Month: June 2022

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Old age, frailty and vulnerabilities should not be hidden, Pope Francis said.

“We are all tempted to hide our vulnerability, to hide our illness, our age and our seniority, because we fear that they are the precursor to our loss of dignity,” the pope said June 1 at his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square.

“Do not hide old age, do not hide the fragility of old age,” he said, because society needs to be taught and reformed to respect all seasons of life.

Continuing his series of talks about old age, the pope looked at Psalm 71, in which the author, an elderly man, laments his many afflictions and misfortunes, and pleads to the Lord for help, expressing, in the end, hope and praise.

The psalmist shows how the process of becoming more weak, fragile and vulnerable with advancing age “becomes an opportunity for abandonment, deception and for prevarication and arrogance, which at times prey upon the elderly,” the pope said.

Even today, “in this throwaway society, this throwaway culture, elderly people are cast aside and suffer these things,” he said. It is “a form of cowardice in which we specialize in this society of ours” where there are many people “who take advantage of the elderly, to cheat them and to intimidate them in myriad ways.”

“Shame should fall on those who take advantage of the weakness of illness and old age,” he said.

“Such cruelty also occurs within families,” he said, asking people reflect on how they relate to their older relatives: “Do I remember them, do I go to visit them? Do I try to make sure they lack nothing? Do I respect them?” and talk with them to “obtain wisdom?”

“Remember that you, too, will become elderly. Old age comes for everyone. And treat the elderly today as you would wish to be treated in your old age,” the pope said.

Everyone in society “must hasten to take care of the elderly – they are its treasure,” he said.

“How is it that modern civilization, so advanced and efficient, is so uncomfortable with sickness and old age? How is it that it hides illness, it hides old age? And how is it that politics, which is so committed to defining the limits of a dignified survival, is at the same time insensitive to the dignity of a loving coexistence with the old and the sick?” he said.

The elderly author of the psalm first sees his old age as a defeat, then he “rediscovers trust in the Lord. He feels the need to be helped. And he turns to God,” the pope said.

This is a lesson for everyone to learn: that God never rejects the prayer of those in need of help and that “we all need to abandon ourselves to the Lord, to invoke his help,” and to abandon oneself to the care of others, he said.

“Do not hide frailties,” he said, because there is a “magisterium of frailty,” which is a teaching that “opens up a decisive horizon for the reform of our own civilization. A reform that is now indispensable for the benefit of the coexistence of all.”

“The marginalization of the elderly – both conceptual and practical – corrupts all seasons of life, not just that of old age,” he said.

BROOKLYN, N.Y. (CNS) – A burglar cut through a metal protective casing to steal a historic tabernacle valued at $2 million at a Brooklyn Catholic church.

In the course of the crime, angel statues flanking the tabernacle were decapitated, and consecrated hosts from inside the tabernacle were thrown all over the altar, according to a Brooklyn diocesan news release.

The burglary is suspected to have taken place May 27 at St. Augustine Catholic Church in the Park Slope section of Brooklyn and the theft was discovered by the pastor May 28, the release said.

A safe in the sacristy also was cut open but nothing was inside, it added.

“This is devastating, as the tabernacle is the central focus of our church outside of worship, holding the body of Christ, the Eucharist, which is delivered to the sick and homebound,” said Father Frank Tumino, the pastor.

The tabernacle dates back to when the church was built in the 1890s. “This holy sacramental receptacle is irreplaceable due to its historical and artistic value,” the diocesan said.

The New York City Police Department was investigating this “brazen crime of disrespect and hate” and has asked the community for any tips that could lead to solving it.

“To know that a burglar entered the most sacred space of our beautiful church and took great pains to cut into a security system is a heinous act of disrespect,” Father Tumino said.

In the neighboring Archdiocese of New York, Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan planned to visit a Manhattan Catholic church May 31 that a news release said was the victim of “a hate crime” a week earlier.

Vandals beheaded and smashed statues in the Our Lady of Fatima Grotto at Our Lady of Sorrows Church.

The cardinal planned to pray an evening rosary, which “will be offered in reparation for this act of vandalism and hate.”

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – The COVID-19 pandemic not only caused a one-year delay in holding the World Meeting of Families, it also prompted a look at new ways to involve Catholic families from around the world and to ensure that they take the lead in ministering to each other.

Gabriella Gambino, undersecretary of the Dicastery for Laity, the Family and Life, presided over a news conference at the Vatican May 31 to present the final program for the gathering June 22-26 online and in Rome.

Instead of including academic theological conferences, she said, the 2022 version of the World Meeting of Families will feature moments of “encounter, listening and discussion” among those engaged in pastoral work with couples and families.

And, she said, the lead will be taken by families from around the world who are working with priests and bishops to promote healthy marriages and strong families and to assist those in difficulty.

The congress, which will be livestreamed and translated into English, Spanish, French, Portuguese and Italian as well as Italian sign language and English sign language, will cover topics ranging from promoting collaboration between priests and married couples to accompanying couples in their first year of marriage. Difficult topics like forgiveness and healing after a betrayal or helping families dealing with addiction also will be part of the agenda, Gambino said.

Asked by a reporter if same-sex couples would be welcome at the meeting, she responded that in the church’s pastoral outreach, “the idea is to promote a process of welcome, accompaniment and discernment” that helps every Catholic move toward what the world meeting’s theme professes, “Family Love: A Vocation and a Path to Holiness.”

In total, she said, there will be some 30 panels with a total of 62 speakers — only three of whom are priests. Most are married couples; they come from 17 countries and are involved in outreach to families through their parish, diocese, bishops’ conference or movement.

About 2,000 official delegates from 120 nations will attend the Rome meeting, representing bishops’ conferences and international Catholic movements and organizations. About 75% of the delegates are laypeople, while the others are bishops or priests in charge of marriage and family offices or committees.

The event will kick off June 22 with the “Festival of Families,” an event that previously was held on the Saturday night before the world meeting ended. In addition to prayer and music, the festival will feature the testimonies of five families talking about: the call to sacramental marriage, the call to holiness, the call to forgiveness, the call to welcome and the call to fraternity.