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(Vatican Radio) Following a busy day on Friday, the Director of the Holy See Press Office, Father Federico Lombardi, SJ, spoke with Lydia O’Kane about the Pope’s message for young people.

Pope Francis, he said, in visiting the Auschwitz Memorial and Museum on Friday morning, and taking part in the Via Crucis on Friday night, contemplated two aspects of “a question without an answer”: the mystery of hate, and the mystery of the suffering of innocents. “He looks for answers,” Fr Lombardi said, “in contemplating the Cross of Jesus Christ,” seeing “that God Himself takes the suffering on Himself, and participates profoundly in the suffering of the world and the consequences of hate.” In this sense, he continued, “we can begin to find answers.”

Father Lombardi also looked ahead to the events of Saturday, especially Pope Francis’ visit to the Sanctuary of the Divine Mercy, and the Prayer Vigil in the evening. “In the morning we meet the two most important witnesses of the mercy of God [St Faustina and St John Paul II], and of the message of the mercy here in Krakow in their home.” With the Vigil, he said, “there is also a new important step for all the young people to learn from these two big witnesses, and from the Pope [who] is presenting to them the message of the mercy of the God.”

Listen to Lydia O’Kane’s full interview with Father Federico Lombardi, SJ:

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(Vatican Radio) On Saturday morning, at the Sanctuary of St John Paul II in Krakow, Pope Francis offered the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass for priests, religious men and women, consecrated persons, and seminarians.

Below, please find the prepared text of the Pope's homily for the Mass: 

Homily of His Holiness Pope Francis

Mass with Priests, Religious, Consecrated Persons and Seminarians

Krakow, 30 July 2016

The words of the Gospel we have just heard (cf. Jn 20:19-31) speak to us of a place, a disciple and a book.

The place is where the disciples gathered on the evening of Easter; we read only that its doors were closed (cf. v. 19).  Eight days later, the disciples were once more gathered there, and the doors were still shut (cf. v. 26).  Jesus enters, stands in their midst and brings them his peace, the Holy Spirit and the forgiveness of sins: in a word, God’s mercy.  Behind those closed doors there resounds Jesus’ call to his followers: “As the Father has sent me, so I send you” (v. 21).

Jesus sends.  From the beginning, he wants his to be a Church on the move, a Church that goes out into the world.  And he wants it to do this just as he did.  He was not sent into the world by the Father to wield power, but to take the form of a slave (cf. Phil  2:7); he came not “to be served, but to serve” (Mk  10:45) and to bring the Good News (cf. Lk 4:18).  In the same way, his followers are sent forth in every age.  The contrast is striking: whereas the disciples had closed the doors out of fear, Jesus sends them out on mission.  He wants them to open the doors and go out to spread God’s pardon and peace, with the power of the Holy Spirit.

This call is also addressed to us.  How can we fail to hear its echo in the great appeal of Saint John Paul II: “Open the doors”?  Yet, in our lives as priests and consecrated persons, we can often be tempted to remain enclosed, out of fear or convenience, within ourselves and in our surroundings.  But Jesus directs us to a one-way street: that of going forth from ourselves.  It is a one-way trip, with no return ticket.  It involves making an exodus from ourselves, losing our lives for his sake (cf. Mk 8:35) and setting out on the path of self-gift.  Nor does Jesus like journeys made halfway, doors half-closed, lives lived on two tracks.  He asks us to pack lightly for the journey, to set out renouncing our own security, with him alone as our strength.

In other words, the life of Jesus’ closest disciples, which is what we are called to be, is shaped by concrete love, a love, in other words, marked by service and availability.  It is a life that has no closed spaces or private property for our own use.  Those who choose to model their entire life on Jesus no longer choose their own places; they go where they are sent, in ready response to the one who calls.  They do not even choose their own times.  The house where they live does not belong to them, because the Church and the world are the open spaces of their mission.  Their wealth is to put the Lord in the midst of their lives and to seek nothing else for themselves.  So they flee the satisfaction of being at the centre of things; they do not build on the shaky foundations of worldly power, or settle into the comforts that compromise evangelization.  They do not waste time planning a secure future, lest they risk becoming isolated and gloomy, enclosed within the narrow walls of a joyless and desperate self-centredness.  Finding their happiness in the Lord, they are not content with a life of mediocrity, but burn with the desire to bear witness and reach out to others.  They love to take risks and to set out, not limited to trails already blazed, but open and faithful to the paths pointed out by the Spirit.  Rather than just getting by, they rejoice to evangelize.

Secondly, today’s Gospel presents us with the one disciple who is named: Thomas.  In his hesitation and his efforts to understand, this disciple, albeit somewhat stubborn, is a bit like us and we find him likeable.  Without knowing it, he gives us a great gift: he brings us closer to God, because God does not hide from those who seek him.  Jesus shows Thomas his glorious wounds; he makes him touch with his hand the infinite tenderness of God, the vivid signs of how much he suffered out of love for humanity.

For us who are disciples, it is important to put our humanity in contact with the flesh of the Lord, to bring to him, with complete trust and utter sincerity, our whole being.  As Jesus told Saint Faustina, he is happy when we tell him everything: he is not bored with our lives, which he already knows; he waits for us to tell him even about the events of our day (cf. Diary, 6 September 1937).  That is the way to seek God: through prayer that is transparent and unafraid to hand over to him our troubles, our struggles and our resistance.  Jesus’ heart is won over by sincere openness, by hearts capable of acknowledging and grieving over their weakness, yet trusting that precisely there God’s mercy will be active. 

What does Jesus ask of us?  He desires hearts that are truly consecrated, hearts that draw life from his forgiveness in order to pour it out with compassion on our brothers and sisters.  Jesus wants hearts that are open and tender towards the weak, never hearts that are hardened.  He wants docile and transparent hearts that do not dissimulate before those whom the Church appoints as our guides.  Disciples do not hesitate to ask questions, they have the courage to face their misgivings and bring them to the Lord, to their formators and superiors, without calculations or reticence.  A faithful disciple engages in constant watchful discernment, knowing that the heart must be trained daily, beginning with the affections, to flee every form of duplicity in attitudes and in life.

The Apostle Thomas, at the conclusion of his impassioned quest, not only came to believe in the resurrection, but found in Jesus his life’s greatest treasure, his Lord.  He says to Jesus: “My Lord and my God!” (v. 28).  We would do well each day to pray these magnificent words, and to say to the Lord: You are my one treasure, the path I must follow, the core of my life, my all.

The final verse of today’s Gospel speaks of a book: it is the Gospel that, we are told, does not contain all the many other signs that Jesus worked (v. 30).  After the great sign of his mercy, we could say that there is no longer a need to add another.  Yet one challenge does remain.  There is room left for the signs needing to be worked by us, who have received the Spirit of love and are called to spread mercy.  It might be said that the Gospel, the living book of God’s mercy that must be continually read and reread, still has many blank pages left.  It remains an open book that we are called to write in the same style, by the works of mercy we practise.  Let me ask you this: What are the pages of your books like?  Are they blank?  May the Mother of God help us in this.  May she, who fully welcomed the word of God into her life (cf. Lk  8:20-21), give us the grace to be living writers of the Gospel.  May our Mother of Mercy teach us how to take concrete care of the wounds of Jesus in our brothers and sisters in need, those close at hand and those far away, the sick and the migrant, because by serving those who suffer we honour the flesh of Christ.  May the Virgin Mary help us to spend ourselves completely for the good of the faithful entrusted to us, and to show concern for one another as true brothers and sisters in the communion of the Church, our holy Mother.

Dear brothers and sisters, each of us holds in his or her heart a very personal page of the book of God’s mercy.  It is the story of our own calling, the voice of the love that attracted us and transformed our life, leading us to leave everything at his word and to follow him (cf. Lk 5:11).  Today let us gratefully rekindle the memory of his call, which is stronger than any resistance and weariness on our part.  As we continue this celebration of the Eucharist, the centre of our lives, let us thank the Lord for having entered through our closed doors with his mercy, for calling us, like Thomas, by name, and for giving us the grace to continue writing his Gospel of love. 

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(Vatican Radio) World Youth Day Krakow 2016 is building to its climactic moment in the all-night prayer vigil and Mass on Sunday. Vatican Radio’s special envoy to World Youth Day, Lydia O’Kane asked a group of Scots pilgrims about their experience of the event so far, and about what they’ll be taking home. The pilgrims are, in the order in which they appear in the audio recording: Stephen Mac Fadden; Fr. Frank Hannigan (the guide for the group from the diocese of Paisley); Ryan Turley; and Rebecca McDaid.

Click below to listen

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(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis heard the confessions of young pilgrims to World Youth Day in Krakow on Saturday. The moment of recollection and sacramental reconciliation took place at the Sanctuary of the Divine Mercy just outside the host city on the morning of the penultimate day of the week-long gathering.

The Holy Father heard the confessions of five different young people.

The Sanctuary of the Divine Mercy is the focal point of a devotion given to St. Faustina Kowalska, a Polish nun and mystic, whom Pope St. John Paul II canonized, and whose devotion he helped spread throughout the world.

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(Vatican Radio) On Saturday morning, Pope Francis paid a visit to the Sanctuary of Divine Mercy in Krakow. He began his visit at the Chapel of St Faustina Kowalska, where he was greeted by the Superior General of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy and the Superior of the Convent. While there, he blessed a large picture of the Divine Mercy, and later prayed before the tomb of St Faustina. At the conclusion of his visit, the Holy Father signed the guest book, adding, in Spanish, the words, “I desire mercy, and not sacrifices.”

Leaving the convent, the Pope arrived at the Sanctuary of Divine Mercy. From the terrace, he greeted the young people gathered in the “field of confessions”: “The Lord today wants us to feel His mercy even more deeply,” the Pope said. “Never distance yourself from Jesus! Even if, because of our sins and our failings, we feel we are the worst, He prefers us that way – thus His mercy spreads out. Let us all profit this day by receiving the mercy of Jesus.”

At the conclusion of his remarks, Pope Francis led the young people in a prayer to the “Mother of Mercy,” and asked them to please pray for him. 

During his visit to the sanctuary, Pope Francis also walked through the Holy Door established at the church for the Jubilee Year of Mercy.

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(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Saturday visited the Shrine of Divine Mercy in Krakow and heard confession for several young World Youth Day pilgrims, before celebrating Mass for priests, religious and seminarians in the nearby sanctuary dedicated to his predecessor, Pope John Paul II.

Our special correspondent in Krakow, Lydia O’Kane reports on the morning activities of the Pope's penultimate day in Poland…..

Listen: 

The Sanctuary of Divine Mercy is one of the most important shrines in Poland and welcomes millions of people every year.

They come to venerate the image of Jesus, I trust in You, painted with blue and red rays emanating from his heart.

It is housed in the chapel of the convent of the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy and it was here on Friday that Pope Francis came to pray.

Outside in the grounds, meanwhile, and under the heat of the sun pilgrims, young and old, sat on the grass, some with babies on their laps others with children on their shoulders, soaking up the atmosphere of this Papal visit

“Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy”, is the theme of this World Youth Day, so it was entirely fitting that the Holy Father should be here to visit this place of pilgrimage , so synonymous with the promoters of Divine Mercy, Sr Faustina Kowalska and St John Paul II.

After hearing the confessions of a number of  young people, and passing through the Holy Door of this purpose built shrine devoted to the Merciful Jesus, the Pope travelled the short distance to the Sanctuary of St John Paul II to celebrate Mass for Priests, Religious, Consecrated Persons and Seminarians.

As the Pope entered this sanctuary dedicated to his illustrious predecessor, the golden mosaics created by Fr Marko Ivan Rupnik glistened and the faces of the nuns in their distinctive habits beamed.

One of the key messages of Pope Francis’ pontificate has been the Mercy of God and in his homily he told those present that each of them held in his or her heart “a very personal page of the book of God’s mercy.  It is the story of our own calling, he said, “the voice of the love that attracted us and transformed our life, leading us to leave everything at his word and to follow him.”

The Pope  stressed that the Gospel of God’s Mercy remained “an open book that we are called to write in the same style, by the works of mercy we practice.” Jesus, he added, “wants hearts that are open and tender towards the weak, never hearts that are hardened.”

Recalling the words of Saint John Paul II, Pope Francis urged those called to the religious life not to remain closed in, but to “open the doors”  and live out the Mercy of God. And in a final gesture at the end of this celebration, Pope Francis bowed his head at the relic of this other messenger of Mercy, Saint John Paul II.

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Krakow, Poland, Jul 30, 2016 / 03:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- With political discourse taking a turn for the nasty(er) as the U.S. presidential elections draw near, are youth disillusioned by the inflammatory, insulting remarks that have come to define this year's race?

“You hear two things among the young people that in one way would bother them and challenge them and discourage them,” Cardinal Dolan told journalists July 29, speaking from his own personal experience.

One of these things, he said, is “a sort of meanness, an incivility, an inability to lift people up instead of dragging them down that they discover in political discourse. Not only here, but throughout the world.”

The other, he noted, is the “legitimate understandable” fear that comes in the face of violence, terrorism and religious persecution.

However, the cardinal said that when speaks with youth, what he hears instead is that these two things “become diving boards to prayer. They become rocket launchers. They don't depress (youth),” but rather, youth say “we need to pray even harder.”

Cardinal Dolan spoke to journalists during a short media briefing after leading the July 29 morning session of catechesis for WYD and celebrating Mass for the thousands of young people who attended the session.

During the briefing, it was noted that while four years ago Cardinal Dolan had prayed for civility at both party conventions, this year, the political environment has clearly taken turn for the worst.

Instead of being civil, the rhetoric of this election cycle has largely involved personal attacks against the other candidate and derogatory remarks about certain races and nationalities. The year has also been plagued by an increase in terrorist attacks throughout the world, including in Western nations.

However, Cardinal Dolan said from what he’s seen, instead of becoming depressed or discouraged, youth are responding with prayer and action.

As an example, he cited the brutal July 26 murder of Fr. Jacques Hamel by sympathizers with the Islamic State in Rouen, France, which took place on the eve of the launch of WYD in Krakow.

Not only do the young people talk about it, “they cry about it. They didn’t know him, but they know about him and they say ‘what are we going to do?’” the cardinal said.

“That’s what our young people are saying. So what do you do? In the eyes of the world when you get problems, when you get discouraging and depressing things like…a meanness and a nastiness in politics.”

While a worldly response tempts us to be just as unkind, mean and vindictive in return, “our young people, they know this is not the way. They know there has to be something else.”

Cardinal Dolan then recalled hearing Archbishop Bashar Warda, who heads the Chaldean archdiocese of Erbil, Iraq, speak during one of the WYD sessions.

While it would be perfectly understandable for him to have “a nervous breakdown” given his current situation, Cardinal Dolan said that instead, Warda shared how in his nation “people are coming back to Christ.”

“They’ve exhausted all other options. Politics isn’t working, nations aren’t coming to their aid, weapons have only exacerbated things. Reprisals, vindictiveness, anger, division. It ain’t workin,” the cardinal said, explaining that according to Warda, Iraqi Christians “are saying wow, we need our faith more than ever.”

In July 29 comments to CNA, Cardinal Dolan said that he was moved “more than ever” by the testimony of a young Iraqi woman who spoke during the catechesis earlier that morning. She was born in a refugee camp in Turkey after her family was forced to leave their homes due to bombing in 1991.

While she and her family were eventually able to move to Detroit, several of her relatives still living in Iraq have been killed amid the country’s ongoing violence and political instability. Though it’s hard to forgive those who have murdered her relatives, she prays daily for ISIS’ conversion.

Her story, the cardinal said, was especially impactful given his recent trip to Erbil in April of this year.

He again noted how, according to Archbishop Warda, “it’s phenomenal” that Christianity in Iraq “is undergoing revival as it’s being persecuted. As it’s literally having it’s head cut off, it’s religion is being strengthened.”

Despite the fact that many of these people have lost their homes, lost children, or had to leave their parents behind because they couldn’t make the journey, they are still at Mass singing and building their homes and schools.

Recalling Warda’s words, Dolan said this is because the only thing the people have left “is their faith, and they’ve learned, ‘put not you trust in princes.’”

“You think they’re going to trust politicians, they’re going to trust weapons, they’re going to trust reprisal, they’re going to trust violence, they’re going to trust blood oaths?” he asked. “No, all of them have bombed miserably, so they’re saying what do we got?”

The answer, he said, is that “maybe we ought to start listening to the Gospel again, maybe we ought to take our faith seriously, so you see this revival there. It’s phenomenal.”

It’s this attitude he sees reflected in American Catholic youth in the run-up up to this year’s presidential election, though not on quite as drastic of a scale.

“You saw this young lady today, if anybody should have been cynical, sarcastic, depressed, despaired, spitting in God's face, it was she,” but “she's just the opposite isn’t she? So you talk about inspiration, wow.”

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Krakow, Poland, Jul 30, 2016 / 04:24 am (CNA/EWTN News).- During Mass celebrated at the shrine of St. John Paul II in Krakow, Pope Francis challenged the priests, religious, and seminarians present in the congregation, saying true disciples are not content with mediocrity, but rather they rejoice in the mission of evangelization.

“The life of Jesus’ closest disciples, which is what we are called to be, is shaped by concrete love, a love, in other words, marked by service and availability,” the Pope told the congregation during Saturday's Mass.

“Finding their happiness in the Lord, they are not content with a life of mediocrity, but burn with the desire to bear witness and reach out to others,” he said. “Rather than just getting by, they rejoice to evangelize.”

The pontiff also reminded the Polish priests and religious men and women present to remember their own call to become Jesus' disciples, turning to the Gospel which, he said, is an “open book” in which we are to continue writing with our own works of mercy.

“It is the story of our own calling, the voice of the love that attracted us and transformed our life, leading us to leave everything at his word and to follow him,” he said.

The July 30 Mass at the Sanctuary of St. John Paul II in Krakow was attended by some 2,000 bishops, priests, religious men and women, and seminarians within the shrine itself, with an additional 5,000 taking part from outside.

Before Mass, the Pope heard the confessions of eight young people, including a priest, from various countries.

Earlier, he passed through the Jubilee of Mercy Holy Door of the St. John Paul II sanctuary.

Saturday's celebration, which started a bit ahead of schedule, marks the beginning of the pontiff's second to last day in Poland, where he is leading World Youth Day celebrations in Krakow.

Pope Francis centered his homily for the Mass on the day's Gospel reading, in which Jesus appears to his disciples after Easter and sends them out into the world on mission.

“Jesus sends,” the Pope said. “From the beginning, he wants his to be a Church on the move, a Church that goes out into the world.”

Francis noted how, when Jesus arrived in the scene, the disciples had “closed the doors out of fear.”

Instead, “he wants them to open the doors and go out to spread God’s pardon and peace, with the power of the Holy Spirit,” the Pope said.

This call to go out on mission is also addressed to us, the pontiff told those present.

“How can we fail to hear its echo in the great appeal of Saint John Paul II: 'Open the doors'?” He spoke of the temptation of priests and consecrated person to remain closed off, either out of fear or convenience.

“But Jesus directs us to a one-way street: that of going forth from ourselves,” he said. “It is a one-way trip, with no return ticket. It involves making an exodus from ourselves, losing our lives for his sake.”

“In other words, the life of Jesus’ closest disciples, which is what we are called to be, is shaped by concrete love, a love, in other words, marked by service and availability.”

Addressing the congregation, Francis explained how those “who choose to model their entire life on Jesus” relinquish the right to choose where they are sent, and even their houses do not belong to them.

This is “because the Church and the world are the open spaces of their mission, he said.

They do not build their lives on “shaky foundations of worldly power,” nor do they compromise evangelization for comforts, the pontiff said. They do not “waste time planning a secure future, lest they risk becoming isolated and gloomy, enclosed within the narrow walls of a joyless and desperate self-centredness.”

“Finding their happiness in the Lord, they are not content with a life of mediocrity, but burn with the desire to bear witness and reach out to others,” he explained. “Rather than just getting by, they rejoice to evangelize.”

Pope Francis turned his reflection to the scene in the day's Gospel which recounts St. Thomas, who had previously doubted the resurrection, encountering the risen Christ.

The hesitant and somewhat stubborn St. Thomas “is a bit like us,” the Pope said, and therefore “we find him likeable.”

“Without knowing it, he gives us a great gift: he brings us closer to God, because God does not hide from those who seek him.”

The Pope stressed to the congregation of priests and religious the importance of putting “our humanity in contact with the flesh of the Lord,” like Thomas who touched the wounds of Jesus.

“That is the way to seek God: through prayer that is transparent and unafraid to hand over to him our troubles, our struggles and our resistance,” he said.

“Jesus’ heart is won over by sincere openness, by hearts capable of acknowledging and grieving over their weakness, yet trusting that precisely there God’s mercy will be active.”

The Pope explained how Jesus wants hearts that are “truly consecrated,” which are “open and tender towards the weak,” and which “do not dissimulate before those whom the Church appoints as our guides.”

He added that disciples are not afraid of asking questions, but rather “have the courage to face their misgivings and bring them to the Lord, to their formators and superiors, without calculations or reticence.”

Recalling the words of St. Thomas when he came to believe in Jesus' resurrection – “My Lord and my God” – Francis encouraged the daily recitation of this acclamation, saying to the Lord: “You are my one treasure, the path I must follow, the core of my life, my all.”

In the Gospel, it is said that all of the signs that Jesus performed have not been written down, the Pope observed. Although one could say no other signs are needed beyond the “great sign of his mercy,” he said there is still room for signs “needing to be worked by us, who have received the Spirit of love and are called to spread mercy.”

“It might be said that the Gospel, the living book of God’s mercy that must be continually read and reread, still has many blank pages left,” the pontiff said. “It remains an open book that we are called to write in the same style, by the works of mercy we practice.”

Pope Francis turned his reflection to Mary, and asked for her intercession that we might be given “the grace to be living writers of the Gospel,” taking “concrete care of the wounds of Jesus” and those in need, including the sick and migrants.

“May the Virgin Mary help us to spend ourselves completely for the good of the faithful entrusted to us, and to show concern for one another as true brothers and sisters in the communion of the Church, our holy Mother.”

Concluding his homily to the priests and religious men and women in the congregation, the Pope reminded them of the “very personal page of the book of God's mercy” held in each of their hearts.

“It is the story of our own calling, the voice of the love that attracted us and transformed our life, leading us to leave everything at his word and to follow him,” he said.

“Today let us gratefully rekindle the memory of his call, which is stronger than any resistance and weariness on our part.”

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