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(Vatican Radio) In this week's edition of There's More in the Sunday Gospel than Meets the Eye, Jill Bevilacqua and Seàn-Patrick Lovett, bring us readings and reflections for the Fourth Sunday of Easter. Listen:

Gospel                        Jn 10:27 - 30

Jesus said:
“My sheep hear my voice;
I know them, and they follow me.
I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish.
No one can take them out of my hand.
My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all,
and no one can take them out of the Father’s hand.
The Father and I are one.”

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(Vatican Radio) It’s the longest and most performed of all Shakespeare’s plays. A tale of complex family relationships and conflicting human emotions. One of the greatest tragedies of all times, yet featuring characters whose warmth and humour have a universal appeal.

Hamlet has been translated into over a hundred languages and is taught to students in countries all over the world. But a few years ago, the Globe Theatre in London came up with the incredibly ambitious project of taking a production of the play to every country of the world to mark the 450th anniversary of William Shakespeare’s birth.

'Globe to globe' tour

The tour, entitled 'Globe to Globe' has been unfolding over the past two years and has seen the play performed in every imaginable venue, from a roadside in Cameroun to half a dozen refugee camps, from the Arctic Circle to the ancient Alexandria library in Egypt.

Just before returning to London, the cast also came to give a performance here in the Vatican on Wednesday, organised with the help of the British Embassy to the Holy See and the Pontifical Council for Culture.

Naeem Hayat is one of the actors playing Hamlet with the Globe’s multicultural cast. He talked to Philippa Hitchen about the project and about some of the most moving moments of the tour..

Listen: 

Naeem explains that the idea was born out of a festival held in London in 2012 when 37 companies from around the world were invited to the Globe theatre to perform a Shakespeare play in their native language....

He says the multicultural cast is both an indication of the talent in British theatre, but also a way of connecting with audiences who "see someone who looks like them and think, maybe I could do that too"

Syrian refugees in Lebanon

Speaking of the most poignant moments on the tour, Naeem says performing in the Zaatari refugee camp in Lebanon was very moving, since it was not safe for them to get in and out of Syria. But he said it also highlighted "an intrinsic part of the tour" which is "trying to play to the people of a place"...

He says the cast has also played in the most prestigious theatres in Eastern Europe and in ancient amphitheatres in Cyprus and Jordan. We are the "luckiest company in the world", he says, since "we get to reach people who don't normally get to see Shakespeare, but we also get insight and access that others don't have"...

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(Vatican Radio) An international conference marking the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare’s death got underway on Wednesday at Rome’s Campidoglio, the seat of the city’s Mayor.

The event entitled Shakespeare 2016: The Memory of Rome, is focusing on the playwright’s Roman plays including Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra, Coriolanus, and Titus Andronicus.

Organised by the City of Rome and the capital’s three public universities, there are also film screenings, theatrical performances, concerts and exhibitions which are being held along with the conference.

One of the participants at the opening of this international gathering was Professor Stephen Greenblatt, of Harvard University, who gave a lecture under an imposing statue of Julius Caesar in the Campidoglio’s main chamber entitled, “The Noblest Roman of Them All’: Shakespeare’s Interiority and the Secret Life of the Stage.”

Speaking to Vatican Radio’s Lydia O’Kane before his talk, Professor Greenblatt explained that “Shakepeare is most famous in a way for us now for burrowing into the inner lives of characters, whether it’s Hamlet or Macbeth or Othello, he’s fascinated by what you can find that’s hidden away on the inside. I’m going to propose that Shakespeare learned how to do this paradoxically from Rome.”

Listen: 

Holding a mirror up to the human person the Harvard Professor said that Shakespeare gave a great gift also to actors which was, “to represent what is secretly going on inside you and that’s something Shakespeare learned, not from medieval literature, I think …but actually from the Romans…”

Bringing into the discussion the question faith the Professor said “I believe that Shakespeare came from a Catholic background. I believe that evidence for this as for everything else is ambitious about Shakespeare, but I believe that his parents were adherent to the old faith. It was extremely dangerous to be this in the late 16th century and I think Shakespeare was brought up with a family secret, that’s the other aspect in my interest in the “secret life of the stage”. It’s not that I think that Shakespeare was presenting a kind of brief, an apology for Catholism, but I think that Shakespeare grew up in a household that had a secret, the secret of its faith.”

Shakespeare 2016: The Memory of Rome runs until April 20th.

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(Vatican Radio) One must be docile to the Holy Spirit, said Pope Francis Thursday at Mass in his residence of Casa Santa Marta, and one must not resist Him. Pope Francis warns against those who resist the Spirit with "so-called fidelity to the law" and invites the faithful to pray for the grace of the docility to the Spirit.

Philip evangelized the Ethiopian, a senior official of Queen Candace. Pope Francis was inspired by this fascinating account in the Acts of the Apostles, in the first reading of today, focusing his attention on the docility to the Holy Spirit.

Do not resist the Spirit under the guise of loyalty to the law

The protagonist of this meeting, Pope Francis noted, is in fact not so much Philip, nor even the Ethiopian, but just the Spirit. "It is Him who does things. It is the Spirit who gives birth to and grows the Church.”

"In days past, the Church has shown us how there can be a drama of resisting the Spirit: closed, hard, foolish hearts resisting the Spirit. We’ve seen things - the healing of the lame man by Peter and John at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple; the words and the great things Stephen was doing … but they were closed off to these signs of the Spirit and resisted the Spirit. They were seeking to justify this resistance with a so-called fidelity to the law, that is, to the letter of the law."

In referring to the reading, Pope Francis said that "the Church proposes the opposite: no resistance to the Spirit, but docility to the Spirit, which is precisely the attitude of the Christian.” He continued: “Being docile to the Spirit, this docility is the yes that the Spirit may act and move forward to build up the Church.” Here, he added, is Philip, one of the Apostles, “busy as all bishops are, and this day surely he had his plan to work.” But the Spirit tells him to leave what he has planned and go to the Ethiopian - "and he obeyed." Pope Francis then outlined the meeting between Philip and the Ethiopian, in which the Apostle explains the Gospel and its message of salvation. The Spirit, he said, "was working in the heart of the Ethiopian", offers him "the gift of faith and this man felt something new in his heart." And at the end he asks to be baptized, being docile to the Holy Spirit.

Docility to the Spirit gives us joy

"Two men,” the Pope said, “one an evangelist and one who knew nothing of Jesus, but the Spirit had sowed a healthy curiosity, not the curiosity of gossip." And in the end the eunuch goes his way with joy, "the joy of the Spirit, in the docility of the Spirit."

"We have heard, these past days, about resistance to the Spirit; and today we have an example of two men who were docile to the voice of the Spirit. And the sign of this is joy. Docility to the Spirit is a source of joy. “But I would like to do something, this … but I feel the Lord ask me to do something else. Joy I will find there, where there is the call of the Spirit!”

It is the Holy Spirit who carries the Church forward

A beautiful prayer asking for this docility, the Pope revealed, we may find in the First Book of Samuel, the prayer which the priest Eli suggests to the young Samuel, who during the night heard a voice calling to him: "Speak Lord, your servant is listening."

"This is a beautiful prayer that we can always pray: 'Speak, Lord, because I am listening.' The prayer asking for this docility to the Holy Spirit and with this docility to carry forward the Church, to be instruments of the Spirit so that the Church can move forward. 'Speak, Lord, because your servant is listening'. We should pray this many times a day: when we have a doubt, when we do not know what to do, or when we want simply to pray. And with this prayer we ask for the grace of docility to the Holy Spirit."

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(Vatican Radio) Offer your lives “completely” to the Lord; “we too are living in a time of martyrdom, and in the midst of a culture so often hostile to the Gospel:”  that’s the message Pope Francis gave to staff and students at the Pontifical Scots College Thursday as they celebrate the 400^th anniversary of its founding as a seminary.

The Scots College in Rome was founded by Pope Clement VIII in 1600 for Catholic education at a time when Catholic instruction and preaching were illegal at home. On 10th March 1616, the Pontifical Scots College became a seminary.

In his discourse to those present Thursday, Pope Francis held up as a model of committed priesthood the martyred Scottish Jesuit Saint John Ogilvie who died for the faith in 1615. The saint was hanged and drawn at Glasgow Cross for clandestinely celebrating Mass in the homes of the few Catholics remaining in Scotland and for refusing to pledge allegiance to King James VI.

In 1616, and inspired by Ogilvie’s determined ministry, the College’s first 16 students vowed to return to Scotland as priests to follow in his footsteps.

Pope Francis said that the martyrdom of Saint John Ogilvie, “which was meant to silence the Catholic faith, instead was an impetus for its promotion and for defending the Church’s freedom to remain in communion with the See of Peter.  The ‘yes’ proclaimed by the sixteen men four hundred years ago was eloquent not simply for their good intentions, but rather because they persevered, and prepared themselves in every way, returning to Scotland to face the hardships that awaited them, even if it meant becoming martyrs themselves.”

Below please find the official English translation of Pope Francis’ prepared remarks:

Dear Archbishop Tartaglia, Archbishop Cushley,

Dear Members of Staff and Seminarians of the Pontifical Scots College,

            It am pleased to welcome you today, as together we commemorate the four hundredth anniversary of the transformation of the Pontifical Scots College into a seminary for priestly formation.   This anniversary is significant not only for the many years it marks, but even more so because we recall the fidelity of the sixteen men who, on 11 March 1616, were resolute in their determination to return to Scotland as priests to preach the Gospel.  That decision was born of a martyr’s blood.

            The martyrdom of Saint John Ogilvie, which was meant to silence the Catholic faith, instead was an impetus for its promotion and for defending the Church’s freedom to remain in communion with the See of Peter.  The “yes” proclaimed by the sixteen men four hundred years ago was eloquent not simply for their good intentions, but rather because they persevered, and prepared themselves in every way, returning to Scotland to face the hardships that awaited them, even if it meant becoming martyrs themselves.  Theirs was a life which sought the joys and peace that Christ alone could offer.  Looking out at you today, I can see that, through the grace of God, the martyrdom of Saint John and the courage of those sixteen men has borne fruit in your beloved homeland.

            We too are living in a time of martyrdom, and in the midst of a culture so often hostile to the Gospel.  I urge you to have that same selfless spirit as your predecessors did.  Love Jesus above all things!  Let your “yes” be marked by a firm resolve to give yourselves generously to your priestly formation, so that your years in Rome may prepare you to return to Scotland and to offer your lives completely.  If you have this same passion as your brothers from four hundred years ago, that same love for the Church and Scotland, you will honour the history and sacrifices we recall today.  You will also become in this moment a sign to the Scottish people, especially the youth, if you encounter them in their everyday lives, if you reach out to those who are furthest from Christ.  Show them, each and every one, that God is always with us and that his mercy endures for ever. 

            In this Jubilee of Mercy, I pray that the Lord may grant you the courage and grace to be faithful to his will, by being dedicated to prayer, by loving Jesus, especially in the Holy Eucharist, and by entrusting yourselves to the care of Mary our Mother.  Upon you and all the faithful in Scotland, I willingly impart my Apostolic Blessing as a pledge of strength and peace in the Lord.  God bless you all!            

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Paris, France, Apr 14, 2016 / 03:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Bishop Bernard Fellay, head of the traditionalist Society of St. Pius X, has reportedly discussed several positive aspects of his meeting with Pope Francis at the beginning of the month.

Bishop Fellay had visited the Vatican April 1-2, meeting with the Pope and with Archbishop Guido Pozzo, secretary of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei – the Vatican office of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith responsible for doctrinal discussions with the estranged group.

The French-language blog Le Salon Beige reported April 10 that Bishop Fellay had spoken that day to some 4,000 pilgrims and “revealed some good news” from his encounter at the Vatican.

The blog post reported that Bishop Fellay indicated that: the Pope confirmed that the SSPX is Catholic in his eyes; the Pope said he would never condemn the SSPX; and that the Pope wants to extend the faculties of the priest of the SSPX, beginning with Confession.

Le Salon Beige also said that “in the course of his meetings in Rome, Bishop Fellay was encouraged to found a seminary in Italy.”

The website of the U.S. district of the SSPX also reported on Bishop Fellay's comments April 10, linking to Le Salon Beige.

The SSPX had earlier stated that Bishop Fellay's meeting with Pope Francis had been cordial and lasted 40 minutes.

“After the meeting, it was decided that the current exchanges would continue. The canonical status of the Society was not directly addressed, Pope Francis and Bishop Fellay having determined that these exchanges ought to continue without haste,” the statement added.

Pope Francis has already declared that during the current Jubilee Year of Mercy, the faithful can validly and licitly receive absolution of their sins from priests of the SSPX.

The Society currently operates six seminaries, and its Italian district includes four priories, 16 chapels, and a retreat center.

The SSPX was founded by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre in 1970 to form priests, as a response to what he described as errors that had crept into the Church following the Second Vatican Council. Its relations with the Holy See became strained in 1988 when Archbishop Lefebvre consecrated four bishops without the permission of Pope John Paul II.

The illicit consecration resulted in the excommunication of the five bishops; the excommunications were lifted in 2009 by Benedict XVI, and since then, negotiations between the Society and the Vatican have continued, “to rediscover full communion with the Church.”

In remitting the excommunications, Benedict also noted that “doctrinal questions obviously remain and until they are clarified the Society has no canonical status in the Church and its ministers cannot legitimately exercise any ministry.”

The biggest obstacle for the society's reconciliation has been the statements on religious liberty in Vatican II's declaration Dignitatis humanae, which it claims contradicts previous Catholic teaching.

Doctrinal discussions between the SSPX and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith broke down in the summer of 2012, when the society's superior general, Bishop Bernard Fellay, would not sign a doctrinal preamble presented by Rome. Talks between the CDF and the society resumed, however, in 2014.

Since then several moves have suggested a warming in relations between the Vatican and the SSPX.

In 2015 the Holy See delegated a cardinal and three bishops to visit the seminaries of the SSPX. They were sent to become better acquainted with the society, and to discuss doctrinal and theological topics in a less formal context.

And Pope Francis announced in a September 2015 letter on the Jubilee Year of Mercy that during the jubilee year the faithful can validly and licitly receive absolution of their sins from priests of the SSPX.

“I trust that in the near future solutions may be found to recover full communion with the priests and superiors of the Fraternity,” he wrote.

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