Reject inertia of 'Mannequin Challenge,' reach out to refugees, pope says
http://www.myspiritfm.com/apps/articles/default.asp?blogid=0&view=post&articleid=152553&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0
By Cindy WoodenVATICAN CITY (CNS) -- When it comes to helping the poor, themarginalized and refugees, Pope Francis urged Catholics not to mimic the"Mannequin Challenge"by just looking on, frozen and immobile.The video version of his prayer intention for Februarybegins with a street scene of people doing a "Mannequin Challenge," theviral internet craze in which people freeze while music plays in the background.The prayer intention and "The Pope Video"illustrating it are distributed by the Pope's Worldwide Prayer Network,formerly known as the Apostleship of Prayer.The intention the pope chose for February is: "That allthose who are afflicted, especially the poor, refugees and marginalized, mayfind welcome and comfort in our communities.""We live in cities that throw up skyscrapers andshopping centers and strike big real estate deals, but they abandon a part ofthemselves to marginal settlements on the periphery," the pope says in thevideo. "The result of this situation is that great s...
By Cindy Wooden
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- When it comes to helping the poor, the
marginalized and refugees, Pope Francis urged Catholics not to mimic the
"Mannequin Challenge"
by just looking on, frozen and immobile.
The video version of his prayer intention for February
begins with a street scene of people doing a "Mannequin Challenge," the
viral internet craze in which people freeze while music plays in the background.
The prayer intention and "The Pope Video"
illustrating it are distributed by the Pope's Worldwide Prayer Network,
formerly known as the Apostleship of Prayer.
The intention the pope chose for February is: "That all
those who are afflicted, especially the poor, refugees and marginalized, may
find welcome and comfort in our communities."
"We live in cities that throw up skyscrapers and
shopping centers and strike big real estate deals, but they abandon a part of
themselves to marginal settlements on the periphery," the pope says in the
video. "The result of this situation is that great sections of the
population are excluded and marginalized: without a job, without options,
without a way out."
"Don't abandon them," the pope pleads.
The video image then shows the previously mannequin-like
actors reaching out to help a young man who was shivering against a building.
"Pray with me," the pope says, repeating the
prayer intention that people would find "welcome and comfort in our
communities."
- - -
Editors: The video in English can be found at: https://youtu.be/eM5fcuTmdlI.
The video in its original Spanish is at: https://youtu.be/hSVLdM4vYbQ.
- - -
Copyright © 2017 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. www.catholicnews.com. All rights reserved. Republishing or redistributing of CNS content, including by framing or similar means without prior permission, is prohibited. You may link to stories on our public site. This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. To request permission for republishing or redistributing of CNS content, please contact permissions at cns@catholicnews.com.
Full Article
http://www.myspiritfm.com/apps/articles/default.asp?blogid=0&url=10&view=post&articleid=275559&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0
Pope Francis meets with 300 priests taking part in the World Meeting of Parish Priests on May 2, 2024, at the Vatican. / Credit: Vatican MediaRome Newsroom, May 2, 2024 / 12:41 pm (CNA).Pope Francis published a letter on Thursday addressed to all parish priests in the world with his advice for building a missionary Church in which all the baptized share in the mission of proclaiming the Gospel."Parish communities increasingly need to become places from which the baptized set out as missionary disciples and to which they return, full of joy, in order to share the wonders worked by the Lord through their witness," Pope Francis wrote in the letter published on May 2.The pope presented the letter to 300 priests participating in the Synod on Synodality's "World Meeting of Parish Priests" during an audience at the Vatican, saying that their meeting is "an opportunity to remember in my prayers all of the parish priests in the world to whom I address these words with great affection."P...
http://www.myspiritfm.com/apps/articles/default.asp?blogid=0&url=10&view=post&articleid=275557&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0
Pope Francis shared a stage with Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on May 12, 2023, to speak at a two-day conference on "The General State of the Birth Rate," held at Conciliazione Auditorium close to the Vatican. / Credit: Daniel Ibanez/CNARome Newsroom, May 2, 2024 / 09:00 am (CNA).The Vatican announced on Thursday that Pope Francis will speak at an event on Italy's demographic crisis as the country's birth rate sits at a historic low.Pope Francis will address "The General State of the Birth Rate" conference on May 10 at the Conciliazione Auditorium close to the Vatican.The two-day event organized by the Forum of Family Associations and the Foundation for Births seeks to address the 50 years of steady decline in births across Europe, and especially in Italy, and what can be done to reverse it. Births in Italy dropped to a historic low in 2023. Italy's national statistics bureau recorded 379,000 births last year, a 3.6% decline from 2022 and a 34.2% drop from 200...
http://www.myspiritfm.com/apps/articles/default.asp?blogid=0&url=10&view=post&articleid=275556&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0
Father Paul Tatu Mothobi, a member the Congregation of the Sacred Stigmata (CSS/ Stigmatines) and former Media and Communications Officer of the Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference (SACBC), was found dead of gunshot wounds in South Africa, on April 27, 2024. / Credit: SACBCACI Africa, May 2, 2024 / 11:00 am (CNA).Father Paul Tatu Mothobi, a member the Congregation of the Sacred Stigmata (CSS/Stigmatines) and former media and communications officer of the Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference (SACBC), was reportedly murdered last weekend in South Africa.According to a notice from the congregation's South Africa-based provincial secretary, Father Jeremia Thami Mkhwanazi, Tatu died on Saturday, April 27, "after sustaining a gunshot."Tatu, a native of Lesotho's Archdiocese of Maseru, was ministering in South Africa's Archdiocese of Pretoria. According to reports, his lifeless body was found with gunshot wounds in his car on a national road in South Africa, which r...
