal treatment in the criminal justice system.

He told the gathering, “We have to understand our power as people of faith to embrace one another.”

Outlining what he described as America’s “narrative of racial differences” from the era of slavery to the violence that has persisted long after the Civil War ended, he concluded: “We’ve got to stay hopeful even when it’s difficult and painful.”

 

Pakistan’s first ‘servant of God’ is 20-year-old killed by suicide bomber

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Catholic News Service
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People from the Christian community attend a protest in Lahore, Pakistan, in this March 16, 2015, file photo. The protest was to condemn suicide bombings on two churches in Lahore the previous day. Akash Bashir, a 20-year-old volunteer security guard who was killed in an attack outside a Catholic church, is the first Pakistani to be given the title "servant of God," an initial step on the path to sainthood. (CNS photo/Akhtar Soomro, Reuters)

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Akash Bashir, a 20-year-old volunteer security guard who was killed by a suicide bomber in 2015, is the first Pakistani to be given the title, “servant of God,” an initial step on the path to sainthood.

Archbishop Sebastian Shaw of Lahore, Pakistan, informed Catholics of his archdiocese that Pope Francis had granted the title to Bashir Jan. 31, the feast of St. John Bosco.

“We praise and thank God for this brave young man, who could have escaped or tried to save himself, but he remained steadfast in his faith and did not let the suicide bomber enter the church. He gave his life to save more than a thousand people present in the church for Sunday Mass,” the archbishop said, according to Fides, the news agency of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.

Bashir had studied at the Don Bosco Technical Institute in Lahore and was one of the parishioners of the Church of St. John who volunteered to provide security outside the church.

“Akash was on duty at the church entrance gate on March 15, 2015, when he spotted a man who wanted to enter the church with an explosive belt on his body,” Fides said. “Akash blocked him at the entrance gate, foiling the terrorist’s plan to massacre those inside the church.”

The terrorist blew himself up, killing Bashir and two other people who were outside. His last words were: ‘I will die, but I will not let you in.'”

At about the same time, another suicide bomber struck the nearby Christ Church.

A total of 17 people were killed by the bombers and more than 70 were injured. The terrorist group Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan Jamaat-ul-Ahrar claimed responsibility.

Two Muslims who were suspected of being involved in the bombings were attacked and killed shortly after the bombings.

 

Be moved by Spirit, not ‘mechanical repetition,’ pope tells religious

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Catholic News Service
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Pope Francis celebrates Mass marking the feast of the Presentation of the Lord in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican Feb. 2, 2022. The Mass also marked the Vatican celebration of the World Day for Consecrated Life. (CNS photo/Remo Casilli, Reuters)

By Junno Arocho Esteves, Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The Holy Spirit, and not the need for recognition, must be the primary motivation in one’s religious life, Pope Francis told consecrated men and women.

“Sometimes, even behind the appearance of good works, the canker of narcissism, or the need to stand out, can be concealed. In other cases, even as we go about doing many things, our religious communities can appear moved more by mechanical repetition — acting out of habit, just to keep busy — than by enthusiastic openness to the Holy Spirit,” the pope said in his homily Feb. 2.

“Let us today examine our interior motivations and discern our spiritual movements, so that the renewal of consecrated life may come about, first and foremost, from there,” he said.

Hundreds of men and women belonging to religious orders attended the Mass for the celebration of Candlemas — the feast of the Presentation of the Lord — which also marks the Vatican celebration of the World Day for Consecrated Life.

During the Mass, Pope Francis exchanged consecrated bread and wine with Armenian Catholic Patriarch Raphaël Pierre XXI Minassian, who was elected in September, thus sealing their ecclesial communion.

In September, after the election, the pope granted the Armenian patriarch’s request for unity, which is sealed with the gesture of partaking of the Eucharist together. The Armenian Patriarchate, based in Beirut, is one of 22 Eastern Catholic Churches that is in full unity with the Holy See and the Catholic Church.

The Mass began with the traditional blessing of candles. Led by several candle-bearing acolytes, Pope Francis processed toward the Altar of the Chair in a darkened St. Peter’s Basilica, faintly lit by the congregation’s candles as the choir sang, “O radiant light, eternal splendor of the father, Christ the Lord immortal.”

Pope Francis blessed the candles and prayed that the Lord would guide all men and women “on the path of good” toward his Son, “the light that has no end.”

In his homily, the pope reflected on the Gospel reading from St. Luke, in which the young Mary and Joseph, along with baby Jesus, meet the elderly Simeon and Anna, who “await in the Temple the fulfilment of the promise that God made to his people: the coming of the Messiah.”

Just like the elderly Simeon recognizes the Messiah “in the guise of a poor little baby,” religious men and women are called to be “moved by the Spirit” rather than success or prestige in their congregations.

“The spirit moves us to see God in the littleness and vulnerability of a baby, yet we at times risk seeing our consecration only in terms of results, goals and success: We look for influence, for visibility, for numbers,” the pope said. “The Spirit, on the other hand, asks for none of this. He wants us to cultivate daily fidelity and to be attentive to the little things entrusted to our care.”

Secondly, Simeon’s example of seeing and recognizing Christ is a testament to the “great miracle of faith” that “opens eyes, transforms gazes and changes perspectives.”

While the world often sees consecrated life as “a waste, a relic of the past, something useless,” the pope called on religious men and women to reflect on how they view religious life and whether their eyes are “turned only inward, yearning for something that no longer exists, or are we capable of a farsighted gaze of faith, one that looks both within and beyond.”

“Let us open our eyes: The spirit is inviting us amid our crises, decreasing numbers and diminishing forces, to renew our lives and our communities. Let us look at Simeon and Anna: Although they were advanced in years, they did not spend their days mourning a past that never comes back, but instead embraced the future opening up before them,” he said.

Pope Francis said the act of Simeon taking baby Jesus in his arms reflects the calling to embrace Jesus in one’s life, which is “the very heart of faith” and an important aspect of Christian life, especially at times when “losing our bearings, getting caught up in a thousand different things, obsessing about minor issues or plunging into new projects.”

“If consecrated men and women lack words that bless God and other people, if they lack joy, if their enthusiasm fails, if their fraternal life is only a chore, it is not the fault of someone or something else,” the pope said. “It is because our arms no longer embrace Jesus. When that happens, our hearts fall prey to bitterness, to complaining about things that do not go like clockwork, to rigidity and inflexibility, to the illusion of our own superiority.”

Instead, when one embraces Christ, he or she will also “embrace others with trust and humility.”

“Then conflicts will not escalate, disagreements will not divide, and the temptation to domineer and to offend the dignity of others will be overcome,” he said.

 

Pope talks about devotion to saints, prays for man who interrupted prayer

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Catholic News Service
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Pope Francis greets people as he leaves his general audience in the Paul VI hall at the Vatican Feb. 2, 2022. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)

By Cindy Wooden, Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Francis said that when he was little, he thought the phrase “the communion of saints” in the Creed meant that the saints in heaven were receiving Communion.

Instead, the communion of saints expresses how “every member of the church is bound to me in a profound way and this bond is so strong that it cannot be broken even by death,” he said Feb. 2 during his weekly general audience.

Concluding his series of audience talks about St. Joseph, Pope Francis recited a prayer he said he has recited every day for more than 40 years.

But while he was reading it, a man in the back of the audience hall began shouting, including about wearing masks. Vatican police escorted him out of the building.

As soon as he finished his prayer, Pope Francis told the people in the hall that the man had a problem; “I don’t know if it is physical, psychological or spiritual, but he is our brother with a problem. I would like to finish by praying for him, our brother who is suffering, poor man. If he’s yelling it is because he is suffering, has some problem. Don’t be deaf to the needs of this man.”

The pope then led the crowd in praying a Hail Mary for him.

In his main audience talk, Pope Francis said he wanted to be clear about the difference between devotion to a saint, even to St. Joseph or Mary, and superstition or idolatry.

“Sometimes even Christianity can fall into forms of devotion that seem to reflect a mentality that is more pagan than Christian,” he said. But “the fundamental difference is that our prayer and the devotion of the faithful people is not based on trust in a human being, or in an image or an object, even when we know that they are sacred.”

“It is not the saints who work miracles, but only the grace of God that acts through them,” he said.

The saints, whether canonized or not, he said, are part of the community of the church, a gathering not of the perfect but of “saved sinners.”

And just as a person can have a friendship with another parishioner, he or she can have a relationship “with a brother or sister in heaven,” the pope said. “The saints are friends” and devotion “is actually a way of expressing the love that comes from this bond that unites us.”

“In Christ no one can ever truly separate us from those we love,” he said. “Only the manner of being with them changes, but nothing and no one can break this bond. The communion of saints holds together the community of believers on earth and in heaven.”

 

Praying for peace, looking toward Olympics, pope emphasizes unity

By
Catholic News Service
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Actors perform next to a cauldron with the Olympic flame during a performance at the end of the torch relay session ahead of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics Feb. 2, 2022. The Olympic & Paralympic Winter Games will be held Feb. 4-20 and March 4-13. (CNS photo/Florence Lo, Reuters)

By Cindy Wooden, Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The “true gold medal” at the upcoming Olympic and Paralympic Games goes to everything that helps the global community be more welcoming and accepting of all people, Pope Francis said.

At the end of his general audience Feb. 2, the pope focused on the bonds that unite all people in one human family as he prayed for the people of Myanmar, spoke about the upcoming 2022 Beijing Olympics and Paralympics and anticipated the International Day of Human Fraternity.

For more than a year, “we have watched with pain the violence staining Myanmar with blood,” the pope said. A coup Feb. 1, 2021, ended the country’s experiment with democracy and set off protests and repression, death and detention.

Joining an appeal launched by the country’s bishops, the pope called on the international community “to work for reconciliation between the parties involved. We cannot look away from the suffering of so many of our brothers and sisters. Let us ask God, in prayer, for consolation for that tormented population.”

Pope Francis also noted that Feb. 4 would be the second celebration of International Day of Human Fraternity, a U.N.-declared observation to promote interreligious dialogue and friendship on the anniversary of the document on human fraternity signed in Abu Dhabi in 2019, by Pope Francis and Sheikh Ahmad el-Tayeb, grand imam of Al-Azhar in Egypt.

Fraternity, he said, “means reaching out to others, respecting them and listening to them with an open heart. I hope that concrete steps will be taken together with believers of other religions and people of goodwill to affirm that today is a time of kinship, avoiding fueling clashes, divisions and closures.”

“Let us pray and commit ourselves every day to living in peace as brothers and sisters,” he said.

With the Winter Olympics opening Feb. 4 in Beijing, followed March 4 by the Paralympics, Pope Francis also focused on the power of sport to draw people together.

“Sport, with its universal language, can build bridges of friendship and solidarity between people of all cultures and religions,” he said, which is why he said he appreciated the International Olympic Committee’s decision in July to add another word to the Olympic motto.

“To the historic Olympic motto, ‘Citius, Altius, Fortius’ — Faster, Higher, Stronger — the International Olympic Committee has added the word ‘Communiter,’ that is, Together, because the Olympic Games can make a more fraternal world grow,” the pope said.

Looking at the Paralympics, the pope said humanity “will win the most important medal together if the example of athletes with disabilities would help everyone overcome prejudices and fears and make our communities more welcoming and inclusive. This is the true gold medal!” he said.

 

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