INTERVIEW WITH POPE FRANCIS IN JESUIT MAGAZINES

From
http://visnews-en.blogspot.com/2013/09/interview-with-pope-francis-in-jesuit.html:

Vatican City, 20 September 2013 (VIS) – Pope Francis has granted a
lengthy interview, published in the Italian Jesuit magazine "La Civilta
Cattolica" and simultaneously in another sixteen magazines linked to the
Society of Jesus throughout the world. The interview was the result of
three private meetings and more than six hours of discussion between the
Pope and the editor of "La Civilta Cattolica", Fr. Antonio Spadaro,
during the month of August at the Santa Marta guesthouse.

In the interview, more than thirty pages long, the Pope talks frankly
about himself, his artistic and literary tastes (Dostoyevski and
Holderlin, Borges and Cervantes, Caravaggio and Chagall, but also
Fellini's "La Strada", Rossellini, "Babette's Feast", Mozart, and
Wagner's "Tetralogy"), and his experience in the Society of Jesus and as
archbishop of Buenos Aires. He defines himself as "a sinner. This is the
most accurate definition. It is not a figure of speech, a literary
genre. I am a sinner."

Referring to his period as Provincial in the Society of Jesus, he says,
"My authoritarian and quick manner of making decisions led me to have
serious problems and to be accused of being ultraconservative". However,
as archbishop this experience helped him to understand the importance of
listening to the viewpoints of others. "I believe that consultation is
very important. The consistories, the synods are, for example, important
places to make real and active this consultation. We must, however, give
them a less rigid form".

He also talks about how his Jesuit training, and the process of
discernment in particular, have enabled him to better face his ministry.
"For example, many think that changes and reforms can take place in a
short time. I believe that we always need time to lay the foundations
for real, effective change. … The wisdom of discernment redeems the
necessary ambiguity of life and helps us find the most appropriate
means, which do not always coincide with what looks great and strong."

For the Pope, the Church nowadays is most in need of "the ability to
heal wounds and to warm the hearts of the faithful; it needs nearness,
proximity. I see the church as a field hospital after battle. It is
useless to ask a seriously injured person if he has high cholesterol and
about the level of his blood sugars! You have to heal his wounds. Then
we can talk about everything else. Heal the wounds, heal the wounds. ...
And you have to start from the ground up. The church sometimes has
locked itself up in small things, in small-minded rules. The most
important thing is the first proclamation: Jesus Christ has saved you! …
Instead of being just a church that welcomes and receives by keeping the
doors open, let us try also to be a church that finds new roads, that is
able to step outside itself and go to those who do not attend Mass, to
those who have quit or are indifferent".

With reference to complex questions such as homosexuality or the
situation of divorced and remarried Catholics, he insists on the need to
"always consider the person. Here we enter into the mystery of the human
being. In life, God accompanies persons, and we must accompany them,
starting from their situation. It is necessary to accompany them with
mercy".

The Pope added that "The dogmatic and moral teachings of the church are
not all equivalent" and "The church's pastoral ministry cannot be
obsessed with the transmission of a disjointed multitude of doctrines to
be imposed insistently. … We have to find a new balance. … The proposal
of the Gospel must be more simple, profound, radiant. It is from this
proposition that the moral consequences then flow".

Reflecting on the role of women in the Church, he reiterated that "the
feminine genius is needed wherever we make important decisions. The
challenge today is this: to think about the specific place of women also
in those places where the authority of the church is exercised for
various areas of the church".

Another theme considered during the interview was the importance of the
Vatican Council II as "a re-reading of the Gospel in light of
contemporary culture," says the Pope. "Vatican II produced a renewal
movement that simply comes from the same Gospel. Its fruits are
enormous. Just recall the liturgy. The work of liturgical reform has
been a service to the people as a re-reading of the Gospel from a
concrete historical situation. Yes, there are hermeneutics of continuity
and discontinuity, but one thing is clear: the dynamic of reading the
Gospel, actualising its message for today – which was typical of Vatican
II – is absolutely irreversible".

In the final passages of the interview, Francis spoke of the "temptation
to seek God in the past or in a possible future", and remarked that "God
is certainly in the past because we can see the footprints. And God is
also in the future as a promise. But the 'concrete' God, so to speak, is
today. For this reason, complaining never helps us find God. The
complaints of today about how 'barbaric' the world is – these complaints
sometimes end up giving birth within the Church to desires to establish
order in the sense of pure conservation, as a defence. No: God is to be
encountered in the world of today".

The full text of the interview can be found the online editions of
American Magazine ( www.americanmagazine.org) and the UK-based Thinking
Faith ( www.thinkingfaith.org).

Pope Renounces Papal Throne

Vatican City, 11 February 2013 (VIS) – The Holy Father, at the end of today's consistory for causes for canonization, announced his resignation from ministry as Bishop of Rome to the College of Cardinals. Following is the Holy Father's complete declaration, which he read in Latin:

"I have convoked you to this Consistory, not only for the three canonizations, but also to communicate to you a decision of great importance for the life of the Church. After having repeatedly examined my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry. I am well aware that this ministry, due to its essential spiritual nature, must be carried out not only with words and deeds, but no less with prayer and suffering. However, in today’s world, subject to so many rapid changes and shaken by questions of deep relevance for the life of faith, in order to govern the barque of Saint Peter and proclaim the Gospel, both strength of mind and body are necessary, strength which in the last few months, has deteriorated in me to the extent that I have had to recognize my incapacity to adequately fulfil the ministry entrusted to me. For this reason, and well aware of the seriousness of this act, with full freedom I declare that I renounce the ministry of Bishop of Rome, Successor of Saint Peter, entrusted to me by the Cardinals on 19 April 2005, in such a way, that as from 28 February 2013, at 20:00 hours, the See of Rome, the See of Saint Peter, will be vacant and a Conclave to elect the new Supreme Pontiff will have to be convoked by those whose competence it is."

"Dear Brothers, I thank you most sincerely for all the love and work with which you have supported me in my ministry and I ask pardon for all my defects. And now, let us entrust the Holy Church to the care of Our Supreme Pastor, Our Lord Jesus Christ, and implore his holy Mother Mary, so that she may assist the Cardinal Fathers with her maternal solicitude, in electing a new Supreme Pontiff. With regard to myself, I wish to also devotedly serve the Holy Church of God in the future through a life dedicated to prayer."

 

Source: 
http://visnews-en.blogspot.com/2013/02/pope-renounces-papal-throne.html

Bishops Must Set an Example through Sanctity of Life

Repost from V.I.S. -Vatican Information Service. www.visnews.org

VATICAN CITY, 15 SEP 2011 (VIS) - Today in Castelgandolfo the Holy Father received a group of newly consecrated bishops who are currently participating in a meeting organised by the Congregation for Bishops. For the last ten years the congregation has been inviting new bishops to make a pilgrimage to the tomb of St. Peter in order to reflect on the main responsibilities of episcopal ministry.

"You are invited", the Pope told the group "to renew your profession of faith and your trusting adherence to Jesus Christ over the tomb of the Prince of the Apostles, showing the same impulse of love as Peter himself and strengthening your ties of communion with his Successor and with your brother bishops".

In this context Benedict XVI explained that "the bishop ... is not alone, he is part of that 'corpus episcoporum' which, joining us to Christ, has been handed down from the Apostles' time to our own". He encouraged the prelates to live every day in episcopal fraternity, working in communion with the Pope and their brother bishops, while "seeking to cultivate friendship with them and with your priests".

The Holy Father then turned his attention to the importance of bishops accepting "the charisms which the Spirit arouses for the edification of the Church", especially among the faithful. "Bishops have the task of watching and working to ensure that the baptised increase in grace, in accordance with the charisms the Holy Spirit causes to arise in their hearts and communities", he said.

"The fundamental gift you are called to cherish in the faithful entrusted to your pastoral care is that of divine filiation; in other words, the fact that everyone participates in Trinitarian communion. Baptism, which makes men and women 'children in the Son' and members of the Church, is the root and source of all other charismatic gifts. Through your ministry of sanctification, you educate the faithful to participate with increasing intensity in the priestly, prophetic and regal office of Christ, helping them to build the Church, actively and responsibly, according to the gifts they have received from God.

"We must", the Pope added, "always bear in mind the fact that the gifts of the Spirit - be they extraordinary or simple and humble - are always given freely for the edification of all. The bishop, as a visible sign of the unity of his particular Church, has the duty of unifying and harmonising the charismatic diversity of ecclesial unity, favouring reciprocity between the hierarchical and the baptismal priesthood".

The Holy Father invited bishops "to accept charisms gratefully, for the sanctification of the Church and the vitality of the apostolate. This acceptance and this gratitude ... are inseparable from discernment, which is part of the bishop's mission. Vatican Council II said as much when it gave pastoral ministry the task of judging the genuineness of charisms and their proper use, not extinguishing the Spirit but testing and retaining what is good. Therefore, it must always be clear that no charism can dispense from deferring and submitting to the pastors of the Church".

Episcopal ministry "requires the bishop to nourish his own spiritual life with care" because, as the Apostolic Exhortation "Pastores gregis" says, "he becomes a 'father' precisely because he is fully a 'son' of the Church. ... These two inseparable aspects call him to grow as son and as pastor as he follows Christ, in order that his personal sanctity may be an expression of the objective sanctity he received through episcopal consecration".

The Holy Father concluded: "The sanctity of your lives and your pastoral charity will be an example and support to your priests, ... who are also called to build the community with their gifts, charisms and the witness of their lives, so that the choral communion of the Church may bear witness to Jesus Christ, that the world may believe".

AC/ VIS 20110915 (660)

First Vatican representative to Vietnam since 1975

OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

VATICAN CITY, 13 JAN 2011 (VIS) - The Holy Father appointed Archbishop Leopoldo Girelli, apostolic nuncio to Indonesia, as apostolic nuncio to Singapore, apostolic delegate to Malaysia and to Brunei, and non-residential pontifical representative for Vietnam.

Source: V.I.S. -Vatican Information Service. www.visnews.org

Đức Thánh Cha bổ nhiệm Đại diện không thường trú đầu tiên tại Việt Nam

VATICAN. Hôm 13-1-2011, ĐTC Biển Đức 16 đã bổ nhiệm Đức TGM Leopoldo Girelli làm Đại diện Tòa Thánh không thường trú đầu tiên tại Việt Nam.

Nguyên văn thông báo của Phòng Báo chí Tòa Thánh viết:


”ĐTC bổ nhiệm Đức Cha Leopoldo Girelli, TGM hiệu tòa Capri, làm Sứ Thần Tòa Thánh tại Singapore, kiêm Khâm Sứ Tòa Thánh tại Malaysia và Brunei, và làm Đại Diện Tòa Thánh không thường trú tại Việt Nam. Cho đến nay Đức TGM Girelli là Sứ thần Tòa Thánh tại Indonesia”.

Đức TGM Girelli năm nay 58 tuổi, sinh ngày 13-3-1953 tại làng Predore, thuộc giáo phận Bergamo, bắc Italia, thụ phong linh mục năm 1978, theo học tại trường ngoại giao Tòa Thánh từ 1984 đến 1987. Sau khi ra trường, cha Girelli lần lượt phục vụ tại các Tòa Sứ Thần Tòa Thánh tại Camerun (1987-1991), New Zealand (1991-1993), rồi được gọi về Bộ ngoại giao Tòa Thánh để phục vụ trong 8 năm, từ 1993 đến 2001, trước khi được gửi sang Tòa Sứ Thần tại Hoa Kỳ (2001-2006). Sau 5 năm tại đây, ngài được bổ nhiệm làm TGM Sứ Thần Tòa Thánh tại Indonesia và Đông Timor, và thụ phong GM ngày 17-6 cùng năm 2006 do ĐHY Angelo Sodano, Quốc vụ khanh Tòa Thánh chủ phong.

Cho đến nay, vị Sứ Thần Tòa Thánh tại Thái Lan kiêm nhiệm chức vụ Sứ Thần Tòa Thánh tại Singapore, kiêm Khâm Sứ Tòa Thánh tại Malaysia và Brunei. Nay Tòa Thánh tách rời 2 nhiệm vụ này để ủy cho vị Sứ Thần riêng, kiêm nhiệm chức vụ Đại diện không thường trú tại Việt Nam.

Tuyên bố hôm 10-1 vừa qua trước ngoại giao đoàn cạnh Tòa Thánh, ĐTC nói: ”Tôi muốn hài lòng ghi nhận rằng chính quyền Việt Nam đã chấp nhận để tôi chỉ định một Đại diện, qua các cuộc viếng thăm cộng đồng Công giáo quý mến tại nước này, vị ấy sẽ bày tỏ sự quan tâm ân cần của Người Kế Vị Thánh Phêrô”. (SD 13-1-2011)

LM. G. Trần Đức Anh OP
Source: http://vietvatican.net/

Holy See To Have Non-Resident Representative To Vietnam

Vatican City, 26 Jun 2010 (VIS) - The Secretariat of State today published the following English-language communique:

"As agreed at its first meeting in Hanoi in February 2009, the second meeting of the Vietnam - Holy See Joint Working Group took place in the Vatican from 23 to 24 June, co-chaired by Msgr. Ettore Balestrero, Holy See under secretary for Relations with States who headed the Holy See delegation, and Nguyen Quoc Cuong, vice minister of Foreign Affairs who headed the Vietnamese Delegation.

"After reviewing the progress made since the first Joint Working Group meeting, the two sides discussed international issues and those related to bilateral relations and to the Catholic Church in Vietnam. The Vietnamese side recalled its consistent policy of respect for freedom of religion and belief as well as the legal provisions to guarantee its implementation. The Holy See delegation took note of this explanation and asked that further conditions be established so that the Church may participate effectively in the development of the country, especially in the spiritual, educational, healthcare, social and charitable fields. The Holy See delegation also mentioned that the Church in her teaching invites the faithful to be good citizens and therefore to work for the common good of the population.

"The two sides noted encouraging developments in various areas of Catholic life in Vietnam, especially in relation to the Jubilee Year. Furthermore they recalled the address of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI during the last 'ad limina' visit of the Vietnamese bishops and the Holy Father's Message to the Catholic Church in Vietnam on the occasion of the Jubilee Year, and agreed that these teachings of the Holy Father would serve as an orientation for the Catholic Church in Vietnam in the years ahead.

"On bilateral relations the two sides appreciated the positive developments since the first meeting of the Joint Working Group, especially the meeting between Pope Benedict XVI and the Vietnamese State President Nguyen Minh Triet in December 2009. The two sides also had in-depth and comprehensive discussions on bilateral diplomatic relations. In order to deepen the relations between the Holy See and Vietnam, as well as the bonds between the Holy See and the local Catholic Church, it was agreed that, as a first step, a non-resident representative of the Holy See for Vietnam will be appointed by the Pope.

"The two sides decided to hold the third meeting of the Joint Working Group in Vietnam; the time of the meeting will be settled through diplomatic channels.

"On the occasion of the meeting, the Vietnamese delegation paid courtesy visits to Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, Holy See secretary for Relations with States, to the Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples and to the Vicariate of the diocese of Rome. The Delegation also visited the Holy See's 'Bambino Gesu' paediatric hospital in Rome".

SS/ VIS 20100628 (490)
Source: Vatican Information Service - English

Archbishop Joseph Ngo Quang Kiet Resigned

VATICAN CITY, 13 MAY 2010 (VIS) - The Holy Father:

- Accepted the resignation from the pastoral care of the archdiocese of Hanoi, Vietnam, presented by Archbishop Joseph Ngo Quang Kiet, in accordance with canon 401 para. 2 of the Code of Canon Law. He is succeeded by Coadjutor Archbishop Pierre Nguyen Van Nhon.

- Appointed Fr. Paul Nguyen Thai Hop O.P., professor of ethics and Church social doctrine at the Dominican study centre and various other religious institutes, and professor at the Ho Chi Minh Ville State University, as bishop of Vinh (area 30,594, population 6,090,000, Catholics 486,234, priests 166, religious 610), Vietnam. The bishop-elect was born in Lang Anh, Vietnam in 1945 and ordained a priest in 1972. He succeeds Bishop Paul-Marie Cao Dinh Thuyen M.S.C., whose resignation from the pastoral care of the same diocese the Holy Father accepted, upon having reached the age limit.

RE:NER/ VIS 20100513 (160)

Message For Jubilee Year in Vietnam

VATICAN CITY, 26 NOV 2009 (VIS) - Vietnam is celebrating a Jubilee Year to commemorate 350 years since the foundation of the apostolic vicariates of Tonkin and Cochinchina, and fifty years since the creation of the Catholic hierarchy in the country. The Holy Father has joined the commemoration, sending a Message to Bishop Pierre Nguyen Van Nhon of Dalat, president of the Episcopal Conference of Vietnam.

In the text, dated 17 November, Benedict XVI notes how the opening of the Jubilee coincided with the feast of the 117 Vietnamese martyrs and expresses the hope that "the recollection of their noble witness may help the People of God in Vietnam to intensify their charity, increase their hope and consolidate their faith, which daily life sometimes tests very harshly".

The Pope likewise recalls how the opening celebrations took place at So-Kien in the archdiocese of Hanoi, location of the first apostolic vicariate in Vietnam, and expresses the hope that this site may become "the centre for a profound evangelisation which brings Vietnamese society the Gospel values of charity, truth, justice and rectitude. Such values, if lived following Christ, take on a new dimension which surpasses their traditional moral sense, because they are anchored in God Who desires the good and happiness of all creatures".

"The Jubilee Year", he writes, "is a time of grace in which to reconcile ourselves with God and our fellow man. To this end, we should recognise past and present errors committed against brothers in the faith and against fellow countrymen, and ask for forgiveness. At the same time, it would be appropriate to commit to increasing and enriching ecclesial communion, and to building a more just, united, equal society through authentic dialogue, mutual respect and healthy collaboration. The Jubilee is also a special time given to us to renew the announcement of the Gospel to everyone, and to become, to an ever greater degree, a Church of communion and mission".

Benedict XVI concludes his Message by greeting religious and laity in Vietnam who, he writes, "are ever present in my thoughts and daily prayers", and by encouraging bishops "to bear witness with courage and perseverance to the greatness of God and the beauty of life in Christ".

Source: Vatican Information Service VIS 091126 (380)