Meeting with students at a number of Vatican institutions, Pope Francis warns against the “toxic, unhealthy and violent” information that can lurk in social media.
By Lisa Zengarini
Pope Francis received in audience on Monday some 200 students and teachers of the Vatican School of Paleography, Diplomatic and Archival Studies and of the Vatican School of Library Science as they celebrate their 140th and 90th anniversary of foundation, respectively.
Welcoming them in the Clementine Hall, the Pope expressed his gratitude to the two reputed higher education institutions, and underscored the importance of their work of forming people who “do accurate research in all circumstances to reach the truth”. “Yours is truly a service to solidity of the teachings you have received, a much-need solidity in times when news is sometimes spread without checks and research,” he said.
While acknowledging their important achievements, Pope Francis, on the other hand, warned against self-complacency, stressing the need for them to respond to the crucial cultural challenges of our globalized world, including the “the risk of the levelling and devaluation of knowledge”; the complex relationship with technologies; and preserving cultural traditions “that must be cultivated and proposed without mutual impositions.”
He again highlighted the need “to include and never exclude “anyone from knowledge and, at the same time, to protect from the “toxic, unhealthy and violent” information that can lurk in the world of social media and technological knowledge.
This context, he remarked, requires “openness to discussion and dialogue, the willingness to welcome, especially those of marginality and material, cultural and spiritual poverty.”
“May studies truly measure up to the fragility and richness of today’s men! And this does not only apply to you students, but also to the teachers who guide you.”
The two prestigious Vatican schools, must therefore continue “to learn and share ideas and experiences, to grow in openness and avoid ‘self-referentiality’”. While looking with gratitude to their glorious past, they must “look forward, to the future,” and have the courage “to rethink themselves in the face of requests coming from the cultural and professional world.”
Recalling that since their outset they have had an “eminently practical and concrete approach” to research, Pope Francis hence concluded by encouraging the two higher education institutions to continue on this path of “concreteness and openness” so as to transmit to present and future generations the centuries-old heritage that the Archive and the Library have.
“From their origins, these Schools have a decisive characteristic: that of having an eminently practical approach and a concrete approach to problems and studies, according to a line that I have indicated several times, because the comparison with the reality of things is worth more of ideology.”
The Vatican Schools of Paleography, Diplomatic and Archival Studies and of Library Science were founded respectively in 1884 and 1934 at the behest of Pope Leo XXIII and Pius XI and are embedded within the Vatican Apostolic Archives and the Vatican Library. To mark the anniversary the Pontifical Urban University in Rome is to host a conference on Monday afternoon which will retrace the history and discuss the future prospects of these two important higher education institutions. Among the key speakers Key speakers will will be Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin and and Mgr. Angelo Vincenzo Zani, Archivist and Librarian of the Holy Roman Church who has organized the event.
Meeting with the head Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, which has been divided for a number of years by a fierce liturgical dispute, Pope Francis emphasises the importance of obedience to ecclesiastical authorities.
By Joseph Tulloch
Pope Francis met on Monday morning with Major Archbishop Raphael Thattil, the head of Kerala’s Syro-Malabar Catholic Church.
The Pope’s address to Archbishop Thattil ranged over a number of topics, from the ancient history of the Church in Kerala to the liturgical dispute which has been raging there for a number of years.
Pope Francis began his address by reflecting on the ancient faith of the Syro-Malabar Church.
“The faithful of your beloved Church”, he said, “are known not only in India, but throughout the whole world, for the ‘vigour’ of their faith and piety.”
Referring to the fact that, for many years, Western missionaries attempted to force Kerala’s Christians to conform to European traditions, Pope Francis said that “some members of the faith” committed “unfortunate acts against you”, because of their “insensitivity” to the history of India’s ancient churches.
The Syro-Malabar Church, the Pope added, is particularly important today, in times where it is common to “sever the roots connecting us to the past.”
“The Christian East”, he said, “allows us to draw from ancient and ever new sources of spirituality; these become fresh springs that bring vitality to the Church.”
Pope Francis with bishops of the Syro-Malabar Church
Referring to the ongoing liturgical controversy, the Pope said that he had “recently sent letters and a video message to the faithful, warning them of the dangerous temptation to focus on one detail.”
This danger, he said, comes from “a self-referentiality, which leads to listening to no other way of thinking but one’s own.”
And it is here, the Pope warned, that “the devil creeps in”, aiming to undermine Jesus’ desire that we, his disciples, “be one” (John 17.2).
“For this reason,” Pope Francis stressed, “guarding unity is not a pious exhortation but a duty.”
And, he added, “showing a grave lack of respect for the Blessed Sacrament …by arguing about the details of how to celebrate the Eucharist, the pinnacle of [Jesus’] presence among us, is incompatible with the Christian faith.”
“Let us work with determination to protect communion”, Pope Francis urged, and “pray tirelessly” that those who refused to accept the Church’s rulings on the liturgical issues “may realize that they are part of a larger family that loves them and waits for them.”
“Let us meet and discuss without fear,” the Pope said, but “above all, let us pray, so that the light of the Spirit, which reconciles differences and brings tensions back into unity, may resolve disputes.”
“There is one certainty”, the Pope emphasised: “pride, recriminations and envy do not come from the Lord and never lead to concord and peace.”
Pope Francis brought his address to an end with a reflection on the encounter of St Thomas – who had doubted the resurrection – with the Risen Jesus.
Jesus, the Pope recalled, showed himself to Thomas, and invited him to inspect the wounds he had received while on the cross.
“What amazement must have seized the Apostle Thomas as he contemplated them and saw his doubts and fears vanish before the greatness of God! It is an amazement that generates hope, an amazement that prompted him to go out, to cross new borders and to become your father in faith. Let us cultivate this amazement of faith, which enables us to overcome every obstacle!”
You can read the full text of the Pope’s address here.
Pope Francis with Archbishop Thattil, bishops, and members of the Syro-Malabar Church in Rome
Pope Francis meets with the Abbot, monks and collaborators of the Abbey of Montevergine on the occasion of the nine hundredth anniversary of the Abbey’s foundation. He encourages the community to make themselves a gift to God and to be a gift of God to others.
By Sr. Francine-Marie Cooper, ISSM
Representatives of the Abbey of Montevergine met on Monday morning with Pope Francis on the occasion of the nine hundredth anniversary of the foundation of the Abbey.
The Abbey, located at a height of 4,170 feet above sea level, among the Appenine mountains of Campania, in southern Italy, was founded in 1124 by the hermit Saint William of Vercelli.
Pope Francis welcomed those gathered for the occasion and reminded them of the origin of their monastery, in which there were “no miracles or extraordinary events, but the care of a shepherd, the Bishop of Avellino, who wanted to build a church in that elevated place and gather a small number of people in the service of God, to make it a center of prayer, evangelization, and charity,” he said.
Picking up on the two important dimensions of the monks’ lives, prayer and service, Pope Francis urged the monks to “make yourselves a gift to God, to be a gift of God”.
The monastic vocation places prayer at the root of every action, the Holy Father said. He went on to describe the monastery and the Shrine of Our Lady of Montevergine.
He pointed out that “the faithful often come there, sometimes on foot, to find consolation and hope, to receive new strength during the pilgrimage.”
Like the beautiful icon of the Mother of God, that welcomes the pilgrims on their arrival, so too should the monks pray and have “those big and kind eyes, and show to everyone” they meet, like Mary, the Lord, present in their hearts, the Pope said.
Another image that holds a message for the lives of the monks is the Holy Shroud, which was secretly brought to the Shrine during the Second World War to be safeguarded and venerated, safe from the risk of bombings.
The Holy Father spoke of this “beautiful image of your primary vocation: to guard the image of Christ within you, so that you can show it to your brothers.”
“To be a gift of God” is “to give oneself generously to those who come to the Sanctuary,” Pope Francis said. And he encouraged the monks to make the pilgrims feel welcome and to lead them to the Mother of God.
He reminded them that in their lives as monks, in physical distance form the world yet spiritually close to it, they can be a “living and eloquent sign of God’s presence.”
The Pope recommended them therefore “not to succumb to the temptation to conform to the mentality and styles of the world, but to allow yourselves to be constantly transformed by God, renewing your heart and growing in Him (cf. Rom 12,2), so that those who come to you seeking light may not be disappointed.”
The Pope concluded his address by reminding the monks of the gift they have in living in the “House of Mary”.
“Treasure this gift and cultivate it within you so that you can share it with everyone,” he said. “I bless you from the heart. And I ask you please to pray for me.”
Memoirs have mostly become exercises in celebrity self-justification, a way for a politician to provide a first attempt at writing the history of his or her time, or for a celebrity to overcome bad press.
Janet Robertson’s It Looked This Way to Me is not that kind of memoir. It is one of a growing number of memoirs published by non-celebrities, which is not the same thing as ordinary persons. Ordinary people do not undertake the arduous work of publishing a book. Additionally, the author may not have become famous but she is quite extraordinary.
I know this because she changed my life. “Mrs. Robertson” was my high school Latin teacher. The small, public high school I attended in rural Connecticut offered French and Spanish, but not Latin. Robertson gave lessons in her home. In addition to Latin, I learned about English grammar and Roman history and so much more sitting at the table in her kitchen. It was at that table and under her tutelage that I first learned that scholarship and history opened doors to excitement as well as enrichment.
The Robertsons were one of the few Jewish families in our WASP-y town. I knew that her Jewishness was important to Mrs. Robertson, but in the first few pages she explains just how important it is.
“There was a game I used to play. If you were awakened suddenly in the middle of the night by someone who demanded, ‘What are you?’ and you had to answer instantaneously, what would you say?” she asks. ” ‘A woman,’ or ‘A man,’ answered some who played it with me. ‘An American,’ answered others. I would say, without a second’s hesitation, ‘A Jew.’ So there you are. That is who I am.”
Robertson’s willingness to share the struggles as well as the joys of her life make for a compelling and a consoling read.
She details her childhood growing up in New York in the 1930s and ’40s, something we never discussed at that table in her kitchen. Much of it was unhappy and Robertson recounts all the unpleasantnesses with candor and a vivid memory. She was not yet 4 years old when her father had his first heart attack.
“My mother was beside herself. She got it together enough to tell me that if I made noise or yelled or did anything to upset my father, he could die. I could kill him. I wasn’t quite 4 years old in that summer of 1937 when I learned that by being bad I could kill my daddy.”
Robertson’s mother, Fannie Cohen, would call her only child “ugly” and “fat” and “stupid.” Later in the book, Robertson notes, “My mother was always a very mean lady.” It was not an idyllic childhood.
The book gets a bit confusing as Robertson recounts her childhood memories of her relatives. One passage about her grandfather, however, explains a lot: “My grandfather had a complete set of holy books, a shas, not just the complete Bible, but all the Talmud, that he studied on Saturday afternoons and whenever he got the chance,” she recalls. “Somehow, he conveyed to me that to read and to learn were the best things in life. I never forgot that lesson.”
Indeed, she not only remembered it; she passed it on.
Robertson went to Radcliffe and recounts her early exposure to, and excitement about, various courses of study. It was there that she met her future husband, James Robertson, who was studying at Harvard. It was not an auspicious start: He was three hours late for their first date! But a true love was born. “I have no idea where we went on that first date, only that we talked non-stop,” she recalls.
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It is in these stories of meeting Jim, while she was still pursuing her own studies, that a persistent undercurrent of the memoir emerges: It was expected at that time that women, no matter how smart, would defer to the career ambitions of their husbands. She mentions that she did not yet know of the feminist ideas to which her daughter, Rachel, would later introduce her, but the idea that she had to defer appears on many pages of the text as a feeling, sometimes as a regret.
I remember my mother once saying, “Jim is the professor, but Janet is smarter than he is.” They were both terribly smart and I never saw the need to compare them on that score, but I also suspect my mom was right. You wouldn’t know it if all you had was a copy of their résumés. In the memoir, it is clear that strong female friendships helped women of Robertson’s generation beat back the ennui that sexism invited.
They moved to Arkansas after graduation, where Jim was stationed in the Army during the Korean War, then back to Cambridge, Massachusetts, and finally to the town in Connecticut where I met them.
Robertson details the difficulties in her marriage, the fact that she never thought of herself as a good mother, and other things that were entirely opaque to me when I knew the family. I idolized their son, Jonathan, who was the only person in our high school who was both super smart and super cool, and it broke my heart to learn of his first, failed marriage and the pain it caused.
Reading this memoir, I was reminded of the opening line of Anna Karenina: “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” Growing up in the 1960s and 1970s, many of us assumed ours was the only unhappy family. They weren’t, and Robertson’s willingness to share the struggles as well as the joys of her life make for a compelling and a consoling read.
I remember my mother once saying, ‘Jim is the professor, but Janet is smarter than he is.’
Robertson wrote a novel inspired by the circumstances of her grandmother’s life, and then she and Jim wrote a book about the family that had lived for several generations in the house they bought in Connecticut. That book, All Our Yesterdays: A Century of Family Life in a Small American Town, was different from the current one, based on collected letters and family documents. But both are representative of the kind of social history that we now take for granted but that scarcely existed before the last third of the 20th century. Most previous histories dealt only with kings and popes and generals and armies, not with the lives of more typical citizens.
In the current memoir, of course, Robertson’s memory fills in many gaps that were not fillable when dealing only with the written records of people long dead. One item did not make the list of significant happenings in our little town, and I was surprised by that. In the early 1970s, our town had been riven by the decision to build a small regional high school. It was an ugly fight.
The Robertsons, along with my uncle Bob and a few other leading citizens in the town, decided to form a community players’ troupe to help bind up the wounds. Mrs. Robertson and my mother worked behind the scenes on props and programs and costumes, while Jim and my uncle Bob frequently played the lead roles.
Finally, one year, the troupe chose to stage “Arsenic and Old Lace,” and Mrs. Robertson and my mother were cast as Abby and Martha Brewster, the charming old ladies who, in their charity, poison lonely old men and have their nephew bury them in the basement. I admit my bias, but I thought they were splendid.
It is impossible for me to assess how others who did not know Janet Robertson as I did will enjoy this book. But I suspect it will resonate with many people of her generation, and their children. Her generation largely created the cultural world my generation inherited, and we are the better for it. At least I know I am a much better person for having spent those years at Mrs. Robertson’s kitchen table, learning Latin — and so much else.
The Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops has called for “swift action” and “generous acts of charity” to mitigate effects of flooding that has so far left more than 250 people dead and a trail of property damage.
During a joint press conference May 7, the bishops commended Catholics for the quick response to their appeal for support across all Catholic dioceses in Kenya, and lauded Pope Francis for expressing his “spiritual proximity” with God’s people in Kenya. They challenged both county and national governments to mobilize their disaster management resources with “greater urgency” to prevent further deaths and destruction.
The east African country has experienced severe flooding since March, during some of the most catastrophic weather events the country has seen in years. Kenyans had been apprehensive about the effects of Cyclone Hidaya, which hit neighboring Tanzania May 4. Kenya experienced only minor damage from the cyclone, the first to hit the country, but meteorologists say rain and flooding could continue through the month.
The Kenyan Catholic bishops called the ongoing events “catastrophic.” At least 257 people have died as a result of the flooding, with some 188 people missing as of a May 8 update from Kenya’s government spokesman. In addition, nearly 55,000 households have been displaced, affecting more than 293,000 people. Crops on nearly 10,000 acres have been destroyed, according to the statement.
The bishops said many families and individuals “are struggling to cope with the immediate aftermath of this disaster” and “the rains continue to fall, exacerbating the already dire situation.”
“Now is the time to utilize resources allocated for such crises effectively. We call for swift action to save lives, protect property, and, in areas where the rains have subsided, begin the necessary work of rebuilding and rehabilitation,” they said.
In the town of Mai Mahiu in southern Kenya, a dam burst April 29, killing at least 48 people. Located in Nakuru County in the west of the capital, Nairobi, Mai Mahiu was expected to be hit by more heavy rains, according to a warning Kenya’s Meteorological Department issued on X.
Although meteorologists link the increased flooding to climate change, many Kenyans believe the situation has been exacerbated by the government’s lack of investment.
In Mathare, an informal settlement on the outskirts of Nairobi, locals blamed the flooding on poorly maintained, frequently blocked drains that have caused water to accumulate.
At the end of April, the ministry of interior ordered thousands of people living near rivers, dams and other flood-prone areas to vacate. The government has begun bulldozing homes built in flood-prone areas.
Kenya’s President William Ruto, while visiting the vast Mathare informal settlement along the Nairobi River on May 6, said evicted families whose houses had been demolished would be given 10,000 Kenyan shillings ($75) to relocate after a deadline to evacuate to safer grounds had passed.
On May 7, bulldozers could be seen ripping through iron-sheet walls, to the dismay of locals who have been left homeless. Security forces with guns and batons stood guard and fired tear gas canisters at some residents who dared to defy the evacuation orders.
“We are already vulnerable and the governments who ought to come to our aid are sending us packing with nowhere to go. They should find a means of relocating us to safe havens before bringing our structures down,” said Millicent Awuor, a flood victim.
Opposition leader Raila Odinga warned the government against demolishing more houses without a resettlement plan in place. Affected residents and Human Rights Watch have blamed the government for inadequate response and lack of preparedness to combat the issue.
Still, government spokesperson Isaac Mwaura on May 8 reiterated an evacuation order to 200 families living in the Kijabe area, some 70 miles from Nairobi, where about 60 people were killed and houses were swept away when water broke through a blocked railway tunnel recently.
In a statement, Mwaaura said 192 dams had been identified as high risk. “Consequently, varied evacuation exercises are being undertaken across the country, following a 24-hour evacuation notice, which was effective on May 2nd, and which was issued to settlements in 33 counties that are within 178 of high-risk dams and water reservoirs,” the statement said.
Kenya’s Cabinet, concerned by rising water levels in the country’s two major hydroelectric dams, Masinga and Kiambere, is calling on people living downstream to evacuate.
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“It is against this backdrop that we, KCCB members, wish to express our profound sympathy and solidarity with all those affected by these devastating floods,” the Catholic bishops said in a two-page statement signed by their chairman, Archbishop Maurice Muhatia Makumba of the Kisumu Archdiocese.
The clergy said they “share the grief” of family members of those who have died “during this disaster,” and added, “In this time of sorrow, we stand united in prayer and support.”
Alluding to specific incidents where a boat capsized in Garissa County, killing several people, and several households were swept away by raging waters in Mai Mahiu, the bishops expressed their spiritual solidarity, and urged “every Kenyan to exercise the utmost caution.”
“Adults must take the lead in ensuring the safety of our children, particularly in areas prone to flooding. People should not take unnecessary risks. We implore communities to be vigilant and proactive in safeguarding every member, especially the most vulnerable,” they said in the statement. “We have already initiated an appeal across all our Dioceses for our Christian faithful and Kenyans of goodwill to move with haste and help those in distress.”
“The response has been good so far and we plead for more support to aid those in desperate need,” they said, adding, “Let us show our love and compassion through generous acts of charity, reflecting the teachings of Christ in our actions.”
They further emphasized the need for a collaborative approach in handling the challenging situation. “Together, we can overcome the challenges posed by these floods. Through collective effort and divine grace, we shall restore hope and rebuild our communities.”
As Srs. Jacqueline Picard and Patricia Dillon sat outside their quiet house in Gros Morne, Haiti, in mid-April, the two members of the Religious of Jesus and Mary grieved for those living 100 miles away in the capital city of Port-au-Prince.
There, the sisters said, Haitians fear for their lives daily in the midst of rampant gang violence now consuming the city.
“They are literally in hell. There’s no other way to describe it,” said Picard, 76, a trained nurse who has ministered with Dillon in Haiti for 27 years. “When you can’t go out your door and know whether you’ll find bodies laying across the street, when you don’t know how to protect your children who want to go to school, when you don’t know how you can get to food — if you have the means to buy food — that’s a terrible sense of helplessness.”
Need has always remained prevalent across Haiti, a country long embattled with violence, poverty and social upheaval, where nearly 59% of the population lived below the poverty line in 2023, according to UNICEF.
That’s why the U.S. province of the Religious of Jesus and Mary has prioritized its ministry in Haiti for nearly 30 years, Dillon said, with a long-term commitment to aid and support the country’s struggling communities through a constant presence there. Sisters of the Religious of Jesus and Mary from several other countries have also ministered in Haiti to help their efforts.
“The movement in the church’s social justice understanding is ‘walking with people’ and acting in communities,” said Dillon, 82, who worked as an educator and a community organizer before coming to Haiti. “The longer you walk and talk, the more you understand.”
Their efforts now face numerous obstacles, however, during one of the greatest crises in Haiti’s history.
Although Haiti has faced a humanitarian crisis for years, especially since a devastating 2010 earthquake, recent months saw waves of attacks by armed gangs and the collapse of the Haitian government.
Today, criminal gangs control 80% of the capital, with nearly 1 million Haitians facing emergent levels of food insecurity and the airport closed to commercial traffic, according to the U.N.
But even though the Religious of Jesus and Mary have removed their sisters from Port-au-Prince due to the raging violence there, six sisters still remain in Haiti to minister in the rural communities of Gros Morne and Jean-Rabel.
They can’t imagine leaving the locals they have lived alongside for decades, Picard said, partnering together on programs to improve Haitian lives.
“We have accompanied the Haitian people who want to have an impact on their country,” Picard said. “They are family to us.”
Three decades of impact
Sisters of the Religious of Jesus and Mary have significantly helped address needs in Haiti since they launched their ministry there in 1997, eventually spawning three missions in Port-au-Prince, Gros Morne and Jean-Rabel.
Often partnering with other religious communities, nonprofits and government agencies, the sisters have built and taught at schools, created health and wellness programs, operated a shelter for seniors, and conducted workshops for making and selling art pieces.
They have further created a children’s summer camp and afterschool program, combated deforestation, taught sustainable agricultural practices to locals, opened a prosthetics clinic to help those who lost limbs in the earthquake, and directed numerous philanthropic funds to help Haitians thrive.
“We’ve been very careful in most of the projects that we started to train Haitians to keep it going,” said Religious of Jesus and Mary Sr. Vivian Patenaude, now retired in the U.S. after ministering in Haiti alongside Picard and Dillon for 16 years.
Nongovernmental organizations that visit Haiti often “come, do a project and leave,” she noted, which leaves no one to help Haitians when resources dwindle or infrastructure fails again.
“We’ve been careful to do projects the Haitian themselves could continue with the support of us as missionaries,” Patenaude said. “So they become the active agent, and we become the supporters.”
Struggles amid growing violence
The sisters have always faced potential danger from violent crime in Haiti, Picard said, as tragically proven in 2016, when Religious of Jesus and Mary Sr. Isabel Solá Matas was robbed and murdered in her car in Port-au-Prince.
“Isa’s death was a complete shock, because while there were armed robberies occurring in Port-au-Prince at the time, there was not the level of lawlessness that there is now,” Picard said of the sister, who founded the prosthetics center and helped build several schools. “She had such a desire to help support poorer schools and the handicapped, it seemed impossible to imagine her zeal cut short as it was.”
While the town of Gros Morne is relatively safe, Picard said, the community is experiencing an influx of people fleeing from the chaos of Port-au-Prince.
Nearly 95,000 men, women and children fled the capital between March 8 and April 9 to escape surging gang violence, according to the U.N.’s International Organization for Migration.
“We see the impact of the people who have come, and we’re feeling the violence,” Picard said, adding that these displaced people stay with friends and family in the community. “Many of them fled with just the clothes on their back. People have fled to wherever they feel they can.”
Gros Morne and other rural areas currently face desperate circumstances, Dillon added.
With the ports closed, food isn’t being imported, she said, and food currently in Haiti isn’t distributed because of gangs blocking off roads.
“Predictions for how much food is left in the country are pretty dire,” Dillon said.
Many are experiencing malnutrition, Picard added, which she said resulted in the recent deaths of three local teenagers.
Another salient issue stems from Haitian farmers missing a season of selling mangoes, Dillon said, one the country’s top cash crops sold primarily to the U.S., according to the U.S. Embassy in Haiti.
Farmers have been unable to export mangoes because Haiti’s insecurities have shut down the nation’s infrastructure and caused the U.S. to close its inspection process. Dillon said some farmers chop down their precious mango trees to sell the wood.
“If they can’t sell their crop, they don’t make money,” she said. “These families are less able to provide for themselves.”
Sisters pursue solutions
Even in the midst of such uncertainty, the sisters continue ministering in a variety of ways.
Dillon is pursuing potential solutions for the farmers’ crops, including possibly partnering with food-relief organization Food for the Poor to purchase the mangoes and simply distribute them among the country’s own malnourished residents.
“We’re looking at, ‘What’s the infrastructure that exists?’ ” Dillon said.
Picard still helps maintain a shelter for elderly individuals and community members with mental health issues. She also applies her nursing skills by helping coordinate medical care for patients at the overburdened local hospital.
“One of the public health workers from the hospital will come on a fairly regular basis with cases that the hospital can’t handle, and come to us to help facilitate,” Picard said, adding that two Religious of Jesus and Mary sisters in Jean-Rabel also operate a mobile clinic. “We’ve created a few networks with other health care institutions, so we can call and find out how to help such a patient at this time, do they have the specialist that this patient would need, and is there somebody who can help us follow up once the patient is there.”
The blocked roads reduce access to specialized care, however, she added, and the country is experiencing a shortage of medical supplies.
“We can’t get people to the care that they need,” she said. “Even blood is not available, and even more recently, insulin.”
The sisters further partner with multiple communities to support a child protection program.
“What people are turning up are children on their own,” Dillon said, adding that one child was found sleeping in a tire. “The communities are trying to gather together to support those children.”
With minimal orphanages available and no foster care system, Picard said, locals invite these children to live with them.
Still others take in orphaned infants whose mothers have died, she added. Many community members, “barely able to provide for their own families,” ask the sisters for funds to pay for the infants’ milk.
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“There’s a Haitian saying, ‘A cooked pot has no master,’ meaning that cooked food can be shared by anyone who’s there,” Picard said. “But a newborn can’t share in that cooked food. A newborn needs the special milk for the first six months of its life at least, so that’s an added financial challenge to a family.”
When families approach the sisters with such requests, she said, they provide what they can.
“Our funds are all outspent,” Picard said, noting that the country’s turmoil has also prevented the return of their many volunteers who were required to leave during the pandemic. “Medical and food, those are the two big categories [of spending].”
Hope for the future
Patenaude believes Haitians’ resilience will see them through, especially after the generosity she witnessed while living among them.
“What I saw among [Haitians] is the wonderful, loving sharing that the poor do with one another,” she said.
Haitians continue to find strength in their faith, Dillon said.
“The churches are full,” she said, adding that the city’s Good Friday procession stretched two city blocks long.
Haitians simply hope for stability, Dillon and Picard agreed.
“They want to stop the violence,” Dillon said. “They want to live and love, and take care of their families.”
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court was Mark Twain’s novel in which the main character found himself in a very different world: Hank Morgan was somehow carried back in time to the court of King Arthur. Think of Mary Ann Glendon’s In the Court of Three Popes as A Massachusetts Irish-American Laywoman in the Papal Court. The main protagonist’s fit is only somewhat more comfortable.
Mary Ann Glendon was George W. Bush’s last ambassador to the Holy See, holding that office when Pope Benedict XVI visited the United States in 2008. But the book is more than a diplomatic memoir. In fact, Glendon’s diplomatic career is only one of three main parts of the book. Remember that Glendon is also an accomplished scholar (Abortion and Divorce in the Western World remains a classic study of how U.S. policy in those areas is a massive outlier from the rest of the world) and lawyer (an emerita professor at Harvard Law School). Those sides of her background also figure into her papal adventures.
What most appealed to this reviewer—and most likely to attract Catholic readers—is the insight Glendon offers, from the perspective of three different pontificates, about what it’s like to work in and for the Vatican. Glendon did it under three popes in three different capacities: as an academic under John Paul II, as a diplomat during Benedict XVI, and as a legal consultant under Francis. The insights are fascinating.
Mary Ann Glendon’s path with the Vatican first crossed under St. John Paul II. The pontiff had recently established the Pontifical Academy of Social Science for the purpose of bringing the perspectives of Catholic thought to interact creatively with research and insights from those disciplines. Lots of contemporary problems involve both fields: human development, women’s position in society and how not just to talk about but maybe even advance human rights while searching for a common vocabulary to do that (like “dignity”—what goes around, comes around). The goals were ambitious, the subjects important, and at least some of the efforts truly dedicated.
But, as Glendon found out, such international studies also suffer certain systemic limits. When you assemble in Rome an international group of scholars whose facility in each other’s languages is sometimes limited (especially when it comes to subtle nuance, which is kind of important in academic research) and do that for only a few days per year, the output is going to be limited. That’s not to say the outcome’s not important, but it is going to be limited. It is going to be a snapshot that evaluates the lay of the land at a given moment, not an ongoing assessment of developments and needs. That’s especially true when the Academy lacks a permanent research staff that keeps projects moving along while the academicians are scattered around the world and when you don’t have the kind of budget to sustain an ongoing research project.
Having been part of Catholic academe, there’s a mentality that the Catholic intellectual project can be done on the cheap. It often is, thanks to the sacrifices scholars make. But while those sacrifices still often produce high quality work, there are two other sayings relevant to the question. “The laborer is worth his wage,” says the Lord. “You get what you pay for,” says the average economist.
Glendon returned to the Vatican as U.S. ambassador in the later Bush 43 Administration. Again, she offers valuable insights into behind-the-scene processes, both in Washington and the Vatican. Her nomination was held up for a time by a certain then-Senator from Delaware—Foreign Relations chairman Joseph R. Biden, Jr.—ostensibly over a staff misinterpretation of how to understand her previous work as a scholar in the “employ” of the Vatican. But, once confirmed, she gives us great looks into the unique diplomatic post that is Embassy Vatican.
“How many divisions does the Pope have?” Stalin was rumored to have asked FDR. Not a lot, but he’s got something no other country does: eyes and ears almost everywhere. Russia may have three consular sections in the United States, but the Vatican has “posts”—parishes, schools, hospitals, institutions—in cities, towns, and out-of-the-way places across the world. And, as the Vatican’s focus has shifted from temporal politics to matters spiritual, its “honest broker” stature has only increased, offering honest insights into what is happening in almost every corner of the world. A diplomat at the Vatican has unparalleled resources at her disposal.
Glendon’s tenure also coincided with Pope Benedict XVI’s pastoral visit to the United States and the United Nations, so she provides us with insight into the planning that goes into heads of state visits. That President Bush soon afterwards reciprocated a visit to Rome was also somewhat unprecedented, but Glendon explained it well: the two men genuinely liked each other and—his Protestantism notwithstanding—G.W. Bush knew how to “speak Catholic.” As she observed, that was a facility John McCain and Mitt Romney lacked—and their electoral results showed it.
Finally, under Pope Francis Glendon came back to Rome as part of a team charged with reform of the Vatican Bank. While people like the late Cardinal Pell were examining the financial books, Glendon and others were grappling with the law books, the kinds of legal mechanisms (or their lack) to ensure financial transparency, whistleblower protection, and administrative/personnel security. Her recollections of that work seem the least satisfying of her Vatican encounters: while she talks up Francis’s efforts at curial reform, it’s clear that the readiness to clean up age-old Church approaches to “finances” and even “transparency” lags behind.
Part of the reason for that—and other aspects of her experiences—stem from three unique characteristics she brought with her: she’s a woman, a layperson, and an American. Those three characteristics, in inverse order, probably complicated her life. When one remembers that, although he lived in Rome since 1981, there were still those 35 years later referring to Joseph Ratzinger as il Tedesco (“the German”), a representative of the Anglo-American world was even more exotic. Laypersons—especially if they have some independent authority—do not fit well into a Church where even the most rhetorically “anti-clerical” cleric can still default when desired to clericalism. When that layperson is a woman, the matter can be even more difficult.
Finally, as Glendon noted in an interview and as the subtitle of her book points out, the Holy See is a court, and like any court, has its share of dedicated officials, committed churchmen, sycophants, ecclesiastical climbers, and hereditary holdovers. Things work out better when that court recognizes it works for the Pope rather than its self-preservation, a realization better achieved when a Pope keeps it on a short administrative leash.
But, as Glendon’s book also notes, the three popes under whom she served were not necessarily Harvard Business School models of managers. The top man can afford to be a leader rather than a manager if his trusted alter ego is that manager. That has arguably not been the case of these pontificates.
Reflecting on these points, it also struck this reviewer about how uneven the Church tends to be in its educational formation. We give priests lots of theology (which, as a theologian, I agree with). We send some for advanced studies, though primarily in canon law (after all, what God has joined together somebody has to try to put asunder). The Vatican trains papal diplomats in its own diplomatic school and has a reputation for skill in that field.
But does the Vatican—or, for that matter, your local diocese—send some priests to study business or management? When I was an associate dean, we pushed—unsuccessfully—for a required program to train upcoming pastors in fundamental management. A parish, after all, is also something like a small-to-medium-sized business. It often has a school that has to pay staff and bills. It has to raise capital to fix the roof. It has to protect against liability when falling down slippery marble steps. It has to treat personnel fairly—by norms of its own moral principles if not the civil law. So, why do we expect clergy with little-to-no exposure in these areas successfully to run a parish, a diocese, or even a dicastery? Diplomacy and theology have to be taught, but do we imagine management and business is infused knowledge?
All things considered, Glendon opens at least three windows to see how the Church works, not just on a principled or institutional level, but with the nuts-and-bolts by which she makes her way through day-to-day operations. Ronald Knox once observed, “He who travels in the Barque of Peter had better not look too closely into the engine room.” Happily, Mary Ann Glendon pokes around that Barque—including peering into the engine room—to show us the good, the bad, and the average. There are those who do great things and those who (quoting Dickens) “working kindly in [their] little sphere, whatever it may be, [finding] … mortal life too short for its vast means of usefulness.” There are those who do nasty things, often hoping ecclesiastical cover shields them: think the Church’s sex abuse and bank scandals. And there are those who do a job, perhaps not yet discovering theirs is also a vocation.
Glendon provides a deft balance of detail that stays happily between too little and too much, keeping the story moving along, not bogging down. And she does her poking and peering with a light, highly readable style that keeps the reader engaged.
That Barque sails on, happily with the divine assurance that it should reach its eternal port, even if it gets there much rougher and battered for the voyage. It’s a faith that commits us to work for that Church, ever reforming yet still holy. How it looks today to the eyes of a faithful Catholic layperson is Mary Ann Glendon’s fine contribution. Recommended.
In the Courts of Three Popes: An American Lawyer and Diplomat in the Last Absolute Monarchy of the West
By Mary Ann Glendon
Image/Penguin Random House, 2024
Hardcover, 220 pages
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MPAA Rating: PG
Reel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
We Grown Now opens with two kids, Malik (Blake James) and Eric (Gain Rameriz) struggling to take an old mattress down several flights of stairs. While pivoting and grunting, they shoot the breeze about school, sports, and their favorite television shows. They drag the ratty old thing across an inner-city basketball court with weeds growing through cracks before throwing it in a heap of similar specimens. Along with their neighbors, they play a game called Jumpin, which is exactly what it sounds like. They run as fast as they can, then jump into the pile in as stylish a way as possible.
It’s a simple and profound beginning to a nearly perfect story: seemingly trapped in a cycle of crime and poverty these young men use what little they must create a life of fun, creativity, and meaning. By and large, they succeed.
Malik is an intelligent, capable 12-year-old boy living with his sister, mom, and grandmother in the Cabrini-Green housing project on the North Side of Chicago. By the 1990s, more than 15,000 people lived in these government-subsidized apartments, which had become notorious for gangs, crime, drugs, and poverty. The film follows him as he goes about being a normal kid: playing with his best friend Eric, doing his homework, shooting hoops, and getting into trouble.
Through his eyes, we also see some of the wider world, including the results of absentee fatherhood, his mother’s financial difficulties, and gang activity in his building. Despite all this, Malik carves out a niche in this landscape, which makes his mother’s decision about a possible move more difficult.
There’s an obvious temptation in an expose of this sort to overdramatize the socio-economic problems Malik faces. But the film wisely avoids these pitfalls. His family is poor but not destitute. They might have boxed mac-and-cheese with broccoli for dinner, but never go hungry. They occasionally witness violence but don’t live in paranoid fear of being killed every day. The police are aggressive and sometimes engage in unconstitutional behavior, but they are not cartoonishly racist or murderous; they are even sympathetic at times.
Like the great Italian neo-realist directors, Minhal Baig (who was born and raised in Chicago) allows her characters to live directly and honestly, creating empathy in the audience without emotional manipulation. Yet these circumstances don’t define the characters.
While poverty often feels like a burden, it can bring unexpected silver linings. In a life without many material crutches, both families rely on their faith. There are frequent mentions of God, prayer, and morality. Malik wonders about the complexities of spacetime and freely talks with Eric about the afterlife. None of this is presented as either absurd or self-righteous. Normal, healthy people contemplate spirituality.
When Malik’s classmate dies from a gang member’s stray bullet, he attends the funeral where a Baptist preacher gives a beautiful sermon not on racial politics but the assurance of Christ’s grace amid horrible tragedy. My personal favorite moment occurs when someone challenges Malik’s mother for celebrating his father’s birthday, even though he died five years ago. “I want my children to know their grandfather,” she says with a smile. The gates of heaven are not iron but pearly.
What ultimately elevates We Grown Now from a good film about urban struggle to a masterpiece are the performances by James and Rameriz. They are some of the best I’ve ever seen from child actors. When Eric learns Malik is moving, he pretends to be nonchalant but starts a fight with him that causes a serious injury. After Malik recovers, Eric says a prayer with his dad, asking God to bless Malik even if he goes.
In the final scene, they make their peace, and as Malik walks away, Eric sheds a single tear. The pain, loss, and joy of all their years of friendship is contained in these quiet, anguished expressions.
We Grown Now belongs to a unique class of cinema that is, I think, difficult for the average moviegoer. These films aren’t glamorous and thrilling but quietly depict and firmly share essential truths.
Like the apartment’s saintly namesake, God works wonders through the courage and sacrifice of ordinary humans who, despite economic hardship and dangerous situations, do not become despondent or indignant but respond with love and courage. Theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.
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CNA Newsroom, May 12, 2024 / 13:10 pm (CNA).
Quick action by alert parishioners and local police are credited with averting a tragedy at St. Mary Magdalen Catholic Church in Abbeville, Louisiana yesterday.
As 60 children were preparing for their first communion, the parish located south of Lafayette, Louisiana reported that an armed “suspicious person opened the back door.”
“The individual was immediately confronted by parishioners, escorted outside and the police were called,” the parish indicated in a statement.
In an interview with the Acadiana Advocate, Abbeville Police Chief Mike Hardy credited parishioners for having disarmed the suspect and having him already pinned to the ground when police arrived.
A livestream video of the Mass captures the tense moments when presiding Fr. Nicholas DuPre was alerted to the situation.
Though the suspect was quickly neutralized, panic broke out when the suspect told police a second shooter was near the building. That is when law enforcement entered the church to make sure there was no additional danger. No other suspect was found.
The 16-year-old suspect was charged with terrorizing and two counts of possession of a firearm by a juvenile. He is being held in the Abbeville General Hospital Behavioral Unit for medical evaluation.
Lafayette, Louisiana Bishop J. Douglas Deshotel said “We are thankful to God that a tragedy was avoided.” “Let us pray for an end to all threats of violence to innocent human life,” he added.
The parish informed that “out of an abundance of caution, we will have uniformed law enforcement at all upcoming Masses.”
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Rome Newsroom, May 12, 2024 / 10:45 am (CNA).
On Mother’s Day, Pope Francis entrusted all mothers to the Blessed Virgin Mary, asking everyone to remember to also pray for all the mothers who have gone to heaven.
Speaking from the window of the Apostolic Palace on May 12, Pope Francis asked the crowd gathered in St. Peter’s Square for a round of applause to celebrate all mothers.
“Mother’s Day is celebrated in many countries today. We reflect with gratitude on all mothers, and let us also pray for mothers who have gone to heaven. We entrust mothers to the protection of Mary, our heavenly mother,” the pope said.
Pope Francis also asked for the Virgin Mary’s intercession to help in life’s journey towards heaven.
“May Mary, she who has already arrived at the destination, help us to walk together with joy towards the glory of Heaven,” he said.
The pope noted that Italy and many other countries celebrate the Solemnity of the Ascension on Sunday. He said that Jesus shows us the way to heaven “step by step,” like a mountaineer ascending a summit, in the Gospels and through the Sacraments.
“What are these steps that must be taken?” he asked. “Today’s Gospel says: ‘preach the Gospel, baptize, cast out demons, pick up serpents, lay hands on the sick’ (cf. Mk 16:16-18).”
“In summary, perform the works of love: to give life, bring hope, steer away from any form of wickedness and meanness, respond to evil with good, be close to those who suffer.”
Pope Francis added that the more we do these “works of love,” the more “we let ourselves be transformed by His Spirit.”
“It is He who awakens us and communicates to us, with His Word and with the grace of the Sacraments, the beauty of the Homeland towards which we are headed,” the pope said.
After praying the Regina Caeli prayer in Latin, the pope asked people to pray for peace in Palestine, Israel, Myanmar, and Ukraine.
“Dear Brothers and Sisters, As we celebrate the Ascension of the Lord who sets us free and wants us to be free, I renew my appeal for a general exchange of all prisoners between Russia and Ukraine,” he said.
Pope Francis added that he wanted to assure “the Holy See’s readiness to facilitate every effort in this regard, especially for those seriously wounded and ill.”
The pope extended greetings to pilgrims visiting Rome from Hungary, Malta, Portugal, Austria, and Germany. Pope Francis also gave thanks to a band from Germany who performed in St. Peter’s Square as a tribute to the late Pope Benedict XVI.
The entirety of today’s Regina Coeli reflection by Pope Francis can be viewed below.
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Pope Francis’ appeal for an exchange of prisoners of war between Russia and Ukraine and his assurance the Holy See stands ready to facilitate in this regard, come at a time of concern about the treatment endured by thousands of detained soldiers.
By Stefan J. Bos
Officials say nearly 3,000 Ukrainian prisoners of war have been released from Russia in prisoner exchanges since Moscow launched its full-scale military invasion of Ukraine more than two years ago.
However, more than 10,000 remain in Russian custody, some of whom have endured two years of conditions that a United Nations expert described as horrific.
There have also been reports about some abuses by Ukrainian forces against Russian troops, including beatings.
Yet, Ukrainian authorities have been more open towards international groups and media to visit centers where they are held, perhaps limiting the number of abuses.
However, critics say the Ukrainian government’s rehabilitation program, which usually involves two months in a sanitarium and a month at home, is inadequate.
Experts point out that the traumas suffered by Ukrainian prisoners are growing with the length and severity of the abuse they are being subjected to as the war drags on.
The United Nations has well documented Russia’s torture of prisoners of war. Former inmates have spoken about relentless beatings, electric shocks, rape, sexual violence, and mock executions, seen by U.N. investigators as so a systematic, state-endorsed policy.
Many detainees have also reported lingering symptoms like blackouts and fainting spells stemming from repeated blows to the head that were severe enough to cause concussions.
And more prisoners of war are expected as Russia moves on toward Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city in the northeast of the country.
Shocked residents, including a woman, were lying on the ground as an apparent drone fired by Russia hit Kharkiv, footage showed. Several drones and missiles have hit apartment blocks and industrial areas, though Moscow claims it is targeting strategic military sites.
Outside Kharkiv, Russian forces continued their advance across northeastern Ukraine on Sunday, seizing several small settlements along the border. They reportedly forced Ukrainian troops to retreat from some positions if they weren’t captured or killed.
Aid workers confirmed that Russian troops had advanced deeper inside Ukrainian territory and were now threatening several small towns on the outskirts of Kharkiv.
However, Russian officials say at least five people were killed and nine wounded since Saturday in three separate Ukrainian counter-attacks involving drone and artillery strikes on the Russian border provinces of Belgorod and Kursk and the Ukrainian city of Donetsk, which Russia claims to have annexed.
It has underscored growing concerns about the escalation of the war since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, with hundreds of thousands of people being killed and injured.
Listen to the report by Stefan Bos
A ban on London selling arms to Israel would strengthen Hamas, according to Britain’s Foreign Secretary.
By Nathan Morley
The British Foreign Secretary, Lord David Cameron, says restricting arms deliveries to Israel because of its war in Gaza would strengthen Hamas.
Cameron also said it would make a deal to free Israeli hostages less likely. ‘Just to simply announce today that we will change our approach on arms exports, it would make Hamas stronger, and it would make a hostage deal less likely,’ Cameron told Britain’s BBC.
Meanwhile, Israel launched further airstrikes on the Gaza Strip on Sunday morning. According to reports, two doctors were killed.
The Israeli military says it has ‘eliminated terrorists’ in the north of Gaza, and says at least 100,000 Palestinians will have to be evacuated in the north following mass evacuation orders in the south.
According to the Israeli army, around 300,000 people in Rafah recently obeyed a request to leave the city towards a ‘humanitarian zone’.
Since Monday, people have been ‘making their way to the humanitarian zone in al-Mawasi,’ the Israeli army said on Saturday.
The Israeli military operation in the Gaza Strip was triggered by the unprecedented attack by Hamas on Israel on October 7th.
Hamas operatives invaded Israeli towns and committed atrocities against civilians. They kidnapped around 250 people; 128 hostages are still held by Hamas and other militant Palestinian groups.
Listen to the report by Nathan Morley
Pope Francis telephones the Archbishop of flood-stricken Porto Alegre in Brazil to express his solidarity and closeness to those affected by the disaster in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, where at least 137 people have died and over 600 thousand are displaced.
By Vatican News
The death toll from the heavy rains that have been lashing southern Brazil since the end of April has risen to 137. The number of displaced people has exceeded 600,000. The most dramatic situation is in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, on the border with Argentina and Uruguay, where the intensity of the precipitation continues to increase and is expected to worsen in the coming hours.
Pope Francis expressed his closeness in a telephone call to all those who are suffering from this disaster, which mainly affects the poorest people. He made the call on Saturday, May 11, to Archbishop Jaime Spengler of Porto Alegre, and president of the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil. The Archbishop, who expressed his emotion for the Pope’s paternal gesture, said he was surprised to receive the call during which the Pope expressed words of comfort for the population of Rio Grande do Sul. “I express my solidarity,” said the Pontiff, “to all those who are suffering from this disaster. I am close to you and I pray for you.”
The Pope had already expressed his solidarity with the people affected by the heavy rains at the end of the Regina Caeli on Sunday, May 5. “I want to assure you,” he had said, “of my prayers for the population of the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, which has been hit by major floods. May the Lord receive the dead and comfort their families and those who have had to leave their homes.”
Archbishop Spengler confirmed that this closeness is accompanied by a tangible gesture of help as announced by the Apostolic Nunciature in Brazil that said a substantial sum was allocated by the Holy Father to help those in need.
Pope Francis marks World Day of Social Communications inviting humanity to foster a genuinely humane communication.
By Linda Bordoni
Pope Francis on Sunday marked the 58th World Day of Social Communications reminding us, in a world increasingly permeated by artificial intelligence, to never lose sight of the “wisdom of the heart.”
Speaking during the Regina Caeli on Ascension Sunday, he said: “Only by recuperating a wisdom of the heart can we interpret the demands of our time and rediscover the path to fully human communication.”
His words echoed the Message he released for this occasion entitled “Artificial Intelligence and the Wisdom of the Heart: Towards a Fully Human Communication.”
And he did not forget to thank all those who work in the communications field for their work.
The Pope also marked Mother’s Day, which, he said, is celebrated “today in many countries.”
“Let us think with gratitude of all mothers, and pray for the mothers who have gone to Heaven,” he said, before entrusting mothers to the protection of Mary, our heavenly mother, and asking for a big round of applause for all moms.
Pope Francis renews his appeal for an exchange of Russian and Ukrainian prisoners of war, assuring the Holy See’s readiness to facilitate efforts in this regard.
By Linda Bordoni
Pope Francis has again appealed for a “general exchange of all prisoners between Russia and Ukraine.”
Speaking during the Regina Caeli on Ascension Sunday, the Pope noted that his appeal falls on the Solemnity of the Ascension of the Risen Lord “who wants us to be free, and who sets us free.”
He went on to assure all parties involved that the Holy See remains ready to facilitate every effort in this regard, especially for those who are seriously wounded and sick.”
And he renewed his constant appeal for prayers for peace: “Let us continue to pray for peace, in Ukraine, in Palestine, in Israel, in Myanmar… let us pray for peace!” he said.
So far, Russia and Ukraine have conducted over 50 prisoner exchanges since the beginning of the war, involving several thousand prisoners whom both sides have released.
Last January, Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky mentioned that some 3,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been liberated following these agreements.
As Pope Francis himself said, he has raised an appeal to this effect on many and various occasions.
During his “Urbi et Orbi” address this Easter, on March 31st: ” My thoughts go especially to the victims of the many conflicts worldwide, beginning with those in Israel and Palestine, and in Ukraine. May the risen Christ open a path of peace for the war-torn peoples of those regions. In calling for respect for the principles of international law, I express my hope for a general exchange of all prisoners between Russia and Ukraine: all for the sake of all”!
Just last month during his General Audience on April 17th, he said: ” And our thoughts, at this moment, [the thoughts] of all of us, go to the peoples at war. Let us think of the Holy Land, of Palestine, of Israel. We think of Ukraine, martyred Ukraine. Let us think of the prisoners of war… May the Lord move wills so they may all be freed. And speaking of prisoners, those who are tortured come to mind. The torture of prisoners is a horrible thing. It is not human. Let us think of so many kinds of torture that wound the dignity of the person, and of so many tortured people… May the Lord help everyone and bless everyone.”
And during a meeting with Jesuits in September 2022 when he travelled to Kazakhstan, the Holy Father spoke about his commitment towards the liberation of prisoners saying: “Some Ukrainian envoys came to me. Among them, the vice-rector of the Catholic University of Ukraine, accompanied by the advisor for religious affairs of the President, an evangelical. We talked, discussed. A military leader who deals with prisoner exchanges also came, always with the religious advisor of President Zelensky. This time they brought me a list of over 300 prisoners. They asked me to do something to facilitate an exchange. I immediately called the Russian ambassador to see if something could be done, if a prisoner exchange could be expedited.”
Pope Francis has also entrusted Cardinal Matteo Zuppi with undertaking humanitarian missions to war-torn nations and tasked him, amongst other responsibilities, with focusing on the exchange of prisoners and the repatriation of Ukrainian children from Russia.
The just-proclaimed Bull of Indiction of the 2025 Jubilee contains an urgent call to provide hope to those who live in difficult conditions: “During the Holy Year, we are called to be tangible signs of hope for those of our brothers and sisters who experience hardships of any kind. I think of prisoners who, deprived of their freedom, daily feel the harshness of detention and its restrictions, lack of affection and, in more than a few cases, lack of respect for their persons. I propose that in this Jubilee Year governments undertake initiatives aimed at restoring hope; forms of amnesty or pardon (…) In every part of the world, believers, and their Pastors in particular, should be one in demanding dignified conditions for those in prison, respect for their human rights…“
In his message for Easter according to the Julian calendar, celebrated on 5 May, His Beatitude Sviatoslav Shevchuk, head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, reiterated the Pope’s appeal: “The words of Pope Francis regarding the exchange of all for all, expressed during the Latin rite Easter, have left a deep mark in the hearts of Christians both in Ukraine and in Russia. Today, more than ever, we not only want to hear the words and the appeal of Pope Francis, but we want his words on the ‘all for all’ exchange to become for us an imperative, a call to concrete actions.”
In particular, the Major Archbishop of Kyiv-Galicia requested the release of three categories of prisoners of war: military women, healthcare workers, and also captured priests. He recalled that currently about eight thousand military personnel and around 1,600 Ukrainian civilians are detained in Russia.
Oluwakemi Akinleye fsp
“Artificial Intelligence and the Wisdom of the Heart: Towards a Fully Human Communication” is the theme of the Message of Pope Francis for the 58th World Day of Social Communications.
Artificial Intelligence (AI), described in simple terms as “technology that enables computers and machines to simulate human intelligence and problem-solving capabilities,” has come to be part of our lives in the digital era. The various applications for Artificial Intelligence are increasing daily and they are gifts to our generation that must be harnessed wisely.
In a world filled with God’s bounty and the constant progress of human inventions, not excluding the reality of the growing disparity between the digital haves and have-nots, artificial intelligence comes as an invaluable tool to enhance our lives and without doubt, perhaps, to also create more inequalities too. As many of us are still grappling with trying to understand what Artificial Intelligence is and what it fully offers, Pope Francis shares in our perplexity, as he exhorts us, “The rapid spread of astonishing innovations, whose workings and potential are beyond the ability of most of us to understand and appreciate, has proven both exciting and disorienting.”
The creative use of Artificial intelligence in various fields such as science and medicine, have shown that it can perform tasks, on its own or combined with other technologies like robotics, sensors and geolocation, that would otherwise require human intelligence. The generative AI tools, digital assistants and GPS guidance that we now use daily are some of the amazing innovations of Artificial Intelligence. Yet as Pope Francis says, it is “at this time in history, which risks becoming rich in technology and poor in humanity,” that “our reflections must begin with the human heart.”
Illustration photo
Why do we need the wisdom of the heart to guide our use of artificial intelligence or machine learning? Pope Francis reminds us that the, “Wisdom of the heart is the virtue that enables us to integrate the whole and its parts, our decisions and their consequences, our nobility and our vulnerability, our past and our future, our individuality and our membership within a larger community. It is a fact that machines are made to “possess a limitlessly greater capacity than human beings for storing and correlating data, but human beings alone are capable of making sense of that data,” the Pope says. Therefore, God’s light and wisdom to humans in making more fruitful and life-giving use, than harm, of technology is always necessary.
In relation to media, the use of artificial intelligence can greatly make a positive contribution to the work of media professionals, communicators, and users. This can be achieved by upholding the “values the professionalism of communication, making every communicator more aware of his or her responsibilities, and enabling all people to be, as they should, discerning participants in the work of communication.”
Illustration photo
As we celebrate the World Communications Day this year, we remember and accompany with our prayers all who work with the media, especially those working in difficult places and those who have lost their lives while on duty due to wars, insecurity and natural disasters. May their efforts and sacrifices yield fruits of hope and peace.
Addressing the crowds gathered in Saint Peter’s Square for the Regina Caeli prayer on Ascension Sunday, Pope Francis recalls how Jesus’ return to the Father opens the way to Heaven for us.
By Lisa Zengarini
At the Regina Caeli prayer from the Apostolic Library this Sunday, marking the Ascension of the Lord in Italy and many other countries around the world, Pope Francis reflected on the meaning for us of Jesus rising into Heaven and sitting at the right hand of God (Mk 16:19).
The Pope explained that Christ’s ascension opens the way for us. “Jesus’ return to the Father appears to us not as a separation, but rather as an anticipation of our final destination,” he said. As a “climbing partner” when we climb towards the summit of a mountain, He drags the Church, His body, to Heaven where he has ascended.
“We too, His limbs,” the Pope continued, “rise joyfully together with Him, our head, knowing that the step of one is a step for all and that no one must get lost or be left behind because we are one body.”
“We too rise joyfully with Him.”
“Step by step, Jesus shows us the way,” the Pope explained, recalling that today’s Gospel tells us the steps we have to undertake which consist of carrying out God’s works of love: “giving life, bringing hope, keeping away from all malice and meanness, responding to evil with good, becoming close to those who suffer.”
“The more we do this,” Pope Francis said, “the more we let ourselves be transformed by His Spirit, the more we follow His example, as in the mountains, we feel the air around us become light and clean”.
Pope Francis therefore invited the faithful to ask themselves if they are following His steps: “Is the desire for God alive in me, for his infinite love, for his life which is eternal life? Or am I flattened and tied to transient things things, to money, to success, to pleasures? And does my desire for Heaven isolate me or does it lead me to love my brothers to feel them as companions in the journey towards Paradise?”
Concluding, the Pope asked the Virgin Mary to help us “to walk together with joy towards the glory of Heaven.”
Affection for Blessed Imelda Lambertini, whose feast day is May 12, has spread all over the world since 1910. That’s when Pope Saint Pius X lowered the age of reception of First Holy Communion to the age of reason. But Imelda is not the only saintly young person who should inspire Catholics of all ages to deepen their devotion to the Blessed Sacrament.
Saint Dominic Savio (1842-1857) was from a poor family in Italy and was educated at one of Saint John Bosco’s schools for boys. Dominic believed God was calling him to be a priest from the time he was small, and he was precociously devout and virtuous. (He would carefully explain to other boys why something they wanted to do was wrong.) He learned to serve Mass when he was five—not an easy task in the nineteenth century—and was known to lose track of time when he prayed for hours before the Blessed Sacrament. He died young due to a deteriorating health condition.
Blessed Carlo Acutis (1991-2006) was born in London, England, but he grew up in Italy. It was by watching little Carlo’s pure and childlike devotion that his parents began to take their own faith more seriously. Before Carlo died of leukemia, he created a website to publicize real-life stories about Eucharistic miracles.
But Italian children are not the only ones who have demonstrated remarkable Eucharistic devotion. Saint José Sanchez del Rio (1913-1928) was a teenager when he joined the Cristeros movement to protest attacks on the Church in Mexico. He had attended Mass and Holy Hours from a young age, even though it was dangerous. He was too young to fight, so his unit made him their flagbearer and nicknamed him Tarcisius after the early Roman martyr who died protecting the Eucharist. José himself was captured, tortured, and killed for helping another Cristero escape capture and for refusing to renounce Jesus Christ.
Another famous pair of Eucharistic devotees come from Portugal. Saints and siblings Francesco Marto (1908-1919) and Jacinta Marto (1910-1920) not only saw a vision of the Blessed Virgin Mary in 1917, but they had also seen an angel a year earlier. The angel encouraged them to pray and appears to have given them Holy Communion. After their visions ended, witnesses reported that the children continued to show great devotion to the Blessed Sacrament and frequently stopped by their local church to pay a visit to our Lord, all on their own initiative.
But Blessed Imelda (1322-1333) is the patron saint of First Holy Communicants. She was born into a noble family in Bologna, Italy, and was a devout little girl. She was only nine years old when she convinced her parents to send her to be educated at a nearby community of Dominican nuns. Learning more about the Eucharist from the nuns only fueled her love for our Lord and her desire to receive Communion, even though she was considered too young to receive based on the sacramental practices of the time. On the feast of the Ascension, as eleven-year-old Imelda was devoutly praying in church, the nuns saw what appeared to be a sacred host hanging in the air over the girl’s head. The school chaplain, moved by the sight or by the encouragement of the nuns, gave Communion to Imelda. Her profound love for our Lord as she received the Eucharist for the first time was visible to those who were present. Immediately afterward, Imelda unexpectedly died, blissfully happy, and she has become a model of devotion for children as they prepare to receive the Eucharist.
Is there a recipe to make children—and adults—experience such a profound love of Jesus Christ at Mass? Parents, priests, and catechists certainly wish there was. But the mysteries of God’s grace and human free will are, obviously, mysteries beyond our control. However, the life story of Blessed Imelda points out three key ingredients that may dispose a person to receive our Lord in a deeper and more transformational way.
Family is first, of course. Imelda’s parents practiced their faith in the home. We know this because it is said that Imelda loved to put flowers and holy pictures in a quiet corner of their house. Where could she have come up with the idea of a home altar, if not from her parents?
Being catechized about what Catholics believe is another important key. Imelda was taught by nuns that Jesus was really and truly present in the Blessed Sacrament. She thought she wanted to become a nun when she grew up, and she respected, trusted, and believed the nuns, accepting the truth in what they taught her.
Imelda was both devout and virtuous. Receiving her Lord was the greatest desire of her heart, not having more toys, friends, or fun than everyone else. Because her soul was not attached to the distractions that surrounded her, her soul remained pure and innocent, making it fertile ground for the seed of faith she had been given.
Of course, we are all sinners in need of God’s forgiveness, even little Imelda, and we live in an imperfect world. Except for the Holy Family, every family’s family life will have its share of temper tantrums and selfishness. While the Catholic faith itself is true, good, and beautiful, it can be presented in a way that is incomplete, lacking in charity, or uninteresting. And it is particularly easy today to abandon the simple pleasure of pleasing God for the sake of the many pleasures offered by the modern world. Would Imelda herself have found it easy to focus on our Lord in church if she had spent hours every day on her smartphone, consumed by the endless distractions of social media, music, games, videos, and all the rest?
Young Imelda’s example should inspire us to re-examine our own devotion to the Blessed Sacrament. We can look at our homes and calendars for proof that what we believe is part of our everyday lives, not just for Sundays at church. We can make a mental examination of our understanding of the Eucharist and then work to fill in any gaps. We can try to identify any obstacles—people, places, things, or outright sins—that are making us blind to Christ’s Presence.
After all, our Lord told us that we all need to be like children if we want to enter the kingdom of Heaven (Matt 18:3). And we adults should be humble enough to learn from Blessed Imelda and other saintly children and teens if we want to join them there.
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Recently the name of Hans Urs von Balthasar has been invoked to defend the concept of a more “feminine” Church. On reading some reports it seems that the invocation has now become a meme and the meme itself has morphed into attacks on the reservation of the priesthood to men, as if by the idea of a more feminine Church Balthasar meant the ordination of women.
As a matter of historical fact Balthasar was a staunch defender of the reservation of the priesthood to men. There is no possibility of a debate about this. He believed that the Church, as the Bride of Christ the Bridegroom, is feminine in her deepest corporate identity, and that bishops, and hence priests, cannot be in a spousal relationship with something masculine.
When he criticized what he called the “masculinization” of the Church Balthasar was in no way criticizing the reservation of the priesthood to men, but rather, the trend toward an excessive bureaucratization of the Church. When Balthasar speaks of a “masculine” church he means a church obsessed with its own governance structures, a church obsessed with committees and meetings and talk-fests. He called this the “photocopying Church.”
Paradoxically, it is precisely the increased bureaucratization of the Church that is a popular project for feminist activists. It is they who are, according to a Balthasarian analysis, seeking to masculinize the Church by setting up new boards and committees and angling to get themselves appointed to such bureaucratic structures.
My own close encounter with this phenomenon comes from my experience as a member of a body calling itself the Australian Catholic Women’s Commission. This body was established by the Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference back in the year 2000. The members of the Commission (about a dozen of us) were appointed from different dioceses with a mission to fly all over Australia meeting other Catholic women to ask them what they thought the Church could be doing for them. There were four such meetings in far flung parts of the continent every year. The subject of the ordination of women would come up at almost every meeting. In every diocese there were those who supported the ordination of women, and those who were fiercely opposed to the idea. The same sociological types came along to the information gathering meetings in every location except, from memory, in Alice Springs, a town in the heart of the Australian “outback” not known for its middle-class concerns.
The idea of paying the airfares for a dozen people to fly in and out of dioceses to hear the same complaints from the same predictable types of people always seemed to me to be a waste of the Church’s resources. The money spent on airfares, hotel accommodation and the salaries of secretaries could have been spent on medical research into infertility, or breast and ovarian cancers, or on parish-based child-care facilities or accommodation for families in crisis, or on the purchase of diocesan beach houses for poor Catholic families who cannot afford to take their children on a summer holiday. There were any number of ways the money could have been used to assist real Catholic women, but instead it was spent on a bureaucratic project whose major purpose was to generate meetings and write reports on the meetings for bishops to read and digest.
It was a “case study” in what Balthasar called the “photocopying Church,” an attempt to treat issues of a pastoral nature using the techniques of corporate governance. Instead of conflicts being resolved by sound teaching and effective leadership, the idea was to “keep women happy” by inventing a quango and appointing female Catholic elites from both sides of the theological fence to its operations, and then keeping them occupied reading volumes of paper.
A similar drift towards the creation of a Church that looks more and more like a commercial company or political party began to gather speed in Germany in the 1970s. In Germany the Church is fabulously wealthy and the largest private employer in the country. In 2022 its income from the state-imposed Church tax (Kirchensteuer) was 6.85 billion euros. According to a National Catholic Register report in 2023 there are some 800,000 people employed by the Church in Germany. This means that about one in every 30 German Catholics is in an employer-employee relationship with the Church. It is unsurprising therefore that Catholic elites in this country often become obsessed with issues of corporate governance when so many are in a relationship with the Church that is both contractual as well as sacramental. Separating the contractual from the sacramental is no easy psychological exercise.
Balthasar and Ratzinger and other academics in their Communio journal study circles were acutely aware of the situation in Germany with its stark contrasts between the wealthy Church agencies or “Catholic Inc.” and the Church lived and understood as the Body and Bride of Christ. Catholic Inc. runs on secular corporate governance principles, the Body and Bride of Christ runs on a sacramental economy. The former is, in the idiom of both Balthasar and Ratzinger, “masculine,” while the latter is “feminine.”
There is some theological and scriptural backstory to the use of these descriptions. Balthasar suggested that the network of figures surrounding Christ during his life on earth were prototypical of future ecclesial leaders. There is thus the Petrine charism associated with St. Peter and hence with ecclesial governance, the Johannine charism associated with St. John the beloved apostle and hence with the contemplative life of the Church, the Jacobine charism associated with St. James and hence with guarding the tradition and teaching it to new generations uncorrupted, and the Pauline charism associated with St. Paul and hence with prophetic insight and in our own time with ecclesial renewal movements. Only one of these charisms, the Petrine, is focused on ecclesial governance, and only this one is exclusively masculine. There are plenty of contemplative women with the Johannine charism, plenty of scholarly women trying to teach the faith that was handed down from the apostles to new generations, and plenty of women involved in the new ecclesial movements that have mushroomed over the past century. So then, three out of four of these charisms are found equally in men and women.
Further, Balthasar spoke of the Marian charism. Its hallmark is its receptivity to divine will. It is a kind of overarching charism that all members of the Church, male and female, should exhibit. Receptivity to the divine will includes respect for Sacred Scripture, especially the teachings of Christ. With reference to the arguments of those who contend that Christ may have decided not to ordain women simply because the Jewish people of the time had psychological barriers to the acceptance of such a practice, Balthasar commented: “[E]ven though we might always assume that the Sovereign God could have acted differently from the way he actually deigned to act, we nevertheless are by no means licensed to relativize his logic – he being absolute Reason and Logos itself – by imagining other courses of action which he could have taken.”1 In other words, a high level of humility in the face of revelation is part of the Marian charism along with the gift of the Holy Spirit described as “Fear of the Lord” or reverence and awe before the divine majesty.
Another concept one finds in Balthasarian parlance is that of a symphony. One of his books was titled Truth is Symphonic. Within the life of the Church the varying charisms should work in harmony with each other. Problems arise when there is no harmony or when one or other charism is weak or completely overpowered by the others. For example, those whose charism it is to defend the faith from corruption have a significant role in the Church. Truth matters. Theology matters. Bad theology and sloppy thinking generate long-term pastoral disasters. We need scholars who have studied scripture and the dogmatic tradition and this includes people who understand how the component parts of the tradition relate to one another. If Catholic scholarship is dismissed as the pursuit of middle-class nerds, the barque of Peter can become a little unbalanced from its center of gravity. The idea that the only important thing is having charitable feelings is not Christian. Indeed, Ratzinger described the mentality that only feelings (not ideas or doctrines) matter as the “Hinduization of the faith.”
From Balthasar’s perspective each charism can at different ages in the life of the Church be weak or dysfunctional, and so, undermine the soundness of the entire structure, orchestra, body, or whatever is one’s favorite metaphor for the Church. For example, if we take Pope Francis’s favorite metaphor of a “field hospital,” we might say that the charism most closely associated with field hospital work is the Pauline. All kinds of new ecclesial movements have people on the front lines caring for the spiritually wounded. This is a good thing. However a Church cannot be only a field hospital, because needy human beings need more than bandages and blood transfusions. They often need surgery, and the surgeons are the spiritual masters, the Johannine types working in collaboration with the scholars, the Jacobine types. The work of the Petrine charism is one of assisting all the others in view of the whole sacramental economy of the Church. So those with the Pauline charism, working on the front lines in the field hospital, need the other charisms to be strongly at play if people are to be truly healed, and not left on the level of first-response triage, or relegated to palliative care, however valuable that might be.
When Balthasar talks about masculinizing the Church he therefore means something like a myopic focus on the Petrine charism and on governance structures to the neglect of the other charisms, a church obsessed with institutional maintenance. Thus, in his Elucidations, he wrote:
Since the Council [i.e., Vatican II] the Church has to a large extent put off its mystical characteristics; it has become a Church of permanent conversations, organizations, advisory commissions, congresses, synods, commissions, academies, parties, pressure groups, functions, structures and restructurings, sociological experiments, statistics: that is to say, it is more than ever a male Church, if perhaps one should not say a sexless entity, in which a woman may gain for herself a place to the extent that she is ready herself to become such an entity.2
Balthasar concluded that “the masses run away from such a Church.”
Similarly, in his Church, Ecumenism and Politics, Cardinal Ratzinger declared:
The Church is not some piece of machinery, is not just an institution, is not even one of the usual sociological entities. It is a person. It is a woman. It is a mother. It is living. The Marian understanding of the Church is the most decisive contrast to a purely organisational or bureaucratic concept of the Church. We cannot make the Church: we have to be it. And it is only to the extent that faith moulds our being beyond any question of making that we are the Church, that the Church is in us. It is only in being Marian that we become the Church.3
Ratzinger concluded that: “a Church which is nothing but a manager is nothing at all; she is no longer tradition, and, as an intellect that knows no tradition, she becomes pure nothingness, a monster of nothingness.”4
In summary, when Balthasar suggested the Church should be more feminine and less masculine, he did not mean that we needed women priests or more women on governance boards. To misuse his comments in that manner is to show a high-level of ignorance of his ecclesiology.
What we need now is an affirmation of the feminine dimension of the Church. For Balthasar this in some sense would entail a heightened interest in the operation of the Johannine, Pauline, and Jacobine charisms. Instead of a craze for committees and quangos there might be a focus on deep monasticism and consecrated virginity, on family ministry work, on Catholic scholarship and beautiful liturgy, including beautiful liturgical music. There might also be a heightened interest in fostering the sense of sacramentality, a deepening of the faithful’s understanding of the role that each of the sacrament’s play in the economy of our salvation. There would certainly be a heightened interest in the Eucharist.
My favorite quotation from Balthasar appears in his Theology of History. It reveals a lot about what he thinks or who he thinks are the most important members of the Church and they are not necessarily priests. He wrote:
Those who withdraw to the heights to fast and pray in silence are, as Reinhold Schneider made so vividly credible, the pillars bearing the spiritual weight of what happens in history. They share in the uniqueness of Christ, in the freedom of that nobility that is conferred from above, that serene untamed freedom which cannot be caged and put to use. Theirs in the first of all aristocracies, source and justification for all the others, and the last yet remaining to us in an unaristocratic age.5
Of all the charisms categorized by Balthasar the Marian is the most important. It takes priority even over the Petrine, because the Petrine itself must be Marian in the sense that it must be receptive to divine revelation. What really matters is receptivity to the divine will. This is what is most noble and thus aristocratic, where aristocratic is understood as an adjective meaning desiring only the highest and most excellent. In contrast, the fixation on structures and committees, and who sits on the committees, and who does the paperwork, is not aristocratic but gauchely petite–bourgeois!
(Note: This essay posted originally on April 16, 2024, at the What We Need Now Substack and is reprinted here with kind permission.)
Endnotes:
1 Hans Urs von Balthasar, “How Weighty is the argument from ‘Uninterrupted Tradition’ to Justify the Male Priesthood?” in The Church and Women: A Compendium, edited by Helmut Moll (San Francisco: Ignatius, 1988), 154; cf. 153–160.
2 Hans Urs von Balthasar, Elucidations (San Francisco: Ignatius, 1998), 70.
3 Joseph Ratzinger, Church, Ecumenism and Politics: New Essays in Ecclesiology (New York: Crossroad, 1988), 20.
4 Joseph Ratzinger, Principles of Catholic Theology: Building Stones for a Fundamental Theology (San Francisco: Ignatius, 1987), 101.
5 Hans Urs von Balthasar, A Theology of History (San Francisco: Ignatius, 1994), 124.
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Washington, D.C. Newsroom, May 11, 2024 / 15:18 pm (CNA).
Actor Jonathan Roumie, who plays Jesus Christ in the popular television series “The Chosen,” encouraged graduates at the Catholic University of America (CUA) to emulate Christ and strengthen their prayer lives during the university’s commencement ceremony Saturday morning.
“Last time I spoke [to] a crowd this big, there were loaves and fish and baskets of them,” Roumie joked, referencing the Sermon on the Mount. “So many leftovers.”
Roumie headlined the commencement ceremony for CUA graduates held on the lawn of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., which sits adjacent to the university.
The actor was also awarded an honorary doctorate in fine arts for his work evangelizing through his acting career.
The speech focused on three main points: emulating Christ, praying more, and surrendering oneself to God. These subjects, he said, are “concepts I wish I had heard upon graduating college myself.”
“You don’t need to play Jesus for the world in order to be Jesus to the world,” Roumie told the crowd of graduates.
“I’ve realized that just because I play Jesus on a TV show doesn’t mean I can or I should stop being Christ to everyone I know when the cameras turn off, and neither should you,” he said.
“Just because you’re not an actor playing Jesus or a priest or a nun doesn’t mean you’re not meant to represent him at all times, wherever you go.”
Roumie said this does not mean “God is expecting perfection from you,” but that “you must endeavor to preach the Gospel by the life you live, by your actions and [by] the choices you make.”
He said, as Catholics, this includes “the political positions you take and the advocacy for the causes you champion,” such as “defending life at all stages.”
His second message to outgoing students was to “pray more.” He referenced the First Epistle to the Thessalonians, in which St. Paul instructs the faithful to “pray without ceasing.”
The actor said that “the era we’re living in demands a revolution of deep prayer.”
Roumie, who also partners with the Catholic prayer app Hallow to guide people through prayers and meditation, noted that regular access to the sacrament of reconciliation, followed by Mass and receiving the Eucharist, has been essential to him in preparing for his role in “The Chosen” and is important for everyone in following Christ.
“By this, I’m granted peace,” Roumie explained. “I’m given wisdom in areas of my life experiencing conflict beyond my human understanding, and I’m strengthened to go forward and handle situations I’m otherwise overwhelmed by.”
Roumie emphasized “the power of prayer” and the intercessory role of the Blessed Virgin Mary and all of the angels and saints.
In his speech, the actor also discussed the importance of “surrender” and recognizing that “you’re not in charge; God is.”
Roumie noted that before his role in “The Chosen,” he had been struggling to find success as an actor and faced serious financial hardships. He said he surrendered all of his hardships to God: “I dropped to my knees and I poured myself out to the Lord and surrendered everything to him, saying, ‘I can’t do this without you.’”
“I would not be standing with you here today if God had not brought me to my knees in utter desperation to surrender my entire life and more specifically my career over to him — something I hadn’t even considered before,” the actor said.
“It’s the hardest thing that I’ve ever done, but the greatest thing that has ever happened to me,” Roumie said. “And it will be the most life-changing thing that will ever happen to you if you allow it, especially at this point in your young lives.”
About 1,300 students graduated from the university on Saturday.
Four other attendees also received honorary doctorates: Father Piotr Nawrot, a priest of the Divine World Ministries who rediscovered and reconstructed 13,000 pages of music of the Moxo and Chiquito tribes; John Finnis, a Catholic legal and political thinker; Teresa Pitt Green, the co-founder of the Healing Voices magazine; and Rabbi Jack Bemporad, who has authored several books on Christian and Jewish relations and is the founding director of the Center for Interreligious Understanding.
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The “Children’s Table” was a joyful and spontaneous moment at the World Meeting on Human Fraternity. Children responded enthusiastically to the Pope on the definition of happiness, peace, and friendship, before the he signed the “Children’s Declaration on Fraternity.”
By Jean-Charles Putzolu
After the moderator of the “Future Generation” roundtable announced the entry of the “scientists” to the Holy Father, dozens of children crowned with laurels flooded the synod hall.
Each of them glued a green leaf to the branches of an old dry tree in the middle of the room to give it life again and thus revive hope.
All this happened under the smiling gaze of the Pope, who found himself quickly surrounded by all these children. A bit of patience was required before they were seated.
Once silence had been restored, Francis engaged in a game of question and answer, asking, “What does happiness mean?”
The bravest attempted to answer: “For me, it’s being all united, one family, God’s family,” said one; “peace,” said another.
“I love you, Pope Francis,” two children ventured.
Francis, increasingly amused, continued, “Where can happiness be bought?” “Happiness cannot be bought,” confidently exclaimed a young girl. “We can be happy if we are in contact with God,” replied another.
Seizing the opportunity, the Pope asked, “How can we get in touch with God?” “By praying,” the children chorused, “and by praying, we can find peace,” another young girl added.
The female voices dominated over the boys’, but all provided pertinent answers to the Successor of Peter’s questions.
Against war, they proposed unity, friendship, and sharing. At this point, it is useful to specify that they had worked on the subject by drafting, on behalf of the “children of the whole world,” the “Children’s Declaration on Fraternity” which Francis signed in front of them after they read it aloud.
The “Children’s Table” was part of the preparation for the upcoming World Children’s Day on May 25 and 26 in Rome. According to organizers, around 72,000 participants are expected.
Participants in the “Children’s Table”
The text of the declaration is two pages long, adopting the language and spontaneity of children. Here is a full translation:
“What does it really mean to live as brothers and sisters? First of all, to understand that we are like the roots of an ancient tree: we embrace each other underground, without even realizing it, in a silent alliance of life, supporting each other against the storms of time.
And what would a tree be without its roots? The roots of our humanity sink into the fertile soil of solidarity, grow in the garden of encounter, flourish in the peace of creation, and require constant care, constant attention, and constant work in which we must all discover ourselves as attentive gardeners.
Our roots remind us that, despite the diversity of branches, we share the same life, the same dream, that of a world where love is the only fruit that can truly make us happy because, as the Argentine poet Bernardéz wrote, “what the tree has in bloom, lives from what it has buried.”
That is why we invite every adult and every child to plant seeds of hope, to make actions of tenderness sprout; let’s synchronize our hearts to the rhythm of the world because we are travelers on the same path, seekers of the same truth, we are one human family, and together we can build a planet where love knocks down all barriers and where fraternity is the mother tongue of all.
We truly believe in dreams: when we are children, we dream of a world where everyone, but really everyone, can have a place where we feel at home. A place where we can be ourselves, be seen, loved, welcomed, and supported.
We dream of a world where every child, everywhere, can live in peace, where it is possible to grow, study, play, be free, and happy.
A world where differences are not a reason for confrontation or war, but where they are accepted because everyone is different, and that makes the world more beautiful. A world where the weakest are supported, without being judged; where those who have the most difficulty keeping up are awaited and accompanied, and where those who are more advanced are ready to wait and help; where those with greater possibilities help those in difficulty.
But alone, we can’t achieve this!
It also depends on you: we want to see adults with positive and serene relationships, based on acceptance, inclusion, dialogue, respect, forgiveness, and solidarity.
We want to see that you are capable of free friendship, the kind that helps to climb the mountains of fear, sadness, difficulties, and loneliness.
Show us that sincere friendship allows us to overcome oppression, isolation, and the fear of feeling inadequate.
Show us that you are truly “brothersand sisters to everyone,” without distinction of birth, economic status, religious belief, education, or ethnic background. We are ready to be friends to everybody, everybody, everybody, as Jesus – the most special Friend – taught us.
Help us realize our dreams in a better world, where we have the opportunity to have a future, without the future gradually destroying all our dreams.
Let us walk together, with you, adults, who accompany us, on this path of peace and understanding, of fraternity and growth, of welcome and hope.
Only in this way, when together we have hands dirty with earth and hearts full of heaven, will we discover ourselves happy, will we discover ourselves truly human, brothers to all and guardians of our common home.”
What’s in a number?
When it comes to Scripture, there is often more—much more—to a number than meets the eye. Take, for instance, the number twelve. Although that number doesn’t appear directly in today’s readings, its presence and meaning are readily evident once we go digging around a bit.
Today’s reading from the first chapter of the Acts of the Apostles describes how Peter, the head apostle, stood up in the midst of a “group of about one hundred and twenty persons.” There are some meaningful multiples of twelve in the New Testament, and this, I think, is one of them: 12 x 10 = 120.
Appearances of twelve are plentiful in both the Old and New Testaments; scholars widely agree it is one of the most important numbers to be found in Scripture. Jacob had twelve sons (Gen. 35:22) and from them came the twelve tribes of Israel (Gen. 49:28). Having led the people out of slavery in Egypt and met God at Mount Sinai, Moses built “an altar at the foot of the mountain, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel” (Ex. 24:4). Jesus, of course, appointed twelve men as apostles (Mk. 3:14), representing the new Israel, which will judge the old Israel (Lk. 22:28-30) at the end of time.
Twelve, then, stands for God’s chose people and the authority given to them to rule and to reign. The number ten, in Scripture, consistently represents perfection, fulfillment, and completion. Multiply the two and you have the embryonic Church—the chosen people of the New Covenant, the Body of Christ—ready to be born and revealed on Pentecost.
First, however, a closely related matter had to be addressed: a replacement for Judas, who had been numbered among The Twelve, but who had betrayed his Master. Peter appealed to Psalm 109, which describes how those with “wicked and deceitful mouths” utter lies against God’s chosen One, attacking him without case and betraying his love with false accusations.
The decision was made: “May another take his office.” This apostolic office was a special position of authority and oversight, closely related to “the office of bishop” Paul wrote about in his first letter to Timothy (1 Tim. 3:1). The Twelve were more than bishops, however, as the Catechism explains:
The Lord Jesus endowed his community with a structure that will remain until the Kingdom is fully achieved. Before all else, there is the choice of the Twelve with Peter as their head. Representing the twelve tribes of Israel, they are the foundation stones of the new Jerusalem. The Twelve and the other disciples share in Christ’s mission and his power, but also in his lot. (CCC 765)
Speaking of lots, what are we to make of the curious manner by which Matthias is chosen as a replacement for Judas? Did Peter and the others use the equivalent of a coin toss to decide between Matthias and Barsabbas? Not really, especially since the process of selecting specially marked lots (either sticks or stones) was not understood to be a matter of chance, but a means given by God to help discern his will. In the Old Testament, lots were used for making any number of important decisions, with the belief that God was in control of the outcome (see Lev. 16:7-10; 1 Chron. 24:31, Josh. 19:1-40).
Augustine pointed out that this use of lots was prior to Pentecost, and that subsequent decisions, such as the selection of the first deacons (Acts 6:3-6), were made without the use of lots. Having been filled with the Holy Spirit, the Church’s leaders would draw upon the Holy Spirit through prayer and shared counsel.
Twelve, Augustine also noted, is a sacred number. “These twelve,” he wrote, “were to make known the Three [the Trinity] … throughout the four quarters of the world. That is the reason of the three times four.”
In Scripture, numbers usually add up to more than the sum of their parts.
(This “Opening the Word” column originally appeared in the May 24, 2009, edition of Our Sunday Visitor newspaper.)
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Rome Newsroom, May 11, 2024 / 12:38 pm (CNA).
The Vatican’s latest bid to tackle climate change will bring together politicians and researchers from around the world for a three-day conference next week, featuring a series of roundtable discussions and culminating in the signing of a new international protocol that will be submitted to the United Nations.
The joint summit, “From Climate Crisis To Climate Resilience,” will be held at the Vatican from May 15-17 at the Casina Pio IV, the seat of the Pontifical Academies of Sciences and Social Sciences, which sits in the Vatican Gardens.
The conference—organized by the two pontifical academies—brings together policymakers, civic leaders, researchers and lawmakers from the United States and other countries, including Italy, Kenya and Sweden.
This year’s U.S. invitees include Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey, California Gov. Gavin Newsom and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, as well as Boston Mayor Michelle Wu.
“Massachusetts deeply values our close relationship with Italy and the Vatican City State, and we see this trip as an excellent opportunity to strengthen ties and strategize on future opportunities for collaboration,” Healey said in an official press release from the Massachusetts governor’s office.
Healey will deliver a keynote address titled “Governing in the Age of Climate Change” on the first day of the summit, while Newsom and Hochul will both deliver addresses on the second day.
“This year holds unprecedented significance for democracy and the climate, two intertwined issues which will define our future,” Newsom said last month.
“With half the world’s population poised to elect their leaders amidst a backdrop of escalating political extremism, and global temperatures hurtling towards alarming new heights, the stakes could not be higher,” the California governor said.
“There is no greater authority than moral authority — and the Pope’s leadership on the climate crisis inspires us all to push further and faster. “
Pope Francis has made environmental protection and social stewardship one of the defining themes of his pontificate, dedicating two encyclicals to the moral imperative of combatting anthropogenic climate change.
The conference will also include mayors from some of Europe’s largest cities, including the mayors of Rome, Paris, and London, as well lawmakers from Asia and Africa, researchers and academics from the world’s leading universities, and representatives from international organizations such as the United Nations and the World Health Organization.
The summit participants will be received in an audience with Pope Francis on Thursday, May 16.
Each day of the summit is centered around a different conceptual framework and is organized by a series of different panels and roundtable discussions.
The summit’s program explains that participants will discuss and deliberate policy recommendations geared towards “climate resilience,” by utilizing a three-pronged strategy, which includes “mitigation efforts,” “adaptation strategies,” and “societal transformation.”
“Climate Resilience requires cross-disciplinary partnerships among researchers, engineers, and entrepreneurs and trans-disciplinary partnerships between science and community leaders, including faith leaders, NGOs, and the public. Mayors and Governors form the core of such transdisciplinary partnerships,” the official program of the summit states.
The program notes that one of the main outcomes of the summit will be the drafting of a “Planetary Climate Resilience” protocol in which all participants will be “cosignatories.”
The protocol will be “fashioned along the lines of the Montreal Protocol” and will “provide the guidelines for making everyone climate resilient,” the program states.
Afterwards the document will be “submitted to the UNFCCC [United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change] to take it forward to all nations.”
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The Israeli military has ordered more residents of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip to leave neighbourhoods east of the city.
By Nathan Morley
On Saturday, residents were instructed to head to al-Mawasi, a zone between the west of Rafah and Khan Younis. The UN says more than 80,000 people have taken flight from Rafah this week, after Israel cautioned people to evacuate ahead of a planned major offensive.
Sam Rose from the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees says the area has no running water or proper sanitation. He said the latest evacuation is ‘extremely concerning’.
Rafah, crammed with more than a million evacuated Palestinians, has been facing a dreadful humanitarian crisis due to the lack of basic supplies, including water, food, electricity, and medicines.
On Friday, United Nations agencies highlighted the severe crisis in Gaza and stressed the urgent need for humanitarian assistance. The organization urged all parties involved to guarantee civilian crossings and the flow of necessary goods for the civilian population.
In a separate development, the UN General Assembly has adopted a resolution supporting the Palestinian bid to become a full UN member.
The resolution was accepted with 143 votes in favour and nine against, including the United States and Israel, while 25 countries refrained from voting.
Listen to Nathan Morley’s report
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