A kiss of peace: Pope Francis receives symbolic gesture from patriarch

 
In a fraternal gesture Pope Francis asked for the blessing of Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople, who marked a historic moment in ecumenical dialogue by kissing the head of the Bishop of Rome.

Pope to Turkish authorities: religious freedom a key factor for peace

Pope Francis spoke to Turkish authorities on Friday of the need to create a lasting peace – one based on a fraternal solidarity which respects human dignity and man’s essential right to religious freedom.

“Fanaticism and fundamentalism, as well as irrational fears which foster misunderstanding and discrimination, need to be countered by the solidarity of all believers,” the Pope told Turkish authorities on Nov. 28.

For Pope Francis, human dignity at core of religious dialogue

Dialogue between religious leaders and the “shared recognition of the sanctity of each human life” in bringing aid to the suffering were at the core of Pope Francis' Nov. 28 address to Turkey's Department for Religious Affairs, delivered on the first day of his three-day Apostolic Journey to

Young Syrian refugee tells Pope, 'pray for us and pray for peace'

Currently a living as a refugee at a Salesian school in Istanbul, 14-year-old Sarah will give Pope Francis a picture that she painted,  and  says that she will ask him to pray for world peace.

“My name is Sarah, and I made this picture in the name of the school to give it to the Pope. This is my picture with Jesus and Don Bosco, and here we have the glow of Don Bosco and the Sun of

Pope authorizes plenary indulgence for Year of Consecrated Life

On the occasion of the Year of Consecrated Life that begins this weekend, Pope Francis has allowed the faithful to receive plenary indulgences, under the normal conditions.

“The Holy Father, on the occasion of the Year of Consecrated Life, will concede plenary indulgences,

Pope: don't be depressed – despite our ugly reality, we have hope

 
In his homily on Thursday Pope Francis said that although sin and corruption often seem to win out over good, Jesus gives us a promise of hope which enables us to keep “our heads held high.”

“Do not give way to depression: Hope! Reality is ugly: there are many, many cities and people, so many people who are suffering; many wars, so much hatred, so much envy, so much spiritual worldliness and so much corruption. Yes, it's true, (but) all of this will fall!” the Pope said on Nov. 27.

Pope Francis: Christians have a duty to proclaim the Gospel

(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Thursday met with members of the Pauline Family, on the occasion of their 100^th anniversary, telling them that Christians have a duty to proclaim the Gospel without exception.

The Church isn’t static – she’s a pilgrim on a journey, Pope says

Pope Francis in his weekly general audience said that the Church on earth is on a pilgrimage to heaven guided by the Lord, who will lead us to the fullness of joy and truth at the end of time.

“In today's catechesis we reflect on the Church (that is) on pilgrimage to the kingdom,” the Pope told those present in St. Peter’s Square for his Nov. 26 audience.

“As was well affirmed in the Second Vatican Council, the Church is not a static reality, but continually journeys throughout history to the final and marvelous goal, which is the Kingdom of Heaven.”

Be brothers and sisters for peace, Pope tells Europe

Pope Francis said Tuesday that brotherhood and a spirit of mutual service are needed to overcome conflict, telling the Council of Europe that both the continent and Christianity have special roles to play in this work.

“The royal road to peace – and to avoiding a repetition of what occurred in the two World Wars of the last century – is to see others not as enemies to be opposed but as brothers and sisters to be embraced,” Pope Francis said Nov. 25.

The challenge of human rights recognition in Europe

While Pope Francis was applauded at the European Parliament on Tuesday at his mention of children “killed even before being born” as among the victims of a “throwaway” culture, the European Court for Human Rights has said regulating the treatment of infants born-alive

Pope tells 'haggard' Europe that human dignity is key to renewal

Pope Francis’ address to the European Parliament touched on a variety of issues, all of which, he said, ought to promote the “centrality” of the human person so that a true cultural renewal can be attained.

Pope says Mass of thanksgiving for India's newest saints

God's love is the “source” and “destination” of all holiness, said Pope Francis on Nov. 24, speaking of India's newly declared saints during a Mass of thanksgiving in the Vatican.

Build on the fruit of missionaries, Pope encourages Zambian bishops

In his ad limina address to the bishops of Zambia on Monday, Pope Francis urged them to continue to build upon the efforts of missionaries to the country, a quarter of whose people are Catholic, and who are nearly all Christian.

“Looking back to the beginnings of the Church in Zambia, it is well known that the rich deposit of faith brought by missionary religious from lands overflowing with growth prompted your forebears to respond with their own works of charity, whose effects are felt throughout your country today,” the Pope said Nov. 17 at the Vatican.

“Despite the sometimes painful meeting of ancient ways with the new hope that Christ the Lord brings to all cultures, the word of faith took deep root, multiplying a hundredfold, and a new Zambian society transformed by Christian values emerged. It is at once evident how plentiful the spiritual harvest in your vast land already is – blessed with Catholic-run clinics, hospitals and schools, many parishes alive and growing across Zambia, a wide diversity of lay ministries, and substantial numbers of vocations to the priesthood.”

A southern African nation, Zambia was colonized in the 19th century; it is bordered by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia, and Angola. It has 11 dioceses, and has been relatively untroubled by war since its independence.

Pope Francis noted that today, “Zambians continue to seek a happy and fulfilling future in the Church and in society, despite great challenges which militate against stability in social and ecclesial life, in particular for families. When family life is endangered, then the life of faith is also put at risk. As you yourselves have recounted, many – especially the poor in their struggle for survival – are led astray by empty promises in false teachings that seem to offer quick relief in times of desperation.”

He urged that the bishops support the family, “for it is here that the Church’s well-being in Zambia must grow and be fostered. I ask you, with your priests, to form strong Christian families, who – by your catechizing – will know, understand and love the truths of the faith more deeply, and thus be protected from those currents which may tempt them to fall away.”

“Affirm Catholic couples in their desire for fidelity in conjugal life and in their yearning to provide a stable spiritual home for their children, helping them to nurture the life of virtue in the family,” he exhorted.

The bishops, he said, are to be close to young people so as to help them find their vocation, whether it is in marriage or “the celibate vocations to the sacred priesthood or religious life .. encourage young Catholics by living lives of virtue to experience the liberating gift of chastity as adults.”

“In a special way invite those who have grown lukewarm and feel lost to return to the full practice of the faith. As pastors of the flock, do not forget to seek out the weakest members of Zambian society, among whom are the materially poor and those afflicted with AIDS.”

The prevalence rate of HIV/AIDS in the nation is around 13 percent, and the adjusted per capita GDP is $1,700.

“Despite all that the Church in Zambia faces,” Pope Francis said, “it is a time not to be discouraged but rather to offer the true freedom which only the Lord can give, sustained by the sacraments.”

“I encourage you to remain sensitive as shepherds to the spiritual and human needs of your closest coworkers: never tire of being kind and firm fathers to your priests, helping them resist materialism and the standards of the world, while recognizing their just needs. Continue also to promote the treasure of religious life in your Dioceses, so that outstanding examples may be brought forth of Zambian men and women seeking to love the Lord with undivided hearts.”

The Pope noted the Oct. 28 death of Zambia's president, Michael Sata, and invited the bishops to “continue working with your political leaders for the common good, deepening your prophetic witness in defence of the poor in order to uplift the lives of the weak.”

“In all things, cooperate with the graces of the Holy Spirit, in unity of belief and purpose,” he concluded.

“The Lord of the harvest is preparing to send the rains he promises in due season; for you are cultivating his fields until he returns at harvest time. Until then, knowing well how much your work demands personal sacrifice, patience and love, draw on the faith and sacrifice of the Apostles to whose threshold you have come, in order to return strengthened to the Church in Zambia.”


--EWTN NEWS

Pope Francis tells how to bring about Christ's kingdom

On the Feast of Christ the King, during the canonization Mass of six new saints, Pope Francis said that Jesus Christ’s kingdom comes through his works of mercy--works that Christians must imitate with tenderness.

“In the twilight of life we will be judged on our love for, closeness to and tenderness towards our brothers and sisters,” the Pope said Sunday to myriad people in St. Peter’s Square. “If we truly love them, we will be willing to share with them what is most precious to us, Jesus himself and his Gospel.”

“Jesus is not a King according to earthly ways,” the Holy Father said. Rather, “his reign is not to command, but to obey the Father, to give himself over to the Father, so that his plan of love and salvation may be brought to fulfillment.”

Salvation does not begin with confessing Christ’s sovereignty, the Pope said, but with “the imitation of Jesus’ works of mercy through which he brought about his kingdom.” In so doing one opens “his heart to God’s charity.”

Tens of thousands of people attended the Nov. 23 Mass in Saint Peter’s Square, which featured the canonizations of six men and women. Four of the new saints were from Italy: Giovanni Antonio Farina, Ludovico da Casoria, Nicola da Longobardi and Amato Ronconi. The other two were from India: Kuriakose Elias Chavara and Eufrasia Eluvathingal.

Pope Francis’ homily discussed the Mass readings. The first reading from Ezekiel presents God as Shepherd and his people as his sheep. The Pope said the reading reveals the shepherd’s “care and love” for his flock: “to search, to look over, to gather the dispersed, to lead into pasture, to bring to rest, to seek the lost sheep, to lead back the confused, to bandage the wounded, to heal the sick, to take care of, to pasture.”

The Pope said Jesus “brought about his kingdom... through his closeness and tenderness towards us.”

Pope Francis then turned his reflection to the day’s Gospel reading from Matthew 25, where Jesus Christ commends those who have inherited the Kingdom: “for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.”

This reading “reminds us that closeness and tenderness are the rule of life for us also, and that on this basis we will be judged,” the Pope explained.

Pope Francis spoke of the new saints canonized at the beginning of the Mass. He said each of them “served the kingdom of God, of which they became heirs, precisely through works of generous devotion to God and their brothers and sisters.”

These men and women, he said, “sought and discovered love in a strong and personal relationship with God,” which in turn led to their love of neighbor, especially the poor.

“May our new saints, through their witness and intercession, increase within us the joy of walking in the way of the Gospel and our resolve to embrace the Gospel as the compass of our lives.”

Pope Francis then called on the faithful to imitate these new saints in “faith and love, so that our hope too may be clothed in immortality.”

“May we not allow ourselves to be distracted by other earthly and fleeting interests,” he said, concluding his homily: “And may Mary, our Mother and Queen of all Saints, guide us on the way to the kingdom of heaven.”

Before bestowing the final blessing at the conclusion of Mass, Pope Francis  briefly welcomed the delegations from India and Italy who had come to Rome for the canonizations.

The four new Italian saints, he said, caring as they did for the people and working toward the common good, “trusted in the nearness of God who never abandons (us), even in difficult moments.”

Speaking of the two new saints from India, the Pope said through their intercession, “the Lord will grant a new missionary drive to the Church” in the country. He said India’s Christians can be “inspired by their example of harmony and reconciliation” and “continue along the path toward solidarity and fraternal coexistence.”

Pope Francis then led the recitation of the Angelus in Latin, after which he wished everyone a good Sunday, and asked them to remember him in their prayers.

--EWTN NEWS

Pope Francis: Turning churches into 'businesses' is a scandal

Pope Francis condemned priests and laity who turn their parishes into a “business” by charging for things such as baptisms, blessings and Mass intentions – calling it a scandal that's hard to forgive.

“It is interesting: the people of God can forgive their priests, when they are weak; when they slip on a sin, the people know how to forgive them,” the Pope told mass attendees in the Vatican's Saint Martha guesthouse on Nov. 21.

“But there are two things that the people of God cannot forgive: a priest attached to money and a priest who mistreats people. This they cannot forgive! It is scandalous…”

The Pope centered his homily on the day’s Gospel from Luke in which Jesus turns over tables and drives out those who were selling things inside the temple, saying it is a sacred place meant for prayer and not for business.

While the many people who went to the temple to pray were good and searched for God, they were forced to pay in order to make an offering, the Pope explained, noting that although the temple was a sacred place to these, “there was corruption that scandalized the people.”

He recalled the biblical story of Anna, the mother of Samuel, who was a humble woman that went to the temple and whispered her prayers in silence, while the priest and his two sons were corrupt and exploited the pilgrims who came.

“I think of how our attitude can scandalize people with unpriestly habits in the Temple: the scandal of doing business, the scandal of worldliness,” the Bishop of Rome said, observing how many parishes have a price list readily available for baptisms, blessings and Mass intentions.

The Pope then recounted the story of a young couple who were a part of a group of college students he led shortly after being ordained. When they decided to get married, they went to their parish to ask for the civil ceremony and Mass together.

When they asked, the couple was told that they couldn’t have the Mass in addition to the ceremony because the time slots for the ceremony were limited to only 20 minutes, the couple needed to pay for two time slots in order to have the Mass as well.

“This is the sin of scandal” the pontiff explained, and alluded to the scripture passage where Jesus tells those who cause scandal that it is “better to be thrown into the sea.”

When those who manage God’s temple and its ministry, including both priests and lay people, become businessmen, “people are scandalized. And we are responsible for this. The laity too! Everyone,” the Roman Pontiff continued.

Preventing scandal is the responsibility is everyone, he said, because if we see this business-mentality going on in our parishes we need to have the courage to say something to the priest.

“It is scandalous when the Temple, the House of God, becomes a place of business, as in the case of that wedding: the church was being rented out.”

Pope Francis noted how when Jesus made his whip and started driving the people out of the temple it was not because he was angry, but rather because he was filled with the wrath of God and zeal for his house.

Jesus, he said, has “an issue with money because redemption is free; it is God’s free gift, He comes to brings us the all-encompassing gratuity of God’s love.”

So when a church or a parish start doing business it’s like saying that salvation is no longer free, the Pope explained, which is why Jesus takes his whip out in order to purify the temple of the corrupt.

He noted how the feast of the day commemorates the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Temple, saying that Mary enters the temple as a young, simple woman like Anna, and prayed that she would help keep God’s temple pure.

“May she teach all of us, pastors and those who have pastoral responsibility, to keep the Temple clean, to receive with love those who come, as if each one were the Blessed Virgin.”

-- EWTN NEWS

Pope: Jesus weeps for those who prefer comfort over conversion

In his homily on Thursday Pope Francis said that the Gospel scene in which Jesus wept for Jerusalem’s closed heart is repeated today with those in the Church who are afraid to let him work in their lives.

“Jerusalem was afraid of this: of being saved by the surprises of the Lord. The (people) were afraid of the Lord, their Bridegroom, their Beloved. And so Jesus wept,” the Pope told those present in the Vatican’s Saint Martha guesthouse on Nov. 20.

In the Gospel “Jesus weeps” over Jerusalem in the same way that as He “weeps over His Church, over us today,” he said.

The Roman Pontiff centered his reflections on the day’s Gospel reading from Luke Chapter 19, in which Jesus travels close to Jerusalem and weeps, saying “If this day you only knew what makes for peace.”

In this passage Jesus weeps for the holy city because its people didn’t recognize the one who brings true peace because their hearts were closed inside their own comfort zones, the Pope observed.

“The people of Jerusalem were content with their way of life and did not need the Lord: they failed to realize that they needed salvation. This is why they had closed their heart before the Lord,” he explained.

Pope Francis noted that the people of Jerusalem didn’t make any time to open the doors of their hearts because they were too busy and “self-satisfied,” and didn’t want anything to interfere with comfortable lives they were living.

They didn’t recognize what Jesus was talking about in the Gospel when he said that “if you only knew, on this day, what brings you peace. You did not recognize the time of your visitation,” the Pope explained.

He continued, saying that Jerusalem’s citizens were unable recognize this peace because of their fear of being visited by the Lord, and of the gratuity that his visit would bring.

“The city felt safe in the knowledge of what it could handle. We all feel safe in the things that we can handle ... But the visit of the Lord, its surprises, those we cannot handle.”

Pope Francis said that the people of Jerusalem were also afraid of “being saved by the surprises” of the Lord, their bridegroom. This also made Jesus weep, he observed, because when the Lord comes he always brings joy and leads us to conversion.

“We all fear happiness – that joy that the Lord brings, because we cannot control it. We are afraid of conversion because conversion means allowing the Lord to lead us,” the Bishop of Rome said.

He reiterated how Jerusalem had been content and happy with how things were going because its temple worked, the priests made their sacrifices, people were coming on pilgrimages and the teachers and scholars had everything perfectly arranged.

“Everything was clear! All the commandments were clear...And with all of this Jerusalem had closed the door,” the Pope noted, saying that the cross, which was the price of the people’s refusal to listen to him, shows us the love of Jesus that still leads him to “weep – often – for His Church.”

Pope Francis encouraged the Christians of today who know the faith, go to Mass and are even pastors of the Church, to ask themselves if they have become content with themselves and their lives.

“Are we content with ourselves? Because we have organized everything and do not need new visits from the Lord?” he asked, saying that the Lord continues to knock on the door of each person, including the Church and its pastors.

Many times, he lamented, “the door of our hearts, of the heart of the Church, of her pastors will not open: and the Lord weeps, even today.”

He concluded by encouraging people to examine their consciences, and asked those present to reflect on themselves as they are before God in that moment.

Sex complementarity is the 'human experience', not a political agenda

One of the lessons learned from this week's Vatican conference on marriage, say organizers, is that the beauty of man and woman's complementarity is not political, but is rather the human experience.

The Humanum Colloquium, which ran Nov. 17-19, heard testimonies from people of more than a dozen religious traditions speaking on the theme of the complementarity of man and woman.

Helen Alvaré, law professor at George Mason University and communications liaison for the colloquium, recounted to EWTN News that “the question of the relationship between man and woman is (not) only a political question,” but rather, it is “a matter of human experience, human happiness, human freedom, or the Divine plan.”

Alvaré stressed the importance of remembering the time it takes to understand the notion of complementarity, not only in one's own relationship, but in today's climate.

“We should be really patient with people who are struggling” to understand the notion of complementarity, she said, “especially young people.”

“We need to begin getting this language out,” she added, “but also cautioning them that it’s going to take them some time actually living it to understand it.”

The final day of the gathering began with the General Audience with Pope Francis, followed in the afternoon with presentations from Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia, who spoke on the upcoming World Meeting of Families which is set to take place Sept. 2015, and from Dr. Kala Acharya, a Hindu who is director of an institute dedicated to inter-religious dialogue among Hindus, Christians, and Muslims.

Speaking on the variety of religious traditions represented in the discussions of man and woman, “some of which overlap, some of which do not,” Alvaré noted the “fabulous affirmation of a natural appreciation for the natural attraction between man and woman, the fact that man and woman are the origin of all human life.”

“There was different language coming at the same concept: there is a duality in nature, (and) man and woman are the highest example of that,” she said, adding that it is meaningful that God made a “two-sexed humanity,” and the conference explored that meaning, with all of the talks centering on one common theme: “the beauty of complementarity.”

Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco, who attended the colloquium, told EWTN News the gathering was an opportunity to learn from one another, and to recognize those truths that are in common.

“On the one hand, we do have to be careful not to just sort of water-down our unique identities, and what we hope to be true. But, we can recognize there are fundamental truths that we share in common.”

“It’s not a matter of trying to blend us all into one sort of world religion,” the archbishop continued. “The world seems to be falling apart at the seams, if I may put it that way, with so much violence and human trafficking and drug trafficking ... we need the power of faith to heal the world.”

One of the aspects which arose from the Humanum conference, said participant Fr. Scott Borgman, an official for the Pontifical Academy for Life in an interview with EWTN News, “was a universal love and acceptance of the family as it is defined, as a man and a woman,” and, echoing the Pope's words on Nov. 17, “the right of a child to have a father and a mother.”


Bringing together representatives from “different cultures, different languages, different religious affiliations,” he said, testifies that those in the media promoting the breakdown of the family do not represent the majority.

“This is the rest of the world,” he said, “standing up and saying: Look! We need our voice to be heard".

--EWTN NEWS

Pope says, Thinking of yourself won’t make you holy, but serving others will

In his weekly general audience address Pope Francis said that holiness can never be selfish, but is a gift that must be put into practice through daily witness and attentiveness to the needs of others.

“Growing in holiness thus means becoming better persons, free of selfishness and self-absorption, and ever ready to place ourselves at the service of our brothers and sisters in the Church,” the Pope told pilgrims present in St. Peter’s Square for his Nov. 19 general audience address.

In his continued catechesis on the Church, the Roman Pontiff turned his reflections to universal call to holiness, which is “a vocation” for every person.

Each member of the Church shares this vocation thanks to their baptism, he observed, saying that within this call to holiness is the call to be a saint.

“(But) What does this vocation consist of and how can we achieve it?” the Pope asked. He explained that holiness is not something we “obtain by our own capacities or personal qualities,” but is rather a gift from God and his son Jesus Christ.

Holiness is not we achieve but is rather is given to us by Christ, the Bishop of Rome noted, and alluded to the words of St. Paul who tells us that Christ loved the Church and gave his life for her in order to make her holy.

“Therefore, holiness is discovered in full communion with him, in the fullness of his life and love,” he continued, noting how this holiness must then be lived out by each person in the activities and responsibilities of their daily life.

Pope Francis then drew attention to the First Letter of St. Peter in which the apostle asks each person to be good administers of the grace they have received by putting it at the service of others, and encouraged those present to ask themselves how well they have responded to this call.

“By asking us to become holy in our daily lives, Christ is inviting us to experience in all things his own deep joy and to become a gift of love to all around us,” he said, adding that the call to holiness is “not a heavy burden, but rather an invitation to live each moment of our life with joy and love.”

Each step we take toward holiness makes us better people, frees us from selfishness and allows us to open our hearts to the needs of our brothers and sisters, the Pope explained.

He prayed that all would welcome the invitation to holiness with joy and “support each other on this path that is not walked alone, but in communion with that one body which is the Church, our hierarchical Holy Mother.

--EWTN NEWS

Pope Francis announces 2015 visit to US

Pope Francis on Monday officially announced that he will visit the U.S. in September 2015, including a visit to the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia.

“I wish to confirm, if God wills it, that in September of 2015 I will go to Philadelphia for the Eighth World Meeting of Families,” he announced at Vatican City's Synod Hall Nov. 17 during his remarks at an international colloquium on the complementarity of man and woman.

The Philadelphia World Meeting of Families will take place from Sept. 22-27. Even before the Pope's announcement, the meeting was expected to draw tens of thousands of people. Archbishop Charles J. Chaput of Philadelphia had told a gathering of Catholic bishops last week that a papal visit would likely result in crowds of about 1 million.

A global Catholic event, the world meeting seeks to support and strengthen families. St. John Paul II founded the event in 1994, and it takes place every three years.

Archbishop Chaput had previously hinted that Pope Francis would attend the 2015 meeting, although he cautioned that the visit had not been officially confirmed. In March 2014, a Pennsylvania delegation including Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett and Philadelphia mayor Michael Nutter visited the Vatican to help encourage the Pope to visit the U.S.

On Thursday, Archbishop Bernardito Auza, the head of the Holy See’s permanent observer mission to the United Nations, told the Associated Press “if he comes to Philadelphia, he will come to New York.”

The 70th anniversary of the U.N.’s founding would be “the ideal time” for a papal visit, the archbishop said Nov. 13. Next year also marks the 50th anniversary of Pope Paul VI’s 1965 visit to the U.N., the first such visit from a Pope.

In August, on his return flight from South Korea, Pope Francis said he wanted to visit the U.S. in 2015 for the Philadelphia gathering. He also noted that he had received invitations from President Barack Obama, Congress and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon, as well as from Mexico.
However, despite the anticipation of the Pope's possible visit to New York and Washington while in the U.S., Vatican spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi S.J. told journalists shortly after the announcement that as of now nothing else is confirmed.
The Pope, he explained, “didn't say anything about any other steps or moments in his trip to America. He guaranteed his presence to the organizers of the World Day for Families, but as for the rest, I have no concrete information.”
Pope Francis has visited the Holy Land and Albania as well as South Korea. He will visit France and Turkey in November, and Sri Lanka and the Philippines in January 2015. He will return to France for a longer visit in 2015.

In June, the Pope accepted an invitation to visit Mexico, though a date for the visit was not announced.

The World Meeting of Families will take place shortly before the October 2015 meeting of the Synod of Bishops on the Family, which will discuss the mission of the family in the Church and in the world.

At the last World Meeting of Families in Milan, Italy, in 2012, more than 1 million people representing 153 nations attended a papal Mass with Pope Benedict XVI.

The 2015 meeting's theme is “Love is Our Mission: The Family Fully Alive.” The meeting will include many speakers and breakout sessions. Keynote speakers include Cardinal Sean O'Malley of Boston, Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle of the Philippines, Cardinal Robert Sarah, professor Helen Alvare, and Dr. Juan Francisco de la Guardia Brin and Gabriela N. de la Guardia.

The Philadelphia meeting will mark the first time that the event will be held in the United States.

Registration for the 2015 World Meeting of Families began on Nov. 10.

-- EWTN NEWS

Pope Francis: Children have right to a mother and father

Children have the right to be raised by a mother and a father, Pope Francis said, emphasizing that “the family is the foundation of co-existence and a remedy against social fragmentation.”

The Pope made these remarks on Nov. 17 at the opening of the three-day international, interfaith colloquium entitled The Complementarity of Man and Woman, currently underway in the Vatican.

Also referred to as the “Humanum” conference, the gathering is being sponsored by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, in collaboration with the Pontifical Council for the Family, the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue, and the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity.

“To reflect upon 'complementarity' is nothing less than to ponder the dynamic harmonies at the heart of all creation,” he said. “All complementarities were made by our creator, so the author of harmony achieves this harmony.”

Complementarity, which is at the core of this gathering, “is a root of marriage and family,” the Pope said. “For the family grounded in marriage is the first school where we learn to appreciate our own and others' gifts, and where we begin to acquire the arts of cooperative living.”

Although the family often leads to tensions – “egoism and altruism, reason and passion, immediate desires and long-range goals” – it also provides “frameworks for resolving such tensions.”

Pope Francis warned against confusing complementarity with the notion that “all the roles and relations of the two sexes are fixed in a single, static pattern.” Rather, he said, “complementarity will take many forms as each man and woman brings his or her distinctive contributions to their marriage and to the formation of their children – his or her personal richness, personal charisma.”

“Marriage and family are in crisis,” he said, with the “culture of the temporary” dissuading people from making the “public commitment” of marriage.

“This revolution in manners and morals has often flown the flag of freedom, but in fact it has brought spiritual and material devastation to countless human beings, especially the poorest and most vulnerable.”

Pope Francis noted the evidence pointing to the correlation between “the decline of marriage culture” and the increase of poverty and other “social ills”. It is women, children, and elderly persons who suffer the most from this crisis, he said.

The Pope likened the crisis in the family to threats against the environment. Although there has been a growing awareness of ecological concerns, mankind has “been slower to recognize that our fragile social environments are under threat as well, slower in our culture, and also in our Catholic Church.”

“We must foster a new human ecology,” he said.

“The family is the foundation of co-existence and a remedy against social fragmentation,” the Holy Father continued, stressing the importance of marriage in the raising of children.

“Children have a right to grow up in a family with a father and a mother capable of creating a suitable environment for the child's development and emotional maturity,” he said.

Pope Francis encouraged the participants in the Colloquium to especially take account of young people. “Commit yourselves, so that our youth do not give themselves over to the poisonous environment of the temporary, but rather be revolutionaries with the courage to seek true and lasting love, going against the common pattern.”

He also warned against being moved by political agendas. “Family is an anthropological fact, he said, which cannot be qualified “based on ideological notions or concepts important only at one time in history.” 

Pope Francis concluded his address by confirming his participation in the World Meeting of Families to take place in Philadelphia, USA, in 2015.

Following the Holy Father's remarks, CDF Prefect and moderator of the colloquium's opening sessions, Cardinal Gerhard Mueller, spoke at length on the central themes of the gathering.

At the core of the Colloquium which has gathered representatives from diverse religious traditions, is the question of the import of man and woman's complementarity “for the relationship between the human person and God”.

Recounting the Genesis account of the earth's creation, followed by that of man and woman, Cardinal Mueller said in his intervention the “difference between man and woman, both in the union of love and the generation of life, concerns God's presence in the world.” It is man's calling “to discover [this] in order to find a solid and lasting foundation and destiny for our life.”

“In sexual difference,” the cardinal went on, the man and the woman “can only understand him or herself in light of the other: the male needs the female to be understood, and the same is true for the female.”

It is therefore the the aim of the colloquium, Mueller concluded, “to explore the richness of sexual difference, its goodness, its character as gift, its openness to life, the path that opens up to God.”

Later that morning, keynote speaker Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks opened his intervention by telling “the story of the most beautiful idea in the history of civilization: the idea of the love that brings new life into the world. There are of course many ways of telling the story, and this is just one.”

The Rabbi explored the evolutionary development leading to the human family, from which emerged “the union of the biological mother and father to care for their child.” Then, with the development of cultures came the normalization of polygamy: “the ultimate expression of inequality because it means that
many males never get the chance to have a wife and child.”

“That is what makes the first chapter of Genesis so revolutionary,” he said, “with its statement that every human being, regardless of class, colour, culture or creed, is in the image and likeness of God himself.”

Rabbi Sacks spoke at length about the development of family within the Jewish tradition, noting how the Jews were “became an intensely family oriented people, and it was this that saved us from tragedy.”

From the destruction of the Temple in 70 A.D through centuries of persecution, he said, “Jews survived because they never lost three things: their sense of family, their sense of community and their faith.”

“Marriage and the family are where faith finds its home and where the Divine Presence lives in the love between husband and wife, parent and child,” he said.

In an interview with EWTN News, President for the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, Cardinal Kurt Koch, reflected on the fundamentals of complementarity, beginning with the first chapter of Genesis.

“We have this very beautiful idea, an image that the relationship between man and woman is an image of God,” he said. “In this sense, in the Catholic Church, the marriage between husband and wife is a Sacrament. This Sacramental issue is very important for us.”

Citing the interfaith character of the Colloquium, Cardinal Koch, who served as moderator for the afternoon sessions he stressed the need to give witness about complementarity “first of all in an ecumenical way.”

The chance to “give witness about family and marriage in an inter-religious dimension is a very beautiful opportunity,” he said.

David Quinn, director of the IONA institute and newspaper columnist, was among the participants in the colloquium. “The conference is obviously an extremely major international gathering about the importance of marriage between a man and a woman,” he told EWTN News.

“It’s probably the most significant gathering of its kind to date that’s been organized by the Church, and specifically by the CDF.”

“The loud and clear message for me,” Quinn said, “is the importance of the complementarity of men and women, and particularly the right of a child to be raised by their own mother and father whenever that is possible.”

Citing Ireland’s upcoming referendum on same-sex marriage, set to occur in 2015, Quinn said “this is obviously a loud and clear message that people need to hear. That the sexes are complimentary.”

“This is imbedded in the very nature of marriage itself. You deny the nature of marriage if you deny the importance of the complementarity of the sexes, and above all if you deny that mothers and fathers should raise children together.”  

-- EWTN NEWS

Pope: Christians living under false appearances are 'dead'

In his homily on Tuesday, Pope Francis spoke of how we must never be content with where we are in the spiritual life, but rather must seek constant conversion.

The Pope addressed those present in the Vatican’s Saint Martha guesthouse for his Nov. 18 daily Mass, saying that the Lord constantly calls us to conversion, and condemned “those who live by appearances, Christians of appearances.”

“Appearances are these Christians’ shroud: they are dead….Am I one of these Christians of appearances? Am I alive inside, do I have a spiritual life? Do I hear the Holy Spirit, do I listen to the Holy Spirit, do I move forward?” he asked.

The pontiff centered his reflections on the day’s readings, the first coming from the Book of Revelation, and the Gospel from the 19th chapter of Luke, in which the tax collector Zacchaeus climbs a tree in order to see Jesus, who then asks to dine at the corrupt man’s house.

As the Church is coming to the close of its liturgical year we are always invited to think about conversion, he said, explaining that the day’s first reading offers an image of what the Lord says to those who have become lukewarm and comfortable in their faith.

These are the people who think: “I do what I can, but I am at peace and do not want to be disturbed…I go to Mass on Sundays, I pray a few times, I feel good, I am in God's grace, I'm rich (and) I don’t need to do anything.”

Pope Francis warned that this state of mind is sinful, and that “feeling spiritually comfortable is a state of sin” which the Lord strongly condemns when he says that he will spit the lukewarm out of his mouth.

The Lord also calls to conversion to those “who live by appearances,” the Roman Pontiff observed, explaining that these are the Christians who believe that they alive and living a good life, but are really dead.

These type of Christians are called to convert, because “if everything looks good, I have nothing to reproach myself about: I have a good family, people do not gossip about me, I have everything I need…Appearances! Christians of appearance...they are dead!”

Rather than believing that we are already doing enough because we are in the grace of God, we must search for “something alive” within ourselves and constantly seek to reawaken it so that we can advance “from appearances to reality” on our path of conversion, the Pope continued.

He then spoke of the tax collector Zacchaeus from the Gospel, noting how “he was just like many leaders we know: corrupt. Those who, instead of serving the people, exploit the people to serve themselves.”

Despite his corrupt heart, Zacchaeus was not lukewarm, but rather in a state of “putrefaction,” the pontiff said, and he was able to feel something inside drawing him to Jesus.

What Zacchaeus felt, the Pope explained, was curiosity in the face of a man who he had heard so much about. So the Holy Spirit “sowed the seed of curiosity, and in order to see (Jesus) this man even does something a little 'ridiculous'” by climbing a tree.

Because the Holy Spirit was working inside of him Zacchaeus wasn’t ashamed to be seen in the tree, despite being an important leader in society, the Bishop of Rome noted, and because of this, he was able to experience the joy of meeting Christ.

“Those of comfort and those of appearance had forgotten what joy was (but) this corrupt man immediately gets it” and promises to give back everything he has stolen and more, the Pope observed, adding: “When conversion touches pockets, it's a certainty.”

Pope Francis concluded his homily by recalling the three calls to conversion that Jesus himself makes to the comfortable, the lukewarm and those who live under appearances, thinking they are rich, when they are actually poor.

He encouraged those present to use the final weeks of the liturgical year to be vigilant and think “very, very seriously about our conversion, so that we can move forward on the path of our Christian life.”

: --EWTN NEWS