(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Wednesday continued his reflections on Christian hope, as he greeted thousands of pilgrims and visitors gathered in St Peter’s Square and in the Paul VI audience hall for his weekly general audience. Listen to Philippa Hitchen's report: Pope Francis began his reflection by noting that none of us can live without love. Yet many people today, he went on, are anguished or empty inside because they don’t believe they are beautiful or important enough to be loved by others.Imagine a world where everyone is seeking attention and no-one is prepared to give love in a gratuitous way, he said. Behind so much narcissistic behaviour and incomprehensible actions we discover feelings of solitude and abandonment.When adolescents feel unloved, the pope continued, they may turn to violence, hatred or delinquent behaviour. There is no such thing as bad children or evil adolescents, he said, but there are unhappy people. When we look and smile fre...
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Wednesday continued his reflections on Christian hope, as he greeted thousands of pilgrims and visitors gathered in St Peter’s Square and in the Paul VI audience hall for his weekly general audience.
Listen to Philippa Hitchen's report:
Pope Francis began his reflection by noting that none of us can live without love. Yet many people today, he went on, are anguished or empty inside because they don’t believe they are beautiful or important enough to be loved by others.
Imagine a world where everyone is seeking attention and no-one is prepared to give love in a gratuitous way, he said. Behind so much narcissistic behaviour and incomprehensible actions we discover feelings of solitude and abandonment.
When adolescents feel unloved, the pope continued, they may turn to violence, hatred or delinquent behaviour. There is no such thing as bad children or evil adolescents, he said, but there are unhappy people. When we look and smile freely at someone who is sad, he said, we open their hearts and offer them a way out of their unhappiness.
Pope Francis said that God loves us with an unconditional love, not because we deserve it, but rather because he himself is love. Like the father of the prodigal son, he said, God has compassion for us even when we are far away from him. He also recalled the many mothers he met, back in Buenos Aires, who continued to love their sons unconditionally, even when they did wrong and ended up in prison.
It is a time of Resurrection for us all, the pope concluded, because Jesus died to forgive us our sins. It is time to lift up those who are discouraged and to live in the hope of God the Father who loves us for ever, just as we are..May all of us find in God’s embrace the promise of new life and freedom, he said, for in his love is the source of all our hope.
U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Samuel Alito. / Credit; Chip Somodevilla/Getty ImagesCNA Staff, May 7, 2024 / 08:00 am (CNA).U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito is scheduled to give the commencement address on May 11 to the record-breaking 896 students in the class of 2024 at Franciscan University of Steubenville.On the occasion, Alito will also receive an honorary doctorate in Christian ethics "for his decades of exemplary public service and tireless efforts to protect and uphold justice and the rule of law," according to Franciscan's May 6 press release. Alito is known for his majority opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, the 2022 decision that reversed Roe v. Wade and determined that the Constitution could not confer a right to abortion. Alito is also known for backing religious liberty and gun rights. Prior to the graduation ceremony, Bishop Frank Caggiano of Bridgeport, Connecticut, is set to preside at the baccalaureate Mass and give...
Argentinian prelate Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández. / Credit: Tiziana Fabi/AFP via Getty ImagesRome Newsroom, May 7, 2024 / 09:02 am (CNA).The Vatican's doctrine office will publish a new document next week on discerning Marian apparitions and other supernatural events.The Holy See Press Office announced on Tuesday that Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, the prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF), will unveil new norms for discernment regarding "apparitions and other supernatural phenomena" on Friday, May 17.In an interview with the National Catholic Register, CNA's sister news partner, last month, Fernandez said that the document will provide "clear guidelines and norms" for discernment.The new norms will be the first time that the Vatican's doctrinal office has issued a general document on apparitions in four decades. Pope Paul VI approved norms on "the discernment of presumed apparitions or revelations" in 1978.Fernandez will speak at a livestreamed Va...
Father Mike Depcik offer Mass at the Seton Shrine Basilica in Emmitsburg, Maryland, during a recent retreat at the shrine. / Credit: Courtesy of the Seton ShrineCNA Staff, May 7, 2024 / 07:00 am (CNA).One of the few Deaf Catholic priests in the United States is working to renew the Church's ministry to the Deaf in Maryland and beyond through signed Masses, retreats, and an upcoming Eucharistic congress for the Deaf. Father Michael Depcik, who last year became the chaplain for the Deaf Ministry in the Archdiocese of Baltimore, was born deaf and grew up in a Deaf Catholic family in Chicago. According to Depcik, being "culturally Deaf" (a culture signified by the uppercase Deaf) is vastly different than losing hearing later in life. The distinction is important, Depcik explained, because the Deaf community is its own culture, with its own language. "We're proud to be Deaf, and we identify as Deaf people, and we use American Sign Language as the primary language," Depcik ...