SEPTEMBER PRAYER INTENTION: FOR PEOPLE LIVING ON THE MARGINS – HOLY SEE PRESS OFFICE: POPE DID NOT EXALT IMPERIALIST LOGIC IN REMARKS ABOUT RUSSIA

The Holy See Press Office today released the official calendar of Pope Francis’ Liturgical Celebrations for September and October 2023, which includes Masses during the Apostolic Journey to Marseille, France; the Consistory; and for the opening and closing of the Synod in October. https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2023-08/vatican-publishes-pope-liturgical-schedule-for-september.html

SEPTEMBER PRAYER INTENTION: FOR PEOPLE LIVING ON THE MARGINS

Following is Pope Francis’ prayer intention for the month of September 2023:

A homeless person who dies on the street will never appear among the top stories of search engines or newscasts.

How could we have reached this level of indifference?

How is it that we allow the “throwaway culture” – in which millions of men and women are worth nothing compared to economic goods – how is it that we allow this culture to dominate our lives, our cities, our way of life?

Our necks are going to get stiff from looking the other way so we don’t have to see this situation.

Please, let’s stop making invisible those who are on the margins of society, whether it’s due to poverty, addictions, mental illness or disability.

Let’s focus on accepting them, on welcoming all the people who need it.

The “culture of welcoming,” of hospitality, of providing shelter, of giving a home, of offering love, of giving human warmth.

Let us pray for those people on the margins of society in subhuman living conditions, that they may not be neglected by institutions and never be cast out.

For Vatican news video: https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2023-08/pope-francis-september-prayer-intention-marginalization.html

HOLY SEE PRESS OFFICE: POPE DID NOT EXALT IMPERIALIST LOGIC IN REMARKS ABOUT RUSSIA

The director of the Holy See Press Office today clarified Pope Francis’ remarks on Russia made on 25 August during a video link-up with participants at the Russian Youth Day in St Petersburg, saying the Pope “intended to encourage young people to preserve and promote what is positive in Russia’s great cultural and spiritual heritage.”

By Salvatore Cernuzio

“In the words of greeting addressed to several young Russian Catholics a few days ago, as is clear from the context in which he pronounced them, the Pope intended to encourage young people to preserve and promote what is positive in Russia’s great cultural and spiritual heritage, and certainly not to exalt imperialistic logics and governmental personalities, cited to indicate certain historical periods of reference.”

Matteo Bruni, the Director of the Holy See Press Office, made that clarification on Tuesday regarding the words spoken by Pope Francis at the end of a virtual meeting on 25 August with participants in the Russian Youth Day that had opened three days earlier in St Petersburg.

To the young people gathered in the Russian city’s St. Catherine’s Basilica, the Pope, after reiterating the invitation to be “sowers of seeds of reconciliation”, asked them to never forget their “heritage”.

He then referred to ‘great Russia’ and its cultural history, and cited Peter the Great and Catherine II.

The Pope’s words – published on the website of the Church of the Mother of God in Moscow – provoked several protests from Ukraine, which criticised the Pope’s greeting as an encouragement of imperialist ideas.

A reaction from Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, followed a few hours later.

The nunciature in Kyiv, however, rejected all interpretations, stating that Pope Francis “is a convinced opponent and critic of any form of imperialism or colonialism, in all peoples and situations. The words of the Roman Pontiff, pronounced on 25 August, should also be interpreted in this same key.”