From Radio Vatican: 01/07/2015 15:25: The Pope expresses his closeness to Greece in time of crisis

Pope Francis \ Activities

Pope Francis: Christians and Jews, brothers and friends

• 01/07/2015 15:25

  The Pope expresses his closeness to Greece in time of crisis

  

  Pope Francis has invited the faithful to unite in prayer for the good of the Greek people in this time of economic and social difficulty.

   

  30/06/2015 16:38

  Pope Francis to travel to Latin America

  30/06/2015 13:35

  Pope Francis: Changes to summer agenda

  30/06/2015 13:17

  Pope Francis greets Benedict XVI before summer break

  30/06/2015 12:34

  Pope Francis: Christians and Jews, brothers and friends

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  01/07/2015 15:53

  ‘No Global’ author at Vatican event on climate and poverty reduction

  

  Secular Jewish feminist Naomi Klein and Catholic climate scientist Ottmar Edenhofer form an “unlikely alliance” in the Vatican press office to present a two day conference entitled ‘People and Planet First: the Imperative to Change Course’

   

  

  01/07/2015 14:06

  Pope’s July missionary prayer intention for the poor of Latin America

  30/06/2015 15:57

  Pope’s prayer intention for July – political responsibility

  27/06/2015 10:57

  Expo collection to Pope’s charity for refugees in Jordan ‎

  26/06/2015 13:34

  Holy See, State of Palestine sign Comprehensive Agreement

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  30/06/2015 13:14

  Archbishop Cupich: civil marriage not a sacrament

  

  We bring you a broad-ranging interview with Archbishop Blase J. Cupich of Chicago, Ill., USA, who was in Rome to receive his pallium this week on the Solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul

   

  

  26/06/2015 16:20

  Archbishop Lori: Fortnight focus on liberty, truth, witness

  25/06/2015 15:06

  Spiritual support in the wake of the sexual abuse crisis

  25/06/2015 14:53

  Archbishop Chaput: Church in Philly ready for Papal visit

  24/06/2015 17:17

  Philadelphia mayor: city ready for Pope Francis

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  27/06/2015 14:31

  Laudato Si’ presents three shifts in Church teaching, says Catholic environmentalist

  

  Pope Francis’ encyclical presents three important shifts in Church teaching on the environment, according to the Catholic director of the ecumenical Green Churches Network in Canada.

   

  

  27/06/2015 13:05

  USCCB Head calls Supreme Court decision “a tragic mistake”

  24/06/2015 07:21

  Venezuela: opposition leader ends hunger strike

  19/06/2015 08:25

  Suspect caught in US Church shooting

  18/06/2015 09:26

  Nine dead in SC church shooting

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  27/06/2015 12:06

  ‘Vatican Weekend’ for June 27, 2015

  

  (Vatican Radio) ‘Vatican Weekend’ for June 27, 2015 features the weekly general audience of Pope Francis, a look at the working document or ‘Instrumentum Laboris’ for the forthcoming October Synod on the Family, the story of  Saints Peter and Paul and Part 2 in the series ‘Creation’.

   

  

  25/06/2015 12:25

  ‘Vatican Weekend’ for June 28, 2015

  18/06/2015 17:13

  Vatican Weekend for June 21, 2015

  18/06/2015 17:05

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  15/06/2015 14:00

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Pope Francis \ Activities

Pope Francis: Christians and Jews, brothers and friends

Pope Francis on Tuesday met with members of the International Council of Christians and Jews. – OSS_ROM

30/06/2015 12:34

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(Vatican Radio) This week members of the International Council of Christians and Jews have been meeting to discuss “The 50th Anniversary of Nostra Aetate: The Past, Present, and Future of the Christian-Jewish Relationship”, and it was on this theme that Pope Francis addressed the participants on Tuesday in the Clementine Hall in the Vatican.

He told them that Nostra Aetate represented a definitive “yes” to the Jewish roots of Christianity and an irrevocable “no” to anti-Semitism adding, that both faith traditions were no longer strangers, but friends and brothers.

Listen to Lydia O’Kane’s report

The Holy Father said that in celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of this document,  “we are able to see the rich fruits which it has brought about and to gratefully appraise Jewish-Catholic dialogue.  He then added, “ in this way, we can express our thanks to God for all the good which has been realized in terms of friendship and mutual understanding these past fifty years.”

The Pope underlined that despite different perspectives, both Christians and Jews confess one God, Creator of the Universe and Lord of history.  And he, Pope Francis continued, “in his infinite goodness and wisdom, always blesses our commitment to dialogue.”

Elaborating further, the Holy Father explained that both faith traditions, “find their foundation in the One God, the God of the Covenant, who reveals himself through his Word.”  “In seeking a right attitude towards God”, he Pope said, “Christians turn to Christ as the fount of new life, and Jews to the teaching of the Torah.  This pattern of theological reflection on the relationship between Judaism and Christianity arises precisely from Nostra Aetate and upon this solid basis, he noted, can be developed yet further.  

In conclusion, Pope Francis stressed the importance the Holy See places on relations with the Jewish community and praised the International Council of Christians and Jews’ annual meetings, which he said, offer a notable contribution to Jewish-Christian dialogue.  

• Pope Francis
• Jews
• Christians

this pressed: Think you’re important because you have money? Think again, Pope says :: Catholic News Agency (CNA)

PHOTO:  Pope Francis celebrates Mass with new cardinals Feb. 15, 2015. Credit: Lauren Cater/CNA.

by Elise Harris

Vatican City, May 26, 2015 / 08:21 am (CNA/EWTN News).- In his homily Tuesday Pope Francis cautioned against the “counter-witness” of those who seek to follow both Jesus and worldly temptations, saying that to follow Christ means denying oneself and serving others.

“There are three things, three steps that take us away from Jesus: wealth, vanity and pride,” the Pope told attendees of his May 26 Mass in the Vatican’s Saint Martha guesthouse.

Riches, he said, are dangerous “because they immediately make you vain and you think you are important. And when you think you are important, you build your head up and then you lose it.”

Francis took his cue from the day’s Mark Chapter 10 Gospel reading in which Peter asks Jesus what the disciples will get in return for following him. The scene takes place right after Jesus had told the rich young man to sell all of his possessions and give them to the poor.

Instead of talking about wealth, the Lord gives an unexpected answer when he says that the disciples will gain the Kingdom of Heaven, but only “with persecution, with the cross.”

“When a Christian is attached to (worldly) things, he gives the bad impression of a Christian who wants to have two things: (both) heaven and earth,” the Pope said, explaining that that the daily cross of denying ourselves is the remedy.

From a human perspective following Jesus “is not a good deal” because it means serving others, he said. If the Lord gives you the opportunity to be first you have to act like the one in last place, and the same goes for wealth, he continued.

Pope Francis also indicated the Gospel passage in Matthew when the mother of James and John asks Jesus to secure a place for her sons at his side.

By essentially telling Jesus to “make this one prime minister for me, (and) this one, the minister of the economy,” the disciples’ mother took the worldly path in following Jesus, the Pope noted.

When a person wants to be “with both Jesus and with the world, with both poverty and with riches…this is a half-way Christianity that desires material gain. It is the spirit of worldliness,” he warned.

To follow the Lord freely, he said, “is the answer to the gratuitousness of love and salvation that Jesus gives us.”

Francis observed how the frequently the attitude of worldliness prevails in the Church itself, saying that “it’s sad” to see Christians – laypersons, priests and bishops included – who strive after both heavenly and worldly things.

“(It) is a counter-witness and furthers people from Jesus,” he said, and encouraged attendees to ask the Lord to teach them the “science of service,” which provides a lesson in humility and in placing ourselves last so as to serve our brothers and sisters in the Church.

The Pope closed his homily by telling those present to continue the Mass with both Peter’s question and Jesus’ answer in mind.

“The recompense that (Jesus) will give us is resemblance to Him. This will be our ‘recompense;’ to be like Jesus!”

Tags: Vatican, Pope Francis, Humility, Wealth

via Think you’re important because you have money? Think again, Pope says :: Catholic News Agency (CNA).

Vatican decision to recognize Palestine upsets Israeli government, Jewish advocacy groups – Religion News Service

JERUSALEM (RNS) The Vatican’s decision to recognize Palestine as a sovereign state on Wednesday (May 13) angered Israeli officials.

The move comes four days before the first-ever canonization of two Palestinian nuns and it solidifies the standing of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who is scheduled to meet with Pope Francis at the Vatican on Saturday.

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon told The Times of Israel that the government is “disappointed by the decision. We believe that such a decision is not conducive to bringing the Palestinians back to the negotiating table.”

Israel insists that for the Palestinians to achieve statehood, they must first end their armed struggle against Israel and recognize its right to exist as the homeland of the Jewish people.

Although the treaty codifies the Holy See’s relations with the Palestinian Authority, the Vatican has already referred to the “State of Palestine” in some official documents, including the official program handed out during Pope Francis’ Holy Land pilgrimage last year.

In recent years, the Vatican has stepped up its efforts to support Palestinian Christians in East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza as their numbers have dwindled due to emigration spurred by wars and economic hardships.

A majority of Christians in the Holy Land — including Israel — are either ethnic Palestinians or live alongside them in the same towns and villages. Sisters Maria Baouardy and Mary Alphonsine Danil Ghattas, who were both Christian Arabs, are due to be canonized by Pope Francis on Sunday.

William Shomali, the auxiliary bishop of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, said the Vatican’s announcement “was not a surprise” because “the pope called President Abbas the president of the State of Palestine” during his 2014 pilgrimage to the Holy Land.

But David Harris, executive director of the AJC, the leading global Jewish advocacy organization, said the decision was “regrettable“ and “counterproductive to all who seek true peace between Israel and the Palestinians.”

“We are fully cognizant of the pope’s goodwill and desire to be a voice for peaceful coexistence, which is best served, we believe, by encouraging a resumption of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, rather than unilateral gestures outside the framework of the negotiating table,” Harris concluded.

Abraham H. Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, said the action was “premature” and would “undermine the only real solution to the decades-old conflict, which is engaging in direct negotiations.”

YS/MG END CHABIN

Categories: Institutions, Politics

Tags: AJC, Foreign Ministry, Israel, Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, Palestine, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Vatican

via Vatican decision to recognize Palestine upsets Israeli government, Jewish advocacy groups – Religion News Service.

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Pope Pope Beedict XVI receives Yerba Mate cup from ambassador of Uruguay to Vatican

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YouTube: Way of the Cross – 2015.04.03: Access here in about 3 hours!

Way of the Cross – 2015.04.03

vatican

Scheduled for Apr 3, 2015

Starts at 9:10 pm – The Holy Father presides over the Way of the Cross of Good Friday
(Papa Francesco presiede la Via Crucis del Venerdì Santo)

Way of the Cross – 2015.04.03 vatican vatican

#PopeFrancis leads a #Candlemas procession in the Vatican — Catholic News Agency

PHOTO: http://t.co/aZOXhJ7YVD #PopeFrancis leads a #Candlemas procession in the Vatican. #Catholic pic.twitter.com/fXEMyFZBwq

— Catholic News Agency (@cnalive) February 3, 2015

Pope Francis Leads Christmas Eve Mass at the Vatican: from NBC News (they are not afraid of Christmas like other news agencies are: I’d say good for them!)

Pope Francis Leads Christmas Eve Mass at the Vatican

Pope Francis celebrated Christmas Eve with a late-night Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican on Wednesday, after placing a phone call to Iraqi refugees forced to flee their homes by Muslim militants. Francis told refugees at the tent camp in Ankawa, a suburb of Irbil in northern Iraq, that they were like Jesus, forced to flee because there was no place for them. For Christians, Christmas marks the birth of Jesus in a Bethlehem barn manger, chosen because there was no room for his parents at an inn.

Vatican-Christmas Mass – 2014 (Click to access the Mass at NBC News)

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Vatican discovers 6th century fresco of St. Paul

The restoration of a tomb in the catacombs of St. Gennaro in Naples, revealed a new discovery. The image of St. Paul…

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TODAY’S BIRTHDAY: POPE PIUS XII (1876)

Pope Pius XII (1876)

Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli succeeded Pope Pius XI as Pius XII in 1939. Though he pursued projects aimed at helping prisoners and refugees of World War II, he maintained the Vatican‘s neutrality for the duration of the conflict, believing that preserving relations with all the belligerents would aid his efforts to bring about peace. These wartime policies have since aroused considerable controversy. Which famous Jewish figures have expressed gratitude for his actions? More… Discuss

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TODAY’S HOLIDAY: FESTIVAL OF ST. PETER’S CHAIR

Festival of St. Peter’s Chair

At the Vatican in Rome, St. Peter is honored as bishop of Rome and the first pope. The current pope, wearing his triple crown and vestments of gold cloth, is carried in his chair of state in a spectacular procession up the nave of St. Peter’s Basilica. He is deposited behind the altar on a richly decorated throne that enshrines the plain wooden chair on which St. Peter is believed to have sat. The ceremony dates back to at least 720 and is regarded as one of the most magnificent ecclesiastical observances to be held at St. Peter’s. More… Discuss
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Basilica San Pietro, Vatican- Capella Sistina February 1984-Anno Sancto 1983 ( my Photo Collection)

Basilica San Pietro, Vatican- Capella Sistina February 1984