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Young people are the living hope of a missionary church, pope says

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Young people need to understand how much Christ loves them unconditionally and how much the church needs their voices and presence, Pope Francis said.

"Dear young people, you are the living hope of a Church on the move! For this reason, I thank you for your presence and for your contribution to the life of the Body of Christ," the pope told the world's young people in a written message.

The pope's message was released by the Vatican March 25 to mark the fifth anniversary of his apostolic exhortation "Christus Vivit" ("Christ is Alive"), published in 2019 and reflecting on the 2018 Synod of Bishops on young people, the faith and vocational discernment.

Pope Francis said he wanted to reach out again to young people with a message that could be "a source of renewed hope for you."

Christ is alive, he said in his message, and "his love for you is unaffected by your failings or your mistakes. He gave his life for you, so in his love for you he does not wait for you to be perfect."

"Walk with him as with a friend, welcome him into your life and let him share all the joys and hopes, the problems and struggles of this time in your lives," the pope wrote. "You will see that the path ahead will become clearer and that your difficulties will be much less burdensome, because he will be carrying them with you."

Pope Francis at World Youth Day 2023
Pope Francis, accompanied by an international group of World Youth Day pilgrims, waves to the crowd before beginning the WYD prayer vigil at Tejo Park in Lisbon, Portugal, Aug. 5, 2023. (CNS photo/Lola Gomez)

"In today's world, marked by so many conflicts and so much suffering, I suspect that many of you feel disheartened. So together with you, I would like to set out from the proclamation that is the basis of our hope and that of all humanity: 'Christ is alive!'" he wrote, and "he loves you with an infinite love."

"How greatly I want this proclamation to reach every one of you, for you to accept it as living and true in your own lives, and feel the desire to share it with your friends!" the pope wrote.

Pope Francis noted that April 14 will mark the 40th anniversary of the first great gathering of young people that, during St. John Paul II's Holy Year of the Redemption, "was the seed of the future World Youth Days."

Pope Francis recalled his first World Youth Day as pope in Rio de Janeiro in 2013, and how "I urged you to make your voices heard! 'Hagan lio!' Make a mess!"

"Today, once again, I ask you: make your voices heard! Proclaim, not so much in words but by your life and your heart, the truth that Christ is alive! And in this way, help the whole Church to get up and set out ever anew to bring his message to the entire world," he wrote.

He encouraged young people to never "leave us without your good way of 'making a mess,' your drive, like that of a clean and well-tuned engine, and your own particular way of living and proclaiming the joy of the risen Jesus!"

 

On Palm Sunday, pope prays people open hearts to God, quell all hatred

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Only Jesus can deliver humanity from hatred and violence, Pope Francis said on Palm Sunday.
 
"Jesus entered Jerusalem as a humble and peaceful king," he said in brief remarks after celebrating Palm Sunday Mass in St. Peter's Square. He prayed that the faithful would open their hearts to the Lord because he alone "can deliver us from animosity, hatred, violence, because he is mercy and the forgiveness of sins."

On a sunny and windy day, about 60,000 people attended the Mass March 24, which began with a solemn procession of hundreds of people carrying green palm branches followed by about 60 cardinals and bishops, carrying "palmurelli," pale green palm branches that were woven and braided. 

palm sunday
Prelates carry palm fronds in procession as Pope Francis looks on at the start of the celebration of Palm Sunday Mass in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican March 24, 2024. (CNS photo/Lola Gomez)

Dressed in red vestments, the color of the Passion, Pope Francis presided over the Mass, the solemn beginning of Holy Week, but he skipped the homily and did not have an aide read any prepared remarks. Cardinal Claudio Gugerotti, prefect of the Dicastery for Eastern Churches, was the main celebrant at the altar.

The Vatican offered no explanation about why there was no homily. The pope did read brief remarks after praying the Angelus, greeted the cardinals in attendance from his wheelchair, and he rode in the popemobile for about 15 minutes enthusiastically greeting the faithful, waving, gesturing, offering a thumbs up and occasionally calling out remarks to those he saw. 

In his brief remarks, he expressed his sorrow over a deadly attack in Moscow March 22 in which more than 130 people were killed inside a crowded concert venue.

He prayed for the victims of this "cowardly terrorist attack" and called for the conversion of the "hearts of those who plan, organize and carry out these inhumane actions that offend God, who commanded, 'Thou shalt not kill.'"

The pope extended his prayers to all people who suffer because of war, particularly those in Ukraine, "where so many people find themselves without electricity because of intense attacks against the infrastructure that, in addition to causing death and suffering, carry the risk of an even larger humanitarian catastrophe." 

He also asked people not to forget about the people of Gaza who "are suffering so much" and the many other places experiencing war.

Pope: Pray for war-torn regions this Holy Week

Pope: Pray for war-torn regions this Holy Week

A look at Pope Francis' Palm Sunday.

U.S. Bishops’ President and Chairman of International Justice and Peace Issue Holy Week Call to Prayer for an End to the Israel-Hamas War

WASHINGTON – Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio of the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA, and president of the U.S. Conference of Bishops (USCCB), and Bishop A. Elias Zaidan of the Maronite Eparchy of Our Lady of Lebanon, the chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on International Justice and Peace call on the faithful to renew their prayers during Holy Week for an end to the Israel-Hamas war.

“As the Church enters Holy Week and Christ’s suffering on the cross and his resurrection are made present to us so vividly, we are connected to the very source of hope. It is that hope that spurs us to call on Catholics here in the United States and all those of good will to renew their prayers for an end to the raging Israel-Hamas war.

“Thousands of innocent people have died in this conflict, and thousands more have been displaced and face tremendous suffering. This must stop. As the Holy Father recently said, ‘One cannot move forward in war. We must make every effort to negotiate, to negotiate, to end the war.’ To move forward, a cease fire and a permanent cessation of war and violence is absolutely necessary. To move forward, those held hostage must be released and civilians must be protected. To move forward, humanitarian aid must reach those who are in such dire need.  

“As Christians, we are rooted in the hope of the resurrection, and so we pray for a just and lasting peace in the Holy Land.”  

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Discernment is essential to discipleship, papal preacher says

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The Holy Spirit is like a line prompter at a theater, behind the scenes and constantly whispering to Christians the words of Jesus, said the preacher of the papal household.

"However, he does not mechanically suggest the words of the Gospel, like from a script, but explains them, adapts them and applies them to specific situations," Cardinal Raniero Cantalamessa told Pope Francis, cardinals and members of the Roman Curia.

Concluding his series of Friday Lenten meditations March 22, Cardinal Cantalamessa insisted that listening to the Holy Spirit and discerning what the Spirit is saying to individuals and to the church at large is an exercise essential to following Jesus.

"We don't start out knowing the concrete path of holiness God wants for each of us," he said. "God reveals it step by step, so it is not enough to have a well-crafted plan and then follow it. There is no model of perfection that is identical for everyone."

God does not produce saints with a cookie cutter -- "God does not like cloning," he said. "Every saint is an original invention of the Spirit."

Faith, for a Christian, is not just a belief or even a feeling of love for the Lord, the cardinal said, it is a call to follow Jesus concretely in the way one lives and shares in the mission of the church.

And that, too, is different for each person, he said.

Cardinal Cantalamessa leads Lenten meditation
Cardinal Raniero Cantalamessa, preacher of the papal household, gives a Lenten meditation to Pope Francis, cardinals, members of the Roman Curia and Vatican employees in the Paul VI Audience Hall at the Vatican March 22, 2024. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)

A person comes to understand their unique call through prayer, meditating on Scripture, speaking with a spiritual guide and following the teaching of the church, he said. But especially important are the promptings and inspiration of the Holy Spirit, which also give the person "the necessary strength and often the joy to accomplish it if the person consents."

Of course, Cardinal Cantalamessa said, understanding that call requires discernment, which is not as easy as judging something as good or bad.

"The most delicate problem about inspirations has always been to discern those that come from the Spirit of God from those that come from the spirit of the world or from your own passions or from the evil spirit," he said.

Jesus told his disciples that a true or false prophecy can be judged by the fruit it produces, the cardinal said, which is a helpful thing to keep in mind as the universal church continues to grow in the process of synodality and its encouragement to listen and pray together to discover the promptings of the Holy Spirit for sharing the Gospel today.

"In the moral field," Cardinal Cantalamessa said, "a fundamental criterion is the Spirit's coherence with itself. One cannot ask for something that is contrary to divine will as expressed in the Scriptures, in the teaching of the church and in the obligations of one's own state in life. A divine inspiration will never ask one to do something the church considers immoral."

"The flesh," he said, tries to make its own arguments and sometimes they sound good, "for example, that God is love and everything that is done for love is from God."

St. Ignatius of Loyola taught that "what comes from the Spirit of God brings with it joy, peace, tranquility, sweetness, simplicity, light. What comes from the spirit of evil, instead, brings with it disturbance, agitation, anxiety, confusion, darkness," he said.

"But it is true that in practice things are more complex," he said. "Inspiration can come from God, and despite that, cause great disturbance. But this is not due to the inspiration, which is sweet and peaceful like everything that comes from God. Rather it is born from resistance to the inspiration or from the fact that we are not ready to do what we are asked to do."

However, he said, "if inspiration is accepted, the heart will soon find itself in a deep peace. God rewards every little victory in this area by making the soul feel its approval, which is the most beautiful thing, the purest joy that exists in this world."

 

Pope urges the church to see the face of Christ in migrants

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The Catholic Church can draw closer to Jesus by accompanying migrants in their pursuit of a better life, Pope Francis said.

In the faces of migrants, the church "discovers the face of Christ," he wrote, and like St. Veronica who offered a cloth to wipe Jesus' face during his passion, the church "brings relief and hope on the 'Way of the Cross' of migration."

The pope wrote his comments in a letter March 21 to participants at a meeting between bishops, church officials and migrants in Lajas Blancas, Panama, near the Darién Gap jungle crossed by thousands of migrants each day. The meeting took place during a three-day conference organized by the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development for bishops from Colombia, Costa Rica and Panama to discuss accompanying migrants.

Migrant brothers and sisters "represent the suffering flesh of Christ" since they are "forced to leave their land, to face the risks and tribulations of a hard road without finding another way out," Pope Francis wrote in his message to the group.

Bishops and other members of the church who support migrants "are the face of a mother church that walks with her sons and daughters," he wrote.

Pope Francis at his weekly general audience
Pope Francis makes brief remarks at the end of his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican March 20, 2024. (CNS photo/Lola Gomez)

Pope Francis urged the migrants to "never forget about your human dignity," and encouraged them to "not be afraid to look others in the eye, because you are not discarded, but you form part of the human family and the family of God's children."

"I also am the son of migrants who left in search of a better future," the pope told them, referencing his upbringing in Buenos Aires, Argentina, as the child of Italian immigrants. "There were times when they were left with nothing, even starving, with their hands empty but their hearts full of hope."

The meeting of church officials and migrants took place outside of the Darién Gap jungle that straddles the Panama-Colombia border. Record numbers of migrants have risked their lives to cross the Darién Gap in recent months, subjected to rampant extortion, physical abuse and sexual violence by criminal gangs. More than 500,000 people crossed the gap in 2023, according to data published by the Panamanian government.

In a message to the bishops a day earlier, Pope Francis had written that the church's pastors must break free from indifference in addressing the crisis of forced migration across the Americas and that every migrant challenges Christians to embrace a spirit of hospitality.

 

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