Thursday 28th March 2024

Home » Our Catholic Faith » Currently Reading:

Pope’s Meeting With Parish Groups . . . “Never Look For Salvation Without God”

March 18, 2015 Our Catholic Faith No Comments

ROME (ZENIT) — Here is a translation of the various meetings Pope Francis had with groups in the Roman Parish of Mary, Mother of the Redeemer in Tor Bella Monaca on Sunday, March 8. ZENIT News Agency provided the text and the translation. All rights reserved.

+ + +

Meeting With The Sick
In The Church Of
St. Giovanna Antida

I thank you for your hospitality and I thank you for your smile. I know that you pray for me, and I thank you so much for this. The Lord loves you so much, The Lord is close to you. The Lord never abandons you, not even in the worst moments. We have confidence in Him: He is close to us, and when an awful moment arrives — because this happens to everyone — when awful moments arrive, a bit of nostalgia, a bit of sadness, the big tears that come, the weeping.
Let’s do like this with our hand: “Lord, I know you are here.” He never abandons us. Perhaps you say: “Ah, you are here, but I’m having the bad moment!” But He lived an awful moment on the cross and — do you remember? He was the first to come to all of us. And, because of this, He knows what pain is, what sadness is, to be alone and so many things. . . .
But He is always there. Never lose confidence. Understood? But you are not very convinced, no? Never lose confidence. And with the Lord there is also our Mother. Mothers never leave their children alone, and our Lady is our Mother. Now we pray to her all together: “Hail Mary. . . .”
And I give you my blessing: “May God Almighty bless you. . . .”
And please, pray for me: Don’t forget! We’ll see one another later on, but I don’t know, the Lord knows. . . . Forward, courage! The Lord is always there. Thank you. Thank you for your hospitality!

Meeting With The Children
In The Parish Sports Field

[A girl]: Holy Father, we want to know how you felt when you were elected Pope. . . .
[Pope Francis]: Thank you. . . .
[A girl scout]: This is a question that the two of us want to ask you: We’ve had this question for a long time and finally we can have an answer. If God forgives everyone, why does Hell exist? And then, a little curiosity: In your opinion, what is Paradise like?
[A girl]: Dear Holy Father, as Christians we are faced with many difficulties. We are exposed to so much teasing, also because of our moral choices as, for instance, to live our sexuality in a Christian way. Holiness, can you help us to understand and counsel us how to live to the best our faith and to walk beside God, despite the difficulties of life, which often make us feel far from His love? Thank you with our whole heart.
[Pope Francis]
Good evening to all!
First a question that is very important, the one you asked, as a good scout you asked a good and difficult question. Now I will also ask: Does God forgive everything . . . or not? [Answer: Yes! He forgives everything!] Because He is good . . . or not? [Yes! He is good!] He is good.
However, you know that there was a very proud angel, very proud, who was very intelligent. And he was envious of God, do you understand? He was envious of God. He wanted God’s place. And God wanted to forgive him, but he said: “I don’t need forgiveness, I am sufficient unto myself!” This is Hell: to say to God: “You manage yourself, I’ll manage myself on my own.” No one sends you to Hell. You go there because you choose to be there.
Hell is to want to distance oneself from God because I don’t want God’s love. This is Hell. Do you understand? It is a theology that is somewhat easy to explain and it is this. The Devil is in Hell because he wanted it: He never wanted a relation with God. However, if you are . . . think of a sinner: If you were a tremendous sinner, with all the sins of the world, all of them, and then you were sentenced to death, and when you are there, blasphemies, insults, so many things. . . . And at the moment of going there, to the death penalty, when you are about to die, you look at Heaven and say: “Lord. . . .!” Where do you go, to Heaven or to Hell? Louder . . . [to Heaven!].
You go to Heaven because there was another who was a thief, but one of those thieves. . . . He was crucified near to Jesus. And one of these two thieves insulted Jesus. He didn’t believe in Jesus; he endured the pains until death. However, at a certain point, something moved within him and he said: “Lord, have mercy on me!” And what did Jesus say? Do you remember what he said? “Today, this evening, you will be with me in Paradise.” Why? Because he said “remember me,” “look at me.” Only he goes to Hell who says to God: “I don’t need you, I can manage on my own,” as the Devil did, who is the only one that we are certain is in Hell. Is this clear? Thank you for the question. But you seem to be a theologian!
The other question is not easy. Christian morality: how to live this morality; to be holy before God, what must I do? And Christian morality, to live morally is a grace; it is an answer to the love He gives you first. If you are not aware that He loves you, you can’t do anything. Nothing. And the moral way of living is an answer to the encounter with Jesus. If you have not encountered Jesus, you will never be able to live a Christian life. It is Jesus who helps you to go forward and if you fall, it is He who raises you and who makes you continue going.
But if you think or we think that the moral life is only “do this,” “don’t do that”. . .“do this,” “don’t do that,” “do this,” “don’t do that” — this isn’t Christian. This is a moral philosophy, but it isn’t Christian. Christian is the love of Jesus who first loves us. Understood? When all of us have temptations to envy, jealousies, so many temptations, all, all, so many temptations; at the moment of temptation we must look at Jesus and say: “Lord, look at me, don’t leave me alone.” But then, if you fall, get up.
The mountain climbers have a very lovely song that says this: “In the art of mountain climbing, what is important is not to fall but to stay fallen.” Christian morality is this: You fall? Get up immediately and go forward. This is the life, but always with Jesus. Without Jesus you can do nothing. Understood? You can also go study moral theology at the Gregorian: They will teach you these things. . . .
And the third question, which was the first: What did you feel when you were elected Pope? I don’t know. . . . “They changed my dioceses”. . . [he laughs; they laugh]. I was happy in a diocese and now I’m happy in another. They changed my place. There.
To the children of Communion, all of whom wrote me a letter, I thank them and carry the letters with me.
Let us pray to our Lady to bless us all. Never go in life without Jesus. Never look for salvation without God: He is the one who saves, so we won’t go to Hell. And never complain when life changes your place!
“Hail Mary. . . .”
Now we ask God to bless us all: “May Almighty God bless you. . . .” Thank you!

Meeting With
The Parish Council

[Priest]
Now, Holy Father, you have before you all those who collaborate here, in the parish. They are those who enable us, priests, to be able to be present in the territory, and above all, thanks to their commitment and constancy, they help us to take Jesus Christ to our neighborhood. We have more than 250 collaborators; many are here, others are working today in other services but they are all truly people of goodwill and of a great heart.
While we were coming, on Via dell’Archeologia, you saw all these persons who were awaiting you: These are the people that make Rome fear. They are the poor people. . . . The people of Tor Bella Monaca are good and you, today, have had the possibility to see firsthand their goodness and, as they said to you in the car, their closeness to us priests, because they love us — us and the sisters.
And this is a great gift for us, because every morning we get up serene, knowing we have the People of God who walk with us in taking the Word of God to the neighborhood. Therefore, I leave you to them now to say something that might help them.
[Pope Francis]
Good afternoon and thank you for having come. The people of Tor Bella Monaca are good; they are good people. They have only one defect, but it’s the same defect that Jesus, Mary. and Joseph had: of being poor. Poverty . . . with the difference that Joseph had a job, Jesus had a job. So many people here don’t. And they must feed their children! And how do they manage? Ah, you know! The temptation. . . . “But I don’t want to do this, I don’t want to, but I must feed my children.” This is your drama, of the people of here — that goodness put to test by injustice, by the injustice of unemployment or of discrimination. And this is a sin; it is a grave sin. And so many people who are good are constrained to do bad things, perhaps, because they find no other way.
But then there are some other problems: We know that the Devil and injustice enter through addictions, be it alcohol, be it drugs, and this pushes one to do evil things, bad things. But you have understood this, which under the dust that can be seen there is always a good soul. And a caress, a tenderness, as gesture of satisfying the people’s hunger does so much good.
Once — I did not see it — in the other dioceses a parish priest told me that he had to go to the prison to visit one of his own who was in jail because he had robbed: he had robbed in a supermarket some meat to feed his children. And this is awful; poor man, what injustice! Because to comply with a commandment, he was put in prison. If your child is hungry and the society does not help you to work, it does not help you to find work, it does not help you to come out of vices . . . you must feed your children. . . . I say this to understand well the situation of so many people who are good, but life pushes them against the wall.
And you work so that these situations won’t be repeated, so that these situations won’t be daily: You work to continue going forward with the people and you say to them: “No, come here, what do you need? I’ll help you. . . .”
And so many times, when the people feel supported, loved, they don’t fall into that network of the wicked, who exploit the poor people. Because the Mafiosi also exploit poor people to make them do dirty work and then, if the police find them, find those poor people but not the Mafiosi who are all safe and also pay for security. Is this not true? And you know it better than me.
Therefore, I advise you to do one thing, to help the people. The first pastoral commandment is closeness: to be close to the people. Closeness. We cannot go to families with sick and hungry children or who have fallen into vice, we cannot go with the “you must, you must, you must!” This is the way: closeness. “But must I get close also to one who I know has bumped off two or three persons?”
Get close, because he also has a heart, and God loves him. Get close. This is the great pastoral counsel I give you. And I thank you for this collaboration. And if there is so much injustice, to engage in political protests against injustice, shouting and then going to eat a good pizza with beer, is not right; what is right is closeness, caresses, love, sharing life.
Today I received a letter from a Jewish friend of mine — we are great friends — at Buenos Aires. He wrote me an electronic letter. And he told me a story — because Jews have old stories of elderly Rabbis that are catecheses, which the old Rabbis gave so that the people would learn how they should behave.
And there was a rich man, very intelligent — it’s a story of many centuries ago, which they tell — and with his intelligence he read the Bible and said: “The prophet Elias must return, must come….” And he didn’t understand why the prophet Elias didn’t come.
And he went to his Rabbi. His Rabbi — old, wise — said to him: “Go to another country and you will find a house like this, like this, like this. Take everything, everything to have for a celebration — because their New Year’s celebration was arriving — everything to eat, and take them there as a present and stay with them for a day of celebration. And you will find Elias there.”
And this rich man filled two baskets and went and celebrated with them but he looked, looked around and did not see Elias. Then, after a day, he returned and went to the Rabbi and said: “I did what you told me, but I didn’t see Elias. What must I do? You have deceived me!” “Return day after tomorrow with the same things, but don’t knock on the door: Listen from the window what they are talking about.”
These were the last days of celebration. This man appeared at the window, he listened and this poor Jewish family, poor, poor, poor, which had nothing to eat, was talking to the children who said: “Mommy, now how will we celebrate the last day of the feast as we have nothing to eat? Daddy, what shall we do?”
And the mother and father said: “We have confidence, like Elias, the prophet, who came the first day and will return also today.” And that man, who was listening from the window, realized that he was the prophet Elias.
We are also prophets, we are also great prophets; but we proclaim Jesus with gestures: also with words, but first with gestures, with closeness. That man went close and discovered that he had the capacity to resolve many problems, to feed so many people. Get close; don’t be afraid of closeness. Don’t be afraid of caresses: caress the people, the sick, those who are alone, also those who merit the appellative “miserable”: caress them, as God has caressed us.
Closeness, caresses, love. And go forward on this way. And thank you, thank you for what you do!
And now we pray to our Lady, who was so close to the people and who during the history of the Church has desired to be close to us, to come to us in so many apparitions, in so many places of the world, to teach us this wisdom of closeness to the people, without repulsion. “Hail Mary. . . .” “May Almighty God bless you. . . .”
And pray for me. . . . What does this mean? Come close to me with your heart, as I also need your caresses and prayers! Thank you.

Share Button

2019 The Wanderer Printing Co.

Vatican and USCCB leave transgender policy texts unpublished

While U.S. bishops have made headlines for releasing policies addressing gender identity and pastoral ministry, guidelines on the subject have been drafted but not published by both the U.S. bishops’ conference and the Vatican’s doctrinal office, leaving diocesan bishops to…Continue Reading

Biden says Pope Francis told him to continue receiving communion, amid scrutiny over pro-abortion policies

President Biden said that Pope Francis, during their meeting Friday in Vatican City, told him that he should continue to receive communion, amid heightened scrutiny of the Catholic president’s pro-abortion policies.  The president, following the approximately 90-minute-long meeting, a key…Continue Reading

Federal judge rules in favor of Gov. DeSantis’ mask mandate ban

MIAMI (LifeSiteNews) – A federal judge this week handed Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis another legal victory on his mask mandate ban for schools. On Wednesday, Judge K. Michael Moore of the Southern District of Florida denied a petition from…Continue Reading

The Eucharist should not be received unworthily, says Nigerian cardinal

Priests have a duty to remind Catholics not to receive the Eucharist in a state of serious sin and to make confession easily available, a Nigerian cardinal said at the International Eucharistic Congress on Thursday. “It is still the doctrine…Continue Reading

Donald Trump takes a swipe at Catholics and Jews who did not vote for him

Donald Trump complained about Catholics and Jews who did not vote for him in 2020. The former president made the comments in a conference call featuring religious leaders. The move could be seen to shore up his religious conservative base…Continue Reading

Y Gov. Kathy Hochul Admits Andrew Cuomo Covered Up COVID Deaths, 12,000 More Died Than Reported

When it comes to protecting people from COVID, Andrew Cuomo is already the worst governor in America. New York has the second highest death rate per capita, in part because he signed an executive order putting COVID patients in nursing…Continue Reading

Prayers For Cardinal Burke . . . U.S. Cardinal Burke says he has tested positive for COVID-19

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — U.S. Cardinal Raymond L. Burke said he has tested positive for the virus that causes COVID-19. In an Aug. 10 tweet, he wrote: “Praised be Jesus Christ! I wish to inform you that I have recently…Continue Reading

Democrats Block Amendment Banning Late-Term Abortions, Stopping Abortions Up to Birth

Senate Democrats have blocked an amendment that would ban abortions on babies older than 20 weeks. During consideration of the multi-trillion spending package, pro-life Louisiana Senator John Kennedy filed an amendment to ban late-term abortions, but Democrats steadfastly support killing…Continue Reading

Transgender student wins as U.S. Supreme Court rebuffs bathroom appeal

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday handed a victory to a transgender former public high school student who waged a six-year legal battle against a Virginia county school board that had barred him from using the bathroom corresponding…Continue Reading

New York priest accused by security guard of assault confirms charges have now been dropped

NEW YORK, June 17, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) — A New York priest has made his first public statement regarding the dismissal of charges against him.  Today Father George W. Rutler reached out to LifeSiteNews and other media today with the following…Continue Reading

21,000 sign petition protesting US Catholic bishops vote on Biden, abortion

More than 21,000 people have signed a letter calling for U.S. Catholic bishops to cancel a planned vote on whether President Biden should receive communion.  Biden, a Catholic, supports abortion rights and has long come under attack from some Catholics over that…Continue Reading

Bishop Gorman seeks candidates to fill two full time AP level teaching positions for the 2021-2022 school year in the subject areas of Calculus/Statistics and Physics

Bishop Thomas K. Gorman Regional Catholic School is a college preparatory school located in Tyler, Texas. It is an educational ministry of the Catholic Diocese of Tyler led by Bishop Joseph Strickland. The sixth through twelfth grade school provides a…Continue Reading

Untitled 5 Untitled 2

Attention Readers:

  Welcome to our website. Readers who are familiar with The Wanderer know we have been providing Catholic news and orthodox commentary for 150 years in our weekly print edition.


  Our daily version offers only some of what we publish weekly in print. To take advantage of everything The Wanderer publishes, we encourage you to su
bscribe to our flagship weekly print edition, which is mailed every Friday or, if you want to view it in its entirety online, you can subscribe to the E-edition, which is a replica of the print edition.
 
  Our daily edition includes: a selection of material from recent issues of our print edition, news stories updated daily from renowned news sources, access to archives from The Wanderer from the past 10 years, available at a minimum charge (this will be expanded as time goes on). Also: regularly updated features where we go back in time and highlight various columns and news items covered in The Wanderer over the past 150 years. And: a comments section in which your remarks are encouraged, both good and bad, including suggestions.
 
  We encourage you to become a daily visitor to our site. If you appreciate our site, tell your friends. As Catholics we must band together to rediscover our faith and share it with the world if we are to effectively counter a society whose moral culture seems to have no boundaries and a government whose rapidly extending reach threatens to extinguish the rights of people of faith to practice their religion (witness the HHS mandate). Now more than ever, vehicles like The Wanderer are needed for clarification and guidance on the issues of the day.

Catholic, conservative, orthodox, and loyal to the Magisterium have been this journal’s hallmarks for five generations. God willing, our message will continue well into this century and beyond.

Joseph Matt
President, The Wanderer Printing Co.

Untitled 1

Catechism

Today . . .

Abortion Advocates No Longer Consider It “A Necessary Evil,” They Celebrate Killing Babies

Last week, Kamala Harris became the first vice president in U.S. history to make a public visit to an abortion clinic. Though the Democratic party’s support for abortion is nothing new, Harris’ Planned Parenthood appearance does illustrate how that support has become a flagrant celebration of abortion as a public and personal good, essential to both “freedom” and to “healthcare.” At the appearance, Harris proclaimed,  It is only right and fair that people have access…Continue Reading

Wisconsin Supreme Court says Catholic charity group cannot claim religious tax exemption

The Wisconsin Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that a major Catholic charity group’s activities were not “primarily” religious under state law, stripping the group of a key tax break and ordering it to pay into the state unemployment system. Catholic Charities Bureau (CCB) last year argued that the state had improperly removed its designation as a religious organization.  The charity filed a lawsuit after the state said it did not qualify to be considered as an organization…Continue Reading

Walgreens and CVS Will Start Selling Abortion Pills That Kill Babies

The two largest pharmacies in America will start selling abortion pills this month that end the lives of unborn children by starting them to death. Walgreens and CVS will both sell the abortion pills despite the fact that they kill a developing human being and have killed at least dozens of women and injured tens of thousands more. They plan to initially roll out abortion drug sales in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, California…Continue Reading

Cardinal Burke announces novena to Our Lady of Guadalupe for ‘crises of our age’

VATICAN CITY (PerMariam) — Raymond Cardinal Burke has announced the start of a global, nine-month novena to Our Lady of Guadalupe, calling on Catholics to beseech Mary’s intercession on the Church and the world in the face of the “crises of our age.” In a new endeavour published online over the weekend, Cardinal Burke announced a novena beginning in March, and culminating on the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe on December 12.

Texas attorney general targets Catholic nonprofit, alleges it facilitates illegal immigration

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Feb 21, 2024 / 21:15 pm Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is trying to shut down a Catholic nonprofit organization in El Paso based on allegations that the group may be facilitating illegal immigration, harboring immigrants who entered the country illegally, and engaging in human smuggling.  Paxton filed a lawsuit against the nonprofit Annunciation House, which has operated in the state for nearly 50 years. The lawsuit asks the District Court of El Paso…Continue Reading

The King of Kings

Cindy Paslawski We are at the end of the Church year. We began with Advent a year ago, commemorating the time awaiting the coming of the Christ and we are ending these weeks later with a vision of the future, a vision of Christ the King of the Universe on His throne before us all.…Continue Reading

7,000 Pro-Lifers March In London

By STEVEN ERTELT LONDON (LifeNews) — Over the weekend, some seven thousand pro-life people in the UK participated in the March for Life in London to protest abortion.They marched to Parliament Square on Saturday, September 2 under the banner of “Freedom to Live” and had to deal with a handful of radical abortion activists.During the…Continue Reading

An Appeal For Prayer For The Armenian People

By RAYMOND LEO CARDINAL BURKE (Editor’s Note: His Eminence Raymond Cardinal Burke on August 29, 2023, issued this prayer for the Armenian people, noting their unceasing love for Christ, even in the face of persecution.) + + On the Feast of the Beheading of St. John the Baptist, having a few days ago celebrated the…Continue Reading

Robert Hickson, Founding Member Of Christendom College, Dies At 80

By MAIKE HICKSON FRONT ROYAL, Va. (LifeSiteNews) — Robert David Hickson, Jr., of Front Royal, Va., died at his home on September 2, 2023, at 21:29 p.m. after several months of suffering and after having received the Last Rites of the Catholic Church. He was surrounded by friends and family.Robert is survived by me —…Continue Reading

The Real Hero Of “Sound of Freedom”… Says The Film Has Strengthened The Fight Against Child Trafficking

By ANA PAULA MORALES (CNA) —Tim Ballard, a former U.S. Homeland Security agent who risked his life to fight child trafficking, discussed the impact of the movie Sound of Freedom, which is based on his work, in an August 29 interview with ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. “I’ve spent more than 20 years helping…Continue Reading

Advertisement

Our Catholic Faith (Section B of print edition)

Catholic Replies

Editor’s Note: This lesson on medical-moral issues is taken from the book Catholicism & Ethics. Please feel free to use the series for high schoolers or adults. We will continue to welcome your questions for the column as well. The email and postal addresses are given at the end of this column. Special Course On Catholicism And Ethics (Pages 53-59)…Continue Reading

Color Politics An Impediment To Faith

By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK The USCCB is rightly concerned about racism, as they should be about any sin. In the 2018 statement Open Wide Our Hearts, they affirm the dignity of every human person: “But racism still profoundly affects our culture, and it has no place in the Christian heart. This evil causes great harm to its victims, and…Continue Reading

Trademarks Of The True Messiah

By MSGR. CHARLES POPE (Editor’s Note: Msgr. Charles Pope posted this essay on September 2, and it is reprinted here with permission.) + + In Sunday’s Gospel the Lord firmly sets before us the need for the cross, not as an end in itself, but as the way to glory. Let’s consider the Gospel in three stages.First: The Pattern That…Continue Reading

A Beacon Of Light… The Holy Cross And Jesus’ Unconditional Love

By FR. RICHARD D. BRETON Each year on September 14 the Church celebrates the Feast Day of the Exultation of the Holy Cross. The Feast Day of the Triumph of the Holy Cross commemorates the day St. Helen found the True Cross. It is fitting then, that today we should focus on the final moments of Jesus’ life on the…Continue Reading

Our Ways Must Become More Like God’s Ways

By FR. ROBERT ALTIER Twenty-Fifth Sunday In Ordinary Time (YR A) Readings: Isaiah 55:6-9Phil. 1:20c-24, 27aMatt. 20:1-16a In the first reading today, God tells us through the Prophet Isaiah that His thoughts are not our thoughts and His ways are not our ways. This should not come as a surprise to anyone, especially when we look at what the Lord…Continue Reading

The Devil And The Democrats

By FR. DENIS WILDE, OSA States such as Minnesota, California, Maryland, and others, in all cases with Democrat-controlled legislatures, are on a fast track to not only allow unborn babies to be murdered on demand as a woman’s “constitutional right” but also to allow infanticide.Our nation has gotten so used to the moral evil of killing in the womb that…Continue Reading

Crushed But Unbroken . . . The Martyrdom Of St. Margaret Clitherow

By RAY CAVANAUGH The late-1500s were a tough time for Catholics in England, where the Reformation was in full gear. A 1581 law prohibited Catholic religious ceremonies. And a 1584 Act of Parliament mandated that all Catholic priests leave the country or else face execution. Some chose to remain, however, so they could continue serving the faithful.Also taking huge risks…Continue Reading

Advertisement(2)