Pope says world needs fewer complainers
Some people always will want to destroy unity and stifle prophets, Pope Francis said on the feast of Sts Peter and Paul. And yet, Jesus challenges everyone to be – like Peter – a rock for building a renewed Church and renewed humanity, and – like Paul – a missionary who brings the Gospel to others, he said during a Mass in St Peter’s Basilica on Monday.
People also need to complain less and pray more, especially for those who govern, the Pope said.
People must ask themselves whether they “simply talk and do nothing” because God wants people to pray and “be mindful of those who do not think as we do, those who have slammed the door in our face, those whom we find it hard to forgive.”
The feast day celebration in St Peter’s was markedly different from other years because of ongoing restrictions in place to stem the spread of Covid-19. Normally archbishops appointed over the course of the previous year would have been invited to concelebrate the feast day Mass with the Pope and watch as he blessed their palliums, woolen bands worn around their shoulders.
Instead, a congregation of about 90 people attended the Mass concelebrated by the Pope, nine of the 11 cardinal-bishops resident in Rome and the archpriest of St Peter’s Basilica, Cardinal Angelo Comastri.
While the actual imposition of the pallium was to take place in each archbishop’s archdiocese, Pope Francis did place a pallium on Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, the new dean of the College of Cardinals.
Rome diocese to resume pilgrimage schedule, starting with Lourdes
Cardinal Angelo De Donatis, the papal vicar of Rome who spent 10 days in a hospital with Covid-19, will lead a diocesan pilgrimage to Lourdes, France, in August.
The trip – August 24-27 – is scheduled to mark the resumption of diocesan-sponsored pilgrimages, which were halted because of the pandemic and its travel restrictions. With some exceptions and many precautions, travel among European countries resumed on June 15.
Cardinal De Donatis and four of the diocese’s five auxiliary bishops will lead the group to the Marian shrine.
An August pilgrimage to Lourdes is a Rome diocesan tradition; the 2020 edition will include, as usual, catechesis, Masses and processions. But it also will include everyone wearing face masks and observing social distancing, Roma Sette, the diocesan newspaper, reported on June 26.
No true love without the Cross – Francis
True love is not defined by preserving one’s personal interests but by willingness to sacrifice oneself for the good of others, Pope Francis has said.
To follow Christ’s call to take up the Cross and follow him, Christians must take the same path he did “without looking for shortcuts”, the Pope said on June 28 before praying the Angelus with pilgrims in St Peter’s Square.
“There is no true love without the Cross, that is, without a personal price to pay,” he said. “And when borne with Jesus, the Cross is not scary because he is always at our side to support us in the hour of the most difficult trial, to give us strength and courage. Nor is it necessary to get agitated to preserve one’s own life through fearful or egotistical behaviour.”
In his address, the Pope reflected on the Sunday Gospel reading from St Matthew, in which Jesus tells his disciples that whoever loves father, mother, son or daughter “more than me is not worthy of me.”
Whoever “does not take up his Cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it,” Jesus said.
