People have a basic choice in the way they live: either striving to build up treasures on earth or giving to others in order to gain heaven, Pope Francis has said.
“What we invest in love remains, the rest vanishes,” the Pope said in his homily on Sunday, the first World Day of the Poor.
Between 6,000 and 7,000 poor people attended the Mass in St Peter’s Basilica, where altar servers included the poor, migrants or homeless. The first reader was a refugee from Syria. After the Mass the Pope ate lunch with 1,500 people in the Paul VI audience hall.
“All too often, we have the idea that we haven’t done anything wrong, and so we rest content, presuming that we are good and just,” the Pope said in his homily.
“But to do no wrong is not enough. God is not an inspector looking for unstamped tickets; he is a Father looking for children to whom he can entrust his property and his plans.”
If in the eyes of the world, the poor have little value, he said, “they are the ones who open to us the way to heaven; they are our ‘passport to paradise’. For us it is an evangelical duty to care for them, as our real riches, and to do so not only by giving them bread, but also by breaking with them the bread of God’s word, which is addressed first to them.”
Thinking it is “society’s problem” to solve, looking the other way when passing a beggar or changing the channel when the news shows something disturbing, are not Christian responses, he said.
“God will not ask us if we felt righteous indignation,” the Pope said, “but whether we did some good.”
Irish bishops consider dropping two Holy Days
Irish bishops are considering removing two Holy Days of Obligation from the calendar, according to the Irish Catholic.
Under the plans, which are being considered by the bishops’ conference, All Saints Day (November 1) and the Immaculate Conception (December 8) would no longer be days of compulsory Mass attendance.
The newspaper’s Greg Daly says the bishops will be sharply divided over the proposal. Supporters of the change believe it would reflect the reality that many Catholics do not attend Mass on these days.
If the move goes ahead, it will be in contrast to the bishops of England and Wales’ decision. In September, the bishops reinstated the Epiphany, the Ascension and Corpus Christi as Holy Days of Obligation.
They had ben transferred to the nearest Sunday in 2006. The change was not universally welcomed, and in 2011 the bishops discussed whether or not to reverse it.
There are a maximum of 10 Holy Days of Obligation in the Latin Church, and practice varies greatly from one country to another. Australia, for instance, has only two Holy Days of Obligation, the Assumption and Christmas.
Porter is proclaimed Blessed
A beloved Capuchin friar who served as a porter at a Detroit monastery was proclaimed a Blessed on Sunday.
More than 60,000 people attended the beatification of Fr Solanus Casey at Detroit’s Ford Field. Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect of the saints’ congregation, said Blessed Solanus “focused on the poor, the sick, the marginated and the hopeless” and, “for hours and hours” at a time, patiently counselled those who came to him.
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