Pope Francis has urged Europe to fulfil its responsibilities with renewed hope and not cower behind walls and treaties.
The Pope – a South American son of Italian immigrants – evoked Martin Luther King, telling European heads of state that he had a dream of a divided Europe coming together to protect the rights of everyone, especially families and migrants.
“I dream of a Europe where being a migrant is not a crime, but a summons to greater commitment,” he said. “I dream of a Europe where young people” can lead a simple life and see that marriage and children are a joy, not a burden, because there are no stable, well-paying jobs.”
The Pope shared his dream of a rejuvenated and united Europe as he received the Charlemagne Prize.
The award is traditionally conferred on the feast of the Ascension in the German city of Aachen. The award is presented every year by the citizens of Aachen to commemorate Charlemagne, the first Holy Roman Emperor, and honour a public figure for their commitment to promoting European unity.
The ceremony to honour Pope Francis, however, was held in a frescoed hall of the Apostolic Palace, drawing European leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi, King Felipe VI of Spain and Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg, as well as the heads of the European Parliament, the European Council and the European Commission – three men who were also past laureates of the prize.
Marcel Phillip, the mayor of Aachen, told those assembled that “Pope Francis is a godsend for Europe.”
Pope Francis, who typically eschews honours, said he was offering “this prestigious award for Europe. For ours is not so much a celebration as a moment to express our shared hope for a new and courageous step forward for this beloved continent.”
The Pope delivered a 30-minute talk tinged at times with admonishments but filled with heartfelt advice and lofty yet urgent dreams for the future.
“What has happened to you?” he repeated three times. What has happened, he asked, to the glorious Europe of the past: the champion of human rights; the home of artists; the mother of heroes who upheld “and even sacrificed their lives for the dignity of their brothers and sisters?”
He called for the recollection of and courageous return to the bold ideals of the founding fathers of a united Europe – those who were committed to “alternative and innovative paths in a world scarred by war”.
Italian journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi did not plot the release of leaked Vatican financial documents with another journalist and was well within his rights to publish the information he received from a Spanish monsignor, a defence witness has told a Vatican court.
Paolo Mieli, former editor-in-chief of the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, said he would not have hesitated to publish the documents. He was testifying at a criminal trial in the Vatican.
Mr Nuzzi, author of Merchants in the Temple, and Emiliano Fittipaldi, author of Avarice, are charged with soliciting the documents and exercising pressure on the other defendants, especially Mgr Lucio Vallejo Balda, secretary of the Prefecture for the Economic Affairs of the Holy See.
The monsignor, Nicola Maio, the monsignor’s former assistant, and Francesca Chaouqui, a member of the former Pontifical Commission for Reference on the Economic-Administrative Structure of the Holy See, are also on trial, charged with “divulging news and documents concerning fundamental interests” of the Vatican.
Pope Francis has appointed a former refugee who had fled war-torn Vietnam by boat to lead the Australian Diocese of Parramatta.
Bishop Vincent Long Van Nguyen, 54, has served as a Conventual Franciscan priest in Australia since 1989 and as Auxiliary Bishop of Melbourne since 2011.
Born in Dong Nai province in South Vietnam in 1961, he was one of hundreds of thousands of “boat people” who fled the fighting and chaos that engulfed the region in the 1970s and 1980s after the Vietnam War.
“Our boat journey was risky. There were more people on board than the boat could carry safely. By the third day, we had run out of food, water and fuel. From then on, we were at the mercy of the elements. On the seventh day, we drifted near an oil rig, half alive and half dead,” he said. The bishop and the family members he travelled with were rescued and settled in a refugee camp in Malaysia, where he stayed for 16 months. He was accepted to go to Australia in 1981.
He felt a vocation to religious life when he was a young teenager in Vietnam, he said in an interview published on the Archdiocese of Melbourne’s website.
“It began when I was 13 years of age, living in one of the most turbulent periods of my country’s history. The war and its terrible effects had a profound impact on me,” he said, and the desire to become a priest “was initially motivated by a desire to help people who suffered”.
He was studying at St Paul’s Minor Seminary for his native Diocese of Xuan Loc, some 40 miles north of Saigon, when the communist “Liberation Army arrived and turned it into their barracks. We were expelled, and my desire for the priesthood would remain concealed until I found myself in the free land of Australia,” he said.
The bishop said that meeting Franciscan Friars in Melbourne was key to his discernment. He was immediately struck by the friars’ “simplicity, and especially their service to the marginalised”, he said. Bishop Nguyen is the Australian bishops’ delegate for migrants and refugees. His coat of arms includes red waves and a red anchor, a symbol of salvation.
Thousands of people took part in Rome’s annual March for Life on Sunday. The march, the sixth one to be held in Rome, was attended by Cardinal Raymond Burke, Bishop Athanasius Schneider of Kazakhstan, and Archbishop Luigi Negri of Ferrara-Comacchio. The march began with testimonials at Bocca della Verità piazza and ended at St Peter’s Square. From his balcony Pope Francis greeted those who were participating in the march.
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