(Vatican Radio) The Holy See' Representative to the United Nations in New York is calling for vanity to be set aside in Venezuela and for common sense and humanity to motivate the leaders of both sides of the political divide, to mediate face to face at a negotiations table, finding a way out of the country's deepening enveloping crisis. Listen to the report by James Blears: Archbishop Bernardito Auza made this empassioned plea to the General Assembly of the Organization of American States, which is meeting in Cancun, Mexico. He stressed that the Church is urging mediation. He's calling for a peaceful, lasting and viable solution to Venezuela's crisis with urgent and immediate measures to resolve the acute food and medicine shortage, Church organizations will provide aid and assistance. And...for both sides to agree upon an election date, while speeding up the release of detainees. He asking the Government and the Opposition...
(Vatican Radio) The Holy See' Representative to the United Nations in New York is calling for vanity to be set aside in Venezuela and for common sense and humanity to motivate the leaders of both sides of the political divide, to mediate face to face at a negotiations table, finding a way out of the country's deepening enveloping crisis.
Listen to the report by James Blears:
Archbishop Bernardito Auza made this empassioned plea to the General Assembly of the Organization of American States, which is meeting in Cancun, Mexico. He stressed that the Church is urging mediation. He's calling for a peaceful, lasting and viable solution to Venezuela's crisis with urgent and immediate measures to resolve the acute food and medicine shortage, Church organizations will provide aid and assistance. And...for both sides to agree upon an election date, while speeding up the release of detainees.
He asking the Government and the Opposition to put their people in front of their own opposing political interests, saying:
"Both the Holy Father as well as the State Secretariat and the Venezuelan Episcopal Conference are calling upon the public and political powers to surmount partisan interests and ideologies. To listen to the voice of the people, to defend common good, fostering action to address the undeniable crisis in Venezuela."
What he says must, will and inevitably come to pass. The question is just when pride, ambition and polar opposite positions will be abandoned to embrace the future wellbeing of Venezuala and its grievously suffering people.
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...