Monday is, of course, Memorial Day and it a holiday for EWTN employees so this page may be dark that day but I hope to have something special for you on Tuesday. Wednesday, I depart for Chicago and will explain the special nature of that trip on Tuesday as well. In the meantime, have a lovely holiday weekend, stay warm and dry and safe and drive safely!
As you will see in the story below, Pope Francis today had some very special words about the value of life when he addressed members of the Institute Hospitals of the Innocents based in Florence, Italy. Papal words on life are always much-needed in today’s world and I just wish we had had similar pronouncements, specifically about being pro-life in a pro-abortion world, from the Holy Father or Italian prelates for last Saturday’s 9th Italian March for Life. Not a word from anyone a week ago. However, as they say, “Better late than never!”
VATICAN INSIDER: THE HOLY SEE’S CELEBRATED DIPLOMATIC CORPS
This weekend on Vatican Insider, my guest in the interview segment is Abp. Francisco Javier Lozano, former apostolic nuncio or papal ambassador. We continue a conversation begun last weekend in VI. Ordained a priest in Rome in 1968, the archbishop has Doctorates in Theology, Philosophy and Canon Law. He was called to Rome to study at the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy of Rome and in his early years worked in the nunciatures of Nigeria, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Yugoslavia and Guatemala.
From 1984 to 1994 he was Head of the Latin America-Spain Department of the Vatican’s Secretary of State under Pope John Paul II. Abp. Lozano was eventually Apostolic Nuncio in Tanzania, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Croatia, Romania and Moldova. He speaks Spanish, Italian, French, Portuguese, English, Serbo-Croatian, German, Russian and Romanian. Listen to learn more about the Vatican’s celebrated diplomatic corps.
IN THE UNITED STATES, you can listen to Vatican Insider (VI) on a Catholic radio station near you (stations listed at http://www.ewtn.com) or on channel 130 Sirius-XM satellite radio, or on http://www.ewtn.com. OUTSIDE THE U.S., you can listen to EWTN radio on our website home page by clicking on the right side where you see “LISTEN TO EWTN.” VI airs at 5am and 9pm ET on Saturdays and 6am ET on Sundays. On the GB-IE feed (which is on SKY in the UK and Ireland), VI airs at 5:30am, 12 noon and 10pm CET on Sundays. Both of these feeds are also available on the EWTN app and on http://www.ewtnradio.net ALWAYS CHECK YOUR OWN TIME ZONE! For VI archives: http://www.ewtn.com/multimedia/audio-library/index.asp (write Vatican Insider where it says Search Shows and Episodes)
POPE FRANCIS: FOSTER A CULTURE THAT RECOGNIZES THE VALUE OF LIFE
Pope Francis on Friday met with members of the Institute Hospitals of the Innocents based in the Italian city of Florence as it marks its 600th anniversary. In his prepared remarks the Pope stressed that “we need a culture that recognizes the value of life.”
The Hospital of the Innocents was built by Filippo Brunelleschi in the fifteenth century and is located in the historic city of Florence. It was the first institution of its kind in Europe designed to care for and raise orphaned or abandoned children.
Today, it is an institute that promotes the rights of children and adolescents through a number of services and activities. In addition to residential and educational activities, the Institute also carries out the most recent research and monitoring activities on the condition of children.
In the Vatican on Friday, Pope Francis met with members of the Institute of the hospital and in prepared remarks to those gathered, he stressed that the best of care should be given to the poor, the vulnerable and those living on the peripheries of society.
Among the most vulnerable people, the Pope added, “we must take care of the many rejected children, robbed of their childhood and their future; minors who face desperate journeys to escape from hunger or war.”
He emphasized the plight of mothers whose children do not see the light of day because they “are subject to economic, social and cultural conditioning that pushes them to renounce that wonderful gift that is the birth of a child.”
“How much we need a culture that recognizes the value of life”, the Pontiff said, “a culture that recognizes in every face, even the smallest, the face of Jesus.”
The Pope underlined the importance making sure that “no mother finds herself in the position of having to abandon her child.”
We must also ensure, he continued, “that in the face of any event, even tragic, that may separate a child from his parents, there are facilities and paths of care in which the child is always protected and cared for…”
Joan's Rome 