Author: CNS

VATICAN CITY. Pope Francis expressed his closeness to the people of Cuba a week after protests erupted on the island nation. 

In his first public appearance after his release from Gemelli hospital, the pope told pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square July 18 that he was “near to the dear Cuban people in these difficult moments, in particular to those families suffering the most.” 

“I pray that the Lord might help the nation construct a society that is more and more just and fraternal through peace, dialogue and solidarity,” he said, as a large group of pilgrims in the square held Cuban flags. 

The pope encouraged the people of Cuba to entrust themselves to the maternal protection of the island’s patroness, Our Lady of Charity, who “will accompany them on this journey.” 

Thousands of Cubans in Havana and elsewhere took to the streets July 11 to protest economic hardships, lack of basic freedoms, and the Cuban government’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak, making for what some have described as the most significant unrest in decades. 

Since the protests, the government reportedly has responded by arresting people, including clergy, not only on the streets but also in their homes. There was at least one confirmed death after police shot a man taking part in the anti-government protest. 

Before praying the Angelus, the pope reflected on the Sunday Gospel reading in which Jesus shows concern for his disciples and “their physical and interior tiredness” after returning from preaching. 

Jesus does this, the pope said, to make them aware of the danger of being “caught up in the frenzy of doing things, falling into the trap of activism where what is most important are the results that we obtain and the feeling of being absolute protagonists.” 

“How many times this happens in the Church: we are busy, we run around, we think that everything depends on us and, in the end, we risk neglecting Jesus and we always make ourselves the center,” he said. 

The Gospel reading, the pope continued, is a reminder that physical rest also implies remaining in silence and in prayer to “return to the heart of things.” 

“Let us beware, brothers and sisters, of efficiency, let us put a halt to the frantic running around dictated by our agendas. Let us learn how to take a break, to turn off the mobile phone, to contemplate nature, to regenerate ourselves in dialogue with God,” the pope said. 

In doing so, he added, Christians can view others with compassion because “only a heart that does not allow itself to be taken over by hastiness is capable of being moved,” and rather than being preoccupied with self, “is aware of others, of their wounds, their needs.” 

“Compassion is born from contemplation,” Pope Francis said. “If we learn to truly rest, we become capable of true compassion.” 

“If we cultivate a contemplative outlook, we will carry out our activities without that rapacious attitude of those who want to possess and consume everything; if we stay in touch with the Lord and do not anesthetize the deepest part of ourselves, the things we need to do will not have the power to take our breath away or devour us,” he said. 

VATICAN CITY. Ten days after undergoing intestinal surgery, Pope Francis was released from Rome’s Gemelli hospital, the Vatican confirmed. 

In a statement released July 14, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said that after leaving the hospital midmorning, the pope visited the Basilica of St. Mary Major to say a prayer of gratitude before the icon of “Salus Populi Romani” (health of the Roman people). 

The pope thanked Mary “for the success of his surgery and offered a prayer for all the sick, especially those he had met during his stay in hospital,” the statement said. 

After praying at the basilica, the pope returned to his Vatican residence, the Domus Sanctae Marthae, Bruni said. 

The pope was admitted to Gemelli hospital in the early afternoon July 4 to undergo “a scheduled surgical intervention for a symptomatic diverticular stenosis of the colon.” 

He underwent a three-hour left hemicolectomy, which is the removal of the descending part of the colon, a surgery that can be recommended to treat diverticulitis, when bulging pouches in the lining of the intestine or colon become inflamed or infected. 

Initially expected to remain in the hospital for seven days, the Vatican said July 12 that the pope would “remain hospitalized for a few more days in order to optimize his medical and rehabilitation therapy.” 

During his stay, the pope continued working and spent time visiting patients at the hospital. 

In his Sunday Angelus address July 11 from the 10th floor balcony of his suite of rooms at the hospital, Pope Francis said his time in the hospital gave him the opportunity to experience “once again how important good health care is” and that free, universal health care, especially for the most vulnerable, is a “precious benefit (that) must not be lost.” 

“It needs to be kept,” the pope said. “And for this, everyone needs to be committed because it helps everyone and requires everyone’s contribution.” 

The evening before his release, Pope Francis visited Gemelli’s pediatric oncology ward, which also is on the 10th floor, and greeted the young patients, their families and the staff. 

While Pope Francis usually takes July as his vacation month, he is scheduled to lead the recitation of the Angelus at noon July 18 and to celebrate Mass July 25, the first World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly. 

VATICAN CITY. Recovering from colon surgery, Pope Francis briefly ran a fever late July 7, leading his doctors to perform a CT scan of his abdomen and chest the next morning to check for signs of infection. 

The results of the scan were negative, as were the results of “routine and microbiological examinations,” the Vatican press office said July 8. 

“His Holiness Pope Francis spent a quiet day, eating and moving unassisted,” the press office said in its daily update on how the pope is recovering after undergoing a three-hour surgery July 4 at Rome’s Gemelli hospital. 

As with any operation, but especially intestinal surgery, infection is a major post-op concern. 

Before the passing fever, the press office said, Pope Francis had sent a message of “paternal closeness” to the “young patients in the nearby pediatric oncology and children’s neurosurgery wards.” 

“At this particular moment, he looks toward all those who suffer, expressing his closeness to the sick, especially those most in need of care,” the press office said. 

The Vatican’s July 7 midday bulletin, issued before the pope’s temporary temperature, said the doctors had removed his intravenous drip, and that “the post-operative progress of His Holiness Pope Francis continues to be regular and satisfactory.” 

“The Holy Father has continued to eat regularly, and infusion therapy has been suspended,” it added. 

Announcing that the pope had arrived at the Rome hospital July 4, the Vatican had said he was to undergo “a scheduled surgical intervention for a symptomatic diverticular stenosis of the colon.” 

The next morning, the Vatican had said the surgery lasted three hours and included “a left hemicolectomy,” the removal of the descending part of the colon, which can be recommended to treat diverticulitis, when bulging pouches in the lining of the intestine or colon become inflamed or infected. 

Three days after surgery, the Vatican said, “the final histological examination has confirmed a severe diverticular stenosis with signs of sclerosing diverticulitis,” a hardening of the tissue. 

Dr. Sergio Alfieri, a staff surgeon at Gemelli who specializes in surgery of the digestive tract and colon, led the surgery, assisted by a team of surgeons. 

Stenosis is a narrowing of a passage in the human body. The Vatican’s description of the pope’s condition indicated a partial blockage of the lower intestine. It provided no information about the cause or suspected cause of the blockage nor of the symptoms the pope had been experiencing. 

As soon as the Vatican announced the pope’s hospitalization, get-well messages began being posted on social media. 

Italian President Sergio Mattarella, who had just arrived in France when the news broke, sent a telegram, his office said. The president said he and the Italian people were accompanying the pope with “affectionate thoughts” and wishes for a speedy recovery. 

“Pope Francis is touched by the many messages and the affection received in these days, and expresses his gratitude for the closeness and prayer,” the Vatican message said. 

Pope Francis is expected to remain in the hospital at least until July 11. Since the pontificate of St. John Paul II, the Gemelli hospital, part of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, has maintained a suite of rooms on the 10th floor for use by the pope. 

Pope Francis has been generally healthy since becoming pope in March 2013 except for recurrent bouts of sciatica, which causes sharp pain that radiates along the path of the sciatic nerve, which branches from the lower back through the hips and down each leg. In late December and early January, he missed several events because the pain was so intense. 

The pope also suffered from a pulmonary condition in 1957 at the age of 21 that required him to undergo surgery to remove the upper right lobe of one of his lungs. 

In an interview for a book published early in March, the pope said that while his recovery was painful, it was “complete, and I never felt any limitation in my activities.” 

“As you have seen, for example, in the various trips I have made and that you have covered, I never had to restrict or cancel any of the scheduled activities. I never experienced fatigue or shortness of breath,” he told Nelson Castro, a physician and Argentina journalist. 

The pope also told Castro that when he was the provincial superior of the Jesuits in Argentina, an office he held from 1973 to 1979, he underwent emergency gallbladder surgery.

VATICAN CITY. Pope Francis has asked dioceses around the world to make it possible for every family to participate in the World Meeting of Families by holding local celebrations during the gathering in Rome June 22-26, 2022.

“After being postponed for a year due to the pandemic, the desire to meet again is great,” the pope said in a video message July 2.

In the past, he said, the World Meeting of Families “was perceived as being something remote, at most followed on television,” but “unknown to the majority of families.”

With questions still present about how the coronavirus pandemic will impact global travel and large international meetings next year, Pope Francis said there is “an opportunity provided by providence to create a worldwide event that can involve all the families that would like to feel part of the ecclesial community.”

The theme of the 2022 gathering is: “Family love: A vocation and a path to holiness.”

Rome will be the main venue, the pope said, and bishops’ conferences and international Catholic organizations will be invited to send delegates involved in family ministry to Rome for “the Festival of Families, the pastoral congress” and the concluding Mass.

At the same time, the pope said, “each diocese can be the focal point for a local meeting for its families and communities. In this way, everyone will be able to participate, even those who cannot come to Rome.”

Pope Francis asked dioceses to be “dynamic, active and creative in organizing this with the families in harmony with what will be taking place in Rome. This is a wonderful opportunity to devote ourselves with enthusiasm to family ministry with spouses, families and pastors together.”

Cardinal Kevin J. Farrell, prefect of the Dicastery for Laity, the Family and Life, said the World Meeting of Families continues to grow and attract more families from around the world, “bringing enrichment with their languages, cultures and experiences.” The gatherings, he said, “have been an eloquent sign of the beauty of the family for the Church and for all humanity. We need to continue on this path, seeking to involve more and more families in this beautiful initiative.”

VATICAN CITY. When scientists share their data and dialogue with experts in other fields, including religion, they contribute to the search for a holistic truth that promotes the common good and, therefore, promotes peace, Pope Francis said.

With a focus on cross-discipline cooperation, scientists can give witness “to the possibility of building a new social bond, endeavoring to bring scientific research closer to the whole community – from the local to the international – and showing that together it is possible to overcome every conflict,” the pope said in a video message to an international conference on “Science for Peace.”

The meeting July 2-3 was sponsored by the Italian Diocese of Teramo-Atri and the University of Teramo. It brought together physicists, astronomers, biologists, physicians, geologists, mathematicians and theologians to discuss how science could contribute to promoting better health, greater access to nutritious food and to peace.

In a video message played at the opening of the conference, Pope Francis applauded the organizers and participants for seeing how important research in all branches is for meeting “challenges of contemporary society,” and he thanked the diocese for being a co-sponsor of the gathering, “thus testifying that there cannot and must not be any opposition between faith and science.”

People need to have scientific facts and understand how the physical world works in order to solve problems together, he said. And both science and religion need to recognize the desire for knowledge “present in the heart of every man and woman.”

Pope Francis asked the scientists to promote a love of learning and a passion for research among young generations.

Seeking the truth, the whole truth about life, includes questions of faith, the pope said, and Jesus “instills in everyone the certainty that when one searches honestly one encounters the truth.”

VATICAN CITY. Modern popes have been clear voices for peace, but Pope Francis is moving closer to a broad embrace of nonviolence and a declaration that modern warfare is so deadly and sophisticated that the traditional “just war” theories cannot apply.

And, in a new book, he has urged each and every person to recognize that there is, in fact, something they can do to promote peace.

“Indifference is an accomplice of war,” Pope Francis wrote.

The Vatican publishing house June 28 released “Peace on Earth: Fraternity is Possible,” a collection of Pope Francis’ words and speeches on the importance of praying and working for peace.

The volume closes with a chapter he wrote specifically for the book, highlighting the role each person can play in promoting peace, but also moving closer to adopting a stance of total nonviolence.

Already in “Fratelli Tutti, on Fraternity and Social Friendship,” he questioned whether in modern warfare any conflict could be judged a “just war” because proportionality and the protection of civilians seem to be difficult if not impossible to guarantee.

“We can no longer think of war as a solution because its risks will probably always be greater than its supposed benefits,” one of the main criteria of just-war theory, he wrote in the document. “In view of this, it is very difficult nowadays to invoke the rational criteria elaborated in earlier centuries to speak of the possibility of a ‘just war.’ Never again war!”

In the new book, Pope Francis said nations and groups too easily turn to war, using “any kind of excuse,” including claiming they are attacking another as a humanitarian, defensive or preventative measure, “even resorting to the manipulation of information” to support their argument.

On the issue of nonviolence, Pope Francis noted that when Jesus was about to be arrested, he did not claim a right to self-defense and even told the disciple who drew a sword to defend him, “Put your sword back into its sheath.”

“The words of Jesus resound clearly today, too,” he wrote. “Life and goodness cannot be defended with the ‘sword.’”

In the Gospel of Luke’s version of the story, Jesus tells his disciples, “Stop, no more of this!”

“Jesus’ sorrowful and strong, ‘No more,’ goes beyond the centuries and reaches us. It is a commandment we cannot avoid,” Pope Francis wrote. “‘No more’ swords, weapons, violence, war. In that ‘No more’ there is an echo of the ancient commandment, ‘Thou shall not kill.’”

“How can there be Christians with a sword in their hand?” he asked. “How can there be Christians who manufacture ‘swords’ that others will use to kill?”

“Listening to the passionate plea of the Lord means to stop selling weapons and considering only one’s own economic interests,” the pope said. “There are no justifications for this, even if jobs will be lost with the end of arms sales.”

Another major obstacle on the road to peace, he wrote, is living “with wars as if they were inevitable.”

Especially in countries that are not at war, people’s awareness of armed conflict and its brutality can grow dim, he said. The only time they seem to notice is with the arrival of refugees, who he called “witnesses of war, painful ‘ambassadors’ of the unheard demand for peace.”

Limiting the suffering caused by war, he wrote, means welcoming refugees and listening to their pain-filled stories.

Pope Francis recalled how, when India was facing widespread famine in 1966, St. Paul VI said, “No one today can say, ‘I didn’t know.’”

And while most people are not government leaders or diplomats with the power to stop a war, neither can they just act as if they did not know something horrible was going on, he said. They must exert pressure on their governments to intervene, to stop arms sales and “demand a policy of peace.”

On a smaller, but more concrete level, Pope Francis said, “conflicts are prevented with the daily search for fraternity,” which everyone can and should be involved in forging.

Such kinship is not simply a feeling, he wrote, but a practice, one that works to make sure that everyone in a community, city, region, nation and continent feels welcomed, valued and involved in building society.

“Peace starts with not hating, not excluding, not discriminating against, not leaving anyone on their own,” he said.

But prayer also is essential, he wrote. “To pray is to protest war in front of God. Never stop asking the Lord with faith and insistence for the end of conflict. Our prayer gives voice to the lament of the people” impacted by every war.

“We cannot accept resignation to wars being a daily companion of humanity,” he said. “We cannot accept that so many children grow up under the shadow of conflict. We must say ‘No more’ to war.”

VATICAN CITY. International solidarity in funding the rebuilding of schools, hospitals and churches destroyed by war is important, Pope Francis said, but “we need to be concerned above all for the living stones who have been wounded and dispersed.”

From Georgia south through Iraq and Syria, then from the Holy Land through North Africa to the Tigray region of Ethiopia, the needs of Christian communities are pressing, Pope Francis said June 24 as he met with representatives of a Vatican coalition of funding agencies, known by its Italian acronym, ROACO.

Coordinated by the Congregation for Eastern Churches, ROACO assists Eastern-rite churches around the world as well as the Latin-rite church in North Africa and the Middle East. The agencies include the U.S.-based Catholic Near East Welfare Association and Catholic Relief Services, as well as Aid to the Church in Need, Caritas Internationalis and Catholic charities in Germany, France, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Belgium and the Netherlands.

Through the representatives, Pope Francis extended his “gratitude to all those who support and make possible your projects: ordinary members of the faithful, families, parishes and volunteers who understand what it means to be ‘brothers and sisters all’ and who devote a portion of their time and resources to assisting you in the services you provide.”

“I have been told that the income from the 2020 collection for the Holy Land was only about half of that received in previous years,” the pope said. The collection, usually taken on Good Friday, was moved to September in 2020 because most countries were under a mandatory COVID-19 lockdown, including prohibitions or severe limits on church services.

Pope Francis said he knew that restrictions on Mass attendance as well as “the economic crisis generated by the pandemic” explain the drop in donations.

However, he said, “while the crisis may have encouraged us to focus on what is essential, we cannot remain indifferent when we think of the deserted streets of Jerusalem and the loss of those pilgrims who go there to strengthen their faith, but also to express concrete solidarity with the local churches and their people.”

He urged Catholics to understand the importance of their giving.

Christians in the Holy Land have experienced hardship over the past year not only because of the pandemic, but also because of renewed violence between Israelis and Palestinians, “peoples who we hope and pray will see the bow of peace that God showed to Noah as a sign of the covenant between heaven and earth, and of peace among peoples.”

“All too often, even lately, those skies have been darkened by missiles bringing destruction, death and fear,” the pope said.

“The pleas for help rising from Syria are never far from God’s heart, yet do not seem to have touched the hearts of leaders in a position to affect the destiny of peoples,” he said. After 10 years of conflict and millions of people displaced or forced to migrate, the victims and the need for reconstruction are “all held hostage to partisan thinking and the lack of courageous decisions for the good of that war-torn nation.”

Pope Francis also expressed his “apprehension” over the continuing violence in Tigray, where the Ethiopian army and its allies are reportedly committing massacres, raping women, destroying churches and mosques and using famine as a tool to put down any civilian support for the Tigray People’s Liberation Front.

In discussing needs for funding at ROACO’s annual meeting June 21-24, the agencies’ representatives heard from: Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Latin patriarch of Jerusalem; Archbishop Antoine Camilleri, nuncio to Ethiopia; Archbishop José Bettencourt, nuncio to Georgia and Armenia; Cardinal Mario Zenari, nuncio to Syria; Archbishop Joseph Spiteri, nuncio to Lebanon; and Archbishop Mitja Leskovar, nuncio to Iraq.