As the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus gather in Chicago this week to mark the centennial of the death of their founder Mother Cabrini, Pope Francis sent them hailing Cabrini as a model for our times. “The great migrations underway today need guidance filled with love and intelligence similar to what characterizes the Cabrinian charism,” he wrote.
In the opening lecture for Georgetown University’s Sacred Lecture Series, Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington defended Pope Francis’s efforts to decentralize Church governance, his approach to synodality, and ‘Amoris Laetitia.’
Pope Francis said he had no magic words or special recipes for Colombians seeking peace, but rather he wanted to listen to them, learn from them and travel a bit of the road with them.
Pope Francis renewed his plea for Venezuela while in nearby Colombia, asking for a peaceful solution for the “grave crisis” the country is experiencing.
By anyone’s standards, Pope Francis’ visit last week to Colombia was a great success. Except for maybe his doctor’s, since the Holy Father did return home with a shiner over and under his left eye.
In a city many think of as being synonymous with new directions for the Catholic Church, Pope Francis told Colombian Catholics faith is not measured by how well they follow rules, but by the depth of their prayer life and the degree to which they share the Gospel.
If just one victim of Colombia’s civil war forgives his or her aggressor, it can set off a chain reaction of hope for reconciliation and peace, Pope Francis said.
“Your birth, O Virgin Mother of God, is the new dawn that proclaims joy to the whole world, for from you has been born the sun of justice, Christ our God” (cf. Antiphon for the Benedictus). The feast of the birth of Mary shines its light over us, just as the gentle light of dawn radiates above the vast Colombian plain, this beautiful landscape whose gateway is Villavicencio, and shines its light too upon the rich diversity of its indigenous peoples.
In a country and a continent often infamous for chauvinistic attitudes towards women, Pope Francis called Colombians on it Friday, insisting that the Gospel story itself is a commentary on a world in which “psychological, verbal and physical violence towards women is so evident.”
After celebrating a Mass for a crowd estimated by the local mayor at 1.3 million, Pope Francis met with five bishops from Venezuela on Thursday. The encounter lasted just 10 minutes, but participants said it was enough to update the pontiff about the country’s worsening situation.
