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An Ignatian Key To Pope’s Lenten Retreat

March 12, 2014 Pope Francis Comments Off on An Ignatian Key To Pope’s Lenten Retreat

2014-03-11 Vatican Radio (Vatican Radio) Pope Francis is making the traditional Lenten retreat with the members of the Roman Curia this week. In a departure from the practice of his predecessors, the Holy Father has asked participants to gather at a retreat house run by the Pauline Fathers in the small town of Ariccia, just south of Rome. A Jesuit priest who was the coordinator of English-language outreach and catechetical efforts for the Society at World Youth Day 2013 in Brazil and is pursuing advanced studies in Fundamental Theology at Rome’s Pontifical Gregorian University, Fr. Michael Rogers, SJ, told Vatican Radio the decision to make the retreat outside the Vatican is rooted in the spirituality of St. Ignatius Loyola, the…Continue Reading

Pope Francis Warns Religious Orders Against “Theoretical Poverty”

March 11, 2014 Pope Francis Comments Off on Pope Francis Warns Religious Orders Against “Theoretical Poverty”

2014-03-08 Vatican Radio (Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has sent a message to the participants of a Vatican Symposium on “The management of the ecclesiastical goods of Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, for the service of humanity and for the mission of the Church.” The two-day event, which was organized at the request of Pope Francis, is taking place at the Pontifical University Antonianum, which is run by the Franciscan Order. “Our times are characterized by significant changes and progress in many areas,” Pope Francis writes.  “However, despite reducing poverty, these achievements have often helped to build an economy of exclusion and inequality.” Pope Francis writes the Christian community is challenged by the precariousness in which many…Continue Reading

Pope On Lenten Retreat Outside Rome

March 10, 2014 Pope Francis Comments Off on Pope On Lenten Retreat Outside Rome

2014-03-10 Vatican Radio (Vatican Radio)  Pope Francis is in the hillside town of Ariccia just south of Rome for a week-long Lenten retreat with members of the Curia.  The Pope left the Vatican Sunday afternoon by bus – just a few hours after reciting the Angelus prayer with the faithful in St. Peter’s square.  Breaking from a long-held tradition of holding them in the Vatican, Pope Francis decided to organize this year’s annual retreat from March 9-14 at the Pauline Fathers’ retreat and conference center in Ariccia. The small medieval town is not far from the papal summer residence of Castel Gandolfo.  And, in choosing to get away from the Vatican and the daily pressures of curia work and duties,…Continue Reading

Pope Francis at Angelus: One Can’t Dialogue With Satan

March 9, 2014 Pope Francis Comments Off on Pope Francis at Angelus: One Can’t Dialogue With Satan

2014-03-09 Vatican Radio (Vatican Radio) During his weekly Angelus address on Sunday, Pope Francis spoke about the day’s Gospel reading, which focused on the temptation of Jesus in the desert. Satan, the Pope said, tried “to divert Jesus from the Father’s plan” by tempting Him “to take an easy path,” a path “of success and power.” Jesus definitively rejects these temptations, reaffirming His “firm intention to follow the path established by the Father, without any compromise with sin or with the logic of the world.” This commitment to follow the plan of the Father is realized in Jesus actions; “His absolute fidelity to the Father’s plan of love will lead Him, after about three years, to the final confrontation with…Continue Reading

Pope-emeritus Benedict XVI Remembers Bl. John Paul II

March 7, 2014 Pope Francis Comments Off on Pope-emeritus Benedict XVI Remembers Bl. John Paul II

2014-03-07 Vatican Radio  (Vatican Radio) Pope-emeritus Benedict XVI has granted a lengthy interview on the topic of his years with Blessed John Paul II. The interview appears as the first in an Italian-language collection titled: Accanto a Giovanni Paolo II. Gli amici & I collaborator raccontano. Published by the Italian Edizioni Ares press, and in stores now, the volume features recollections by more than a dozen of the soon-to-be canonized Pope’s friends and closest collaborators, including: Bl. John Paul II’s secretaries, Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, Archbishop Emery Kabongo and Archbishop  Mieczyslaw Mokrzycki; the former Director of the Press Office of the Holy See, Joaquin Navarro-Valls; the Blessed Pope’s life-long friend, Wanda Poltawska; the postulator of his Cause for Sainthood, Fr. Slawomir…Continue Reading

Pope Francis: there is no “Christian style” without Jesus or the Cross

March 7, 2014 Pope Francis Comments Off on Pope Francis: there is no “Christian style” without Jesus or the Cross

2014-03-06 Vatican Radio  (Vatican Radio) Humility, meekness, generosity: this is the Christian “style,” a way of life that travels along the way the Cross, as Jesus did, and is a life that leads to joy. That was the message of Pope Francis in his homily on Thursday during the Mass at Santa Marta. In the Gospel for the Thursday after Ash Wednesday, Jesus says to His disciples: “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” This, the Pope emphasized, is the “Christian style,” because it was first put into practice by Jesus: “We can’t think of the Christian life apart from this path. There is always this journey,…Continue Reading

Pope Audience: Lent A Time For Penance And Charity

March 6, 2014 Pope Francis Comments Off on Pope Audience: Lent A Time For Penance And Charity

2014-03-05 Vatican Radio (Vatican Radio) In his General Audience on Wednesday, Pope Francis spoke about the importance of Lent as a time for each of us “to promote change and conversion” in our lives. Lent, the Pope said, should help us to get out of “the tired habits and lazy addictions to evil that deceive us.” During this season, we are invited us to be more keenly aware “of the redemptive work of Christ,” and “to live out our Baptism with greater commitment.” It was a theme taken up in the English-language summary of the Pope’s remarks: “In these days the Church asks us to ponder with joy and gratitude God’s immense love revealed in the paschal mystery and to…Continue Reading

Pope Audience: Lent a Time for Penance and Charity

March 5, 2014 Pope Francis Comments Off on Pope Audience: Lent a Time for Penance and Charity

2014-03-05 Vatican Radio (Vatican Radio) Below, please find the English language summary of Pope Francis’ catechesis at his weekly General Audience, with the Holy Father’s greetings for English-speaking pilgrims: Today, Ash Wednesday, begins our Lenten journey of penance, prayer and conversion in preparation for the Church’s annual celebration of the saving mysteries of Christ’s passion, death and resurrection. In these days the Church asks us to ponder with joy and gratitude God’s immense love revealed in the paschal mystery and to live ever more fully the new life we have received in Baptism. This journey of spiritual renewal in the footsteps of Christ also calls us to acknowledge and respond to the growing spiritual and material poverty in our midst.…Continue Reading

Pope Francis: There Are Christians Nowadays Condemned For Having A Bible

March 4, 2014 Pope Francis Comments Off on Pope Francis: There Are Christians Nowadays Condemned For Having A Bible

2014-03-04 Vatican Radio (Vatican Radio) The persecution of Christians in contemporary society was the focus of Pope Francis’ homily at his Mass on Tuesday morning in the Santa Marta residence. He warned that the Cross is always on the road of a Christian, saying there are more Christian martyrs today than during the early days of the Church. In his homily, the Pope took as his cue the biblical account of where Peter asked Jesus what the disciples would receive in return for following him. He said Peter probably thought that following Jesus would be a great commercial activity because Jesus is generous but, as Christ warned, whatever they would gain would always be accompanied by persecutions. “It’s as if…Continue Reading

Pope Francis: Pray For Vocations

March 3, 2014 Pope Francis Comments Off on Pope Francis: Pray For Vocations

2014-03-03 Vatican Radio (Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Monday asked the faithful to pray for vocations, so that God may send priests and nuns whose hearts are for Him only; free from the idolatry of vanity, of power and of wealth. Speaing at morning Mass at Casa Santa Marta, Pope Francis took his cue from the Gospel reading of day which tells of a rich man who ran up to Jesus, knelt down before him, and asked him what he should do to inherit eternal life. This man – the Pope said – really wanted to hear what Jesus had to say. “He was a good man, a man who had observed the commandments from his youth, but this was…Continue Reading