(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has given an interview to the Catholic Italian daily, Avvenire to mark the end of the Holy Year of Mercy, saying that the Jubilee and Ecumenism are the fruits of the Second Vatican Council.Listen to our report: In the lengthy interview to Avvenire, the Holy Father gives his assessment of the Jubilee of Mercy and touches on the complex journey towards Christian Unity and the legacy of the Second Vatican Council.Speaking from the Casa Santa Marta the Pope talks about the Church's path of living and witnessing to the Gospel as a way of mercy and not as an ideology.Pope Francis explains that, he did not have a plan for the Jubilee. “I simply let myself be guided by the Holy Spirit”, he says.Stressing the importance of forgiveness, the Pope comments, that he likes to think that God has a bad memory. “He forgives and forgets”.Turning his attention to the issue of Christian Unity, the Pope underlines the significant steps taken dur...
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has given an interview to the Catholic Italian daily, Avvenire to mark the end of the Holy Year of Mercy, saying that the Jubilee and Ecumenism are the fruits of the Second Vatican Council.
Listen to our report:
In the lengthy interview to Avvenire, the Holy Father gives his assessment of the Jubilee of Mercy and touches on the complex journey towards Christian Unity and the legacy of the Second Vatican Council.
Speaking from the Casa Santa Marta the Pope talks about the Church's path of living and witnessing to the Gospel as a way of mercy and not as an ideology.
Pope Francis explains that, he did not have a plan for the Jubilee. “I simply let myself be guided by the Holy Spirit”, he says.
Stressing the importance of forgiveness, the Pope comments, that he likes to think that God has a bad memory. “He forgives and forgets”.
Turning his attention to the issue of Christian Unity, the Pope underlines the significant steps taken during this Extraordinary Year on the path of reconciliation between Christians, adding that this work goes back to the Vatican II.
Unity, Pope Francis says, has three roads: to walk together doing charitable works, to pray together, and then to recognize the common confession as expressed in the common martyrdom, the ecumenism of blood.
With ecumenism, the Holy Father stresses, it is crucial to serve with the poor, who are "the flesh of Christ".
Pope Francis will conclude the Extraordinary Year of Mercy on Sunday, the feast of Christ the King.
Pope Francis waves while traveling by boat in Venice, Italy, for a meeting with young people at the Basilica della Madonna della Salute on April 28, 2024. Earlier in the day he met with inmates at a women's prison. / Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNARome Newsroom, Apr 28, 2024 / 08:00 am (CNA).Pope Francis opened his one-day visit to Venice on Sunday morning with a meeting with female inmates where he reaffirmed the importance of fraternity and human dignity, noting that prison can be a place of new beginnings. "A stay in prison can mark the beginning of something new, through the rediscovery of the unsuspected beauty in us and in others, as symbolized by the artistic event you are hosting and the project to which you actively contribute," the pope said to the female inmates gathered in the intimate courtyard of the Women's Prison on the Island of Giudecca. Pope Francis left the Vatican by helicopter at approximately 6:30 in the mo...
Pope Francis prays in front of the tomb of St. Mark the Evangelist inside St. Mark's Basilica in Venice on April 28, 2024. / Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNARome Newsroom, Apr 28, 2024 / 09:35 am (CNA).Pope Francis had a full slate of events Sunday during his day trip to Venice, a trip that tied together a message of unity and fraternity with the artistic patrimony of a city that has been a privileged place of encounter across the centuries. "Faith in Jesus, the bond with him, does not imprison our freedom. On the contrary, it opens us to receive the sap of God's love, which multiplies our joy, takes care of us like a skilled vintner, and brings forth shoots even when the soil of our life becomes arid," the pope said to over 10,000 pilgrims gathered in St. Mark's Square. Framing his homily during the Mass on the theme of unity, one of the central points articulated throughout several audiences spread across the morning, Pope Francis reminded Christians: "Remaining ...
Prayer house at San Simeone, Italy, September 2012. / Credit: Courtesy of Ricostruttori nella preghieraRome, Italy, Apr 28, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).Across Italy there are houses of prayer run by the Ricostruttori (Reconstructors) community, a Catholic movement dedicated to people who are far from the Church but attracted to spirituality, particularly Eastern meditation and Buddhist practices. The Reconstructors was founded in 1978 by Jesuit Father Gian Vittorio Cappelletto. "During the postconciliar period, the Church was faced with the need for new forms of evangelization and apostolate, to reach out to people who were drifting away," Don Roberto Rondanina, priest and superior of the Ricostruttori, explained to CNA. "It was a time when Eastern meditation, Hinduism, Buddhism, the New Age ... were beginning to spread in Europe." "Father Cappelletto, who lived in Turin, sought to understand the meaning of this 'flight to the East' and felt the need to find new forms of sp...