Catholic News 2
Krakow, Poland, Jul 30, 2016 / 11:26 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Before heading to an evening prayer vigil with youth, Pope Francis made an unannounced stop at a Franciscan monastery housing the relics of two martyrs, where he prayed for peace and an end to violence.“O almighty and merciful God, Lord of the universe and of history. All is good and your compassion for the mistakes of mankind knows no limits,” Francis said in the opening of the July 30 prayer.He asked that God sow “peace the world and its people,” and to keep “the devastating wave of terrorism” far from them.The Pope also prayed for all those who have died as victims of “brutal terrorist attacks” and invoked the intercession of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit in eliminating the threat of terrorism and in sowing peace and forgiveness in the heart of each person.According to a July 30 Vatican communique, the Pope stopped by the monastery and Church of St. Francis around 6p.m. loc...
Krakow, Poland, Jul 30, 2016 / 11:26 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Before heading to an evening prayer vigil with youth, Pope Francis made an unannounced stop at a Franciscan monastery housing the relics of two martyrs, where he prayed for peace and an end to violence.
“O almighty and merciful God, Lord of the universe and of history. All is good and your compassion for the mistakes of mankind knows no limits,” Francis said in the opening of the July 30 prayer.
He asked that God sow “peace the world and its people,” and to keep “the devastating wave of terrorism” far from them.
The Pope also prayed for all those who have died as victims of “brutal terrorist attacks” and invoked the intercession of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit in eliminating the threat of terrorism and in sowing peace and forgiveness in the heart of each person.
According to a July 30 Vatican communique, the Pope stopped by the monastery and Church of St. Francis around 6p.m. local time in Krakow while on his way to a prayer vigil with youth participating in WYD.
The church is home to relics of two Polish martyrs, Bl. Zbigniew Strza?kowski and Bl. Micha? Tomaszek, who were killed in hatred of the faith Aug. 9, 1991, by guerilla forces of the Shining Path terrorist organization in Pariacoto, Peru.
The friars came to Pariacoto as missionaries in the 1990s, and were gunned down by the terrorists after only a short period of time in region. The Congregation for the Causes of Saints opened the cause for martyrdom in 1995, and they were beatified in Pariacoto Dec. 5, 2015, alongside Italian priest Fr. Alessandro Dordi, from the diocese of Bergamo.
Apart from the Franciscan friars, the Pope and his delegation, the only others present were some of the martyr’s family members.
Pope Francis’ prayer in front of the martyrs comes just days after French priest Fr. Jacques Hamel was brutally killed by teenage ISIS sympathizers while saying Mass at his parish in Rouen.
The priest’s death took place just over a week after a teenage Afghan Islamist went on an axe rampage in Würzburg, Germany, which left several passengers severely wounded. More recently, around 80 people were killed and 230 people wounded after two explosions struck the Afghan city of Kabul July 16.
In less than two years, France has witnessed several deadly attacks attributed to Islamic state militants, with the most recent – and second deadliest – taking place earlier this month. On July 14, 84 people were killed in Nice, France when a Tunisian man intentionally drove a large truck through a crowded beach street at high speed during a Bastille Day celebration.
On Nov. 13, 2015, nearly 130 people were killed in a series of attacks throughout Paris. In January of that same year, a total of 12 people were killed in the French capital after terrorists stormed the offices of the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine.
Other European cities such as Belgium and Germany were also the site of deadly attacks in 2015. The Pope’s prayer, then, is significant, timely and seemingly needed more than ever.
Here is the full text of Pope Francis’ prayer at the Church of St. Francis:
O almighty and merciful God, Lord of the universe and of history. All is good and your compassion for the mistakes of mankind knows no limits.
We come to You today to ask You to keep in peace the world and its people, to keep far away from it the devastating wave of terrorism, to restore friendship and instill in the hearts of your creatures the gift of trust and of readiness to forgive.
O Giver of life, we pray to You also for all those who have died as victims of brutal terrorist attacks. Grant them their eternal reward. May they intercede for the world that is torn apart by conflicts and disagreements.
O Jesus, Prince of Peace, we pray to You for the ones who have been wounded in these acts of inhuman violence: children and young people, old people and innocent people accidentally involved in evil. Heal their bodies and hearts; console them with Your strength and, at the same time, take away any hatred and a desire for revenge.
Holy Spirit Consoler, visit the families of the victims of terrorism, families that suffer through no fault of their own. Wrap them in the mantle of Your divine mercy. Make them find again in You and in themselves the strength and courage to continue to be brothers and sisters for others, above all for immigrants, giving witness to Your love by their lives.
Touch the hearts of terrorists so that they may recognize the evil of their actions and may turn to the way of peace and goodness, of respect for the life and for the dignity of every human being, regardless of religion, origin, wealth or poverty.
O God, Eternal Father, in Your mercy hear our prayer which we raise up to You amidst the deafening noise and desperation of the world. We turn to You with great hope, full of trust in Your infinite Mercy. Made strong by the examples of the blessed martyrs of Perú, Zbigniew and Michael, who have rendered courageous testimony to the Gospel, to the point of offering their blood, we entrust ourselves to the intercession of Your Most Holy Mother. We ask for the gift of peace and of the elimination from our midst of the sore of terrorism.
Through Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Krakow, Poland, Jul 30, 2016 / 12:30 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis challenged massive crowds of young people at World Youth Day's final vigil to step away from the “sofa” of comfort and convenience, and respond to Christ's call to transform a suffering world.“Today Jesus, who is the way, the truth and the life, is calling you to leave your mark on history,” the Pope told the estimated 1.6 million people attending Saturday's vigil at the “Campus Misericordiae” – or “Field of Mercy.”In his address, the pontiff warned against opting “for ease and convenience, for confusing happiness with consumption,” because then “we end up paying a high price indeed: we lose our freedom.”“Jesus,” however, “is the Lord of risk, of the eternal 'more',” he said. “Following Jesus demands a good dose of courage, a readiness to trade in the sofa for a pair of walking shoes and...
Krakow, Poland, Jul 30, 2016 / 12:30 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis challenged massive crowds of young people at World Youth Day's final vigil to step away from the “sofa” of comfort and convenience, and respond to Christ's call to transform a suffering world.
“Today Jesus, who is the way, the truth and the life, is calling you to leave your mark on history,” the Pope told the estimated 1.6 million people attending Saturday's vigil at the “Campus Misericordiae” – or “Field of Mercy.”
In his address, the pontiff warned against opting “for ease and convenience, for confusing happiness with consumption,” because then “we end up paying a high price indeed: we lose our freedom.”
“Jesus,” however, “is the Lord of risk, of the eternal 'more',” he said. “Following Jesus demands a good dose of courage, a readiness to trade in the sofa for a pair of walking shoes and to set out on new and uncharted paths.”
Saturday's WYD vigil marks the end of Pope Francis' second to last day of his July 27-31 trip to Poland for the international youth event.
The address was delivered after hearing the testimonies of three young people, including a young woman named Rand who described the daily horrors which the people in her home country of Syria experience.
The gathering of so many young people from countries torn by conflict, war, and other atrocities makes it so that the sufferings experienced by young people in these regions “are no longer anonymous, something we read about in the papers,” the Pope said.
“They have a name, they have a face, they have a story, they are close at hand,” he said referring to the suffering which young people like Rand have experienced, coming from war-torn Syria.
The extent of these situations cannot be appreciated by viewing them through a cell phone screen or computer, he said.
He asked for prayers for all those affected by war in Syria and other parts of the world in order that, “once and for all, may we realize that nothing justifies shedding the blood of a brother or sister; that nothing is more precious than the person next to us.”
The Pope also acknowledged the testimonies of struggle and inner conflict delivered by the two other young people, Natalia – a former fashion magazine journalist – and Miguel – a former drug addict.
“Both of you are a living sign of what God’s mercy wants to accomplish in us,” he said.
Pope Francis stressed that now is not the time to denounce those fighting or to tear people down. “We have no desire to conquer hatred with more hatred, violence with more violence, terror with more terror,” he said.
Rather, the name which should be given to the response to war is “fraternity,” “brotherhood,” “communion,” and “family.”
“We celebrate the fact that coming from different cultures, we have come together to pray,” he said. “Let our best word, our best argument, be our unity in prayer.”
“Let us also place before the Lord your own “battles”, the interior struggles that each of your carries in his or her heart.”
At this point, the Pope invited everyone to join hands for a moment of silent prayer, which he said afterwords reminded him of the scene of the Apostles on the day of Pentecost.
“Picturing them can help us come to appreciate all that God dreams of accomplishing in our lives, in us and with us,” he said.
On that day, the disciples huddled behind locked doors, paralyzed by the fear of persecution, the Pope recounted.
“Then, in that situation, something spectacular, something grandiose, occurred,” he said. “The Holy Spirit and tongues as of fire came to rest upon each of them, propelling them towards an undreamt-of adventure.”
Like the disciples, the young people who gave their testimonies know “the fear and anguish born of knowing that leaving home might mean never again seeing their loved ones, the fear of not feeling appreciated or loved, the fear of having no choices.”
“Thinking that in this world, in our cities and our communities, there is no longer any room to grow, to dream, to create, to gaze at new horizons – in a word to live – is one of the worst things that can happen to us in life,” he said.
“When we are paralyzed, we miss the magic of encountering others, making friends, sharing dreams, walking at the side of others.”
Pope Francis warned against a more dangerous kind of paralysis, which he described as “sofa-happiness” – in other words, the paralysis of confusing happiness with the sense of comfort, freeing us up to escape into the world of videogames and the computer, all the while keeping us at home with the illusion of safety.
“That is probably the most harmful and insidious form of paralysis, since little by little, without even realizing it, we start to nod off, to grow drowsy and dull while others – perhaps more alert than we are, but not necessarily better – decide our future for us,” he said.
“For many people, that is more convenient than having young people who are alert and searching, trying to respond to God’s dream and to all the restlessness present in the human heart.”
The Pope challenged young people not to “vegetate” in a comfortable life, but reminded them of their call “to leave a mark.”
“But when we opt for ease and convenience, for confusing happiness with consumption, then we end up paying a high price indeed: we lose our freedom,” he said.
“This is itself a great form of paralysis, whenever we start thinking that happiness is the same as comfort and convenience, that being happy means going through life asleep or on tranquillizers, that the only way to be happy is to live in a haze.”
In contrast to this life of “sofa-happy” paralysis, Pope Francis said, “Jesus is the Lord of risk, of the eternal 'more'.”
“Jesus is not the Lord of comfort, security and ease. Following Jesus demands a good dose of courage, a readiness to trade in the sofa for a pair of walking shoes and to set out on new and uncharted paths.”
He told young people to take the path of the “craziness” of our God, by which he means caring for those in need, be they neighbors, prisoners, friends, refugees, or migrants.
Although some might say such a life is for only a “chosen few,” the Pope cited the testimony of Miguel who said that one you are entrusted with responsibility, you begin “to understand that God was asking something of you.”
“That is the secret, dear friends, and all of us are called to share in it. God expects something from you. God wants something from you. God hopes in you. God comes to break down all our fences.”
“God comes to break open everything that keeps you closed in. He is encouraging you to dream. He wants to make you see that, with you, the world can be different.”
“For the fact is, unless you offer the best of yourselves, the world will never be different.”
It is not a time for young “couch potatoes,” the Pope said, but for protagonists of history.
“History today calls us to defend our dignity and not to let others decide our future,” he said.
For those concerned about their own limitations and sins, Pope Francis assured young people that the Lord is not concerned with what he have been or done, but “about everything we have to give, all the love we are capable of spreading.”
“Jesus is inviting you, calling you, to leave your mark on life, to leave a mark on history, your own and that of many others as well,” he said.
The Pope spoke of young people's role in teaching adults “how to live in diversity, in dialogue, to experience multiculturalism not as a threat but an opportunity.”
“Have the courage to teach us that it is easier to build bridges than walls!”
Concluding his address to the young people, the Pope said: “Today Jesus, who is the way, the truth and the life, is calling you to leave your mark on history.”
“He, who is truth, is asking you to abandon the paths of rejection, division and emptiness,” he said. “Are you up to this? What answer will you give, with your hands and with your feet, to the Lord, who is the way, the truth and the life?”
#PopeFrancis gives the blessing after adoration at #WYD2016. "For the sake of his sorrowful passion..." #Krakow2016 pic.twitter.com/oJCnyRkN3Q
— Catholic News Agency (@cnalive) July 30, 2016
By Junno Arocho EstevesKRAKOW,Poland (CNS) -- Humankind's cruelty did not end with the Holocaust, but rageson in the suffering of those living through war, homelessness and persecution,Pope Francis said."Thiscruelty exists today. We say: 'Yes, we have seen cruelty, 70 years ago; howthey died shot, hanged or gassed.' But today, in so many places in the worldwhere there is war, the same thing happens," the pope told a crowdgathered late July 29 outside the archbishop's residence in Krakow where he isstaying. The pope'swords came at the end of a day focused on the suffering of innocents. He hadbegun the day with a silent prayer at the Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi death camp in Oswiecim, followed by a visit to a local children'shospital and participation in the Way of the Cross with young people at BloniaPark. Calling it"a day of sorrow," the pope said that in following the Way of theCross, Christians were united in Jesus' sufferings. However, Christnot only "suffered 2,000 years ago," but ...
By Junno Arocho Esteves
KRAKOW, Poland (CNS) -- Humankind's cruelty did not end with the Holocaust, but rages on in the suffering of those living through war, homelessness and persecution, Pope Francis said.
"This cruelty exists today. We say: 'Yes, we have seen cruelty, 70 years ago; how they died shot, hanged or gassed.' But today, in so many places in the world where there is war, the same thing happens," the pope told a crowd gathered late July 29 outside the archbishop's residence in Krakow where he is staying.
The pope's words came at the end of a day focused on the suffering of innocents. He had begun the day with a silent prayer at the Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi death camp in Oswiecim, followed by a visit to a local children's hospital and participation in the Way of the Cross with young people at Blonia Park.
Calling it "a day of sorrow," the pope said that in following the Way of the Cross, Christians were united in Jesus' sufferings.
However, Christ not only "suffered 2,000 years ago," but continues to suffer in today's world.
"So many people suffer: the sick, those who are in war, the homeless, the hungry, those who are doubtful in life, who do not feel happiness, salvation or who feel the weight of their own sin," he said.
Before unspeakable horrors and suffering -- especially the pain of children who suffer -- Christians may ask themselves why it happens, he continued.
"There are no answers for that question," the pope said.
The pope also said his visit to Auschwitz-Birkeneau was a reminder of "such pain, such cruelty" that human beings are capable of inflicting.
"Is it possible that we men and women, created in God's likeness, are capable of doing these things? These things were done. I do not want to make you bitter, but I have to say the truth. Cruelty did not end in Auschwitz, in Birkeneau. Even today, people are tortured; so many prisoners are tortured to make them talk. It is terrible!" he exclaimed.
"What I am telling you is a bit sad, but it is reality. But the fact that Jesus has taken upon himself all these things is also a reality," the pope said.
Jesus loves everyone despite their sins, he concluded, inviting the young people to pray together for those who suffer from "so many bad things, so much wickedness."
"When there are tears, a child seeks out his or her mother. We sinners, too, are children; let us look for our mother and pray to Our Lady together," he said.
- - -
Follow Arocho on Twitter: @arochoju.
- - -
Copyright © 2016 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. www.catholicnews.com. All rights reserved. Republishing or redistributing of CNS content, including by framing or similar means without prior permission, is prohibited. You may link to stories on our public site. This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. To request permission for republishing or redistributing of CNS content, please contact permissions at cns@catholicnews.com.
BEIRUT (AP) -- Dozens of families and some opposition fighters started leaving besieged rebel-held neighborhoods in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo on Saturday after the government opened safe corridors for civilians and fighters who want to leave, state media reported....
WASHINGTON (AP) -- In their struggle for the upper hand on national security, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are emphasizing strikingly different themes - he as the bold and cunningly unpredictable strongman who will eliminate terrorism; she as the calm, conventional commander in chief who will manage all manner of crises....
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Warning about a potential for high-fatality accidents, safety investigators recommended two years ago that the Federal Aviation Administration impose greater oversight on hot air balloon operators, government documents show. The FAA rejected those recommendations....
LOCKHART, Texas (AP) -- A hot air balloon carrying at least 16 people caught on fire and crashed in Central Texas on Saturday, causing what authorities described as a "significant loss of life."...
MIAMI (AP) -- Buyers at the trade deadline for a change, the Miami Marlins believe they now have enough starting pitching to make a playoff push....
JOHNSTOWN, Pa. (AP) -- With 100 days left before the fall election, Hillary Clinton's campaign bus wound its way through Donald Trump's America as the Republican nominee picked a new fight with the bereaved father of a Muslim Army captain....
