Collected by
Msgr. Labib Kobti, Chaplain
A-The celebration of the Conclusion of the
Year of Faith was marked by two signs:
1) The exhibition of St. Peter’s relics for
the first time
2) The Apostolic Exhortation “Evangelii Gaudium” (the Joy of
the Gospel”, co-written with Pope Benedict XVI
B- For the first time since Bergoglio became Pope
Francis, the number of adults between 20-40 years old asking to be
baptized has risen all over the world.
C- Global Language Monitor, a Texas-based company
that tracks the most frequently mentioned terms on the Web, announced that the
pontiff topped their 14th-annual survey of English-language blogs, social
media, and 275,000 electronic and online news sites. This means that it is
official; Pope Francis is the most talked-about person on the planet commented
CNN.
D- “Evangelii
Gaudium” (The Joy of the Gospel) an
Apostolic Exhortation, Nov. 26, 2013, was written in response to the most recent meeting of the
Synod of Bishops, which took place in October, 2012 under Pope Benedict XVI. It
is devoted to the subject of the new evangelization in preparation of the Synod
of Bishops in 2014.
1) The Pontiff also
considers “a conversion of the papacy”, to help make this ministry “more
faithful to the meaning which Jesus Christ wished to give it and to the present
needs of evangelization”. The hope that the Episcopal Conferences might
contribute to “the concrete realization of the collegial spirit”, he states,
“has not been fully realized”. A “sound decentralization” is necessary. In this
renewal, the Church should not be afraid to re-examine “certain customs not
directly connected to the heart of the Gospel, even some of which have deep
historical roots”.
2)
The greatest threat of
all is “the grey pragmatism of the daily life of the Church, in which all
appears to proceed normally, which in reality faith is wearing down”. He warns
against “defeatism”, urging Christians to be signs of hope, bringing about a
“revolution of tenderness”. It is necessary to seek refuge from the
“spirituality of well-being … detached from responsibility for our brothers and
sisters” and to vanquish the “spiritual worldliness” that consists of “seeking
not the Lord’s glory but human glory and well-being”.
3) He remarks that “Christianity does not
have simply one cultural expression” and that the face of the Church is
“varied”. “We cannot demand that peoples of every continent, in expressing
their Christian faith, imitate modes of expression which European nations
developed at a particular moment of their history”. The Pope reiterates that
“underlying popular piety … is an active evangelizing power”.
4) In relation to the
challenges of the contemporary world, the Pope denounces the current economic
system as “unjust at its root”. “Such an economy kills” because the law of “the
survival of the fittest” prevails. The current culture of the “disposable” has
created “something new”: “the excluded are not the ‘exploited’ but the outcast,
the ‘leftovers’”. “A new tyranny is thus born, invisible and often virtual”, of
an “autonomy of the market” in which “financial speculation” and “widespread
corruption” and “self-serving tax-evasion reign”.
5) The Church “cannot and
must not remain on the sidelines in the fight for justice”. “For the Church,
the option for the poor is primarily a theological category” rather than a
sociological one. “This is why I want a Church that is poor and for the poor.
They have much to teach us”. “As long as the problems of the poor are not
radically resolved … no solution will be found for this world’s problems”.
“Politics, although often denigrated”, he affirms, “remains a lofty vocation
and one of the highest forms of charity”. I beg the Lord to grant us more
politicians who are genuinely disturbed by … the lives of the poor!”
6) The Pope urges care for the weakest members of
society: “the homeless, the addicted, refugees, indigenous peoples, the elderly
who are increasingly isolated and abandoned” and migrants, for whom the Pope
exhorts “a generous openness”. He speaks about the victims of trafficking and
new forms of slavery: “This infamous network of crime is now well established
in our cities, and many people have blood on their hands as a result of their
comfortable and silent complicity”. “Doubly poor are those women who endure situations
of exclusion, mistreatment and violence”.
7) With regard to the theme of peace, the Pope
affirms that “a prophetic voice must be raised” against attempts at false
reconciliation to “silence or appease” the poor, while others “refuse to renounce
their privileges”. For the construction of a society “in peace, justice and
fraternity” he indicates four principles: “Time is greater than space” means
working “slowly but surely, without being obsessed with immediate results”.
“Unity prevails over conflict” means “a diversified and life-giving unity”.
“Realities are more important than ideas means avoiding “reducing politics or
faith to rhetoric”. “The whole is greater than the part” means bringing
together “globalization and localization”.
8) “Evangelization also involves the path of
dialogue”, the Pope continues, which opens the Church to collaboration with all
political, social, religious and cultural spheres. Ecumenism is “an
indispensable path to evangelization”. Mutual enrichment is important: “we can
learn so much from one another!”, for example “in the dialogue with our
Orthodox brothers and sisters, we Catholics have the opportunity to learn more
about the meaning of Episcopal collegiality and their experience of
synodality”; “dialogue and friendship with the children of Israel are part of
the life of Jesus’ disciples”; “interreligious dialogue”, which must be
conducted “clear and joyful in one’s own identity”, is “a necessary condition
for peace in the world” and does not obscure evangelization; in our times, “our
relationship with the followers of Islam has taken on great importance”: the
Pope “humbly” entreats those countries of Islamic tradition to guarantee
religious freedom to Christians, also “in light of the freedom which followers of
Islam enjoy in Western countries!”.
Important comment by the Guardian:
Pope Francis became the
first globally prominent figure to figure out that inequality is the
biggest economic issue of our time and bring attention to income inequality,
comments The Guardian. The Pope writes: “Some people continue
to defend trickle-down theories which assume that economic growth, encouraged
by a free market, will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and
inclusiveness in the world. This opinion, which has never been confirmed by the
facts, expresses a crude and naïve trust in the goodness of those wielding
economic power and in the sacralized workings of the prevailing economic
system. Meanwhile, the excluded are still waiting.”
The Guardian
continues: “Pope Francis, in his simple black shoes and unassuming car and house, is the first pontiff in a long time to reject
flashy shows of power and live by the principle of simplicity. That makes him
uniquely qualified to make the Vatican an outpost of Occupy Wall Street. His
message about spiritual salvation applies mainly to Catholics but it would be
sensible for economists and lawmakers to recognize his core message about the
importance of income inequality applies to those even those who have no belief
in religion.”
