Rome prison chaplain "super-happy" Pope to visit

On Holy Thursday 2 April, Pope Francis will visit Rome’s Casa Circondariale New Prison Complex Rebibbia to meet detainees and staff. He will celebrate the "in Cena Domini" or Lord’s Supper Mass in the church, "Padre Nostro" at 5:30 pm Rome time. During the rite, he will wash the feet of a group of detainees and female inmates from the nearby women’s penitentiary. Vatican Radio’s Sergio Centofanti spoke to Rebibbia chaplain, Don Sandro Spriano:

A. - We are super happy, because the Pope has accepted the invitation I gave him when we met at a Mass in the Santa Marta guesthouse in September.  He told us that if possible, he would come on Holy Thursday. The fact that he kept this promise makes us very, very happy: it is a beautiful thing. We will repeat the experience of three years ago, with Pope Ratzinger, but in a different context and with a different person.

Q. - For the inmates, what does this visit mean?

A. – Clearly it shows how much importance the Church of Rome in particular places on their condition. We always say that they are the most unfortunate.  In this case, showing that they are children of God, loved by the Church and in particular by the Pope, is for them very, very important. Among other things, it will be the first time when we will celebrate with men and women prisoners, bringing inmates of the women's prison to join us: it will be a very nice thing.

Q. – What do you remember most of Benedict XVI’s visit?

A. –I recall it vividly, because then it was a dialogue of questions and answers with the Pope, and he opened up and shared some personal stories so it was something truly fraternal. In this case, the celebration certainly has a different solemnity but the gesture of the "Washing of the Feet" of male and female detainees, will be not only a liturgically significant moment but also emotionally, a very nice moment.

Q. - What is the situation today at Rebibbia?

A. – It’s a situation with a little less overcrowding, but the people there continue to have the same problems as before because unfortunately the prison issue – a part from some measures that have brought down the numbers - nothing new has happened.

Q. - What are your expectations for the Pope’s visit?

A. - This is a strictly pastoral visit. We need someone to embrace us, who makes us feel part of society, who makes us feel part of the wider Christian Church and not segregated. The Pope will do this and it is what we hope for.

Q. - What are you calling politicians to do?

A. – What we are really asking is that prison is not simply punishment and society’s revenge on those who commit crimes, in trouble with the law.  We want to see that prison - as described in the Constitution – is a place of recovery, a place of re-socialization, a place where you can also build  some basis on which to return to live - better! When you leave.

(from Vatican Radio)

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Lenten call to Catholics to support Church in the Holy Land

Parishes across the world year after year take up the traditional annual Good Friday Collection for the Church in the Holy Land.

This year is no different and the Prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches, Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, has written a letter to all pastors of the Universal Church in which he expresses the gratitude of Pope Francis, of his Dicastery and of all the Churches “in the land of Christ” for their attention and generous response to the Collection.  

The proceeds from the Good Friday Collection go to the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land.

The Franciscans have been caring for the holy sites there since 1209. They also assist the poor, run schools, provide scholarships, and conduct pastoral ministries to keep Christianity alive in the land where it originated.

The Collection is still today the principal source which sustains the life and works of the region’s Christians. It helps Christians of many denominations remain in the region as living witnesses to Christ.

In his appeal to Catholics to donate generously this Good Friday, Cardinal Sandri noted that  “there are millions of refugees fleeing Syria and Iraq, where the roar of arms does not cease and the way of dialogue and concord seems completely lost”.

This year – he continued – “presents a still more precious opportunity to become pilgrims of faith after the example of the Holy Father, who in May last year visited this patch of land, so dear to Christians, Jews and Muslims alike. It is a chance to become promoters of dialogue through peace, prayer and sharing of burdens”. 

Please find below the letter written by Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, dated February 18 2015: 

Your Excellency,

    At the invitation of the Supreme Pontiffs, the Catholic Church, gathering on Good Friday for the memorial of the sorrowful Passion of Christ, expresses by prayer and by this Collection its support for the faith communities and the sacred places in the Holy Land. The need is particularly felt in this time of crisis, through which the entire region of the Middle East is passing.

    The season of Lent favors a meditation full of love for the Holy Places which were present at the origin of our faith and in which the first Christian communities, following Christ, Salus Mundi, were gathered. Already St Paul remembers them, when he warmly exhorts his audience to “to make some contribution for the poor…” (cf. Rm 15:25-26; Gal 2:10; 1 Cor 16; 2 Cor 8-9).

    Like the Apostle, so also Pope Francis has particularly at heart the sufferings of so many of our brothers and sisters in this corner of the world, a place made sacred by the Blood of the Lamb. “[Their suffering] aggravated in the past months because of the continuing hostilities in the region … cries out to God and it calls for our commitment to prayer and concrete efforts to help in any way possible.” (Pope Francis, Letter to the Christians in the Middle East, 21 December 2014). 

    Presently, there are millions of refugees fleeing Syria and Iraq, where the roar of arms does not cease and the way of dialogue and concord seems to be completely lost. Senseless hatred seems to prevail instead, along with the helpless desperation of those who have lost everything and have been expulsed from the land of their ancestors.

    If the Christians of the Holy Land are encouraged to resist, to the degree possible, the understandable temptation to flee, the faithful throughout the world are asked to take their plight to heart. Also involved are brothers in Christ who belong to various confessions: an ecumenism of blood which points toward the triumph of unity: “ut unum sint”! (Jn 17:21). 

        This year presents a still more precious opportunity to become pilgrims in faith after the example of the Holy Father, who in May of last year visited this patch of land, so dear to Christians, Jews and Muslims alike. It is a chance to become promoters of dialogue through peace, prayer and sharing of burdens, because “the way of peace is strengthened if we realize that we are all of the same stock and members of the one human family; if we never forget that we have the same Father in heaven and that we are all his children, made in his image and likeness.” (Homily of Pope Francis during the Holy Mass at the International Stadium of Amman, 24 May 2014). 

    The little flock of Christians, spread throughout the Middle East is called “to promote dialogue, to build bridges in the spirit of the Beatitudes (cf. Mt 5:3:12), and to proclaim the Gospel of peace...” (Ibid., Letter to Christians in the Middle East). 

    Only in the unity of the Spirit and in fraternal charity with all disciples of Christ, can the Church, His Spouse, bear witness to hope before her children who daily live the same sufferings of the Lord, humiliated and abandoned.

    I trust that the Good Friday Collection will be welcomed by all of the local Churches, resulting in an ever greater participation in the solidarity coordinated by our Congregation in order to guarantee the Holy Land with necessary support, both for the demands of ordinary ecclesial life and for particular necessities.

    To You, to your closest Collaborators, particularly priests and religious men and women, as well as to all the faithful, I express the deepest gratitude of the Holy Father Francis and of this Dicastery, together with that of the Churches in the Land of Christ, for your generous attention and heartfelt response which will make successful this year’s Collecta pro Terra Sancta.

    With my fraternal best regards in the Lord Jesus,

        Leonardo Card. Sandri
        Prefect     

        ✠ Cyril Vasil’, S.J.

        Archbishop Secretary 

        

 (from Vatican Radio)

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Pope Francis: We must not abandon the elderly

 Pope Francis on Thursday addressed members of the Pontifical Academy for Life, who are meeting in Rome for their General Assembly.

In his remarks, the Holy Father spoke about the theme of the Assembly: “Assisting the elderly and palliative care.” Palliative care, he said, “is an expression of the properly human attitude of taking care of one another, especially of those who suffer. It bears witness that the human person is always precious, even if marked by age and sickness.”

Pope Francis also spoke of the duty of honouring the elderly, which he associated with the biblical commandment to honour one’s parents. On the contrary, he said, the Bible has a stern warning for those who neglect or mistreat their parents. This judgement applies today when parents, “having become older and less useful, are marginalized to the point of abandonment.”

The Pope explained that “to honour” can be understood in our day “as the duty to have extreme respect and to take care of those who, because of their physical or social condition, could be left to die, or ‘made to die’.”

Palliative care, Pope Francis said, recognizes, at the end of life, the value of the person. He called on all those involved in palliative care to preserve this spirit of service, and to remember that “all medical knowledge is truly science, in its most noble sense” only if it has in view the true good of the human being, a good that can never be achieved when it acts contrary to human life and dignity. “It is this capacity for service to the life and dignity of the sick, even when they are old, that is the measure of the true progress of medicine, and of all society.”

Below, please find the full text of the Holy Father's address to the Pontifical Academy for Life: 

Dear brothers and sisters,

I cordially welcome you on the occasion of your general Assembly, called to reflect on the theme “Assisting the elderly and palliative care,” and I thank the President for his kind words. I am especially happy to greet Cardinal Sgreccia, who is a pioneer... Thank you! 

Palliative care is an expression of the properly human attitude of taking care of one another, especially of those who suffer. It bears witness that the human person is always precious, even if marked by age and sickness. The human person, in fact, in whatever circumstance, is a good in and of himself and for others, and is loved by God. For this reason, when life becomes very fragile and the end of earthly existence approaches, we feel the responsibility to assist and accompany the person in the best way.

The biblical commandment that requires us to honour our parents, understood broadly, reminds us of the honour we must show to all elderly people. God associates a double promise with this commandment: “that you may have a long life” (Ex 20:12) and, the other, “that you might prosper” (Dt 5:16). Faithfulness to the fourth commandment assures us not only of the gifts of the earth, but especially of the possibility of enjoying them. In fact, the wisdom that makes us recognize the value of the elderly person and that brings us to honour them, is the same wisdom that allows us to appreciate the numerous gifts that we receive every day from the providential hand of the Father, and to be happy. The precept reveals to us fundamental pedagogical relationship between parents and children, between the elderly and the young, with regard to the preservation and transmission of the teachings of religion and wisdom to future generations. To honour this teaching and those who pass it on is the source of life and blessing.

On the contrary, the Bible reserves a severe warning for those who neglect or mistreat their parents (cf. Ex 21:17; Lv 20:9). The same judgement applies today when parents, having become older and less useful, are marginalized to the point of abandonment. And there are so many examples!

The Word of God is always living, and we see well how the commandment proves topical for contemporary society, where the logic of utility takes precedence over that of solidarity and gratitude, even within families. Let us hear, then, with docile hearts, the word of God that comes to us from the commandments – which, let us always remember, are not bonds that imprison us, but are words of life.

“To honour” today might well be translated as the duty to have extreme respect and to take care of those who, because of their physical or social condition, could be left to die, or “made to die.” All medicine has a special role within society as a witness of the honour that is due to elderly persons, and to every human being. Neither the medical evidence and efficiency, nor the rules of health care systems and economic profit, can be the only criteria governing the actions of doctors. A State cannot think of making a profit with medicine. On the contrary, there is no more important duty for a society than safeguarding the human person.

Your work in these days explores new areas for the application of palliative care. At first, they were a precious accompaniment for cancer patients, but now there are many different illnesses, often related to old age and characterized by a chronic and progressive deterioration, that can make use of this kind of assistance. The elderly, first of all, need the care of family members – whose affection cannot be replaced by more efficient structures or more competent and charitable healthcare workers. When this is not sufficient, or in the case of advanced or terminal illness, the elderly can be benefitted by truly human assistance, and receive adequate responses to their needs thanks to palliative care offered in such a way that it supplements and supports the care provided by family members. Palliative care has to objective of alleviating suffering in the last stages of illness and at the same time of assuring the patient of adequate human accompaniment (cf. Evang. Vitae, 65). It deals with the important support for the elderly, who, for reasons of age, often receive less attention from curative medicine, and are often abandoned. Abandonment is the most serious “illness” of the elderly, and also the greatest injustice they can suffer: those who helped us to grow must not be abandoned when they need our help, our love, and our tenderness.

I therefore welcome your scientific and culture efforts to ensure that palliative care can reach all those who need it. I encourage professionals and students to specialize in this type of assistance, which has no less value on account of the fact that it “does not save lives.” Palliative care recognizes something equally important: recognizing the value of the person. I urge all those who, under whatever title, are involved in the field of palliative care, to practice this duty of conserving the spirit of service in its fulness and recalling that all medical knowledge is truly science, in its most noble sense, only if it finds its place as a help in view of the good of man, a good that is never achieved by going “against” his life and dignity.

It is this capacity for service to the life and dignity of the sick, even when they are old, that is the measure of the true progress of medicine, and of all society. I repeat the appeal of Saint John Paul II: “Respect, protect, love and serve life, every human life! Only in this direction will you find justice, development, true freedom, peace and happiness!” (ibid., 5).

It is my hope that you will continue your studies and your research, that the work of the promotion and defence of life might be ever more efficacious and fruitful. May the Virgin Mother, the Mother of life, assist you and may my Benediction accompany you. Please, do not forget to pray for me. Thank you!

(from Vatican Radio)

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