The apostolic visit of Pope Francis to Egypt is just round the corner, April 28-29. The Pope is flying on Friday to Cairo, where over two days he will meet the Egyptian president, the Grand Imam of the al-Azhar, the Coptic Orthodox Pope and the country’s tiny Catholic community and clergy and address an international peace conference in an effort to promote inter-religious dialogue and harmony in the predominantly Muslim nation. His visit is also meant to be a special gesture of his closeness with Egypt’s beleaguered Christian community that has been the target of terrorist attacks.Indian Jesuit priest Fr. Bimal Kumar Kerketta who has been working in Egypt for some 14 years, takes a look at the Pope’s 18th foreign visit from his own perspective. A member of the Indian Jesuit Province of Ranchi, Fr. Kerketta volunteered to work for the Near-East Jesuit Province and arrived in Egypt in 2002. After learning Arabic the hard way he served as principa...
The apostolic visit of Pope Francis to Egypt is just round the corner, April 28-29. The Pope is flying on Friday to Cairo, where over two days he will meet the Egyptian president, the Grand Imam of the al-Azhar, the Coptic Orthodox Pope and the country’s tiny Catholic community and clergy and address an international peace conference in an effort to promote inter-religious dialogue and harmony in the predominantly Muslim nation. His visit is also meant to be a special gesture of his closeness with Egypt’s beleaguered Christian community that has been the target of terrorist attacks.
Indian Jesuit priest Fr. Bimal Kumar Kerketta who has been working in Egypt for some 14 years, takes a look at the Pope’s 18th foreign visit from his own perspective. A member of the Indian Jesuit Province of Ranchi, Fr. Kerketta volunteered to work for the Near-East Jesuit Province and arrived in Egypt in 2002. After learning Arabic the hard way he served as principal of an Arabic medium school in upper Egypt, and for the past two years he is involved with a French medium school in Cairo. Speaking to Vatican Radio from the Egyptian capital Cairo, Fr. Kerketta commented on the significance of the Pope’s visit:
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...
