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Herald Malaysia
a day ago
- General
- Herald Malaysia
Pope Leo at Pentecost Vigil: God intends all to live as one
Pope Leo leads a Pentecost Vigil prayer service for pilgrims taking part in the Jubilee of Ecclesial Movements, Associations, and new Communities. Jun 09, 2025 The 'wide-open' embrace of St Peter's Square (@Vatican Media) By Christopher WellsSome 70,000 pilgrims from more than 100 countries took part in the Vigil of Pentecost in Saint Peter's Square Saturday evening, as part of the festivities for the Jubilee of Ecclesial Movements, Associations, and New Communities. After a 'pre-Vigil' consisting of prayer, song, and witness testimonies, the jubilant crowd of pilgrims was joined by Pope Leo, who led a Liturgy of the Word focused on the unity that is a gift of the Holy Spirit. 'St Peter's Square, with its wide-open and welcoming embrace, magnificently expresses the communion of the Church,' which is experienced in the various groups present, Pope Leo said his homily. Synodality unites us to all The Holy Father went on to highlight the concept of synodality, rooted in the communion of the three Persons of the Trinity and as 'God-with-us'; and pointing to the future. Where the Spirit is, the Pope said, 'there is movement, a journey to be made.' Pope Leo explained that this journey unites us to all of humanity, with the Holy Spirit teaching us to walk in unity, in contrast to the violence and division that marks our world. 'The earth will rest, justice will prevail, the poor will rejoice and peace will return,' he said, once we no longer act as predators, but as pilgrims; no longer each of us for ourselves, but walking alongside one another.' 'God created the world so that we might all live as one,' the Pope continued, explaining that 'Synodality' is the term the Church uses to describe this unity. 'Evangelization is always God's work' Finally, Pope Leo XIV highlighted the work of evangelization, which does not mean trying to take over the world, but refers instead to 'the infinite grace that radiates from lives transformed by the Kingdom of God.' Evangelization, then, can be understood as the way of the Beatitudes, the path chosen by Jesus. To follow that Path, Pope Leo said, 'we have no need of powerful patrons, worldly compromises, or emotional strategies. Evangelization is always God's work.' The Holy Father encouraged members of ecclesial movements to be attached to their particular Churches and their local parish communities. 'Together with the bishops and in cooperation with all the other members of the Body of Christ, all of us will then work together harmoniously as one,' he said; and then, 'the challenges facing humanity will be less frightening, the future will be less dark, and discernment will be less complicated… if together we obey the Holy Spirit.'--Vatican News
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Climate
- Yahoo
Tornado confirmed in Wheaton
The Springfield National Weather Service did confirm that an EF-1 tornado touched down at the Body of Christ church on the southwest side of town. The tornado tracked through Wheaton and dissipated a half mile northeast of town. The damage path was a little over 3 miles long and up to 100 yards wide. Winds were estimated to be up to 85 mph. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Spectator
6 days ago
- General
- Spectator
No, I'm not a British spy
Dante's Beach, Ravenna The youngest of our six children, Giuseppe, nine, received the Eucharist for the first time on Sunday. He and the other 12 new communicants looked angelic in their white robes. They all had impressive wooden crosses hanging from their necks and the five girls had wreaths of tiny flowers in their jet-black hair. Once Don Mauro had finished dispensing the Body of Christ, the bells peeled as if a wedding had taken place. There followed a pleasant open-air lunch by the sea and I wondered: 'Is it better to live in Italy or Britain?' Certainly, society is less fractured here. The weather is more helpful to both body and soul and the food is effortlessly superior, despite all the delusional British bragging about the amazing results of fancy fusion. Italy, yes, is a great place to live – but it's an awful place to work. Employers avoid proper contracts at all costs as that would mean shelling out on 'extras' such as tax and national insurance and paying a living wage. Last summer, the Venezuelan woman in charge of the restaurant by the beach where our middle daughter, Magdalena, 17, was a waitress failed to cough up the pittance she'd agreed to pay. But Magdalena and her mother, Carla, were too timid to cause a scene. 'Basta!' I bellowed manfully. 'Your mentality is why the Mafia exists.' Risking not just the wrath of Carla but a heart attack, I stormed off to confront the Venezuelan myself with Magdalena in tow. I told the woman that the wages she owed my daughter were anyway those of a slave and that her sister, a lawyer, would be interested.
Mail & Guardian
30-04-2025
- Politics
- Mail & Guardian
Pope Francis as a shepherd of the marginalised in a world that wants to build empires
Pope Francis attracted both admiration and criticism during his tenure, with some criticising him because he disrupted the foundations of their sense of security — which are their empires. Pope Francis attracted both admiration and criticism during his tenure, with some criticising him because he disrupted the foundations of their sense of security — which are their empires. One of the signs of the times during his pontificate was the growth in the Western world of movements with aspirations to empire-building, a return to the former glory when Western countries had empires and the Catholic Church was an integral part of these empires. For Pope Francis, beyond the empires based on nationalism, such as the American empire, there existed a more significant empire, namely the system of unfettered global capitalism that has evolved into an empire, a global imperial design that is not confined to one country or one region. Pope Francis was strong in his denunciation of both trajectories of empire-building, as they are grounded on the worship of wealth, environmental degradation, escalation of wars worldwide, indifference to struggling nations and disregard for society's marginalised — all contrary to the values of God's kingdom. Both trajectories of empire-building have displayed a tendency to absorb everything in their path into their worldview and structures of power. When Francis advocated for the voiceless of the world, he did so with a vision of a church that refused to be absorbed into the worldviews of empires. He performed this against the backdrop of a vision of a new evangelisation, a vision of the gospel, where believers begin to see themselves primarily as citizens of the empire of God, and not citizens of the secular empires. His chosen name reveals this purpose, as Saint Francis saw himself as a citizen of a heavenly empire, rather than earthly empires. Ironically, Francis was in some cases criticised for compromising church doctrines in favour of the worldview of the empire and for behaving more like an activist than a defender of the faith and the doctrines of the Catholic Church. In some cases, this accusation of compromising the gospel was a result of Francis embracing the prodigal son, and then being caught by the anger of the first son, who sees the offer of mercy as a betrayal of fidelity. The tension between the church and the empire have always existed in the history of the Body of Christ and will never disappear. While Francis has not managed to disentangle the church completely from the worldview and the power structures of the empire, he has succeeded in reminding the church that it should protect the most vulnerable in the society against the greed and violence of those building their empires. Those building such empires can be the superpowers, the multinational corporations, the international financial institutions, as well as our political parties in the developing world. The empires will seek greatness — or to be great again — and they will define this greatness in terms of accumulation: accumulation of wealth, territories, power and control. In contrast, the citizens in God's empire will need to remind the world that true greatness as a country comes from living the values that Jesus preached in the gospel. True progress and greatness as a country is measured, not only through gross domestic product GDP, but also in terms of the extent to which the country is excelling in living out the qualities of the Holy Spirit — love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). Empires will operate under the assumption that the only way to achieve their desired greatness is through violence, corruption and exploitation of the most vulnerable in a country or in the world. In such a world, we require citizens of the kingdom who refuse to be co-opted into this assumption and are active in living out the parable of the Good Samaritan, binding the wounds of those harmed by the greed and violence of the empire, and speaking truth to power on behalf of the voiceless (Luke 10:25-37). Empires will perceive their vulnerability as weakness and become brutal during decline. We then need kingdom citizens who will remind the world to see vulnerability as an opportunity to rediscover a life of total surrender to God. In this way, those who place their trust in God while they are in a vulnerable situation are blessed: those who are poor in spirit, those who mourn, those who are hungry, those who are persecuted for their faith (Luke 6:20-26). Pope Francis died on Easter Monday — during a season when we celebrate Christ, who was persecuted by an empire. Perhaps this was to remind us that the greed and violence of our earthly empire do not have the last word. The resurrection of Christ is that which has the last word. Father Stan Muyebe is the director of the Justice and Peace Commission of the Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference.
