Pope Francis in America, October 1, 2015

CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO Newspaper of the Archdiocese of San Francisco

Serving San Francisco, Marin & San Mateo Counties

www.catholic-sf.org

October 1, 2015

$1.00 | VOL. 17 NO. 25

‘Love and peace triumph over all’ Pope urges US Catholics to embrace the family, welcome newcomers, care for creation

Pope Francis waves to the crowd as he makes his way to celebrate the closing Mass of the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia Sept. 27.

David Agren Catholic News Service

PHILADELPHIA – Pope Francis ended his trip to the United States with a call for Catholics to keep the enthusiasm of the visit, while continuing to welcome newcomers and care for creation.

“Do not let your enthusiasm for Jesus, his church, our families, and the broader family of society run dry,” Pope Francis said at Philadelphia International Airport, prior to flying back to Rome. “I pray that our days of prayer and reflection on the importance of the family for a healthy society will inspire families to continue to strive for holiness and to see the church as their constant companion, whatever the challenges they may face.”

In just over five full days in the U.S., Pope Francis reaffirmed the importance of church and family life, pleaded for inclusive attitudes toward immigrants, reiterated the right of religious freedom and called for action on climate change and care for creation.

The trip reaffirmed the pope’s enormous popularity with Catholics and non-Catholics alike as large crowds convened – even with tight security – while media coverage was comprehensive.

Pope Francis, who met again with Vice President Joe Biden just prior to leaving Sept. 27, acknowledged the warmth of the welcome in his final remarks.

“Your care for me and your generous welcome are a sign of your love for Jesus and your faithfulness to him. So, too, is your care for the poor, the sick, the homeless and the immigrant, your defense of life at every stage, and your concern for family life,” Pope Francis said. “In all of this, you recognize that Jesus is in your midst and that your care for one another is care for Jesus himself.”

The pope visited Philadelphia as part of the World Meeting of Families. He delighted droves of wellwishers with an off-the-cuff speech on family life. At Independence Hall, he spoke in Spanish on respect for religious freedom and urged immigrant communities – and all Americans – to remember their roots and embrace diversity.

“You should never be ashamed of your traditions,” he said.

Pope Francis also stopped in New York, where he visited a Catholic school in Harlem, addressed the U.N. General Assembly and led a multireligious

gathering at ground zero – a “place which speaks so powerfully of the mystery of evil.”

“We know with certainty that evil never has the last word,” Pope Francis said. “In God’s merciful plan, love and peace triumph over all.”

In Washington, the pope addressed a joint meeting of Congress, visited later with the homeless and canonized St. Junipero Serra, “who reminds us all of our call to be missionary disciples.”

The visit involved political and pastoral aspects.

Pope Francis arrived first in Cuba, having helped end the decades-long estrangement between the communist country and the United States.

In the United States, his speech to Congress was widely watched and touched on topics such as protecting life in all its stages, religious liberty and acting against climate change. He touched on his environmental encyclical, “Laudato Si’” again in his parting remarks.

“This land has been blessed with tremendous gifts and opportunities,” the pope said. “I pray that you may all be good and generous stewards of the human and material resources entrusted to you.”

In his final speech, as in some others, Pope Francis ended with the words, “God bless America.”

Stay connected to Catholic San Francisco

csf

(CNS photo/Matt Rourke, pool)

Like us on Facebook Follow us on Twitter Find us on Evergive.com Read our eEdition Sign up to receive our Enewsletter

pope francis in america Pope to bishops . . . . . . p2 Pope to Congress . . . . P3 ‘Impressed’ by US . . . P4 Regular issue of CSF, including Serra canonization coverage, inside this section

P2

pope francis in america

Catholic san francisco | October 1, 2015

Catholic san francisco | October 1, 2015

Pope to bishops: Gratitude to families must prevail over complaints

Pope to Congress: Stop bickering, world needs your help Catholic news service

WASHINGTON – The past, the promise and the potential of the United States must not be smothered by bickering and even hatred at a time when the U.S. people and indeed the world need a helping hand, Pope Francis told the U.S. Congress Sept. 24.

The first pope ever to address a joint meeting of Congress, the pope introduced himself, though, as a son of the American continent, who had been blessed by the “new world” and felt a responsibility toward it.

He condemned legalized abortion, the death penalty and unscrupulous weapons sales. He called on Congress to “seize the moment” by normalizing relations with Cuba and pleaded for openness to immigrants.

“A nation can be considered great when it defends liberty as Lincoln did; when it fosters a culture which enables people to ‘dream’ of full rights for all their brothers and sisters as Martin Luther King sought to do; when it strives for justice and the cause of the oppressed as Dorothy Day did by her tireless work; the fruit of a faith which becomes dialogue and sows peace in the contemplative style of Thomas Merton,” the pope said.

Vatican Information Service

VATICAN CITY – Shortly after his meeting with a group of clergy abuse victims, Pope Francis returned to the issue of sexual abuse at the beginning of his address to the 300 bishops attending the World Meeting of Families, held in the chapel of St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Philadelphia Sept. 27.

“I am deeply pained by the stories, the sufferings and the pain of minors who were sexually abused by priests,” he said. “I continue to be ashamed that persons charged with the tender care of those little ones abused them and caused them grave harm. I deeply regret this. God weeps.

“The crimes and sins of sexual abuse of minors may no longer be kept secret; I commit myself to ensuring that the church makes every effort to protect minors and I promise that those responsible will be held to account,” he said.

The pope also discussed how the church is called to minister to families in a culture defined by consumerism.

“Should we blame our young people for having grown up in this kind of society?” he asked. “Should we condemn them for living in this kind of a world? Should they hear their pastors saying that ‘it was all better back then.’… No, I do not think that this is the way. As shepherds following in the footsteps of the Good Shepherd, we are asked to seek out, to accompany, to lift up, to bind up the wounds of our time. To look at things realistically, with the eyes of one who feels called to action, to pastoral conversion.

“The world today demands this conversion on our part.

It is vitally important for the church today to go forth and preach the Gospel to all: to all places, on all occasions, without hesitation, reluctance or fear,” the pope said.

“As pastors, we bishops are called to collect our energies and to rebuild enthusiasm for making families correspond ever more fully to the blessing of God which they are!” the pope said. “We need to invest our energies not so much in rehearsing the problems of the world around us and the merits of Christianity, but in extending a sincere invitation to young people to be brave and to opt for marriage and the family.

“A Christianity which ‘does’ little in practice, while incessantly ‘explaining’ its teachings, is dangerously unbalanced,” the pope said. “I would even say that it is stuck in a vicious circle. …,” the pope said, calling for pastoral “watchfulness.”

“Only one capable of standing ‘in the midst of’ the flock can be watchful, not someone who is afraid of questions, contact, accompaniment,” he said.

(CNS photo/Lisa Johnston, St. Louis Review)

Jerome Loines sits on the streets he calls home near Times Square in New York Sept. 25. He said he was able to catch a glimpse of Pope Francis from afar the evening before. “I’m really feeling this guy,” he said of Francis. “I’m out here on the street for a really long time now... but the pope has a message of hope.”

The pope Washington Sept. 24. In the first such speech by a pope, he called on Congress to stop bickering as the world needs help.

(CNS photo/Paul Haring)

Vatican Information Service

Pope goes back to school, meets students, community in Harlem

NEW YORK – Pope Francis encouraged an audience of Catholic school students and immigrants to live with joy and dare to dream.

“They tell me that one of the nice things about this school is that some of its students come from other places, even from other countries,” Pope Francis told students and a group of immigrants at the Our Lady Queen of Angels school in Harlem, Sept. 25.

Immigrants at the school greeted the pope personally, engaged in small talk and read from Matthew. “I was a stranger and you welcomed me.”

The pope spoke of dreams and invoked another religious leader, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. “One day he said, ‘I have a dream.’ His dream was that many children, many people could have equal opportunities. His dream was that many children like you could get an education,” the pope said.

‘No justification whatsoever’ for lack of housing

(CNS photo/Paul Haring)

The Pope blesses a prisoner as he visits the Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility in Philadelphia Sept. 27.

God wants all his children to take part in the Gospel feast

VATICAN CITY – Hundreds of thousands of people attended the concluding Mass of the Eighth World Meeting of Families celebrated by Pope Francis in Philadelphia’s Benjamin Franklin Parkway Sept. 27.

In his homily, the pope commented on the two readings of the day’s liturgy, which present the scandal of the people before the miracles and the unexpected prophecies.

Jesus encountered “hostility from people who did not accept what he said and did. For them, his openness to the honest and sincere faith of many men and women who were not part of God’s chosen people seemed intolerable.

The disciples, for their part, acted in good faith. But the temptation to be scandalized by the freedom of God, who sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous alike, bypassing bureaucracy, officialdom and inner circles, threatens the authenticity of faith. Hence it must be vigorously rejected. Once we realize this, we can understand why Jesus’ words about causing ‘scandal’ are so harsh. For Jesus, the truly ‘intolerable’ scandal consists in everything that breaks down and destroys our trust in the working of the Spirit.”

The pope continued, “Our father will not be outdone in generosity and He continues to scatter seeds. He scatters the seeds of His presence in our world, for ‘love consists in this, not that we have loved God but that he loved us’ first.

That love gives us a profound certainty: We are sought by God; He waits for us.”

P3

(CNS photo/Paul Haring)

The pope embraces a woman in a wheelchair as he arrives in St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York Sept. 24.

(CNS photo)

The pope tosses up a soccer ball during his meeting with immigrant families at Our Lady Queen of Angels School in the East Harlem area of New York Sept. 25.

WASHINGTON – “We can find no social or moral justification, no justification, no justification whatsoever, for lack of housing,” Pope Francis told an audience of about 200 clients of Catholic Charities gathered at St. Patrick Church Sept. 24.

“The Son of God came into this world as a homeless person. The Son of God knew what it was to be a homeless person, what it was to start life without a roof over his head,” Pope Francis said.

“These are questions which many of you may ask daily,” the pope continued. You may ask: Why are we homeless, without a place to live?”

Pope Francis added, “These are questions which all of us might well ask. Why do these, our brothers and sisters, have no place to live?

The pope told the Catholic Charities clients that Jesus is with them to give them comfort.

“We know that Jesus wanted to show solidarity with every person. He wanted everyone to experience his companionship, his help and his love. He identified with all those who suffer, who weep, who suffer any kind of injustice,” Pope Francis said.

Visiting prison, pope says all people need forgiveness, cleansing

(CNS photo/Jim Bourg, Reuters)

Nuns leans out to see the pope at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington Sept. 23.

(CNS photo/Tony Gentile)

The pope places a rose at the South Pool of the National 9/11 Memorial and Museum Sept. 25 in New York.

(CNS photo/courtesy of the Little Sisters of the Poor)

The Pope talks with Sister Marie Mathilde, 102, at the Little Sisters of the Poor residence in Washington Sept. 23.

PHILADELPHIA – Pope Francis spent about an hour at the Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility Sept. 27, speaking to the inmates about Jesus washing his disciples’ feet.

“Life is a journey, along different roads, different paths, which leave their mark on us,” the pope said. “We know in faith that Jesus seeks us out. He wants to heal our wounds, to soothe our feet, which hurt from traveling alone, to wash each of us clean of the dust from our journey.”

Jesus, the pope said, “doesn’t ask us where we have been, he doesn’t question us what about we have done.” Instead, Jesus washes peoples’ feet and gives them life.

“It is painful when we see people who think that only others need to be cleansed, purified, and do not recognize that their weariness, pain and wounds are also the weariness, pain and wounds of society,” Pope Francis continued.

Catholic news service

P4 pope francis in america

Catholic san francisco | October 1, 2015

Pope Francis looks out at the Statue of Liberty while flying over New York Harbor on his way from New York to Philadelphia Sept. 26.

(CNS photo/L’Osservatore Romano via Reuters)

Pope says he left US praying for, impressed by its people Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service

ABOARD THE PAPAL FLIGHT FROM PHILADELPHIA – As the American Airlines plane taking him to Rome from Philadelphia took off, Pope Francis said he pictured the faces of all the people he met, and he prayed for them.

At the end of his first-ever visit to the United States, the pope told reporters he “was surprised by the warmth of the people” and how they were “so loving. It was beautiful.”

Spending close to 50 minutes with members of the media flying back to Rome with him Sept. 27, the pope said he also was struck by the sincere piety of people at his Masses and prayer services.

Shortly after takeoff, Pope Francis responded to a dozen questions, including why he spoke with such compassion to U.S. bishops in Washington about what they went through in the aftermath of the clerical sex abuse crisis.

“I felt a need to express compassion because what happened was horrible, and many of them suffered a lot,” the pope said. For “men of prayer, good pastors” the crisis was truly a “tribulation.”

Sexual abuse occurs in families, schools and other environments, he said, but when the abuser is a priest it is “a kind of sacrilege,” because a priest’s job is to help a person grow in love of God and, instead, an abusive priest “squashes” his victims.

An abusive priest “has betrayed his vocation, the call of the Lord, and those who covered these things up is also guilty; even some bishops covered this up. It was a horrible thing. And my words of comfort were not to say, ‘well, be tranquil, it was nothing,’ – no, no, not that. But it was such a bad time that I imagine they wept a lot.”

Pope Francis said he understands survivors who feel they cannot forgive their abusers and those who have lost their faith in God because of it.

“I pray for them,” he said.

Conscientious objection is ‘human right’

On another topic, a U.S. reporter referred to the Kentucky county clerk, Kim Davis, who refused to issue a marriage license to a gay couple because of her religious beliefs. The reporter asked Pope Francis to comment on the discussions in the United States regarding religious liberty and its possible limits Pope Francis said he had no idea of the specific case, but he insisted that “conscientious objection is a right – it is a human right.” If some rights can be denied in certain circumstances, he said, then

(CNS photo/Paul Haring)

Pope Francis speaks with journalists aboard his flight from Philadelphia to Rome Sept. 27.

it would turn into a situation where people were determining some human rights were more important than others.

When asked further about the county clerk, the pope said since the official was a human being then that official should enjoy the full range of human rights, including the right to follow her conscience.

Asked about the role of women in the church, Pope Francis said not ordaining women does not mean the church does not recognize how essential they are to its life and ministry, which is one of the reasons he highlighted the contributions of consecrated women.

“The sisters in the United States have done marvelous things – in the field of education, in the field of health care. And the people of the United States love the sisters.”

“I felt like I needed to thank them for what they have done,” he said.

Asked if the success of his visit to the United States made him feel powerful or like a star, he said power is not his ambition: “It is something that passes. You have it today, but tomorrow it’s gone.”

For those who follow Jesus, he said, the only power that counts is the power to serve others. “True power is service ... humble service, and I still need to make progress on this path of service because I feel like I am not doing all that I need to do.”

Annulment changes juridical, not doctrinal

After participating in the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia and looking ahead to the opening Oct. 4 of the Synod of Bishops on the family, Pope Francis was asked about his decision to streamline the process for declaring the nullity of marriages.

He insisted the change was strictly juridical and

not doctrinal. It is not “Catholic divorce,” he said.

The annulment process needed reform because with automatic appeals “there were processes that lasted 10-15 years.”

The annulment process does not dissolve a marriage, but rather investigates whether or not a valid sacramental marriage was present from the beginning, he said.

The decision to issue the new rules for the process responds to a request made by the majority of bishops at the extraordinary Synod of Bishops on the family last year, he said.

The question of finding some sort of process or “penitential path” to readmit to the sacraments Catholics who have remarried without an annulment is something still on the synod’s agenda, he said. “It seems a bit simplistic to me to say they can receive Communion,” but it is an issue that needs further discussion.

Another issue touched upon during his U.S. visit was migration. Pope Francis had told the U.S. Congress, “Our world is facing a refugee crisis of a magnitude not seen since the World War II.” On the plane he told reporters that the world cannot pretend the crisis currently impacting Europe sprang up overnight. He said it was provoked by years of war and tensions in the Middle East and by decades of hunger and tensions in Africa, a continent that continues to be exploited by the world’s rich nations when some investment would create jobs and help people live dignified lives in their homelands.

‘Walls are not the solution’

As for the idea of some European nations to start building walls or fences to keep migrants out, Pope Francis said the influx of newcomers needs to be handled intelligently, “but walls are not the solution.”

Erecting walls, he said, “the problems remain and they remain with increased hatred.”

Pushed to comment on his popularity, Pope Francis insisted he doesn’t feel like a “star” because of all the crowds that flocked to meet him. Besides, he said, stars tend to come and go.

The pope is called to be “the servant of the servants of God – that’s a bit different than a star,” he said. “Stars are beautiful to watch; I like to gaze at them when the sky is clear. But the pope must be the servant of the servants of God.” Asked about the primary task facing the church in the United States, the pope said, “The challenge of the church is to be what it always was – close to the people, not detached,” he said.