Catholic News 2

(Vatican Radio) What do millions of refugees – many of them children, adolescents and young adults - who have fled conflict or persecution need to start a new life in host countries? What do they need to be able to go home one day, form a new life and contribute to their communities and to their country? 

The answer is simple: quality education. Education provides skills, opens the doors to employment, promotes peace and stability.

That was the core concept at a panel discussion in the Vatican entitled “Helping Refugees to Start Over” aiming to raise awareness and seek support for increasing numbers of refugees who are on the move, in camps or seeking integration in host countries today.

Not providing education to refugees - it was pointed out - risks making a lost generation sentenced to poverty.

The discussion, hosted by Rotary International, included speakers from Rotary itself, from the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS), from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and from the UN World Food Program. Two refugees gave first-hand witness of their stories and spoke of their hopes for the future.

For 35 years, JRS has focused on education as a means to build peace and foster the development of more resilient and cohesive societies, so JRS International Director Fr Tom Smolich’s intervention was particularly poignant.

He pointed out that “JRS has become a worldwide non-governmental organization serving over 750.000 refugees and internally displaced people each year”.

He also also spoke of JRS’s response to Pope Francis’ invitation to a Year of Mercy with its “Mercy in Motion” campaign with a 2020 goal to increase by 100,000 the number of people it serves through educational activities.

Fr Tom Smolich SJ told Vatican Radio’s Linda Bordoni that the opportunity of setting up a collaboration with an organization like Rotary International can be of huge assistance in pursuing JRS’s aim.

Listen: 

“I think it’s a very exciting opportunity bringing together Rotary which is an International Service Club, whom I know from my previous work, have done a lot of service projects throughout the world” he said.

Referring to the Jubilee Audience Rotary members were to attend the following day, Fr Tom said “the Pope has invited them to do their part” and he said that he is particularly glad “they are talking about refugees”.

“Together we can say: ‘what are the things that can make a difference for the future of refugees?’. It isn’t just emergency food, it isn’t just emergency shelter. What do we need to do to make their lives more stable, stronger, and more peaceful in the future?” 

Fr Tom pointed out that JRS will always say education plays a big part of this, and he expressed his hope that those present on the panel would agree on the fact that “education can be a priority for all of us to go forward”.

For more information on the JRS "Mercy in Motion" campaign click here.

Full Article

(Vatican Radio)  The Holy Spirit strengthens us so that we may bear witness to the Lord even through persecution – even to the point of sacrificing our life.  But also through the small persecutions like gossip and criticism.  That’s what Pope Francis said Monday at the daily Mass at the Santa Marta guesthouse in the Vatican.

Listen to Tracey McClure's report:

As we near Pentacost, the readings increasingly focus on the Holy Spirit.  The Acts of the Apostles tell us that the Lord opened the heart of a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from  the city of Thyatria who came to hear St. Paul.

“This woman felt something inside her which made her say ‘this is true! And I agree with what this man says, this man who gives witness to Jesus Christ,’” said the Pope.

“But who touched the heart of this woman?  Who told her: ‘Listen because it is the truth?’” asked the Pope.

“It was the Holy Spirit who made this woman feel that Jesus was the Lord; it made her know that salvation was in Paul’s words; it made this woman hear witness.  The Spirit gives witness to Jesus.  And each time we feel something in our heart that draws us closer to Jesus, it’s the Spirit which is working inside us.”

The Gospel speaks of a dual witness:  that of the Spirit which shares Jesus’s witness, and our witness.  We are witnesses of the Lord with the strength of the Spirit.  Jesus invites the disciples to stand strong because bearing witness also comes with persecution.  From “the little persecutions of gossip,” criticisms, to the greater kind of persecution of which “the history of the Church is full:  that place Christians in prison or make them even give up their lives.”

This, Jesus says, is the cost of Christian witness.  In the day’s Gospel we read: ‘They will expel you from the synagogues; in fact, the hour is coming when everyone who kills you will think he is offering worship to God.’

“The Christian,  with the strength of the Spirit,” said the Pope, “gives witness to the living Lord, to the Risen Lord, to the Lord’s presence in our midst, that the Lord celebrates with us His death, His Resurrection, each time we come to the altar.  The Christian too gives witness, aided by the Spirit, in his daily life, through the way in which he acts. It is the continuous witness of the Christian.  But many times this witness provokes attacks, provokes persecution.”

“The Holy Spirit which introduced us to Jesus,” continued Pope Francis, “is the same one who urges us to make Him known to others, not so much through words, but through living witness.”

“It is good to ask the Holy Spirit to come into our heart, to give witness to Jesus; tell Him: Lord, may I not stray from Jesus.  Teach me what Jesus taught.  Help me remember what Jesus said and did and also, help me to give witness to these things. So that worldliness, the easy things, the things that really come from the father of lies, from the prince of this world, sin, do not lead me away from giving witness.”

Full Article

(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has encouraged Mercedarian Friars to pursue in their mission to accompany the poor, especially the prisoners.

Celebrating the eighth centenary of their Order, Pope Francis addressed the General Chapter of Our Lady of Mercy gathered in the Vatican for the occasion, and reminded them to follow in the footsteps of Christ by “joining the prisoner.”

The Order, founded in 1218, is an international community of priests and brothers who serve in schools, prisons, hospitals, and foreign missions. They have shown special concern for Christian prisoners, helping them return to their home countries, and today they work with the most marginalized.

In his address, the Pope recalls the Order’s accomplishments of work with prison inmates as more than an “exhibition of the past.” Remembering their past, he says, allows them to both asses their achievements and confront the challenges that humanity poses in the new world.

“May this chapter be a privileged occasion for a sincere and fruitful dialogue that will not remain in the glorious past, but examine the difficulties, hesitations, and errors encountered on that path,” he says. “The real life of the Order must be sought in the ongoing effort to adapt and renew itself, in the effort to give a generous response to the real needs of the world and the Church.”

Pope Francis also calls upon the Oder to act as prophets: “The prophet is a messenger, an anointed one, who has received a gift of the Spirit for the service of the holy People of God. You have also received a gift and have been consecrated for a mission that is a work of mercy: to follow Christ carrying the good news of the Gospel to the poor and to prisoners.”

In order to move forward in the image of Christ, the Pope explains we must be vigilant, persevere in prayer, and cultivate our inner lives. These are the “pillars that sustain us,” he says.

The Pope concluded his message inviting the members of the Order to “go to the peripheries,” where they will continue to encounter the marginalized suffering from poverty and exclusion: “We must become small, join the prisoners, in the certainty that it not only fulfils our purpose of redeeming, but also allows us to find our true redemption, because in the poor and the prisoners we recognize our Redeemer.”

Full Article

Full Article

Full Article

Full Article

Full Article

Full Article

Full Article

Full Article