Vatican finances, the balance sheets of the IOR and of the St. Peter's Obligation
There is an intrinsic relationship between the budgets of the Oblates of St. Peter's and the Institute for works of Religion.
Andrea Gagliarducci-July 12, 2024-Reading time: 4minutes
There is a close relationship between the annual declaration of the St. Peter's obolus and the balance sheet of the Istituto delle Opere di Religione, the so-called "Vatican bank". Because the Obolo is destined to the charity of the Pope, but this charity is also expressed in the support of the structure of the Roman Curia, an immense "missionary budget" that has expenses, but not so many incomes, and that must continue to pay salaries. And because the IOR, for some time now, has been making a voluntary contribution of its profits precisely to the Pope, and these profits serve to lighten the budget of the Holy See.
For years the IOR has not had the same benefits as in the past, so that the portion allocated to the Pope has decreased over the years. The same situation applies to the Obolo, whose income has decreased over the years, and which has also had to face this decrease in the IOR's support. So much so that in 2022 it had to double its income with a general divestment of assets.
That is why the two budgets, published last month, are somehow connected. After all, the Vatican finances have always been connected, and everything contributes to helping the Pope's mission.
But let's look at the two budgets in more detail.
The St. Peter's Oblong
Last June 29, the St. Peter's Oblates presented their annual balance sheet. Revenues were 52 million, but expenses amounted to 103.4 million, of which 90 million were for the apostolic mission of the Holy Father. Included in the mission are the expenses of the Curia, which amount to 370.4 million. The Obolo thus contributes 24% to the budget of the Curia.
Only 13 million went to charitable works, to which, however, must be added donations from Pope Francis through other dicasteries of the Holy See totaling 32 million, 8 of which were financed directly through the obolo.
In summary, between the Obolus Fund and the funds of the dicasteries financed in part by the Obolus, the Pope's charity financed 236 projects, for a total of 45 million. However, the balance deserves some observations.
Is this the true use of the St. Peter's Obligation, which is often associated with the Pope's charity? Yes, because the very purpose of the Obligation is to support the mission of the Church, and it was defined in modern terms in 1870, after the Holy See lost the Papal States and had no more income to run the machine.
That said, it is interesting that the budget of the Obolus can also be deducted from the budget of the Curia. Of the 370.4 million of budgeted funds, 38.9% is earmarked for local Churches in difficulty and in specific contexts of evangelization, amounting to 144.2 million.
Funds earmarked for worship and evangelization amount to 48.4 million, or 13.1%.
Dissemination of the message, that is, the entire Vatican communication sector, represents 12.1% of the budget, with a total of 44.8 million.
37 million (10.9% of the budget) was allocated to support the apostolic nunciatures, while 31.9 million (8.6% of the total) went to the service of charity - precisely the money donated by Pope Francis through the dicasteries -, 20.3 million to the organization of ecclesial life, 17.4 million to the historical heritage, 10.2 million to academic institutions, 6.8 million to human development, 4.2 million to Education, Science and Culture and 5.2 million to Life and Family.
Income, as mentioned above, amounted to 52 million euros, 48.4 million of which were donations. Last year there were fewer donations (43.5 million euros), but income, thanks to the sale of real estate, amounted to 107 million euros. Interestingly, there are 3.6 million euros of income from financial returns.
As for donations, 31.2 million came from direct collection by dioceses, 21 million from private donors, 13.9 million from foundations and 1.2 million from religious orders.
The countries that donate the most are the United States (13.6 million), Italy (3.1 million), Brazil (1.9 million), Germany and South Korea (1.3 million), France (1.6 million), Mexico and Ireland (0.9 million), Czech Republic and Spain (0.8 million).
IOR balance sheet
The IOR 13 million to the Holy See, compared to a net profit of 30.6 million euros.
The profits represent a significant improvement over the €29.6 million in 2022. However, it is necessary to compare the figures: they range from the 86.6 million profit declared in 2012 - which quadrupled the previous year's earnings - to 66.9 million in the 2013 report, 69.3 million in the 2014 report, 16.1 million in the 2015 report, 33 million in the 2016 report and 31.9 million in the 2017 report, to 17.5 million in 2018.
The 2019 report, meanwhile, quantifies profits at 38 million, also attributed to the favorable market.
In 2020, the year of the COVID crisis, the profit was slightly lower at 36.4 million.
But in the first post-pandemic year, a 2021 still unaffected by the war in Ukraine, it returned to a negative trend, with a profit of only €18.1 million, and only in 2022 did it return to the €30 million barrier.
The IOR 2023 report speaks of 107 employees and 12,361 customers, but also of an increase in customer deposits: +4% to €5.4 billion. The number of clients continues to fall (they were 12,759 in 2022, even 14,519 in 2021), but this time the number of employees also decreases: they were 117 in 2022, they are 107 in 2023.
Thus, the negative trend of clients continues, which should give us pause for thought, bearing in mind that the screening of accounts deemed not compatible with the IOR's mission ended some time ago.
Now, the IOR is also called upon to participate in the reform of Vatican finances desired by Pope Francis.
Jean-Baptiste de Franssu, president of the Council of Superintendence, highlights in his management letter the numerous accolades the IOR has received for its work in favor of transparency over the past decade, and announces: "The Institute, under the supervision of the Authority for Supervision and Financial Information (ASIF), is therefore ready to play its part in the process of centralizing all Vatican assets, in accordance with the Holy Father's instructions and taking into account the latest regulatory developments.
The IOR team is eager to collaborate with all Vatican dicasteries, with the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See (APSA) and to work with the Investment Committee to further develop the ethical principles of FCI (Faith Consistent Investment) in accordance with the Church's social doctrine. It is crucial that the Vatican be seen as a point of reference."
The elements seem to have conspired to make Rome's sky shine in all its splendor these days. At noon it is a radiant blue and in the afternoon a golden light envelops the air. Anyone would say that the city is in mourning for its pontiff. The eternal beauty of the caput mundi is a challenge to the expiration of life and a reminder that death does not have the last word, as we celebrated in the recent Easter liturgy.
At around 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday, April 23, St. Peter's is witnessing the same machinery that, with almost mechanical perfection, is deployed in the basilica every time a great liturgical ceremony is being prepared. The order service controls the entrances and exits, the choir rehearses, the journalists work on their reports, but this time the tone is different.
Today the church is empty, there are no faithful. The arrival of the Pope is expected in thirty minutes, but on this occasion he will make his last entrance carried in a coffin. In a few hours the central aisle and the transept, in front of the altar of confession, will be filled with people who will come to give their last greeting to Francis, the Pontiff come "from the end of the world".
In the faces of the Vatican workers, usually cheerful and cheerful, a more serious gesture can be perceived. Orphanhood is a subtle mantle that rests on the countenance of those who cross these days the doors of a temple that stands as the heart of Christianity.
The transfer procession
At 9:00 a.m., the ceremony for the transfer of the Pope's coffin begins in the chapel of Casa Santa Marta. The cardinals occupy the bench. The Swiss Guard guards and wraps the Pontiff for the last time. The Cardinal Camerlengo, Kevin Farrell, presides. The choir sings several antiphons, the celebrant says a prayer and the procession begins, which will leave Santa Marta towards St. Peter's Square and will enter the basilica through the central door.
The Pope asked not to be veiled on cushions or velvet, but in a simple coffin of wood and zinc. At his flank procession some religious, members of the Apostolic Penitentiary, carrying candles. The cardinals lead the funeral march, followed by bishops and monsignors, priests and religious, and lay faithful, in a representation of the people of God.
The procession with the cross enters. The morning light filters through the windows and the entrance door. Mixing with the incense, it creates a unique atmosphere. The procession walks down the aisle while the litany of saints is sung. Men and women of God of all centuries, origins and charismas. Francis and Ignatius of Loyola, the two giants who have guided Bergoglio throughout his life and ministry, and who will have received him on his arrival in glory, are invoked almost simultaneously.
After the litany of saints, Farrell incenses the Pope's coffin, which has been placed in front of the altar of confession, and sprinkles it with holy water. The paschal candle is lit on one side of the box. A candle that represents Christ, the "star that knows no twilight," as sung in the proclamation of the holy vigil, a powerful symbol of Christian faith in eternal life.
The ceremony continues in the final part with the recitation of the responsory and the reading of a fragment of the Gospel, in chapter 17 of St. John, which includes some words of the priestly prayer of Jesus that today acquire a special consonance: "Father, I will that where I am, there be also with me those whom you have given me". After some intercessory prayers, the Our Father, a concluding prayer and the singing of the Salve Regina are recited.
Sister Geneviève's farewell
The first people come forward to say goodbye to Francis. Among the cardinals and purpurates, the figure of a petite woman can be seen. She is a nun dressed in a simple blue veil and a gray skirt below the knee. Her hair is gray, but she moves with agility. She carries a hunting green backpack on her back. They make a gesture to invite her to leave, but someone recognizes her and takes her to the coffin.
She is Geneviève Jeanningros, an Argentinian nun, a Little Sister of Jesus, who for more than 50 years has been living in a caravan in the community of carnival and circus performers at Luna Park in Ostia Lido, on the outskirts of Rome. His pastoral work picks up the legacy of Charles de Foucauld, of "going where the Church struggles to go". Every Wednesday Suor Geneviève attends the Pope's general audience accompanied by circus performers and LGBT people. Francis affectionately calls her the "enfant terrible". Now she is moved like a child as she bids her last farewell to her father, compatriot and friend.
After the death of Pope Francis there is a feeling of orphanhood and sadness on the one hand. But at the same time a great hope and serenity in knowing that the Lord is the one who governs the Church and will give us a shepherd according to his heart.
Santiago Perez de Camino-April 23rd, 2025-Reading time: 2minutes
The first time I was able to greet the Pope, in June 2013, 3 months after I started working at the Vatican, was in Santa Marta after having participated in the morning Mass, with the rest of my colleagues of the then Pontifical Council for the Laity. And yesterday, I was able, also at Santa Marta, to greet him for the last time and to pray, together with his recumbent bodyfor the eternal rest of his soul.
Many employees of the Holy See and our families were able to approach the chapel We came from the Santa Marta residence to greet for the last time the man who had guided our work for 12 years.
They were exciting moments, because you know that you are living a historic moment. As I entered, I recognized Massimiliano Strappetti, the Pope's nurse with whom I have played many times in the Vatican soccer team. Massimiliano has not been away from Francis for 4 years and now neither has he now. I shook his hand and thanked him for all he has done for the Pope.
Kneeling in one of the pews of the chapel, I could only hear the passing of the people who, along the central aisle of the chapel, came to pray for a moment before his mortal remains. I admit that it was difficult to pray in those moments. A multitude of thoughts came to my mind, in particular how my life has changed in the last 12 years.
Memories of Pope Francis
And many memories. Many. From that first time alone, to the many times I was able to greet him with my wife and children, whom the Pope has literally watched grow up. I fondly remember all the times he thanked us for the work we were doing and also that affectionate look with the children... he always had an insightful comment, sometimes ironic, but always with the aim of getting a smile out of you. It was in those moments where you could clearly see his sense of father, of shepherd.
I tried to keep many mental images of this moment so that I could tell my family and friends about it later. Francis, dressed in the red chasuble, was wearing his typical worn-out black shoes, which have traveled the world over, and in his hands was holding the rosary he used every day to address the Blessed Mother. Many people brought flowers and sent him an emotional kiss. On the sides, the Swiss Guard in full dress, rendered honors. And other guards and officers of the Vatican Gendarmerie directed the flow of people in and out of the chapel in order to live this moment with the solemnity and at the same time the simplicity that the Pope desired.
As he left, at about 10 p.m., a snaking line of people in Santa Marta Square continued to wait in silence for the chance to greet Pope Francis for the last time. A multitude of people who have known him beyond the media and social networks. There is a feeling of orphanhood and sadness on the one hand. But at the same time a great hope and serenity knowing that the Lord is the one who governs the Church and will give us a shepherd according to his heart.
The authorSantiago Perez de Camino
Officer of the Dicastery for the Laity, the Family and Life (2013-2025)
On April 23, the Church celebrates St. George, saint of Pope Francis, baptized Jorge Mario Bergoglio in Buenos Aires in 1936, who died on Monday, April 21, 2025, at the Vatican. The Argentine Pontiff referred to his saint and the fight against the evil one on numerous occasions.
Francisco Otamendi-April 23rd, 2025-Reading time: 2minutes
The latest congratulatory article for Pope Francis' saint, St. George, Martyr, which the liturgy celebrates on April 23, offers excellent information. It was published on this very day in 2024, one year ago, on Vatican News. Its author claims that devotion to St. George is very popular throughout Palestine and Israel.
The name 'George' is the most common name among Christians in the Holy Land. There is a Greek Orthodox church built on the ruins of his (St. George's) house and tomb in what was formerly known as Lydda, between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. A visit to Lod is an opportunity to pray for Pope Francis on his saint's day.
Congratulations from the Orthodox, the Custody, the Patriarchate
According to tradition, St. George was born in Cappadocia (central Anatolia, today Turkey), his father's homeland, around 280. His mother, Polikronia, was from Lydda, and the family lived here, in the Christian tradition. News about the life of St. George, who lived a few decades before Constantine, is rather uncertain. But in the crypt of the church is the sarcophagus containing his body, last opened two centuries ago.
The hospitable Archimandrite Markellos, of Greek origin and formerly a monk in the United States, is the pastor of the small Orthodox community composed mainly of immigrants. He said he was "very happy, together with my Latin brothers from the Custody, the Patriarchate and the Nunciature, who have come today from Jerusalem, to be able to say from the house of St. George: Congratulations Pope Francis!".
St. George, martyred for his faith in Christ
On the figure of St. George there are fanciful stories, as recognized by specialists. What is certain is that he joined Diocletian's army in Palestine. In 303, when the emperor issued the edict of persecution against Christians, George donated all his goods to the poor and, before Diocletian himself, he tore up the document and professed his faith in Christ. For this action he suffered terrible tortures and was beheaded.
Over the years, it seems that the figure of St. George the Martyr was transformed into a knight facing the dragon, symbol of faith who triumphs over the evil one. Richard the Lionheart invoked him as protector of all combatants. With the Normans, his cult was strongly rooted in England where in 1348, King Edward III instituted the Order of the Knights of St. George. He is also the patron saint of other countriesSlavs and Latin Americans, for example. In Spain, he is especially loved in Aragon, Catalonia (Sant Jordi), and Cáceres, in particular.
Fight against evil, the devil
On April 11, 2014, the Holy Father Francis explained that just as. the devil "tempted Jesus so many times, and Jesus felt in his life the temptations", so also men are tempted.
"We too are the object of the devil's attack," the Pope pointed out, "because the spirit of evil does not want our holiness, does not want Christian witness, does not want us to be disciples of Jesus (Homily, Holy Mass, Casa Santa Marta)." The Pope spoke of the devil on numerous occasions, for example at the Angelus on January 28, 2024: "You cannot dialogue with the devil," he recalled.
In these moments of sorrow, I am writing down my testimony, trusting that we can learn, through these anecdotes, Francis' catechesis on friendship.
April 23rd, 2025-Reading time: 6minutes
One of the graces that I value most in my life are the gestures of friendship that Pope Francis has given me, in an unusual mixture of paternal closeness and porteño good humor.
I met him in the distant year 2000, in the curia of the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires, but our friendship really began in the assembly of Aparecida in 2007.
Memories are piling up in my memory. In these moments of sorrow, I am writing my testimony at the request of Omnes, trusting that we can learn, through these anecdotes, Francis' catechesis on friendship.
I will begin by recounting my memories through his letters written in his own handwriting. To avoid indiscretions, I will quote the most significant ones. They reveal some of the characteristics of his personality: gratitude, good humor -with the ironic touch of his hometown-, closeness and trust in prayer.
While he was still Cardinal of Buenos Aires, he wrote me some letters -always accompanied, inside the envelope, with some holy cards of the Virgin Desatanudos, St. Joseph and St. Therese of Lisieux- to thank me for sending him a book or some information about the apostolic activities of the Opus Dei in the Argentine capital.
On one occasion, I sent him a book that included some of his words. In a letter dated October 22, 2010, in addition to thanking me for the book, his reaction to being quoted was the following: "As for the quotes in the conclusions, they are one more step until you are "quoted" in the Funeral Notices of La Nación" (the characteristic newspaper for this kind custom).
After his election as Roman Pontiff, my surprise was great when, on four occasions in one year, I received an envelope from the Nunciature that contained, in turn, another smaller envelope written by Francis in response to my letters, in which he had even put the zip code of my house. In the missive dated June 6, 2013, he encouraged me to evangelize "in these times when the waters are moving. Blessed be God. As I addressed him as "you" in Buenos Aires, and told him that I would now address him as "you". YouFrancis added: "I was amused that you stopped being trusting... you will get used to it (after all, I have gone down a category: before I was a Cardinal, now a simple bishop)". As in the letter, I was referring to the anniversary of my priestly ordination, the Pope pointed out: "You have already been a priest for 22 years. It is impressive how time passes. I have been twice as long and it seems like yesterday". He never failed to ask for prayers: "I ask you, please, to continue to pray for me and to have me pray for you".
The next letter I received was to thank me for a book I had written about him that a friend had sent him. On July 4, the Pope commented that this friend had brought him "the book that you dared to write about me. What a nerve! I promise to read it and I am already convinced that you will find in my writings metaphysical and ontological categories that surely have never occurred to me. I'm sure I'll have fun. I am also sure that your pen will do people good. Thank you very much." And, again, the request for prayers: "Please don't forget to pray and have prayers said for me. May Jesus bless you and the Holy Virgin take care of you".
At the end of 2014 I moved from Argentina again to Rome. The following year, I sent him a book on the great Russian writers. The Pope's admiration for those classics is well known, and in particular for Dostoevsky. Commenting on the book and the richness of Russian literature, he wrote a December 3, 2016: "At the base is that programmatic phrase (I do not remember whose), "nihil humanum a me alienum puto". (nothing human is alien to me), or the experience of the most Christian pagan, Virgil, "sunt lacrimae rerum et mentem mortalia tangunt". (there are tears in things and they touch the human part of the soul)". At the same time, he encouraged me to continue writing about literary classics as a means of evangelization.
On the occasion of a message in which I told him that I was going to Ecuador, he answered me by return mail, on February 3, 2022: "Have a good trip to Ecuador. Give my greetings to the Sorrowful Mother of St. Gabriel School in Quito. Every day I say a prayer to her". The Pope was referring to a miraculous image found in a school run by the Jesuits in the Ecuadorian capital. I fulfilled his wish, praying for a few minutes for his intentions in front of the image, together with the religious community of the school.
The last letter I have is dated August 4, 2024. The Pope had published a document on the importance of literature in the formation of pastoral workers. I was in Cameroon, and when I read this document I got excited and sent him a message through his secretary. The response was immediate: "Thank you for your email. Thank you for your encouragement. Some Italian bishops asked me to do something about the humanistic formation of future priests... and I dug up these notes that I had written a long time ago. In this you are not my "master" with your books. Cameroon has a good soccer team. I pray for you. Please do it for me. May Jesus bless you and the Holy Virgin watch over you. Fraternally. Francis.
The cell phone calls have also left an indelible memory of his friendship. From a personal meeting in 2016, which coincided with my birthday, he began to call me every year to give me his congratulations. Precisely in 2017 he called when I was celebrating Holy Mass. I came across an audio message, in which he greeted me for the birthday, assured me of his prayer, asked me to pray for him and added that, if he could, he would call me that afternoon. At about 3:00 p.m. I was receiving a person when the cell phone rang. When I took it out of my pocket, the communication was cut off, but I could see that it was him. I then got in touch with his secretary, to tell him that I was touched that the Pope tried to connect with me for the second time. I told him to convey my thanks and my prayers for him. Within five minutes, the Pope was calling me for the third time! As soon as I picked up the phone, he exclaimed, "How hard it is to talk to you!"
A year later, I admit that I was already expecting papal greetings. He did not call me until the following day. Incredibly, he explained to me as if he had to explain that he had had me in his thoughts all day, but had not had the physical time to greet me.
At the end of 2019 and in the first months of 2020 I had frequent contact with the Pope, expressing his closeness. In November I told him, through his secretary, that my mother had broken her hip. I asked for his prayer and blessing for my mother. I was very surprised to see my cell phone ring ten minutes after I had sent the e-mail. It was the Pope. He asked me how old my mother was, what her name was, and added that he was sending his blessing and that he would keep an eye out for her. Thank God, the operation my mother underwent went well, and I shared this with Francis in a letter which, once again, received an immediate written response.
A little later I had a complicated dermatitis. I unburdened myself in a letter, telling him that I was offering my discomfort for him and for the Church. He called me the next day. With a unique Porteño irony, he asked me what I called the disease. I answered: "Dermatitis". "No -he replied-, it is scabies", trying to give a touch of humor to the painful situation. Immediately, he was interested in my state of health and thanked me sincerely for offering the disease for him.
A few weeks passed, and I received painful news: one of my best friends since my elementary school years, a priest of Opus Dei, had died a victim of COVID. Once again I shared my suffering with the Pope, because Francis knew this priest very well, belonging to a family friend of his. Shortly after, he called me to console me: "Don't worry, Pedro was a saint, and he will be in Heaven". I told him that I had cried like a child when I heard the news. With much affection, he confided to me that those tears were very healthy, and that the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to children. He also asked how the "scabies" was going.
The string of contacts continued: birthdays, thanks for sending a book. Once he even wanted to know if I had the phone number of a mutual friend. Typical friendship stuff. Thinking about those calls, I came to the conclusion that, besides the prelate and my brothers in Opus Dei who live in my house, and my family in Argentina, only Francis shared my concern for my mother, my dermatitis, the pain of the death of a friend, and the joy of my birthday. Many were present in one or another of those circumstances, but only he was present in all of them. And, as is obvious, he was not exactly the least busy person among my friends.
If I am encouraged to tell these things, it is because I am aware that my case is by no means unique. Hours and hours of his pontificate - of his life - have been spent in this kind of gestures and conversations, of closeness and friendship. On difficult occasions and on joyful occasions, always with good humor and trust in prayer. In this moment of sorrow, the memory of the Pope is that of a friend who was in all of them, who lived with me what he preached all over the world.
With more than 50 years covering information from the epicenter of Christendom, the Mexican Valentina Alazraki is one of those names inextricably linked to the office of Vaticanist. He has worked for Televisa, the main Mexican television network, since 1974 and has lived through - and counted - four conclaves and more than 160 papal trips.
His closeness and friendship with St. John Paul II The book "The Eternal Light of John Paul II" is one of the most personal titles about the Polish pope.
When Francis was elected to the Chair of Peter, Alazraki was already the dean of the reporters covering the Vatican. A position and a background that made her one of the closest communicators to the Pope.
Her relationship with Pope Francis went beyond a professional acquaintance, as she tells in this interview for Omnes, she maintained a particularly significant correspondence with the pontiff and treasures those letters as a sign of the human quality and closeness of the Argentine Pope.
You are one of the communication professionals who has known and dealt with Pope Francis the most. What was the first close contact you had with the Pope?
-When Pope Francis was elected, I had the enormous privilege of being the doyenne of reporters. For this reason, the then Vatican spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi, asked me to welcome Pope Francis on the occasion of his first international trip to Brazil. I did so on the outward journey.
With an absolutely unprotocol tone -which is, let's say, my way of being-, I told Pope Francis that we were his traveling companions, that we would like him to see us that way, that we knew very well that journalists were not "saints of his devotion": when he was archbishop in Argentina he did not give interviews, etcetera. But I also told him "You probably think you have come here to our cabin, which is a kind of lion's cage. But the truth is not this. We don't bite, we're not mean. We want you to see us as fellow travelers and, obviously, we are journalists, so we would like you to answer our questions at some point."
Pope Francis answered in the same tone, very calm, very loose, very spontaneous, saying that, indeed, he was not at ease with the press, that he felt he did not know how to give interviews, but that he was going to make an effort and that, upon his return from Brazil to Rome, he would answer some questions. What a surprise it was when, indeed, upon his return, the Pope gave his first press conference and turned out to be an extraordinary communicator. As if he had been in the midst of journalists all his life. That was the first contact with Pope Francis.
Obviously, the fact that I was the one who welcomed him, "placed me", let's say, for Pope Francis. From that moment on, I was "the dean", taking into account that I am Mexican, that we speak the same language, that made it easier, this beginning of the relationship.
What really caught my attention, on that outbound trip, was the fact that Pope Francis - although he did not answer our questions, because he decided to do so on the way back, and that was a novelty with respect to both Pope John Paul II and Pope Francis - did not answer our questions, because he decided to do so on the way back, and that was a novelty with respect to both Pope John Paul II and Pope Francis, and that was a novelty with respect to both Pope John Paul II and Pope Francis. Benedict XVI-He wanted to greet us one by one. He stayed at the entrance of the cabin and we passed by, one after the other, to greet him. And I remember that, on that occasion, Father Lombardi told Pope Francis that I had been in the Vatican for many, many years (40 years at that time). And then Pope Francis made a joke saying that if after 40 years in the Vatican I still had not lost my faith, he would take care of opening my cause for beatification.
What I remember above all from that first trip is the closeness, the simplicity, the humanity of Pope Francis who wanted, in fact, to see us as fellow travelers and wanted to dedicate a moment to each one of us so that we could introduce ourselves, to say where we were from, from what milieu we were from. It was his first contact with us.
The Pope went from being an archbishop who did not give interviews to being one of the men coveted by the press, how did the Pope's relationship with communicators continue?
-I think that first meeting opened a very nice way of rapprochement between the Pope and the press because, from that day on, on all his trips, on the way there, the Pope wanted to greet us.
On many occasions, he would walk around the cabin and allow everyone to talk to him a little. Everything was very fast, but, obviously, each one of us could tell him something, give him a gift, even ask him a selfieAsk for a blessing for a sick person with a photograph, even a small recording.
The idea was that this contact with Pope Francis would not be journalistic, that is, we did not have to ask questions, because the questions were asked for the return. Obviously there is always someone who "half asks" a question, in theory not overtly journalistic, but whose answers can become news. When the Pope left our cabin, the custom was to exchange information: what he has said to you, what you have given him...In short, details that also gave a little color on the first day of the trip.
... there are many memories, aren't there?
-There are many moments that I remember with great fondness. For example, in 2015, I turned 60 and we were returning from a trip, from the Philippines, I think I remember. Pope Francis surprised me with a cake, even with a little candle, he put only a zero on it, so as not to say that I was 60. He came personally to give me that cake and, with a great sense of humor, he did not point out my age, but he said that I had come to the Vatican as a very young girl, from bambina. It was a very nice moment, because we know that Pope Francis does not sing, but he also sang "Happy Birthday". It was something that had never happened before on a papal plane and the truth is that for me it was an incredible gesture because, in addition to the cake, he gave me a very beautiful nativity scene in white ceramic, stylized, modern, which I keep with me and obviously I put on it every Christmas. I treasure it, because it came from the Pope's hands.
Valentina Alazraki blows out the sails on the flight back from the Philippines
In other circumstances he also celebrated my 150th papal trips and, recently, my 160th papal trips upon returning from the long trip to Asia.
She has always had very affectionate gestures, very nice, which for me, obviously, represent an immense treasure. There have been circumstances in which, for some reason, I have not made a trip and Pope Francis, at the beginning of that trip, said: "We are very sorry for the absence of our dean". Always words of affection, gestures wanting to show me that affection.
I think that, speaking of a relationship between a Pope and a journalist, it is something very beautiful and very valuable. Obviously, the Pope has had such gestures with other colleagues, but in my case, having been the dean, perhaps he has gone a little further, as, for example, he also gave me the decoration of the Piana Order, which is the highest decoration that a Pope gives to a layperson, and I believe that it had never been given to a woman. I experienced that decoration as a recognition from Pope Francis to all journalists who day after day cover the Vatican source and that, evidently, is not an easy job, because it involves many aspects and requires knowledge, preparation, prudence, respect and ethics.
You have talked about the details of Pope Francis with you. What are the moments with the Pope that have marked you the most, personally and professionally?
-The fondest memory I have of Pope Francis is the correspondence we have exchanged and of which I have never spoken during his pontificate. Very early in his pontificate I began to write him letters in a very personal way, with a very personal content, in which I also, little by little, began to ask him for an interview, for an answer... I remember, for example, one about the possibility of Pope Francis traveling to Mexico, my country.
But the most extraordinary thing about all this is that Pope Francis always answered my letters in his own handwriting; with a very small calligraphy, -I confess that sometimes I almost needed a magnifying glass to be able to identify the Pope's handwriting properly-.
On some occasions there were also phone calls that caused me a huge surprise because a hidden number appeared, which I could not identify, therefore, I could never have imagined that they came from the Pope.
I also remember a very nice thing: On one occasion I did not go on a trip, to Lebanon, and when I returned, Pope Francis sent me a precious box of dates, because I had not been on that trip.
For me these letters of which I have never spoken (nor will I ever tell their contents) and these telephone calls speak to me of a Pope with a very strong human value, of his closeness, of a simplicity that you would never imagine what a Pope calling on the phone is like.
I was also impressed by the moments when we agreed on an interview. I was the person to whom he gave the first interview on television and we had four in the whole pontificate. The truth is an enormous privilege, because there is no other media that has had so many interviews with Pope Francis. We arranged them practically by telephone. I almost "saw", I imagined the Pope on the other side of the phone, with his agenda, with his pencil or pen in his hand... He would ask me "when do you want to come?" And in my head I would say, "how is it possible that the Pope asks you when you want to come? I mean, he is the one who has to give the appointment". And I always answered him: "Pope Francis, when you say, when you can, when you want"..., and he would give me the date and the time. I imagined him writing down in his diary the day and the hour.
I believe that these details are something that had never been seen before and they speak clearly of this extraordinarily human, close and simple personality. A Pope who, in this sense, managed a little by himself. His secretaries obviously helped him in a thousand things, but there have been things that he wanted to handle alone, let's put it this way. He explained it to me one day: for him it was like enjoying freedom, that's why he lived in Santa Marta. In an interview he told me that he had not gone to the Apostolic Palace for "psychiatric reasons", because he said he did not want to be alone, like in a funnel, he wanted to be in the midst of the people. To have this freedom to write, to answer letters, to call people on the phone, was like "walking the streets in Argentina". In Buenos Aires he walked a lot, he moved around the city by subway, by bus, he walked ..... This freedom of his to have a personal agenda, -which he managed especially in the afternoons in Santa Marta-, gave him the idea of freedom. He could not get out of there, but this personal agenda, I think it gave him oxygen.
Those of us who had the opportunity to exchange letters or phone calls, keep this as an enormous treasure. Because the Pope, in those letters, wrote with an extraordinary affection, with a sensitivity, always aware of what one could tell him, if there was a complex situation at family or health or work level... The Pope answered in tune, that is, on those topics and always offering his help and prayers... For me, it is an extraordinary legacy.
Do you have any particularly significant anecdotes that you like to remember with the Pope?
-Just as Pope Francis celebrated my birthday on the plane with a cake, I also celebrated his birthday with a cake in the shape of a charro hat. It was obviously a "good wish" for Pope Francis to visit Mexico, my country. I took it to him at the beginning of a general audience in St. Peter's Square.
From the last moments, for example, when we were coming back from the last trip we made with Pope Francis to Corsica, his birthday was going to be the next day and I gave him a cake, which a baker made very beautifully, with a notebook and a pen with the name of the Association of Accredited Journalists in the Vatican, of which I am currently president. And the Pope liked it.
Like Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI, it was my turn to give a charro hat to Pope Francis. I always did so on the occasion of the pontiffs' trips to Mexico. Fortunately, all three visited my country - John Paul II on five occasions - and I could not miss a charro hat that I gave to the Pope on the plane when we were on our way to Mexico.
How has the Pope been perceived in a polarized communicative context?
-On a professional level, covering Pope Francis has been an extraordinary but complex experience. For one reason: because of the close, direct and spontaneous way in which Pope Francis speaks, it can be a problem for unprepared communicators or those who lack a sense of responsibility or ethics.
Let me explain: speaking in such a colloquial way and coinciding with the rise of social networks - which is the time that has touched Pope Francis - I have sometimes regretted that there are phrases of the Pope, very spontaneous, which then enter the networks and go viral, without any contextualization.
I consider that being a Vaticanist today, as is my case, is much more complex and complicated than it was 40 or 50 years ago. Because 40 or 50 years ago there was a lot of time to check the information, corroborate all the sources and verify that a news item was really real. Now, since everything is so immediate, everything goes viral in a second, in a jungle of social networks and there is the danger of putting in the networks phrases or opinions of Pope Francis that do not correspond to the truth, in the sense that they do not correspond to what he said or wanted to say, because the context is missing. I think this is very serious because it can create a lot of confusion.
I have tried to put what Pope Francis said, -when he said it in a very colloquial way-, always framed in the context so that it was really understood: why the Pope said it, how he said it and why he used certain expressions that, at times, are part of a porteño dialect, with words very typical of him, of how he spoke in Argentina.
I believe that, from this point of view, a great deal of ethics and a great sense of responsibility are needed. In such a polarized world, I believe that Pope Francis has also been the object and victim of this polarization.
Pope Francis had priorities that often did not coincide with those of the great power groups -which are also the ones that manage many media-. Therefore, there is a confrontation, sometimes aggressive, on the part of some media, about some positions of the Pope, which can be inherent to the social aspect as the whole issue of migration, for example, of the choice for the most disadvantaged, the closeness to the neediest people, or certain openings of the Pope that go in a way of great tolerance, of great mercy, but that are also seen by some groups almost as a betrayal of the doctrine.
I think these have been complex years, on a professional level, in this sense. In one of the interviews I asked Pope Francis if he was aware of the risk he was running by speaking in such a spontaneous way. The Pope told me that yes, he was aware of that risk, but that he believed that it was what people liked, that he was so spontaneous, so direct, so close, with such clear language that everyone could understand and that he preferred to run the risk of perhaps being misinterpreted or misunderstood at times.
That was one part of the job. The other was really extraordinary, because we were following, not only a Pope, but a great human being. There are images that are unforgettable, such as, for example, the Pope's first trip to Lampedusa, when he was in front of the Mediterranean Sea, which for him became a cemetery, throwing that wreath of flowers thinking of all the migrants who die; or when we saw him, all alone, in the rain, in St. Peter's Square during the pandemic, asking for an end to that catastrophe for the world. It was extraordinary to see the way in which the Pope knew how to get close to so many people. Those images of Pope Francis with the sick, with migrants, in refugee camps, in prisons, are truly unforgettable.
Frame from the documentary "Francesco" by Evgeny Afineevsky in which he is interviewed by Valentona Alazraki (CNS screenshot/Noticieros Televisa via YouTube).
Now we are entering a new stage. You have been at the epicenter of information for several pontificates. How do you live such intense moments as a conclave, a synod?
-Living through a conclave is a truly impressive professional experience. My first conclave was after the death of Pope Paul VI. I was just starting out in this career, I was very young, and I remember the excitement of being in St. Peter's Square, waiting for the famous smoke. In the case of John Paul I, I remember I was in the square with my cameraman, a man with a lot of experience, who had done wars, a lot of coverage. In the afternoon, a gray smoke started to come out and he told me "I'm leaving because the smoke is gray, see you tomorrow"; and like him, many teams left. I had no experience, I was 23 years old and absolutely novice, but when I saw the gray smoke I thought that gray was neither black nor white. What was my surprise when suddenly, with the positions of the Vatican commentators half-empty in the square, the white smoke was defined and, indeed, then the election of Pope John Paul I. I found myself, in the square, without a cameraman! I found an Italian cameraman I knew and I asked him the enormous favor of filming me at the moment when the Pope was about to go out on the balcony for the first time. I have this very strong memory, because it was a great lesson that, as a journalist, you should never leave the scene.
The next was for the election of John Paul II and then, after the death of John Paul II, the election of Pope Benedict XVI. All have been moments of impressive intensity.
Perhaps at a professional level, the strongest moment is when you have to announce the death of a Pope. In the case of John Paul II, we lived for days, weeks, with the anguish of "losing" that news, because the Pope was very ill: we did not know when he was going to die. At the news level, that is a very strong moment, but, obviously, the conclave is another story, because you are waiting to know the name of the new Pope. And there is always a great emotion when they appear on the balcony and begin to say the name of the future Pope, because everyone tries to understand whether or not they know the cardinal who has been elected as the new pontiff. These are moments of great intensity.
Church institutions appreciate Pope Francis' "testimony of charity, mercy and faith
Various religious congregations, as well as movements and associations of the faithful and prelatures have expressed their sorrow for the death of the Pope, highlighting the witness he leaves to the faithful.
The different institutions of the Church have expressed their condolences for the death of the Pope Francis unanimously calling for prayer and thanksgiving to God for the example of the Argentinean Pope.
Testimonials and thanks
"Our sorrow is accompanied by a moving gratitude for the tireless witness of faith that Pope Francis has shown to the world until his last day," thus says farewells Davide ProsperiPresident of the Fraternity of Communion and LiberationPope Francis also recalled the "great esteem and attention for our movement" shown by the Pope and his willingness to continue along the "path he has indicated to us, so that the movement may always be faithful to the gift of the Spirit in order to serve the glory of Christ.
The prelate of the Opus DeiFernando Ocáriz also wanted to highlight the example of the deceased pontiff who "encouraged us to accept and experience the mercy of God, who never tires of forgiving us; and, on the other hand, to be merciful to others, as he tirelessly did with so many gestures of tenderness that are a central part of his witnessing magisterium.
Also in the Neocatechumenal Way They recalled his "testimony of total self-giving to bear witness to the love of God for every creature" and emphasized their gratitude to the Lord "for having given us a zealous pastor who brought the Gospel to the farthest reaches of the Church, giving himself to manifest to all the closeness and love of God, especially to the poorest and most abandoned in body and spirit".
This same gratitude is what he wanted to emphasize Margaret Karram, president of the Focolare Movement which emphasizes how "together with the whole Church, we give him to God, full of gratitude for the extraordinary example and gift of love that he represented for every person and for all peoples".
Karram, of Palestinian Catholic origin, also wanted to emphasize "the love and personal attention that the Pope gave me, especially in the face of the sufferings of my people in the Holy Land, as well as my deep gratitude for having invited me to participate in the Synod on Synodality, where he himself opened the doors to a synodal Church that is now beginning to take its first steps throughout the world".
Religious women and men emphasize their spiritual guidance
– Supernatural International Union of Superiors General has issued a statement thanking the Pope "for his spiritual guidance, which has strengthened all religious communities around the world in their mission to embody the teachings of Christ. His voice for peace, justice, compassion and ecological care will continue to resonate in our hearts and actions."
– Supernatural union of male superiorsPope Francis' religious vocation made him understand them "from his own experience of consecrated life, but also from his life as a superior, as a pastor in religious life. He understood us as a man who had experienced, no doubt also in a painful way, how difficult it can be to guide a flock of brothers and sisters who wish to respond to the call to follow Christ closely in order to navigate with Him".
They also emphasized that "he has also initiated with us a process of renewal of mysticism, of a journey with Christ present, in love with Him; processes in which consecrated life, like all Christian life, is renewed in an ever more intimate and expanded friendship with Jesus".
In an extensive letter, sent to all the brothers and people close to the Society, Sosa wanted to highlight the sorrow for the death of "our dear brother in this minimum Society of JesusJorge Mario Bergoglio. In it we have shared the same spiritual charism and the same style of following our Lord Jesus Christ".
In this sense, Sosa emphasized that Pope Francis "knew how to guide the Church during his pontificate, in communion and continuity with his predecessors in the effort to put into practice the spirit and orientations of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council".
Likewise, the Jesuit superior recalled how "when he addressed us, his brother Jesuits, he always insisted on the priority of reserving sufficient space in our life-mission for prayer and the care of spiritual experience" and recalled the words of the late Pope when he described the members of the Society as "servants of the joy of the gospel". in whatever mission he may be involved in. From this joy," Sosa continues, "flows our obedience to the will of God, to the sending to the service of the mission of the Church and also our apostolates".
The funeral of Pope Francis will take place on Saturday, April 26th.
From Wednesday, April 23, the faithful will be able to bid farewell to Pope Francis, whose body will be on display in St. Peter's Basilica until his funeral, which will be presided over by the Dean of the College of Cardinals on Saturday, April 26, at 10:00 a.m.
On Wednesday, April 23rd, two days after the death Pope Francis, the faithful will be able to bid farewell to the Pontiff starting at 9:00 a.m. in St. Peter's Basilica, where his body will be exposed until his death. funeralThe meeting will be presided over by the Dean of the College of Cardinals, Giovanni Battista Re, on Saturday 26 at 10:00 a.m., also in the basilica.
After his funeral, the Pope will be laid to rest in Santa Maria Maggiore, as he left in writing in his will. Its slab will be at ground level and will be very simple, having only the inscription "Franciscus".
As for the Conclave and the beginning of the General Chapters, the date is not yet clear, since all the cardinals are still arriving in Rome.
During his pontificate, especially in the last few years, Pope Francis has spoken out against the grave violation of human rights that surrogacy constitutes.
This month marks the one-year anniversary of the declaration of the Dignitas Infinitaspublished on April 8, 2024. This document gathers the prophetic words of the Holy Father to the diplomatic corps accredited to the Holy See on January 8, 2024: "I consider deplorable the practice of so-called surrogate motherhood, which gravely offends the dignity of the woman and the child; and is based on the exploitation of the mother's situation of material need. A child is always a gift and never the object of a contract. I therefore call on the international community to commit itself to a universal ban on this practice.".
A few days prior to the speech, the Pope Francis had received a letter from Olivia MaurelFrench-American feminist, 33 years old, born in France, was born for surrogacy. It was a deeply personal missive, in which she shared her story and invited the Pontiff to support the cause of the universal abolition of surrogate motherhood, promoted by the Casablanca Declarationof which Olivia is a spokesperson.
I had the immense privilege of accompanying Olivia, along with her husband Matthias, Sofia Maruri and Vincenzo Bassi, promoters of the Congress on the universal abolition of the surrogate motherhood The meeting, which was held in Rome in those days, was an unforgettable private audience.
Francis listened to Olivia Olivia is an atheist, yet she wanted to share her concerns with him. The Pope expressed his support and encouraged her to move forward, reminding her of the importance of good humor, an ally that, as he himself said, does not always accompany us in the hard battles to protect human dignity.
The Pope's call has a prophetic character: it points to a possible horizon, like so many other challenges that humanity has had to face throughout its history. It is not a simple task, but some fruits are already beginning to be seen.
A few days after the meeting with the Holy Father, the European Parliament recognized the exploitation in the surrogate motherhood as a form of human trafficking.
Months later, Italy passed a new law that criminalizes the practice of surrogate motherhood even when performed abroad.
The year 2025 will also be marked by the report to be presented by Reem Alsalem, UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women, focusing on the human rights violations that occur in the surrogacy market.
On April 20, 2025, Pope Francis went out into the crowded St. Peter's Square as a bullfighter goes out to the greatest of tasks, that of saying goodbye to his people on Easter Sunday.
On April 20, not in 1990 but in 2025, it was a spring day without rain in Rome, as if nature already knew it was his last day on Earth. Pope Francis went out into the crowded St. Peter's Square as a bullfighter goes out for the greatest of tasks, that of bidding farewell to his people on Easter Sunday. With the commitment, courage and dedication of giants who do everything for love until their last breath.
With the intuition that it was the last time we would see Francis, we approached the "barrier", to see him pass in the popemobile through the corridors of fences of St. Peter's Square, overturned with his public. Previously, before the blessing "urbi et orbi", he had said his last words to everyone with a certain clarity: "Dear brothers and sisters, Happy Easter", and that gesture alone had filled us with encouragement.
The farewell
At that moment the group of pilgrims from Madrid, pilgrims winning the Jubilee, became aware that we were the Christianity that contemplated his farewell, since he would soon leave in the "popemobile" to the afterlife. For this reason, we threw ourselves into it, knowing that we were giving him back part of what he gave us, enjoying the historic moment we were living and that we were acquiring the responsibility of those who have something to tell.
The next morning we received the news of their deathA few hours later at Mass in St. Mary of Peace, in the prelatic church of Opus Dei, at the tomb of St. Josemaría in Rome, before leaving for Madrid. And there we asked this saint, faithful to the Roman Pontiff, to put him in his rightful place, for the conclave and for the next Pope.
The funeral of Pope Francis
One of the pilgrims shared in the group the words of the book "Hope", Pope Francis' autobiography, where he explains how he wanted the group to proceed at this moment:
"When I die, I will not be buried in St. Peter's, but in St. Mary Major: the Vatican is the home of my last service, not that of eternity. I will be in the room where they now guard the candelabra, close to that Queen of Peace to whom I have always asked for help and by whom I have had myself embraced during my pontificate more than a hundred times. It has been confirmed to me that everything is ready.
The funeral ritual was too pompous and I spoke with the master of ceremonies to lighten it: no catafalque, no ceremony for the closing of the coffin. With dignity, but like any Christian. Although I know that He has already granted me many, I only asked the Lord for one more grace: take care of me, whenever you want, but, as you know, I am quite afraid of physical pain... So, please, don't let it hurt me too much".
In December 2024, the Vatican unveiled the new edition of the 'Ordo Exsequiarum Romani Pontificis', the liturgical book that regulates the funeral of the Roman Pontiff of the Catholic Church. Benedict XVI already had a simple farewell, as was his wish, and Pope Francis has further simplified the ritual.
Francisco Otamendi-April 22, 2025-Reading time: 5minutes
Perhaps because he was going to be 88 years old on December 17, or because he was not feeling well, or for whatever reasons, Pope Francis had been thinking for some time that he wanted an even simpler funeral than the one arranged for Benedict XVI, which reduced the existing rules and also sought to a simple farewell.
As will be recalled, the remains of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI rested from December 31 to the early hours of January 2 in the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery, and at 9:00 a.m. on Tuesday, his body was exposed for the visit of the faithful in St. Peter's Basilica.
Already on Thursday 5, in the atrium of St. Peter's Basilica, the Holy Father Francis presided at the Funeral Mass for the late Supreme Pontiff Emeritus.It was the first time in history that a Pontiff has presided over the funeral of his immediate predecessor, for whom asked for prayers before he passed away.
A Pastor, not a world power
Pope Francis wanted a rite that would highlight that "the funeral of the Roman Pontiff is that of a shepherd and disciple of Christ, and not that of a powerful person of this world," explained Archbishop Diego Ravelli, master of the Liturgical Celebrations of the Pontiffs.
In addition, the Pope asked, as he declared on several occasions, "simplify and adapt some rites so that the celebration of the funeral of the Bishop of Rome would better express the Church's faith in the Risen Christ," the archbishop added, according to the official Vatican agency.
New rules for funerals of a Pope
And at the end of the year, the Holy See made public the new rules of the '.Ordo Exsequiarum Romani Pontificis'.The liturgical book that regulates the rituals of the funeral rites of the Pastor of the Catholic Church.
The liturgical book was presented as a new edition of the previous one, the typical edition of the 'Ordo Exsequiarum Romani Pontificis' approved in 1998 by St. John Paul II and published in 2000, which was used at the funerals of the same Pontiff in 2005 and, with adaptations, at those of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI in 2023.
The modifications refer to the so-called 'three stations', that is, the house of the deceased Pope, where he dies; the funeral at St. Peter's; and the transfer of the coffin to the tomb, the burial.
Among the novelties introduced, as reported by Vatican News, are the confirmation of death no longer in the room of the deceased but in the chapel, the immediate deposition inside the coffin, the exposition to the veneration of the faithful of the Pope's body inside the open coffin, and the elimination of the traditional three coffins made of cypress, lead and oak.
Cardinal Camerlengo and the three classic 'seasons'.
In the Catholic Church, it falls to the Cardinal Camerlengo to certify the death of a Pope, after the corresponding medical opinion, and to head the Church when the see is vacant due to death or resignation. Currently, it is Cardinal Kevin Farrell.
As we have said, the new Ordo maintains the three classic 'stations': the home of the deceased, the Vatican Basilica and the place of burial, although Monsignor Ravelli pointed out that "the internal structure of the 'stations' and of the texts has been revised in the light of the experience acquired with the funeral rites of St. John Paul II and Benedict XVI, of current theological and ecclesial sensibilities, and of the recently renewed liturgical books".
In this Basilica is the icon of Our Lady 'Salus Populi Romani', patron saint of Rome, to whom the Roman Pontificie always used to go to pray before and after his apostolic journeys, and to whom he also prayed. went to to pray before being elected to the See of Peter.
Simplification of pontifical titles
One of the most significant novelties is the simplification of the pontifical titles: the terminology used in the third edition of the Missale Romanum (2008) has been retained, that is, the appellatives Pope, Episcopus (Romæ) and Pastor, while in the general premises and rubrics the expression Romanus Pontifex has been chosen, in accordance with the title of the liturgical book, the Vatican agency added.
In the Italian translation, the vocabulary used in the second edition of the Rite of Eucharist (2010) edited by the Italian Episcopal Conference has been taken over, from which much of the terminology of the Italian version of the Rite has been updated, for example preferring the term coffin to indicate the body already closed in the coffin.
Some details
Regarding the 'stations', it can be reiterated that 'in the house of the deceased' includes the novelties of the ascertainment of death in his private chapel.
The second station has been remodeled: since the deposition in the coffin has already taken place after the confirmation of death, the coffin is closed on the eve of the funeral Mass, and only one transfer to St. Peter's is envisaged. In the Vatican Basilica, the body of the deceased Pope is exposed directly in the coffin and "no longer in a high bier".
Finally, the third station 'at the place of burial' includes the transfer of the coffin to the grave and burial, as recounted.
The 'novendiales': masses of suffrage for 9 days
The fourth and final chapter of the liturgical book is dedicated to the dispositions for the 'novendiales', the Masses in suffrage of the deceased Pope celebrated for nine consecutive days beginning with the funeral Mass.
The ritual includes four - no longer three - forms of prayers, since those offered in the Missale Romanum for the deceased Pope and that of the deceased diocesan bishop have been included.
The new edition does not include the appendix with the Ordinary of the Mass, the collections of penitential and gradual psalms and the chants of the Ordinary with Gregorian notation.
"The Ordo Exsequiarum Romani Pontificis," explained Msgr. Ravelli, "is not conceived as a 'plenary missal,' but as an Ordo in the proper sense of the term, that is, it contains the ritual indications, the development of the rites and the proper texts, but refers for everything else to the liturgical books in use, that is, the missal, the lectionary and the gradual.
The funeral of Pope Francis
On April 21, 2025 at eight o'clock in the evening, the Camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church presided over the rite of confirmation of the death of Pope Francis and the placing of the body in the coffin. According to the Director of the Holy See Press Office, it is most likely that from Wednesday, April 23, the faithful will be able to come to St. Peter's Basilica to bid farewell to the Pope.
During a meeting that will take place on Tuesday morning, the cardinals will decide how to proceed concretely for the funeral of the Holy Father, while little by little the entire College of Cardinals arrives in Rome to participate in the future Conclave that will begin in 20 days at the latest.
Opus Dei rethinks its General Congress due to the death of the Pope
Opus Dei will renew the positions of the General Congress and the Central Advisory Council, but will wait to define its pastoral guidelines and present its statutes.
In a context marked by prayer and mourning after the death of Pope Francis, the prelate of Opus Dei, Monsignor Fernando Ocáriz, has announced the simplification of the X Ordinary General Congress of the institution, scheduled for these weeks in Rome.
"In the midst of sorrow for the death of our beloved Pope Francis and gratitude to God for his generous witness, I am writing this message to tell you some immediate news," begins the prelate's message, released Monday.
Although the Congress was scheduled to begin this Wednesday, April 23, the proximity of its beginning and the arrival of the majority of the congress participants in Rome have led the Opus Dei leadership to modify its development. "After listening to the Central Advisory and the General Council, (...) it has been decided that the Congress will be reduced to the minimum necessary: the renewal of the positions of the General Council and the Central Advisory, which are expected to be appointed or renewed every eight years," explained Ocáriz.
Reform of the bylaws
The rest of the issues that were on the agenda, mentioned in a previous message of April 8, will be postponed. "The other issues that were to be dealt with at the Congress (...) will be studied later, since now is a time of mourning, prayer and unity with the whole Church."
These other topics refer to the reform of the statutes that Opus Dei is going to present to the Holy See and the pastoral lines that were to be proposed for the next eight years, especially in light of the proposals of the past regional work Assemblies that took place in the different countries where Opus Dei is spread.
Participation in funerals
During these days, the members of Opus Dei present in Rome will participate in the funeral rites of the Holy Father. "We will take advantage of these days to live in communion with the whole Church the mourning and funeral rites for the Holy Father. All the regions of Opus Dei will be in some way present in the Eternal City through your sisters and brothers in Congress."
The message concludes with an exhortation to prayer: "As I told you in my previous message, let us turn to Holy Mary, Mother of Hope, so that in this period of vacancy of the See she may be a consolation and guide for all in the Church."
The Holy See has confirmed that the cause of death Pope Francis had a stroke, which led to a coma and an irreversible cardiocirculatory collapse.
The Pontiff had been suffering for some time from a complex clinical condition, as is clear from the communiqué published on the afternoon of April 21: he had suffered a previous episode of acute respiratory failure in bilateral multimicrobial pneumonia, multiple bronchiectasis, arterial hypertension and type II diabetes.
Professor Andrea Arcangeli, Director of the Directorate of Health and Hygiene of the Vatican City State, has reported that the finding of death was made by electrocardioanatomical recording and announced the result.
At 8:00 p.m. on Monday evening, Rome time, in the chapel of Casa Santa Marta, the ceremony of the confirmation of death and the placing of the body in the coffin took place, according to what was foreseen by the Ordo Exsequiarum Romani Pontificis (nos. 21-40), presided over by Kevin Joseph Farrell, Cardinal Camerlengo.
The Dean of the College of Cardinals, the pontifical family, as well as the director and vice-director of the Directorate of Health and Hygiene of the Vatican City State were also summoned to the rite.
The testament of Francis
On the afternoon of Monday, June 21, the testament written by Pope Francis on June 29, 2022 was also made public. It is a simple document, of only seven paragraphs, in which he expressed his will to be buried in the Roman Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore. At that time, the Pontiff wrote: "Feeling that the end of my earthly life is approaching and with lively hope in Eternal Life, I wish to express my testamentary will only with regard to the place of my burial".
He stressed that he had always entrusted his life and his priestly and episcopal ministry to the Mother of God. And that is why he wished that his mortal remains rest in the papal basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, which has been the object of numerous visits by the Argentinean Pope, who used to pray before the image of the Mother of God. Salus Populi Romani before and after each of his apostolic journeys, "to confidently entrust my intentions to the Immaculate Mother and to thank her for her docile and maternal care".
A simple niche in the ground
Francis further requested in writing that his tomb be prepared "in the niche of the side aisle between the Pauline Chapel (Chapel of the Salus Populi Romani) and the Sforza Chapel of the aforementioned Papal Basilica". He added that he wished the tomb to be "in the earth; simple, without particular decoration and with the only inscription: Franciscus".
And he concluded with words that echo the constant request for prayers for his person that has guided his ministry: "May the Lord give a well-deserved reward to those who have loved me and will continue to pray for me. The suffering that became present in the last part of my life I offered to the Lord for world peace and fraternity among peoples."
The American pontiff published many writings during his 12-year pontificate. Among them are four encyclicals, seven apostolic exhortations and eighty apostolic letters, most of them in the form of Motu proprio.
The written output of Pope Francis' magisterium during his twelve years at the head of the Catholic Church is vast and diverse.
Encyclicals
Pope Francis inaugurated his pontificate with the publication of Lumen Fidei on June 29, 2013, an encyclical in which many guessed the pen of his predecessor, Benedict XVI who completed the trilogy dedicated to the theological virtues: Hope (Spe salvi), charity (Caritas in veritate) and faith, with this last encyclical that Francis found himself practically done.
The Argentine Pope published Laudato Si'the first major document of the Pope dedicated to the ecology on May 24, 2015. In that encyclical, the Pope collected and developed part of the magisterium of his predecessors, emphasizing that Christians recognize that their responsibility within creation and their duty towards nature and the Creator are an essential part of their faith. The Pope encouraged the search for other ways of understanding the economy and progress, stressing that authentic human development has a moral character and must be concerned with the world around us (something he would also take up in Fratelli tutti), and called for an ecological conversion, recognizing that every creature reflects something of God. In that encyclical he spoke of the "throwaway culture," one of his pontificate's lines, promoting social change that would give value to the poorest and most vulnerable: the elderly, abandoned children, the poor, migrants....
In 2020, Francis signed in Assisi the encyclical Fratelli Tutti. The place chosen for the rubric of this encyclical was not accidental: the saint of Assisi is the inspiration for an encyclical in which the Pope advocated a new vision of fraternity and social friendship that does not remain at the level of words. In this sense, Fratelli Tutti was meant to be a contribution to the development of a global community of fraternity based on the practice of social friendship by peoples and nations demands a better politics, one that is truly at the service of the common good. There were those who called this encyclical Pope Francis' most "political" encyclical, since the pontiff expressly addressed the rulers of peoples urging them to a "political charity," focused on working for a social and political order whose soul is social charity.
Laudato si' and Fratelli Tutti have been, perhaps, Pope Francis' two most well-known and influential encyclicals of his pontificate. Less than a year ago, on October 24, 2024, the Pope published his last encyclical, Dilexit us, in which the Pope explores the meaning of the Sacred Heart of Jesus as a source of love and a center for the life of every person. The encyclical invites the faithful to a deeper encounter with Christ, trusting fully in his love to attain definitive union with him, and addresses the importance of the Eucharist and the veneration of sacred images as a means of drawing closer to Christ and nourishing our lives. In this encyclical, he also took up the call to love everyone that he had initiated in Fratelli tutti, pointing out that love of neighbor, nourished by the love of Christ, enables us to love as he loved, showing humility and closeness to all.
Apostolic exhortations, the lines of his pontificate
Among the most important texts that Pope Francis published during his pontificate are the Apostolic Exhortations written by him. In total there were seven such documents of which three: Evangelii Gaudium, Amoris Laetitia and Gaudete et Exsultate can be considered examples of the "master lines" of Francis' pontificate.
Evangelii Gaudium, written in the same year of his election, is the "program of government" of a Pope who called the faithful to embark on a new stage of evangelization, characterized by enthusiasm and the revitalization of structures. In this exhortation, the Pope addressed the need to reform the Church in her evangelizing mission, pointing out some temptations into which we can all fall and emphasizing the importance of including the poor in society, promoting peace and dialogue.
Three years later, Amoris Laetitia (2016) was published, in which the pontiff addresses the beauty and challenges of marriage and the family in today's world. In this exhortation, which was not free from certain misinterpretations, Pope Francis wanted to reflect on the importance of conjugal and family love, as well as on the need to accompany, discern and integrate all families, especially those in difficult situations. In Amoris Laetitia, the Pope also denounced the cultural, social, political and economic factors that impede authentic family life.
Finally, Gaudete et Exsultate (2018) is an invitation to holiness in everyday life. Pope Francis explained in this apostolic exhortation that all are called to be saints by living with love and offering one's witness in one's daily occupations, wherever one finds oneself and encouraged to show Christian commitment in such a way that everything one does has an evangelical meaning and identifies us with Jesus Christ.
The death of the Pope Francishas deeply moved the international community and has generated a wave of reactions among the world's main political leaders, who have wanted to publicly express their sorrow and pay tribute to the Argentinean Pontiff. Although his death has taken many by surprise, condolences have not been long in coming.
Vice President of the United States, JD Vancewho was the last political leader to see him alive, has published a message on social networks where he recalls his meeting with the Pope just the day before. "He was clearly very sick, but I'm left with the homily he gave in the early days of COVID. It was really beautiful. May God have him in his glory."
Also the King and Queen of the United Kingdom, who were recently able to greet the Pope, just out of hospital, have shown their sorrow for the death of the Pope who will be "remembered for his compassion, his concern for the unity of the Church and his tireless commitment to the common causes of all people of faith, and to those of good will who work for the benefit of others. His conviction that care for Creation is an existential expression of faith in God resonated with many people around the world."
Likewise, the Spanish King Felipe and Queen Letizia wanted to show their condolences to the Catholic community, highlighting the "testimony throughout his pontificate of the importance that love of neighbor, fraternity and social friendship have for the world of our century".
From Brussels, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der LeyenHe highlighted his figure as "an inspiration beyond the limits of the Church". In his words: "Today, the world mourns the death of Pope Francis. He inspired millions of people, far beyond the Catholic Church, with his humility and his pure love for the less fortunate".
For his part, the president of Israel, Isaac HerzogThe Pope stressed the ties that Pope Francis was able to weave with the Jewish people, recalling his "deep faith, his tireless defense of the poor and his commitment to peace, especially in the Middle East".
Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Melonivisibly moved, she described the Pope as "a great man and a great shepherd", and said that she had the privilege of enjoying his friendship and advice, even in the hardest moments.
In France, the president Emmanuel Macron wanted to highlight Francis' closeness to the most vulnerable. "He had a great sense of the other, of the suffering, of the marginalized," he said, recalling his role during the most difficult years of the contemporary world.
The President of the European Parliament, Roberta MetsolaHe stressed that "Europe mourns the death of His Holiness Pope Francis. He highlighted his contagious smile that "captivated the hearts of millions of people around the world".
"The Pope of the People will be remembered for his love of life, for his hope for peace, for his compassion for equality and social justice", underlining in this last part the more political legacy of the papacy of Francis, for whom he wished "may he rest in peace".
The Prime Minister of India has also spoken out, Narendra ModiThe Pope said he was "deeply saddened" by the death of the Pontiff, with whom he met in 2021 and whom he had invited to visit his country.
From Latin America, the president-elect of Venezuela, Edmundo Gonzalezsaid that "his legacy of humility and commitment to the most vulnerable will be a moral guide for the world. And from Argentina, his native country, the president Javier Milei has shared an emotional message: "Despite our differences, it was an honor to know his goodness and wisdom. As an Argentine and as a man of faith, I bid farewell to the Holy Father".
For his part, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Keir Starmerhas published his condolences: "His leadership in complex and challenging times was courageous, but always guided by a deep and profound humility. He was a pope for the poor, the forgotten and the marginalized. Close to human frailty, he never lost hope for a better world".
The Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO) has also emphasized his humility, Tedros Adhanom GhebreyesusHe stressed the need for more leaders like him for his defense of "peace" and for prioritizing "the poorest and most vulnerable". "We will miss him very much," he added.
President of Ukraine, Volodymir Zelenski, has written in his account of X: "His life was dedicated to God, to humanity and to the Church. He knew how to give hope, alleviate suffering through prayer and foster unity. He prayed for peace in Ukraine and for Ukrainians. We join in the sorrow of Catholics and all Christians who looked to Pope Francis for spiritual support. eternal remembrance!".
Thus, the Russian president, Vladimir PutinThe Kremlin has expressed a fond memory of the pope, whom it describes as an "outstanding man", and of whom the Kremlin has highlighted his impulse to dialogue between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches.
The future German chancellor has also expressed his condolences, Friedrich Merzwho stressed the "deep sorrow" that his death leaves among the faithful around the world, and the former prime minister of Canada, Justin Trudeauwho has defined it as "a moral compass for millions".
The words of the Australian Prime Minister, Anthony AlbaneseThe words "He inspired the world with his message of compassion and hope" were equally heartfelt: "He inspired the world with his message of compassion and hope". From Poland, Andrzej Duda remembered him as "an apostle of Mercy", and in the Netherlands, the Prime Minister, Dick Schoof said that Francis "will be remembered as a man of the people".
The President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchezposted: "I mourn the passing of Pope Francis. His commitment to peace, social justice and the most vulnerable leaves a profound legacy. May he rest in peace."
Cardinal Kevin Joseph Farrell, Camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church, announced the death of Pope Francis from Casa Santa Marta.
His words have been: "Dear brothers and sisters, it is with deep sorrow that I must announce the passing of our Holy Father Francis. At 7:35 this morning, the Bishop of Rome, Francis, returned to the Father's house.
His whole life was dedicated to the service of the Lord and His Church. He taught us to live the values of the Gospel with fidelity, courage and universal love, especially in favor of the poorest and most marginalized.
With immense gratitude for his example as a true disciple of the Lord Jesus, we commend the soul of Pope Francis to the infinite merciful love of the One and Triune God".
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Pope Francis: renewal and hope, from Argentina to the universal Church, meu
The pontificate of Pope Francis has striven to promote a Church that goes out and is close to the poorest of the poor, making uncomfortable those who want to be satisfied with a silent Church.
April 21, 2025-Reading time: 3minutes
Francis' pontificate has been a time of renewal and hope for the Church. Since his election on March 13, 2013, his message has deeply touched the hearts of millions of people, especially the poorest and those who seek a Church committed to reality. His simple style, his option for the discarded and his insistence on a Church on the way out have marked his path with unmistakable clarity.
Since Rome, Francis has never ceased to keep Argentina in mind. He has done so with concrete gestures that have resonated strongly in his native country, even when his physical absence has been the object of speculation and self-interested criticism. His view of the homeland has not been that of a political leader nor that of a sectorial leader, but that of a pastor who embraces with realism and hope the pains and challenges of his people. In every visit of Argentines to Rome, the sincere affection for a Pope who has never ceased to feel that he is a son of this land has been perceived.
However, in his own country, his figure has been the object of distortions and attacks. Not only have some media tried to blur his magisterium with tendentious readings and misrepresentations, but even sectors claiming to be Catholic have contributed to the propagation of lies about him. These operations of attrition have tried to undermine his teaching and to generate a distorted image of the Pope. Despite these attempts, Francis has remained firm in his commitment to the Gospel and to a Church that walks with the people.
The media have played a key role in shaping the Pope's public image in his country. On more than one occasion, his words have been taken out of context or interpreted in a biased manner, creating a distorted perception of his pontificate.
In spite of this, the magisterium of Francis is a beacon of clarity and coherence. His insistence on a Church going forth, on a preferential option for the poor, on an integral ecology and on the construction of peace as an evangelical imperative, have marked his pontificate with indisputable clarity. Rooted in the best tradition of the Latin American magisterium, Francis has taken up and updated the prophetic voice of Medellin, Puebla and Aparecida, bringing to the world the richness of a theology born of the encounter with the most humble. Throughout these years, his encyclicals and exhortations have offered a compass in times of global uncertainty, sustaining a prophetic gaze that challenges both believers and those who do not share the faith, but do share a sincere concern for the common good.
Another key aspect of his pontificate has been his apostolic journeys. Francis has taken his message to the most forgotten corners of the world, prioritizing both geographic and existential peripheries. His presence in places like Lampedusa, Iraq, South Sudan and Myanmar has been a living testimony of his commitment to the discarded. In Latin America, his time in Brazil, Ecuador, Bolivia, Paraguay, Colombia, Chile and Peru has reaffirmed his closeness to the peoples of the region and his call for a Church on the move, ready to listen and accompany. His visit to Iraq in 2021 marked a historic milestone, bringing a message of reconciliation and interreligious dialogue to a land marked by war and persecution. Likewise, his trip to South Sudan together with Christian leaders of other confessions was an unprecedented gesture of unity and peace in a nation torn apart by violence.
These trips were not mere protocol visits, but true prophetic acts that placed the Church at the side of the most vulnerable. In each country visited, his message encouraged hope, promoted justice and gave voice to those who are often ignored. His closeness to the native peoples in the Amazon, his denunciation of exploitation and modern colonialism, and his constant defense of migrants reflect his preferential option for the last.
Pope Francis has maintained a faithful relationship with his people, not from complacency, but from a demanding love that invites them to grow. His witness has been uncomfortable for those who prefer a Church that is silent or functional to certain interests. But his word continues to live, his teaching continues to nourish and his presence, although distant in geography, continues to be close in the hearts of those who know how to read beyond the ephemeral headlines.
Twelve years after that "pray for me" pronounced from the balcony of St. Peter's, the Church in Argentina is called to rediscover the legacy of Francis with a broader and deeper vision. It is not only a matter of evaluating his impact from the perspective of power or political situations, but of recognizing the fruitfulness of a pontificate that has been able to keep alive the joy of the Gospel, even in the midst of challenges and resistance. His invitation to be a Church that goes forth continues to be valid, as a call to go out to meet the discarded, to heal wounds and to witness with coherence to the Good News.
Religious leaders of other denominations remember Pope Francis
The Primate of the Anglican Church and the Secretary General of the Muslim World League were among the leaders of other denominations who expressed their condolences at the death of Pope Francis.
The death of the Pope Francis has also had an impact on the main confessions, Christian or not, present in the world. Although official reactions to his death are still underway, some of the most important figures of the confessions have already published their reaction to the news.
The primacy of the Anglican church,Justin WelbyWelby expressed his deep personal sadness and described Pope Francis as a friend whose leadership resonated beyond the Catholic Church. Welby highlighted Francis' humility, his commitment to the service of the poor and his peace-building efforts. He also highlighted his "commitment to walk together as Roman Catholics and Anglicans, and for his vision and passion to work for ever greater reconciliation and unity among all Christian denominations".
Thabo Makgoba, the Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, who has described Pope Francis as an "incredible and prophetic pastor" whose warmth and attentiveness left a lasting impression. "He made you feel as if you were the only person in the world, holding you in his gaze with those penetrating, warm and attentive eyes," he has recalled, underlining the impact of meeting Pope Francis personally.
From the Muslim worldThere have also been several reactions published. Among them, the Secretary General of the Muslim World League, Sheikh Mohammad bin Abdulkarim Al-Issa, has also stressed his sadness at the passing of the Pope whom he wanted to describe as "a kind and compassionate soul who stood for peace and unity."
For its part, the Chief Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, President of the Conference of European Rabbis has recalled Pope Francis' "unwavering dedication to the promotion of peace and goodwill throughout the world" and his efforts to strengthen Catholic-Jewish relations.
At the moment, there has been no official statement from the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, Kirill. It should be noted that, in recent years, relations between the Vatican and the Russian Orthodox Patriarchate have suffered an evident cooling due to the war between Russia and Ukraine.
Greeting from the balcony of St. Peter's Square on April 20, 2025, Easter Sunday. This is the last photo of Pope Francis who passed away a few hours later, at 7:30 a.m. the following day.
The euphoria caused by the election of the first pontiff from the American continent was fueled by signs that some interpreted as the announcement of radical changes in the Church.
Here are 10 of the actions that many commentators consider among the most relevant of the Argentine pope, who died at 7:30 a.m. on April 21.
1. Emphasis on social justice
He has consistently promoted measures to combat poverty and inequality, sometimes criticizing the excesses of capitalism. He has been a voice of support for the thousands of refugees and migrants, promoting and defending their rights and calling on governments to provide them with protection and assistance.
2. Efforts to combat sexual abuse
In continuity with his predecessor, he has taken steps to address this drama. In 2019, the pope held a summit on the subject and, in 2020, he introduced new rules making it mandatory to report allegations of abuse to civil authorities.
3. Curia reform
With the promulgation of the apostolic constitution Prædicate Evangelium (19-III-2023), on the Roman Curia and its service to the Church in the world, restructured this central organism of the Church to emphasize its missionary dimension; among other things, it sought the unification of some dicasteries (Vatican ministries) to optimize economic resources and reduce bureaucracy.
4. Reforms in finance
He opted for the creation of a new economic secretariat; he has also been unceasing in his efforts to promote transparency and accountability in financial matters. The most recent action involves a rescript in which it eliminates economic facilities for top-level prelates working in the curia who benefit from apartment rentals and special rates in Vatican lodgings.
5. Pandemic COVID-19
He launched several messages of a spiritual nature and also messages to governments and scientists, encouraging them to show solidarity in search of answers and concrete actions to overcome the crisis, emphasizing the importance of caring for the most vulnerable in society.
In some countries the situation posed a challenge to the human right to religious freedom.
6. Papal documents
He has presented three encyclicals of great relevance: Lumen Fidei (2013), completing the trilogy of encyclicals on the theological virtues (faith, hope, charity) initiated by Benedict XVI; Laudato si (2015), the first papal document devoted exclusively to environmental issues; and Fratelli tutti (2020), presenting a reflection "so that, in the face of various and current forms of eliminating or ignoring others, we may be able to react with a new dream of fraternity and social friendship that does not remain in words".
He has signed five apostolic exhortations in which he addresses important and topical issues for the Church such as: the proclamation of the Gospel in today's world (Evangelii gaudium24-XI-2013); love in the family, its problems, challenges and possible solutions (Amoris laetitia, 19-III-2016); the call to holiness in the contemporary world and in the midst of ordinary activities (Gaudete et exsultate, 19-III-2018); youth, encouraging them to "grow in holiness and commitment to one's vocation" (Christus vivit25-III-2019); and the reality and problems of the Amazon (Dear Amazonia, 2-II-2020).
7. Appeals for peace
It is dealing with political and war situations around the world. With the collaboration of the Secretary of State's Office, responsible for the Vatican diplomacyThe Church has been present in various diplomatic efforts related to the political situations in the region. Nicaragua and Venezuela, as well as in the ongoing military conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
He has called for dialogue, the search for peaceful solutions, the protection of human rights and democratic institutions in these and other conflicts.
8. Synodality and the German Synodal Way
In order for Catholics to jointly discern how to move forward to be a more synodal Church in the long term, he has convened a synod on synodality ("walking together"), with which it tries to put into practice one of the pending matters foreseen by the Second Vatican Council.
At the same time, he has called for the German synod, convened with the intention of discussing and finding solutions to various issues facing the Church in Germany, Among them, issues such as celibacy, the ordination of women and sexual morality, he addresses these issues from the perspective of current Catholic doctrine and morality, not from the margins of it.
In general, the Catholic Church's stance toward the German synod is one of caution and dialogue, emphasizing the need to balance local concerns with the broader unity and fidelity of the Church.
9. Dissemination of reconciliation
He is one of the pontiffs who has most spread the sacrament of reconciliation. He convoked the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, which took place from November 29, 2015 to November 20, 2016.
We have seen him confess and go to confession, and he has developed a pastoral care of confession that is gradually spreading throughout the world.
10. Dialogue with other religions
He strives to promote dialogue and understanding between the Catholic Church and other religions, particularly Islam.
He has made several country travel predominantly Muslim and has spoken out against religious extremism.
Francis' pontificate has been characterized by his emphasis on mercy, his pastoral closeness and his focus on global problems such as poverty, migration and abuse. He has promoted reforms, fostered synodality and promoted an apostolic dynamism with a strong missionary dimension.
To understand the pontificate of Pope Francis it is essential to know the main interpretative keys.
First of all, we must remember that when the Cardinal of Buenos Aires, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, arrived at the room he would occupy during the conclave, he found on his desk a copy of the first edition in Spanish of the work of Walter Kasper, a German Cardinal who was staying opposite, on the mercy of God.
The Pope of Mercy
As is well known, this book, reprinted many times in recent years, summarizes very well the pontificate of Pope Francis. Indeed, he will go down in history as the Pope of the mercy of God. In fact, he was enthroned on March 19 and Holy Week began immediately. But on Easter Monday 2013, during the recitation of the "Regina Coeli", the Pope announced to the world the tenderness of God: the "tenerezza di Dio", that is, the sweetness of God and the power of his mercy.
Indeed, among the attributes of God is the divine gift of mercy. Entitatively, for the great theologians of history, who copied one another with impunity without quoting each other, the gift of mercy was the last, after omnipotence, wisdom, etc. Anyway, for us, the gift or divine attribute that interests us most is that of mercy.
The first Holy Year convoked by the Holy Father Francis was the Year of Mercy, an extraordinary Holy Year that began on December 8, 2015 and concluded on November 20, 2016, to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the closing of the Second Vatican Council and to stir the souls of Christians to turn to the sacrament of Penance: "God does not tire of forgiving, it is man who tires of asking for forgiveness."
The Jubilee of Mercy
The bull "Misericordiae vultus" of Pope Francis was promulgated on April 11, 2015 and with it was recalled the main arguments patiently collected by Cardinal Kasper in his book, but assimilated and meditated by the Holy Father Francis.
Since then, the Holy Father Francis has marked the way he has approached the serious problems afflicting humanity: the wars that have grown and multiplied in those years, emigration, poverty, marginality, slavery, economic inequalities, gender violence, pederasty and pedophilia, the lack of ecological sensitivity, the absence of freedom and the flagrant violations of human rights, famines, terrorism and so many other scourges that have been the subject of his speeches at major events: On Christmas and New Year's days, he has always been faithful in St. Peter's Square to bestow the blessing "urbi et orbe" and at the same time denounce these terrible facts.
The mercy of God will be the key to the last ordinary Jubilee Year of 2025, "Spes non confundit" (Rom 5:5), with which the Holy Father encourages all Christians to come to Rome to gain the indulgence or to the Jubilee temples designated by the bishops of the whole world. God's mercy is based on Jesus Christ's gaze on every person: "misereor super turbam": he had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd" (Mt 15:29).
The pontificate of a pastor
Immediately, we must point out that the Holy Father's pontificate has been profoundly pastoral, both in its closeness to people and to the particular churches, as well as to countries never previously visited and, above all, its closeness to the problems and difficulties in the governance of the universal Church.
For example, it has taken first-hand command of the protocols of action in cases of abuse, and has even reacted with such forcefulness and speed that it seemed to bypass the principle of presumption of innocence in order to set an example to the whole world of sensitivity and to immediately stand by the side of the victims and their families.
Undoubtedly, Francis will go down in history for his closeness to the needs of Christians, including direct phone calls from the Holy Father to the Argentinean parish priest in Gaza from the Gemelli hospital to convey the Pope's affection for all the Catholic Palestinians suffering there.
Likewise, the Holy Father has been very close to the youth, first of all, putting all his affection for young people, secondly, seeking the necessary generational changes so that they would take the lead in the Church and, to the extent of their strength, in the various governmental cadres of society and, finally, promoting vocations for all the institutions of the Church, especially for fathers and mothers of Christian families.
Discernment
It is also profoundly pastoral that, as a good Jesuit, having applied the "gift of discernment of spirits", both in his personal life and in the institutions and dioceses, since he wished to discern for himself and for all, seeking to give greater glory to God.
If we look at the various speeches he has made and the way in which he has tackled the difficult and thorny problems he has faced, it has always been with the discernment and prudence of government. Moreover, he has not hesitated to bypass the usual mechanisms of government in order to have direct access to the problem and tackle it quickly. As the adage goes: "to solve a problem you have to get out of the problem". It is therefore very pastoral and, also pastoral of urgency, as many "ad hoc" commissions as he has organized.
Undoubtedly, there is much work to be done: the salvation of the more souls the better, so no one will be able to say that the Holy Father has not done everything possible to introduce a great apostolic dynamism. In fact, the usual reform of the curia that all Roman Pontiffs undertake in Francis has taken on a clear missionary nuance, as can be seen in "Praedicate Evangelium".
We cannot end this quick analysis without mentioning his enthusiasm for a synodal church, returning to the style of the exercise of the pontificate during the first millennium, well aware that synodality will collaborate with the missionary, ecumenical and pastoral dimensions of the Church.
Pope Francis proposed four verbs to articulate an adequate response to the migration issue: welcome, protect, promote and integrate.
Alfonso Martínez-Carbonell López-April 21, 2025-Reading time: 3minutes
"At last they embarked. My grandparents managed to sell their meager possessions in the Piedmont countryside and arrived at the port of Genoa to set sail on the Giulio Cesare with a one-way passage." Thus begins the Pope's autobiography. For him, immigration is not only a social issue but a personal experience. "I am the son of immigrants", "I know what immigration is because that is how my family was formed", he says in his book "Hope never disappoints".
Immigration is not a matter of figures or statistics, of reports or files, but of faces, names and concrete stories. He looked into the eyes of the immigrants in Lampedusa in 2013, in the Moria refugee camp in Lesbos in 2016 and 2021, to the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh in 2017 and has looked into the eyes of every suffering immigrant anywhere in the world.
For as long as man has been man, he has migrated, reflecting the pilgrim dimension of existence. Today, however, immigration is associated with violence, exploitation, human trafficking, cruelty and death. We are witnessing, he says, the greatest movement of people and peoples of all time, and history will judge us by how we behave in the face of this phenomenon that affects us all and from which no one can ignore. It is a crucial issue that either wrecks us as a civilization or becomes an opportunity for a paradigm shift. His cry is clear: We cannot go on like this, with the globalization of indifference! We must initiate a new stage, the globalization of charity and the civilization of love.
Anthropological and theological foundations
In his vision of immigration, Francis starts from a double foundation: anthropological and theological. According to the former, what is at stake is human dignity, which is sacred. The criterion for judging and acting cannot be welfare but the safeguarding of human dignity. The treatment of immigrants must be in accordance with their infinite and inalienable dignity. And according to the theological foundation, it is not Christian to disregard the immigrant but to welcome him and love him as another Christ because in the end we will be judged by this:"I was an immigrant and you welcomed me" (Mt 25:35).
From the parable of the Good Samaritan (Lk 10:25) Francis affirms, there are only two types of people: those who take on the pain or those who pass by. This is the present challenge: either we pass by or we carry one another on our shoulders ("Fratelli Tutti"n. 70).
For Francis, the first thing is to see the reality of this drama in the countries of origin, where civil wars prevail, fueled by selfishness and exploited by arms industries, where violence takes countless human lives, where climate change and environmental disasters do not allow people to live in dignity, where they live in misery and suffer the painful consequences of an economy that kills. But all these causes are not beyond human control. We can have hope.
Personal and political response
The solution to the problem must be at the individual and political level. At the individual level, God asks each one of us: Where are you? Where is your brother? God asks us to be responsible for each other. In the face of this drama, we have lost the sense of fraternal responsibility, we do not cry for the suffering of others, we have become accustomed to it and we take refuge in anonymity. Francis invites us to shake off our indifference.
At the political level, the first step is to help the countries of origin through cooperation and solidarity, creating new conditions that allow people to live with dignity, help economic growth, and offer young people opportunities for the future that do not force them to leave. This requires the collaboration of all the countries concerned: countries of origin, transit and destination, and implies that the most developed countries abandon the "neo-colonizing" economic practices of extracting and exploiting the resources of the poorest. The second step will be to guarantee legal access to destination countries as the only way to defeat human traffickers.
The four verbs
Four verbs are the ones the Pope used in the World Day of Migrants 2018 to articulate an adequate response to the migration issue: welcome, protect, promote and integrate. To "welcome" means to open the doors according to the capacity of each country by facilitating the means for an entry in conditions: visas, to stop deportations, to guarantee assistance. "Protect" implies putting the person at the center and defending his or her rights. To "promote" means to encourage their personal development in the country of destination, to help them in their language, civic and work training and education. And finally, "integrating" means mixing, living together, enriching and respecting each other. It will be future generations, in the long term, who will judge whether this process has been carried out fairly.
Hope is the key. By hope, those men and women left their land in search of a better future. With hope, we can solve the problem because overcoming its causes depends on us. Pope Francis has set himself up as a defender of this hope that cannot possibly die. It is the smallest virtue, the "little hope", which he promised to follow forever because his heaven is already on earth.
The authorAlfonso Martínez-Carbonell López
Professor of Social Doctrine of the Church at CEU Cardenal Herrera University.
The first American Pope in 21 centuries, and first Jesuit pontiff, the Argentine Jorge Mario Bergoglio S.J., who took for himself the name Francis on March 13, 2013, has been at the head of the Catholic Church 12 years and 1 month. After the surprising resignation of Benedict XVI, came the election of the first Pope of America, son of Italian immigrants.
Francisco Otamendi-April 21, 2025-Reading time: 4minutes
Francis was appointed Archbishop of Buenos Aires (Argentina) in 1998, and made a cardinal in 2001 by St. John Paul II. After the resignation of Benedict XVI and his election as Successor of Peter (the 266th) in the conclave of 2013, he was the third oldest Pope to rule the Catholic Church (88 years old), after Leo XIII, who reached the age of 93, and Agathon, of the 7th century, who supposedly reached the age of 102,
Vitality
With his abilities and great willpower, despite his health problems, the Argentine Pope has maintained his intense agenda commitments to the Synod on Synodality and the Jubilee of Hope 2025 until very recently.
As a true reflection of his vitality, on June 22, 2021, in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, at the age of 84, he released his Message for the First World Day of Grandparents and the Elderly, which he convoked and which was celebrated that same year on July 25, around the feast of St. Joachim and St. Anne (July 26). At the Journey of 2024 presided over a festive gathering with thousands of grandparents, grandchildren and elderly people, aged 87.
Latest autobiographies
In recent years, Pope Francis, perhaps feeling the weight of age, has been giving some journalists long interviews in a genre that could be considered autobiographical.
In this line are 'Life. My Story Through History' (Harper Collins), with Vaticanist Fabio Marchese. And recently, 'Hope'. (Penguin Random House), also by Italian Carlo Musso, in which the Pope recounts episodes from his childhood and adolescence, and two failed attacks during his trip to Iraq, for example.
Son of emigrants, Jesuit priest, bishop, cardinal
Your biography The official Vatican official points out, as is well known, that Pope Franciswas born on December 17, 1936, the son of Piedmontese emigrants, and had five siblings. His father, Mario, was an accountant and a railroad employee, and his mother, Regina Sivori, took care of the house and the education of the five children. The quality of emigrant would mark him all his life, and in a special way in his years of Pontificate.
Jorge Mario Bergoglio graduated as a chemical technician, and perceived the call to the priesthoodHe entered the diocesan seminary of Villa Devoto. After his novitiate and studies, he obtained a licentiate in theology and was ordained a priest on December 13, 1969.
He then continued his preparation in the Society of Jesus in Alcalá de Henares (Spain), and on April 22, 1973, he made his perpetual profession. Back in Argentina, Fr. Bergoglio was elected provincial of the Jesuits, completed his doctoral thesis in Germany and, upon his return, became spiritual director and confessor.
Cardinal Antonio Quarracino called him as his collaborator in Buenos Aires and St. John Paul II appointed him auxiliary bishop of Buenos Aires in 1992. He chose as his motto 'Miserando atque eligendo' (He looked at him with mercy and chose him). In 1998, after the cardinal's death, he succeeded him as archbishop and primate of Argentina, and in 2001, Pope Wojtyla created him a cardinal.
Premonitory facts
In his years as cardinal, some significant events can be highlighted.
1) In October 2001, after 9/11, he was deputy general rapporteur for the tenth ordinary general assembly of the Synod of Bishops, dedicated to the episcopal ministry. At the Synod he emphasized the "prophetic mission of the bishop".
2) In April 2005 he participated in the conclave in which Benedict XVI was elected, and over the years it was leaked that he was the second most voted cardinal, after Ratzinger.
Aparecida, Brazil
3) The V General Conference of the Episcopate of Latin America and the Caribbean was held from May 13 to 31, 2007, at the sanctuary of Nossa Senhora da Imaculada Conceiçâo Aparecida, in Brazil.
Cardinal Bergoglio participated as president of the Argentine Episcopal Conference and was elected president of the Editorial Commission. The theme of the assembly was 'Disciples and missionaries of Jesus Christ so that our people may have life in Him'.
Years later, already elected Pope, on his apostolic trip to Brazil for World Youth Day in July 2013, Francis would say. to the Brazilian bishops that "the Church always has a pressing need not to forget the lesson of Aparecida, she cannot neglect it (...). God wants to manifest himself precisely through our means, poor means, because it is always He who acts".
4) In the meetings of cardinals prior to the conclave of 2013, to elect the successor to Benedict XVI, Cardinal Bergoglio had some brief decisive intervention, according to what has been leaked. Therein lay the germ of the Evangelii gaudiumits programmatic exhortation.
The Papacy
Several cardinals and theologians have described his pontificate as "pastoral". Here, one can simply recall his outcry in Lampedusa in the face of the "globalization of indifference" regarding migrants (July 11, 2013), his encyclicals, his denunciation of abusesthe clamor for the poor and by peace to wars, interreligious dialogue, canonizations, or some key words that summarize his years as Pastor of the Universal Church. For example, nine o'clock mentioned by the editor of Omnes in Rome, Giovanni Tridente, a couple of years ago, which perhaps now would become 10, with the Jubilee Year of Hope 2025 has begun. May Pope Francis rest in peace.
Pope Francis has died. This is confirmed by the Holy See Press Office in a press release. press release where it indicates that the Pontiff died at 7:35 a.m. on April 21, 2025:
"Recently His Eminence, Cardinal Farrell, announced with sorrow the death of Pope Francis, with these words:
'Dear brothers and sisters, it is with deep sorrow that I must announce the death of our Holy Father Francis.
At 7:35 this morning the Bishop of Rome, Francis, returned to the Father's house. His entire life was dedicated to the service of the Lord and his Church.
He taught us to live the values of the Gospel with fidelity, courage and universal love, especially in favor of the poorest and most marginalized.
With immense gratitude for his example as a true disciple of the Lord Jesus, we commend the soul of Pope Francis to the infinite merciful love of the Triune God".
After months of treatment for what began as bronchitis in February, the Holy Father died at Casa Santa Marta, even though he had been discharged from the hospital. The Pontiff made several public appearances in recent days on the occasion of the Holy Week and Easter celebrations. Easter Sunday.
Over the next few days, anyone who wishes may come to the Vatican to bid farewell for the last time to the Argentine Pope, whose body will rest after the funeral in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore.
Affectivity and Cardinal Artime during Consecrated Life Week
Affectivity in consecrated life and the presence of Salesian Cardinal Angel Fernandez Artime, pro prefect of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life, will be the focus of the Week of Religious Life at the end of April.
Francisco Otamendi-April 21, 2025-Reading time: 2minutes
Affectivity in consecrated persons, with the theme 'Affective is effective', is the central theme of the National Week for Institutes of Consecrated Life that will take place in Madrid from April 23-26. Salesian Cardinal Fernandez Artime, pro-prefect of the Dicastery for these Institutes and Societies of Apostolic Life, will address for the first time to the consecrated in Spain, on Saturday, April 26, with the theme 'The Mission in Consecrated Life: a task of the heart".
Interpellation of the encyclical 'Dilexit Nos'.
The Theological Institute of Religious Life of Madrid (ITVR) presented a few days ago this National Week for Institutes of Consecrated Life, now in its 54th edition.
Prof. Antonio Bellella, cmf, director of the ITVR, pointed out that "this year we want to bring to the forefront the source and root of human strength, convictions and passions, thus responding to the challenge of the fourth encyclical of Pope Francis, 'Dilexit nos'We need to recover the importance of the heart.
"Today we begin the countdown and, simultaneously, we finish the long process of preparation that began last year at the end of the previous congress," the religious began explaining.
Presence and on line
This year's event is once again bimodal: from April 23 to 26, hundreds of consecrated people will meet at the Aula Magna of the San Pablo-CEU University in Madrid.
And furthermore, referring to the online follow-up, live and recorded: "we are aware and honored that many communities, in Spain and Latin America, watch the videos of the conferences in their moments of ongoing formation throughout the year," added Prof. Bellella. "Thanks to the online follow-up of the Week, the where and the when and the how many are multiplied," he added.
Some speakers and four cores
The opening Eucharist will be officiated by Monsignor Vicente Martín, auxiliary bishop of Madrid. "The program offered by the ITVR includes top level speakers, such as Carme Soto, ssj; Adrián de Prado, cmf; Rufino Meana sj; or Alicia Villar," said the director, who highlighted the presence of Cardinal Fernandez Artime, who "for the first time will address the consecrated life in Spain from the position he holds".
Four main areas or nuclei are planned for the Week, "inspired by as many biblical verses", whose outline in the program can be seen in the following pages here.
Under a clear and sunny sky, more than 35,000 people gathered this Easter Sunday in St. Peter's Square, according to Vatican figures, to celebrate Easter Mass. The liturgy was presided over by Cardinal Angelo ComastriArchpriest Emeritus of St. Peter's Basilica and Vicar General Emeritus of His Holiness for Vatican City. The celebration culminated with the traditional Urbi et Orbi blessing from the central balcony of the Vatican Basilica.
The appearance of the Pope and his message
Pope Francis accessed the balcony of blessings through a ramp, visibly frail, in a wheelchair and without oxygen assistance. A slight delay of three minutes in the opening of the balcony's red curtain was surprising, something unusual for a ceremony measured to the second.
However, the wait was dissipated with the appearance of the Pontiff, who greeted those present with "Dear brothers and sisters, good Easter!" before delegating the reading of the Easter message to Bishop Diego Ravelli, master of the pontifical liturgical celebrations.
A review of the wounded world
The message, as is tradition, included a call for global peace and reconciliation. Francis expressed his concern about the multiple hotbeds of conflict, from violence against women, wars in GazaThe report also highlights the worrisome upsurge of anti-Semitism in the world.
After the speech, the faithful were reminded of the possibility of obtaining the plenary indulgence, and the Pope imparted the final blessing. Despite his delicate state of health, he did so in a clear voice.
In total, Francisco remained on the balcony for about 20 minutes without showing visible signs of fatigue, confirming a certain stability in his recovery.
Finally, to everyone's surprise, after the blessing, he went down to the square and toured it in the popemobile to greet the faithful gathered there. Logically, he did not greet the faithful with the usual effusiveness in this type of tour, but he did spend another half hour touring the square up to Via della Conciliacione. It was the first time that the Pope traveled through the square in a popemobile since his admission to hospital.
"To feel in me the power of his resurrection" (Phil 3:10).
The power, the strength of the resurrection, is to introduce us forever into the life and joy of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
April 20, 2025-Reading time: 2minutes
"All to know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, dying his own death, in the hope of attaining to the resurrection from the dead" (Phil 3:10-11). This affirmation of St. Paul in his letter to the Philippians the apostle writes it in a polemical context. He wants to put his addressees on their guard, with great force, against the Judaizers in order to establish that the only salvation comes through faith in Jesus Christ. The apostle considers everything a loss in comparison with Christ Jesus. He - who could boast of being a lineage of Israel, since he belongs to the tribe of Benjamin, Hebrew of Hebrews - considers everything as garbage in order to win Christ. This winning Christ is centered by the apostle in "feeling (in Him) the power of His resurrection".
Faith in Christ has as its end to know him (to love him) and to feel in him the power of his resurrection. To feel in Him the power of His resurrection is like the end, the goal; but this goal is not reached if I do not have "communication in His sufferings, configuring myself according to His death".
Resurrection as a goal
The Christian life has, logically, its center and axis in Christ, in identification with Christ. The first Christian preaching to the Jewish people, contained in the discourse of St. Peter and transmitted by the "Acts of the Apostles," does not immediately present the eternal Word, but the Word incarnate, that is, Jesus, whom they have known, seen and treated, who has walked their streets and whom they have handed over to death through Pilate.
St. Peter emphasizes this Jesus, this "servant Jesus" who, nevertheless, has been raised to the right hand of God, that is, equal to God, by his death and resurrection. When St. Paul affirms to pursue "to feel in him the power of his resurrection" is indicating to us what is the goal of our identification with the sufferings of the "servant Jesus". That goal is divine life, participation in the life and happiness of God. The power, the strength of his resurrection is to introduce us forever into the life and joy of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Therefore, everything else is garbage. Jesus is our only Savior: "There is salvation in no one else. For there is no other name under heaven given among men by which they must be saved" (Acts 4:12). Happy Easter!!!
At the Easter Vigil this Saturday evening, many young and not so young people, adult catechumens, are being baptized in the Catholic Church. The boom is growing, and in countries like France, spectacular. Also in Scotland, Belgium, Spanish dioceses such as Getafe, or Malaysia (Asia). They are looking for meaning in their lives, joy, peace, the Light of Christ.
Francisco Otamendi-April 19, 2025-Reading time: 8minutes
Adult baptisms are multiplying in Europe and other countries. On Saturday night, during the Easter Vigil, the Easter candle illuminates the darkness to represent the victory of Christ over death, with his Resurrection. A Light and a joy sought by thousands of young people, who will receive the sacraments of Christian initiation, Baptism, Confirmation and Eucharist. France leads in baptisms in Europe.
"You made us, Lord, for You and our heart is restless until it rests in You." wrote St. Augustine in the 'Confessions'. That's what the young adults who will be baptized on Easter night this Saturday seem to be looking for.
17,800 baptisms in France, up by 45 %
In France alone, 10,384 adults and more than 7,400 adolescents aged 11 to 17 will be baptized. This brings to more than 17,800 the total number of catechumens to be baptized this year in the Gallic country, an increase of 45 % for adults compared to 2024.
The data correspond to 'Eglise catholique en FranceThe bishops are surprised by the number of requests for baptisms, because they exceed the record numbers collected last year. The bishops are surprised by the requests for baptism, because they exceed the record numbers collected last year.
The media assures that the data are the highest ever recorded since the French Bishops' Conference (CEF) created this survey more than twenty years ago (in 2002). In addition, a trend observed in last year's work has been confirmed. The growing proportion of young people among catechumens, who now constitute the majority.
In view of the demand, the publication has offered this Friday a work entitled What are the catéchumènes?The young people and adults come from the four corners of France and from different backgrounds. They have all embarked on a journey to discover the Christian faith".
"A Catechumenal Church".
More than 45,000 young people from France participated in World Youth Day (WYD) in Lisbon, 50 % more than expected. Requests for adult baptism are increasing rapidly. How do you interpret these data," he asked a few days ago. Le PélerinArchbishop Eric de Moulins-Beaufort, still president of the French Bishops' Conference (the Cardinal of Marseille, Jean-Marc Aveline, will be the new president).
In his response, the French archbishop pointed out that "young Catholics already involved in parishes and movements go to WYD. But "welcoming catechumens renews our Church. Those who ask for baptism, which we receive as a gift from God, represent a slightly different phenomenon. De-Christianization can translate into a renewed interest in religions. Some, at the age when personal choices are made, want to become Christians".
"More peaceful, capable of relationships with others."
"The catechumens who wrote to me last year before their baptism all said, in one way or another, that coming to Christ had pacified them, made them capable of different relationships with others. We have become a catechumenal Church, after having been a Church of family transmission. If young people come to us, it is to place their lives under the light of God", he adds.
Those in charge of Youth Ministry and Vocations Offices have described this trend of adult baptisms as "a massive phenomenon" that has been developing over the last few years and that "is growing steadily".
Belgium, upward trend
In a neighboring country, Belgium, the trend is also upward. Adult baptisms have doubled in ten years, although the figures are more discreetly disseminated. The Belgian Bishops' Conference has reported that 362 adult baptisms were recorded in 2024, which is almost double the figure of 186 adults recorded in 2014.
Although specific data for 2025 is not available, the growing trend in the number of adults seeking baptism suggests that this number is likely to continue to rise. By 2025 they could exceed five hundred, in a country where the number of people claiming to be Catholic is below 60 percent.
Young people in Edinburgh (Scotland): reaction to superficiality
"I had never thought about how deeply rooted in love and humanity the Catholic faith was," said Ilhan Alp Yilmaz, a 23-year-old Turkish student. He is one of 33 people, mostly young adults, from the parish of St James, St Andrews, in Edinburgh, Scotland, who were convert to Catholicism at Easter.
Ilhan says he was drawn to Catholicism by "a sincere feeling of gratitude for all that was in my life." He has enjoyed the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) process at the parish. "Learning something new every week about the faith, enlivened ad nauseam by Msgr. Burke's wit."
Msgr. Patrick Burke, pastor of St James, commented, "I think (this) is happening because young people are aware of a certain superficiality in contemporary culture and are looking for deeper truth and meaning."
Pope Francis baptizes Auriea Harvey, a woman from the United States, during the Easter Vigil Mass in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican on April 8, 2023. (CNS Photo/Vatican Media)
"They seek transcendence."
A recent survey commissioned by the Bible Society and conducted by YouGov discovered what many priests have noticed in recent years: more young adults are attending church.
"I think they are also looking for community and belonging and a recognition that much of what contemporary celebrity culture promises doesn't actually produce deep happiness," adds Msgr. Burke.
"When I was at St. Mary's Cathedral in Edinburgh, we were amazed at the number of young people who wanted to join RCIA." "The Catholic Church offers meaning, beauty, truth and transcendence...I think they are looking for transcendence."
"The courage of the young".
This Saturday, Archbishop Cushley will celebrate the Easter Vigil Mass at 8:00 p.m. at St. Mary's Cathedral in Edinburgh, Scotland, where he will 12 catechumens and 21 candidates will be received in full communion with the Catholic Church.
In his view, "the quiet courage of any young person who chooses faith is a sign that God is still at work in our world."
Other young people to be baptized this Saturday are Alexander Peris, 20, of St. James Parish group, a student from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Or Jessica Hrycak, 19, of Milton Keynes, and from the same St. James parish.
Jessica Hrycak and Turkey's Ilhan Alp Ylmaz
Jessica Hrycak says, "I grew up in a Christian home, but it wasn't until college that I decided to take my religion more seriously. "My friends at Halls were always having religious debates at lunchtime, and that's how I started learning about Catholicism. "From there, I started going to Mass, as their conversations had drawn me to the Catholic Church."
The aforementioned lhan Alp Yilmaz, from Istanbul, notes, "My sister and I were raised irreligious, so my knowledge of any religion was quite scanty."
"I never considered how deeply rooted the Catholic faith was in love and humanity and was amazed that their beliefs were holistic and not a series of disconnected doctrines. I have enjoyed learning something new each week about the faith."
Getafe: 33 catechumens from several countries
A total of 33 catechumens, curiously as in Edinburgh, will receive the sacraments of Christian initiation in the Diocese of Getafe (Spain), at the Easter Vigil this Saturday. They will do so in the Cathedral of St. Mary Magdalene and in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the town of Madrid. The first will be presided over by the diocesan bishop, Msgr. Ginés García Beltrán, and the second by the auxiliary bishop, José María Avendaño.
The catechumens come from countries such as Congo, Peru, Morocco, Venezuela and Germany, as well as various parts of Spain. "These adults, ranging in age from 17 to 66," reports the diocese, "have gone through a long and deep formation process."
The catechumens have learned and lived the Christian faith, following the Ritual of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA). Among them are Irene Casado, a young teacher from the Arenales School in Arroyomolinos, and Lorena Millán, from the parish of Santos Justo y Pastor in Parla. One of the catechists, Carmen Iglesias, says that this celebration is a great joy: "To see how the Lord calls and touches their hearts at a moment in their lives, and calls them to Baptism, is a joy".
Madrid, Barcelona
Also in the cathedral of La Almudena, Madrid, there will be several adults who will receive the sacraments of Christian initiation: Baptism, Confirmation and Eucharist, in a ceremony presided over by Cardinal José Cobo. The archdiocese has counted, for example, the history of Jorge (40 years old) and Laura (36 years old), his wife, of the parish of Las Tablaswhere they were married ten years ago.
"Theirs was a marriage with a disparity of worship because Jorge was not baptized. Laura knew how to respect him. Some people get baptized because they are getting married, but I didn't want that for Jorge. And so, he has had time to make his own love story with God, which he has been able to share with his family. will culminate in the Easter Vigil at the Almudena Cathedral.on Holy Saturday, April 19'.
In Barcelona there will also be catechumens who will receive the sacraments of Christian initiation, after a preparation led by Auxiliary Bishop David Abadías. According to Mn. Felip Juli Rodríguez Piñel, head of the Diocesan Service for the Catechumenate, the catechesis have been carried out monthly and are given by the bishop. "The bishop is the first person responsible for the catechumenate and it is important that the catechumens receive their catechesis," he stressed.
Argüello: the human heart, in permanent quest
The then secretary general of the Spanish Bishops' Conference, now president, Archbishop Luis Argüello, stated in June 2022 that "there is certainly an increase in the number of adult baptisms".
"Adult baptism is occurring for various reasons," Arguëllo added. "The first is that there are people who in relation to other believers express their desire to know and share the faith (...) "The human heart," he continued, "is a restless heart that is always in permanent search. There are people who rediscover that Jesus Christ, and his Gospel, is a good proposal to live and want to live it with others in a company that is the Church".
On the other hand, the Bishops' Conference itself announced in 2023 that, according to the data for 2022, there had been a increase in baptisms.
Malaysia, more than two thousand
Proof of this restlessness of heart are, to cite just one Asian country, the more than 2,000 young people and adults baptized at the Easter Vigil in Malaysia: 1,047 new baptized in Peninsular Malaysia and an equivalent number in Malaysian Borneo, reports the Fides Agency.
Canada perceives the same phenomenon
In various regions of Canada, marked by increasing secularization, hopeful signs of a Catholic revival are also beginning to emerge. In Nanaimo, British Columbia, Father Harrison Ayre, pastor of St. Peter's, has seen Mass attendance go from 650 people at the beginning of 2024 to 1,100 in just a few months. In addition to the increase in the number of faithful, youth participation and the number of adult catechumens have grown. One of the biggest surprises was a recent Lenten confession day, when 225 people came to be reconciled over 12 uninterrupted hours. "I think it will be one of those days that I will keep in my memory as a priest. I felt a great satisfaction," said Ayre.
At the Ukrainian Catholic Shrine of St. John the Baptist in Ottawa, Deacon Andrew Bennett observes a similar phenomenon: the number of young people attending Saturday vespers has doubled in the last five years, from 30 to between 60 and 70 people each week. Meanwhile, in Montreal, the revival of the traditional Palm Saturday Walk after the pandemic lull has exceeded all expectations: from 750 participants in 2024, it has grown to nearly 4,000 in 2025. These outbreaks of vitality in cities such as Nanaimo, considered the most secular in Canada, reflect a new openness to faith, especially among young people.
Giampietro Dal Toso: "The strength of Vatican diplomacy is not military, it is in the word".
Giovanni Pietro Dal Toso is apostolic nuncio to Cyprus and Jordan. Prior to representing Pope Francis in these countries, he served as secretary delegate of the Dicastery for the Service of Integral Human Development and as president of the Pontifical Mission Societies.
Giovanni Pietro Dal Toso is apostolic nuncio in Jordan and Cyprus since 2023. He holds a Doctorate in Philosophy from the Pontifical Gregorian University and a degree in Law from the Pontifical Lateran University. As secretary delegate of the Dicastery for the Service of Integral Human Development, the Holy Father entrusted him in 2017 to visit Aleppo during the conflict in SyriaHe was appointed to the Pontifical Mission Societies, with the aim of accompanying Christians who were suffering from war and terrorist attacks. That same year he began his presidency of the Pontifical Mission Societies.
Dal Toso's experience in places of conflict where different religions coexist gives him valuable insights for the Church and the Vatican's diplomatic mission, which, in his own words, promotes the consideration of "problems in the light of ethical principles".by placing in the center "the good of the people, which is the true criterion that politics has to pursue.".
What challenges does the Church face in its pastoral work in such a pluralistic context as Jordan and Cyprus, where diverse religions and cultures coexist?
-As you say, the situation in Jordan and Cyprus is very different from a historical and religious point of view. I start with the aspects that are most similar. In fact, politically, there is a lot of cooperation between these two countries. In a nutshell: as Cyprus is the bridge between west and east, so Jordan is the bridge between east and west. Cyprus is the side of the European Union closest to the Middle East, and Jordan is the country closest to the West among the Arab countries. The immigration issue also unites them, because in Jordan there are refugees from Palestine, Syria and Iraq, while Cyprus is the European country with the highest percentage of immigrants, because, as we know, many see Cyprus as the gateway to Europe.
From a sociological point of view, religiously the situation is completely different. Jordan is a kingdom where the vast majority of the population is Muslim, while in Cyprus, at least in the southern part, the population is mostly Orthodox and of Greek culture; in the occupied northern part almost all belong to Islam. But since things are never simple, another distinction must be made. The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem extends to Jordan and Cyprus: in other words, the Ordinary for Latin Catholics in both countries is the Patriarch of Jerusalem. In Jordan there is also a Greek-Melkite diocese, and parishioners of the Syro-Catholic, Chaldean, Maronite and Armenian rites, that is, six Catholic rites, while there are also Orthodox, Anglican and Protestant Christians. In Cyprus, next to the Latin community, an important Maronite community survives after 1000 years, with its own archbishop.
As can be seen, the situation is quite complex. It is a richness to have so many rites, but this can also be a weakness, since Catholics are numerically few.
What do you see as the role of Vatican diplomacy in promoting peace and interreligious dialogue?
-The promotion of peace, together with support for the specific mission of the Church, is a priority for Vatican diplomacy, and not only in the Middle East. The word of the Holy Father always exhorts peace between nations, and always indicates the path of dialogue, not conflict, as the way to coexistence between peoples. It is clear that in the situation of the Middle East all this has a particular value, because this region has long suffered from conflicts in and between different countries.
The strength of Vatican diplomacy is not economic or military strength, but is realized through the word, the exhortation to consider problems in the light of ethical principles for the good of people, which is the true criterion that politics has to pursue.
Pope Francis has also underlined the principle of fraternity: we must look at the other as a brother, because we share the same humanity, and not as an enemy or stranger. This vision of the Pope has been realized in particular with the document on Human Fraternity for Human Peace and Common Coexistence, which he signed in 2019 in Abu Dhabi with the Chancellor of the University Al Azhar of Cairo. This means that dialogue between different religions can also be based on the principle of fraternity and in this sense contribute to peace.
How would you describe the relationship between the Catholic Church and the other religious communities in Jordan?
--If we talk about other religious communities in Jordan, we have to distinguish between Christian communities and non-Christian communities. People usually do not pay much attention to whether the person is Catholic or Orthodox: in common parlance a distinction is made between Christians and Muslims. Jordan is a country known for good relations between Christians and Muslims. I cannot forget an event in the first months of my mission, when in a homily I spoke about the coexistence between Christians and Muslims. After the celebration, a Christian gentleman came up to me and told me that we should not speak of coexistence, but of familiarity. This is what good relations between the two communities look like.
This does not mean that there are not sometimes tensions, especially in historical moments when radicalism gains strength. But I must also add that the Royal House of Jordan is very supportive of interfaith harmony. In this regard it is worth recalling the Institute for Interfaith Studiesfounded in 1994 by Prince Hassan, uncle of King Abdullah II, which promotes interfaith dialogue, not only in Jordan.
In Jordan, Christians constitute a small part of the population. What challenges does the Church face in its pastoral mission there, and what measures are being taken to support the local Christian community?
-The most serious challenge for our Christians, especially the young, is the "utopia of the West". Many want to leave the country to move to Europe, America or Australia. This phenomenon is found all over the Middle East and it worries us a lot, because Christians are an integral part of the Arab world. Sometimes I worry that in the West "Arab" means "Muslim". This is not the case. Although small, the Christian population has contributed a great deal, and continues to contribute, to the good of societies in the Middle East. This is a historical fact.
But the question does not concern only the social aspect: the Christian communities here are the direct heirs of the first Christian communities. Here in Jordan there are very many remnants of the first Christian centuries. The fact that Christians want to leave these countries is a challenge in many ways.
It is also important to remember that secularism influences everywhere, particularly through the media. It is a pervasive culture, which stops at nothing and which we perceive in our regions. A clear sign in this regard is the drop in the response to priestly and religious vocations. For this reason, faith formation remains a priority, especially for young people.
Cyprus has historically been a divided island, with tensions between its constituent communities. How is the work of the Church experienced in this political and social context? What efforts is the Church making to promote reconciliation?
-The division of the island of Cyprus dates back to 1974, when Turkish troops invaded the island and proclaimed an independent Republic, which however is not recognized internationally, except by Turkey. It is clear that this division deeply scars the island, because over time it has caused severe suffering. Many have had to abandon their homes and possessions to move to one or another part of the island. Not all of these wounds have healed. Attempts at reconciliation between the parties were made, but unfortunately did not bear fruit.
Even in this case the Church can do little, especially because, as we have said, it is a small minority. But also in this case, for example, there is an attempt to promote interreligious dialogue with some initiatives. However, at the moment the role of the Catholic Church in Cyprus, especially that of the Latin rite, is to adapt to the new circumstances in which it carries out its mission. I am referring to the fact that the number of Catholic immigrants from Africa, for example, who need pastoral care, is constantly growing. For this reason, the pastoral structures on the island are being strengthened and last year a Latin bishop was also ordained as Patriarchal Vicar of Jerusalem, in order to give a fuller configuration to this Church. The Maronite rite part, however, has grown a lot in recent years because many Lebanese, faced with the uncertainty of the situation in Lebanon, have preferred to move to the island of Cyprus, which is not far from their country.
Jordan is a key country in the Middle East for political and religious stability. What role does the Catholic Church play in supporting efforts for peace and mutual understanding in such a complex region?
-I think I can say that the efforts of the Holy See in our region are remarkable. Without going into details, it can be seen, for example, already in the trips of the Holy Father, who in these years visited Jordan, Israel, Palestine, Egypt, the Emirates, Iraq and Bahrain. He was also in Cyprus.
As far as I am concerned, with my appointment it was decided to have a resident nuncio in Jordan, whereas before the nuncio resided in Iraq and from there followed Jordan. I say this to underline the importance of this kingdom. The Holy See itself recognizes that the Kingdom of Jordan plays a key role for the stability of the region, and this from a social and religious perspective.
But beyond the diplomatic commitment of the Holy See, the greatest contribution offered by the Catholic Church lies in forming people, in fostering respect and coexistence, in instilling positive values in people's consciences.
Another aspect not to be forgotten is the pilgrimage to the holy places of Jordan, which is part of the Holy Land, because many biblical events took place there and also related to the life of Jesus. Pilgrimages to Jordan contribute to strengthening local Christian communities and fostering relations between East and West. The encounter means mutual knowledge.
The current "builders of Babel" are building a hell on earth, rejecting all those they consider "losers," Pope Francis wrote in the Way of the Cross meditations.
"Your way, Jesus, is the way of the Beatitudes. It does not crush, but cultivates, repairs and protects," the Pope wrote during the evening ceremony on April 18 at the Roman Colosseum.
"The Babel builders of today tell us that there is no room for losers, and that those who fall by the wayside are losers. Theirs is the work of hell," he wrote. "God's economy, on the other hand, does not kill, discard, or crush. It is humble, faithful to the earth."
Each year, the Pope usually chooses a different person or group of people to write the series of prayers and reflections that are read aloud for each of the 14 stations, which commemorate Christ's condemnation, his carrying of the cross to Golgotha, his crucifixion and his burial. However, the pope himself wrote the commentaries and prayers for the Holy Year This year, just as he did for last year's Year of Prayer.
The Vicar of the Pope in the Diocese of Rome presided.
For the third consecutive year, Pope Francis was scheduled to follow the nightly Stations of the Cross from his residence in the Vatican for health reasons, while 25,000 people were expected to gather outside the ancient amphitheater.
The Cardinal Baldassare Reinathe papal vicar of Rome, was appointed to stand in for the pope, presiding over the Good Friday ceremony and offering the final blessing at the end. Representatives of different groups, including migrants, youth, people with disabilities, volunteers, charity workers, educators and members of the "Ordo Viduarum," a group of widows serving the Church, would take turns carrying a bare wooden cross.
A text with a social focus
The Pope's remarks and prayers this year focused on how "the road to Calvary passes through the streets we travel every day."
Jesus came to change the world and, "for us, that means changing direction, seeing the goodness of your way, letting the memory of your gaze transform our hearts," he wrote in his introduction.
"It is enough to listen to his invitation: "Come! Follow me!". And trust in that gaze of love," and from there "everything blossoms anew," he wrote, and places torn apart by conflict can move toward reconciliation, and "a heart of stone can become a heart of flesh."
God trusts us
In the first station, "Jesus is condemned to death," the Pope emphasized how Jesus respects human freedom and trusts everyone by placing himself "in our hands."
Pilate could have released Jesus, but "he chose not to," the Pope wrote, asking the faithful to reflect on how "we have been prisoners of the roles we choose to continue to play, fearful of the challenge of a change in the direction of our lives."
"From this we can draw wonderful lessons: how to free the unjustly accused, how to recognize the complexity of situations, how to protest against lethal trials," the Pope wrote, because it is Jesus who "is silent before us, in each of our brothers and sisters exposed to judgment and fanaticism."
Religious disputes, legal disputes, the supposed common sense that prevents us from getting involved in the fate of others: a thousand reasons drag us to the side of Herod, the priests, Pilate and the crowd. Yet it could be otherwise," he wrote.
Do not shun the cross
For the second station, "Jesus carries his cross," the Pope wrote that the greatest burden is to try to avoid the cross and evade responsibility.
"All we have to do," he wrote, "is to stop running away and remain in the company of those you have given us, to join them, recognizing that only in this way can we cease to be prisoners of ourselves."
"Selfishness weighs more heavily on us than the cross. Indifference weighs more heavily on us than sharing," wrote the Pope.
No fear of falling
At the seventh station, "Jesus falls the second time," the Pope emphasized how Jesus was not afraid to stumble and fall.
"All those who are ashamed of this, those who want to appear infallible, who hide their own downfalls but refuse to forgive those of others, reject the path you chose," he wrote.
"In you we were all found and brought home, like that sheep that had gone astray," his meditation said.
"An economy in which ninety-nine is more important than one is inhuman. Yet we have built a world that works like this: a world of calculations and algorithms, of cold logic and implacable interests," he wrote.
However, he wrote, "when we turn our hearts to you, who fall and rise again, we experience a change of direction and a change of pace. A conversion that restores our joy and brings us home safe and sound."
In his prayer for the eleventh station, "Jesus is nailed to the cross," the Pope asked to pray to God to "teach us to love" when "we are bound by unjust laws or decisions," when "we disagree with those who are not interested in truth and justice, and when everyone says, 'There is nothing to be done.'"
The Dicastery for Legislative Texts The Vatican has issued an explanatory note on the impossibility of cancelling baptisms from the Parish Register, a practice that has been occasionally requested by people who wish to disassociate themselves from the Church. The document, signed by Cardinal Filippo Iannone and Archbishop Juan Ignacio Arrieta, recalls that Canon Law does not permit the modification or cancellation of entries made in the Register of Baptisms, it can only correct eventual transcription errors.
The reason is that this register "is not a list of members" belonging to the Catholic Church, but an objective statement of sacramental events that have occurred historically in the life of the Church. Baptism, which the Church administers only once, is a sacrament of a permanent character that constitutes the basis for the reception of the other sacraments. For this reason, along with baptism, other important and equally unique milestones are inscribed, such as confirmation, priestly ordination, marriage or perpetual religious profession.
It is not deleted, but the output can be noted.
The document clarifies that although the baptismal record cannot be removed, it can be recorded that a person wishes to leave the Church: "The baptismal record must be accompanied, if necessary, by the actus formalis defectionis ab Ecclesia Catholicawhen a person indicates a desire to leave the Catholic Church. This notation may be made at the request of the person concerned and in the context of a formal hearing, without implying the elimination of the sacramental data.
The purpose of keeping the inscription intact is not to accredit the current faith of the baptized person, but to "certify a historical ecclesial fact," which is juridically relevant to guarantee the valid administration of future sacraments. This becomes crucial, for example, for those who wish to marry in the Church or assume formal religious commitments.
Consistency with the entire canonical order
The note points out that the entire juridical order of the Church is aimed at preserving certainty about the sacraments received, beginning with baptism. It is recalled that even baptisms administered "sub conditione" (when there is doubt as to whether it was previously administered) do not imply a repetition of the sacrament, since the sacrament cannot be duplicated.
Finally, it is emphasized that the inscription in the register must be made with certainty about the event that has taken place, which is why the presence of witnesses at the baptism is obligatory, in accordance with canon 875 of the Code of Canon Law. Code of Canon Law. These witnesses do not replace the registry, but they make it possible to verify with certainty the reality of the sacrament celebrated.
With this note, the Holy See wishes to reaffirm the objective and irreversible dimension of baptism in the Catholic tradition and to avoid the growing tendency to request "symbolic erasures" that have no place in theology or in the law of the Church.
The Supreme Courts are making their pronouncements
The Supreme Court of Spain upheld in its ruling No. 1747/2008, published on November 19, 2008, the impossibility of canceling baptismal inscriptions in parish books at the request of those requesting apostasy. In this ruling, the high court determined that these records do not constitute a file subject to data protection legislation, but are a reflection of historical facts-in this case, the administration of the sacrament of baptism-and, therefore, cannot be modified or deleted.
In several European countries there have been judicial and administrative pronouncements on the possibility of removing or modifying baptismal entries in parish registers, in response to requests for apostasy or on data protection grounds.
In France, on February 2, 2024, the Council of State, France's highest administrative court, ruled that the Catholic Church is not obliged to remove baptismal inscriptions from its registers. The court argued that these registers constitute the trace of a historical fact, although it is permitted to note in the margin of the register the will of the person to renounce the Church.
In January 2024, the Belgian Data Protection Authority upheld a citizen who requested the removal of his data from the baptismal register after declaring his renunciation of the Church. The diocese of Ghent appealed this decision, and the case is pending before the Brussels Court of Appeal for the Markets. This ruling contrasts with previous decisions in other countries, such as Ireland, where such records have been allowed to be retained..
These cases reflect an ongoing debate about the collision between religious freedom, the "right" to apostasy and the protection of personal data in the context of the Catholic Church's sacramental records.
Good Friday at St. Peter's: an invitation to live from the cross
Cardinal Claudio Gugerotti, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Oriental Churches, officiated at the Liturgy of the Lord's Passion on Good Friday in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, April 18, 2025.
This Good Friday, St. Peter's Basilica hosted the solemn Celebration of the Passion of the Lord. Cardinal Claudio Gugerotti, Delegate of the Holy Father, presided at the liturgy on behalf of the Holy Father. Papa. The homily was delivered by Capuchin Father Roberto Pasolini, Preacher of the Pontifical Household, who offered a profound and timely reflection on the mystery of the cross as the center of the Easter Triduum.
From the beginning, Pasolini wanted to emphasize the symbolic value of this day: "between the white of the Lord's Supper and that of his Resurrection, the liturgy interrupts the chromatic continuity by dyeing all the vestments red", thus inviting us to "attune ourselves to the intense and dramatic shades of the greatest love".
In contrast to today's world, "rich in new intelligences-artificial, computational, predictive-the mystery of Christ's passion and death proposes to us another kind of intelligence: the intelligence of the cross, which does not calculate, but loves; which does not optimize, but gives itself". This intelligence, he continued, is not artificial, but profoundly relational, because it is "totally open to God and to others".
The freedom of Jesus in the face of the Passion
The homily developed three key moments of the Passion of Jesus to explain how to live a full trust in God. The first, when in the Garden of Gethsemane, when confronted by the soldiers, "Jesus, knowing all that was about to happen to him, went forward and said to them, 'Whom do you seek?'... 'Jesus the Nazarene.' He answered them, 'It is I.'" As he uttered these words, the soldiers fell back and fell to the ground. Pasolini recalled that this gesture reveals that "Jesus was not simply arrested, but offered his life freely, as he had already announced: 'No one takes it from me, but I lay it down for myself'".
This step forward, he stressed, is an example of how every Christian can face painful moments or moments of crisis with inner freedom, "welcoming them with faith in God and trust in the history that He leads".
Thirst for love
On the cross, already close to death, Jesus pronounced a second profoundly human phrase: "I thirst". This expression, the preacher commented, is a manifestation of extreme vulnerability. "Jesus dies not before having manifested - without any shame - all his need". In asking for a drink, he shows that even God made man "needs to be loved, welcomed, listened to".
Pasolini invited those present to discover in this confession of need a key to understanding the truest love: "To ask for what we cannot give ourselves, and to allow others to offer it to us, is perhaps one of the highest and most humble forms of love".
Donate to the end
The third and final word he dwelt on was Jesus' "It is fulfilled" before he died. "Jesus confesses the fulfillment of his - and our - humanity at the moment when, stripped of everything, he chooses to give us his life and his Spirit entirely." This gesture, he explained, "is not a passive surrender, but an act of supreme freedom, which accepts weakness as the place where love becomes full."
In a culture that values self-sufficiency and efficiency, the cross proposes an alternative path. "Jesus shows us how much life can emerge from those moments when, since there is nothing left to do, there is actually the most beautiful thing left to accomplish: to finally give ourselves to ourselves."
Adoring the cross as an act of hope
In the final section of his sermon, Pasolini recalled the words of Pope Francis at the beginning of the JubileeChrist is "the anchor of our hope," to whom we are united by "the cord of faith" since our baptism. He acknowledged that it is not always easy to "keep firm the profession of faith", especially "when the moment of the cross arrives".
For this reason, he exhorted those present to approach the cross "with full confidence" and to recognize in it the "throne of grace to receive mercy and find grace at the right moment". This gesture - to adore the wood of the cross - will be for every Christian an opportunity to renew his or her trust in the way God has chosen to save the world.
"Just as we have been loved, so we will be able to love, friends and even enemies," Pasolini concluded. And then, we will be true witnesses of the only truth that saves: "God is our Father. And we are all sisters and brothers, in Christ Jesus our Lord".
Although he did not celebrate Mass or wash the feet of inmates, Pope Francis made his customary Holy Thursday visit to a detention center, arriving at Rome's Regina Coeli prison around 3 p.m. on April 17.
OSV / Omnes-April 17, 2025-Reading time: 2minutes
By Cindy Wooden, OSV
The Pope was received by Claudia Clementi, director of the prison, and met with about 70 inmates in the building's rotunda, a space where several wings of the prison intersect. The inmates who accompanied the Pope are those who regularly participate in the prison's religious education program, the Vatican press office reported.
In 2018, the Pope celebrated the Holy Thursday Mass of the Lord's Supper at Regina Coeli, less than a mile from the Vatican. However, due to his ongoing convalescence, after spending more than a month hospitalized, he was unable to celebrate the Mass or the foot washing.
Pope Francis told inmates, "Every year I like to do what Jesus did on Holy Thursday, washing feet, in a prison," the Vatican stated. "This year I cannot do it, but I can and I want to be close to you. I pray for you and your families."
The Pope personally greeted each of the people present in the rotunda, prayed the Our Father with them and gave them his blessing.
Photos of the Vatican visit also show him in the prison yard waving to inmates peering through the barred windows of their cells and waving from the rotunda to inmates pressed against an iron and glass door hoping to see him.
The Italian Ministry of Justice website indicated that, as of April 16, there were 1,098 men detained in the prison awaiting trial or sentencing. The facility is designed to hold fewer than 700 prisoners.
As he left the prison, sitting in the front passenger seat of a small car, he stopped to talk to reporters and told them, "Every time I walk through these doors, I ask myself, 'Why them and not me?"'
He has explained on several occasions that all men are sinners, himself included, but grace, providence, family upbringing and other factors play a determining role.
Pope Francis, elected in 2013, has continued a Holy Thursday practice he began as archbishop of Buenos Aires, Argentina: routinely celebrating the Mass of the Lord's Supper in a prison or detention center and washing the feet of inmates.
In his first year as pope, he abandoned the customary papal practice of washing the feet of 12 priests during the public celebration of Holy Thursday Mass, and went to a juvenile detention center to wash the feet of Catholic and non-Catholic teenagers. He returned to the same prison in 2023 to wash the feet of young men and women.
In 2014, he washed the feet of people with severe physical disabilities at a rehabilitation center, and in 2016, he celebrated the liturgy and ritual of foot washing at a center for migrants and refugees.
On Holy Thursday 2020, the confinement by COVID led the Pope to celebrate Mass at the Vatican with a small congregation and to omit the optional ritual of foot washing.
Pope Francis also celebrated Mass in prisons outside Rome, in the cities of Paliano, Velletri and Civitavecchia.
After the Pope's "private" visit to the Regina Coeli, Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, archpriest of St. Peter's Basilica, celebrated the parish Mass of the Lord's Supper in the basilica.
Altar friezes, liturgical textiles or secondary scenes in many paintings are some of the places where we find various figures with a biblical origin. Their purpose is always to focus the viewer's gaze on Christ and to be aware of the continuity of the history of Salvation.
When contemplating the various sculptures, paintings or architectural elements present in the different temples, we often come across elements of biblical origin whose significance is directly related to the scene or the character represented, forming part of an iconography that visually communicates the theological message.
Some of them are better known, such as the image of the lamb or the snake trodden by the foot of the Virgin MaryHowever, there are other elements that frequently appear in popular iconography whose meaning or reference is sometimes unknown to many of the faithful.
Lamb
The figure of the lamb is a biblical element referring to Jesus. Just as in the Old Covenant, the sacrifice of the lamb was offered in atonement for sins, with the New Covenant, Jesus, the Lamb of God, blots out the sins of the world with his death.
In the narrative of Exodus 12, the blood of the lamb on the doors of the houses of the Hebrews delivered them from the plague on the Egyptians; the blood of Christ, shed in his Passion and death, brings men out of sin and cleanses them: "These are they which come out of great tribulation: they have washed and made white their robes in the blood of the Lamb." (Rev 7:14).
Jeremiah and Isaiah are already using the image of the lamb to refer to the Messiah: "I, like a meek lamb, was led to the slaughter." (Jer 11:19) and "like a lamb led to the slaughter, like a sheep before the shearer". (Is 53:7).
The figure of the lamb will take its greatest power in the Apocalypse with the presence of the apocalyptic lamb: "I saw in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, a Lamb standing, as it were slain; it had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent forth into all the earth." (Rev 5:6-7).
Christian iconography has taken these two images of the lamb: the Eucharistic lamb that meekly sheds its blood for the sins of the world; and the mighty lamb of the last book before whom the kings of the earth prostrate themselves and who defeats the diabolical dragon.
Tree of Jesse, genealogy of Jesus
The Tree of Jesse refers to the genealogy of Jesus, which is detailed in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke in the New Testament. The first genealogy traces Jesus' ancestry from King David to Joseph, his earthly father, and the second traces back to God Himself.
The importance of genealogy was key among the Jewish people as it established the legitimacy and fulfillment of the messianic prophecies in Jesus, scholars point out. By demonstrating his connection to key Old Testament figures, it underscores that Jesus is the long-awaited Messiah promised to Israel.
One of the most beautiful representations of this Tree of Jesse is found in the altarpiece of the chapel of Santa Ana in the Cathedral of Burgos, the work of Gil de Siloe, whose central iconographic theme represents the genealogical origin of the Virgin through the Tree of Jesse.
Prophets, kings and priests
In 1997, St. John Paul II dedicated one of his audiences to the topic "Christ in the history of the humanity that preceded him". The Polish Pope's words are a practical guide to identifying, in Christ's ancestors, the key characteristics of his messianic nature.
The pontiff cited Abraham, Jacob, Moses and David, figures that recur in the various artistic representations of the life of Christ: Abraham rejoicing over the birth of Isaac and his rebirth after the sacrifice was a messianic joy: it announced and prefigured the definitive joy that the Savior would offer. Moses as liberator and, above all, David as king. These are some of the images that are repeated in paintings and sculptures referring directly to Christ.
One of the most original cross-references is the figure of the Magi of the East and the Queen of Sheba and Solomon. Just as the magi went to worship the Lord thanks to their knowledge, the Queen of Sheba visits Solomon to gain access to the wisdom of the son of David.
This symbology can be seen, for example, in the Triptych of The Adoration of the Magipainted by Bosch in 1494, in which the scene of the Queen of Sheba is materialized in Gaspar's cape.
The inclusion of these characters as secondary figures in altarpieces or in the bases of sacramental monstrances was a constant in the Baroque, both in Europe and Latin America, creating a visual line of continuity between the Old and New Testaments.
Adam's skull
Very often, in the representations of the crucified Christ, a skull appears at the foot of the wood.
Some notorious examples can be seen in The Crucifixion by Andrea Mantegna or Giotto, El Calvario by Luís Tristán, or the splendid Christ crucified carved in ivory by Claudio Beissonat.
The presence of this skull and some bones at the foot of the Cross points to the fact that, according to tradition, the remains of Adam would rest in the same place where Jesus was crucified.
In this way, Christ, with his death and resurrection, overcomes the death of Adam and pays the ransom for the soul of fallen man. It is not for nothing that the chapel under Calvary, in the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre, is so called, Adam's Chapel.
This symbolism of Adam's skull appears, on many occasions, together with the arboreal representation of the cross, making direct reference to the wood on which Jesus Christ was nailed.
Expulsion from paradise and the garden
The expulsion of Adam and Eve from paradise narrated in the third chapter of Genesis is one of the constant images in Christian iconography. They appear related in the mystery of Salvation in different stages.
One of the most interesting relationships is the inclusion of Adam and Eve in the representation of the Annunciation to the Virgin, of which we have a paradigmatic example, in the delicate and detailed work of Fra Angelico on this subject. The disobedience of Adam and Eve is contrasted with the total obedience of the Virgin in her "Be it done unto me."
Adam and Eve are expelled from a pure garden where life sprang forth: the garden that prefigures the virginal womb of Mary where the Life that is Christ is born and which is also echoed in the Song of Songs: "Thou art an enclosed garden, my sister, my wife; an enclosed spring, a sealed fountain.". Mary, as the Gate of Heaven, reopens Paradise to man by giving birth to the Savior.
Snake trodden
It is one of the most popular images of Marian symbolism: the foot of the Virgin crushing a snake / dragon.
The image has its origin in Genesis 3, 15: "I put hostility between you and the woman, between your offspring and her offspring; she will crush your head when you bruise her heel."
This image is especially linked to the representations of the Immaculate Virgin Mary since she is "the Woman" par excellence.
The allegory of the serpent under the foot of the Virgin can be seen, for example, in the image that crowns the Colonna dell'Immacolata in Rome as well as in most of the pictorial and sculptural representations of the Immaculate Conception.
The doe
The hind is one of the animals that appears in the Old Testament, intimately related to the state of the soul of the human being with God.
"As the doe seeks streams of water." (Ps 42:2), this psalm was an inspiration, especially in the first centuries of Christianity, as an image of the Christian catechumen preparing to receive his sacraments, the living water.
The image of the hind in ornaments and objects of worship, especially linked to the Eucharist, such as chalices and textiles and even as a mold for Eucharistic hosts of the type found in Tunisia and dating from the 6th century.
He was about two years old. Chubby and smiling, he barely stood a few feet off the ground. Dressed in his argyle sweater and Bermuda shorts, he looked down on life from the borrowed height of his father's shoulders.
It was Maundy Thursday and it was Seville. The afternoon was falling and Our Father Jesus of the Passion appeared in a square where the silence was only torn by the deaf dragging of the feet of the nazarenes, penitents and costaleros.
The Lord came out of his house in El Salvador. And that little boy, seeing from his improvised sycamore tree the Jesus he knew so well, turned to his mother: "Look mom, it's Jesus, shall we pray to Him? And, without waiting for an answer, he began with his ragged tongue: "pade nuestro..."
And all around him, men of all ages, women of all ages and gussied-up teenagers joined in the Our Father said by a child, one of those whose heart still belongs more to heaven than to earth. A child's prayer sprang from dozens of grown throats and filled a square in Seville.
And in the house of God, that half-learned prayer, watered by the tears of many pairs of eyes, adorned the Savior's departure on the way to the Cross and would be for God, unforgettable consolation, spoken communion, canticle of salvation.
Director of Omnes. Degree in Communication, with more than 15 years of experience in Church communication. She has collaborated in media such as COPE or RNE.
Joseph Evans comments on the readings for Easter Sunday (C), corresponding to April 20, 2025.
Joseph Evans-April 17, 2025-Reading time: 2minutes
We may find ourselves like St. Peter and St. John who "For until then they had not understood the Scripture, that he was to rise from the dead.". We may doubt or not really believe, in practice, that Jesus has risen, that life has conquered death, that grace has conquered sin. Belief in the Resurrection of Christ has not penetrated our hearts and lives.
As women, we can ask ourselves: "Who will roll away for us the stone from the entrance of the tomb?". Who has the power to overcome the seemingly insurmountable obstacles of today's world? How can I - so constantly selfish, the hardest rock myself - move from hardness of heart to love? Who can resurrect in me Christ, seemingly dead, so that he lives in me and I in him?
And in the midst of a secular society that seems increasingly ridiculously hostile to Christian values, in which faith can seem increasingly meaningless, isn't Christ in fact dead, or at least dying?
But in spite of so many problems, Jesus refuses to remain in the tomb. Yes, today there are many high priests who would like to keep him there, sealed up, and keep Christianity locked up or confined in the sacristy. But Jesus refuses to stay dead. In spite of so many attacks on Christianity, on the Church, in spite of so many sins of Christians themselves and so many scandals, Jesus continues to emerge from the tomb, demonstrating that his grace and love are more powerful than all the forces of evil.
In spite of everything, the grace and power of Christ is still at work in today's society and in us. This year is a Jubilee Year of Hope and one of the most striking things about Catholicism is its hope. We may not realize it, but we have a profoundly positive outlook on life. We believe - even when we think we don't - that there is a good God who loves us, that he is our Father, that he sent his beloved Son to save us, that grace is at work in the world and that, ultimately, good triumphs over evil.
It may be helpful to compare it to the view we often encounter in society, which at best offers a kind of secular redemption, a dogged determination to press on in spite of everything. But we hope for much more: despite our many sins, we believe in God's forgiveness and grace to heal us and to have a deep and abiding hope.
Thus, we can truly affirm that Christ is alive. No human structure, no power of evil, not even our weakness, can lock Christ in the tomb: nothing can stop the explosive force of the Resurrection.
God prepared the teacher and theologian Joseph Ratzinger to teach with simplicity the mysteries of the Kingdom to a whole society that was beginning to take steps not towards God, but away from Him.
Benedict XVI in 2012, on the occasion of his birthday gave thanks "to all those who have always (made him) perceive the presence of the Lord, who (accompanied him) so that he would not lose the light" (Benedict XVI, Homily 16/04/2012). With these words the Pope reflected on the meaning of light on Easter night, on which night the water of the baptismal font is also blessed and which, providentially, as a premonitory sign, was the first of those baptized on Easter morning in 1927 in the small village of Marktl am Inn or "Marketplace by the river Eno" (White, Pablo. Benedict XVI, Biography. St. Paul's. 2019, p. 35).
A classic premise recognizes that God not only makes use of his attribute of Provident to favor those in need with material goods, but also with spiritual realities and thus attends to the two dimensions through which man has to travel his vital path: the temporal and the eternal, the transitory and the perennial, that which corrupts and that which lasts until eternity. And so, in little Joseph, in the waters of that newly blessed fountain, the youngest member of the Ratzinger family was called to be born again for God, for his Lord, just a few hours after his birth.
Joseph Ratzinger, teacher and theologian
With this analogy, I firmly believe that God prepared at the time the teacher and theologian Joseph Ratzinger to teach with simplicity the mysteries of the Kingdom to a whole society that would begin to take steps no longer towards God, but away from Him, a society that would no longer be concerned with denying His existence, for already the new line is simpler: "to live as if God did not exist" and, in the midst of that universal challenge, one of the workers in the vineyard was called, "taken from among men, appointed in behalf of men for the things of God" (Heb 5:1).
Much can be written about the remembered Benedict XVI, and we would not be able to exhaust his person, his figure, his words, his thought and his theology. A well-known Spanish priest, whose name I will not mention but who, I am sure that in his time ─in some of his works─, will know how to coin a phrase that he pronounced in the presentation of one of his books when consulted about what Ratzinger means for many young people of our time. He said firmly and convinced of what his statement means that, "the best of Ratzinger is yet to come."
Man of study and prayer
I echo this phrase without the intention of appropriating it, just two years before celebrating the centenary of the birth of Peter's successor, who was able to make use of his profile as a teacher, theologian and pastor, to show a theology dictated in simple words, with a language that is not only acceptable but also attractive to the young people of our time.
Only in this way, from the simplicity and depth of the experience of a loving God, can one enter into the theology of a man admirable in himself, a man whom, without having him in person, one could discover through his books, his theology, his thought, his prayerful experience, a discovery that showed us not only the Pope at his desk, but also the man of the kneeler, the man of prayer, the man who had made his own ─without knowing it─ the experience of Jesus as the light of his life and his works.
"I know that God's light exists, that he is risen, that his light is stronger than any darkness; that God's goodness is stronger than every evil in this world. This helps us to go forward, and at this hour I give heartfelt thanks to all those who continually make me perceive God's 'yes' through their faith" (Benedict XVI, Homily, 4/16/2012).
Saint Bernadette Soubirous, visionary of the Virgin Mary at Lourdes
The liturgy celebrates on April 16 St. Bernadette Soubirous, to whom the Virgin Mary appeared 18 times in Lourdes (France), in 1858, and said: "I am the Immaculate Conception". Also celebrated today are martyrs such as St. Engracia and the 18 of Saragossa; eight martyrs of Corinth, and 26 of Angers, victims of the French Revolution.
Loreto Rios-April 16, 2025-Reading time: 7minutes
In 1858, Our Lady appeared to Bernadette Soubirous at Lourdes. Since then, millions of pilgrims have flocked to the shrine to pray, reconcile with God and bathe in the spring water. We review below the key points of the story of Bernadette Soubirous, the apparitions, and the shrine.
Bernadette's childhood
Bernadette was born on January 7, 1844 in the Boly mill in Lourdes. In 1854, the family began to face difficulties due to bad harvests. In addition, there was a cholera epidemic. Bernadette contracted it and carried the after-effects throughout her life.
The economic crisis led to the family's eviction. Thanks to a relative, they were able to move to a 5×4 meter room, a dungeon in a former prison that was no longer used due to unsanitary conditions.
Bernadette could neither read nor write. Because of her family's poverty, she began working as a maid at a very young age, in addition to taking care of household chores and her younger siblings. Eventually, she and one of her sisters began collecting and selling scrap metal, paper, cardboard and firewood. Bernadette did this even though her health was very fragile due to asthma and the after-effects of cholera.
The first appearance
It was on one of these occasions, when Bernadette, her sister and a friend went out of town to get firewood, that the first apparition took place. It was February 11, 1858, and Bernadette was 14 years old (all the apparitions took place in this year, making a total of eighteen). The place they were going to was the grotto of Massabielle.
The girl later recounted that she heard a rustling wind: "Behind the branches, inside the opening, I saw at once a young girl all white, no taller than me, who greeted me with a slight nod of her head," she later said. "From her right arm hung a rosary. I was afraid and backed away [...] However, it was not a fear like the one I had felt at other times, because I would have always looked at her ('aquéro'), and when one is afraid, one runs away immediately.
Then the idea of praying came to me. [I prayed with my rosary. The young woman slipped the beads of hers, but did not move her lips. [...] When I had finished the rosary, she smiled and waved at me. She withdrew into the hollow and suddenly disappeared" (the textual words of Bernadette and Our Lady are taken from the website of the Hospitality of Our Lady of Lourdes and from the official website of the sanctuary).
Our Lady's Invitation
The second apparition, which took place on February 14, was also silent. The girl sprinkled the Virgin with holy water, the Virgin smiled and bowed her head, and when Bernadette finished praying the rosary, she disappeared. Bernadette told her parents at home what was happening to her and they forbade her to return to the grotto.
However, an acquaintance of the family convinced them to let the girl return, but accompanied, and with paper and pen for the unknown woman to write her name. Thus, Bernadette returned to the grotto, and the third apparition took place. At the request to write her name, the woman smiled and invited Bernadette with a gesture to enter the grotto. "What I have to say need not be written down," she said. And she added: "Would you do me the favor of coming here for a fortnight?".
Later, Bernadette would say it was the first time anyone had ever called her by you. "He looked at me like a person looks at another person," she said, explaining her experience. These words of the little girl are currently written at the entrance of the Cenacle of Lourdes, a place of rehabilitation for people with different addictions, especially drug addictions.
Bernadette accepted the invitation, and Our Lady added: "I do not promise you the happiness of this world, but that of the next. Between February 19 and 23, four more apparitions took place. In the meantime, the news had been spreading and many people accompanied Bernadette to the grotto of Massabielle. After the sixth apparition, the girl was interrogated by Inspector Jacomet.
The spring
The first appearances, seven in all, were happy ones for Bernadette. During the five subsequent ones, which took place between February 24 and March 1, the girl seemed sad. Our Lady asked her to pray and do penance for sinners. Bernadette prays on her knees and sometimes walks around the cave in that posture. She also eats grass at the direction of the lady, who tells her: "Go and drink and wash in the fountain".
In response to this request, Bernadette goes three times to the river. But the Virgin tells her to return and points out the place where she must dig to find the spring to which she refers.
The girl obeys and indeed discovers water, from which she drinks and with which she washes herself, although, being mixed with mud, she gets her face dirty. People tell her that she is crazy for doing these things, to which the girl replies: "It is for sinners". During the twelfth apparition, the first miracle took place: at night, a woman washed her arm, paralyzed for two years due to a dislocation, in the spring and regained mobility.
Immaculate Conception
In the apparition of March 2, Our Lady entrusted her with a task: to ask the priests to build a chapel in that place and to go there in procession. In obedience to this command, Bernadette went directly to the parish priest. The priest does not receive her very warmly and tells her that, before granting her request, the mysterious woman must reveal her name. Bernadette would never say that she had seen the Virgin, since the woman she was talking to had not told her her name.
On March 25, the girl went to the grotto at dawn accompanied by her aunts. After praying a mystery of the rosary, the woman appears and Bernadette asks her to tell her name. The girl asks her name three times. On the fourth time, the woman answers: "I am the Immaculate Conception.". The Virgin never spoke to the girl in French, but in Bernadette's native dialect, and in this language are written the words under the carving of the Virgin of Lourdes that is currently placed in the grotto: "Que soy era Immaculada Concepciou" (I am Immaculate Conception).
This term, which refers to the fact that Mary was conceived without original sin, was unknown to Bernadette, and had been proclaimed a dogma of faith only four years earlier by Pope Pius IX.
Recognition of apparitions
Bernadette went to the parish house to give an account of what had been transmitted to her. The priest was surprised to hear that term on the girl's lips, and she explained that she had come all the way repeating the words so as not to forget them. Finally, on July 16, the last apparition took place.
The Church officially recognized the apparitions of Our Lady of Lourdes in 1862, only four years after they concluded, and while Bernadette was still alive.
After the apparitions, she became a novice in 1866 in the community of the Sisters of Charity of Nevers. She died of tuberculosis in 1879, and was canonized by Pope Pius XI in 1933, on December 8, the feast of the Immaculate Conception.
Sanctuary sites
The sanctuary has some key places to visit on any pilgrimage.
The grotto
The grotto of Masabielle is one of the most important places of the sanctuary. Mass is currently celebrated in the largest part of it. Situated on the rock where Mary appeared, there is a figure of the Virgin made from Bernadette's description: "She was wearing a white dress, which came down to her feet, of which only the tip was visible. The dress was closed at the top, around the neck. A white veil, which covered her head, descended down her shoulders and arms until it reached the floor. On each foot I saw that she had a yellow rose. The sash of her dress was blue and fell to just below her knees. The chain of the rosary was yellow, the beads were white, thick and very far apart.
The figure is almost two meters high and was placed in the grotto on April 4, 1864. The sculptor was Joseph Fabisch, a professor at the Lyon School of Fine Arts. The place where the girl stood during the apparitions is indicated on the floor.
The water of Lourdes
The spring that nourishes the fountains of Lourdes and the pools springs from the Massabielle grotto, and it is the one that was discovered by Bernadette at the indication of the Virgin. The water has been analyzed on numerous occasions and contains nothing different from the waters of other places.
The tradition of bathing in the pools of Lourdes stems from the ninth apparition, which took place on February 25, 1858. It was on that occasion that Our Lady told Bernadette to drink and wash in the spring. In the following days, many people imitated her and the first miracles took place, which have continued to this day (the last one approved by the Church dates from 2018).
The water from the spring is also used to fill the marble pools, located near the grotto, where pilgrims immerse themselves. The immersion, during which one is covered by a towel, is done with the help of volunteers from the Hospitality of Our Lady of Lourdes.
In winter, or in pandemic season, full immersion is not possible. Access to the water and bathing are completely free. Many people also choose to take a bottle filled with water from the Lourdes spring, which is easily accessible at the fountains next to the grotto.
In total there are 17 pools, eleven for women and six for men. They are used by approximately 350,000 pilgrims a year.
Places where Bernadette lived
In addition to the sanctuary, in Lourdes you can visit the places where Bernadette was: Boly mill, where she was born; the local parish, which still preserves the baptismal font in which she was baptized; the hospice of the Sisters of Charity of Nevers, where she made her first communion; the old parish house, where she spoke with Abbot Peyramale; the "dungeon" where she lived with her family after the eviction; Bartrès, where she resided as a child and in 1857; or Moulin Lacadè, where her parents lived after the apparitions.
Processions
A very important event of the sanctuary of Lourdes is the Eucharistic procession, which has been held since 1874. It takes place from April to October every day at five o'clock in the afternoon. It begins in the meadow of the sanctuary and concludes at the Basilica of St. Pius X.
Also relevant is the torchlight procession. This has been celebrated since 1872, from April to October, every day at 9:00 p.m. The custom arose from the fact that Bernadette often went to the apparitions with a candle. The custom arose from the fact that Bernadette often went to the apparitions with a candle.
After the apparitions, three basilicas were built in the area. The first was the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, which Pope Pius IX made a minor basilica on March 13, 1874. Its stained glass windows depict both the apparitions and the dogma of the Immaculate Conception.
Chapel built at the request of the Virgin
There is also the basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary, in Romanesque-Byzantine style. The basilica contains 15 mosaics depicting the mysteries of the rosary. The crypt, which was the chapel built at the request of the Virgin, was inaugurated in 1866 by Monsignor Laurence, Bishop of Tarbes, in a ceremony at which Bernadette was present. It is located between the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception and the Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary.
There is also the Basilica of St. Pius X, a subway church of reinforced concrete built for the centenary of the apparitions in 1958.
Finally, there is the church of St. Bernadette, built on the site where the girl saw the last apparition, on the other side of the Gave River, since she could not enter the grotto that day because it had been fenced off. The church was inaugurated more than a century later, in 1988.
Avila and Lisieux will celebrate this year the 'little flower' and the great doctor
Millions of pilgrims arrive in Rome for the Jubilee of Hope. But Catholics from France and Spain also have reasons to stay in their countries. Because two of the most popular saints of the Catholic Church will be celebrated: Therese of Lisieux and Teresa of Avila.
OSV / Omnes-April 16, 2025-Reading time: 5minutes
Junno Arocho Esteves, OSV News
The Shrine of St. Teresa of Lisieux has planned events in France to celebrate throughout the Holy Year to 'the little flower', so affectionately known. And in May, the relics of St. Teresa of Avila, the great doctor, can be venerated, which has not happened since 1914.
The events of St. Thérèse of Lisieux culminate with a celebration on May 17 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the canonization of the famous French saint.
In the same month, the relics of Saint Teresa of Avila will be open to the public for its veneration for the third time in more than four centuries. It will take place from May 11 to 25. The event follows a year-long study of the saint's relics by researchers. They found her body incorrupt since her death in 1582.
The 'story of a soul
The French shrine has said that the "story of Therese's life and posterity" has inspired the spiritual and cultural events planned for the year "with the theme of joy in holiness."
The saint was the youngest of nine children. She was born in 1873, the daughter of Saints Louis Martin and Celia Guerin, who named her Marie-Françoise-Thérèse Martin. Like her older sisters, she joined the Carmelite sisters in 1888 at the age of 15, after approval by her bishop. She took the name Sister Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face.
Men carry relics of St. Therese of Lisieux in the annual Candlelight Rosary procession in St. Paul, Minnesota, Oct. 6, 2023. (Photo OSV News/Dave Hrbacek, The Catholic Spirit).
His desire for holiness grew
Her desire for holiness only grew during her time as a Carmelite sister. In her autobiography, 'The Story of a Soul,' she often compared herself to other saints. And she often doubted that she could ever attain her degree of sainthood.
"You know that it has always been my desire to become a saint. But I have always felt, in comparing myself with the saints, that I am as far from them as the grain of sand. A grain that the passerby tramples on, far from the mountain whose summit is lost in the clouds," she wrote.
However, this did not prevent her from seeking "a means to reach Heaven by a little way". In it the Carmelite nun hoped to attain holiness through small acts of holiness.
He died at the age of 24 saying, "My God, I love you."
"You must practice the little virtues. This is sometimes difficult, but God never refuses the first grace: courage for self-conquest. And if the soul corresponds to that grace, it immediately finds itself in the light of God's sun," he wrote.
"I am not dying, I am entering into life," he wrote to his missionary spiritual brother, Father M. Bellier, before dying in 1897 of tuberculosis at the age of 24. His last words were: "My God, I love you".
Autobiography, canonization, Doctor of the Church
Due to the impact of Thérèse's autobiography, which was published a year after her death, the canonization process was opened in 1914, and on May 17, 1925 she was canonized by Pope Pius XI.
In 1997, St. John Paul II declared her a Doctor of the Church. In his letter apostolic 'Divini Amoris Scientia', (The Science of Divine Love), St. John Paul II said that St. Teresa did not have "a true and proper doctrinal corpus". But her writings showed "a particular radiance of doctrine". This presented "a teaching of eminent quality".
On the other hand, Pope Francis published on October 15, 2023 the Apostolic Exhortation '.C'est la confiance', which you can see hereon the occasion of the 150th anniversary of his birth.
St. Teresa of Jesus, mystic and reformer
The study of the remains of St. Teresa of Avila, approved by the Vatican, was carried out by Italian doctors and scientists in August 2024.
Father Marco Chiesa, postulator general of the Discalced Carmelite Order, was present when the silver reliquary containing her relics was opened. He said the body was "in the same condition as when it was last opened in 1914."
After concluding the study, the Order of the Discalced Carmelites in Spain announced that the relics would be open to the public for veneration from May 11 to 25. Location: the Basilica of the Annunciation in Alba de Tormes.
According to the local Spanish news site, 'Salamanca Al Día', the Carmelitas said the upcoming event was "historic and unique", and would not happen again for a long time.
"We hope it will be a reason for pilgrims to come closer to Jesus Christ and the church. An evangelization for all visitors and a greater knowledge of St. Teresa of Jesus. To enrich us all with the example of her life while invoking her intercession," said the Carmelites.
The silver coffin containing the body of St. Teresa of Avila in Alba de Tormes, Spain, is opened for the first time since 1914 and marks the beginning of a study of her relics (OSV News photo/courtesy Order of Carmel).
Renewal of the spiritual and monastic life
The exhibition, reported in 'Salamanca Al Día', is part of a process of canonical recognition authorized by Pope Francis that began in 2022. It will conclude on May 26, the day after the exhibition, and his remains will be returned to his tomb.
Teresa of Avila played a key role during the Counter-Reformation in fostering the renewal of the spiritual and monastic life and also in reforming the Carmelite Order. Her call for a return to a more contemplative lifestyle inspired many, including St. John of the Cross, with whom she founded the Discalced Carmelites.
Doctor of the Church, "determined determination".
Known for her theological writings on the spiritual life, such as "The Interior Castle" and "The Way of Perfection", she was proclaimed Doctor of the Church by St. Paul VI in 1970.
In a 2021 video message commemorating the 50th anniversary of the proclamation of St. Teresa of Avila as a doctor of the church, Pope Francis said she "was outstanding in many ways."
"It should not be forgotten, however, that her acknowledged relevance in these dimensions is but the consequence of what was important to her. Her encounter with the Lord, her 'determined determination,' as she puts it, to persevere in union with Him through prayer."
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Junno Arocho Esteves writes for OSV News from Malmö, Sweden. This text is a translation of an article first published in OSV News. You can find the original article here here.
At the beginning of the EasterI can't help but think of Holy LandI have been there many times, most recently in 2020, shortly before the pandemic. And my heart fills with nostalgia for a place that I undoubtedly consider as "high".
In the Jewish tradition, going to the Land of Israel means to rise, both spiritually and physically. Israel and Jerusalem have been for centuries, even for Christians, the highest places on earth, the closest to God, so much so that everyone who goes to live or go on pilgrimage there is said, in Hebrew, "'oleh", that is, "he who goes upwards", and even the Israeli flag company is called "El Al", "upwards", for it does not so much lead to heaven, but to Israel, that is, to the highest place on earth, in a spiritual sense.
In a certain sense, to go on pilgrimage to the Holy Land is not only to climb to the highest peaks of the spirit, but also to plunge into the abysses of consciousness, exactly like descending from Jerusalem to Jericho and the Dead Sea depression, the lowest point on the surface of the earth: a journey to better understand who we are.
Moments of sublime spirituality, meditation, prayer, sharing with friends and fellow pilgrims, alternate with others of discomfort, tiredness, intolerance, selfishness and confusion. One climbs Mount Tabor, beyond the clouds, to enjoy the harmony of the sky, but then one returns to the harsh daily reality, a reality of Jews, Muslims and Christians constantly fighting each other, dividing walls, Arab villages that have sprung up without any order and logic, Israeli cities made of huge gray buildings, poverty and wealth, misery and nobility, hospitality and rejection side by side, confronting each other.
One moment it is like walking on the clear, sweet, blue water of the Sea of Galilee, which, however, is capable of sudden agitation, due to the winds and storms coming from the Golan; in another, traveling, one passes from the green shores of this great body of water of Galilee to arrive, in a couple of hours, at the muddy, salty, grayish waters of the Dead Sea, the sea of salt surrounded by the desert: here, the green and flowery hills on which Jesus proclaimed the Good News to the multitude give way to aridity and rocks on which rest the foundations of monasteries that have emerged from nowhere and that hide among crevices and precipices.
The geography of the Holy Land: so similar to the soul of the human being.
It seems natural that God would choose the Holy Land to reveal Himself to mankind. Here, the geography of the places is extraordinarily similar - in variability, abrupt changes, alternation between aridity and richness of water, silence and confusion, amenity and ugliness - to the human soul. Many times in life one feels alone and lost as in the Negev desert; very often, the descents from Tabor, the mountain that is symbol of our moments of closeness to God, are traumatic and painful; floating in the calm waters of our happy moments is almost as frequent as sinking in the mud and in the burning salt that kills and incapacitates us to live and make us live, precisely like the Dead Sea.
Personally, after making many trips to these places, I can testify that I feel like this, torn between joy and nostalgia: in the midst of so many good companions on the road, I seemed to be listening again to the words of Isaiah and seeing people I did not know running to me for the sake of God who honored me; it was like witnessing the most sublime thing in the world on a high mountain: communion with dear people; I felt, then, that the Jordan River washed all my impurities, healed every wound, healed every sore.
Then, back home, especially in these difficult times of war, disease, uncertainty, one feels that almost everything slips through one's fingers and even the incomparable beauty of a city as wonderful as Rome (and yet overrun by tourists and so chaotic), the city where I live, seems unable to compensate for the loss of that high mountain, that safe haven, of those people with whom I was able to share so many good moments in many trips.
Once again, I experience separation, which is the denial of God and which impels me to dream of paradise not so much as a lush and pleasant place, but as eternal communion with God and with all my loved ones, all those whom I encountered in my life and from whom I am forced, inevitably, to separate.
Was it all in vain? Not at all!
First of all, I carry a precious treasure with me: the spiritual communion with the same people who accompanied me, who made the land of Israel even more beautiful than it really is. With them, although I am far from the Holy Land, the pilgrimage continues inside and outside of me. Joining them in prayer is like transforming the river of my city, the Tiber, into the Jordan, St. Peter into the Holy Sepulcher, the living room of my house into the Sea of Galilee, for all of us are the new Israel.
And then I remember that there is no longer a Holy Land, or rather, that the whole earth is holy, be it Italy, Mexico, Spain, Chile or wherever in the world, and that we are all guardians and instruments of the Kingdom of God that is already present in our lives, in the things we do every day, in the people who live next to us.
So, looking at the photos of those beloved places in the East, I see, at the same time, the faces of the people who accompanied me and I repeat to myself that we can no longer live attached to the idea of a land and a homeland in this world: our roots are in a different place, in a different reality, perhaps less visible, but certainly much more concrete and resistant to storms, which is our faith.
Every Christian is a pilgrim
Secondly, I think that a true pilgrim is, as he was defined in the Middle Ages, a "homo viator", that is, a man who walks, someone who continually consecrates not only himself and the traditional places where pilgrimages are usually made, such as the Way of St. James, Rome or Jerusalem, but all those small physical and spiritual environments of ordinary life, where he becomes, anthropologically, the instrument of a theophany, of a manifestation of the divine, through the prayers that he fulfills while walking.
In a Christian sense, to make it simpler, a Christian is Christ, for he is a member of the body of Christ, so it is no longer he who lives and walks, but Christ, the same Christ who walked the roads of Galilee, Judea and Samaria and who today continues to walk the streets of Rome, Madrid, Bogota and New York.
Civilizing divinity
In fact, in the anthropology of the Middle Ages what distinguished space ("káos") from place ("kósmos") was a theophany: the manifestation of the divine and the presence of the sacred, through which all that was wild, replete with demons and superstitions, unexplored and uncivilized, uncultured, became land consecrated to God, civil, well-ordered, governed, secure, the "non-being" that became "being". The streets and shrines of medieval Europe, then, were arteries of civilization and the pilgrims who walked through them were the flowing blood, a sign of civilizing divinity.
In the book "The Living Man", by G. K. Chesterton, the protagonist is Innocent Smith, an eccentric character who manages to change for the better the situations and lives of the people he meets, despite being unjustly accused of various crimes, simply because he is a happy man who wishes to transmit to others the joy of his own condition. Through him, even the bad seems to become good. He is that "living man".
Living man and "homo viator".
If we think about it, we Christians, pilgrims in this world, can combine, in our lives, the two concepts of living man and "homo viator". Every day we can re-consecrate the streets, the squares, the neighborhoods of our afflicted countries, in these times of material and spiritual poverty and crisis in every area of human existence. It is not necessary to be so worthy or sinless, perfect and fulfilled in our lives and works. It is enough to nourish ourselves daily from the source of life to become living men and women and, walking the roads of our lives, "homines viatores", bearers of the grace we receive without deserving it.
Thus, even though we cannot leave our cities and our countries to go to the Holy Land, we can walk on water, and not only without fear of sinking, but helping others so that they do not sink.
Church and Scripture. Jesus Christ in the Bible and Tradition
Even though it has a book, the Holy Bible, the Catholic faith is not a "religion of the book", like Judaism or Islam. In the Catholic Church, Scripture has always gone hand in hand with the Tradition of the Church. The latter protects and guides the interpretation of the Word of God throughout the centuries.
Christianity, although it was born with a book in its cradle - the image comes from Luther for whom the Bible was the manger where Jesus was laid -, it is not a book religion but a religion of tradition and scripture. So was Judaism, especially before the destruction of the Temple. This note is clear when speaking of comparative religions. (M. Finkelberg & G. Stroumsa, Homer, the Bible and beyond: literary and religious canons in the ancient world)..
However, a succession of factors - more practical than theoretical - have led to some confusion. Collective memory theorists (J. Assmann) point out that 120 years after a founding event, the communicative memory of a community is embodied in a cultural memory, where cultural artifacts create cohesion between the past and the present.
However, religious or cultural communities that survive over time are characterized by prioritizing textual connectivity over ritual connectivity.
This is more or less what happened at the beginning of the third century in the Church, when theology was conceived as a commentary on Scripture. Later, with the appearance of Islam, a religion of the book from its origin, and the development of Judaism as a religion without a Temple, the idea of religions of revelation was assimilated with religions of the book: Christianity, a religion of revelation, was thus placed in a place that was not its own: a religion of the book.
In a third moment, Luther and the fathers of the Reformation, with the reduction of the idea of tradition to mere Church custom (consuetudines ecclesiae)rejected the principle of Tradition in favor of the Sola Scriptura.
Finally, the Enlightenment with its distrust of tradition only accepted an interpretation of Scripture that was critical, also and above all, of tradition.
In the communities of the Reformation, the succession of these factors led more often than not to a double direction in the interpretation of Scripture: either the message was dissolved in the secularism proposed by the critics, or the critics were dispensed with and ended up in fundamentalism.
Tradition in the Catholic Church
In the Catholic Church, on the other hand, the approach was different. Since Trent, it referred to the apostolic traditions -those of apostolic times, not the customs of the Church- as inspired (dictatae) by the Holy Spirit, and then transmitted to the Church. Therefore, the Church received and venerated with equal affection and reverence (pari pietatis affectu ac reverentia) both the sacred books and those other traditions.
Later, the Second Vatican Council clarified somewhat the relationship between Scripture and Tradition. It first affirmed that the apostles transmitted the word of God through Scripture and traditions - Tradition is thus conceived as constitutive, not merely interpretative, as is the case in the Protestant confessions - but it also pointed out that, by inspiration, Scripture transmitted the word of God being word (locutio) of God.
Tradition, on the other hand, is merely a transmitter of the word of God (cfr. Dei Verbum 9). He also proposed it from another perspective: "The Church has always venerated the Sacred Scriptures as the Body of the Lord Himself. She has always considered and still considers them, together with Sacred Tradition (a cum Sacra Traditione), as the supreme rule of their faith, since, inspired by God and written once and for all, they unchangeably communicate the word of God himself." (Dei Verbum 21).
We must not lose sight of the fact that the subject of the sentences is Sacred Scripture. But in the Church, Scripture has always been accompanied and protected by Tradition. This aspect has been taken up, at least in part, by Protestant thinkers who, in the ecumenical dialogue, make use of the expression Sola Scriptura numquam solaThe principle of the Sola Scriptura in Protestant logic refers to the value of the Scripture, not to its historical reality, which is certainly nunquam sola. It can therefore be affirmed that the Catholic and Protestant positions have come closer together. However, the core of the question remains the intrinsic relationship between Scripture and the traditions within the apostolic Tradition, that is, that which was handed down by the apostles to their successors and is still alive in the Church.
Apostolic tradition
It has been noted many times that Jesus Christ did not send the apostles to write, but to preach.
Certainly, the apostles, like Jesus Christ before them, made use of the Old Testament, that is, the Scriptures of Israel. They understood these texts as an expression of God's promises - and, in this sense, also as prophecy or proclamation - that had been fulfilled in Jesus Christ. They also expressed the instruction (torah) of God to his people, as well as the covenant (disposition, testament) that Jesus brings to fulfillment.
The texts of the New Testament, for their part, were not a continuation or an imitation of the texts of Israel. None of them is presented, either, as a compendium of the New Covenant. They were all born as partial - and, in some cases, circumstantial - expressions of the Gospel preached by the apostles.
In any case, in the generation that followed that of the apostles - as in St. Paul before, when he distinguished between the Lord's command and his own (1 Cor 7:10-12) - the principle of authority was in the words of the Lord; then, the words of the apostles and the words of Scripture. This is seen in the apostolic fathers, Clement, Ignatius of Antioch, Polycarp, etc., who mention indistinctly, as an argument of authority, the words of Jesus, the apostles or the Scriptures.
However, the textual form of these words almost never coincides with that which we have preserved in the canonical texts: the texts functioned more as a memory aid for oral proclamation than as sacred texts.
A change of attitude is observed in the last decades of the second century. Two factors contribute to this change.
On the one hand, Christianity comes into contact, and is contrasted, with developed intellectual worldviews; specifically, with Middle Platonism - a Platonism bathed in moral stoicism - and with the gnosis of the second century, which proposed salvation through knowledge. Some Gnostic teachers saw in Christianity - the expression was born with Ignatius of Antioch - a religion that could be in accordance with their conception of the world. Basilides, at the beginning of the second century, was perhaps the first who understood the writings of the New Testament as foundational texts for his Gnostic teaching, and others such as Valentinus and Ptolemy, already in the second half of the second century, were acute interpreters of the Scriptures, which they made coincide with their system.
St. Justin, a contemporary, and perhaps colleague, of Valentinus, already pointed out that the teachings of these teachers dissolved Christianity into Gnosticism and that, therefore, their authors were heretics - it is Justin who coined the word with the sense of deviation, since before it only meant school or faction -, although without proposing profound reasons. On the other hand, at the end of the second century, the idea of a reliable oral tradition had already weakened: there are no longer - perhaps St. Irenaeus is the exception - disciples of the disciples of the apostles. When this happens in a cultural or religious community, as has been noted, the communities establish artifacts that preserve a certain cultural or religious memory, and the artifact of connectivity par excellence is writing.
The great Church, looking askance at the Gnostic heretics, made three decisions that together preserved her identity. Benedict XVI (cf. Speech at the ecumenical meeting, 19-08-2005) referred to them more than once: first, to establish the canon, where Old and New Testaments form one Scripture; second, to formulate the idea of apostolic succession, which takes the place of the witness; finally, to propose "the rule of faith" as a criterion for interpreting Scripture.
The importance of St. Irenaeus
Although this formulation can be found in many theologians of the time - Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Hippolytus, Tertullian - on the eve of the 1900th anniversary of his birth, it is almost obligatory to look to St. Irenaeus to discover the modernity of his thought.
His most important work, Debunking and refutation of the pretended but false gnosispopularly known as Against heresies, The first part of the book follows all that has been said up to now. After a few prefaces, it begins as follows: "The Church, spread throughout the orb of the universe to the ends of the earth, received from the Apostles and their disciples faith in one God the universal Sovereign Father, who made... and in one Jesus Christ the Son of God, incarnate for our salvation, and in the Holy Spirit, who through the Prophets....". St. Irenaeus follows the text with a formula that in other places he calls the "rule [canon, in Greek] of faith [or of the truth]". This rule of faith does not have a fixed form, since, handed down by the apostles, it is always transmitted orally at Baptism or in baptismal catecheses. It always refers to the confession of the three divine persons and the work of each of them.
It is recognizable throughout the Church, which "carefully guarding it, [...] and preaches, teaches and transmits it [...]. The churches of Germania do not believe differently nor do they transmit any doctrine different from that preached by those of Iberia." (ibid. 1, 10, 2). Therefore, like apostolic Tradition, it is public: "is present in every Church to be perceived by those who really want to see it". (ibid. 3, 2, 3), unlike the Gnostic, which is secret and reserved to the initiated.
In fact, the rule could be sufficient, since "many barbarian peoples give their assent to this ordination, and believe in Christ, without paper or ink [...], with care they keep the old Tradition, believing in one God [follows another Trinitarian confession, an expression of the rule of faith]" (ibid. 3, 4, 1-2).
Nevertheless, the Church has a collection of Scriptures: "True gnosis is the doctrine of the Apostles, the ancient structure of the Church throughout the world, and what is typical of the Body of Christ, formed by the succession of bishops, to whom [the Apostles] entrusted to the churches of each place. Thus comes to us without fiction the custody of the Scriptures in their entirety, without taking away or adding anything, their reading without fraud, the legitimate and affectionate exposition according to the Scriptures themselves, without danger and without blasphemy." (ibid. 4, 33, 8).
It is on the last point that attention should be focused. The rule (canon) of faith is he who interprets the Scriptures correctly (ibid. 1, 9, 4), because it coincides with them since the Scriptures themselves explain the rule of faith (ibid. 2, 27, 2) and the rule of faith can be unfolded with the Scriptures, as St. Irenaeus does in his treatise Demonstration (Epideixis) of apostolic preaching..
This interpenetration between the rule of faith and the Scriptures explains other aspects well. First, each of the Scriptures is correctly interpreted through the other Scriptures. Second, over time, the word "rule/canon", is applied first of all to the canon of the Scriptures, which is also the rule of faith.
The authorVicente Balaguer
Professor of New Testament and Biblical Hermeneutics, University of Navarra.
The Pope reforms the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy: it becomes an Institute for the study of Diplomatic Sciences.
Pope Francis has signed a chirograph reforming and updating the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy to "provide academic and scientific education at a high quality level" in tune with today's pastoral needs.
The Holy See has made public a chirographsigned by Pope Francis, by which the pontiff updates the status of the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy constituting it as an "Institute ad instar Facultatis for the study of the diplomatic sciences, thus increasing the number of similar institutions provided for by the Const. ap. Veritatis Gaudium".
Thus, "the Academy will be governed by the common or particular norms of the canonical order, applicable to it, and by other dispositions given by the Holy See for its institutions of higher education" and "will confer the academic degrees of Second and Third Cycle in Diplomatic Sciences".
As Cardinal Parolin explained, "from now on, the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy will be able to confer the academic degrees of Licentiate (equivalent to Master's) and Doctor (PhD), offering its alumni a formation that integrates legal, historical, political and economic disciplines and, of course, specific knowledge in diplomatic sciences."
The union between diplomatic work and evangelizing mission
Parolin pointed out that "the reform aims to strengthen the link between the research and academic training of future papal diplomats and the concrete challenges they will face in their missions abroad. The papal diplomat is not only an expert in negotiation techniques, but a witness of faith, committed to overcoming cultural, political and ideological barriers, and to building bridges of peace and justice."
In this sense, the Pope's reflection in the chirograph is framed when he emphasizes that "the mission entrusted to the Pope's diplomats combines this action, at once priestly and evangelizing, placed at the service of the particular Churches, with representation before the public authorities" and how "the diplomat must constantly engage in a solid and continuous formative process. It is not enough to limit oneself to the acquisition of theoretical knowledge, but it is necessary to develop a method of work and a way of life that will allow him to deeply understand the dynamics of international relations and to be appreciated in the interpretation of the achievements and difficulties that an increasingly synodal Church must face".
The reform of this pontifical academy and the elevation to the level of civil faculties also responds to the current demand for "a preparation more adequate to the demands of the times of those ecclesiastics who, coming from the various dioceses of the world, and having already acquired formation in the sacred sciences and developed a first pastoral activity, after a careful selection, are preparing to continue their priestly mission in the diplomatic service of the Holy See. It is not only a matter of providing an academic and scientific education at a high quality level, but of taking care that their action will be ecclesial".
The Pope Francis recognized on April 14 the heroic virtues of the Spanish architect Antoni Gaudí, who is now considered verenable.
The architect of the Basilica of the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona was a devout Catholic who died after being hit by a streetcar while on his way to pray at a church.
Now you can enjoy a 20% discount on your subscription to Rome Reports Premiumthe international news agency specializing in the activities of the Pope and the Vatican.
The liturgy celebrates on April 15 Father Damien, a 19th century Belgian missionary who went to Hawaii to care for lepers when they were banished to the island of Molokai.
Pedro Estaún-April 15, 2025-Reading time: 4minutes
In 2005 the nation of Belgium designated Father Damien as "the greatest Belgian of all time". But who was this man and what were the reasons for his designation with such a high distinction?
Jozef Van Veuster was born in Tremeloo, Belgium, on January 3, 1840, to a peasant family. As a child at school he enjoyed making manual works, houses like those of the missionaries in the jungles; he had an inner desire to go one day to distant lands to go on mission. As a young man he was run over by a chariot and got up without any injuries. The doctor who examined him exclaimed: "This boy has the energy to undertake very great works".
As a young boy he had to work very hard in the fields to help his parents who were very poor. This gave him great strength and made him practical in many construction, masonry and land cultivation jobs, which would be very useful to him on the distant island where he was later to live.
Example of St. Francis Xavier
At the age of 18 he was sent to Brussels to study, and two years later he decided to enter the religious order of the Sacred Hearts in Louvain, adopting the name Damien. The example of St. Francis Xavier awakened in him the missionary spirit. The illness of another religious led him to a distant destination: Hawaii. In 1863 he set sail for his mission and on the voyage he befriended the ship's captain, who told him: "I never confess. I am a bad Catholic, but I tell you that I would confess to you. Damien replied: "I am not a priest yet, but I hope one day, when I am, I will have the pleasure of absolving you of all your sins..
On March 19, 1864, he arrived in Honolulu. There he was ordained a priest shortly thereafter at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace. He served in several parishes on the island of Oahu as the kingdom suffered a health crisis. Native Hawaiians were afflicted by diseases inadvertently carried by European traders. Thousands died from influenza and syphilis, and other diseases that had never before affected Hawaiians. This included the plague of leprosy that threatened to become epidemic. Fearful of the spread of this incurable disease, King Kamehameha IV segregated the lepers from the kingdom by sending them to a remote island, Molokai.
He asked to be sent to those sick
The law established that whoever arrived in that corner of pain and rottenness could not leave so as not to spread the disease. That is why the bishop of Hawaii, although concerned about the souls of the sick, did not decide to send any priest. However, upon learning of Molokai's situation, Damien asked to be sent among those sick. "I know that I am going into perpetual exile, and that sooner or later I will catch leprosy. But no sacrifice is too great if it is made for Christ", he told his bishop. A few days later, on May 10, 1873, he was already on Molokai.
The panorama he found was desolate. The lack of means had made the place an anteroom to hell: there were no laws, no hospitals; the sick agonized in dark and unhealthy caves; they spent their time idle, drinking alcohol and fighting.
Father Damien's arrival was a turning point. The first mission he set himself was to build a church, and then a hospital and several farms (the lepers, with their almost putrid limbs, could barely erect a house on their own). Under his leadership, basic laws were reestablished, houses were painted, work began on the farms, converting some of them into schools, and he established hygiene standards. He also launched an international campaign to raise funds, which began to arrive from all over the world. But what mattered most to him was the soul of the people. their lepers. He catechized them door to door, baptized them, ate with them, cleaned their pustules and greeted them by shaking their hands, so that they would not feel despised.
Contagious
In December 1884 Damien dipped his feet in boiling water and felt no pain. Then he understood: he too had been infected. He immediately knelt before a crucifix and wrote: "Lord, for love of You and for the salvation of these children of yours, I accept this terrible reality. The sickness will eat away at me, but I am happy to think that every day that I am sick, I will be closer to You".
Along with international aid, a group of Franciscan sisters arrived and began to share the pastoral mission. On the eve of his death, with his limbs impaired, he wrote to his brother: "I am still the only priest on Molokai. Because I have so much to do, my time is very short; but the joy of heart that the Sacred Hearts lavish on me makes me believe I am the happiest missionary in the world. The sacrifice of my health, which God wanted to accept so that my ministry among the lepers might be a little fruitful, I find it a light and even pleasant good"..
He manages to confess
Unable to leave the island, the priest had been unable to go to confession for years. One day, when a ship carrying supplies for the lepers approached, Father Damien got into a boat and almost attached to the ship, he asked a priest who was traveling there to confess him. And from there he made his only and last confession, and received absolution for his faults.
Shortly before Father Damien died, a ship arrived on Molokai. It belonged to the captain who had brought him there when he arrived as a missionary. He remembered that on that trip he had told him that the only priest he would confess to would be him. Now, the captain was coming expressly to confess to Father Damien. From then on, the life of this seafaring man changed, improving remarkably. Also a man who had written slandering the holy priest came to ask his forgiveness and converted to Catholicism.
Heroic
On April 15, 1889, Father Damien, the volunteer leperHe closed his eyes, now blind, for the last time. Gandhi himself said of him: "The politicized world of our land can have very few heroes who can compare with Father Damien of Molokai. It is important that the sources of such heroism be investigated". In 1994 Pope John Paul II, after having verified several miracles obtained through the intercession of this great missionary, declared him blessed, and patron of those who work among leprosy patients. Pope Benedict XVI proclaimed him a saint on April 26, 2009.
The Collection for the Christians of the Holy Land arrives this Good Friday in the dioceses. It is a collection of solidarity, of mercy, which this year has an accent of hope with the Jubilee. Fray Luis Quintana, representative of the Custos of the Holy Land in Spain, and president of the commissaries of Spain and Portugal, talks about it with Omnes.
Francisco Otamendi-April 15, 2025-Reading time: 6minutes
These are hard times for Christians in the Holy Land. Poverty, migration and wars exert more and more pressure. But there is a time of solidarity and hope ahead of the Holy Land collection. "Prayer, which has an infinite value, the pilgrimagesand now, the Pontifical collection The Good Friday celebrations at the Holy Places are very important for the Christian communities in the Holy Land".
Luis Quintana (Burgos, 1974), a Franciscan of the Order of Friars Minor (ofm), president of the commissioners (as ambassadors) of Spain and Portugal, and representative in Spain of the Custodian of the Holy LandFrancesco Patton. The theme of this year's Day, which includes the collection and other items: prayer, motivation, poster, triptych, etc., is: 'Holy Land, open door to hope'.
The heart, captivated in the Holy Places
In a one-on-one conversation in the parish of Cristo de la Paz, in the Madrid district of Carabanchel, run by the Franciscans, Friar Luis Quintana, from Burgos, spoke frankly about the important Collection that we are now detailing, its destination and the Jubilee. We talked about the important Collection that we are now detailing, its destination, and the Jubilee. But before that, we asked him about his first relationship with Holy Landand for the context.
Fray Luis Quintana points out the place of the beginning of the Via Crucis, flagellation of the Lord (Jesusalén).
"In September 2000, I went to the Holy Land for the first time, and my heart was captured by the Holy Places, by the Holy Land. For that reason, when I made my solemn vows in 2006, I asked to go there for a long experience. It was from February to July 2007", reveals Fray Luis.
"The Christians who are there are. having a very hard time. They are now less than 1.5 percent. In Bethany there is no Christian family, although there are two religious communities (the Franciscans and a women's congregation). Martha, Mary and Lazarus were three people in Bethany. In Emmaus there is a Christian family," he says.
Good Friday Collection: housing, jobs, education and health care
It is always helpful to know what the proceeds of the collection will be used for. Eighty percent of what the Custody of the Holy Land receives goes to social work and 20 percent to the maintenance of the sanctuaries. And 20 percent goes to the maintenance of the sanctuaries. And what is social work there? There are four concepts, explains Friar Luis Quintana.
"First, housing. The Custody owns many houses. They, the families, pay the rent, electricity, gas and water. We have the property and the works, the maintenance."
"The second objective is work. There are about two thousand direct employees in the Custody, many schools, almost 40,000 students, hospitals, health centers. Providing jobs is very important.
Christian education in the Holy Land
"Thirdly, education, also very important. For both Christians and Muslims, we don't distinguish," he says. "An education from Christianity, they are confessional schools." And the curator begins to tell concrete stories, the ideology:
"In May, every day, flowers to Mary. At Christmas, the classrooms are filled with nativity scenes, crucifixes in every classroom and many details. Muslims want our education. But there is also something on our side: when Ramadan comes, we finish classes a little early; if a parent of a Muslim child dies, the Christian children go to pray in the mosque; in religion classes, Christians and Muslims are separated."
Tolerance of Islam, Christian denominational schools
Keep going, we encourage you. He continues: "There is a lot of tolerance towards Islam, but the school is a confessional Christian school. Our Lady is in the courtyard, all Christian feasts are celebrated, ashes on Wednesday. Muslims mostly prefer Christian schools. The first boys' school in the Holy Land was Christian, the second was Jewish, and the third Muslim. The same thing happened with the girls. And with the mixed school, the same. The first mixed school was Christian".
"The big schools of ours are Jerusalem, Bethlehem in second place, Jericho and Nazareth. Then there are more. These are the main ones. We also refer to the college of Amman, in Jordan, and the college of Damascus, in Syria. And the one in Beirut, in Lebanon."
"The fourth block, as we have talked about, is health care. Health centers, hospitals, dispensaries, in some cases they are parish dispensaries, as in Syria; there are many formulas...".
A bit of history: the Custody and the collection, originated in the 1st century.
The Custody of the Holy Land was founded by St. Francis of Assisi in 1217, with the sending of the first friars, and was entrusted to the Franciscans by Pope Clement VI in 1342.
It is present today in Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Cyprus and Rhodes. "In Egypt, vocations have grown so much that they now have an independent province," says Friar Luis Quintana.
The Custos of the Holy Land and his team have insisted on the importance of this support for the Good Friday collection, which was started by St. Peter and St. Paul, according to the Acts of the Apostles, and which has been celebrated uninterruptedly since 1420, 605 years ago.
As an example, some words of the Italian Custodian could be highlighted from the Minister General or the Egyptian Vicar of the Custody, Ibrahim FaltasPope Francis is very fond of him, he has mentioned him several times, and he became famous because after the Gaza war, he took several children to operate in hospitals in Italy". But this would take too long. You can consult them yourselves.
A group arrives at Tel-Aviv airport, March 31, 2025.
Three Holy Doors for the Jubilee of Hope
In conclusion, there are two aspects that Friar Luis Quintana would like to mention. These are the Holy Doors of the Jubilee at Holy Landand the recently blessed chapel of the Immaculate Conception.
"We are in the year of hope, the Jubilee is a sign of hope, and there are three Holy Doors to earn the Jubilee in Israel: "Nazareth, where the Word became flesh, the Annunciation; Bethlehem, where Jesus was born, the Nativity; and the Holy Sepulcher, where Christ was resurrected, Jerusalem."
"Last year, the slogan, the general line, was around red, blood, the Holy Land is still suffering, the war had just started on October 7. We wanted to express suffering, and the image was Gethsemane."
"This year, we have changed to the color green, hope, jubilee, open doors, the open door with the Franciscans going out in procession the Cross, Christ comes out to meet us to receive us, a line that we wanted to keep."
Gate of the Basilica of the Nativity (Bethlehem), another of the Holy Doors of the Jubilee in the Holy Land.
Chapel of the Immaculate Conception in the Holy Land
A sample button of this hope can be found in a news item. The inauguration of a new chapel In the Holy Land, Friar Luis tells us. "April 5 was a very special day for our Province of the Immaculate Conception, a historic day, because we inaugurated a new chapel in the Holy Land financed by our Commissariat of the Holy Land, and we have named it after the Province: "Chapel of the Immaculate Conception".
The Archbishop of Toledo, Msgr. Francisco Cerro, presided at the Eucharist in the Upper Chapel of Our Lady of Guadalupe, in the Field of the Shepherds (Beit Sahour, near Bethlehem), in the presence of Friar Francesco Patton, Custos of the Holy Land, a large group of Franciscans and secular priests, the Consul General, Javier Gutierrez, and many Spanish residents in the Holy Land, both in Israel and in the territories of the Palestinian National Authority.
Luis Quintana points out that the Holy Land already has a new chapel, thanks to the generosity of Spanish pilgrims (which is why it has already been baptized "the Spanish chapel"). "It is the first time in history that the Franciscan Province has financed a chapel in the Holy Land, with a capacity for more than 200 people," he adds.
The Patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pizzaballa, with Bishop Francisco Cerro, Pedro Mancheño, Fr. Luis Quintana, and other pilgrims.
In the Passion of Christ, the anonymous are people who are not very clear about what they want, but who take advantage of any crowd to give free rein to their basest instincts: criticize, insult, defame and even lynch, if necessary, anyone who passes in front of them.
April 15, 2025-Reading time: 3minutes
Among the most vile characters who appear in the readings of the Passion of Christ that are proclaimed now, at Easter, there are some that are very topical. They have proliferated in social networks and extend their pernicious influence to the whole society.
These are the anonymous characters. But I am not referring to those whose names do not appear, perhaps out of ignorance of the evangelist such as the maid who was the doorkeeper of the high priest's palace, the guard who slapped him during his interrogation, or the criminals who crucified him (although later tradition baptized them as Dimas and Gestas); but those who act anonymously, protected by the mob.
They are people who are not very clear about what they want, but who take advantage of any crowd to give free rein to their basest instincts: criticize, insult, defame and even lynch, if necessary, anyone who passes in front of them. Alone, they would not be able to kill a fly, but they find pleasure in becoming an enraged mass because, acting in a herd, responsibility is diluted and so are the possible consequences.
Validating the actions of others
Undoubtedly, these characters were key in the death of Jesus, because with their attitude they validated the actions of those who today we consider responsible: the high priests and Pontius Pilate. None of them would have dared to execute the one whom the people considered a prophet without the complicit support of a few of these anonymous people capable of making a lot of noise, much more than the majority of the people.
In our digital society, the squares and streets where people traditionally held their protests and demands have given way to social networks, where we can all express our opinions on the issues that concern us. But, in front of a minority that appears identified, with names and surnames, which is responsible for the rights and wrongs that can be committed at the time of giving their opinion, there is a huge mass of anonymous accounts or with very diffuse identities.
In a public demonstration, typical of democratic states, whoever wears a balaclava or covers his face with a mask, it is very clear that he is here to cause trouble, and we often know that those who act in this way do not identify with the object of the claim, but use it only as an excuse to enjoy violence and looting.
Anonymous and real culprits
I understand those who, in an autocratic regime, have to protect their identity to share their ideas without being arrested; but in a democratic country, where freedom of expression is assured, what morally acceptable sense does it make to go through the networks spreading gossip or cheering those who do it, attacking other people without showing their faces, promoting hatred or harassing other people? It can only be understood from the most absolute human baseness, from the cowardly wickedness of those whose names do not appear in the stories of the Passion, but who were truly guilty of the death of the innocent.
When those who act in this way are members of the Christian community, attentive to criticize without charity, justice or truth any move of the Pope, of this or that bishop or movement different from their own, the sin seems to me much more serious. They remind me of those little children who, in the movie The Passion of the Christ, harass Judas until they drive him to despair and make him hang himself. At first they seem harmless, even friendly; but as soon as they are given a foothold, they launch into slaps, insults and bites, revealing their true demonic identity.
Perhaps you who read me have ever been tempted to "disguise" yourself through an anonymous profile in networks in order to be able to express yourself and say what your identity prevents you from saying publicly, because it would cause you disciplinary problems or make you look bad in front of your friends or family. Think carefully about where this idea of hiding the personality that God gave you in his image and likeness may come from in order to take on an appearance different from your own and aggressive against the other, no matter how reprehensible what that person has done. And remember the scene in Mel Gibson's movie, don't you see that, although the characters are anonymous, the promoter of their action has a name known to all? Well, beware of falling into the nets that spread in the networks.
Journalist. Graduate in Communication Sciences and Bachelor in Religious Sciences. He works in the Diocesan Delegation of Media in Malaga. His numerous "threads" on Twitter about faith and daily life have a great popularity.
Joseph Evans comments on the readings for Good Friday (C) corresponding to April 18, 2025.
Joseph Evans-April 15, 2025-Reading time: 2minutes
Today's first reading from Isaiah is a prophecy about the sufferings of Christ. Written centuries before Jesus, the prophet was granted to glimpse the agony of Our Lord and to see that the future Messiah would save us through suffering. However, it is surprising to what extent the people of Israel ignored these prophecies. When Jesus came, they could only imagine a "successful" savior who would save them through an obvious political and military triumph, liberating them from the Romans and turning Israel into a powerful nation. Salvation was visible, external well-being, "success".
But today it points us to the reality of Christ's victory. We see Jesus nailed to the Cross, suffering, agonizing and dying. In human terms, there is nothing triumphant about this. But we know that this is the true triumph of Jesus, and that through this suffering and death, Christ will rise again to definitively conquer sin and death. We know this, but perhaps in theory and not in practice, because every time suffering and setbacks befall us, instead of accepting them as a participation in the Cross of Christ, we complain. Perhaps we too see salvation as a success.
This is what Isaiah tells us about Jesus: "We saw him without attractive appearance, despised and avoided of men, as a man of sorrows, accustomed to sufferings, before whom faces were hidden, despised and disdained.". Jesus took upon himself our ugliness. We don't like to think that one day we might lose our beauty; we don't like to grow old or get sick or have to take care of a sick person... This is not "success". We see success as the continued achievement of a better material and financial situation, with no major problems or worries in life. We look for ways to "carpet" or "cushion" the Cross.
But Jesus told us: "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me." (Mt 16:24). We must seek and embrace the Cross, not try to avoid it. Jesus came to earth to seek the Cross, not to dodge it, as we have just read in the long account of his Passion. Perhaps we need to learn that success is not an important term for Christianity. Earthly success can do us good or harm, depending on how we use it.
Generally, the Cross will come to us in small things and we have to know how to embrace it. And in doing so, we are blessed and make our small contribution to the salvation of the world.
Directors, both famous and unknown, mined the scriptures for stories they could bring to the big screen, with results ranging from the reverential to the exploitative.
Today, many of these films are available on streaming. With Easter approaching, the faithful can take a look at this collection of old movies. Below are brief reviews of some biblically themed productions.
"Ben-Hur" (1959)
Director William Wyler's classic Hollywood epic follows the Jewish prince who gives the film its title (Charlton Heston) after being betrayed by his childhood Roman friend (Stephen Boyd) and subjected to great misery until he finally gets retribution for all his suffering. The conventional melodrama of the narrative is transformed by the grandeur of its spectacle, especially the chariot race, and by the moving performances of its protagonists, who manage to overcome the clichés and stereotypes of the story.
"The Bible" (1966)
Six episodes of the Genesis (Creation, Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Noah, the Tower of Babel and Abraham) are performed as literally as they were written, leaving much of their interpretation to the viewer. John Huston directs, narrates and plays the role of Noah in this reverent but entertaining show. George C. Scott, as Abraham, takes the award for best performance among a cast that includes Ava Gardner, Richard Harris, Ulla Bergryd and Michael Parks.
"Spell of God" (1973).
Film version of a musical loosely based on the Gospel according to St. Matthew, with an off-Broadway cast featuring Victor Garber as Christ and David Haskell as John the Baptist and Judas. What makes the film so exciting is that director David Greene turns New York City into a giant stage, used in surprising ways to present the parables in imaginative skits, many of which serve as springboards for irresistible tunes such as "Day by Day" and "God Save the People!"
"The Gospel according to St. Matthew" (1966).
The simple Italian dramatization of the evangelist's account of the life of Jesus and his message of salvation manages to place the viewer uniquely in the Gospel events, avoiding the artificiality of most biblical cinematic epics. Director Pier Paolo Pasolini is completely faithful to the text, employing the visual imagination necessary for his realistic interpretation.
"The Greatest Story Ever Told" (1965).
While not the greatest film ever made, director George Stevens' vision of the Gospel presents a coherent and traditional view of Christ as God incarnate. The film, despite its Hollywood epic scale, features fine performances, a tasteful and realistic script, superb photography, and Max von Sydow's believable portrayal of Christ is the essential element of its success.
"King of kings" (1961)
This solid cinematic spectacle presents the life of Christ in the historical context of Jewish resistance to Roman rule. Jeffrey Hunter, somewhat awkwardly, plays the title role, although more effective are Siobhan McKenna as his mother, Robert Ryan as John the Baptist, Hurd Hatfield as Pilate, Rip Torn as Judas and Harry Guardino as Barabbas. Directed by Nicholas Ray, the script focuses on the political instability of the time, but treats the Gospel story with reverence, albeit with more dramatic freedom than some would find acceptable. The OSV News rating is L: limited adult audiences, films whose problematic content would be disturbing to many adults.
"The Robe" (1953)
Reverent but Gospel-era heavy story, based on Lloyd C. Douglas' novel, about a Roman tribune (Richard Burton) who, gambling, wins Christ's robe at the crucifixion, but then fears the garment's power to bewitch him, subsequently becoming a Christian martyr in Rome. Directed by Henry Koster, the fictional story is sincere, but dramatically unconvincing in its plot and performances, which range from stiffness to stagey pettiness, with the resulting inspiration more on the viewer than on the screen. Stylized violence and veiled sexual references.
"The Ten Commandments" (1956).
This epic production by director Cecil B. DeMille, less an inspirational story based on biblical sources than a dramatic vehicle with a sense of history, offers spectacular recreations, excellent technical effects and impeccable acting by an exceptional cast, including Charlton Heston as Moses, Yul Brynner, Anne Baxter, Edward G. Robinson and many other stars of the era.
"The Passion of the Christ" (2004)
The vision of Mel Gibson about the last hours of Jesus of Nazareth becomes an intense and harrowing cinematic experience, centered on the physical and spiritual suffering of the protagonist (Jim Caviezel). The narrative, although familiar, is transformed by the visual rawness and extreme realism with which the Stations of the Cross are portrayed, where the pain takes on an almost mystical tone. The staging, the fidelity to Aramaic and Latin, and the emotional power of the images make this biblical drama a work that is as controversial as it is deeply moving.
Saint Liduvina and Syrian martyrs, Blessed Pedro Gonzalez and Blessed Isabel Calduch
On April 14, the liturgy celebrates St. Liduvina (Holland, 1380), the Syrian martyrs Bernica, Prosdoca and her mother Domnina, victims of Diocletian's persecution (4th century). Blessed Pedro González from Palencia, and Blessed Isabel Calduch, from the group of Valencian martyrs canonized by St. John Paul II in 2001.
Francisco Otamendi-April 14, 2025-Reading time: 2minutes
On Monday, April 14, the Church celebrates the Dutch Saint Liduvina, paralyzed at the age of 15 while skating, who offered her illnesses to Christ. Three Syrian martyrs, Saints Bernica and Prosdoca and their mother Domnina, who died in Antioch of Syria (today Turkey), persecuted in the time of Diocletian, are also honored. To Blesseds Pedro González and Isabel Calduch. And to St. Lambert, first monk and abbot of the monastery of Fontanelle, and then bishop of Lyon in France.
Saint Liduina or Liduvina, born in Netherlands in 1380, suffered an accident at the age of 15. He points out the Roman Martyrology that "in Schiedam, in Gueldres, Netherlands, saint Liduvina or Liduina, virgin. For the conversion of sinners and the liberation of souls, she offered during her entire life diseases of the body, trusting only in Christ Crucified (+ 1433). The saint had a reputation for holiness, and her relics are found in the cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula (Brussels).
Life rethinking
St. Pedro González Telmo (Frómista, Palencia, Spain, 1185), was educated by a canon uncle and studied at the University of Palencia. Ordained a priest, he was a canon of the cathedral, and seems to have liked ostentation. But a fall from a horse made him restate radically changed his life. He renounced dignities and entered the Dominican order, dedicating himself to preaching. in Galicia and north of Portugal, especially among sailors. He died in Tuy in 1249.
Pursuit
Isabel Calduch Rovira (Josefina in the world), born in Castellón in 1882, is included in the group of valencian martyrs beatified by St. John Paul II in 2001. She entered the Capuchin Poor Clare monastery in Castellón at a young age. She was an exemplary nun. When the religious persecution broke out and her monastery was closed in 1936, she left for her town with a brother priest, also a martyr. She was arrested in April 1937, mistreated and shot next to the cemetery of Cuevas de Vinromá (Castellón).
Univ 2025: A letter from the Pope and reflection on citizenship
The traditional university gathering, promoted by St. Josemaría Escrivá, will bring together this year 3,000 young people from all over the world to experience Holy Week in Rome.
It was founded in 1968 under the impetus of St. Josemaría Escrivá, founder of Opus Dei, and this year will bring together more than 3,000 young people from all over the world. This year the UNIV university meeting will focus its annual reflection on the theme "Citizens of Our World" (on the practical and applied concept of citizenship and the common good).
Pope to UNIV: "how many reasons to give thanks to God!"
Together with the university congress, the young people will experience Holy Week and Easter in this Jubilee year in Rome, close to Pope Francis, who has sent a letter to the participants in which he encourages them to "give thanks to God and continue to walk enthusiastically in faith, diligent in charity and persevering in hope", given that this year marks the 100th anniversary of the priestly ordination of the founder of Opus Dei.
The pontiff also wanted to emphasize the request that "this time of pilgrimage and fraternal encounter may impel you to bring to all the Gospel of Jesus Christ, dead and risen, as a proclamation of the hope that fulfills the promises".
During these days, the students will participate in the liturgical ceremonies of Holy Week and in several meetings with the prelate of Opus Dei, Msgr. Fernando Ocáriz.
The university congress UNIV
Under this theme of reflection, participants will have the opportunity to attend academic meetings, such as the UNIV Forum y UNIV LabThe event, which will take place on April 15 and 16, will share suggestions, applications and ideas on issues such as the virtues and examples needed to promote the common good in our world, what citizenship means for today's youth and how to grow up in today's society.
To this end, the young people will have a program that includes conferences, colloquiums, artistic exhibitions, round tables with speakers such as Luis G. Franceschi, Deputy Secretary General of the Commonwealth of Nations; Karen Bohlin, director of the Practical Wisdom Project at the Abigail Adams Institute and researcher at the Harvard Human Flourishing Program; Michelle Scobie, professor of International Relations and Global Environmental Governance at The University of the West Indies (UWI); Ndidi Edeoghon, international lawyer, founder of the Ambassadors Initiative for Youth Development and Conflict Resolution (Nigeria), among others.
They will not only reflect but also act, as UNIV 2025 participants will promote various types of assistance (financial, welfare, etc.) for the benefit of UNIV 2025. Dicastery for the Service of Charity of the Pope.
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Pope Francis dies at the age of 88
