(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis is celebrating the 47th anniversary of his priestly ordination on Tuesday 13th December. He will soon mark another milestone, when he turns 80 years old on Saturday 17th December. As this significant year comes to an end, we take a look back at some of the Pope’s highlights over the past twelve months, which include six overseas visits and the Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy.Susy Hodges spoke to John Allen, editor of Crux and author of nine books on Vatican and Church affairs, about what the legacy of the Pope’s activities and documents might be at the end of 2016. Mr Allen is one of the world’s leading Anglophone commentators on the papacy.Reflecting on the Jubilee Year of Mercy, Allen remarked that the Pope would probably call it the “peak moment” of his papacy, during which the message about the importance of mercy in the Church was revivified. He added that the call for every diocese around the world to s...
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis is celebrating the 47th anniversary of his priestly ordination on Tuesday 13th December. He will soon mark another milestone, when he turns 80 years old on Saturday 17th December. As this significant year comes to an end, we take a look back at some of the Pope’s highlights over the past twelve months, which include six overseas visits and the Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy.
Susy Hodges spoke to John Allen, editor of Crux and author of nine books on Vatican and Church affairs, about what the legacy of the Pope’s activities and documents might be at the end of 2016. Mr Allen is one of the world’s leading Anglophone commentators on the papacy.
Reflecting on the Jubilee Year of Mercy, Allen remarked that the Pope would probably call it the “peak moment” of his papacy, during which the message about the importance of mercy in the Church was revivified. He added that the call for every diocese around the world to spend time carrying out concrete works of mercy could be thought of as the most significant “lasting impact” of the Jubilee Year.
When asked about the Pope’s own works of mercy during the Jubilee, such as meeting with prisoners and those who had left the priesthood, Allen asserted that the Pope surely aimed to “set a tone” and “recalibrate” the image of leadership in the Church.
Moving on to speak about the Holy Father’s Pastoral Visits in 2016, Allen suggested that the most striking might be the shortest; the one-day trip to the Greek island of Lesbos in April. According to him, this visit displayed the overarching themes of the Year of Mercy: ecumenism and reaching out to the peripheries. Pope Francis met with the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople and the Archbishop of Athens and all Greece during the visit to the island, and he brought refugees back to the Vatican with him onboard the papal plane.
Allen went on to call the publication of Amoris Laetitia, the Pope’s post-synodal apostolic exhortation, “groundbreaking”, both because the document is “magnificently pastoral”, and because it is “controversial”. Referring to the question about whether to allow the divorced and civilly remarried access to the sacraments, Allen suggested that the Holy Father wants to see how the document would be interpreted around the world.
Allen was also asked about the ongoing reforms in the Roman Curia, and about the significant anniversary and birthday that the Holy Father celebrates in 2016. He reflected on the Pope’s “very active” lifestyle, suggesting that he derives most pleasure from “reconnecting with his priestly roots”, seeing himself as the “world’s parish priest’.
The entire interview can be heard below. Allen begins by reflecting on the lasting impact of the Jubilee Year of Mercy.
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...