Catholic News 2

The Pan African Congress on Divine Mercy has closed Wednesday in the Rwandese town of Kabuga at the Shrine of Divine Mercy with a Mass presided over by the Special Envoy of Pope Francis to the Congress, Cardinal Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya. The Triumph of the Cross Mass concluded with a solemn act of consecration of the African continent to the Divine Mercy. Radio Vatican’s Africa Service examines what this act of consecration means for Africa, its people and the world as a whole? Why did the organisers find it fitting to consecrate Africa in Rwanda?

Rwanda is evidently the country with fresh memories of human destruction through the genocide of 1994. Having a consecration in Rwanda, a country with the sad tale of genocide sends a clear message and is a call for the recruitment of the values of the mercy which the Church is celebrating during this Jubilee Year.

The Church differentiates consecration from a blessing. Consecration is more than a blessing. Consecration raises persons or things to a permanent state. So the consecration which took place Wednesday in Africa is more than a blessing of the continent.

Africa through this act of consecration is pledging not to be used as a ground for hate. There will be no more hate speech; there will be an end to conflict, violence and wars for which the continent has had more than its fair share. Africa wishes from this point forward to become the ground for forgiveness, respect and love. With this consecration, Africa seeks to become a home of the mercy of God. Africa has to proclaim the mercy of God forever. It has been chosen, separated, sanctified and now devoted to the Divine Mercy. In this way, the Church and indeed all the people of Africa are called to preach mercy to one another and to live mercy in their daily lives.

Post-colonial Africa continues to grapple with issues of conflict, forgiveness and reconciliation. Sometimes we look at the Rwandan genocide and think that what happened there can never happen again. The truth is that we still see countries in Africa struggling with tribal, regional and political conflict (yes, sometimes of low intensity but real nonetheless).  Unscrupulous African politicians, in particular, continue to divide God’s people on the basis of region and tribe. It is these kinds of divisions that become the seeds of terrible future atrocities.

The African Congress, through this act consecration of Africa to the Divine Mercy, is thus sending a pastoral message and testimony to the nations of Africa: The Church knows the horrors of Africa and this act speaks volumes about that knowledge. It is saying Africa belongs to God and therefore we consecrate it to God, and it must be regarded a land of mercy; a land where people can live together in peace and freedom.

Under the continental Apostolic Congress’ theme, “Divine Mercy source of hope for the new evangelisation in Africa,” the Church is at the forefront in encouraging forgiveness, healing and reconciliation. This is the same message that the Second African Synod tried to foster in 2009 when the African Church pledged to be at the service of reconciliation.

Africa has new direction now. Africa must help its people come to terms with the message of this Jubilee Year of Mercy declared by Pope Francis. As Father Stanislas Filipek, the coordinator said in Rwanda recently, ‘God can fix it all. He can transform evil into good.’ God can transform our continent and change our hearts of stone, but we must be willing and cooperate with Him. This is what the story of God’s coming into our wounded nature and history is all about:  It's all about God fixing what is broken; it is all about God transforming evil into good.  At the moment of profound hopelessness, when we the people of Africa are afflicted with tragedy, with tribulation after tribulation, in that situation and in this moment we see God revealing Himself as a merciful Father through Jesus.

Africa must see God in this consecration. He was and is still intervening when everything seems lost and ruined. Let us give Him chance, and that chance starts with everyone in Africa. It starts with you: In your parish, in your family, embrace people who are different from you. Those who are from a different tribe or region are your brother and your sister.

(By Fr. Brian Nonde, CMM – Vatican Radio correspondent)

Email: engafrica@vatiradio.va

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Vatican City, Sep 14, 2016 / 10:30 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Rather than trusting in ultimately unimportant things, place your hope in Jesus and you will not grow weary on the path of discipleship, Pope Francis said Wednesday.

“Sometimes our fatigue is caused by having placed trust in things that are not essential, because we have moved away from what really counts in life,” the Pope told pilgrims at his general audience in St. Peter's square.

“The Lord teaches us not to be afraid to follow him, because the hope that we place in him will not be disappointed.”

In the Sept. 14 gathering, Pope Francis reflected on the passage in the Gospel of Matthew in which Jesus says, “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.”

“The invitation is in the imperative form: 'come to me,' 'take my yoke,' 'learn from me,'” Francis said.

“Dear brothers and sisters, for us there are moments of fatigue and disappointment. Then let us remember these words of the Lord, who gives us so much consolation and helps us to understand if we are putting our powers at the service of good,” he said.

By accepting the “yoke of Jesus,” disciples enter into communion with him and participate in the mysteries of the cross and salvation, the Pope said.

Speaking of the many Holy Doors designated around the world for this year's Jubilee of Mercy, Pope Francis asked why it is that so many pilgrims cross over the threshold of these “Doors of Mercy.” The reason is “to find Jesus, to find the friendship of Jesus, only to find the rest that Jesus gives,” he said.

We are called to learn from Jesus “what it means to live in mercy, to be instruments of mercy,” the Pope explained. “A life of mercy is to feel in need of the mercy of Jesus, and when we feel in need of forgiveness, of consolation, we learn to be merciful to others.”

We do not have a God who does not understand us, the Pope said. Jesus has carried all of our sorrows, all of our sins on his shoulders, giving us a chance at eternal life.

“He addresses the humble, the small, the poor, the needy because he himself has become small and humble. It includes the poor and the suffering because he himself is poor and tried by pain. Jesus to save humanity has not walked an easy road; on the contrary, his path was painful and difficult,” Pope Francis noted.

“This path expresses the conversion of every disciple who endeavors to follow Jesus. And the conversion is always to discover God's mercy. It is infinite and inexhaustible: great is the mercy of the Lord!” the Pope exclaimed.

When we keep our eyes fixed on the Son of God, as we should, it helps us to understand just how much further on the path we need to go, “but at the same time it gives us the joy of knowing that we are walking with him and we are never alone,” Francis said.

“Courage, then, courage! Let us not take away the joy of being disciples of the Lord.”

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Vatican City, Sep 14, 2016 / 11:09 am (Aid to the Church in Need).- On Wednesday Pope Francis said Fr. Jacques Hamel, who was killed by supporters of the Islamic State while saying Mass in July, “is blessed now,” according to Archbishop Dominique Lebrun of Rouen.

The Archdiocese plans, without a doubt, to open a process of beatification for Fr. Hamel, said Archbishop Lebrun, according to Religious Information Service.

Pope Francis' comments were made after he said Mass Sept. 14 at the Vatican in memory of Fr. Hamel. Archbishop Lebrun, Fr. Hamel's sister, and about 80 other pilgrims from Rouen were present.

Archbishop Lebrun, who was Fr. Hamel's bishop, asked the Pope if he would sign a photograph of the murdered priest for them to take to the three religious sisters who witnessed Fr. Hamel's murder, but were unable to travel to Rome for the Mass.

The archbishop was surprised when Pope Francis told him to put the photo on the altar before Mass, though. “This struck me,” he said.

“After he greeted everyone, he was signing the photo and told me: you can put this photo in the church because he (Fr. Hamel) is blessed now; and if someone tells you that you have no right, you tell them that the Pope has given you permission,” Archbishop Lebrun related at a press conference.

During the press conference, which also included Fr. Hamel's sister and a laywoman and layman from the Archdiocese of Rouen, Archbishop Lebrun was asked about a statement Pope Francis made in his homily that to kill “in the name of God is satanic.”

“I think that the murderers have accepted the influence of the devil, Satan. The murderers. It is only this,” Archbishop Lebrun clarified.

When Fr. Hamel uttered the words “be gone, Satan” immediately before his death, he “had already received stab wounds, was already on the ground,” Archbishop Lebrun noted. “Fr. Jacques could not think that these young people could be at the root of this evil. They are not the source of this evil.”

Asked about the psychological impact the event has had on the French faithful, the Archbishop said “there is fear, definitely.”

“A week ago I had a meeting with the vicars of the diocese and they have all told me that they receive calls from people who still wonder if there is Mass, if you can go, if there is some risk.”

Now there are more people attending Mass, though. “That makes me think of the words of Jesus that John Paul II has often stressed: Do not be afraid.”

“I do not think Jesus said it is stupid to be afraid, or there is no reason to be afraid,” he said. “No, Jesus said: Have the courage to be afraid.”

The archbishop said the Pope's words that morning on martyrdom have given them courage. “So yes, I would say that on a psychological level there is fear, but on a deeper level there is more courage.”

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Vienna, Austria, Sep 14, 2016 / 11:45 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Cardinal Christoph Schönborn has warned that Europe risks forfeiting its “Christian inheritance” and that an “Islamic conquest” could be in its future.  

Speaking in the Cathedral of Vienna on Sunday, Sept. 11, the Archbishop of Vienna referenced the feast day that commemorates the decisive victory of a Christian coalition over the Ottoman Empire in the Battle of Vienna in 1683.

“On this day, 333 years ago, Vienna was saved,” he said. “Will there now be a third attempt at an Islamic conquest of Europe? Many Muslims think so and long for it and say: This Europe is at an end.”

“And I think that we should ask for Europe what Moses does in the reading of today and what God the Merciful does for the younger son: Lord, give us another chance! Do not forget that we are your people just like Moses reminds Him: They are your people, You led them out, You sanctified them, they are your people.”

On Sept. 11, 1683, Polish King John Sobieski III and Supreme Commander of the Christian Coalition Army, led 18,000 horsemen, with the famous “winged hussars,” against the enemy Turkish lines. In a battle that included what is considered the largest cavalry charge in history, Sobieski thoroughly defeated them. The victory of allied Polish, Austrian, Bavarian, Saxon, Venetian and other troops marked the historic end of the expansion of the Ottoman Empire into Europe.

Before going to war, the Polish king, a devout Catholic, had entrusted his kingdom to the Blessed Virgin, Our Lady of Czestochowa. Drawing on this legacy, in 1684 Pope Innocent XI introduced Feast of the Most Holy Name of the Blessed Virgin Mary for the date of Sept. 12. The feast was briefly struck from the calendar by liturgical reformer Monsignor Annibale Bugnini during Vatican II, but restored by Saint John Paul II in 2002.

Cardinal Schönborn, a confidante of Pope Francis, warned the congregation in the Cathedral of Vienna on Sunday, that Europe had “squandered and wasted” its Christian inheritance, just like the younger brother in the parable told by Christ.

“What will become of Europe?” asked the cardinal.

He closed his homily with a prayer:

“Lord, remember, it is your people. And if we have strayed and if we have squandered the inheritance, Lord, do not abandon us! Do not abandon this Europe, which has produced so many saints. Do not abandon us, because we have become lukewarm in our faith.

“…Have mercy on your inheritance, have mercy on your people, with Europe, which is about to forfeit your Christian inheritance! Have mercy on us and raise us up again, for the glory of your name and as a blessing to the world! Amen.”

The full homily in German can be found here: http://www.erzdioezese-wien.at/marianamen2016

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