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(Vatican Radio) Cardinal Luis Tagle, President of Caritas Internationalis, on Wednesday lamented the continuing reality of slavery and human trafficking despite the lessons of the past and so many advances in technology and human knowledge. Looking at this scourge, the cardinal said he wanted to ask ‘where is the humanity’ in our modern age when we see unscrupulous traffickers prey on the most vulnerable and poor among their fellow human beings.  Cardinal Tagle, Archbishop of Manila, was among those attending a 3-day international conference against human trafficking held this week in the Nigerian capital, Abuja that was organized by Caritas and the Pontifical Council of Pastoral Care for Migrants and Itinerant People. 

Listen to the interview with Cardinal Luis Tagle, Archbishop of Manila and President of Caritas Internationalis:  

Asked for his feedback on the conference and its outcome, Cardinal Tagle said he was very satisfied with the outcome, conceding it was an “unpleasant” learning experience for him, to discover “the depths and complicated reality of human trafficking.”  Stressing we need as much information and data as possible on this scourge, the cardinal said it was clear that a collective global across-the-board response is required to tackle the problem of trafficking.

“No one individual or single institution” can give “an adequate response,” he said.  “We need to work together…. everybody of good will.”

On a personal level, Cardinal Tagle said he was disturbed and saddened by the fact that we’re still talking in the 21st century about “slavery, forced labour, the exploitation of the most vulnerable,” despite the "valuable lessons of two past World Wars" and a modern day society that is marked by so many “advances in technology, science and human knowledge.”  “Where is the humanity,” he asked.

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(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis surprised German-speaking pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square on Wednesday, when he greeted them at the end of the weekly General Audience with a few improvised words in their native tongue.

“I am pleased to welcome the pilgrims from German-speaking countries and the Netherlands,” began the Holy Father, adding, “I greet in particular the faithful of the Diocese of Passau.” At that point, the Holy Father departed from his prepared remarks to invoke Our Lady, who has a famous shrine in Passau, which is a suffragan diocese of Munich and Friesing.

“You call to mind the Virgin of Altötting,” he said.

Pope Benedict XVI visited the shrine – the national shrine of the old Kingdom of Bavaria – during his 2006 trip, which also took him to Munich and Regensburg.

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(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Wednesday greeted Ricardo Quaresma, a member of Portugal’s national football team which won the European Championship this summer. The encounter happened during the weekly General Audience.

The player brought Pope Francis a Portuguese national team shirt with the name “Francisco” and number “20” on the back. On Twitter and on his Facebook page before the meeting, Quaresma posted a photo of himself holding the shirt, with the caption “I am in the Vatican and bring a gift for Pope Francis. Do you think he is going to like it?”

Quaresma plays winger for the Turkish club Besiktas.

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(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis invoked St. Teresa of Calcutta on Wednesday, in his final words to pilgrims and tourists before imposing his Apostolic Blessing at the end of the weekly General Audience.

“This past Sunday, we celebrated the caononisation of Mother Teresa of Calcutta,” said Pope Francis in special greetings to the sick, to young people, and to newlyweds in St. Peter’s Square for the occasion.

“Dear young people,” he continued, “become like her: artisans of mercy.”

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Vatican City, Sep 7, 2016 / 08:56 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On Wednesday, Pope Francis warned against making Jesus into the person we want him to be, and thus creating obstacles to a true relationship with Christ and his mercy.

“The admonition of Jesus is always present: even today man constructs images of God that prevent him from enjoying his real presence,” the Pope said during the general audience Sept. 7.

“Some carve out a 'do it yourself' faith that reduces God in the limited space of their own desires and their own beliefs. But this faith is not conversion to the Lord that is revealed, in fact, it prevents him from arousing our life and our conscience.”

In his catechesis, Pope Francis named several different ways in which people create false images of God, such as those who invoke his name in defense of their own interests, or in the interest of hatred and violence, or those who deny Christ's divinity, considering him just a good ethical teacher and leader.

“For still others God is just a psychological refuge,” Francis said, “where he is reassurance in difficult times: it is a faith turned in on itself, impervious to the power of merciful love of Jesus which pushes brothers.”

Pope Francis also mentioned those who he said “stifle faith” by making it entirely about their personal, intimate relationship with Jesus while ignoring the missionary aspect of the Church, “capable of transforming the world and history.”

Continuing his theme of discussing mercy, Pope Francis spoke about the difference between the justice John the Baptist expected the Messiah to wield and the mercy which Jesus actually practiced, a mercy which was the manifestation of God's justice.

Pointing to the Gospel of Matthew, the Pope said Jesus responded to John the Baptist's question of whether or not he was the Messiah with, “Go and tell John what you hear and see.”

“The blind, the lame, the lepers, the deaf, regain their dignity and are no longer excluded for their disease, the dead return to life, while the poor have the good news,” Francis said. “And this becomes the summary action of Jesus, who in this way makes visible and tangible the act of God.”

“The message that the Church receives from this account of the life of Christ is very clear. God did not send his Son into the world to punish sinners, nor to destroy the wicked,” he continued. “They are instead addressed the invitation to conversion so that, seeing the signs of divine goodness, they can find their way back.”

The Pope concluded his catechesis by urging those present to not place themselves above the mercy of Christ by believing in a false image of the Messiah.

“We Christians believe in the God of Jesus Christ, and our desire is to grow in the living experience of the mystery of love,” he said. “We commit ourselves, therefore, to not place any obstacle in the way of the action of the merciful Father, but we ask the gift of a great faith to become ourselves signs and instruments of mercy.”

 

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IMAGE: CNS/Paul Haring

By Junno Arocho Esteves

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- God did not send his son into the world to cast off the wicked but to offer them a path to conversion through mercy and love, Pope Francis said.

Those who object to Jesus' mercy toward sinners often create an "image of God that impedes them from enjoying his real presence," the pope said Sept. 7 at his weekly general audience.

"Some carve out a 'do-it-yourself' faith that reduces God to the limited space of their own desires and their own convictions," the pope said. "Others reduce God to a false idol; using his holy name to justify their own interests or even to incite hatred and violence."

An estimated 25,000 people attended the audience in St. Peter's Square; many visitors were in Rome for the Sept. 4 canonization of St. Teresa of Kolkata.

Before delivering his final blessing the pope called on young people to follow her example and be "artisans of mercy." He asked those who are ill "to feel her compassionate closeness, especially in the hour of the cross."

In his main talk, the pope reflected on the Gospel story in which John the Baptist, while imprisoned, sends his disciples to ask Jesus if he is "the one who is to come, or should we look for another?"

Jesus answered, "Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have the good news proclaimed to them; and blessed is the one who takes no offense at me."

John the Baptist, who often preached the coming of the Messiah as a judge who would come to "reward the good and punish the bad," now suffers doubt in the darkness of his cell because he does "not understand this style," the pope said.

However, he said, Jesus' response is a clear message to his followers and to the church.

"God did not send his son into the world to punish sinners nor to annihilate the wicked. They are instead called to conversion so that, by seeing the signs of divine goodness, they may find their way back," Pope Francis said.

Jesus' gesture of showing mercy to sinners is an act that often provokes doubt and even scandal to those who believe in a God that comes to rain down justice on the wicked, he said.

Nevertheless, "if the obstacle to believing is above all his acts of mercy, this means that you have a false image of the Messiah. Blessed are those who, in front of Jesus' gestures and words, give praise to God who is in heaven," the pope said.

Jesus' warning to those who are scandalized by God's mercy serve as a warning for men and women today who create a false image of God, often perceiving him as a "psychological refuge" that offers them reassurance during difficult moments or reducing Jesus to just one of many teachers of ethics throughout history, he explained.

Nevertheless, these erroneous perceptions "stifle faith into a purely personal relationship with Jesus, canceling out his missionary impulse that is capable of transforming the world and history."

Christians, he said, believe in the "God of Jesus Christ" who wants us "to grow in the living experience of his mystery of love."

"Let us commit ourselves to not put any obstacles to the Father's merciful acts," Pope Francis said. "Instead, let us ask for the gift of great faith to become signs and instruments of mercy."

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Follow Arocho on Twitter: @arochoju.

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