FYI – POPE HOLDS GENERAL AUDIENCE, VISITS ROME HOSPITAL FOR DIAGNOSTIC TESTS – POPE FRANCIS VISITS ROME HOSPITAL FOR DIAGNOSTIC TESTS – WEEKLY CATECHESIS ON VIRTUES AND VICES FOCUSES ON ENVY AND VAINGLORY

11 years ago this evening, Pope Benedict XVI resigned the papacy and the doors of Castelgandolo, where he was staying, were slowly closed at 8 pm. Thank you for your years as the Successor of Peter!

I played a role in the EWTN coverage of that day, one of the most remarkable and emotional moments of my personal and professional life: https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=NvtBYIXc7YY

FYI

A woman has left 5.3 million euros (around $5.7 million) in her will for the restoration of La Madeleine church in Paris, France, where she used to meet her husband at lunchtimes (French report, Wikipedia). (Starting Seven, Luke Coppen, The Pillar)

The Pontifical Academy for Life moves from the Via della Conciliazione to Rome’s Piazza San Calisto.https://english.katholisch.de/artikel/51419-moving-away-from-the-vatican-pontifical-academy-for-life-relocates?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email   (Starting Seven, Luke Coppen).

POPE HOLDS GENERAL AUDIENCE, VISITS ROME HOSPITAL FOR DIAGNOSTIC TESTS

Pope Francis, arriving in the Paul VI Hall in his wheelchair for the weekly general audience, told the faithful “I still have a bit of a cold which is why I asked Monsignor Ciampanelli to read today’s catechesis.” Msgr. Ciampanelli is an official of the Secretariat of State.

Before the general audience, the Holy Father met with Armenia’s Catholic bishops at which time Msgr. Ciampanelli also read the papal discourse.

After he left the Paul VI Hall, it was reported that the Pope, in a white Fiat 500 car with tinted windows, filmed by Italy’s RAI television, was taken to the Fatebenefratelli Isola Tiberina – Gemelli Isola hospital.  Run by the Fratebenefratelli order, the hospital was known as Giovanni Calibita Fatebenefratelli. Its name was changed on September 1, 2022 to Fatebenefratelli Isola Tiberina – Gemelli Isola.

The Holy See Press Office confirmed media reports in a terse statement only at 12:45: “After the general audience Pope Francis went to the Gemelli Isola Tiberina Hospital for some diagnostic tests. At the end, he returned to the Vatican.”

(JFL: Sunday was the first time in a week that we saw or heard from Pope Francis.  We only know that last week he was on retreat, a week about which we have no details. How did the Pope spend his time? Did someone come in and share thoughts with him or preach to him? Importantly, we do not know if perhaps he was already feeling unwell during the week of spiritual exercises. If indeed he was not 100 perccnt all or part of the time, that would be a telling sign.)

POPE FRANCIS VISITS ROME HOSPITAL FOR DIAGNOSTIC TESTS

Following the weekly General Audience, Pope Francis, who has been suffering from mild flu symptoms in the past days, visits Rome’s Gemelli Hospital on the Tiber Island for some diagnostic tests.

By Vatican News

A statement released by the Holy See Press Office on Wednesday said Pope Francis visited the Gemelli Hospital on Rome’s Tiber Island straight after the General Audience, where he underwent some diagnostic tests. Following the tests, he was driven back to the Vatican.

Some scheduled papal audiences were cancelled in the past days as a precautionary measure due to flu symptoms the Pope was experiencing.

On Wednesday morning, at the beginning of the Wednesday General Audience, he explained to those present in the Paul VI Hall that he still had a “cold”  and he asked one of his collaborators, Monsignor Filippo Ciampanelli, to read the catechesis for him.

Immediately after the audience, he was driven to the Rome hospital on the Tiber Island, which is very close to the Vatican.

On Sunday, he recited the Angelus as usual, appearing at the balcony overlooking St. Peter’s Square.

The Holy See Press Office meanwhile has confirmed the Pope will receive German Chancellor, Olaf Scholtz, in audience on Saturday, 2 March, as planned.

WEEKLY CATECHESIS ON VIRTUES AND VICES FOCUSES ON ENVY AND VAINGLORY

Reading the papal catechesis for Pope Francis, Msgr. Ciampanelli began, “In our catechesis on the virtues and the vices, we now turn to envy and vainglory.

“Let us start with envy. If we read Holy Scripture, it appears to us as one of the oldest vices: Cain’s hatred of Abel is unleashed when he realizes that his brother’s sacrifices are pleasing to God. Cain was the firstborn of Adam and Eve, he had taken the largest share of his father’s inheritance; yet, it is enough for Abel, the younger brother, to succeed in a small feat, for Cain to become enraged. The face of the envious man is always sad: he’s always looking down, he seems to be continually investigating the ground; but in reality, he sees nothing, because his mind is wrapped up in thoughts full of wickedness. Envy, if unchecked, leads to hatred of the other. Abel would be killed at the hands of Cain, who could not bear his brother’s happiness.

Vatican media…

PIX

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At envy’s basis, the Holy Father suggested, is a relationship of hate and love. “One desires the evil for the other, but secretly desires to be like him. “His good fortune seems to us an injustice: surely, we think to ourselves,  we would deserve his successes or good fortune much more!”

At the root of this vice, he noted, is “a false idea of God,” where “we do not accept that God has His own ‘math,’ different from ours.”

“Vainglory, says the Pope, “goes hand in hand with the demon of envy, and together these two vices are characteristic of a person who aspires to be the centre of the world, free to exploit everything and everyone, the object of all praise and love. Vainglory is an inflated and baseless self-esteem. The vainglorious person possesses an unwieldy “I”: he has no empathy and takes no notice of the fact that there are other people in the world besides him. His relationships are always instrumental, marked by the dominating the other. His person, his accomplishments, his achievements must be shown to everyone: he is a perpetual beggar for attention. And if at times his qualities are not recognized, he becomes fiercely angry. Others are unfair, they do not understand, they are not up to it.

“Saint Paul’s example of boasting of his weakness rather than achievements offers an effective way for overcoming vainglory. May we, like him, know that God’s grace is sufficient, since his power is made perfect in weakness, and all the more gladly boast of our weaknesses, that the power of Christ may set us free for a more generous love of others.”

POPE REFLECTS ON ACEDIA, LAZINESS, AT GENERAL AUDIENCE – A LIVING MARTYR: POPE FRANCIS PAYS TRIBUTE TO CARDINAL IMPRISONED FOR THREE DECADES

I learned a new word by listening to today’s general audience. As I heard the Pope say “acedia,” and then explain it as laziness, I wondered how for how many other people present at the audience, this was also a new word, instead of the one they would use in their native language for laziness. Just remember acedia when I give you a quiz!

POPE REFLECTS ON ACEDIA, LAZINESS, AT GENERAL AUDIENCE

The Vatican website each week offers the full catechesis of the Holy Father at the general audience, always recited in Italian, as well as a summary in each of the 8 languages used at the audience. Those same summaries are read at the weekly audience by a staff member of a Vatican office. Following is the summary of today’s papal reflections on acedia:

In our reflections on the vices and virtues, we now consider acedia or sloth, which, although associated in English with laziness, is above all a deep spiritual apathy, manifested by discontent and aversion to attentive prayer and growth in our relationship with God. According to the monastic tradition, this “noonday devil” is best overcome by the patience of faith. This includes accepting the poverty or dark night of faith, which then enables us, by God’s grace, to sense the divine presence and to continue to reach out to God. The saints themselves show us that perseverance in time of temptation leads us to set practical goals, however small, for our daily life and moves us to lean on Jesus, who always remains with us.

For the full catechesis in English, click on the following link. The Pope appears in the Paul VI audience hall at 4:22 but you might just want to watch the crowd before that.

At 48:50, the Pope speaks movingly of martyrs, yesterday’s and modern day martyrs, and welcomes 95-year old Cardinal Ernest Simoni from Albania who, under communist rule, spent 28 years in prison. Very moving images!

https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/events/event.dir.html/content/vaticanevents/en/2024/2/14/udienza-generale.html

A LIVING MARTYR: POPE FRANCIS PAYS TRIBUTE TO CARDINAL IMPRISONED FOR THREE DECADES

At his weekly general audience, Pope Francis pays tribute to Cardinal Ernest Simoni, who was imprisoned by the Communist regime in Albania for twenty-eight years.

By Joseph Tulloch (Vatican news)

At the end of this week’s general Audience, Pope Francis laid aside his prepared remarks and offered a long, unscripted greeting to one of his visitors.

After discussing the history of Christian martyrdom in ancient Rome, the Pope noted that today, too, there are many martyrs all across the world, and offered a special greeting to Cardinal Ernest Simoni, who he described as a “living martyr”,

Twenty-eight years imprisonment
Born in the village of Troshani, northern Albania, in 1928, Ernest Simoni began his studies for the priesthood within the Franciscan order when he was just ten years old

In 1948, the Franciscan convent where he was staying was looted by agents of the Communist regime. The friars were shot and the novices expelled.

Despite this, Simoni continued his theological studies in secret, and was clandestinely ordained a priest in 1956.

In 1963, after Christmas Mass, Simoni was arrested and imprisoned. He remained behind bars for twenty-eight years, facing both solitary confinement and many years of hard labour.

Pope Francis met Fr Simoni during his visit to Albania in September 2014, and was brought to tears when listening to him discussing his sufferings. After returning to Rome, the Pope decided to make the elderly priest a Cardinal.

The Pope’s words
Pope Francis began his tribute to Cardinal Simoni with a reference to the many Christian martyrs buried all around them in the Vatican.

“All of us have read, have heard, the stories of the early martyrs of the Church,” he said. “Even here, where the Vatican is now, there is a cemetery, and many were executed here.”

“But, even today,” the Pope stressed, “there are many martyrs all over the world: many, perhaps more than at the beginning. There are many persecuted for their faith.”

He then introduced Cardinal Simoni, noting that he “lived 28 years in prison” as a result of the Communist persecution of the Church in Albania which, he said, was “perhaps the cruelest” of its kind.

Cardinal Simoni “continues to bear witness,” the Pope stressed. “He is now 95 years old, and he continues to work for the Church without becoming discouraged.”

After his release from prison in the 1990s, Cardinal Simoni forgave his jailers, and resumed his service as a priest, with a special focus on promoting reconciliation in post-Communist Albania.

“Dear brother,” Pope Francis concluded, “I thank you for your witness.”

CHINA: CONSECRATION OF THE NEW BISHOP OF SHAOWU – POPE FRANCIS: “WRATH, A PARTICULARLY DARK VICE”

More on the Sunday killing of a man in a Catholic Church in Istanbul on Sunday, January 28:  https://english.katholisch.de/artikel/50727-victim-in-catholic-church-in-istanbul-was-not-a-christian?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

There seems to be a bit of positive news from China as we have read in recent days, including today, with the appointment and installation of 3 new Catholic bishops. There has been a lot of criticism since the September 22, 2018 agreement signed between the Holy See and China about the appointment of bishops (and renewed in 2020 and 2022).

Basically, the communist Chinese government (PCC) was allowed to name the men they wanted as bishops but the Pope does have the right to disagree with the choice. Full disclosure, I have been one of the main critics of this agreement for reasons I have explained many times in this column and on Facebook.

I assume there was a quid pro quo in each of these recent cases. Is there room to feel positive that three new bishops will minister well to the Catholics in China and also be (allowed to be) active evangelizers?

Acts of the Apostles (at the Ascension): “But you will receive power when the holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

I am hopeful but also a realist.

Following is the news about today’s consecration of the new bishop of Shaowu. After that are links to the two stories about the other new Chinese bishops.

I think Pope Francis’ general audience catechesis on wrath is so important today. Wrath, ire, anger, rage, outrage, indignation, call it what you will but there is so much wrath in the world today. Look at social discourse. Look at political parties. Look at some posts on the Internet.  Let’s listen to and reflect on what Francis said.

CHINA: CONSECRATION OF THE NEW BISHOP OF SHAOWU

Fr. Pietro Wu Yishun has been consecrated as the new Bishop of Shaowu (Minbei) in the Chinese province of Fujian, taking place according to the framework of the Provisional Agreement.

By Vatican News

On Wednesday, 31 January, the new bishop of Shaowu (Minbei) in the Chinese province of Fujian was consecrated.

Father Pietro Wu Yishun was appointed by Pope Francis on 16 December 2023.

The appointment was announced on Wednesday by the Holy See Press Office following his episcopal consecration, as set out in the framework of the Provisional Agreement between the Holy See and the People’s Republic of China.

Bishop Pietro Wu Yishun was born on 7 December 1964. He was ordained a priest on 15 August, 1992, for the Diocese of Xiamen.

Later sent to Minbei, he served there as a pastor, holding various roles, including being the parish priest of Nanping and responsible for the Apostolic Prefectures of Shaowu and Jian’ou.

Catholic community in Fujian province
The consecration liturgy of the new bishop, reported by the Vatican’s Fides news agency, took place in the Chengguan parish of the Jianyang district, dedicated to the Nativity of Mary, in the city of Nanping (Fujian province).

Bishop Giuseppe Li Shan of Beijing presided over the consecration. Three other Chinese bishops, around eighty priests from various dioceses in China, and over 360 lay faithful participated in the liturgy.

The life of the ecclesial community in the diocese of Shaowu (Minbei), according to Fides, is woven with the ordinary gestures of catechism, liturgies, prayers, charitable works, and the succession of months dedicated each year to St. Joseph, Mary, the Sacred Heart, and the Rosary.

Churches of ancient origin are restored and recovered, and pastoral initiatives are shared according to the priorities suggested by the Pope.

Thus, the diocesan parishes celebrated specific initiatives during the Pauline Year, proclaimed by Pope Benedict XVI, and the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, announced by Pope Francis.

Prayers were offered in the diocesan parishes for the success of the Olympics and the end of the pandemic. In the face of earthquakes and natural disasters, funds and relief goods are collected for the affected populations.

During the Year of Mercy, concluded Fides, the diocesan community designated two ancient churches, built more than 110 years ago, as sanctuaries with Holy Doors to pass through, thus living communion with the universal Church and the Successor of Peter.

https://www.vaticannews.va/en/vatican-city/news/2024-01/china-bishop-taddeo-wang-yuesheng-zhengzhou-consecrated.html

https://www.vaticannews.va/en/vatican-city/news/2024-01/bishop-consecrated-for-new-diocese-of-weifang-china.html

POPE FRANCIS: “WRATH, A PARTICULARLY DARK VICE”

Continuing his weekly catechesis on virtues and vices, Pope Francis opened today’s general audience by explaining, “it is time to reflect on the vice of wrath. It is a particularly dark vice, and it is perhaps the easiest to detect from a physical point of view. The person dominated by wrath finds it difficult to hide this impulse: you can recognize it from the movements of his body, his aggressiveness, his laboured breathing, his grim and frowning expression.”

“In its most acute manifestation, ” he continued, “wrath is a vice that concedes no respite. If it is born of an injustice suffered (or believed to be suffered), often it is unleashed not against the offender, but against the first unfortunate victim. There are men who withhold their rage in the workplace, showing themselves to be calm and composed, but at home they become unbearable for the wife and children. Wrath is a pervasive vice: it is capable of depriving us of sleep, of barring the way to reason and thought.” (Vatican photos)

One of the results of wrath, said the Holy Father, is that “it destroys human relationships. It expresses the incapacity to accept the diversity of others, especially when their life choices diverge from our own. It does not stop at the misconduct of one person, but throws everything into the cauldron: it is the other person, the other as he or she is, the other as such, who provokes anger and resentment. One begins to detest the tone of their voice, their trivial everyday gestures, their ways of reasoning and feeling.”

Pope Francis noted that “Wrath makes us lose lucidity, doesn’t it? Because one of the characteristics of wrath, at times, is that sometimes it fails to mitigate with time. In these cases, even distance and silence, instead of easing the burden of mistakes, magnifies them. For this reason, the Apostle Paul – as we have heard – recommends to Christians to face up to the problem straight away, and to attempt reconciliation: “Do not let the sun go down on your anger” (Eph 4:26). It is important that everything dissipate immediately, before sundown. If some misunderstanding arises during the day, and two people can no longer understand each other, perceiving themselves as far apart, the night cannot be handed over to the devil.!

Importantly, the Pope also explained that “the passions are to some extent unconscious: they happen, they are life experiences. We are not responsible for the onset of wrath, but always for its development. And at times it is good for anger to be vented in the right way. If a person were never to (feel) anger, if a person did not become indignant at an injustice, if he did not feel something quivering in his gut at the oppression of the weak, it would mean that the person was not human, must less a Christian.

Francis ended by noting that “holy indignation exists, which is not wrath but an inner movement, a holy indignation. Jesus knew it several times in His life (cf. Mk 3.5): He never responded to evil with evil, but in His soul, He felt this sentiment, and in the case of the merchants in the Temple, He performed a strong and prophetic action, dictated not by wrath, but by zeal for the house of the Lord (cf. Mt 21:12-13). We must distinguish well: zeal, holy indignation, is one thing; wrath, which is bad, is another.”

POPE AT AUDIENCE: KEEP WATCH OVER THE HEART, RECOGNIZE AND REJECT EVIL

POPE AT AUDIENCE: KEEP WATCH OVER THE HEART, RECOGNIZE AND REJECT EVIL

Beginning a new series of catecheses on the virtues and the vices opposed to them, Pope Francis at his weekly general audience explains how the Scriptures and the masters of the spiritual life urge us to reject evil at its root and highlights the importance of safeguarding the heart.

By Thaddeus Jones

Pope Francis welcomed pilgrims attending his general audience in the Paul VI Hall on this Wednesday, just two days after Christmas. His catechesis opened a new series looking at the virtues and the vices opposed to them with an introduction on safeguarding the heart.

The pitfall of pride

Beginning with Scripture, the Pope looked at how the Book of Genesis presents the dynamic of evil and temptation as recounted in the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. The snake, a hidden and slow-moving creature, represents the danger of temptation and sin.

The snake begins to converse with Adam and Eve and does so by sowing gossip and doubts in their minds about God’s intentions and care for them, with trick questions about the tree of the garden and whether they could really eat of its fruit or not, even though prohibited by God, the Pope recounted.

The prohibition on eating from this tree of the knowledge of good and evil marked a “measure of wisdom,” the Pope explained, and not a restriction in the use of reason but a way to help understand that there are human limits and that we are not omnipotent.

The temptation to want to be masters of good and evil is a problem even today, he pointed out, and “the most dangerous pitfall for the human heart.” These stirrings of sin can threaten “our closeness to the Lord and our obedience to his loving plan for our lives.”

The Fall

The story of Adam and Eve shows that they did not manage to resist the temptation of the serpent, who sowed doubts in their minds about God, and they caved into them, leading to the collapse of their harmonious life in Eden, said the Pope.

So, evil did not enter human life in a clamorous way, the Pope observed, but slowly and subtly through thoughts, nurturing doubts, and giving into them to finally being ensnared by its enticements.

On alert to the wiles of the devil

The Pope emphasized that the devil, tempting us to do evil, tries to draw us away from God through cunning and astuteness, and that we must never, ever dialogue with him.

He pointed out that Jesus never dialogued with the devil; he cast him out. In the desert, where Jesus was tempted by the devil, he did not dialogue but simply responded with the words of Scripture, the Word of God.

When faced with temptation, we close the door to it, he underscored, saying here there can be no dialogue; we must watch over our hearts.

Click here for photos of todays audience: General Audience – Activities of the Holy Father Pope Francis | Vatican.va

Watching over the heart

In conclusion, the Pope recommended we watch over our hearts, following the example of the saints as well.

May we all ask for God’s grace to help us learn this practice, he said, the wisdom of guarding the treasure of our hearts with the Lord’s help, always there by our side.