Category: +PopeFrancis

The Weekly Francis – 13 October 2013

pope-francis2This version of The Weekly Francis covers material released in the last week from 30 September to 13 October 2013.

Angelus

General Audiences

Homilies

Messages

Speeches

Daily Homilies (fervorinos)

Papal Tweets

  • “Mercy is the true power that can save humanity and the world from sin and evil.” @pontifex, 7 October 2013
  • “The secret of Christian living is love. Only love fills the empty spaces caused by evil.” @pontifex, 8 October 2013
  • “The mystery of the Cross, a mystery of love, can only be understood in prayer. Pray and weep, kneeling before the Cross.” @pontifex, 10 October 2013
  • “When we encounter the Cross, we turn to Mary: Give us the strength, Mary our Mother, to accept and embrace the Cross!” @pontifex, 11 October 2013
  • “Lord, have mercy! Too often we are blinded by our comfortable lives, and refuse to see those dying at our doorstep. #Lampedusa” @pontifex, 12 October 2013

Note 1: This interview was not recorded and was written from memory by Eugenio Scalfari afterwards. There are some questions about the details related as noted by Cardinal Dolan. See this article for additional information.

The Weekly Francis – 6 October 2013

PopeFrancis-fingerThis version of The Weekly Francis covers material released in the last week from 13 September to 5 October 2013.

Angelus

General Audiences

Homilies

Letters

Speeches

Daily Homilies (fervorinos)

Papal Tweets

  • “Where we find hate and darkness, may we bring love and hope, in order to give a more human face to society.” @pontifex, 30 September 2013
  • “Do we truly pray? Without an abiding relationship with God, it is difficult to live an authentic and consistent Christian life.” @pontifex, 1 October 2013
  • “Dear young people, you have many plans and dreams for the future. But, is Christ at the center of each of your plans and dreams?” @pontifex, 5 October 2013

The Weekly Francis – 29 September 2013

pope_francis_mass_20130314124558_640_480This version of The Weekly Francis covers material released in the last week from 5 August to 29 September 2013.

Angelus

General Audience

Homilies

Letters

Messages

Speeches

Daily Homilies (fervorinos)

Papal Tweets

The Weekly Francis – 22 September 2013

pope_francis_mass_20130314124558_640_480This version of The Weekly Francis covers material released in the last week from 11 August to 21 September 2013.

Angelus

General Audiences

Letters

Speeches

Daily Homilies

Other

Papal Tweets

  • “There are many people in need in today’s world. Am I self-absorbed in my own concerns or am I aware of those who need help?” @pontifex, 17 September 2013
  • “We are all sinners, but we experience the joy of God’s forgiveness and we walk forward trusting in his mercy.” @pontifex, 19 September 2013
  • “Christ is always faithful. Let us pray to be always faithful to him.” @pontifex, 20 September 2013
  • “True charity requires courage: let us overcome the fear of getting our hands dirty so as to help those in need.” @pontifex, 21 September 2013

The Weekly Francis – 15 September 2013

pope-francis2This version of The Weekly Francis covers material released in the last week from 22 August to 15 September 2013.

Angelus

General Audiences

Homilies

Messages

Daily Homilies

Papal Tweets

Is Pope Francis about to eliminate celibacy? (9 things to know and share)

Do recent remarks by Pope Francis's new secretary of state mean that the Church is about to eliminate celibacy?
Do recent remarks by Pope Francis’s new secretary of state mean that the Church is about to eliminate celibacy?

The mainstream media is all atwitter made by Pope Francis’s incoming secretary of state about the possibility of eliminating clerical celibacy.

Is this a sign of things to come?

Is this yet another indication of Pope Francis “breaking with tradition”?

Is this an indication the mind of Pope Francis himself?

Is it a major new development?

Or is it just the press hyperventilating because they have no idea what they’re talking about?

Here are 9 things to know and share . . .

 

1) Who made the remarks?

That would be Archbishop Pietro Parolin, who is set to replace Cardinal Tarciscio Berone as the head of the Vatican’s Secretariat of State.

He currently lives in Caracas, Venezuela, where he has been serving as papal nuncio (ambassador) to Venezuela.

More info on him here.

 

2) Where did he make his remarks?

He make his comments in an interview with the Venezuelan paper El Universal.

Apparently, it was an interview in anticipation of his leaving his role as the apostolic nuncio and going back to Rome to become Secretary of State.

Here’s a link to the full interview on video, in Spanish.

 

3) What did he actually say?

Apparently, in his discussion with the interviewer, the following exchange occurred:

Aren’t there two types of dogmas? Aren’t there unmovable dogmas that were instituted by Jesus and then there are those that came afterwards, during the course of the church’s history, created by men and therefore susceptible to change?

Certainly. There are dogmas that are defined and untouchable.

Celibacy is not —

It is not a church dogma and it can be discussed because it is a church tradition.

That’s what set the secular media off into paroxysms—the statement that the discipline “can be discussed.”

 

4) Did he say anything else on the question?

KEEP READING.

The Weekly Francis – 8 September 2013

pope-francis2This version of The Weekly Francis covers material released in the last week from 24 July to 7 September 2013.

Homilies

Letters

Speeches

Daily Homilies (fervorinos)

Papal Tweets

The Weekly Francis – 2 September 2013

popefrancisThis version of The Weekly Francis covers material released in the last week from 21 August to 2 September 2013.

Angelus

Daily Homilies (fervorinos)

Speeches

Papal Tweets

Note: Due to problems with using copyrighted material from the Vatican the eBook version of The Weekly Francis has been suspended. For users of the previous ebook volume I have some suggestions for alternatives on how to best read these documents especially on mobile platforms.

What should we make of Pope Francis bowing when greeting people?

popequeen_2657382bWord is racing around the Catholic blogosphere that Pope Francis recently bowed to Queen Rania of Jordan.

Is this yet another stunning break with tradition on the part of Pope Francis?

Has he overturned 2,000 years of tradition?

Is this one of the signs of the apocalypse?

Is it no big deal?

Let’s look at the question . . .

 

According to the Telegraph

At the root of the current gbuzz is a story published by the British newspaper/website The Tablet.

It has the provocative headline:

Pope breaks with protocol by bowing to Queen Rania of Jordan

And it immediately says:

The Pope has broken yet another point of Vatican protocol by bowing when he met Queen Rania of Jordan.

You can see how they’re fitting this into the pre-existing narrative of Francis-the-iconoclast (“broken yet another point”).

It goes on to say:

As head of state at the Vatican, not to mention the leader of the world’s 1.2 billion catholics, protocol requires visitors to bow to him when they meet him at the Holy See.

But Francis, who has made the forgetting of formalities a trademark of his papacy, bowed when he met a smiling Rania as she visited the Vatican with her husband King Abdullah II on Thursday.

Okay, wait.

The first paragraph tells us that other people are supposed to bow to him. It doesn’t say anything about whether popes ever bow back.

One might suppose that they wouldn’t, at least historically . . .

“Up until the 19th century visitors would kiss the pope’s shoes, and the tradition is still that all visitors, women included, bow to him, but Francis behaves as he did before he became pope and is not interested in protocol,” a senior Vatican official told The Daily Telegraph.

Great. Now we have an unnamed Vatican official involved. Off-the-cuff remarks from them are always helpful in sorting out a news story. (Sigh.)

The bit about kissing the pope’s shoes “up until the 19th century” is interesting, but where does it say that popes don’t ever bow to people these days?

KEEP READING. 

 

The Weekly Francis – 25 August 2013

pope-francisThis version of The Weekly Francis covers material released in the last week from 7 August to 25 August 2013.

Angelus

Messages

Motu Proprio

Speeches

Papal Tweets

  • “We cannot be Christians part-time. If Christ is at the center of our lives, he is present in all that we do.” @pontifex, 19 August 2013
  • “An excellent program for our lives: the Beatitudes and Matthew Chapter 25.” @pontifex, 21 August 2013
  • “Lord, teach us to step outside ourselves. Teach us to go out into the streets and manifest your love.” @pontifex, 23 August 2013
  • “Don’t be afraid to ask God for forgiveness. He never tires of forgiving us. God is pure mercy.” @pontifex, 25 August 2013

Other Documents

Note: Due to problems with using copyrighted material from the Vatican the eBook version of The Weekly Francis has been suspended. For users of the previous ebook volume I have some suggestions for alternatives on how to best read these documents especially on mobile platforms.