By Carol Glatz
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Sports has the power to unite people, regardless of their differences, and to remind everyone they are part of one human family, Pope Francis said.

“It is an instrument of inclusion that breaks down barriers and celebrates diversity,” he said Jan. 13.
And with the summer Olympic and Paralympic Games scheduled this year, “my hope is that, in the particularly dark historical moment we are living, sport can build bridges, break down barriers, and foster peaceful relations,” he added, recalling the tradition of the “Olympic truce.”

The pope made his remarks during an audience with members of the Vatican’s sports association, “Athletica Vaticana,” and representatives of partnering organizations, such as the world governing body of cycling – the Union Cycliste Internationale and the Italian Athletics Federation. Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça, prefect of the Dicastery for Culture and Education, and Bishop Paul Tighe, dicastery secretary, were also present.

Founded in 2019, Athletica Vaticana includes Vatican employees or citizens, priests, nuns and members of the Swiss Guard, and competes in sporting competitions on the local, national and international level.
In his speech, the pope expressed his “joy at the presence of Athletica Vaticana on the streets, the tracks and playing fields, and for your Christian witness in the great world of sport.”

“Athletica Vaticana has been committed to promoting fraternity, inclusion and solidarity, bearing witness to the Christian faith among sportsmen and women, amateurs and professionals,” he said.

He praised their desire to be close to those who are “fragile” or marginalized and their initiatives with young people with physical or intellectual disabilities, with prisoners, migrants and poor families.

“It is good that everyone participates in these meetings with the same dignity, including Olympic and Paralympic champions, diplomats and members of the Curia. I repeat the word ‘closeness,’ a closeness that becomes tender with sport,” he said.

“Sport is a means to express one’s talents, but also to build society,” the pope said. “Sport teaches us the value of fraternity. We are not islands: on the pitch, it does not matter where a person comes from, what language or culture they speak. What counts is the commitment and the common goal.”

“This unity in sport is a powerful metaphor for our lives. It reminds us that despite our differences, we are all members of the same human family. Sport has the power to unite people, regardless of their physical, economic or social abilities,” he said.

“I encourage every one of you to see sport as a path of life that may help you to build a more united community and to promote the values of Christian life: loyalty, sacrifice, team spirit, commitment, inclusion, asceticism, redemption,” he said, highlighting the importance of amateur sports, “which is the lifeblood of sporting activity.”

By Justin McLellan
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – On New Year’s Eve, believers and non-believers alike give thanks for all they have received in the last 12 months and express their hopes for the coming year, but Christians are called to cultivate their gratitude and hope following the example of Mary, Pope Francis said.
“Faith enables us to live this hour in a way different than that of a worldly mindset,” the pope said during an evening prayer service in St. Peter’s Basilica Dec. 31. “Faith in Jesus Christ, the incarnated God, born of the Virgin Mary, gives a new way of feeling time and life.”
Pope Francis said that while many people express thanks and hope on New Year’s Eve, in reality, they often “lack the essential dimension which is that of relationship with the Other and with others, with God and with brothers and sisters.”
With a worldly mentality, gratitude and hope are “flattened onto the self, onto one’s interests,” he said. “They don’t go beyond satisfaction and optimism.”
Pope Francis encouraged Christians to look to the example of Mary who, after giving birth to Jesus, had a mother’s gratitude in her heart for bearing the child of God.
“Mystery makes room for gratitude, which surfaces in the contemplation of gift, in gratuitousness, while it suffocates in the anxiety of having and appearing,” the pope said. “The church learns gratitude from the Virgin Mary.”
The pope also said that the hope of Mary and the church “is not optimism, it is something else: it is faith in a God faithful to his promises.”
“This faith takes the form of hope in the dimension of time,” he said. “Christians, like Mary, are pilgrims of hope.”

Near the basilica’s main altar was an icon of the “Madonna Lactans,” or Nursing Madonna, from the Benedictine Abbey of Montevirgine in Mercogliano, Italy. The icon, in late Byzantine style, shows Mary nursing the infant Jesus. The pope prayed silently before the image before leaving the basilica.
The service culminated with the choir and the 6,500 people present in the basilica singing the “Te Deum” (“We praise you, oh God”) in thanksgiving for the blessings of the past year.
In his homily, Pope Francis noted that the coming year would involve intense preparation for the Holy Year 2025. Yet more than worrying about organizing logistics and events, the pope asked people to be witnesses to “ethical and spiritual quality of coexistence.”
As an example, he pointed out that people of every nationality, culture and religion come together in St. Peter’s Square, so the basilica must be welcoming to all people and provide accessible information.
The pope then praised charm of Rome’s historic center but said it must also be accessible to people with disabilities and the elderly.
Roberto Gualtieri, mayor of Rome, sat in the front of row of the basilica during the prayer service and greeted the pope at its conclusion.
Pope Francis noted that a pilgrimage “requires good preparation,” and recalled that 2024 would be dedicated to prayer before the Holy Year.
“And what better teacher could we have than our holy Mother?” the pope asked. “Let us learn from her to live every day, every moment, every occupation with our inner gaze turned to Jesus.”
After the prayer service, the pope greeted people lined along the basilica’s central nave. Then, riding in his wheelchair, he went outside to pray in front of the Nativity scene in St. Peter’s Square, taking his time to wave to visitors, bless children and listen to the Swiss Guard band as it played Christmas carols.

By Carol Glatz

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Be courageous in caring for and accompanying others, helping them to dream big, cultivating their unique gifts and flourishing, Pope Francis told university chaplains and pastoral workers.
“The work of education is a true mission in which individuals and situations are accepted with all their lights and shadows – their shadows, too – with a kind of ‘parental’ love,” the pope said.

“This facilitates in a unique way the growth of those seeds that God has sown within each person,” he said Nov. 24 in an audience at the Vatican with people taking part in a conference on pastoral care in Catholic universities, sponsored by the Dicastery for Culture and Education.

Pope Francis told them he had “three approaches that I consider important to your service: to appreciate differences, to accompany with care and to act courageously.”

“Each person must be accompanied as he or she is, and that is where the dialogue, the journey and progress begin,” he said, explaining the importance of seeing and appreciating people’s different qualities with patience, openness and creativity.

As the prophet Isaiah said, God “creates the brightness of the sun, but does not despise the flickering light of ‘a dimly burning wick,’” referring to accepting people’s “lights and shadows” with love, the pope said.

“Believing in the vitality of the seeds that God sows,” he said, means accompanying and caring “for what is silently growing and coming to light in the, at times, confused thoughts, desires and affections of the young people entrusted to you.”

“Your attitude has to be more than just apologetic, dealing with questions and answers, prohibitions: do not be afraid to confront those realities,” he said.

There are “certain ideological currents within the church, in which people end up being reduced to a figure that is flat, without nuance” and without the “edges,” “shadows,” breadth and depth of real individuals, he said.

Uniformity does not make people flourish, he said. “If we wisely value a person for who he or she is, we can make that person into a work of art.”

Jesus himself “teaches us the art of caring” and “how to draw out the best from his creatures, by caring for whatever is most fragile and imperfect in them,” the pope said.

“Care for all of them, without seeking immediate results, but in the sure hope that, when you accompany young people and pray for them, miracles spring up,” he said.

The pope also encouraged his audience to “act courageously” since “nurturing the joy of the Gospel in the university environment is an indeed exciting yet demanding undertaking” which requires courage and taking risks.

“Where there are no risks, there are no fruits: this is a rule,” he said.
He told them to do everything they can to help young people “dream and aspire to the measure of Christ: to the height, breadth and depth of his love.”

By Cindy Wooden

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – The only way for parents to teach their children the beauty and importance of marriage and of accepting children as a gift from God is through their example, Pope Francis said.
Children “are immersed” in a media and cultural environment extolling virtues and practices that are “at odds with what, until a few decades ago, was considered ‘normal’ but is no longer the case,” the pope told members of the European Parents’ Association.

“Parents thus find themselves constantly having to show their children the goodness and reasonableness of choices and values that can no longer be taken for granted, such as the importance of marriage and the family, or the decision to accept children as a gift from God,” the pope told the group Nov. 11.

In his talk, Pope Francis reiterated the church’s strong support for the right of parents “to raise and educate their children in freedom, without finding themselves constrained in any sphere, particularly in that of schooling, to accept educational programs contrary to their beliefs and values.”

While the culture and its values change, “the needs of the human heart remain the same,” the pope said, and that is the place where parents must start in educating children to be good Christians and responsible citizens.

“God himself has planted in our nature an irrepressible need for love, truth and beauty, an openness to others in healthy relationships and an openness to himself as our creator,” he said. “These yearnings of the human heart are powerful allies of every educator.”

Parents must help their children recognize “the beauty of life in this world and grow confident and enthused about the prospect of embarking on the adventure of life, convinced that they too have a mission to carry out, a mission which will bring them great fulfillment and happiness,” Pope Francis said.
To instill that in children, he said, they must know that God loves them.

“When we realize that at the root of our being is the love of God our father, then we see clearly that life is good, that being born is good and that loving is good,” the pope said.

Firm in the knowledge that one is loved by God and is a gift to one’s family gives a person the strength he or she needs to avoid “a demeaning tendency to hoard material goods, a constant concern not to run risks, not to get overly involved, not to get our hands dirty.”

Instead, he said, they learn to see how “life blossoms in all its richness and beauty” when it is shared with others.

That Christian outlook, the pope said, is also the root of a healthy society because it trains young people “in sound and respectful relationships with others, a readiness to cooperate in view of a shared goal, forming them to take responsibility, a sense of duty and the value of sacrifice for sake of the common good.”

By Carol Glatz

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Pope Francis asked Mary to look mercifully upon the human family, “which has strayed from the path of peace,” and entrusted to her protection the world’s regions and nations at war.
“Queen of Peace, you suffer with us and for us, as you see so many of your children suffering from the conflicts and wars that are tearing our world apart,” the pope said during a prayer service for peace in St. Peter’s Basilica Oct. 27.

“At this dark hour this is a dark hour, mother we submerge ourselves in your luminous eyes, we entrust ourselves to your heart, sensitive to our problems,” he said, looking at an icon of Mary.

With a black-beaded rosary in hand, Pope Francis prayed with cardinals, bishops and delegates of the assembly of the Synod of Bishops, recalling Mary’s strength and initiative from several Gospel scenes the visitation, the wedding feast at Cana, Jesus’ passion and resurrection.

“Now, mother, once more take the initiative for us, in these times rent by conflicts and waste by the fire of arms,” the pope said. “Teach us to cherish and care for life each and every human life! and to repudiate the folly of war, which sows death and eliminates the future.”

Pope Francis asked Mary to “touch the hearts of those imprisoned by hatred, convert those who fuel and foment conflict.”

“Queen of all peoples, reconcile your children, seduced by evil, blinded by power and hate,” he said.

The pope also asked her to care for the victims of war: children, the elderly and isolated, the sick and wounded and those forced to abandon their homeland and loved ones due to conflict.

“To you we consecrate our world, especially those countries and regions at war,” the pope said without naming any particular nation or region. “To you we consecrate the church, so that in her witness to the love of Jesus before the world, she may be a sign of harmony and an instrument of peace.”

Present on the altar was icon of Mary, “Salus Populi Romani,” which has been present on the stage of the Vatican audience hall where the assembly of the synod on synodality has been held.

Among the cardinals present for the ceremony was Cardinal Matteo Zuppi of Bologna, the pope’s Ukraine peace envoy and a synod delegate. Ambassadors to the Holy See from many nations also attended.

On the eve of the last working day of the assembly of the Synod of Bishops, Pope Francis asked Mary to “help us preserve unity in the church and to be artisans of communion in our world.”

“Make us realize once more the importance of the role we play,” he said, “strengthen our sense of responsibility for the cause of peace as men and women called to pray, worship, intercede and make reparation for the whole human race.”

After Pope Francis’ prayer for peace, the Eucharist was exposed on the basilica’s main altar and a moment for silent prayer in adoration was observed.

Cardinal Michael Czerny, prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, led benediction, blessing the people gathered in the basilica by making the sign of the cross with the monstrance, praying “let us adore with living faith the holy mystery of your body and your blood.”

By Carol Glatz
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – St. Charles de Foucauld, a turn-of-the-19th-century hermit, demonstrates how a life of meekness, tenderness and eucharistic adoration evangelizes, Pope Francis said.

The saint was known to remain in prayer “at Jesus’ feet, before the Tabernacle,” for hours a day, “sure that the evangelizing force resides there and feeling that it is Jesus who will bring him close to so many distant brothers and sisters,” the pope said Oct. 18 at his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square.

“And do we, I ask myself, believe in the power of the Eucharist? Does our going out to others, our service, find its beginning and its fulfillment there, in adoration?” the pope asked, encouraging everyone to rediscover the sense of adoration before the Eucharist.

Continuing a series of audience talks highlighting saints who demonstrate zeal or passion for evangelization, Pope Francis said St. Charles made Jesus and the poor “the passion of his life” after living his youth “far from God, without believing in anything other than the disordered pursuit of pleasure.”

“The first step in evangelizing,” the pope said, is to “fall head over heels” for Jesus so that love will show in one’s life. If this does not happen, “we risk talking about ourselves, our group, a morality or, even worse, a set of rules, but not about Jesus, his love, his mercy.”

The pope said he sees this tendency in some new movements that spend a lot of time talking about their organization, their new spiritual path or “vision of humanity,” and “do not know how to talk about Jesus.”

St. Charles understood the importance of the laity in the life of the church and “he reminds us that ‘there need to be lay people close to priests, to see what the priest does not see, who evangelize with a proximity of charity, with goodness for everyone, with affection always ready to be given,’” he said, citing the saint’s writings.

However, the pope said, they need to be “holy lay people” in love with Jesus, not “climbers” in search of something else.

“We priests need so much to have next to us lay people who seriously believe” in Jesus, he said, and who, with their witness, “teach us the way” and help the priest understand he is not an “official” or administrator, but is “a mediator, he is a priest.”

St. Charles is “a prophetic figure for our time,” Pope Francis said.

He demonstrated “the beauty of communicating the Gospel through the apostolate of meekness,” welcomed everyone as a brother or sister and showed “the evangelizing force of tenderness,” Pope Francis said.

“Goodness is simple and asks us to be simple people, who are not afraid to offer a smile,” he said, encouraging Catholics to imitate “God’s style” of being close, compassionate and tender with others.