Catholic News 2

(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis met with a delegation from the Diocese of Gubbio during his General Audience on Wednesday, to support the annual March for Peace against Hunger taking place on 3 September along the Path of Saint Francis, which goes from Assisi to Gubbio.

It is the 30th anniversary of the "Città del Ben...essere!!!" [City of Wellbeing] project, which this year is supporting the 2015 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

The delegation gave Pope Francis a large ceramic torch bearing the image of the Miracle of Saint Francis Taming the Wolf of Gubbio, by the artist Giampietro Rampini.

The annual March for Peace Against Hunger is held to give attention to ethical aspects relating to food and hunger, as well as funding scientific research for hunger-related diseases and conditions.

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At Wednesday’s general audience, Pope Francis met and blessed the eyes of Lizzy Myers, a five year old girl from Ohio suffering from Usher Syndrome Type II, a rare condition causing the gradual loss of vision and hearing.

When Lizzy was first diagnosed, her parents, Steve and Christine Myers, decided to make a “visual bucket list” to help Lizzy see as much of the world as she could before she starts to lose her sight. One of their first visits was to an observatory, where Lizzy could see the moon, stars, and meteors. Once the media picked up this story, Turkish Airlines offered to cover the cost of a trip to anywhere in the world. When they decided on Rome, the Italian charity U.N.I.T.A.L.S.I. invited them to the Vatican for this once in a lifetime opportunity. 

“I never expected this in a million years when we first started the journey,” Steve Myers said.

Upon meeting the Holy Father, Lizzy handed him a small meteorite. He thanked Lizzy, told her parents he will pray for their family, and asked them to pray for him as well. Vatican Radio's Sophia Pizzi spoke to Lizzie's parents after the audience and asked them about their feelings on meeting the Pope.

Listen to the voices of Christine and Steve Meyers, the parents of Lizzie: 

Awestruck, Steve Myers said he was nervous beforehand, but a sense of calmness came over him as the Pope blessed his daughter. Christine Myers described it as “the first time she had felt an overwhelming sense of peace" since the diagnosis of their daughter's illness.  

The family originally chose to visit Rome because of its rich visuals in artwork and architecture. So far, Lizzy has been “enthralled” by everything she has seen, including the Colosseum, Roman Forum, and Sistine Chapel. “You have to be with her to understand how much she enjoys everything she sees,” her father said after describing how she sat and stared at the walls of the Sistine Chapel.

Next on Lizzy’s bucket list is a visit to Wyoming, though her parents note that not everything on the list involves travel. It includes normal activities too, such as catching fireflies at night, blowing bubbles, and flying a kite. 

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(Vatican Radio) Representatives of the many different Christian communities here in Rome gathered at the Methodist Church at Ponte Sant’Angelo on Wednesday for the dedication of a new Methodist Ecumenical Office. The initiative is aimed at promoting greater understanding of the worldwide communion through education programmes and the welcome it can offer from its location just across the Tiber from St Peter’s Basilica.

Leaders of the World Methodist Council have gathered for the dedication and are scheduled to meet with Pope Francis on Thursday. Among them is Irish lay leader Gillian Kingston, vice-president of the World Methodist Council.

She talked to Philippa Hitchen about the importance of ecumenical relations at international level, as well as the challenges facing the Methodist Church in Ireland..

Listen: 

Gillian speaks about ecumenical relations that work on a number of levels and she uses the image of the milking stool - where each of the three legs must function in order for the stood to stand. 

Firstly she speaks of the theological dialogue which exists between Methodists and many of the Christian world communities, "but the longest standing is the dialogue with the Roman Catholic Church".

She also believes the ecumenical project must work at the level of Church leadership and structures and, thirdly, she says, it must work at grass roots level among the people of God. 

Gillian goes on to speak of the book of Methodist hymns that will be presented to Pope Francis as a gift from the World Methodist Council and explains why the words of the hymns are so central to Methodist theology and practice.

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(Vatican Radio)  A high ranking leader of Ukraine’s Greek Catholic Church has praised Pope Francis’s appeal to raise funds to aid the people of Ukraine who have suffered two years of ongoing conflict.  Speaking to Vatican Radio, Bishop Borys Gudziak of Paris, head of External Relations for the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, said the collection which will be taken up in churches across Europe on Sunday 24 April, “has great material significance, but even more moral significance.” 

He said the Pope’s decision to appeal for help and for peace in Ukraine is a natural extension of the current Jubilee Year of Mercy and comes on the eve of publication of the papal exhortation wrapping up the Synod on the Family.

The tragic affects of ongoing war

In the interview, Bishop Gudziak says, “officially, ten thousand people have been killed” since the conflict erupted between government forces and pro-Russian separatists two years ago. “Tens of thousands have been maimed or injured: without legs, without arms, without eyes – paralyzed.  There are hundreds of thousands of people with post traumatic shock and 2.5 million people had to leave their homes because five million people were directly affected by the war,” he adds.

He goes on to say that half a million people have left Ukraine and two million are internally displaced persons.  “Remember that Germany accepted 1.1 million refugees (Germany has 80 million people), Ukraine (without the affected areas of Crimea and Donbas), has 40 million. And those 40 million accepted two million refugees.  But the GDP of Germany, the budget of the country, is 45 times as big as that of Ukraine.”

The Greek Catholic prelate applauds the generosity of Ukrainians and the fact that there is no talk of putting refugees in “concentration camps…the people have been absorbed” by local communities. 

People are exhausted, traumatized, hungry and medicines hard to find

But after two years of what he calls a “hybrid war, which is not [a declared war], a stealth war,” the population, he says, “is exhausted.  There’s a lack of medicine, a lack of insulin for diabetics, anesthesia for people who are operated on.  Many people are operated without anesthesia in [affected] areas.

There are many homeless people.  There are people who are losing their minds.  They have great psychological trauma. 

Today, the New York Times reported that there are 1.5 million hungry people in Ukraine.” 

Of the 24 April collection to be taken up at Mass in Europe’s Catholic churches, Bishop Gudziak says “it is always important to help those who are poor and suffering. And this collection will do that.  It will do it without regard for confessional or ethnic background, or language spoken.  It will be distributed in a way that it gets to the people who need help.”

A reminder that the war is still going on

But even more importantly, he says, “it is necessary for Catholics and Christians and all people of good will in Europe to be reminded about what is happening.  When I was at the French bishops’ conference three weeks ago, many bishops were surprised that the war is still going on.  Because of the situation in Syria and Iraq, all of the attention has been moved to the Middle East and people think the war is finished – that the Russian invasion is no more.  But it continues.  There’s shooting every day, there’s people killed almost every day. And so it is important that the European community strengthens its resolve in discussing these issues with Russia to stop the war, to stop the killing, to stop the flow of refugees.”

More refugees to Europe if war continues; prayer moves mountains

If the war were to continue and the front were to expand, Bishop Gudziak warns, “you could have 5-10 million immigrants fleeing the war, going through Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, to the West.  So the situation in Ukraine is very important for Europe.  And that is why the Holy Father appealed to all of the Catholics in Europe [to turn out] on April 24 at the Holy Mass to make a contribution for helping the people but also a contribution which will be one for peace.  And of course, summoning everybody to prayer is very important because we know that prayer moves mountains.”

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(Vatican Radio) Cardinal Pietro Parolin paid a visit Wednesday to the Paul VI International Scientific Institute for Research on Human Fertility and Infertility (ISI-Paul VI) to inaugurate a new laboratory for the study of human fertility and responsible procreation. The Cardinal Secretary of State also took the time to observe an ultrasound machine donated by Pope Francis to the Institute.

The ISI-Paul VI was created in response to the desire of Pope Saint John Paul II for a scientific institute dedicated to research in the field of procreation. It provides a “concrete response” to Paul VI’s call, in Humanae vitae (quoting Gaudium et spes) , for men of science “to elucidate more thoroughly the conditions favourable to a proper regulation of births.” Cardinal Parolin noted that Benedict XVI also praised the Institute as “an eloquent example of that synthesis of truth and love which constitutes the vital centre of Catholic culture.”

Finally, Cardinal Parolin greeted the families present who have turned to the Institute for help in realizing their desires for parenthood. 

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Vatican City, Apr 6, 2016 / 11:08 am (CNA/EWTN News).- God’s mercy is for everyone, and Jesus Christ is proof, Pope Francis said on Wednesday.

“In every moment of his earthly life, Jesus made mercy visible: meeting the crowds, announcing the Gospel, healing the sick, drawing close to the forgotten, pardoning sinners. He showed a love open to all, a love which was fulfilled on the cross,” the Pope said April 6.

The Pope spoke in St. Peter’s Square to a crowd gathered for his General Audience. His ongoing catechetical reflections on mercy have begun to focus on how Christ fulfills the promise of God’s mercy.

“From the cross, Jesus shows us that no one is excluded from God’s merciful love: ‘Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.' We should, therefore, never fear to acknowledge and confess our sins, for the Sacrament of Reconciliation offers us the forgiveness which flows from the cross and which renews us in his grace.”

The Catholic Church is observing the Year of Mercy, giving special attention to the topic.

“Jesus did not bring hatred, nor did he bring enmity. He brought love, a great love, a heart open to all – to all of us – a love that saves,” Pope Francis continued. “In this Jubilee Year, let us embrace the Gospel with greater vigor and be heralds of the Father’s mercy and forgiveness.”

The Pope stressed the importance of forgiveness as a counter to fear.

“We are all sinners, but we are all forgiven: we all have the possibility of receiving this pardon, which is the mercy of God,” he said. “We need not fear, therefore, to recognize ourselves sinners, confess ourselves sinners, because every sin was carried by the Son to the Cross.”

Pope Francis reflected on the fact that before beginning his earthly ministry, Christ went to the Jordan to be baptized by St. John the Baptist, saying that “This event gives a decisive orientation to the entire mission of Christ.”

“In fact, he did not present himself to the world in the splendor of the temple: he could have done this. He was not announced with a trumpet blast: he could have done this. And he did not even come in the guise of a judge: he could have done this. Instead, after spending thirty years of his life in Nazareth, Jesus went to the Jordan river, together with so many of his people, and got in line with sinners.”

Christ “had no shame” in this, the Pope said. “He was there with everyone, with sinners, to be baptized. Therefore, from the beginning of his ministry, he was manifested as the Messiah who took on the human condition, moved by solidarity and by compassion.”

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Vatican City, Apr 6, 2016 / 11:51 am (CNA/EWTN News).- When Lizzy Myers was diagnosed with a condition that could result in complete blindness, her parents, Steve and Christine, went to work on a “visual bucket list” for their daughter.

Today, Lizzy got to check something off: meeting Pope Francis.

The five-year-old, along with her parents and three-year-old sister Michaela, had special seats for the general audience with the Pope on Wednesday, where she was able to meet him in person. She gave him a gift – a piece of meteorite from an observatory she had recently visited – and he gave her a hug and blessed her eyes.

“I felt an overwhelming sense of peace” when they met, Christine Myers said at a press conference following the meeting. “Since the beginning of all of this, this is the first time I have felt peace.”

As for Lizzy, “She was awestruck. She just stared at him, she had totally big eyes,” Christine said.

Lizzy attends a Catholic Montessori school back home in Ohio, and was excited to meet Pope, whom she refers to as the “big guy in the white hat.”

When she first heard the family was going to Rome, where the Pope lived, she asked if she could knock on his door.

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Steve told reporters that he was very grateful for the meeting with the Pope, which he didn’t realize would be an option when they first decided to visit Rome. He said the encounter with his daughter and the Holy Father gave him an inexplicable sense of calm.

“I was very nervous coming up to that point, I started having stomach pains,” he said. “But as soon as Pope Francis came up to where Lizzy was, a calm came over me, I don’t even know how to explain it.”

“I believe and I think that what Pope Francis has done for her – if there’s any chance for a miracle, it would be there.”

After several recent tests, Lizzy was diagnosed with Usher Syndrome Type II, a rare genetic condition that causes hearing and progressive vision loss, and can result in blindness. Steve and Christine created a “visual bucket list” for their daughter, which included a trip to a local observatory near their home town. The story made the front pages of a local paper, and caught the attention of the Associated Press, which eventually led to their Rome excursion.

There are also many ordinary things on the list, Christine said – catching fireflies, roasting s'mores over a bonfire, kite-flying.

The couple said they hope that Lizzy’s story will encourage other parents of children with bi-lateral hearing loss to genetically test their children for Usher II Syndrome, so they might be able to give their children as many visual experiences as possible before it’s too late.

VIDEO: 5-year old Lizzy Myers, sees #PopeFrancis this morning - her wish before she goes blind. He blesses her eyes. pic.twitter.com/Z8AxRtKxMP

— Catholic News Agency (@cnalive) April 6, 2016

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