Jubilee for the young

Vatican City, 30 July 2015 (VIS) – The Jubilee for young boys and girls from 13 to 16 years of age will take place in Rome from 23 to 25 April 2016, within the broader framework of the Jubilee of Mercy convoked by Pope Francis. The event is being organised by the Pontifical Council for Promoting New Evangelisation in collaboration with the Italian national service for youth pastoral ministry.

The first day, 23 April, will be dedicated to mercy. Various groups of young people will depart from Castel Sant'Angelo and will proceed along Via della Conciliazione on a penitential journey, reading the Word of God and meditating. Upon arrival at St. Peter's Square, they will be able to receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation, confessing to the priests available under the Colonnade. They will then enter the basilica via the Holy Door for the profession of faith at the Altar of Confession at St. Peter's tomb.

During the Jubilee, in the squares and most important locations in Rome, a series of installations will be prepared, explaining the seven works of corporal mercy and the seven works of spiritual mercy. A number of witnesses to charity will be present to explain to the young people how mercy can be translated into concrete gestures.

The climax of the event will be participation in the Holy Mass to be celebrated by Pope Francis on Sunday 24 in St. Peter's Square.

The Year of Reconciliation begins in Africa

Vatican City, 29 July 2015 (VIS) – The African Year of Reconciliation, convoked by the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM), opens today with a solemn celebration in Accra, Ghana. It will focus on the theme “A Reconciled Africa for Peaceful Co-existence”, and will conclude on 29 July 2016 during the SECAM 17th Plenary Assembly, to be held in Angola. The SECAM was instituted by Blessed Paul VI in 1969 during his pastoral visit to Uganda, and comprises 37 national episcopal conferences and eight regional conferences.

The initiative responds to Pope emeritus Benedict XVI's 2011 invitation to the African episcopates in his post-Synodal apostolic exhortation “Africae Munus” to “promote a continent-wide Year of Reconciliation to beg of God special forgiveness for all the evils and injuries mutually inflicted in Africa, and for the reconciliation of persons and groups who have been hurt in the Church and in the whole of society”. This would be “an extraordinary Jubilee Year during which the Church in Africa and in the neighbouring islands gives thanks with the universal Church and implores the gifts of the Holy Spirit, especially the gift of reconciliation, justice and peace”. The exhortation, signed by Benedict XVI on 19 November in Cotonou, Benin, during his apostolic trip to the country, followed the Second Extraordinary Assembly for Africa of the Synod of Bishops held in the Vatican in 2009 on the theme “The Church in Africa in the service of reconciliation, justice and peace”.

The archbishop of Accra, Charles Palmer Buckle, on behalf of the president of SECAM, Bishop Gabriel Mbilingi, C.S.Sp., of Lubango, Angola, has sent a letter to all the African episcopal conferences, inviting them to organise programmes and initiatives on reconciliation throughout the year, in collaboration with the commissions of Justice and Peace in their countries. He also encouraged the bishops of the continent to carry out a special collection on a Sunday of their choice for the second SECAM Day. The Day was instituted two years ago by the association's 16th Assembly in order to finance evangelisation projects, the promotion of justice and peace, and the Catholic media.

A blessing to one another: John Paul II and the Jewish People

Vatican City, 28 July 2015 (VIS) – “A blessing to one another: Pope John Paul II and the Jewish People” is the title of an exhibition opening today in the Vatican (Charlemagne Wing, 29 July to 17 September), previously displayed in a number of state capitals in the U.S.A., where it received more than a million visitors.

The exhibition, presented as a gift to John Paul II for his 85th birthday, was inaugurated at the Xavier University of Cincinnati, Ohio, on 18 May 2005, just a month after the Pope's death. It then arrived in Rome, and while in Europe its organisers wanted it to visit Krakow, the Polish city where Karol Wojtyla was archbishop.

“A blessing to one another” describes the steps the Pontiff took to improve the relationship between the Catholic Church and the Jewish people, and reflects the continuing relevance of the conciliar declaration “Nostra Aetate”, issued fifty years ago, in which the Catholic Church expresses her appreciation for other religions and reaffirms the principals of universal fraternity, love and non-discrimination.

Funded by various universities and private individuals and bodies who see interreligious dialogue as a source of progress for humanity, the exhibition narrates John Paul II's relations with those whom he defined during his historic visit to the synagogue of Rome on 13 April 1986 as “our elder brothers”. It is divided into four sections and consists of photographs, videos, recordings and other interactive sources.

The first section illustrates Karol Wojtyla's early years in his birthplace Wadowice, what would become a lifelong friendship with the young Jew Jerzy Kluger, and the relations between Catholics and Jews in Poland during the decade 1920 to 1930. The second section is dedicated to the Pope's university years in Krakow, and his work not far from his friends in the Ghetto who knew the horrors of the Shoah. The third describes his priestly and episcopal life, Vatican Council II and the change of direction it represented in relations between Jews and Christians, and the close link between the cardinal archbishop of Krakow and the Jewish community in his archdiocese.

The final section considers the figure of Wojtyla as the Successor of Peter, his visit to the Synagogue of Rome, and his trip to Israel in the year 2000 when he left a prayer in the Western Wall asking for divine forgiveness for the treatment that Jews had received in the past and reaffirming the Church's commitment to a path of fraternal continuity with the People of the Covenant. Visitors to “A blessing to one another” are invited to write a prayer to be placed in a reproduction of the Wall. They will be gathered and deposited in the Western Wall without being read.

Other Pontifical Acts

Vatican City, 28 July 2015 (VIS) – The Holy Father has:

- appointed Bishop Salvador Gimenez Valls of Menorca, Spain, as bishop of Lleida (area 2,977, population 233,531, Catholics 207,167, priests 131, permanent deacons 5, religious 195), Spain. He succeeds Bishop Joan Piris Frigola, whose resignation from the pastoral care of the same diocese upon reaching the age limit was accepted by the Holy Father.

- gave his assent to the canonical election by the Synod of Bishops of the Patriarchal Maronite Church, of Rev. Paul Abdel Sater as bishop of the patriarchal curia. The bishop-elect was born in 1962 in Ain El Remmaneh, Lebanon, and was ordained a priest in 1987. He studied moral theology and science of education in Boston, U.S.A., and since returning to Lebanon has served as deputy priest, parish priest, school director, and eparchial bursar. He is currently syncellus for economic affairs and parish priest of the “Saint Jean” parish in Beirut.

Angelus: Jesus counters the logic of the market with the logic of giving

Vatican City, 26 July 2015 (VIS) – At midday today Pope Francis appeared at the window of his study in the Vatican Apostolic Palace to pray the Angelus with the faithful gathered in St. Peter's Square. He commented on the day's Gospel passage, which narrates “the great sign of the multiplication of the loaves”, when Jesus finds Himself on the shores of the Sea of Galilee surrounded by the multitude, drawn by the “signs He was performing on the sick”.

Francis remarked that God's merciful power acts in Christ, curing every malady of the body and the spirit. But He is not merely a healer, He is also a teacher; He teaches from the “cathedra” represented by the mount and tests His disciples, asking them how they can give food to all the people present. The apostle Philip makes a rapid calculation, confirming that by organising a collection they could raise at most two hundred denari to buy bread, which would not be sufficient to feed five thousand people.

“The disciples reason in 'market' terms, but Jesus substitutes the logic of buying with the logic of giving”, explained the Pope. “And at this point Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, presents a boy who offers all he has: five loaves and two fishes, which are certainly not enough for so many people, Andrew says”. But this was exactly what Jesus was expecting, and so He tells the disciples to ask the people to be seated, takes the loaves and fishes, blesses them, gives thanks to the Father and distributes them.

“These gestures anticipate those of the Last Supper, which gives Jesus' bread its truest meaning. God's bread is Jesus Himself. Making Communion with Him, we receive His life in us and become children of the heavenly Father and brothers among ourselves. In this communion we encounter Jesus, truly alive and risen! Participating in the Eucharist means entering into Jesus' logic, the logic of gratuity, of sharing. And poor though we may be, we can all give something. 'Making Communion' means drawing from Christ the grace that makes us capable of sharing what we are and what we have with others”.

The crowd is astonished by the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves, “but the gift that Jesus offers is the fullness of life for famished mankind. Jesus satisfies not only material hunger, but also the most profound hunger for the meaning of life: our hunger for God. Faced with suffering, loneliness, poverty and the difficulties of so many people, what can we do? Complaining resolves nothing, but we can offer what little we have, like the boy in the Gospel. We all surely have a little time, some kind of talent, some kind of expertise to offer. Who among us does not have their 'five loaves and two fishes'? We all have it! If we are willing to place it in the Lord’s hands, it would be enough to bring to the world a little more love, peace, justice and above all, joy. How much we are in need of joy in the world! God is capable of multiplying our little gestures of solidarity and letting us participate in His gift”.