With world peace under serious threat, Pope Francis called on all nations to observe the Olympic truce and cease all conflicts for the traditional period before, during and after the Olympic Games in Paris.
Pope Francis
Pope Francis greets 100-year-old Lucilla Macelli before celebrating Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican, marking World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly July 23, 2023. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)
The Catholic Church can only teach the faithful if it is an institution that listens, but that does not mean it should take to heart every opinion uttered, according to the head of the church’s synod.
While Jesus entrusted St. Peter with the keys to the kingdom more than two millennia ago, and his modern-day successor conferred apostolic authority to newly appointed archbishops June 29, it is ultimately God who holds the power to open the church’s doors and lead the Christian community forward in its mission of evangelization, Pope Francis said.
Being obedient to God’s commandment and spirit of love can radically change attitudes and actions to convert people from “predators” of natural resources to “tillers” of God’s great garden of planet Earth, Pope Francis said.
Pope Francis expressed his concern that Christians fleeing the Holy Land and the whole of the Middle East will leave no Christian presence in the land “where it all began.”
Pope Francis said that Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati “will be a saint soon.”
There is a prayer for every state of mind and spiritual need in the Book of Psalms, Pope Francis said.
As preparations continue for the second assembly of the Synod of Bishops on synodality, enthusiasm for greater involvement in the life and mission of the church is accompanied by “confusion, worry or anxiety” on the part of some Catholics, the secretary-general of the synod said.
Sitting in the Vatican Gardens with the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica as a backdrop, Pope Francis told cardinals and diplomats, including the ambassadors of Israel and Palestine, “Every day I pray that this war will finally end.”