St. John's Catholic Church

The Vatican will dedicate a new statue of the patron saint of Korea, St. Andrew Kim Tae-gŏn, at St. Peter’s Basilica on Saturday, Sept. 16, 2023. / Credit: Korean Bishops’ Conference

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Sep 11, 2023 / 14:15 pm (CNA).

The Vatican will dedicate a new statue of the patron saint of Korea, St. Andrew Kim Tae-gŏn, at St. Peter’s Basilica this Saturday.

Born in 1821, Kim was the first native Korean priest and one of the country’s earliest martyrs.

The statue of the Korean martyr was proposed by Cardinal Lazzaro You Heung-sik, a Korean prelate and prefect of the Dicastery for the Clergy, and approved by Pope Francis, according to the Holy See’s news arm, Vatican News.

The pope has pointed to Kim’s missionary zeal as a model for all Christians to follow.

“The Christian is by nature a witness of Jesus,” Vatican News reported Francis saying in a May 24 homily. “St. Andrew Kim and the other Korean faithful have demonstrated that the testimony of the Gospel given in times of persecution can bear many fruits for the faith.”

The statue’s dedication will take place on Sept. 16, the anniversary of Kim’s beheading by the Korean Joseon Dynasty.

Pope Francis will welcome a delegation of 300 clergy and lay members of the Korean Church who will be coming for the dedication of the statue in a private audience on Saturday.

Cardinal You will then celebrate a Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica in Korean at 3 p.m. on Saturday.

The 6-ton marble statue of the Korean martyr, which will be permanently installed in a niche outside St. Peter’s Basilica, will then be blessed by Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, archpriest of St. Peter’s Basilica, at 4:30 p.m.

Speaking to Rome’s Agenzia Fides, You said that the statue’s dedication at the Vatican has brought great joy to the Church in Korea.

“We were very happy that Pope Francis wanted to accept our proposal,” You said. “It is a great honor for our Korean Church, which is very linked to the figure of this saint.”

“We believe and hope that he can be increasingly loved and his intercession invoked by the faithful from all over the world,” You added.

After converting to Catholicism at the age of 15, Kim trained for the priesthood in Macao and was ordained in 1836 by French Bishop Jean Joseph Jean-Baptiste Ferréol, the first bishop of Seoul.

Despite an ongoing vicious persecution, Kim returned to Korea to evangelize his homeland. He was only 25 years old when he was tortured and ultimately beheaded during the persecution by the Joseon Dynasty for the crime of being a Catholic.

Writing to his fellow Christians shortly before his death, Kim encouraged them to stay true to the faith. He said: “We have received baptism, entrance into the Church, and the honor of being called Christians. Yet what good will this do us if we are Christians in name only and not in fact?”

In Kim’s last words before his execution, according to research by Macao News, he gave a final exhortation for his compatriots to convert to the one true faith.

“This is the last hour of my life,” Kim reportedly said. “Listen to me attentively. If I have held communication with foreigners, it has been for my religion and for my God. It is for him that I die. My immortal life is on the point of beginning. Become Christians if you wish to be happy after death, because God has eternal punishments in store for those who have refused to know him.”

Along with 102 other Korean martyrs, whose executions were documented, Kim was canonized as a saint on May 6, 1984, by Pope John Paul II during a visit to Korea.

Though most executions were not well documented, it is estimated that approximately 10,000 Korean Christians were martyred for the faith before Christianity became tolerated in 1884.

The more than 12-foot-tall statue depicts Kim with his arms outstretched and wearing traditional Korean dopo and a flat hat.

Created by Korean Catholic artist Han Jin-seop, the statue is made entirely of Carrara marble and weighs about 6 tons.

Speaking to a reporter for the Catholic Korean news source Catholic Peace Broadcasting Corporation, Jin-seop said: “More than anything, I sincerely pray that Father Kim Dae-geon’s [Tae-gŏn’s] bold, merciful, benevolent, yet Korean-like image will be expressed well in formative ways, so that his meaning and spirit will be known to the world.”

Asia has been a major focus for the pope recently. Francis just completed a four-day trip to Mongolia after which he said: “I have been to the heart of Asia, and it did me good.”

At the conclusion of this year’s World Youth Day, in Lisbon, Portugal, Francis announced that the next event would take place in Seoul, South Korea, in 2027.

There are currently more than 5 million Catholics in South Korea, making up about 11.3% of the country’s total population, according to Agenzia Fides.

Though widely practiced in the southern portion of the peninsula, Christianity remains brutally repressed in North Korea under the dictatorship of Kim Jong Un.

According to the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom: “Anyone caught practicing religion or even suspected of harboring religious views in private [in North Korea] is subject to severe punishment, including arrest, torture, imprisonment, and execution.”

A man looks at the rubble of homes in the village of Talat N’Yaaqoub south of Marrakech in Morocco on Sept. 11, 2023. The quake that struck the country on Sept. 8 killed at least 2,122 people, injured more than 2,400 others, and flattened entire villages. / Credit: FADEL SENNA/AFP via Getty Images

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Sep 11, 2023 / 12:10 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis expressed solidarity with the people of Morocco on Sunday in the wake of that country’s devastating earthquake and offered his prayers for material help in response to the tragedy and the charity group pledging to help distribute it.

The country was hit by a 6.8-magnitude quake overnight on Friday, with the death toll rapidly climbing to upward of 2,500 fatalities amid major building collapses there.

Pope Francis last week had offered “prayerful communion in the face of this natural disaster.” In the pope’s customary address after his regular Sunday recitation of the Angelus, the Holy Father reiterated his “proximity to the dear people of Morocco” in the wake of the disaster. 

“I pray for the injured, for those who have lost their lives — so many! — and for their relatives,” Francis said. 

“I thank the rescue workers and those who are working to alleviate the suffering of the people,” he continued, praying for “concrete help on the part of everyone” to “support the population at this tragic time” and urging Catholics to “be close to the people of Morocco.”

The global Catholic charity group Caritas Internationalis, meanwhile, said in a statement on Sunday that it “joins hands with Pope Francis and extends its condolences and support to the victims of the devastating earthquake that has struck Morocco.”

“Caritas Internationalis is working to provide immediate relief and support to those affected by this tragedy,” the group said. “Our organization is in continuous communication with Caritas Morocco, and we are actively collaborating with Caritas Middle East and other Caritas Members worldwide.” 

The charity group said its network was “dedicated to conducting assessments and coordinating a comprehensive response in the hours and days ahead.” 

“As we stand united in our prayers for the victims and their families, Caritas Internationalis reaffirms its commitment to alleviating the suffering caused by this devastating earthquake,” the statement said. 

“Our mission is to extend a helping hand to those in need and to embody the message of love, compassion, and solidarity that Pope Francis exemplifies.”

Rescue workers and emergency responders in Morocco were working on Monday to free survivors from the rubble left by the earthquake. The disaster has become the deadliest quake in Morocco in several decades. 

Particularly hard-hit was the historic town of Marrakesh, a cultural and economic center of the region. Significant portions of the city were left in ruins after the tremor.

The epicenter of the quake was located a little over 40 miles outside of Marrakesh.

To help the victims of the earthquake visit Caritas’ website here.

Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, the leader of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, presides over a Divine Liturgy in St. Peter’s Basilica on Sept. 10, 2023. / Credit: Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church

Rome Newsroom, Sep 11, 2023 / 09:30 am (CNA).

The leader of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church presided over a Divine Liturgy in St. Peter’s Basilica on Sunday where he prayed for peace in the Ukraine war at the tomb of the first pope.

Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk said on Sept. 10 that he wanted to express gratitude to the pope and Catholics around the world for not abandoning Ukraine and “for the fact that we can say to Rome, Ukraine, and the world from the tomb of St. Peter: Ukraine stands! Ukraine is fighting! Ukraine is praying.”

“Amidst the pain and darkness of the great war, the Lord God gives us a sense of deep joy and true light that never fails. Today, here, to us, gathered at the tomb of the Apostle Peter, the Lord God sends his message: ‘God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son,’” Shevchuk said in his homily.

The liturgy was part of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church’s annual Synod of Bishops, taking place in Rome Sept. 3–13.

Last week, Pope Francis met for nearly two hours with the 45 bishops of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church taking part in the synod.

About 2,500 Ukrainians attended the liturgy in St. Peter’s Basilica, according to the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. The former prefect of the Dicastery for the Eastern Catholic Churches, Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, also participated.

Shevchuk told the Ukrainian Catholics in the basilica: “I look at you and cry because your Ukraine is crying for you! But I know that God loves us, and we will all return home one day. With the power of love for our homeland, for our people, we will win.”

The liturgy commemorated the 400th anniversary of the martyrdom of St. Josaphat Kuntsevych, a 17th-century Ruthenian Catholic monk and bishop whose example of faith inspired many Eastern Orthodox Christians to return to full communion with the Catholic Church.

Shevchuk noted that St. Josaphat is the only Ukrainian saint whose relics are held in St. Peter’s Basilica.

“Today, Josaphat speaks to us: Children of Ukraine, never listen to the voices of those who tell you to renounce this unity. Our Church has survived in all historical epochs. It has withstood those who wanted to liquidate it because it was in unity with the broad, universal family of the Catholic Church,” the major archbishop said.

“In the same way, Ukraine today will not be able to survive that war without broad international assistance and support at all levels,” he said. “Ecumenical Catholic Christian solidarity is a necessary condition for the sustainability and survival of our Church and people — a prerequisite for Ukraine’s victory in the struggle between good and evil that our people are waging today.”

The synod of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church is taking place in Rome just one month ahead of an assembly of the Synod of Bishops of the Latin Catholic Church, often referred to as the Synod on Synodality.

The Ukrainian gathering in Rome is being held at the Ukrainian Pontifical College of St. Josaphat on the theme “Pastoral Support for Victims of War.”

Shevchuk told the Ukrainian bishops praying together in St. Peter’s Basilica: “You and I are in communion with the successor of the Apostle Peter of our days not for political or diplomatic grounds … We are sons and daughters of the universal Church, for we believe that it was on the rock of the Apostle Peter that Christ founded his Church.”

“And this Peter continues to live, act, and serve through his successors, manifesting the divine and timeless origin of the Church as the Body of Christ.”

Pope Francis waves to pilgrims gathered in St. Peter's Square for his Angelus reflection on Sept. 10, 2023. / Credit: Vatican Media

Rome Newsroom, Sep 10, 2023 / 07:05 am (CNA).

To dialogue with someone who has wronged us is a process that requires “real courage,” Pope Francis said Sunday, reflecting on the theme of “fraternal correction.”

In Sunday’s Gospel reading (Mt 18:15-20) Jesus says: “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have won over your brother.”

Fraternal correction is “one of the highest expressions of love, and also the most demanding, because it is not easy to correct others,” the Holy Father observed, speaking on Sept. 10 from a window at the Apostolic Palace to pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square. “When a brother in the faith commits a fault against you, you, without rancor, help him, correct him: Help by correcting.”

The pope went on to condemn gossip, or “chattering,” which is “not right” and is “not pleasing to God.” He called gossip “a plague on the lives of people and communities because it brings division, it brings suffering, it brings scandal, and it never helps to improve, it never helps to grow.”

Fraternal correction, on the other hand, is a process that allows us to help the other person “understand where he is wrong. And do this for his good, overcoming shame and finding true courage, which is not to speak badly, but to say things to his face with meekness and kindness,” Pope Francis said. But he warned that “pointing the finger” at the other’s fault “is not good, in fact, it often makes it more difficult for those who made a mistake to recognize their mistake.”

“But we might ask, what if this is not enough? What if he does not understand?” the pope asked.

“Then we must look for help. Beware, though: not from the group that gossips! Jesus says: ‘Take one or two others along with you,’ meaning people who genuinely want to lend a hand to this misguided brother,” Francis urged.

“And if he still does not understand? Then, Jesus says, involve the community. But here, too, this does not mean to pillory a person, putting him to shame publicly, but rather to unite the efforts of everyone to help him change,” the pope said.

“And so, let us ask ourselves: How should I behave with a person who wrongs me? Do I keep it inside and accumulate resentment?” Pope Francis asked. “Do I talk about it behind their backs? ‘Do you know what he did?’ and so on. Or am I brave, courageous, and do I try to talk about it to him or her? Do I pray for him or her, ask for help to do good? And do our communities take care of those who fall so that they can get back up and start a new life? Do they point their fingers or open their arms?”

The pope asked again: “What do you do: Do you point the finger or open your arms?”

Following his reflection, the Holy Father expressed his “closeness to the dear people of Morocco” in the aftermath of a devastating 6.8-magnitude earthquake on the evening of Sept. 8 that has left more than 2,000 people dead and more than 2,000 injured as of Sept. 10.

Pope Francis also spoke briefly about the beatification of the Ulma family in Markowa, Poland. The Nazis brutally executed the devoutly Catholic family of Józef and Wiktoria Ulma and their seven children in 1944 for hiding eight Jews in their home outside the village of Markowa in southeast Poland. This is the first time an entire family has been beatified together.

The pope highlighted the family’s courage and evangelical love, for they “represent a ray of light in the darkness of the Second World War, be a model for all of us to imitate in our desire for good and in the service of those in need.“

Pope Francis used the example of the Ulma family to call for acts of charity to counter violence, as well as prayer; especially “for many countries that suffer from war; in a special way,” he said, “let us intensify our prayers for the tormented Ukraine.”

The American actor and director Sylvester Stallone met with Pope Francis at the Vatican on Sept. 8, 2023. / Vatican Media

Rome Newsroom, Sep 8, 2023 / 09:15 am (CNA).

Pope Francis received U.S. actor and director Sylvester “Sly” Stallone at the Vatican on Friday morning.

The “Rocky” actor met the pope in the Apostolic Palace together with his brother, actor and musician Frank Stallone; his wife, Jennifer Flavin; and their three daughters: Sophie, Sistine, and Scarlet.

The Vatican released photos of the meeting but did not provide details of the encounter.

A video shared by Vatican News showed Pope Francis meeting Stallone and telling him, “We grew up with your films.” Stallone, jokingly making fists, responded: “Ready, we box!”

The 77-year-old actor and director was also seen in the Vatican Museums on Sept. 8.

Stallone visited the town of Gioia del Colle in the southern Italian region of Puglia with his brother Frank and other members of his family on Sept. 7.

The brothers were granted honorary citizenship of Gioia del Colle because of their ties to the town: Their father was born there before immigrating to the United States as an adolescent in the early 1930s.

According to local media, Stallone visited his paternal grandfather’s home and greeted residents of the town.

From a stage, he held up an old key. “This was the key of [my grandfather’s] shop; he was the barber,” Stallone said, according to TG24.

“As Rocky would say: I love you, and keep fighting,” Stallone said to close his speech.

In an interview with the National Catholic Register in 2007, Stallone said the birth of his daughter in the late 1990s was an important crossroad for his Catholic faith.

“When my daughter was born sick, and I realized I really needed some help here, I started putting everything in God’s hands, his omnipotence, his all-forgivingness,” he said.

The Register reported at the time that Stallone had been raised Catholic, but after years in which he stopped going to church, he had begun to consider himself a churchgoing Catholic again.

“[This] puts me where I should be,” the “Rambo” director said, noting that before his return to the faith, “I was alone in the world. I thought I would have to handle things my own way.”

Catholics from Vietnam at Mass with Pope Francis in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, on Sept. 3, 2023. / Credit: Colm Flynn/EWTN

Rome Newsroom, Sep 7, 2023 / 10:00 am (CNA).

A delegation of 90 Vietnamese Catholics and seven bishops traveled to Mongolia last weekend for the chance to see Pope Francis and deliver a special message.

“We came to Mongolia to ask the pope to visit Vietnam,” Father Huynh The Vinh from Vietnam’s Diocese of Phu Coung told CNA on Sept. 3.

Unlike Mongolia, which has one of the smallest Catholic populations in the world, Vietnam is home to millions of Catholics, yet no pope has ever visited the southeast Asian country. 

Vietnam and the Holy See have never had full diplomatic relations, a usual prerequisite for a papal trip, but Vietnamese Catholics remain convinced that a papal visit could have a positive impact on the situation facing Christians in the socialist country. 

“I really hope that someday the pope can come to Vietnam, because if the pope comes to Vietnam it will change a lot [of] the religious freedom in our country,” Kimviet Ngo told CNA. 

Speaking at the papal Mass in Ulaanbaatar, Ngo described how she had seen Pope Francis’ visit bring hope to the Mongolian people and said she believed a similar trip to Vietnam would “be very meaningful to both overseas Vietnamese people and to people in Vietnam.”

Hung Nguyen, a 20-year-old Vietnamese-American from Houston who came to see the pope in Mongolia, told CNA that a papal visit could help to “strengthen the faith of the younger generations of Vietnamese Catholics.”

Vietnam has the fifth-largest Catholic population in Asia with an estimated 7 million Catholics. An additional 700,000 Vietnamese Catholics live in the United States today, many of whom are refugees or descendents of refugees who fled by boat during the Vietnam War.

The Catholic Church in Vietnam has also seen a rising number of religious vocations in recent years. More than 2,800 seminarians were studying for the priesthood across Vietnam in 2020, 100 times more than in Ireland. 

Pope Francis was asked about the possibility of a papal trip to Vietnam during his in-flight press conference on his return from Mongolia. 

The pope said that he was “very positive about relations with Vietnam,” despite the problems in the past in the Holy See’s “slow” dialogue with the country’s socialist government, adding that he thinks that any future problems can be overcome.

Pope Francis joked: “If I do not go [to Vietnam], I’m sure that [a future Pope] John XXIV will go!”

The 86-year-old pope added: “To tell the truth, travel is not as easy for me as it was in the beginning.” He added that he has some physical limitations with walking that can make traveling more difficult, but he is looking into the possibility of visiting a small country in Europe.

The Vatican has been engaged in formal bilateral discussions with Vietnam since 2009 and earlier this year, during the visit of Vietnam’s President Vo Van Thuong to the Vatican, the Vietnamese government agreed to allow a permanent papal representative in the country.

A resident papal representative is considered an intermediary step in diplomatic relations, below an apostolic nuncio.

The Vietnamese Constitution guarantees individual freedom of belief and individual religious freedom. However, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), which advises branches of the U.S. government, in its 2023 report recommended that Vietnam be designated a “country of particular concern” due to worsening religious freedom conditions.

The report cited government persecution of religious groups, especially unregistered independent communities, including Protestant and Buddhist communities. Local authorities have also pressured some attendees of state-controlled Protestant churches to renounce their faith.

Harassment of Catholic communities also increased in 2022, according to the USCIRF report. In Hoa Binh province, local officials disrupted a Mass celebrated by Archbishop Joseph Vu Van Thien of Hanoi. There are also continuing land disputes between Catholics and local governments.

Pope Francis said he believes that Vietnam “merits” a papal trip someday and that it is “a land that deserves to go forward.”

The next step forward in building upon the bilateral relationship could be the first high-level visit of a Vatican diplomatic official to Vietnam.

Pope Francis meets with bishops of the Synod of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church at the Vatican on Sept. 6, 2023. / Credit: Vatican Media

Vatican City, Sep 6, 2023 / 11:23 am (CNA).

During a meeting in Rome Wednesday morning, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic synod of bishops told Pope Francis some of his gestures and statements have been “painful and difficult for the Ukrainian people.”

According to a Sept. 6 statement, the bishops said misunderstandings between the Vatican and Ukraine since the start of the full-scale war are used as propaganda by Russia, and so “the faithful of our Church are sensitive to every word of Your Holiness as the universal voice of truth and justice.”

The meeting between the pope and 45 bishops of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church lasted nearly two hours in a room off of the Paul VI Hall.

The encounter was part of the annual Synod of Bishops of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, taking place in Rome Sept. 3–13.

Pope Francis and the Ukrainian Greek Catholic synod of bishops shared a “frank and sincere dialogue” on Wednesday morning, according to Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, the leader of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.

During the meeting, the pope explained his recent controversial comments to young Russian Catholics by referring to the explanation he gave to journalists on the plane returning from Mongolia.

Asked about his comments on “great Mother Russia” on the plane from Ulaanbaatar to Rome Sept. 4, the pope said he meant to praise Russia’s culture and encourage young people to take responsibility for the country’s legacy.

“Russian culture is of a great beauty and depth, and should not be canceled for political issues. There have been dark years in Russia, but its legacy has always remained intact,” he told journalists during the in-flight press conference.

Francis added that it is ideology, not culture, “that is the poison.”

“When ideology gains strength and becomes political, it usually becomes dictatorship, it becomes incapable of dialogue, of moving forward with cultures. And imperialisms do this,” he said.

According to the Vatican, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic bishops, who had traveled to Rome from around the world, spoke Wednesday about the suffering experienced by the Ukrainian people. 

“Pope Francis listened attentively to the words addressed to him, expressing with some brief speeches his feelings of closeness and participation in the tragedy being experienced by Ukrainians, with a ‘dimension of martyrdom’ that is not talked about enough, subjected to cruelty and criminality,” the Vatican statement said.

The pope “expressed his sorrow for the sense of helplessness experienced in the face of war, ‘a thing of the devil, who wants to destroy,’ with a special thought for the Ukrainian children he has met during audiences. ‘They look at you and have forgotten their smiles,’ he said, and added, ‘This is one of the fruits of war: to take the smile away from children.’”

Shevchuk said in a press release: “This meeting was a time of mutual listening and an opportunity for frank and sincere dialogue.”

“We expressed to the pope everything that our faithful in Ukraine and throughout the world entrusted us to convey to His Holiness,” he said. 

The synod of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church is taking place in Rome just one month ahead of an assembly of the Synod of Bishops of the Latin Catholic Church.

The Ukrainian Greek Catholic synod is a meeting of only bishops. All but 11 of the synod’s 56 bishops were able to participate.

The Rome gathering is being held at the Ukrainian Pontifical College of St. Josaphat on the theme “Pastoral Support for Victims of War.”

At the synod’s opening Divine Liturgy in the Basilica of St. Sophia in Rome on Sept. 3, Major Archbishop Shevchuk noted that 56 bishops is a record for the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.

“Interestingly, while going through the materials yesterday, I noticed that almost half of them are younger than me,” he said. “It means that our synod is not getting older but younger every year. Therefore, we call our synod the Synod of Hope for our Church and the Ukrainian people.”

The prefect of the Dicastery for the Eastern Catholic Churches, Archbishop Claudio Gugerotti, also participated in the liturgy.

The synod will hold a Divine Liturgy open to all Catholics on the morning of Sept. 10 in St. Peter’s Basilica.

On Sept. 5, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic bishops met with Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, and Cardinal Kurt Koch, prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity.

Parolin agreed to a proposal from Shevchuk to hold a meeting of the Permanent Interdicasterial Commission for the Church in Eastern Europe.

“We will meet with representatives of this Church ‘sui iuris’ and of the Latin Church, as well as some experts, to explore issues related to war and its origin, keeping in mind that war is always an evil and, even when it responds to the right of self-defense, it is our duty as Christians and pastors to limit its effects as much as possible, with words and actions,” Parolin said.

The pope’s encounter with Ukrainian bishops Wednesday opened with the praying of an Our Father together for Ukraine and its people and closed with a prayer for the intercession of the Virgin Mary before an icon of the Theotokos, or Mother of God.

“The pope confided that every day he remembers Ukrainians in his prayers before the icon of the Virgin given to him by the Major Archbishop [Shevchuk] before he left Buenos Aires,” the Vatican said.

The Ukrainian bishops also asked for prayers for the release of two Redemptorist priests, Father Ivan Levytskyi and Father Bohdan Haleta, who remain in captivity after they were captured by Russian troops in late November 2022.

Shevchuk gave Pope Francis a prayer book, rosary, and missionary cross belonging to the priests.

“These things, Your Holiness, testify to the suffering of our Church together with its people amid the horrors of the war caused by Russian aggression. As a priceless treasure, we hand them over to you with the hope that soon a just peace will come to Ukraine,” he said.

Pope Francis spoke about his recent trip to Mongolia during the general audience in St. Peter's Square on Sept. 6, 2023. / Vatican Media

Vatican City, Sep 6, 2023 / 03:06 am (CNA).

Pope Francis on Wednesday encouraged people to look for the quiet goodness in the world, even when the tendency is to pay more attention to failure and scandal.

“Just think how many hidden seeds of goodness make the garden of the world flourish, while we usually only hear about the sound of falling trees,” he said during his weekly public audience on Sept. 6.

“People, we too like scandal. ‘Look at what barbarity, a tree fell, the noise it made!’ But you don’t see the forest that is growing every day. Because the growth is in silence,” the pope added.

He urged people to look “toward the light of the good” in the world and to fight the tendency to only appreciate others to the extent that they share our ideas.

Francis addressed pilgrims and tourists in St. Peter’s Square two days after his return from a trip to Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia.

Mongolia, a country sandwiched between China and Russia, is sparsely populated with around 3 million people across nearly 604,000 square miles.

The population, which is historically Buddhist, includes fewer than 1,500 Catholics.

“One might ask: Why did the pope go so far to visit a small flock of the faithful?” Pope Francis said at the general audience. “Because it is precisely there, far from the spotlight, that we often find the signs of the presence of God, who does not look at appearances, but at the heart.”

“The Lord,” he explained, “does not look for the center stage but the simple heart of those who desire him and love him without ostentation, without wanting to tower above others. And I had the grace of meeting, in Mongolia, a humble Church and a joyful Church, which is in the heart of God, and I can testify to their joy of finding themselves also at the center of the Church for a few days.”

The pope recounted what he called the “touching history” of the Christian community in Mongolia.

“It came about, by the grace of God, from apostolic zeal — on which we are reflecting at the moment — of a few missionaries who, impassioned by the Gospel, went about 30 years ago to that country they did not know,” he said.

Francis added that despite the difficulty, the missionaries learned the language and the way of life of the Mongolian people.

He praised the inculturated Catholic community the missionaries formed, saying they did not rely on proselytism to convert people to Christianity but showed how to live the Gospel within the Mongolian culture.

“This is catholicity: an embodied universality, which embraces the good where it is found and serves the people with whom it lives,” he said. “This is how the Church lives: bearing witness to the love of Jesus meekly, with life before words, happy with its true riches — service to the Lord and to brethren.”

Pope Francis was the first pope in history to travel to Mongolia.

During his four days in the large, landlocked Asian country Sept. 1–4, he met with government leaders, engaged in interreligious dialogue with Buddhists and people of other Eastern religions, and presided over the first ever papal Mass for the country’s small Catholic population.

“I was in the heart of Asia, and this did me good. It is good to enter into dialogue with that vast continent, to glean its messages, to know its wisdom, its way of looking at things, to embrace time and space,” Francis said.

“Thinking of the boundless and silent expanses of Mongolia,” he added, “let us be stirred by the need to extend the confines of our gaze, so that we may be able to see the good in others and be capable of broadening our horizons.”

Pope Francis greets Cardinal Luis Ladaria. / Vatican Media.

Vatican City, Sep 5, 2023 / 09:33 am (CNA).

Pope Francis met with Cardinal Luis Ladaria on Tuesday morning to thank him for his six years as head of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith.

The pope visited the dicastery shortly after 9 a.m. on Sept. 5, the Vatican said in a brief statement. Francis also greeted other officials of the dicastery after his meeting with the 79-year-old Ladaria.

On July 1 Pope Francis appointed Argentine Archbishop Víctor Manuel Fernández as Ladaria’s successor as doctrine chief.

Fernández, 61, will take up the post on Sept. 11.

Ladaria was appointed prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, then called the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, on July 1, 2017. He succeeded German Cardinal Gerhard Müller.

The Spanish theologian had served as secretary of the Vatican’s doctrine office since 2008.

A member of the Jesuits since 1966, Ladaria received a doctorate in theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University in 1975. 

He went on to become a professor of dogmatic theology at the Comillas Pontifical University in Madrid and later at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. Ladaria was also vice rector of the Gregorian from 1986–1994.

As head of the DDF, Ladaria was also president of the International Theological Commission and the Pontifical Biblical Commission. Those roles will now be filled by Fernández.

Ladaria was made a cardinal in a June 2018 consistory.

Fernández, a prolific writer and close collaborator of Pope Francis, was archbishop of La Plata, Argentina, from 2018 until his appointment as head of the DDF on July 1.

The theologian also served as rector of the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina from 2009–2018.

“As the new prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, I entrust to you a task that I consider very valuable,” Pope Francis wrote in a letter to Fernández published with the announcement of his appointment.

The pope said the dicastery at times has promoted pursuing “doctrinal errors” over “promoting theological knowledge.”

“What I expect from you is certainly something very different,” Francis said. “I ask you as prefect to dedicate your personal commitment in a more direct way to the main purpose of the dicastery, which is ‘guarding the faith.’”

Pope Francis responds to questions from the press aboard the return flight to Rome from Mongolia. / Vatican Media

Aboard the papal plane, Sep 4, 2023 / 09:07 am (CNA).

In his in-flight press conference returning from Mongolia on Monday, Pope Francis outlined his vision for the upcoming synodal assembly in October, which he said should be a prayerful exercise in dialogue free from ideology, not full of “political chatter” like a television talk show.

Pope Francis was peppered with multiple questions about the Synod on Synodality from journalists traveling with him on the 10-hour flight from Ulaanbaatar to Rome on Sept. 4.

“In the synod, there is no place for ideology,” Pope Francis told journalists on the chartered ITA Airways plane.

“There is no place for ideology, but there is room for dialogue, for an exchange between brothers and sisters,” he added.

Pope Francis emphasized the unique spiritual dimension of the first global Synod on Synodality assembly taking place at the Vatican Oct. 4–28. He said that he wants it to be “a religious moment.”

He highlighted how the synodal assembly should have three to four minutes of silent prayer between discussions, noting that this prayerful atmosphere should be what distinguishes a synodal assembly from “parliamentarianism.”

“Without this spirit of prayer, there is no synodality,” the pope said.

“There is one thing that we have to keep — ‘the synodal atmosphere,’” Francis added.

The synod should not be like a television talk show where everything is discussed, the pope explained, but a “dialogue between the baptized.”

“The synod is the dialogue between the baptized, who in the name of the Church [discuss] the life of the Church [and] dialogue with the world on the problems that affect humanity today,” he said.

Pope Francis pointed to the tradition of synods in Eastern Churches as an example.

“The Eastern Church knows how to live out synodality. It is living it as Christians … without falling into ideologies,” he said.

Pope Francis was asked about a recently published book with a preface by U.S. Cardinal Raymond Burke that compared the Synod on Synodality to opening “Pandora’s box.”

In response, Francis recalled how some religious sisters had also expressed to him their fears about the synod, telling him that they feared changes to Church doctrine.

Pope Francis said that at the root of these types of ideas about synodality, one always finds “ideologies,” adding that it is ideologies that are responsible for dividing the faithful.

He explained that “a ‘doctrine’ in quotation marks” is a doctrine that is like “distilled water,” without any taste and is not true Catholic doctrine.

“Many times true Catholic doctrine scandalizes — how scandalous is the idea that God became flesh, that God became man, that Our Lady preserved her virginity. This scandalizes,” the pope said.

“Catholic doctrine sometimes scandalizes. Ideologies are all ‘distilled’ and never scandalize.”

How the October synodal assembly will work

When asked why synod discussions will be taking place behind closed doors without access for journalists and how the synod can maintain transparency with this format, Pope Francis responded that the synod will be “very open.”

Pope Francis explained that there is a Commission for Information under the leadership of layman Paolo Ruffini, the prefect of the Vatican Dicastery for Communications, that “will make press releases on how the proceedings of the synod are going” and “provide information on the progress of the synod.”

“In the synod, the religiosity and the loyalty of the people who speak must be guarded, and this is why there is the commission led by Ruffini,” he said.

“The commission does not have an easy task,” he added, noting that the synod’s commission will need to be respectful of each delegate’s interventions and provide updates on the synod proceedings that are “constructive for the Church” and “not gossip.”

The pope told journalists that the news about the synod should not read like “political chatter,” adding that the information commission is tasked with transmitting “the Christian spirit, not the political spirit.”

“Do not forget that the protagonist of the synod is the Holy Spirit,” Pope Francis underlined.

The Commission for Information is not a novelty to the Synod on Synodality but has been a regular feature of Synod of Bishops assemblies in past years.

What is unique about the upcoming synod is that for the first time, the assembly will include voting delegates who are not bishops, including laypeople, priests, consecrated women, and deacons selected by the leadership of this year’s continental synod meetings or, in some cases, directly by the pope.

The Synod on Synodality, initiated by Pope Francis in October 2021, has been a multiyear, worldwide undertaking during which Catholics were asked to submit feedback to their local dioceses on the question “What steps does the Spirit invite us to take in order to grow in our ‘journeying together?’”

The Catholic Church’s massive synodal process has already undergone diocesan, national, and continental stages. It will culminate in two global assemblies at the Vatican.

The Instrumentum Laboris, or working document, guiding the assembly discussions suggests discernment of questions regarding some hot-button topics, including women deacons, priestly celibacy, and LGBTQ outreach.

The first October assembly will be held in the Paul VI Hall instead of the Vatican’s New Synod Hall, with delegates sitting at round tables of about 10 people each to discuss how to advise the pope on the topic: “For a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation, Mission.” The second assembly is set for October 2024.

Pope Francis has a busy month ahead leading up to the first October synod assembly. The 86-year-old has another international trip planned not long after returning from his four-day trip in Mongolia.

The pope will travel to Marseilles, France, publish an update to Laudato Si’, preside over an ecumenical prayer vigil, and create 21 new cardinals at a consistory at the end of the month.

During the 40-minute in-flight press conference, Pope Francis spoke about Vatican-China relations, the possibility of a papal trip to Vietnam, and further clarified his recent comments on Russian imperialism.