ST. JOHN THE EVANGELIST, SLATERSVILLE RI

Pope Francis addresses the faithful during the Angelus address in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024. / Credit: Vatican Media

Vatican City, Oct 13, 2024 / 11:12 am (CNA).

Happiness is not found in material things but in God himself, who shows us the joy found in making our lives a gift for others, Pope Francis said in his Sunday Angelus address.

“Let us remember this: True wealth is not the goods of this world. True wealth is being loved by God and learning to love like him,” Francis said Oct. 13.

Speaking from the window of the Apostolic Palace, the pope reflected on how many people “carry in [their] hearts an irrepressible need for happiness and for a life full of meaning.”

“However,” he added, “we can fall into the illusion of thinking that the answer is found in the possession of material things and earthly securities.”

“Jesus wants to bring us back to the truth of our desires and to make us discover that, in reality, the goodness we yearn for is God himself, his love for us and the eternal life that he and he alone can give us.”

The pope offered this reflection in response to the Sunday Gospel reading from Chapter 10 of the Gospel of Mark, which will be read aloud in every Roman Catholic church around the world at Mass this Sunday.

The Gospel tells the story of a rich man who knelt before Jesus and asked him: “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

Pope Francis noted that although this man “has many riches, he is dissatisfied. He feels restlessness inside. He is searching for a fuller life.”

“As the sick and the possessed often do, [the rich man] throws himself at the Master’s feet; he is rich yet in need of healing,” the pope said. “Jesus looks at him with love and then proposes a ‘therapy’ — sell everything he has, give it to the poor, and follow him.” The Gospel recounts that the rich man went away sad because he had many possessions.

Jesus was trying to help the man realize that “true wealth is being looked at with love by the Lord — this is great wealth,” Pope Francis explained. 

“And loving each other by making our lives a gift for others,” he added. 

“Selling everything to give it to the poor means stripping ourselves of … our false securities, paying attention to those in need and sharing our possessions — not just things, but what we are — our talents, our friendship, our time, and so on,” he said.

Pope Francis encouraged people to pray for the intercession of the Virgin Mary “to help us discover the treasure of life in Jesus.”

Appeal for peace

After praying the Angelus prayer in Latin and offering his blessing to the crowd gathered in St. Peter’s Square, the pope renewed his call for an immediate cease-fire in the Middle East, urging all parties to halt violence and seek peace through dialogue.

“I am close to all the populations involved, in Palestine, Israel, and Lebanon, where I ask that the United Nations peacekeeping forces be respected,” he said. 

The pope offered prayers for victims of the conflict, displaced persons, and the hostages, calling for their swift release. He condemned the cycle of hatred and revenge fueling the violence, describing war as “an illusion” and “a defeat for everyone, especially for those who believe they are invincible.”

“Stop, please!” he urged, emphasizing that war will “never bring peace” nor “security.”

Pope Francis broadened his appeal to include other regions facing violence, including Ukraine, where he called for an end to air attacks on civilians and the protection of those most vulnerable as the weather turns cold, “so that the Ukrainians are not left to freeze to death.” 

He also spoke about the escalating violence in Haiti, where citizens are fleeing their homes due to gang violence, and he urged the international community to support peace and reconciliation efforts in the country.

“Let us never forget our Haitian brothers and sisters,” the pope said, praying for an end to violence and a defense of the dignity and rights of all.

The pope also highlighted a global prayer initiative scheduled for Oct. 18, organized by the Aid to the Church in Need foundation, which asks 1 million children to recite the rosary for peace. 

Noting that this Sunday marks the anniversary of the last apparition of Our Lady of Fátima, Pope Francis entrusted to the intercession of the Virgin Mary “tormented Ukraine, Myanmar, Sudan, and the other populations suffering from the war and every form of violence and misery.”

Synod participants arrive for the morning prayer, Oct. 12, 2024, at the Vatican. / Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/CNA

CNA Newsroom, Oct 13, 2024 / 08:00 am (CNA).

The Catholic Church’s final session of the multiyear Synod on Synodality is commencing its third week. Have you adopted a synod participant yet?

Here’s what you should know 

• Decoding the Synod on Synodality: CNA’s essential terminology guide

• Here’s what is new at the Synod on Synodality Part 2

The story so far 

Oct. 12: Catholics invited to ‘adopt’ Synod on Synodality members

Prayer groups are sponsoring an online platform through which you can “adopt” a Synod on Synodality member to pray for during the month of October.

After submitting an email address on the webpage oremusprosynodo.org, the name of one of the 368 voting members of the 2024 meeting of the Synod on Synodality appears with the exhortation to pray for them. Hannah Brockhaus has more.

Should the Church be governed by gender-balanced synods?

At a theological forum held at the Jesuits’ world headquarters in Rome this week, an influential canon lawyer argues that the Catholic Church should be governed by synods balanced according to gender, among other factors, and empowered to make decisions, not merely recommendations. Jonathan Liedl reports for the National Catholic Register.

Oct. 11: Pope Francis, synod pray where first Christian martyrs of Rome were killed

Pope Francis and Synod on Synodality participants pray together at the site of the first Christian martyrdoms in Rome on Friday evening.

As attendees hold candles with drip protectors imprinted with an image of the 15th-century painting “Mater Ecclesiae” (“Mother of the Church”), Pope Francis leads those present in praying the Our Father but does not give the meditation prepared for the event, Hannah Brockhaus reports.

Oct. 11: What happens when a Chinese bishop takes the floor for the first time at the synod?

Synod sources tell EWTN News that Bishop Joseph Yang Yongqiang of the Diocese of Hangzhou spoke to synod participants about the history of Chinese Catholicism, China’s agreement with the Vatican on the appointment of bishops, and cultural exchange. Andrea Gagliarducci has more.

Oct. 10: Pope Francis’ Brazilian pick for cardinal calls for ordaining married priests

Archbishop Jaime Spengler, OFM, at a briefing for the Synod on Synodality confirms plans for a trial run of an Amazonian rite of the Mass and urges “openness” to the idea of married priests to serve certain communities.

The 64-year-old prelate, a descendant of German immigrants, is a prominent figure in the Church in his home country and throughout South America, heading both the Catholic bishops’ conference of Brazil and the Latin American bishops’ conference (CELAM), writes Hannah Brockhaus.

Oct. 10: Why is ‘women’s ordination’ still dominating media coverage of the synod?

News media has a built-in tendency to downplay nuance and highlight novelty, and this is arguably accentuated at the Synod on Synodality, writes Jonathan Liedl for the National Catholic Register. Two synod members say synod communications head Paolo Ruffini overstated the strength of calls for “women’s ordination.” Read the full analysis here.

Oct. 10: Non-Catholic delegates put Christian unity in focus at Synod on Synodality

Three fraternal delegates — non-Catholic representatives of Christian churches participating in this year’s session of the Synod on Synodality — take center stage at Thursday’s Synod on Synodality press briefing held at the Vatican’s Holy See Press Office.

Speaking about “the great importance of relationality” among Christian churches, Anglican Bishop Martin Warner of Chichester — co-chair of the English-Welsh Anglican-Roman Catholic Committee — speaks about the “sense of family” that has developed between the Catholic Church and the Church of England, particularly during the reign of the late Queen Elizabeth II. Kristina Millare reports.

Oct. 9: Synod debates on bishops, laypeople opened to public at theology forums

Synod on Synodality events open to the public give a glimpse Wednesday evening into the private debates happening among delegates and theological experts on the issues of a bishop’s authority and his relationship to the laity in light of synodality.

Thomas Söding, vice president of the lay organization promoting the German Synodal Way, argued that bishops shouldn’t control or dictate discipleship but should encourage diverse expressions of faith.

Italian canonist Donata Horak criticized the Roman Catholic Church’s current structure as “monarchical” and out of step with democratic sensibilities. She suggested that the Latin Church adopt deliberative synods, as seen in Eastern Catholic churches, although she did not note that these do not allow lay voting, notes Hannah Brockhaus.

Oct. 9: Synod delegates look to St. John Henry Newman as theological guide

Australian Bishop Anthony Randazzo, a synod delegate and president of the Federation of Catholic Bishops’ Conferences of Oceania, says St. John Henry Newman famously showed “that the Church would look foolish without the laity” and should help ease fears that collaboration with the laity is heterodoxical.

“I think that this way of thinking should liberate us in the Church from believing that any one group or vocation alone drives the bus,” the bishop of the Diocese of Broken Bay, Australia, emphasizes. Randazzo made a powerful statement against pushes for so-called “women’s ordination,” explains Jonathan Liedl for the National Catholic Register.

Oct.

Oct. 8: Catholic bishops from mainland China and Taiwan in dialogue at Synod on Synodality

In an interview with CNA, the first Indigenous bishop of Taiwan says he met with the two bishops from mainland China taking part in the synod and plans to meet with them again. “It’s very important to dialogue with them, to respect each other. I think it’s good … not only for the Chinese, for the whole Church,” Bishop Norbert Pu of Taiwan tells Courtney Mares.

Oct. 8: Who is in charge of drafting the final document of the Synod of Synodality?

Paolo Ruffini, the synod’s communications head, announces the 14 members of the Final Document Commission. The seven continental delegates are:

• Catherine Clifford, a theologian from St. Paul University in Ottawa, for North America

• Congolese Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo, president of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar, for Africa

• Father Clarence Davedassan of Malaysia is the pick from Asia

• Bishop Shane Mackinlay of Sandhurst, Australia, for Oceania

• Cardinal Luis José Rueda Aparicio of Bogotá, Colombia, for Central and South America

• Cardinal Jean-Marc Aveline of Marseille, France, for Europe

• Bishop Mounir Khairallah, a Maronite prelate, for the Eastern Catholic Churches and the Middle East

The other members include three direct picks from Pope Francis and four automatic appointments, writes Jonathan Liedl.

Oct. 8: Synod participants donate for Gaza parish

In a video played for journalists at the Holy See Press Office on Oct. 8, Gaza parish priest Father Gabriel Romanelli thanks synod participants for both prayers and financial help, because in Gaza, “everyone is in need of everything.”

The pope’s charity office announces that synod participants donated 32,000 euros (about $35,000) for the Catholic parish in Gaza from synod participants on Oct. 7, the one-year anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel.

The synod donations were combined with another 30,000 euros (about $33,000) from Pope Francis’ charity coffers and sent to Holy Family Parish, the only Roman Catholic parish in the Gaza Strip, which is sheltering hundreds of Palestinian Catholics.

Oct. 7: Pope invites prayer for the Middle East as participants from that region begin week 2 of the synod

Since the beginning of the Synod on Synodality, synod delegates and participants have echoed Pope Francis’ pleas for prayers and solidarity with communities across the war-ravaged region. As the second week of the synod gets underway, on the World Day of Prayer and Fasting held on the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, Pope Francis addressed Catholics in the Middle East on the one-year anniversary of Hamas’ attack on Israel. Kristina Millare has more.

Oct. 7: Women deacons off the table? Synod delegate claims ‘some women sense a call to priesthood’

While the topic of “women deacons” is not formally up for discussion at the Synod on Synodality assembly this month, the official Vatican press conference for the synod showcases a female delegate who spoke about women experiencing “a call to priesthood,” Courtney Mares reports.

Oct. 6: Pope Francis and synod participants pray rosary for peace

Invoking the intercession of the Virgin Mary for peace in the world amid an escalating conflict in the Middle East and the ongoing war in Ukraine, Pope Francis presides over a rosary prayer in Rome’s Basilica of St. Mary Major on Sunday evening, Courtney Mares reports.

Oct. 5: A call for peace and an announcement of dialogue

A Lebanese bishop makes an impassioned plea for peace and forgiveness at the Synod on Synodality’s daily press briefing on Saturday as the assembly’s first week draws to a close.

Bishop Mounir Khairallah of Batroun shares his personal experience of violence and forgiveness, recounting how his parents were murdered when he was just 5 years old.

Meanwhile, a dialogue with study groups is announced for Oct. 18 after synod delegates vote for more interaction with the groups established by Pope Francis.

Oct. 4: What’s behind the viral photo of Pope Francis venerating a chair?

Pope Francis sits before the historic relic of St. Peter’s chair in the Ottoboni sacristy of St. Peter’s Basilica after celebrating Mass in St. Peter’s Square ahead of the second session of the Synod on Synodality. What is behind this viral image? Madalaine Elhabbal explains.

Oct. 4: Participants put spotlight on world’s poor

Closing the first week of meetings, participants from different continents put a spotlight on the plight of the world’s poor and vulnerable on the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi, Kristina Millare reports. 

The first week at the Synod on Synodality — revolution or much ado about nothing? 

Vaticanist Andrea Gagliarducci analyzes the first days of the gathering in Rome. He writes: “It seems clear that while the delegates may discuss many things over the next three weeks, nothing will be decided. There will be no doctrinal changes. No diminution of the role of the bishop. No rush to resolve the question of opening the diaconate to women.” 

Oct. 3: Many voices to be heard 

Cardinal Mario Grech, general secretary of the synod, says at a press conference that “every believer, man or woman, and every group, association, movement, or community will be able to participate with their own contribution” via the synod’s 10 study groups.

Bishop Daniel Flores of Brownsville, Texas, tells journalists the work of participants in the second session of the Synod on Synodality is to find the “cohesive voice” that expresses the life of the Church.

Oct. 3: Cardinal Fernández rules out women deacons

Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández, prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, on Oct. 3 shuts down speculation regarding further theological study into the possibility of women being ordained as deacons. Father Giacomo Costa, special secretary of the synod, says this month’s discussions held in the Vatican should serve as “laboratories of synodal life,” Kristina Millare reports.

Oct. 3: Solving sexuality questions with ‘contextual fidelity’?

A study group appointed by Pope Francis to explore a synodal approach to the Church’s most debated issues — including sexual morality and life matters — proposes “contextual fidelity” and a “new paradigm” that downplays long-standing Church teaching, Jonathan Liedl notes. 

Oct. 2: Pope Francis calls for new ways for bishops to be ‘synodal’

At the first meeting of the full assembly of the Synod on Synodality on Wednesday, Pope Francis says a bishop’s ministry should include cooperation with laypeople and that the synod will need to identify “differing forms” of the exercise of this ministry.

Oct. 2: Pope Francis opens synod, warns against personal ‘agendas’

Pope Francis opens the second and final session of the Synod on Synodality, which is meant to deepen the missionary perspective of the Church, explains EWTN Vatican Bureau Chief Andreas Thonhauser.

“Let us be careful not to see our contributions as points to defend at all costs or agendas to be imposed,” the pope says at the synod’s opening Mass on Oct. 2, Courtney Mares reports. The pontiff warns: “Ours is not a parliamentary assembly but rather a place of listening in communion.”

Oct. 2: Looming questions about role of German ‘synodality’ 

“More candor about the motivations of the German Synodal Path and its vision of the Catholic future would be helpful in determining what, if anything, it has to offer the world Church at Synod 2024,” comments George Weigel in the National Catholic Register.

Oct. 1: Penitential liturgy is held in St. Peter’s Basilica; more than 500 people attend

On the eve of the second session of the Synod on Synodality, Pope Francis says the Catholic Church must first acknowledge its sins and ask for forgiveness before it can be credible in carrying out the mission Jesus Christ entrusted to his Church, Kristina Millare reports. 

Nine years ago, this papal speech set the ‘synodality’ machine in motion

Since Pope Francis’ 2015 speech, synodality has grown from a theological concept into a guiding principle of Church governance. Analysis from Jonathan Liedl in the National Catholic Register.

Father John Nepil of the Archdiocese of Denver celebrates Mass on top of Wetterhorn Peak in the San Juan Mountains in Colorado. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Father John Nepil

Denver, Colo., Oct 13, 2024 / 07:00 am (CNA).

The state of Colorado is home to 54 “14ers” — mountain peaks that are at least 14,000 feet above sea level. The difficulty of these summits ranges from easy to what many would consider dangerous. Many Coloradoans have completed at least one 14er, but Father John Nepil, the vice rector and a professor of theology at St. John Vianney Theological Seminary in the Archdiocese of Denver, is one of the few who can say he has summited all 54 peaks — not once but twice.

Nepil hiked his first 14er when he was in seventh grade and hated it. However, soon after, “something awoke in me and I fell in love, and I’ve been climbing them ever since,” he told CNA in an interview.

When Nepil was in his 20s he completed all 54 14ers for the first time. Last year, on the feast of the Guardian Angels, atop Mount of the Holy Cross, he completed the 54 for a second time — this time as a priest and with the celebration of Mass at the top of each peak.

The first Mass he celebrated at the top of a 14er was a week after his ordination in May 2011. Now, after 13 years, he can say he has celebrated Mass on every 14er in the state.

“Saying Mass on the summit of 14ers is probably the greatest gift and privilege of my whole life,” he said. “I don’t think there’s anything I’ve desired more that’s awoken my interior depths more profoundly. It’s just absolutely truly the summit of my priestly life.”

“Then of course being a priest and being a shepherd and a guide spiritually,” he added, “helping people physically climb to the heights and doing that in such a way as to lead them to the spiritual heights in Christ — that to me is what has made priestly life so deeply meaningful and impactful.”

Another aspect Nepil touched on was how taking individuals on hikes serves as an opportunity for fellowship and evangelization. 

Nepil shared that when he was a newly ordained priest, he was assigned as the chaplain at the University of Colorado in Boulder. He realized very quickly that there were “a lot of great students there but a lot of their friends didn’t feel comfortable coming to Mass and didn’t want anything to do with church.”

He decided to start an outdoor club called Aquinas Alpine and began to take people on “adventures in the mountains, and that’s really where it became a ministerial life,” he said.

“You just hang out with people on the mountains and all the questions start to naturally come and the relationships form. It’s just an amazing atmosphere for facilitating communion but also for conversion.”

In his work now in the seminary, Nepil shared how he constantly encourages the men “to do hard things together.”

“Our world is built right now to eliminate discomfort, and that’s actually bad for our humanity,” he said. “As humans, we need to live with intention. We need to be challenged. Muscles need to be broken down so they can be rebuilt. It’s the same with relationships — that if we just kind of float on the surface and live comfortably we’re actually never growing and relationships aren’t being strengthened.”

“So we have to actively go into the backcountry and embrace a kind of preindustrial, non-technological life in order to recover our humanity, and when we do that together, it authenticates our relationships and deepens them in the reality of who we are as created beings.”

As for what individuals who go on hikes with him are taking away from the experience, he said he hopes it’s that they have a “qualitatively different experience of relationship.”

“As things slow down, things crystallize, perception is heightened, and that awakens spiritual questions and hopefully it begins to form a spiritual vision to interpret reality,” he said. “We’re made to interpret. Things are meaningful … but we only find true happiness and wholeness as persons when we interpret being and the experiences in our life as meaningful, and I think that the conditions of being in creation on a backcountry adventure really facilitates that in a deep way.”

Dallas Jenkins, creator, writer, and director of “The Chosen,” at ChosenCon 2024 in Orlando, Florida. / Credit: EWTN News screenshot/Francesca Pollio Fenton/CNA

CNA Staff, Oct 13, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).

When fans of the hit series “The Chosen” gathered at the Orlando World Center Marriott in Orlando, Florida, for the second annual “ChosenCon” in late September, CNA spoke with the creator and several of the cast members on the teal carpet about the future of the show and what fans can expect from Season 5, which focuses on the events of Holy Week.

Dallas Jenkins, the show’s creator, director, and writer, told CNA that Season 5 is “sad at times; it’s actually heartbreaking at times because we know we’re getting closer and closer to the cross … We’re going to get to see some iconic moments from Scripture, but we’re also going to, I believe, be drawn closer to who Jesus was because of his suffering.”

Ryan Swanson, one of the writers of “The Chosen,” added that Season 5 is “truly going to feel like a different kind of series. After Season 4’s dread and doom and foreshadowing, this is when the wick is lit.”

When asked how the writers prepare to portray the important and historical events of Holy Week, Swanson emphasized the importance of relying on Scripture and pointed out that “as much as 30% of the Scriptures is about this week.”

“We get a huge assist from the Bible because there’s no other part of it that’s written as chronologically and as clearly as to the events of the week in time as this week. So all of that stuff is laid out for us,” he said. “I think our challenge becomes how do we tell it in a new way, especially to the initiate.”

“What we’re trying to do is we’re trying to tell the story honestly, factually, historically, but also to give it that ‘Chosen’ twist of what were these moments like for people who would’ve been there,” Swanson explained.

Knowing what lies ahead for her character and the impactful moments she is a part of, Elizabeth Tabish, the actress who portrays Mary Magdalene, shared that she has “tried to not think about that too much.”

“It’s daunting and I really want to do it well and honor that moment in the Gospels. So, I think I’m a little nervous,” she said. “In terms of preparation, I think I’m just going to pray a lot about it.”

Another character who will also be experiencing suffering in Season 5 is Mother Mary, portrayed by Vanessa Benavente.

“I still struggle to find exactly how she must’ve gone through this,” Benavente told CNA.

“She knows that her son has to fulfill his mission, but at the same time it’s her son. It’s that thing where you as a mother you have to learn how to let go of your children, but in this case, you know you’re letting him go do something that is to meet his end,” she shared.

“With my 2024 brain, being a mother myself, it’s so humongous, it’s so big, and I always go down to her faith must’ve been just as big, because it’s literally every mother’s nightmare what she will be going through in the next couple of seasons.”  

As for Season 5 of “The Chosen,” an official release date has not yet been announced but fans can expect it to be released in 2025.

You can read more about the announcements made at ChosenCon regarding new projects here.

Pope Francis prays with members of the Synod on Synodality during one of its meetings in the Vatican's Paul VI Hall on the morning of Oct. 12, 2024. / Credit: Vatican Media

Rome Newsroom, Oct 12, 2024 / 12:30 pm (CNA).

Prayer groups are sponsoring an online platform through which you can “adopt” a Synod on Synodality member to pray for during the month of October.

After submitting an email address on the webpage oremusprosynodo.org, the name of one of the 368 voting members (also called delegates) of the 2024 meeting of the Synod on Synodality appears with the exhortation to pray for them.

The synod prayer campaign also sends a daily email with a guide for how to pray for the “adopted” synod delegate throughout the Vatican assembly Oct. 2–27.

The initiative is organized by synod leaders in collaboration with three Church-connected groups: The Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network, Click to Pray, and The Church Is Listening.

The second session of the assembly of the Synod on Synodality is taking place at the Vatican this month. It marks the end of the discernment phase of the Catholic Church’s synodal process begun in 2021.

Throughout the October meeting, synod participants will pray together daily and attend prayer services and Masses.

During the first half of the monthlong gathering, synod members attended a retreat, a penitential liturgy, the synod opening Mass, and an ecumenical prayer vigil. They will also join in a Mass of canonization on Oct. 20 and participate in a mini-retreat on Oct. 21 before the synod’s concluding Mass on Oct. 27.

Pope Francis celebrated Mass on the solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul, June 29, 2023, where he also blessed the pallia for new archbishops. / Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNA

Vatican City, Oct 12, 2024 / 11:00 am (CNA).

The Vatican on Saturday published the schedule for Pope Francis’ consistory to create new cardinals, stating that the liturgy will take place on Dec. 7 — not Dec. 8, as previously announced.

Francis said Oct. 6 he will add 21 members to the College of Cardinals — 20 of whom are eligible to be cardinal-electors. The future cardinals come from every continent.

According to the liturgical schedule released by the Vatican’s master of ceremonies Oct. 12, the ceremony to create the new cardinals will be held in the afternoon on Dec. 7 in St. Peter’s Basilica.

The following day, on the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, Dec. 8, Francis and the entire College of Cardinals will celebrate a Mass of thanksgiving together in the Vatican basilica.

While the pope typically goes to venerate a statue of the Virgin Mary close to the Spanish Steps early in the morning on the solemnity, this year he will visit the statue at 4 p.m. instead.

On Oct. 12, Pope Francis addressed the cardinals-designate in a short letter in which he called them each to be more of a “servant” than an “eminence.” He advised them to pray often, to love everyone, and to have mercy on the suffering.

The Vatican also published Saturday the dates of three other papal Masses to take place in St. Peter’s Basilica in November and early December.

On Nov. 17, the pope will preside at a Mass for the World Day of the Poor, and on Nov. 24, the solemnity of Christ the King, he will join a Mass also marking the World Day of Youth.

For the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe on Dec. 12, Pope Francis will preside at a Mass in Spanish.

The Masses with Pope Francis are open to the public with the advance reservation of free tickets through the Prefecture of the Papal Household.

Pope Francis prays at the Mass in suffrage for the cardinals and bishops who have died in the past year, Nov. 2, 2022. / Credit: Vatican Media

Vatican City, Oct 12, 2024 / 09:00 am (CNA).

Pope Francis expressed in a letter Saturday a desire that each of the 21 new cardinals to be added in December will be more of a “servant” than an “eminence.”

The pope’s brief letter, published Oct. 12, also welcomed the cardinals-designate to membership in the “Roman clergy,” which Francis called “an expression of the Church’s unity and of the bond that unites all the Churches with this Church of Rome.”

The pontiff announced after the Angelus Oct. 6 that he will add 21 men — 18 bishops and three priests — to the College of Cardinals in a consistory later this year.

The future cardinals come from countries on every continent and include archbishops from the countries of Iraq, Brazil, and Italy. They will be elevated to the College of Cardinals in a ceremony in St. Peter’s Basilica on Dec. 7.

The pope will also offer a Mass of thanksgiving with the cardinals on Dec. 8, the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception.

Pope Francis in his letter encouraged the men to pray often, to love everyone, and to have mercy on the suffering.

“I thank you for your generosity and I assure you of my prayers that the title of ‘servant’ (deacon) will increasing eclipse that of ‘eminence,’” the pope told the future cardinals.

He also asked them to embody three attitudes the Argentinian poet Francisco Luis Bernárdez once used to describe St. John of the Cross: “eyes raised, hands joined, feet bare.”

“Eyes raised, because your service will require you to lengthen your gaze and broaden your heart, in order to see farther and to love more expansively and with greater fervor,” he said.

He quoted his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, who said St. John of the Cross sat “at the school of his gaze,” which is “the pierced side of Christ.”

Another important attitude, Francis said, is hands joined in prayer for discernment, “because what the Church most needs — together with the preaching of the Gospel — is your prayer to be able to shepherd well the flock of Christ.”

He added that to have bare feet means to be close to the difficult realities faced by people around the world, including “the pain and suffering due to war, discrimination, persecution, hunger, and many forms of poverty.”

“These will demand from you great compassion and mercy,” the pope said.

One of the cardinals-designate, retired apostolic nuncio Archbishop Angelo Acerbi, is already over the age of 80 and no longer eligible to vote in a future conclave.

Cardinal-designate Father Timothy Radcliffe, OP, will turn 80 on Aug. 22 next year. Radcliffe is one of two spiritual leaders for the Synod on Synodality taking place this month in Rome.

Among the 21 new cardinals, a total of nine are currently in Rome to participate in the second session of the synod Oct. 2–27.

The full list of new cardinals can be read here.

Ana Finat said writing her conversion story “was very scary,” especially because of the implications for her husband and daughters. / Credit: Courtesy of Ana Finat

Madrid, Spain, Oct 12, 2024 / 08:00 am (CNA).

The Spanish influencer and aristocrat Ana Finat, a descendant of St. Francis Borgia, has just published the story of her conversion where she describes how she went from worldliness and being afraid of God to regaining freedom by trusting in his mercy.

In the Spanish-language book “When I Met the God of Love: How the Love of Christ Freed Me from the Chains of the World,” Finat shares the story of her life, quite distinct from that of ordinary mortals because of her family environment — especially during her childhood — but, at the same time, very similar in terms of worldliness and alienation from the faith like the majority of her generation.

“When I grew up, I distanced myself from God, because it was bothersome to me and because I was rebellious,” she admitted in a conversation with ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. During that time, she lived like so many young people of her generation: “I smoked my first cigarettes, I experienced my first joints, we went out drinking a lot, and I spent more time on the street playing hooky than at school,” she explains in the book.

She also did not live chastely, which led her to getting unexpectedly pregnant at age 20. In addition, she would later use assisted reproductive technologies that are contrary to the magisterium of the Catholic Church.

Fortunately, she didn’t yield to the temptation to abort her child: “I never considered having an abortion. The pregnancy made me anxious; I knew perfectly well that it wasn’t going to be easy, because our relationship [with her then-boyfriend] wasn’t good, but I was excited about the life that was coming. From the beginning, I welcomed [the child] with great enthusiasm. For me it was a gift, because I knew what was coming to me, to begin with, because I was also very immature,” she explained.

‘The only thing that makes you stop, because it truly fills you, is Christ’

That’s how things were until Finat attended a Life in the Spirit Seminar, a charismatic retreat organized by the Archdiocese of Toledo in Spain, after which she gave her social media to God (she currently has more than 30,000 followers on Instagram). In the book she says that, after that experience, “I was finally free.”

Finat explained that, after that encounter with the Holy Spirit, she understood that “abandoning all your worries, all your anxieties and trusting in God gives immense freedom. Knowing that there is someone greater, who is taking care of you, who loves you like a father, like the best father, who doesn’t separate himself from you. Abandon yourself also to the Holy Spirit, that the Holy Spirit leads you… all that gives a lot of freedom.”

The influencer also felt liberated from the way she saw herself: “I was totally immersed in today’s world, in social media, with its vanity, its selfishness,” she said, and, separated from God, she recognized that “I did whatever I wanted. I didn’t care. I was very much all about myself. It’s me first and then everything else.”

However, this worldly lifestyle didn’t fulfill her deepest aspirations: “You think it has fulfilled you, but then you realize that it hasn’t. In the end, the only thing that makes you stop, because it truly fulfills you, is Christ,” she shared.

Writing her conversion story “was very scary,” she admitted, especially because of the implications for her husband and daughters and because it’s not easy “to tell things with sensitivity, without morbidity.” Fortunately, after receiving the offer from the publisher, Finat has also counted on the support of Father Santiago Arellano, a priest of the Archdiocese of Toledo, who is her spiritual director.

It wasn’t easy to change her life, either, because those closest to her “didn’t understand anything at all” and as a result “there were many clashes.” However, with the passage of time, things changed: “When they see that everything you’re experiencing is leading you to be better with them, to love them more, to do better for them, to live more for them, and the change is good, it’s absurd for them to fight, because it’s all for their own good. Now they’re all delighted,” she shared with a smile.

It was also difficult to change the direction of her social media, because she thought that if she started talking about God and not about the events she was invited to or about certain clothing and cosmetic brands, she would lose followers. So she considered leaving Instagram.

However, after giving her social media to God, she decided to continue despite the attacks she received, “especially when I posted things about abortion. People got really angry there,” or when she talked about euthanasia. She has also received support, to the point that “I have continued to grow in followers miraculously,” Finat happily commented.

‘We have the same struggles’ as St. Francis Borgia and St. Teresa of Ávila

Since her childhood, Finat had heard stories at home about her family ties to St. Francis Borgia, St. Teresa of Ávila, and St. Louis Gonzaga. Especially with Borgia, who was superior general of the Society of Jesus and whose eldest son, Juan, was the first count of Mayalde, a title held by Ana’s parents.

After her conversion, Ana delved into their stories and explained that “even in another era, they had the same struggles that I have.” In particular, she believes that St. Teresa would have been attracted by “the conversations and frivolities with the high society of Ávila” and St. Francis Borgia would have been tempted by “the power of the world.” Not without reason, he was viceroy of Catalonia in the service of Emperor Carlos I of Spain.

Ultimately, Finat said she feels “super-identified with them” and she commends herself to these saints in a special way. At the same time, it represents a challenge for her: “Having ancestors like that in the family sets the bar very high. On the one hand, you feel horrible, dwarfed, tiny… But on the other hand it also stirs up the desire to imitate them.”

Since her conversion, Finat, together with her sister Casilda, has been involved in two very specific apostolates in the Archdiocese of Toledo: Pueblo de Alabanza (People of Praise), which promotes prayers of praise along with the Life in the Spirit Seminars, and the Anawim Family, which seeks to minister to people in need.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro and his Cabinet. / Credit: Official photograph of the Office of the President of Colombia. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

ACI Prensa Staff, Oct 12, 2024 / 07:00 am (CNA).

The Unidos por la Vida (United for Life) platform in Colombia has called a nationwide march for Oct. 19 in opposition to a memorandum from the Colombian Health Superintendency in support of sex changes for children.

The National Health Superintendency (Supersalud) issued External Memorandum 115 on Sept. 21 that provides “general instructions for inspection, oversight, and control to guarantee the right to health of trans people in Colombia.”

The demonstration’s slogan is “Don’t Mess with Children” and is against, among other things, Section H of the memorandum dedicated to “trans children and adolescents who are in the process of development.” The document states that the objective is to ensure this population has “healthy development and support in the affirmation of identity and/or gender expression in these stages of the life cycle.”

In support of this, the Supersalud document cites in footnote 26 rulings by the Constitutional Court in favor of sex change for minors.

For example, it points out that “judgment T-447 of 1995 established that sex reassignment requires the direct consent of the ‘patient,’ since minors are the only ones who can decide on their life and freedom, which include sex as a relevant element of identity.”

Likewise, it cites ruling T-218 of 2022, which, arguing “the need to ensure the autonomy of minors,” establishes that “in cases of intersexuality” the consent of the person responsible for the minor will only be necessary when the minor is under 5 years old. Furthermore, without making any distinction between patients, Supersalud requires in its instructions to “verify that the right of trans people to access health services in treatment for surgical sexual reaffirmation or sex change is guaranteed.”

March will demand policy change

In a statement to ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, the president of United for Life, Jesús Magaña, said the goal of the Oct. 19 march is to demand the revocation of Memorandum 115 and the resignation of the superintendent of health, Luis Carlos Leal.

Leal has held the position since Feb. 23, appointed by President Gustavo Petro.

Magaña said Leal “has issued this memorandum to promote hormone therapy and sex changes, in accordance with his ideology, his own way of life. He is a homosexual activist, promoter of this entire LGBTIQ ideology.”

He also said this is “a very clear project of President Petro, through his superintendent of health.”

“They don’t care about destroying the family, destroying children, they don’t care about respecting the rights of parents because they want to do it to minors,” he added.

The march, to be held in Bogotá, the country’s capital, will begin at 10 a.m. in the National Park and will head to Plaza de Bolívar in the downtown area.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

null / Credit: stockbob/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Oct 12, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).

As with any U.S. election season, the 2024 presidential election is filled with endless “fact checks” and accusations of falsehoods against various politicians. Separating lies from facts is ultimately up to the voter and lying may seem unimportant these days in the grand scheme of things, but what does the Catholic Church teach about it?

Unsurprisingly, after 20 centuries, the Church has a lot to say about lying, one of the most common phenomena of the human experience. 

One of the Ten Commandments is “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor” and the Catechism of the Catholic Church states: “Lying is to speak or act against the truth in order to lead someone into error” (No. 2483). 

“By injuring man’s relation to truth and to his neighbor, a lie offends against the fundamental relation of man and of his word to the Lord,” the catechism continues. 

The catechism notes in No. 2484 that a lie’s severity “is measured against the nature of the truth it deforms” and that one must consider “the circumstances, the intentions of the one who lies, and the harm suffered by its victims.” A lie that constitutes a venial sin “becomes mortal when it does grave injury to the virtues of justice and charity.”

Some of the Church’s most towering thinkers have similarly condemned lying. St. Thomas Aquinas said lying was “directly and formally opposed to the virtue of truth.”

St. Augustine, meanwhile, argued that “whoever shall think there is any sort of lie that is not sin, will deceive himself foully, while he deems himself honest as a deceiver of other men.” 

There seems to be little disagreement among moral authorities as to the wrongness of lying in general. But there has been some debate as to whether or not some types of falsehoods can be justified in certain circumstances, such as when telling some or all of the truth would bring about unjust harm against innocents. 

One fabled example concerns St. Athanasius, who legend has it was rowing away from his persecutors on a river. When he encountered a group of searchers who asked if he knew where Athanasius was located, he reportedly responded: “He’s not far away!” after which he was able to flee. 

Other examples involve similarly extreme circumstances, such as if a murderous villain demands to know the location of an innocent person he intends to kill. 

Patrick Lee, a professor of philosophy at Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio, told CNA: “My view is that St. Thomas and St. Augustine and the catechism are right, that all lying is wrong.”

He acknowledged that there are “difficulties” in that prohibition, such as the famous example of someone hiding Jewish refugees in their home and having to respond to Nazis searching for them. 

Still, “the rules are really, really clear in Scripture,” he argued. He cited Jesus’ sharp words in John 8 in which Christ points out that Satan “does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him,” that in lying the devil “speaks according to his own nature,” and that he “is a liar and the father of lies.”

“It really does sound like you have an obligation to the truth,” Lee said. Satan, he argued, “is the source of lying — all lying.”

Nevertheless, there have been attempts among Catholic thinkers over the years to justify some forms of lying or dishonesty. The Jesuits many years ago popularized the practice of “mental reservation,” a controversial philosophical principle that critics have argued is tantamount to lying. 

Jimmy Akin, a senior apologist at Catholic Answers, told CNA that when practicing mental reservation, “one says something that is technically true but withholds or reserves part of the truth.”

“On the basis of this partial disclosure of truth, the person to whom one is speaking may draw an incorrect conclusion, but one would not have said something technically false and thus not lied,” he said. 

An example of mental reservation could be when an abusive husband demands to know where his wife is hiding. The woman’s protector might respond, “I have not seen your wife,” while thinking to himself, “...in the last 30 seconds.” 

“The concept of mental reservation has been criticized on the ground that many mental reservations involve telling a truth in a deliberately misleading way and thus involve deliberate deception, making them functionally equivalent to lying,” Akin said. 

Akin noted that in recent years some Catholic moral theologians “have been exploring other theories that seek to balance the importance of truth-telling with the seeming practical need to use deception in some circumstances.” 

“This may be in part a response to the totalitarian regimes that arose in the 20th century and the need to deceive them in order to protect human life,” he said. 

The idea of using falsehoods to save innocent victims from violent aggressors received renewed attention several years ago when Pope Francis admitted that, as a young priest in Argentina, he participated in what it could be argued were false and duplicitous actions as part of efforts to work against the dictatorship there. 

Akin wrote in 2013 that the faithful should be “cautious of drawing implications from this,” in part because “people can and do make mistakes.” Additionally, at the time, Francis “was not yet pope and did not have the responsibility and the graces of that office.”

He pointed out to CNA, however, that at one point the Catechism of the Catholic Church qualified its prohibition on lying: It previously held that “to lie is to speak or act against the truth in order to lead into error someone who has the right to know the truth.” The “right-to-know” proviso was removed in 1997.

“To my knowledge, the Holy See didn’t comment on the reason for the change,” Akin said, “but it presumably was to avoid adopting one, specific, recent theory of lying when others were still legitimate also.”

The older directive “seemed to support a theory in moral theology that would permit lying in cases where the person had no right to know the truth, such as in the famous example of lying to Nazis about the location of hidden Jewish individuals,” Akin said. 

Lee said lying represents a fundamental betrayal of the person to whom you are telling the falsehood.

“You’re inviting someone to trust you that what you’re saying is in your mind,” he said. “So you, in a way, betray that trust. You ask them to believe you in the sense that what you’re saying is what you think. You’re presenting a false self and blocking community with them.”

Akin, meanwhile, pointed out that “historically, the most prominent view has been the one supported by St. Thomas Aquinas.”

“He held that lying is intrinsically wrong as a perversion of the human faculty of speech, which he saw as oriented toward communicating truthful information in a way that would preclude lying,” Akin said.

“On his view, lying is never permissible, and so one could not lie to Nazis about hiding Jews in one’s attic. One would have to do something else.”

“Examples of things a non-exception-making Thomist might do include shutting the door in the Nazis’ faces without saying anything or using a mental reservation of some kind,” he said.

“The difficulty for the Thomist,” Akin pointed out, “is finding something that would be effective (if you shut the door, the Nazis may just kick it in and search the house) and that would not involve deliberate deception (as many mental reservations do).”