PAPAL CATECHESIS ON FOURTH CARDINAL VIRTUE OF TEMPERANCE
During his Wednesday general audience in St. Peter’s Square, Pope Francis focused on the fourth and final cardinal virtue of temperance, saying that our ability to have power over ourselves will help us savour all we have in life, in a much more meaningful and joyful way, akin to sipping a glass of wine, rather than drinking it all at once.
(Vatican news)
Faced with pleasures, the Pope said, the temperate person acts judiciously.
“The free course of impulses and total license accorded to pleasures end up backfiring on us, plunging us into a state of boredom,” the Pope said. “How many people who have wanted to try everything voraciously have found themselves losing the taste for everything!”
Given this, he explained, we should enjoy moderately.
“For example, to appreciate a good wine,” the Pope observed, is “to taste it in small sips,” rather than drinking it all at once.
The temperate person, Pope Francis said, knows how to weigh words and dose them well. “He does not allow a moment’s anger to ruin relationships and friendships that can then only be rebuilt with difficulty,” especially, the Pope said, “in family life, where inhibitions are lower, we all run the risk of not keeping tensions, irritations and anger in check.”
He acknowledged that they know the time to speak and to be silent, both in the right measure, knowing how to control their own irascibility.
“This does not mean we always find him with a peaceful and smiling face,” the Pope said, recognizing that at times it is necessary to be indignant, “but always in the right way.”
A word of rebuke, he said, is at times healthier than a sour, rancorous silence. “The temperate person knows that nothing is more uncomfortable than correcting another person, but he also knows that it is necessary.”
Moreover, the Catechism says that temperance “ensures the will’s mastery over instincts and keeps desires within the limits of what is honorable,” noting the temperate person “directs the sensitive appetites toward what is good and maintains a healthy discretion, and does not follow the base desires, but restrains the appetites.”
POPE FRANCIS ASKS RELEASE OF PRISONERS OF WAR, DECRIES TORTURE
Pope Francis turns his attention to prisoners of war, prays for their freedom and denounces the tortures many of them are subjected to.
By Linda Bordoni (vatican news)
Pope Francis on Wednesday highlighted the plight of prisoners of war in conflict-stricken countries.
“Our thoughts, at this moment, [the thoughts] of all of us, go to the peoples at war,” he said, speaking off-cuff at the end of the General Audience.
“We think of the Holy Land, of Palestine, of Israel. We think of Ukraine, tormented Ukraine. We think of the prisoners of war…”
And raising an appeal for their liberation, the Pope said:
“May the Lord move wills so they may all be freed.”
Adding to his appeal Pope Francis had special thoughts for those prisoners who are subjected to torture.
The torture of prisoners is a horrible thing, it is not human,” he decried, “We think of so many kinds of torture that wound the dignity of the person, and of so many tortured people… May the Lord help everyone and bless everyone.”
“We think of so many kinds of torture that wound the dignity of the person.”
Joan's Rome 