Mercy at the heart of the Pope’s new series of talks
God’s mercy is constant and limitless, and he is faithful in his mercy for his children, even when they are unfaithful, Pope Francis has said in his first general audience of 2016, the first of a series of weekly talks on mercy.
Claiming that in the Bible, from the “Old Testament to the full revelation of Jesus Christ, the mercy of the Father is revealed in its completeness”, the Pope cited the biblical description of God as “merciful and gracious, slow to anger and rich in love and faithfulness”.
Speaking to about 6,000 people in the Paul VI audience hall, the Pontiff noted how the Bible compares God’s merciful love to the tenderness and love of a mother who seeks “to love, protect, help (and) is quick to give everything, even herself” for her children.
Likening God’s love to that of the Father in the parable of the prodigal son, he stressed that God’s love “does not depend on human merits but on an immense generosity”.
Commemorating the insights of the Reformation
Joint liturgical guidelines for ecumenical commemorations of the Protestant Reformation have been released following detailed talks between the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and the Lutheran World Federation.
The guidelines, presented on Monday in a booklet called Common Prayer, say all services should stress the concepts of thanksgiving, repentance, and common commitment, with the main focus on Jesus, and suggest prayers, hymns and themes for sermons.
They follow from 2013’s 93-page shared report From Conflict to Communion, which announced that the Vatican and the Geneva-based federation would mark the Reformation’s 500th anniversary as the start of a lengthy journey.
While the section on repentance highlights the suffering and carnage that took place during the post-Reformation wars of religion, the booklet focuses on shared beliefs. It includes prayers of thanksgiving for the insights and reforms that took place due to the Reformation, and for the proclamation of the Gospel that has taken place then and since.
Challenging corrupt networks in Rome
A leading Vatican prelate has confirmed that there is a “gay lobby” in the Roman Curia. Honduran Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga, coordinator of the Pope’s council of cardinal advisors, said in his local Honduran newspaper El Heraldo that he believes there is a “gay lobby” within the Vatican bureaucracy.
In June 2013, Pope Francis was reported as having said in a meeting with a group of Latin American priests and nuns that “In the Curia there are holy people, truly holy people. But there is also a culture of corruption… they speak of a ‘gay lobby’ and that is true, it is there… we will have to see what we can do.”
By “gay lobby” Italians typically mean not a political pressure group, but an informal network of gay clergy who look out for each other, and have a vested interest in keeping each other’s secrets and helping one another move up a clerical career ladder through corruption and patronage.
“These are things that step-by-step, the Pope is trying to change,” the cardinal said, distinguishing between clerical double standards and the pastoral needs of gay people.
