By Justin McLellan
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Heaven is not a secure vault protected from outsiders but a “hidden treasure” that is reached by cultivating virtues, Pope Francis said.

Before praying the Angelus in St. Peter’s Square on the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul June 29, the pope reflected on Jesus giving St. Peter, the first pope, the keys to the kingdom of heaven.

“The mission that Jesus entrusts to Peter is not that of barring the doors to the house, permitting entry only to a few select guests, but of helping everyone to find the way to enter, in faithfulness to the Gospel of Jesus,” Pope Francis said after celebrating Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica.

Heaven, he added, is “for everyone. Everyone, everyone, everyone can enter.”

The pope said that St. Peter “received the keys to the kingdom not because he was perfect, no, he is a sinner, but because he was humble, honest and the Father had given him sincere faith.”

Even after many trials and setbacks, the Apostle Peter was the first to experience for himself “the joy and freedom that come from meeting the Lord,” and the first “to understand that authority is a service in order to open the door to Jesus.”

The following day, Pope Francis again appeared in the window of the Apostolic Palace to keep his usual Sunday appointment of praying the Angelus with the faithful. He focused on the Gospel theme of inclusivity by reflecting on the day’s Gospel reading from St. Mark in which a woman is healed after touching Jesus’ cloak and a girl is resurrected after Jesus took her by the hand.

Highlighting the importance of physical contact in both healings, the pope asked, “Why is this physical contact important?”

“It is because these two women are considered impure and cannot, therefore, be physically touched – one because she suffers from bleeding and the other because she is dead,” he said. “Yet, Jesus allows Himself to be touched and is not afraid to touch.”

By carrying out the physical healing, Jesus “challenges the false religious belief that God separates the pure, placing them on one side, from the impure on another,” the pope said. “Instead, God does not make this kind of separation because we are all his children.”

He added that impurity “does not come from food, illness, or even death; impurity comes from an impure heart.”

Pope Francis urged Christians to take to heart the lesson from the day’s Gospel reading, that “in the face of bodily and spiritual sufferings, of the wounds our souls bear, of the situations that crush us, and even in the face of sin, God does not keep us at a distance.”

“God is not ashamed of us; God does not judge us,” he said. “On the contrary, He draws near to let Himself be touched and to touch us, and He always raises us from death.”

By Justin McLellan

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Francis said he hopes the spirit of openness and dialogue embodied in synodality remain the norm for the Catholic Church after the current Synod of Bishops comes to a close.

The pope told the moderators of church movements June 13 that his hope is that “synodality remain as the permanent way of acting in the church at all levels, entering in the hearts of all pastors and faithful until it becomes a shared ecclesial style.”

The “most important thing from this synod on synodality is not so much dealing with this or that issue,” the pope said. “The most important thing is the parish, diocesan and universal journey in synodality.”

In March, Pope Francis decided that the most controversial issues raised at the first assembly of the Synod of Bishops, including the role of women in the church and guidelines for training priests, will be examined by 10 study groups and sidelined from main conversations at the next synod assembly. The groups are scheduled to present a preliminary report to the synod’s second assembly in October and to give the pope a final report on their work by June 2025.

Some 200 participants in a conference of moderators of associations of the faithful, ecclesial movements and new movements met with Pope Francis as part of a yearly meeting at the Vatican organized by the Dicsatery for Laity, the Family and Life; the theme this year was “The Challenge of Synodality for Mission.”

The meeting “aims to highlight some examples of synodal structures and practices already implemented in associations and movements that can be an example and stimulus for the whole Church,” a statement by the dicastery said, such as ” sharing experiences of faith within small groups or small communities, community discernment, co-responsibility of lay and ordained ministers in assuming roles of governance, involvement of married couples and young people in evangelization (and) charitable and social action.”

Pope Francis said that humility and an openness to other people and ideas are “synodal virtues,” and he told participants that ecclesial movements are meant to be at the service of the church and not seen as “a superior thing” within the church.

“Closed movements should be canceled,” he said; “they are not ecclesial.”

The pope said it is a temptation for members of the church to remain in a “closed circle,” to be “convinced that what we do is good for everyone, to defend, perhaps without realizing it, ‘group’ positions, prerogatives or prestige.”

Yet synodality asks Christians to see God’s presence at work “even in people we do not know, in new pastoral ways,” he said, as well as to “let ourselves be struck, even wounded, by the voice, experience and suffering of others: of brothers and sisters in the faith and of all the people close to us.”

Pope Francis asked the leaders of movements to remember that synodality involves thinking about what God wants from individuals and the church, so an absolute requirement is to not “take for granted that we are attuned to God” but rather “convert ourselves to think according to God and not according to men.”

“Let us remember that the protagonist of the synodal journey is the Holy Spirit, not us,” the pope said. “He alone teaches us to listen to God’s voice, individually and as the church.”

By Justin McLellan
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Living out the missionary dimension of the faith never means trying to forcefully convert people to Catholicism, Pope Francis said.

“The Christian mission is not transmitting some abstract truth or religious conviction, much less proselytizing – still less,” he told the national directors of the Pontifical Mission Societies May 25.

Rather, “it is first and foremost enabling those we meet to be able to have the fundamental experience of God’s love, and they will be able to find it in our lives and in the life of the church if we are shining witnesses to it, reflecting a ray of the Trinitarian mystery,” the pope said.

Participants gathered at the Vatican from more than 120 countries across five continents for the general assembly of the Pontifical Mission Societies.

To illustrate the perils of proselytism, the pope recalled an experience he had at a World Youth Day in which a woman belonging to what he described as an “ultra” Catholic group gloated to him about converting the two young people she was with.

“I looked at her in the eyes and I said, ‘And who will convert you?’” the pope said.

Regarding “this mission of conversion, there are religious groups that carry around a list of conversions; this is terrible,” he said.

In addition to giving money to support the church’s missions, Pope Francis said Catholics must find new ways of engaging with and promoting the church’s missionary projects.

“All missionary activity is creative” since it is rooted in Christ’s charity, he said. “With inexhaustible imagination, such charity inspires new ways of evangelizing and serving others, especially the poorest, and include the customary collections taken for the universal funds of solidarity with the missions.”

While Catholics should promote those collections, they must also “explore new ways of encouraging the participation of individuals, groups and institutions who wish to support the church’s missionary endeavors as an expression of their gratitude for the graces received from the Lord,” the pope said.
The pope said a spirituality of missionary communion “is the foundation of the church’s current synodal journey.”

“The call to communion implies a synodal style: walking together, listening to each other, engaging in dialogue,” he said. “This expands our hearts and fosters that universal outlook emphasized at the founding of the Society of the Propagation of the Faith,” a branch of the Pontifical Mission Societies which promotes missionary spirituality and universal solidarity with missions through prayer and the distribution of funds.

By Justin McLellan
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – The Catholic Church’s synodal path, the church-wide listening and dialogue process currently approaching its second assembly in October, must become a model for all Catholic dioceses and parishes, Pope Francis said.

Opening the general assembly of the Italian bishops’ conference in the Vatican synod hall May 20, the pope spent an hour and a half answering questions posed to him by some 200 bishops on global issues, from migration to rising antisemitism, as well as problems within the church such as falling vocation rates and the merging of dioceses, according to reports by Italian Catholic media.

Bishop Antonio De Luca of Teggiano-Policastro in central Italy told Avvenire, the newspaper of the Italian bishops’ conference, that Pope Francis “asked us to encourage the synodal way so that it may become a paradigm in dioceses and parishes.”

During the closed-door meeting, the pope said pastors must approach the current era of change in society not with sadness but with a renewed energy since the Lord does not abandon his church, Avvenire reported.

The assembly’s primary focus was on the synodal path, particularly its upcoming “prophetic phase” in preparation for the general assembly of the Synod of Bishops in October.

Bishop Mario Toso of Faenza-Modigliana in northern Italy said the recent “ad limina” by Italian bishops offered Pope Francis material for reflection regarding the merging of dioceses, a consideration frequently brought up by the bishops in their meeting with the pope. “It is not necessarily the case that this should be the way forward in the future,” he said.

The pope also addressed the issue of seminary restructuring, advocating for regional or interdiocesan seminaries where the number of seminarians is too low to allow for individual diocesan seminaries and to ensure better formation and community life for future priests. 

Vatican News reported that Pope Francis responded to bishops who asked about the lack of consecrated religious in their communities by highlighting the example of the church in Latin America, where religious sisters and laypeople are deeply engaged in organizing community life.

The bishops said declining vocations and aging clergy were also concerns raised during the meeting. Pope Francis encouraged them not to view these challenges catastrophically but to approach them with hope and creativity, highlighting the importance of supporting and accompanying priests who need encouragement and assistance in navigating contemporary cultural changes.

The pope gave each of the bishops a copy of his book, “Holy, not Worldly,” which collects his reflections on spiritual worldliness and the need for a humble and service-oriented church.

By Justin McLellan

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Jesus’ ascension shows that, despite the difficulties in peoples’ lives, they are all made for heaven, Pope Francis said.

Reflecting May 12 on the Gospel reading from St. Mark, which recounts how Jesus “was taken up into heaven,” the pope said that Jesus’ ascension into heaven does not represent a detachment from humanity but rather precedes its ultimate destination: heaven.

Pope Francis compared Jesus’ resurrection to the point when, during a difficult climb, one turns a corner and sees the destination in the distance, giving the body the energy and encouragement needed to reach the peak.

“We, the church, are precisely that body that Jesus, having ascended to heaven, pulls along with him,” he said. “It is he who awakens us and communicates to us, with his word and with the grace of the sacraments, the beauty of the homeland toward which we are headed.”

Members of the church, who are members Jesus’s body, he said, “ascend with joy together with him, our leader, knowing that the step of one is a step for all, and that no one must be lost or left behind because we are but one body.”

Pope Francis said that to take steps toward Jesus one must perform “the works of love: to give life, bring hope, steer away from any form of wickedness and meanness, respond to evil with good, be close to those who suffer.”

“The more we do this, the more we let ourselves be transformed by the Spirit,” he said, ” the more we follow his example, as in the mountains, we feel in the air around us become light and clean, the horizon broad and the destination near, words and gestures become good, the mind and heart expand and breathe.”

The pope encouraged Christians to reflect on whether they have a strong desire for God and eternal life, or if they are “a bit dulled and anchored to passing things or money or success or pleasure.”

“Does my desire for heaven isolate me, does it seal me off, or does it lead me to love my brothers and sisters with a big and selfless heart, to feel that they are my companions on the journey toward paradise?” he asked.

By Cindy Wooden
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Meeting with thousands of Italian grandparents and their children and grandchildren, Pope Francis insisted repeatedly, “Love makes us better.”

“Love makes us better; it makes us richer, and it makes us wiser, at any age,” he said April 27 to the young and old who filled the Vatican audience hall. “Love makes us better.”

Joining people associated with the Età Grande Foundation, which lobbies for the rights of the elderly to stay in their homes with family, community and government support, Pope Francis spoke about his grandmother Rosa, who first taught him to pray, and he mimicked grandparents everywhere by handing out chocolates to the children.

The pope told the families, “You make each other better by loving each other. And I say this to you as a ‘grandfather’ with the desire to share the ever-youthful faith that unites all generations” and which “I received from my grandmother, from whom I first learned about Jesus who loves us, who never leaves us alone, and who urges us too to be close to each other and never to exclude anyone.”

And in a world that so often focuses on the individual and his or her accomplishments and possessions, love actually is what makes people richer, he said.

Sometimes, he said, people speak of the “world of youth” or the “world of the elderly,” but “there is just one world! And it is made up of many realities that are different precisely to help and complement each other.”

People of different generations, different nationalities and different talents “if harmonized, can reveal, like the faces of a big diamond, the wondrous splendor of humanity and creation,” the pope said. “This, too, is what your being together teaches us: not to let diversity create rifts between us! No, let there not be rifts – don’t pulverize the diamond of love, the most beautiful treasure God has given us: love.”

Too often, the pope said, people are told to be self-reliant and that the strong do not need anyone.
But that is a sad way to live, he said, especially as one gets older.

“The elderly must not be left alone, they must live within the family, in the community, with the affection of everyone,” he said. “And if they cannot live with their families, we must go to visit them and stay close to them.”