STATEMENTS FROM THE VATICAN – POPE PRAYS FOR HOMELESS AND THOSE WHO SUFFER OUT OF SIGHT

STATEMENTS FROM THE VATICAN

FROM HOLY SEE PRESS OFFICE DIRECTOR MATTEO BRUNI:
In addition to the six reported cases, the positivity of an additional Holy See employee, already in isolation since mid-March because of his wife who had tested positive at Covid-19 after serving in the Italian hospital where she works, was added. On this occasion it is useful to clarify that, like all institutional realities, the various entities and departments of the Holy See and of the Vatican City State continue only in essential, mandatory and non-deferrable activities, clearly adopting, to the maximum extent possible, the appropriate measures that have already been communicated, which include remote work and criteria regarding duty shifts, in order to safeguard staff health.

FROM CARDINAL SECRETARY OF STATE PIETRO PAROLIN:
The Holy Father Francis, in the audience granted to His Excellency Msgr. Edgar Peña Parra, substitute for General Affairs of the Secretariat of State on March 31, 2020, agreed to extend the term and the legal effects referred to in the previous Rescriptum ex audientia SS.mi dated March 18, 2020 containing extraordinary and urgent measures to counter the epidemiological emergency from Covid-19 and to contain the negative effects on the conduct of the judicial activity. This term, initially set for April 3, 2020, is extended to May 4, 2020. The Holy Father has ordered that this rescript be promulgated by publication in L’Osservatore Romano, coming into force immediately, and then published in the official commentary of the Acta Apostolicae Sedis.

POPE PRAYS FOR HOMELESS AND THOSE WHO SUFFER OUT OF SIGHT

During morning Mass on Thursday, Pope Francis turned his thoughts to those who are living this time of sorrow and fear, hidden in the cracks of society. (playback included – see link below)
By Vatican News

In his opening words at Mass at the Casa Santa Marta, Pope Francis said, “these days of sorrow and sadness highlight so many hidden problems.”

He mentioned a photograph featured in a daily paper that, he said, touches the heart: “So many homeless people in a city, huddling in a parking lot… there are so many homeless people today.” (photo: Las Vegas Review)

He invited the faithful to ask St. Teresa of Calcutta to awaken in us a sense of closeness to those who live, hidden, in the cracks of society, like the homeless whose plight is particularly evident in this moment of crisis.

We have been chosen by God
In his homily, the Pope explained that Christians must be conscious of having been chosen by God, joyful as they tread the path of salvation, and faithful to the Covenant.

Commenting on the readings of the Day, from the Book of Genesis and from the Gospel according to John, the Pope noted they both focus on the figure of Abraham, on the Covenant with God and on how Jesus comes to “remake” creation by forgiving our sins.

(TO CONTINUE: https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope-francis/mass-casa-santa-marta/2020-04/pope-mass-casa-santa-marta-homeless-homily.html)

VATICAN INSIDER: KATE MAHONEY, HER MIRACULOUS CURE AND A BEATIFICATION – POPE FRANCIS TAKES QUESTIONS FROM CHILDREN IN HURRICANE-HIT TEXAS, PUERTO RICO – PRIEST EXORCIZES LAS VEGAS SHOOTER’S HOTEL ROOM WITH HOLY WATER AFTER FEELING EVIL PRESENCE

VATICAN INSIDER: KATE MAHONEY, HER MIRACULOUS CURE AND A BEATIFICATION

My guest this weekend in the interview segment of Vatican Insider is Kate Mahoney whose miraculous cure of multiple organ failure following treatment for cancer was credited to the intercession of Servant of God Mother Marianne Cope and this led to Marianne’s beatification in 2005. Kate tells an amazing – and extremely inspiring! – story so be sure to pour that extra cup of coffee as you listen to her tale.

Here is a photo I took of Kate as she met Audrey Toguchi, another “miracolata” as we call her in Rome, whose cure of lung cancer was attributed to Blessed Damien of Molokai, a miracle that led to his canpnization in 2009. The two met for the first time at the Damien and Marianne Catholic Conference that I attended last weekend in Honolulu. The second photo also shows Bishop Larry Silva of Honolulu.

They both gave wonderful talks about their cures and answered questions for those attending this session.

Kate has written a book about her journey through illness to her pilgrimage to Rome for Mother Marianne’s beatification.

In the United States, you can listen to Vatican Insider (VI) on a Catholic radio station near you (there is a list of U.S. stations at www.ewtn.com) or on channel 130 Sirius-XM satellite radio. 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.” Vatican Insider airs Saturday mornings at 9:00am (ET). On the SKY satellite feed to the UK and parts of Europe, VI airs on audio channel 0147 at 11:30 am CET on Saturdays, and 5:30am and 10pm CET on Sundays. It’s also available on demand on the EWTN app and on the website. CHECK YOUR TIME ZONE. Here’s a link to download VI to your iTunes library: http://www.ewtn.com/se/pg/DatService.svc/feed/~LE.xml   For VI archives: http://www.ewtn.com/vondemand/audio/file_index.asp?SeriesId=7096&pgnu=

POPE FRANCIS TAKES QUESTIONS FROM CHILDREN IN HURRICANE-HIT TEXAS, PUERTO RICO

ROME (CNS) — Pope Francis said that there are no easy answers to the suffering and destruction wrought by hurricanes and that while such disasters happen naturally, humankind must also take responsibility for not caring for the environment.

In a video chat with young children participating in a program of the international network of “Scholas Occurrentes” Oct. 26, the pope spoke with children from Texas and Puerto Rico, where Hurricanes Harvey and Maria struck hardest.

“If God loves us all, why did he make hurricanes and heavy rains?” asked Pedro Garcia, a 9-year-old Mexican-American boy living in Houston who lost his home after Hurricane Harvey struck Texas.

Galveston-Houston Catholic school students smile for a photo before a live video chat with Pope Francis at Telemundo Houston Oct. 26. In a video chat with young children from Texas and Puerto Rico, the pope said there are no easy answers to the suffering and destruction wrought by hurricanes. (CNS photo/James Ramos, Texas Catholic Herald)

Click here for full story: https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2017/10/27/pope-francis-takes-questions-children-hurricane-hit-texas-puerto-rico

PRIEST EXORCIZES LAS VEGAS SHOOTER’S HOTEL ROOM WITH HOLY WATER AFTER FEELING EVIL PRESENCE

(from EWTN’s ChurchPOP) –  The Las Vegas shooting on October 1st, 2017 was the deadliest shooting in modern American history, leaving 58 people dead and over 500 people injured.

About two weeks later, Fr. Clete Kiley from Chicago arrived in Las Vegas with a group meant to help and comfort the traumatized staff of the Mandalay Bay Hotel, from where the killer had opened fire on the concert crowd outside.

He had just finished leading prayer with several hundred members of the hotel staff when the hotel manager approached him. She explained that the shooter’s room had just been released back to the hotel by the FBI, and she wanted him to perform a blessing in the space.

As soon as he set foot in the hallway of the 32nd floor where the room was, he says he immediately felt a dark spiritual presence.

“I felt like I was being pushed back, like ‘don’t come in here’,”he told Newsweek. But he pushed on anyway: “On the inside, I’m going, ‘Oh no, you have to go’.” So he started praying the Prayer to St. Michael.

“When I stepped in the room, I really felt a real profound silence,” he later explained. “I immediately noticed the broken windows covered from outside. It was very powerful to see the physical damage.”

He could sense an evil presence in the room, so he used a palm branch to disperse Holy Water while praying to the Holy Spirit.

Right away, he could feel a sense of comfort and relief. When he returned back downstairs, the hotel staff was also relieved that a Catholic priest had blessed the room.

“You could see people go, ‘Thank God, that’s good’.” he said. “I really saw the whole thing as part of a healing process. A small part of a healing process.”

POPE FRANCIS MOURNS VICTIMS OF LAS VEGAS MASSACRE – WATCH FOR THESE EVENTS……

Early on the morning of Saturday, September 16, my final day of vacation in Honolulu, I was awakened in my hotel room by a noise that I thought was fireworks. I thought of fireworks for a nanosecond as it was still dark outside – nighttime, I thought – but then almost immediately recognized the noise as gunshots. The siren of a police car arriving nearby confirmed that I had heard shots. I did not count but if I had to estimate, I’d have said I heard 8 or so gunshots.

Normally when something suddenly wakes me, as earthquakes have done in the past, I look at the alarm clock but did not do so that morning. Only later, when I looked out my sixth floor window beyond my balcony and saw police car lights flashing, did I learn that, at about 6 am, three men had been shot in a small courtyard I saw every morning as I had breakfast on my balcony.

I never went back to sleep but spent time wondering what had happened, had anyone been hit or hurt on the ground and first floor rooms of the hotel and/or adjacent buildings, and so on. At least half a dozen police cars were still on Kuhio Street, outside my hotel and on the cross street, Seaside, when friends came at noon to pick me up for lunch.

News updates arrived in bits and spurts but I learned eventually that a man was arrested, one of three, after the shooting that left one man dead and two others wounded.

Whether that shooting was drug-fueled or part of a gang killing, I do not know.

And, as horrible as any shooting is, what happened last night in Las Vegas leaves me breathless. I’m a wordsmith by profession but words fail me at this moment. To use “massacre,” “senseless tragedy,” “horrifying,” “unspeakable,” to describe last night’s killing spree just doesn’t seem to be enough.

I’ve followed events on Foxnews all day and even the expression, “an image is worth a thousand words,” doesn’t seem to do it.

As President Trump said, this was “an act of pure evil.” The evil of the killer in fact defies description. The numbers of dead and injured are mind-boggling: 58 dead and over 500 injured as I write.

Two of my nieces and one nephew and his wife (my sister’s two daughters and one son) went to a U-2 concert in San Diego on September 22 – yet another big venue and enormous crowd. All went well, of course, but that’s all I could think of today as I followed the news from Las Vegas. I though about that San Diego concert, of all the people who went home that night, tired but very happy, of seeing my nieces and nephew who could tell me about the concert.

And the people last night who will never go home again.

The best we can do now is pray. I know there are moments in life – such as now – when those words might seem almost trivial to some, but to people of real faith, praying is now the best way we can help those who mourn, especially prayers for the repose of the souls of those who died.

Requiescat in pace!

POPE FRANCIS MOURNS VICTIMS OF LAS VEGAS MASSACRE

Following is the telegram sent by Secretary of State Pietro Parolin in the name of the Holy Father, Pope Francis, to the Most Reverend Joseph Anthony Pepe, Bishop of Las Vegas:

Deeply saddened to learn of the shooting in Las Vegas, Pope Francis sends the assurance of his spiritual closeness to all those affected by this senseless tragedy. He commends the efforts of the police and emergency service personnel, and offers the promise of his prayers for the injured and for all who have died, entrusting them to the merciful love of Almighty God.

Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Secretary of State

The attack in Las Vegas is being described as the deadliest mass shooting in United States history. The gunman, identified by police as Stephen Paddock,64, died at the scene. Police said he fired from the 32nd floor of a Las Vegas Strip casino onto an outdoor country music festival Sunday night.

WATCH FOR THESE EVENTS……

Two very important meetings will take place in Rome this week. Members of the Child Protection Center of Rome’s Jesuit-run Gregorian University will meet October 3 to 6 for a global conference on “Child Dignity in the Digital World.”

This is the result of an initiative launched by the European Union called ONE IN FIVE, referring to the fact that that one boy or girl of every five, that is, 20% of all children in Europe, are victims of sexual abuse. Father Hans Zollner, president of the Child Protection Center, said, ahead of the first global conference on “Child Dignity in the Digital World, “These are horrifying figures.”

This phenomenon circulates on the web via sextortion, sexting, cyberbullying, etc. The victims are children and adolescents in particular. Moreover, 25% of over 3.2 billion Internet users worldwide are children.

Fr. Zollner said, “The purpose of the meeting is to elicit a discussion and sharing platform, and, above all, to launch a set of actions against the sexual abuse of minors online and for the protection of minors in the digital.”

The conference will bring together people and institutions involved in countering this problem in different ways. Government representatives, business executives – especially CEOs of companies linked to the Internet world – law-enforcement authorities, NGOs, international organizations such as UNICEF, along with representatives of media outlets and religious communities: Christians, Jews and Muslims, and experts in the digital world.

The second big meeting this week is that of the Pontifical Academy for Life as members gather in Vatican City for the 23^rd General assembly and the October 5 to 7 Workshop, “Accompanying Life: New Responsibilities in the Technological Era.” This is the first meeting of the Academy since the statutes were revised and new members appointed by Pope Francis.