Pope Francis has warned representatives of Catholic movements that the desire for power and recognition are temptations that hinder their call to serve the Church. https://t.co/BjrlgyYGxi
— Catholic News Agency (@cnalive) September 16, 2021
In a hard-hitting speech today, Pope Francis noted what he called a “very curious” phenomenon in groups formed after Vatican II.
— Luke Coppen (@LukeCoppen) September 16, 2021
Full story: https://t.co/Ddh273gKpF pic.twitter.com/dtvhpe9Own
“A woman may have certain aptitudes for finding commonalities, healing relationships with unity at heart,” she said. “I hope that my being a woman might reflect itself positively in this task, even if they are gifts that I certainly find in my male colleagues as well.”
Di Giovanni, 66, was appointed undersecretary for the Section in Relations in States. She has worked as an official in the department for more than 25 years, with specialties including humanitarian law, communications, migrants and refugees, and the status of women, according to Vatican Media.
She will now work with Monsignor Miroslaw Wachowski, who also serves as undersecretary for the Section in Relations in States, but focuses on bilateral affairs. Di Giovanni’s field of multilateral affairs focuses on the interactions between inter-governmental organizations such as the United Nations.
Di Giovanni hails from Palermo, Italy. She has a degree in law and has worked for the Focolare Movement.
What separates the Dorothy Option from the BenOp and other “options” is, I think, the demonstrably charismatic and spirited leadership of both Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin. I don’t feel like a mere admirer of Dorothy. I don’t even “like” the Dorothy Option as much as the BenOp. No, participating in Dorothy’s charism is much too challenging to be some romantic ideal. Instead, I am challenged by the Dorothy Option, called to renounce myself radically. That’s what this “option” is to me: a call to enter into a movement of the Spirit, the Spirit who is pushing, tugging, dragging me to love the Lord in the poor, who is in fact calling the entire Church back to her roots through loving the poor.
Watch as the Colosseum is lit up to celebrate the abolition of the death penalty in Nebraska.
Posted by Vatican Radio - English Section on Monday, November 30, 2015
Pope Francis on Thursday met with the priests attending the general chapter of the Schoenstatt movement.See our story...
Posted by Vatican Radio - English Section on Friday, September 4, 2015
Pope Francis on Thursday met with priests of the Schoenstatt Movement who are in Rome for their General Chapter.The...
Posted by Vatican Radio - English Section on Friday, September 4, 2015
ope Francis greeted an estimated 5000 members of the Parish Evangelizing Cell movement on Saturday in the Paul the VI...
Posted by Vatican Radio - English Section on Saturday, September 5, 2015
Pope Francis greeted an estimated 5000 members of the Parish Evangelizing Cell movement on Saturday in the Paul the VI Hall.
Posted by Vatican Radio - English Section on Saturday, September 5, 2015
Pope Francis meets members of Parish Evangelization Cells. Watch LIVE now!
Posted by Vatican Radio - English Section on Saturday, September 5, 2015
But man is the image of God! Because of this it is a profound crisis! In this moment of crisis we can't be concerned only about ourselves, shut ourselves in solitude, in discouragement, in the sense of impotence in face of the problems. Don't shut yourselves in, please! This is a danger: if we shut ourselves in in the parish, with friends, in the movement, with those with whom we think the same things … do you know what happens? When the Church becomes closed, she gets sick, she gets sick. Think of a closed room for a year; when you go in, there's a smell of dampness, there are so many things that are not on. A closed Church is the same thing: it is a sick Church. The Church must come out of herself. Where? To the existential peripheries, whatever they are, but go out. Jesus says to us: "Go into all the world! Go! Preach! Give witness of the Gospel!" (cf. Mark 16:15). But what happens when one comes out of oneself? What can happen is what might happen to all those who leave home and go out to the street: an accident. But I say to you: I prefer a thousand times an 'incidentata' Church, involved in an accident, than a sick Church because she is closed! Go outside, go out! Think also of what Revelation says. It says a beautiful thing: that Jesus is at the door and knocks, he knocks to come in to our heart (cf. Revelation 3:20). This is the meaning of Revelation. But ask yourselves this question: how many times is Jesus inside and knocks on the door to go out, to go outside, and we don't let Him go out, because of our securities, because so many times we are in obsolete structures, which only serve to make us slaves, and not free children of God? In this "exit" it is important to go to the encounter; this word is very important for me: encounter with others. Why? Because the faith is an encounter with Jesus, and we must do the same thing that Jesus does: encounter others. We live a culture of clash, a culture of fragmentation, a culture in which what isn't of use to me I throw away, the culture of rejection! But we should go to an encounter and with our faith we must create a "culture of encounter," a culture of friendship, a culture where we find brothers, where we can speak also with those who don't think like we do, also with those who have another faith, who don't have the same faith. All have something in common with us: they are images of God, they are children of God. We must go out to meet everyone, without negotiating our membership.
While a wholesale, artificial approach won’t get us to this spot, there are nevertheless things we can do to help this culture along. Foremost among them is to foster real community—meetings of people in the flesh. These should center not simply around discussing ideals, nor the totally banal; they should incorporate objective human goods like food and music, and they should draw from the cultural tradition whence notions of “aesthetic” and “goodness” arose. They should be pockets of humanism, but with a new and very self-aware intentionality.
Part of the problem with parishes as community is that we have much more mobility so that people don't just socialize within their villages or local communities as we once did. It is still evident and very important in more agrarian societies, but not in the urbanised modern world. As such, we have to use new ways to build community, to give a sense of belonging. The Apple video above shows that a community can be formed out of a desire for excellence. In a Christian context, this would mean a love of virtue, and indeed, a love of God who is the Most Excellent. Evangelization, then, would mean letting that excellence be shared and seen and enjoyed by others – acts of charity and of preaching.
Mobility (and mass urbanization) is possible only because of cheap energy. I would prefer the Church be ahead of the curve than behind it when it comes to adjusting to the coming loss of cheap energy, but it may not happen. Community/communion/friendship should be based on excellence but it also requires that one live with the other --"quality time" doesn't make up for lack of time, just as in parenting.He ended with the implicit claim that this was not being realistic: " So, are we going to preach to the world that exists, or do we need to create that ideal world before we preach? I go for the former..."
Especially characteristic of your pastoral involvement is and remains your commitment to the "movements": the charismatic movement, Communion and Liberation and the Neocatechumenal Way have many reasons to be grateful to you. While in the beginning the organizers and planners in the Church had many reservations in regard to the movements, you immediately sensed the life that burst forth from them -- the power of the Holy Spirit that gives new paths and in unpredictable ways keeps the Church young.
You recognized the pentecostal character of these movements and you worked passionately so that they would be welcomed by the Church's pastors. Certainly, with respect to organization and planning, there were often good reasons to be scandalized as they brought new and unforeseen elements that could not always be integrated easily into the existing organizational structures.
You saw that what is organic is more important than what is organized; you saw that here were men who were deeply touched by the spirit of God and that in such a way there grew new forms of authentic Christian life and authentic ways of being Church. Of course, these movements needed to be ordered and brought within the totality; they needed to learn to recognize their limits and to become part of the communitarian reality of the Church in her proper constitution together with the Pope and the bishops. Thus they need a guide and purification to be able to reach the form of their true maturity.
They, nevertheless, are gifts to be grateful for. It is no longer possible to think of the life of the Church of our time without including these gifts of God within it.
