In the second of his “Mercy Friday” gestures, Pope Francis spent two hours with a group of young adults at a Catholic-run residential drug rehabilitation centre outside Rome last week. To the surprise of the 55 residents, Pope Francis showed up in his compact Ford Escort at the San Carlo community with just a driver.
Roberto Mineo, president of the Italian Solidarity Centre, which runs the facility said: “We were speechless when we saw the car with the Pope enter our community where every day our young people fight their battle to return to life.
“The Pope, like a caring father, spent a long time with each person, listening to their stories and embracing them one by one. Some of the young people showed him photos of their families, their children, and the Pope had a word of hope and a blessing for each of them.”
Using tiny photos of past and present community members, the residents had made a mosaic of Our Lady of Lujan, patroness of Argentina, and asked Pope Francis to sign it, which he did “with affection and friendship”. Sitting in a large circle, Pope Francis learned that one of their therapeutic projects is learning how to cook. “What is the best thing you make?” the Pope asked. Their response was not reported by those present, but at break time they shared with Pope Francis some of their cheese pizza, made from scratch. Archbishop Rino Fisichella, organiser of the Vatican’s Year of Mercy events, said Pope Francis chose the drug rehab centre as a follow-up to his visit to Mexico where he repeatedly denounced drug traffickers.
Cardinal: help migrants but don’t try to convert them
Christians assisting migrants should love them “without hidden intentions” and not try to convert them, the prefect of the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith has said. Cardinal Gerhard Müller said proselytism was “practically a manipulation of the conscience” and that the Church’s mission was to help mankind relate to and love those escaping war and persecution. The cardinal was speaking at a conference at the Vatican organised to reflect on Benedict XVI’s first encyclical, Deus Caritas Est (“God is Love”).
Cardinal Müller added that the Church must assist with more than just material needs. He said: “The mission of the Church is to give witness to Jesus Christ. It would be a way of despising someone if I said: ‘You only have material needs.’” Jesus’s commandment to love one’s neighbour, he said, was a call for Christians to manifest God’s love to others, particularly through works of charity. “We must not use the charity we practise and transform it into an instrument of proselytism,” he said. “An expert Christian knows when it is time to speak about God and when it is best to keep quiet. Sometimes a silent witness is the best witness of the love of God.”
St Anthony’s relics tour Texas
After visits to America, Canada, Europe, Asia and Australia, two first-class relics of St Anthony of Padua arrived in the United States last week for a 10-day tour of Texas. The relics are fragments of St Anthony’s skin and rib. In a video message Fr Mario Conte, who travelled with the relics, recalled that they were received by Fatima visionary Sister Lucia dos Santos in 1986 and, in 2000, by Archbishop Jorge Bergoglio, now Pope Francis, during a visit to Buenos Aires.
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