Author: Eric Deabill

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – With a green light from his doctor, Pope Francis has assured young people that he will be with them in Portugal for World Youth Day despite his recent surgery.

“Some think that because of the illness I won’t go, but the doctor told me that I can go, so I will be with you,” the pope said in a video message released June 22 for pilgrims traveling to Lisbon, Portugal, for World Youth Day Aug. 1-6.

In the video, filmed by Auxiliary Bishop Américo Manuel Alves Aguiar of Lisbon, the pope held up a backpack with the World Youth Day logo, saying “I am ready to go. I have everything in hand because I am looking forward to going.”

The pope noted that there are only 40 days until World Youth Day begins, “like a Lent before the meeting in Lisbon.”

He then gave some advice to young people, telling them not to listen “to those who reduce life to ideas.”

“Poor people,” the pope said, “they’ve lost the joy of life and the joy of encounter. Pray for them.”

Pope Francis encouraged young people, on the other hand, to always move forward while speaking the “three languages of life” — the languages of the head, heart and hands, which allow people to think, feel and act harmoniously.

In a separate video, the pope spoke to the workers who are preparing the infrastructure that makes World Youth Day possible. While he acknowledged that workers “don’t seem like the main characters of World Youth Day,” he said they are the ones who hold the entire celebration in place.

Pope Francis thanked them for their work and for being a “seed.”

“Because you are like a seed, you will bloom from below,” he said. “It’s not seen,” but “the fruit will show.”

Editor Note: The full text, in a variety of languages, can be found here: https://www.synod.va/en/synodal-process/the-universal-phase/documents.html

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – In a church that “bears the signs of serious crises of mistrust and lack of credibility,” members of the assembly of the Synod of Bishops will be asked to find ways to build community, encourage the contribution of every baptized person and strengthen the church’s primary mission of sharing the Gospel, said the working document for the October gathering.

“A synodal church is founded on the recognition of a common dignity deriving from baptism, which makes all who receive it sons and daughters of God, members of the family of God, and therefore brothers and sisters in Christ, inhabited by the one Spirit and sent to fulfil a common mission,” said the document, which was released at the Vatican June 20.

However, it said, many Catholics around the world report that too many baptized persons – particularly LGBTQ+ Catholics, the divorced and civilly remarried, the poor, women and people with disabilities – are excluded from active participation in the life of the church and, particularly, from its decision-making structures.

Based on the input from listening sessions held around the world since October 2021 and, especially, from reports submitted from continental and regional synod sessions earlier this year, the working document asks members of the synod to focus their prayer, discussion and discernment on three priorities:

— Communion, asking: “How can we be more fully a sign and instrument of union with God and of the unity of all humanity?”

— “Co-responsibility in mission: How can we better share gifts and tasks in the service of the Gospel?”

— “Participation, governance and authority: What processes, structures and institutions are needed in a missionary synodal church?”

The first synod assembly, scheduled for Oct. 4-29, “will have the task of discerning the concrete steps which enable the continued growth of a synodal church, steps that it will then submit to the Holy Father,” the document said. Some questions, perhaps many of them, will require further discernment and study with the help of theologians and canon lawyers, which is why a second assembly of the synod will be held in October 2024.

Even then, resolving every issue raised in the synod listening sessions is unlikely, the document said. But “characteristic of a synodal church is the ability to manage tensions without being crushed by them.”

The working document includes worksheets with questions “for discernment” that synod members will be asked to read and pray with before arriving in Rome.

One of them asks, “What concrete steps can the church take to renew and reform its procedures, institutional arrangements and structures to enable greater recognition and participation of women, including in governance, decision-making processes and in the taking of decisions, in a spirit of communion and with a view to mission?”

“Most of the continental assemblies and the syntheses of several episcopal conferences,” it said, “call for the question of women’s inclusion in the diaconate to be considered. Is it possible to envisage this, and in what way?”

As the synod process has taken place, questions have been raised about the relationship between participation in the life of the church and the call to conversion, the document said, which raises “the question of whether there are limits to our willingness to welcome people and groups, how to engage in dialogue with cultures and religions without compromising our identity, and our determination to be the voice of those on the margins and reaffirm that no one should be left behind.”

Another tension highlighted in the process involves shared responsibility in a church that believes its hierarchical structure is willed by Christ and is a gift.

The working document reported a “strong awareness that all authority in the church proceeds from Christ and is guided by the Holy Spirit. A diversity of charisms without authority becomes anarchy, just as the rigor of authority without the richness of charisms, ministries and vocations becomes dictatorship.”

But the document asked members to discuss, think and pray about ways that authority can be exercised more as leadership that empowers shared responsibility and creativity.

“How can we renew and promote the bishop’s ministry from a missionary synodal perspective?” it asked.

“How should the role of the bishop of Rome (the pope) and the exercise of his primacy evolve in a synodal church?” the document said. The question echoed St. John Paul II’s invitation in his 1995 encyclical, “Ut Unum Sint,” (“That They May be One”), for an ecumenical exploration “to find a way of exercising the primacy which, while in no way renouncing what is essential to its mission, is nonetheless open to a new situation.”

The working document also asked synod members to consider ways more priests, religious and laypeople could be involved in the process of choosing bishops.

Throughout the listening sessions at every level, the document said, people recognized that Catholics cannot share fully in the spiritual discernment needed for true co-responsibility without further education in the Christian faith, Catholic social teaching and in the process of discernment itself and how it differs from simply discussing a problem and voting on possible solutions.

In particular, it said, “all those who exercise a ministry need formation to renew the ways of exercising authority and decision-making processes in a synodal key, and to learn how to accompany community discernment and conversation in the Spirit.”

“Candidates for ordained ministry must be trained in a synodal style and mentality,” it said, and the seminary curriculum must be revised “so that there is a clearer and more decisive orientation toward formation for a life of communion, mission and participation.”

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – With a slightly quivering voice, before leading the recitation of the Angelus prayer, Pope Francis thanked everyone who prayed for him and cared for him while he was in the hospital.

Greeting an estimated 15,000 people gathered in St. Peter’s Square June 18, two days after he was released from Rome’s Gemelli hospital following surgery to repair a hernia, the pope thanked everyone who “showed me affection, care and friendship and assured me of their prayerful support.”

“This human and spiritual closeness has been of great help and comfort to me,” the pope said. “Thank you all, thank you, thank you from the bottom of my heart!”

As is customary, Pope Francis also commented on the day’s Gospel reading, Matthew 9:36—10:8, focusing on the line that Jesus sent his apostles out to preach that “the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

“It is the same proclamation with which Jesus began his preaching,” the pope said, telling everyone that “the kingdom of God, that is, his lordship of love, has come near, it comes in our midst.”

The good news of God’s closeness, the pope said, should fill people with trust because “if the God of heaven is close, we are not alone on earth.”

When sharing the Gospel with others, he said, the first thing to let them know is that “God is not far away, but he is a father, he knows you and he loves you; he wants to take you by the hand, even when you travel on steep and rugged paths, even when you fall and struggle to get up again and get back on track.”

In fact, the pope said, “often in the moments when you are at your weakest, you can feel his presence all the more strongly. He knows the path, he is with you, he is your Father!”

The best way to proclaim God’s nearness, he said, is with “gestures of love and hope in the name of the Lord; not saying many words, but making gestures,” as Jesus instructed the apostles: “‘Heal the sick,’ he says, ‘raise the dead, heal the lepers, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.'”

After reciting the Angelus, Pope Francis noted that June 20 is the U.N.-proclaimed World Refugee day and spoke of his “great sadness and deep sorrow” after a fishing boat, packed with migrants – estimates ranged from 500 to 700 men, women and children onboard – sank June 14 off the Greek coast as it attempted to travel from Tobruk, Libya, to southern Italy.

Just over 100 people, all men, were rescued and, as of June 18, 78 bodies had been recovered.

“It seems the sea was calm,” the pope said.

There are conflicting reports from the Greek coast guard, the European border agency and humanitarian organizations about whether the boat was in distress and about what caused it to capsize.

Nevertheless, Pope Francis said, “I renew my prayer for those who lost their lives and I implore that always everything possible be done to prevent such tragedies.”

The pope also prayed for “the young students, victims of the brutal attack that took place against a school in western Uganda” late June 16. Officials said members of the Allied Democratic Forces rebel group attacked a secondary school near the Uganda border with Congo, killing 41 people and kidnapping six others.

“This struggle, this war, is everywhere,” the pope said. “Let us pray for peace!”

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Catholics need to recover a sense of awe and adoration before the Eucharist, knowing that it is “the real and loving presence of the Lord,” Pope Francis told members of the committees organizing the National Eucharistic Revival and the National Eucharistic Congress in the United States.

Jesus spoke of himself as “the living bread which came down from heaven, the true bread that gives life to the world,” the pope told the group June 19, just three days after leaving the hospital following abdominal surgery.

“This morning, while I was celebrating the Eucharist, I thought about this a lot because it is what gives us life,” the pope said. “Indeed, the Eucharist is God’s response to the deepest hunger of the human heart, the hunger for authentic life because in the Eucharist Christ himself is truly in our midst to nourish, console and sustain us on our journey.”

Pope Francis walked into the library using his cane instead of a wheelchair. And although he sat when he read his prepared text — and added spontaneous comments — he stood to bless the four-foot-tall monstrance, paten and chalice that will be used during the eucharistic congress in Indianapolis July 17-21, 2024.

The group was led by Bishop Andrew H. Cozzens of Crookston, Minnesota, chair of the U.S. bishops’ advisory group for the National Eucharistic Revival, a multi-year process aimed at renewing and strengthening faith in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, and chair of the board of directors planning the eucharistic congress.

Bishop Cozzens told Catholic News Service it was “an incredible privilege” to meet the pope and experience “his love, his passion for the Eucharist and for the work that we’re about.”

Pope Francis told the group that, unfortunately, today many Catholics “believe that the Eucharist is more a symbol than the reality of the Lord’s presence and love.”

But, he said, “it is more than a symbol; it is the real and loving presence of the Lord.”

“It is my hope, then, that the eucharistic congress will inspire Catholics throughout the country to discover anew the sense of wonder and awe at the Lord’s great gift of himself,” he said, “and to spend time with him in the celebration of the holy Mass and in personal prayer and adoration before the Blessed Sacrament.”

Pope Francis lamented that many people “have lost the sense of adoration. We need to regain the sense of adoring in silence, adoration. It is a prayer we have lost; few people know what this is, and you bishops need to catechize the faithful on the prayer of adoration,” he said, looking at Bishop Cozzens and Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Indiana, who also accompanied the group.

The pope insisted on the link between celebrating Mass, eucharistic adoration and sharing the Gospel with others.

“In the Eucharist, we encounter the one who gave everything for us, who sacrificed himself in order to give us life, who loved us to the end,” he said. “We become credible witnesses to the joy and transforming beautify of the Gospel only when we recognize that the love we celebrate in this sacrament cannot be kept to ourselves but demands to be shared with all.”

“This is the sense of mission: You go, you celebrate Mass, you take Communion, you go to adoration — and afterward?” he asked. “Afterward you go out, you go out and evangelize; Jesus makes us this way.”

“The Eucharist impels us to a strong and committed love of neighbor,” he insisted. “For we cannot truly understand or live the meaning of the Eucharist if our hearts are closed to our brothers and sisters, especially those who are poor, suffering, weary or may have gone astray in life.”

Speaking off the cuff, the pope said those who believe in the Eucharist must reach out to and visit “the elderly, who are the wisdom of a people, and the sick, who take the form of the suffering Jesus.”

Pope Francis prayed that the National Eucharistic Congress would “bear fruit in guiding men and women throughout your nation to the Lord who, by his presence among us, rekindles hope and renews life.”

In an interview with CNS following the papal audience, Bishop Cozzens said the ongoing process of the Synod of Bishops on synodality and the eucharistic revival are related since, in the listening sessions for the synod, many Catholics expressed concern about a lack of belief in the real presence and about declining Mass attendance.

“We’re probably at an all-time low in the United States in terms of the percentage of Catholics who are actually going to Mass every Sunday,” he said, which is “a huge concern that came forward in the synod process.”

The listening sessions also pleaded with the bishops to work for the unity of the church in the country and draw everyone together around the sacrament of unity, and communion is the best way to do that, he said. “So, I would argue that the synodal process helped us build the whole thing.”

“The Eucharist is the source of our life in the church,” the bishop said. “It’s the beating heart of the church where we receive the life of Christ as the body of Christ.”

ROME (OSV News) – Pope Francis is one of the strongest advocates championing those forced to flee their homelands due to conflict, persecution and other adversities as he repeatedly urges “to welcome, to protect, to promote and to integrate” refugees and migrants, so they can live in peace and dignity.

The practical aspects of this call are carried out by the Holy See’s Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, created in 2016.

“We assist those who care for migrants, refugees and victims of human trafficking as well as the internally displaced and climate displaced,” Scalabrinian Father Fabio Baggio told OSV News regarding the many local churches, pastors, parish priests, bishops, and Catholic organizations and individuals the dicastery helps as it provides pastoral and practical care to the most vulnerable worldwide.

The dicastery asks a simple question of “how can we assist those in making their pastoral care effective, adequate to the real challenges posed,” said Father Baggio, who is the dicastery’s undersecretary for refugee, migrant and human trafficking concerns.

Father Baggio is a priest of the Missionaries of St. Charles Borromeo, commonly known as the Scalabrinian Fathers, founded in 1887 with a particular mission to aid migrants and refugees. The congregation works in 33 countries.

“As a missionary, residing in several countries and being exposed to different realities changed my life and my way of seeing and understanding my problems compared with the problems of many brothers and sisters who are just trying to survive, to ensure the minimum necessary for themselves and their families,” the Italian priest explained.

“This kind of openness can be understood by Christians and Catholics to see others as brothers and sisters, who are, unfortunately, victims of different situations. And we have to rescue and save them exactly as a lost brother with everything we can give,” he said, underscoring the papal call.

“On the other hand, I can say that this provides us with the picture of Jesus Christ as recorded in the Gospel of Matthew 25, where he says: ‘I was naked, I was hungry, I was thirsty, I was a foreigner,’” he continued. “Pope Francis recalls this many times and asks: ‘Is it really Jesus Christ who is knocking on my door?’ It’s an invitation to help those in need.”

“In the past year, we have been collecting all the information available from all around the world and reflecting on this scientifically and theologically. We have also developed manuals (pastoral orientations) for the local Churches aimed at providing clear criteria on how to shape the action and programs to help migrants, refugees, internally displaced people and victims of human trafficking,” Father Baggio said, commenting on the dicastery’s work.

“As soon as we started, we immediately had to face the massive migrations flows from Syria and Venezuela,” Father Baggio added.

In the case of Syrian refugees, the dicastery coordinated closely with several Catholic relief organizations, particularly with Caritas Internationalis and International Catholic Migration Commission (ICMC), working in Jordan and Lebanon, where millions of Syrian refugees fled. It also assisted the bishop’ conferences of South American countries to develop programs to accompany Venezuelan migrants and refugees seeking safety, especially along the routes to Chile and Argentina.

Catholics in Canada, the United States and Australia have sought advice from the dicastery on how to engage in sponsorship programs for refugees. The dicastery also has assisted Catholic organizations aiding refugees and migrants, such as Caritas Italy and the Rome-based Sant’Egidio Community, in organizing humanitarian corridors for the most vulnerable.

Most recently, various Catholic organizations, including Caritas Internationalis, ICMC and the Jesuit Refugee Service, approached the dicastery to create joint action and resource sharing to address the crisis in Ukraine, aiding those displaced inside the war-ravaged country and the millions of refugees outside.

As a fruit of these dialogues, the Catholic Response for Ukraine was established. “It is a very good model that has been developed, which can also be replicated for new humanitarian crises,” Father Baggio said.

The organizations are involved in advocacy on behalf of the vulnerable, providing them with humanitarian assistance and pastoral care as well as spiritual formation, especially for the youth. Giving accurate and updated information to the media also is key.

Father Baggio emphasizes that social assistance and humanitarian aid are provided by the Catholic Church to all migrants and refugees, without distinction of nationality and religion.

“This is the expression of the spirituality of giving. It’s providing aid in the name of Jesus Christ. It is not out of philanthropy. It’s part of the mission of the church,” he said.

“Pope Francis has repeatedly urged the Catholic Church to be like a hospital just going out into the field and healing people,” he said. “Pope Francis is asking us to build bridges and overcome barriers. It is important to leave our comfort zone and reach out to others. I would like to encourage all those who have the possibility to go and see and touch directly the human tragedies that are just around the corner.”

Father Baggio and other humanitarians are calling for a global governance to aid those people who are on the move, whether due to conflict, climate or economics. The sudden eruption of war in Sudan, where many have already been displaced is yet another incident pointing to the need for global governance, he said.

“It is a crisis, and it challenges us today. And we should expect more migrants, more displaced people in the forthcoming years. We need to be prepared. We cannot always be on an emergency footing,” Father Baggio said.

“It’s also a question of long-sided programs that should be enacted today in line with the global governance which comes as a must from everyone’s commitment to care for the common home and the common family.”