Pope: Concern for the poor is Gospel–not communism

VATICAN CITY—Pope Francis is insisting that his concern for the poor and critique of the global economic system isn’t some novel, communist-inspired ideology but rather the original and core “touchstone” of the Christian faith.

Some US conservatives have branded the first Latin American Pope a Marxist for his frequent critiques of consumerism and focus on a Church “that is poor and for the poor.”

But in an interview contained in a new book, Francis explains that his message is rooted in the Gospel and has been echoed by Church fathers since Christianity’s first centuries.

“The Gospel does not condemn the wealthy, but the idolatry of wealth, the idolatry that makes people indifferent to the call of the poor,” Francis says in “This Economy Kills,” a study of the Pope’s economic and social teachings, excerpts of which were provided on Sunday to The Associated Press.

Specifically, Francis summarized a verse from the Gospel of Matthew that is the essential mission statement of his papacy: “I was hungry, I was thirsty, I was in prison, I was sick, I was naked and you helped me, clothed me, visited me, took care of me.”

“Caring for our neighbor, for those who are poor, who suffer in body and soul, for those who are in need: this is the touchstone. Is it pauperism? No. It is the Gospel.”

He cites Church fathers dating to St. Ambrose and St. John Chrysostom as expressing the same concerns, and noted somewhat wryly that if he had said the same “some would accuse me of giving a Marxist homily.”

“As we can see, this concern for the poor is in the Gospel, it is within the tradition of the Church, it is not an invention of communism and it must not be turned into some ideology, as has sometimes happened before in the course of history,” an apparent reference to the Latin American-inspired liberation theology.

“This Economy Kills,” by two seasoned Vatican reporters, comes out this week in Italian.

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

Pope prays for victims of Paris attack

VATICAN CITY—Pope Francis celebrated Mass for the victims of the attack on the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo on Thursday, praying for all those affected by an Islamist assault which left 12 people dead.

“The terror attack in Paris brings to mind so much cruelty, human cruelty, so much terrorism, both isolated terrorism and of state terrorism,” the 78-year old Pontiff said, according to Vatican radio.

“We pray for the victims of this cruelty, so many of them. And we pray also for the perpetrators of such cruelty, that the Lord might change their hearts,” he said.

Following the early morning prayers in the chapel of the Santa Marta residence in the Vatican, where the Pope lives, Francis posted the #PrayersForParis hashtag on Twitter.

The Pontiff had earlier issued a strong condemnation of the “horrible attack” against the weekly, with a plea “to oppose, by all means, hatred and all forms of physical or moral violence that destroy human life or violate a person’s dignity.”

Shouting “Allahu akbar” (“God is greater”), two heavily armed men stormed the Paris headquarters of a satirical weekly on Wednesday, killing some of the country’s most loved cartoonists in cold blood in the worst attack on French soil in decades.

The weekly received numerous threats for publishing cartoons of the Muslim prophet but was also a constant critic of the Roman Catholic Church and its leaders.

Pope Francis is scheduled to visit the Philippines from January 15 to 19.

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

Black smoke over Vatican: No new pope yet

VATICAN CITY— Black smoke is billowing from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel, meaning Roman Catholic cardinals have not elected a pope in their second or third rounds of balloting.

Cardinals voted twice Wednesday in Michelangelo’s famed frescoed chapel after a first vote Tuesday in a conclave to elect a successor to Benedict XVI, who stunned the Catholic world last month by becoming the first pope in 600 years to resign.

The conclave was called after Pope Benedict XVI resigned last month, throwing the church into turmoil and exposing deep divisions among cardinals tasked with finding a manager to clean up a corrupt Vatican bureaucracy as well as a pastor who can revive Catholicism in a time of growing secularism.

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

Benedict begins final day as pope before retiring

VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI is beginning a final quiet day as pontiff, meeting with his cardinals before flying off into retirement.

No major speech is expected during his morning farewell Thursday with his closest advisers, just a simple greeting to each one inside the Clementine Hall of the Apostolic Palace.

Shortly before 5 p.m., Benedict will leave the palace for the last time as pope, head to the helipad on the top of the hill in the Vatican gardens and fly by helicopter to the papal retreat at Castel Gandolfo south of Rome.

And there, at 8 p.m. — the exact moment Benedict’s resignation goes into effect — the doors of the palazzo will close and the Swiss Guards in attendance will go off duty, their service protecting the pope now finished.

source:  newsinfo.inquirer.net