Celebrating the Incarnation, remember Bethlehem, too, pope says
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — When St. Francis of Assisi staged the first Nativity scene 800 years ago, he did so to remind people of the powerful, awe-inspiring truth that God became human in Jesus, Pope Francis said. Nativity scenes are not simply works of art or folk art, the pope told hundreds of people involved in staging a live Nativity scene at the Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome Dec. 16.
Pope advances sainthood causes, including of a saint’s brother
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Francis advanced eight sainthood causes Dec. 14, including the cause of St. Gianna Beretta Molla’s brother, Capuchin Father Alberto Beretta, who died three years before St. John Paul II canonized his sister. Father Beretta, who died in 2001, was a physician like both St. Gianna and their only surviving sibling, Canossian Sister Virginia Beretta. He was a missionary in Brazil for 20 years until partial paralysis from a stroke led the Capuchins to bring him back to Italy.
Vatican Museums share hidden images, details found by art restorers
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The Vatican Museums has launched an initiative to give visitors — online and in person — a “backstage” peek into the secrets, curiosities and insights discovered by their art restorers. When cleaning, repairing and analyzing major works of art up close or with X-rays or infrared radiation, experts often find unexpected and hidden details. The new yearlong initiative lets visitors learn more about some of the discoveries and view details concealed or hard to see in some 36 masterpieces.
Faith and forgiveness: Holy Year is ‘also for the incarcerated’
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Millions of pilgrims flock to Rome every 25 years to mark a Holy Year, or jubilee, the Catholic Church’s more modern celebration of an ancient Jewish practice of forgiveness. And through partnerships with prisons and incarcerated persons, the Vatican hopes to show those visitors that the spirit of forgiveness remains front and center of the church’s long tradition of celebrating Holy Years.
God plants a seed in everyone; help it flourish, pope tells chaplains
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Be courageous in caring for and accompanying others, helping them to dream big, cultivating their unique gifts and flourishing, Pope Francis told university chaplains and pastoral workers. “The work of education is a true mission in which individuals and situations are accepted with all their lights and shadows — their shadows, too — with a kind of ‘parental’ love,” the pope said. “This facilitates in a unique way the growth of those seeds that God has sown within each person,” he said Nov. 24 in an audience at the Vatican with people taking part in a conference on pastoral care in Catholic universities, sponsored by the Dicastery for Culture and Education.
Pope launches appeals to pray for peace, prevent ‘mountain of dead’
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Francis appealed for perseverance in praying for peace, especially in the Holy Land where the conflict is no longer “warfare,” but has become “terrorism.” “Please, let’s move toward peace. Pray for peace,” the pope said. “May the Lord help us to not keep going to the point of killing everyone. “At the end of his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square Nov. 22, the pope reminded everyone “not to forget to persevere in prayer for those who are suffering because of wars in so many parts of the world, especially for the dear people of Ukraine, martyred Ukraine, and Israel and Palestine.”
Mary teaches Christians to be ‘missionary disciples,’ pope says
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — A Catholic pilgrimage, especially a pilgrimage to Marian shrines, should help people grow in their commitment to be missionary disciples, Pope Francis said. Meeting pilgrims from the Archdiocese of Ozamiz, Philippines, Nov. 17, the pope said their visits to shrines in Europe dedicated to Mary should remind them that “being followers of Jesus always involves listening to his word, meditating on it in our hearts and then bringing that word to others,” Mary did when she visited her cousin Elizabeth.
Faithful should embrace silence, communication with God, pope says
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Long moments of silence and listening to God’s Word are some of the many lessons contemplative women can give other Catholics, Pope Francis said. “In this world that is always full — of things, words, news, a whole industry of external communication — interior communication, in silence, is so necessary,” he said during an audience at the Vatican Nov. 16. He spoke to people taking part in an international conference sponsored by the Pontifical International Marian Academy on the Venerable María de Jesús de Ágreda.
Art can touch people’s souls and bring them together, pope says
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — By supporting the preservation, restoration and exhibition of art, especially religious art, the Patrons of the Arts in the Vatican Museums share beauty that can touch all people and build bridges between them, Pope Francis said. The pope met Nov. 9 with about 300 members of the patrons’ group — which started in the United States and continues to have a majority of its members in North America — as they celebrated the organization’s 40th anniversary.
Pope joins knights and dames of Holy Sepulchre in praying for peace
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Francis joined leaders of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem in praying for peace in Israel and Palestine, “sharing the great sorrow of the mother church of Jerusalem.” “We are sadly witnessing a tragedy unfolding in the very places where the Lord lived, where he taught us through his humanity to love, to forgive and to do good to all,” the pope said Nov. 9. “And, instead, we see them torn apart by tremendous suffering that is striking the innocent most of all, so many innocent people dead.”
