Post-synodal apostolic exhortation due on April 8
Pope Francis’s eagerly awaited post-synodal apostolic exhortation on love in the family will be released on the morning of Friday, April 8, the Vatican has announced.
The panel of speakers at the press conference, at which Amoris Laetitia (The Joy of Love) will be released, include Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, general secretary of the Synod of Bishops, Vienna’s Cardinal Christoph Schönborn OP, an Italian married couple, Prof. Francesco Miano, who lectures in moral philosophy at Rome’s Tor Vergata University and Prof. Giuseppina De Simone in Miano, who teaches philosophy at the Theological Faculty of Southern Italy in Naples.
The exhortation brings to a close a two-year synod process discussing both the beauty and challenges of family life in the modern world. An Extraordinary Synod was held in 2014 on the theme of ‘pastoral challenges to the family in the context of evangelisation’ ahead of October 2015’s Ordinary Synod on ‘the vocation and mission of the family in the Church and the modern world’.
Record-breaker Francis nets a million more followers
Pope Francis set a new record when he joined the social media platform Instagram by gaining one million followers within 12 hours, an Instagram spokesman has said. The “Franciscus” account, launched on March 19, is the “fastest growing account on Instagram to date”, according to Stephanie Noon, who said the Pope broke the record previously held by David Beckham, 24 hours to reach the same number of followers.
‘Twiplomacy’ an annual study conducted by the communications firm Burson Marsteller, found Pope Francis has for three years running been the most influential world leader on Twitter. His Instagram account is showing a similar pattern, with the photographs and video clips posted on the site having an average of 212,200 “likes” and 6,299 comments each.
“Instagram is mostly about pictures, which makes it a very effective way to spread Francis’ message of tenderness,” said Greg Burke, assistant director of the Vatican press office. “If people are looking at their phones 150 times a day, it’s good they see something a little more profound than pictures of food.”
Death of theologian at 93
A one-time theologian of the papal household died on March 31 at the age of 93. Cardinal Georges Marie Martin Cottier, a Dominican, served as a theological expert at the Second Vatican Council, as secretary of the International Theological Commission and was theologian of the papal household from 1989 to 2005 from which he retired aged 83.
President of the Vatican Theological-Historical Commission that prepared the way for the Church’s major ‘mea culpa’ statements of Holy Year 2000 on such themes as the Inquisition and Christians’ treatment of Jews, he argued that in professing belief in the “communion of saints” the Church asserts a link among its members throughout history.
Bomb victims remembered
The Pope has issued a personal message of sympathy to victims of the Easter Sunday Pakistan bomb blast recovering in hospital. Lahore’s Archbishop Sebastian Shaw of Lahore said officials contacted him on his mobile phone while he was going from bed to bed visiting the wounded. Pope Francis, the officials said, passing on a message from Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, was anxious to send a greeting to those wounded and grieving.
Seventy-two people, including 29 children, are known to have been killed and more than 340 in the Islamist attack.