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Pope Francis on Saturday appointed  a new Apostolic Nuncio to India and Nepal. Italian Archbishop ‎Giambattista Diquattro, the Apostolic Nuncio to Bolivia, will now be the Holy See’s ambassador to ‎India and Nepal.  The 62-year-old prelate takes over from Archbishop Salvatore Pennacchio, whom ‎Pope Francis transferred to Poland as Apostolic Nuncio in August last year.   The Apostolic Nunciature ‎to India and Nepal is based in the Indian capital New Delhi.  ‎
Born in Bologna 1954, Arch. Diquattro was ordained a priest for Ragusa Diocese in 1981.  He was ‎appointed Apostolic Nuncio to Panama in April, 2005 and was ordained a bishop two months later.  He ‎was transferred to Bolivia as Apostolic Nuncio in November, 2008, where he has served until now.‎

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Pope Francis on 21 January authorized the promulgation of 8 decrees, recognizing a miracle and heroic ‎virtues of 7 men and a woman, taking them a step closer to sainthood.  Among the 7 heroic ‎virtues, who have now been conferred the title 'Venerable Servant of God', is Fr. Francesco Convertini an Italian Salesian priest who went to India as a missionary and died ‎in Krishnagar, in 1976. 

Fr. Convertini was born in the Papariello district of Locorotondo (Bari) on 29 August 1898.  He was called ‎up for military service during World War I. He was wounded, taken prisoner and transported to Poland. ‎When he returned home he said "yes" to the Lord's call that he had discerned through the mediation of ‎Fr Angelo Amadei and the Cagliero community in Ivrea.‎

He set out from Genoa to India after receiving the Missionary Crucifix from the hands of Blessed Fr ‎Philip Rinaldi, the third successor of Don Bosco.  After reaching Assam, India, in December 1927, he was became a novice of Venerable Stephen Ferrando and a disciple of Archbishop Louis ‎Mathias and the Servant of God Fr Constantine Vendrame, and was distinguished for his exceptional ‎apostolic zeal.  

He was ordained a priest in June 1935 and ‎posted to the poor Diocese of ‎Krishnagar, in Bengal, where he spent the rest of his life. He visited his homeland, Italy, twice and remained deeply scandalized with the bread that went wasted in the garbage bin, while the numerous children he was caring for in Krishnagar, were dying of hunger.  In rural Bengal, he made a huge number of friends and spiritual ‎children, both ignorant and learned, rich and poor.  He was the only missionary who could enter a ‎house of Hindus or Muslims. He went continually from village to village, on horseback, by bicycle or ‎better on foot with nothing but his backpack.  This way, he could meet many people and talk to them ‎about Christ.‎  He gave himself to all to all equally: Muslims, Hindus and Christians.  He is attributed with many miraculous events.  

Fr Convertini was not a man of theory.  He was very practical and was able to branch out in many ‎directions with the values and ideals of the Gospel. He understood mercy not as a vague sentimental ‎emotion but in the concrete practice of all the corporal and spiritual works of mercy.‎ Throughout his life he was able to accept others and meet people with his heart, goodness and ‎humanity. He was loved by all and revered as a ‎master of interior life with the wisdom of heart that he possessed in abundance. He was devoted to the ‎Blessed Virgin and died on 11 February 1976 murmuring: "My Mother, I have never displeased you in ‎all my life. Help me now!"‎  He is buried in the cathedral ground of Krishnagar Diocese. 

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(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Saturday celebrated Mass at the Cathedral Archbasilica of St John Lateran for the conclusion of the Jubilee for the 800th anniversary of the papal confirmation of the Order of Preachers – the Dominicans.

In his homily, the Holy Father contrasted two opposed “human scenarios”: a “‘carnival’ of worldly curiosity, on the one hand; and on the other, the “glorification of the Father through good works.”

Saint Paul, in the Letter to Timothy, warns against the worldly curiosity that sees men and women, with “itching ears,” always seeking after new teachers, “fables,” strange doctrines, ideologies. The very human tendency to seek novelties, the Pope said, “finds the ideal environment in the society of appearances, of consumption… Even the truth is “made-up”, covered with cosmetics to appear novel and attractive.

Against this worldly “carnival” atmosphere stands the opposite scenario, found in the words of the Jesus in the Gospel: “that they may glorify your heavenly Father.” The passage from a pseudo-festive superficiality to glorification comes about “through the good works of those who, having become disciples of Christ, are become “salt” and “light.”

This, the Pope said, “is the response of Jesus and of the Church, this is the solid support in the midst of a ‘fluid’ environment: good works, which we are able to accomplish thanks to Christ and His Holy Spirit, and which cause to rise up in the heart thanksgiving to the Father, and praise.

Today, Pope Francis said, concluding his homily, “we give thanks to the Father for the work that Saint Dominic, full of the light and the salt of Christ, accomplished 800 years ago; a work at the service of the Gospel, preached with words and with his life; a work that, with the grace of the Holy Spirit, has helped so many men and women to not lose themselves in the midst of the ‘carnival’ of worldly curiosity, but rather sense the taste of sound doctrine, the taste of the Gospel; who, in their turn, have become light and salt, doers of good works… and true brothers and sisters who glorify God, and teach others to glorify God, by the good works of their lives. 

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Madrid, Spain, Jan 21, 2017 / 06:08 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The prison ministry founded by a Spanish Jesuit in the 1960s has had such fruits as a group of inmates donating their own money to help the needy at Christmas, according to the head of the foundation.

At Christmas of 2015, a group of prisoners in the Estremera prison in Madrid did their own food drive to buy non-perishable food with their own money from the prison store, Lola Navarro, president of the Father Garralda-Horizontes Abiertos Foundation, told CNA.

“All the prisoners who participated agreed to deliver the more than 220 pounds of food to the Fr. Garralda Foundation to help those they were thinking of, because they knew that there are people who needed it more than they did.”

Helping prisoners rebuild their lives, overcome addictions, and re-enter the workforce is a challenge that the Father Garralda-Horizontes Abiertos Foundation has been working toward for 40 years.

Navarro said Fr. Jaime Garralda began to work with prisoners and now serves, through his foundation, more than 200 people in prison, halfway homes for parolees, and with workshops on re-entering the workforce.

“Fr. Jaime Garralda, S.J., lived for 16 years in in a shanty town during the '60s. Many women there wanted to visit their husbands or children who were in prison. Fr. Garralda and some volunteers began to accompany them and began a social action work in the prisons, also addressing all those realities related to the prisons,” Navarro explained.

“We also have the figure of the 'volunteer resident', or prisoners who are at the end of their sentence who help others in the prison achieve their goals so they can set out on an itinerary so their stay in the prison is as bearable as possible.”

She pointed out how this is “beautiful, because that person sees that you have helped them and now they're the ones who get involved with the other prisoners to give back what was given to them, and the horizons that were opened up for them.”

The foundation has a rehabilitation center for prisoners who are addicted to drugs where more than 100 people live, with floors for HIV patients,  and they vouch for prisoners who meet certain requirements so they can request a supervised leave.

“We call this assistance “toward freedom”  because family members or friends need to give guarantees to ensure that the prisoner's leave from prison meets some minimum conditions and also that he will return when his permission to leave expires. We vouch for certain people who have no one to turn to and we help make this transition as good as possible,” Navarro said.

She commented that her favorite program is one they do for the children of mothers who are in prison: “We organize camps for the children, outings with the mothers, workshops to lessen the prejudices created by prison, and we help mothers and children have a little more of a normal life, at least for a few days.”

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Vatican City, Jan 21, 2017 / 09:45 am (CNA/EWTN News).- In his annual speech to the Holy See's main court on Saturday, Pope Francis stressed the pressing need for effective education and preparation for the sacrament of marriage – not only to guard against invalid marriages, but also to strengthen the faith of the couple as they prepare for the unique blessings and challenges of married life.

“The goal of this preparation consists, namely, in helping engaged couples to know and to live the reality of marriage as it is intended to be celebrated, so that it is possible to do so not only validly and lawfully, but also fruitfully, so that they are able to make this celebration a stage of their journey of faith,” Pope Francis said.

“In this spirit, I would reiterate the need for a 'new catechumenate' in preparation for marriage,” he said in his Jan. 21 address to the judges of the Roman Rota at the Vatican's Clementine Hall.

“Welcoming the guidance of the Fathers of the last Ordinary Synod, it is urgent to implement effectively what has already been proposed in Familiaris Consortio (no. 66),” he said.

“That is, as for the baptism of adults the catechumenate is part of the sacramental process, so the preparation for marriage must become an integral part of all sacramental marriage procedure, as an antidote that prevents the increase of invalid or tenuous marriage celebrations.”

The Pope delivers a speech to the members of the Rota, a court of higher instance at the Holy See, each January to inaugurate the court's judicial year.

In this year’s speech, Francis noted that the breakdown of faith, religious values, and belief in eternal truths, particularly regarding the family, has become widespread even among Christians, which can impact the awareness and consent with which people enter into the sacrament.

At the same time, the different backgrounds and experiences of faith of those seeking Christian marriage cannot be ignored, he said. “Some participate actively in parish life; others will come for the first time; some also have a life of intense prayer; others are, however, driven by a more generic religious sentiment.”

“Faced with this situation, we need to find valid remedies,” the Pope emphasized.

The first remedy he proposed is the training of young people: “through an adequate process of preparation aimed to rediscover marriage and the family according to God’s plan,” he said.

The meetings between a priest and an engaged couple are, of course, a fundamental and important part of their preparation. But more than that, Francis said, the period of a couple’s engagement becomes “an extraordinary opportunity for mission” for the “whole community.”

“The Christian community to which the engaged turn is called to cordially announce the Gospel to these people, because their experience of love can become a sacrament, an effective sign of salvation. In this circumstance, the redemptive mission of Jesus reaches the men and women in the concreteness of their love life.”

For many young people, the approach of marriage with all of the changes involved, can be a period of increased openness to a renewal of faith and encounter with “Jesus Christ, with the message of the Gospel and the Church’s doctrine,” the Pope said.

In this regard, teaching the truth about marriage and love becomes extremely important, Francis reminded the judges.

He quoted from Benedict XVI’s last speech to the Rota on Jan. 26, 2013, in which he said that “only in being open to the truth of God [...] is it possible to understand, and to achieve in the concreteness of life, even marriage and family, the truth of man…”

“The rejection of the divine proposal,” Benedict said, “in fact leads to a profound imbalance in all human relationships [...], including the matrimonial one.”

Pope Francis went on to quote from Lumen fidei, his first encyclical, which says that “Love needs truth. Just as it is based on truth, love can last in time, overcome the ephemeral moment and stand firm to support a common path.”

“If love has no relationship to the truth, it is subject to the changing feelings and does not pass the test of time,” Lumen fidei continues. “True love instead unifies all the elements of our person and becomes a new light towards a great and full life.”

From this perspective, another vital aspect of building up the truth of marriage is in continuing to support and strengthen couples even after the wedding, Francis said.

“You need to identify with courage and creativity, a training project for young married couples, with initiatives aimed at increasing awareness of the sacrament received.”

Often, he said, a young couple is left to themselves, perhaps because they are not even seen in the parish, or the birth of children keeps them busy, “but it is in these first moments of family life they must be guaranteed greater proximity and a strong spiritual support.”

“The Christian community is called to welcome, accompany and help young couples,” by offering them opportunities and tools, aside from just Sunday Mass, he said, including programs for within the parish and within the home.

The Pope concluded his speech by wishing the judges a good new year, reminding them that “it requires great courage to get married in the time in which we live. And the many who have the strength and the joy of making this important step should feel next to them the love and concrete closeness of the Church.”

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