“TERRAFUTURA”: A NEW BOOK EXPLORES POPE FRANCIS’ VISION OF INTEGRAL ECOLOGY – PORTUGAL: PREPARATIONS FOR WYD 2023 RESUME

I hope everyone had a pleasant and peaceful Labor Day. Mine was just that as I did not labor at all, just enjoyed life in what I call “my corner of heaven,” Sorrento!   Maybe you saw the Facebook Live video I posted yesterday as well as the photo that Villa Elisa (my home here for 2 weeks) posted on their Facebook page!

Today is back-to-work day but being in a different venue is a definite picker-upper! I’ll keep you posted on all things papal and Vatican this week and next and I’ll be joining Teresa Tomeo as usual tomorrow on EWTN radio with Catholic Connection and this coming weekend you’ll be able to listen to another, new edition of Vatican Insider. So life goes on!

“TERRAFUTURA”: A NEW BOOK EXPLORES POPE FRANCIS’ VISION OF INTEGRAL ECOLOGY

Three conversations between the author of “TerraFutura” and Pope Francis set the tone of a new book by “Slow Food” founder and environmental activist, Carlo Petrini.

By Vatican News

The working translation of the title of the Italian book on the shelves from 9 September is “TerraFutura. Conversations with Pope Francis on integral ecology”.

The author, Carlo Petrini, is the founder of the global “Slow Food” movement, which was established in the 1980s to safeguard regional traditions in the face of a spiralling “fast food” consumeristic cultural and economic trend. It has since evolved to embrace a comprehensive approach to food and lifestyle that recognizes the strong connection between behaviour, food production and consumption, economics and the planet.

This latest book by Petrini stems from his desire to uphold and encourage Pope Francis’ invitation to tackle and change a destructive pattern that has led to widespread social and environmental injustice and take action to “Care for our Common Home”, as the Pope writes in his 2015 encyclical “Laudato Sí”.

Based on the concept of “integral ecology”, the book is based on three “frank and friendly” personal conversations between Petrini and the Pope, who discuss their shared commitment to “cultivate and preserve” the goods of the planet, with respect and attention for the lives and livelihoods of all of its inhabitants, in an atmosphere of mutual solidarity.

The three conversations in question all took place in poignant and significant moments of modern history: the first in 2018 in the wake of a disastrous earthquake in central Italy; the second in 2019 just before the opening of the Synod of Bishops on the Amazon; and the third in 2020 amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

The volume is organized according to five different themes: biodiversity, economy, migration, education and community, all seen through a concrete and a spiritual perspective. It is an urgent invitation to “reconnect” with the planet and its peoples in line with the Pope’s teaching.

PORTUGAL: PREPARATIONS FOR WYD 2023 RESUME

The Bishops of Portugal hold their first meeting of the pastoral year, bringing together a team that is working “behind-the-scenes” on the organisation of World Youth Day 2023.

By Vatican News

Preparations for World Youth Day in Lisbon resumed on Saturday, marking the beginning of the new pastoral year. According to Archbishop Américo Aguiar, auxiliary bishop of Lisbon and president of the “WYD Lisbon 2023 Foundation”, Pope Francis is following the preparations for World Youth Day “quietly” and with “excitement”.

Last Wednesday, September 2, Archbishop Aguiar participated in the first General Audience held by the Pope with participation of the faithful, after they had been suspended due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“The Pope is very happy, but he is also calm,” said Archbishop Aguiar, explaining that this is because “he is aware that the preparatory work for WYD is progressing.”

“He also asked us not to forget the dimension of solidarity,” added the Archbishop.

The organisation of WYD 2023 has been “behind-the-scenes” because the priority has been solidarity, explains the president of the WYD Lisbon 2023 Foundation.

World Youth Day in Lisbon was initially due to take place in 2022 but was postponed by one year due to the health emergency triggered by the Covid-19 crisis. The delivery of the symbols of WYD – the Marian Cross and Icon – to the young people of Portugal was also postponed.

Usually on Palm Sunday, which is Diocesan Youth Day, a delegation of young people from the country that hosted the most recent WYD deliver the two symbols to their peers of the nation that will host the following World Youth Day, in St. Peter’s Square.

This time it would have been Panama, where WYD 2019 was held, passing the cross and the Marian icon to Portugal. This year, however, the pandemic prevented the handover.

In the true spirit of WYD

At the moment, the handing over ceremony is scheduled for 22 November, the Feast of Christ the King. However, Archbishop Aguiar stressed that everything will depend on the health situation, because “the health and life of the participants” at WYD must be taken into account.

Archbishop Aguiar expressed his hope that the event in Lisbon be truly “in tune with the lifestyle, the way of feeling and the language of the young people”, so that they may be the real protagonists of the event.

POPE WILL BRING “WISH OF PEACE AND HOPE” TO FATIMA – THE VATICAN OBSERVATORY AND THE MODERN ‘BIG BANG’ THEORY

It was a big weekend here at the Vatican as 40 new Swiss Guards were sworn in during a colorful and historical ceremony Saturday afternoon in the Vatican’s San Damaso courtyard. The Pontifical Swiss Guards were created by Pope Julius II in 1506 as a stable corps, directly dependent on the Holy See, whose main duties were to guard the person of the Roman Pontiff and the Apostolic Palaces. The traditional swearing-in date of May 6 commemorates that date in 1527 when 147 members of the then 189-member Swiss Guards lost their lives during the Sack of Rome when they fell in battle, protecting Pope Clement VII and the Church from the onslaught of the troops of Emperor Charles V.

Sunday, Pope Francis ordained 10 priests in St. Peter’s Basilica, delivering a homily on what was Good Shepherd Sunday according to the Gospel of the day. Sunday was also the Day of Prayer for Vocations. As Vatican Radio noted, “the Holy Father delivered the standard, prepared “template” homily found in the Roman Ritual for priestly ordinations, with three significant extemporaneous deviations from the text.” To read the VR summary: http://www.news.va/en/news/pope-francis-ordains-10-new-priests-on-good-shephe

Also this FYI: “Worldwide Masses Offered on Archbishop Sheen’s Birthday –

Grassroots effort hopes the prayers will move his canonization cause along.” http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/worldwide-masses-offered-on-archbishop-sheens-birthday

Let’s indeed pray that the dispute be ended and that Abp. Sheen’s cause for canonization be resumed! To think that this amazing man of God, a beloved Archbishop appeared on commercial TV for so long, with millions thronging to his show. You’d have the PC police all over him today if he attempted to speak about God and faith today on commercial TV!  How vastly our country has changed – and how greatly we need a man like Archbishop Sheen on commercial television!

POPE WILL BRING “WISH OF PEACE AND HOPE” TO FATIMA

Pope Francis this morning welcomed the faculty, staff and students of the Pontifical Portuguese College in Rome, just days before his trip to Fatima to mark the 100^th anniversary of the apparitions of Our Lady to three shepherd children, two of whom, siblings Jacinta and Francisco Marto, he will canonize.

Thanking his guests for the visit, the Holy Father said, “For my part, I wish peace and hope in the Lord for each of you and your families and nations of origin. In Portugal, God willing, I’ll bring this wish in person, on my now imminent pilgrimage to the Shrine of Fatima, where a hundred years ago the Madonna appeared to the three little shepherds.”

Francis said, “the encounter with Our Lady was for them an experience of grace that inspired their love for Jesus. As tender and good teacher, Mary introduced the little seers to the intimate knowledge of Trinitarian love and led them to savor God as the most beautiful reality of human existence. I cannot but wish the same to all of you, dear friends.”

He told the priests present at the audience, “Whatever your academic specialization, your first concern always remains that of growing on the path of priestly consecration, through the loving experience of God: a close and faithful God, as Blessed Francisco and Jacinta and the Servant of God Lucia felt Him to be. Today, contemplating their humble yet glorious lives, we feel drawn to entrust ourselves, too, to the care of the same Teacher. And this is not a novelty. We always pray for this in to the most ancient Latin antiphon to Our Lady: “sub tuum praesidium confugimus, Sancta Dei Genitrix ”. It invites us to seek shelter under the mantle of a mother who takes us by the hand and teaches us to grow in the love of Christ and in fraternal communion.”

The Pope noted the rector’s words about how, “since 1929, in the college chapel, the gaze of the Mother of God has accompanied the supplications of those who approach the altar. Look to her and let her look upon you, because she is your Mother and loves you greatly; let her look upon you, to learn how to be more humble and also more courageous in following the Word of God; to welcome the embrace of her Son Jesus and, strengthened by this friendship, to love every person following the example and the measure of the Heart of Christ, to which the College is consecrated, finding love, hope and peace in Him.”

“The relationship with Our Lady,” explained Francis, “helps us to have a good relationship with the Church: both of them are Mothers. You know, in this respect, the comment of St. Isaac, the abbot of Stella; what can be said about Mary can be said about the Church, and also about our soul. All three are female, all three are Mothers, and all three give life. We must therefore cultivate the filial relationship with Our Lady because, if this is missing, there is something of the orphan in the heart.

“A priest who forgets the Mother, he continued, “and especially in moments of difficulty, is lacking something. It is as if he were an orphan, while in reality he is not! He has forgotten his mother. But in moments of difficulty a child always goes to his mother. And the Word of God teaches us to be like children, weaned in the arms of the mother.”

“I pray to Our Lady of Fátima,” concluded the Pope, “that she may teach you to believe, worship, hope and love like Blessed Francisco and Jacinta, and the Servant of God Lucia. And please, do not forget to pray for me.”

THE VATICAN OBSERVATORY AND THE MODERN ‘BIG BANG’ THEORY

At 11.00 this morning, in the Holy See Press Office, Via della Conciliazione 54, a press conference was held to present the scientific congress “Black Holes, Gravitational Waves and Space-Time Singularities,” that will take place from May 9 – 12 at the Vatican Observatory at Castelgandolfo. Participants included Bro. Guy Consolmagno, S.J., planetologist and director of the Vatican Observatory; Fr. Gabriele Gionti, S.J., cosmologist, Vatican Observatory; Dr. Alfio Bonanno, cosmologist, INAF, Catania Astrophysical Observatory; and Dr. Fabio Scardigli, cosmologist, Polytechnic University of Milan.

Following is the Vatican Observatory press release:   What happens if you fall into a Black Hole? What happened in the early Big Bang? What is the ultimate destiny of the cosmos? These and other questions will be at the center of discussions at a scientific workshop on “Black Holes, Gravitational Waves and Space-Time Singularities” which will be held from May 9-12 at the Vatican Observatory in Castel Gandolfo.

Among the 35 invited participants, are renowned scientists such as the 1999 Nobel Laureate in Physics, Gerald ‘t Hooft; 1988 Wolf Prize co-winner Roger Penrose; and cosmologists George Ellis, Renata Kallosh and Andrei Linde and Joe Silk.

Telescopes in apostolic palace of Castelgandolfo  (the actual Vatican Observatory is elsewhere on the property in a former convent)(photo: JFL)

One of the aims of this conference will be to encourage a fruitful interaction among participants from both theoretical and observational cosmology, and to create a suitable environment for the emergence of new ideas and research directions in contemporary cosmology. In fact, the recent detection of gravitational waves has opened up a new way of seeing the universe and has also stimulated new speculations about the true nature of the singularities of Space-Time (Black Holes are examples of Space-Time singularities). Topics that the conference intends to explore are the limits of modern cosmology and the scientific challenges of the near future.

The conference celebrates the scientific legacy of Mons. George Lemaître, fifty years after his death. Lemaître was professor of physics at the Catholic University of Leuven and from 1960 to 1966 (the year of his death) he served as president of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. A dedicated priest, he belonged to the Priestly Fraternity of Friends of Jesus, founded by Cardinal Mercier Bishop of Malines, who ordained him as a priest and promoted a renewal of priestly spirituality.

Lemaître was an outstanding cosmologist, nowadays considered one of the fathers of modern Big Bang theory. By the 1920s, astronomical observations of distant galaxies had revealed a mysterious recession motion whose origin was unknown; in 1927, Lemaître was the first to explain that this motion as the result of the expansion of the Universe, and not merely a peculiar motion of the observed objects. He obtained this result by solving the complicated equations of Einstein’s General Relativity Theory, at that time a very new idea which connects the mass-energy distribution of the Universe with the bending of the geometry of the Space-Time.

He became famous for his theory of the “primeval Atom,” known today as the Big Bang Theory. Through the cosmological solution he had worked out in 1927, he understood that, looking backwards in time, the Universe should have been originally in a state of high energy density, compressed into a point like an original atom from which everything started.

This Vatican Observatory workshop is a modern legacy of Lemaître’s scientific intuitions. The conference has also been organized with the support of INAF (Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica) and INFN (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare).

More information about the workshop is available at: http://www.vaticanobservatory.va/content/specolavaticana/en/workshop-lemaitre.html