THE CONCHO PADRE POST

On Saturday, Pope Francis will helicopter to Castel Gandolfo to meet with and spend the afternoon with His Holiness, Benedict, Pope-emeritus.

This will be another historic event in the moden annals of the Church, as two popes are seen together for the first time.

Don’t know if this will be televised or not, but there will probably be at least a picture or two. As everyone knows, Benedict XVI has stated that he wants to keep his privacy and will be spending a life of prayer and study for the Church. He is at Castel Gandolfo until new quarters are renovated for him in a small monastery inside the Vatican.

Stayed tuned, and let’s pray for both of them.

The Concho Padre

Vatican City, 22 March 2013 (VIS) – “Through you I encounter your peoples, and thus in a sense I can reach out to every one of your fellow citizens, with their joys, their troubles, their expectations, their desires,” said the Holy Father this morning to members of the diplomatic corps accredited to the Holy See whom he received in audience in the Sala Regia of the Vatican Apostolic Palace.

Currently, 180 States maintain full diplomatic relations with the Holy See, to which number are also added the European Union, the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, and a mission of a special nature: the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), which is headed by a director. The most recent State to establish diplomatic relations with the Holy See, at the level of an Apostolic Nunciature, was the Republic of South Sudan on 22 February of this year.

Speaking in Italian, the Pope first greeted the dean of the diplomatic corps, Jean-Claude Michel of the Principality of Monaco, and then stated that the relations that so many nations maintain with the Holy See “are truly a source of benefit to mankind. That, indeed, is what matters to the Holy See: the good of every person upon this earth! And it is with this understanding that the Bishop of Rome embarks upon his ministry, in the knowledge that he can count on the friendship and affection of the countries you represent, and in the certainty that you share this objective. At the same time, I hope that it will also be an opportunity to begin a journey with those few countries that do not yet have diplomatic relations with the Holy See, some of which were present at the Mass for the beginning of my ministry, or sent messages as a sign of their closeness—for which I am truly grateful.”

Continuing, the Holy Father explained the reasons why he chose his papal name, thinking of St. Francis of Assisi, “a familiar figure far beyond the borders of Italy and Europe, even among those who do not profess the Catholic faith. One of the first reasons was Francis’ love for the poor. How many poor people there still are in the world! And what great suffering they have to endure! After the example of Francis of Assisi, the Church in every corner of the globe has always tried to care for and look after those who suffer from want, and I think that in many of your countries you can attest to the generous activity of Christians who dedicate themselves to helping the sick, orphans, the homeless and all the marginalized, thus striving to make society more humane and more just.”

“But there is another form of poverty”, he observed. “It is the spiritual poverty of our time, which afflicts the so-called richer countries particularly seriously. It is what my much-loved predecessor, Benedict XVI, called the ‘tyranny of relativism’, which makes everyone his own criterion and endangers the coexistence of peoples. And that brings me to a second reason for my name. Francis of Assisi tells us we should work to build peace. But there is no true peace without truth! There cannot be true peace if everyone is his own criterion, if everyone can always claim exclusively his own rights, without at the same time caring for the good of others, of everyone, on the basis of the nature that unites every human being on this earth.”

“One of the titles of the Bishop of Rome is ‘Pontiff’, that is, a builder of bridges, with God and between people. My wish is that the dialogue between us should help to build bridges connecting all people, in such a way that everyone can see in the other not an enemy, not a rival, but a brother or sister to be welcomed and embraced! My own origins impel me to work for the building of bridges. As you know, my family is of Italian origin; and so this dialogue between places and cultures a great distance apart matters greatly to me, this dialogue between one end of the world and the other, which today are growing ever closer, more interdependent, more in need of opportunities to meet and to create real spaces of authentic fraternity.”

Repeating that the role of religion is fundamental to this task, Francis affirmed that: “It is not possible to build bridges between people while forgetting God. But the converse is also true: it is not possible to establish true links with God, while ignoring other people. Hence it is important to intensify dialogue among the various religions, and I am thinking particularly of dialogue with Islam. At the Mass marking the beginning of my ministry, I greatly appreciated the presence of so many civil and religious leaders from the Islamic world. And it is also important to intensify outreach to non-believers, so that the differences which divide and hurt us may never prevail, but rather the desire to build true links of friendship between all peoples, despite their diversity.”

“Fighting poverty, both material and spiritual, building peace and constructing bridges: these, as it were, are the reference points for a journey that I want to invite each of the countries here represented to take up. But it is a difficult journey, if we do not learn to grow in love for this world of ours. Here too, it helps me to think of the name of Francis, who teaches us profound respect for the whole of creation and the protection of our environment, which all too often, instead of using for the good, we exploit greedily, to one another’s detriment.”

“Thank you again,” the pontiff concluded, “for all the work that you do, alongside the Secretariat of State, to build peace and construct bridges of friendship and fraternity. Through you, I would like to renew to your Governments my thanks for their participation in the celebrations on the occasion of my election, and my heartfelt desire for a fruitful common endeavour. May Almighty God pour out his gifts on each one of you, on your families and on the peoples that you represent. Thank you!”

Vatican Information Service

Gospel Jn 10:31-42

The Jews picked up rocks to stone Jesus.
Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from my Father.
For which of these are you trying to stone me?”
The Jews answered him,
“We are not stoning you for a good work but for blasphemy.
You, a man, are making yourself God.”
Jesus answered them,
“Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, ‘You are gods”‘?
If it calls them gods to whom the word of God came,
and Scripture cannot be set aside,
can you say that the one
whom the Father has consecrated and sent into the world
blasphemes because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’?
If I do not perform my Father’s works, do not believe me;
but if I perform them, even if you do not believe me,
believe the works, so that you may realize and understand
that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.”
Then they tried again to arrest him;
but he escaped from their power.

He went back across the Jordan
to the place where John first baptized, and there he remained.
Many came to him and said,
“John performed no sign,
but everything John said about this man was true.”
And many there began to believe in him.

Perhaps the Same Priorities, But a Different Style
By Edward Pentin

ROME, March 21, 2013 (Zenit.org) – When it comes to international relations, Pope Francis’ priorities are unlikely to greatly differ from those of Pope Benedict XVI. But his difference in style could potentially harvest abundant fruit in terms of bringing others to Christ and strengthening ties with the Holy See.

Like his immediate predecessors, Francis is expected to continue to stand up for persecuted Christians, religious freedom and conscience rights. He will take up the challenge of reminding the world not to eliminate God from the public square.

He will carry on working to build up relations with Jews, Muslims and followers of other religions, finding areas of common ground on which to collaborate. And he will probably endeavor to build diplomatic relations with states that have no formal ties with the Holy See, most notably with China and Saudi Arabia.

His Franciscan emphasis promises to be a strong attraction, protecting the poor, promoting peace, safeguarding creation and overall presenting the world with a truly Catholic vision of justice and peace. Furthermore, the simplicity with which Pope Francis is likely to apply those values in dealing with world issues — always with Christ placed at the center — promises to be highly effective.

But it is his openness, warmth and spontaneity, coupled with uncompromising fidelity to the Magisterium, which could have the biggest impact.

Speaking on background to ZENIT, a Vatican diplomat said he foresaw continuity with Benedict’s ever-present desire to spread the message of the Gospel and help people to know Christ. But in addition, the official said he believes people could become even “more conscious of the grace they have received” due to Francis’ warmth and closeness to the people.

“Pope Francis has all the qualities to be a very good diplomat because the most important thing in a diplomat is to love the people and to love God,” he said. “But he is also strong on doctrine without losing that openness and closeness to the people.” He stressed that without being close to the people, “it can seem like a pretense, or arrogance.”

As Pope, Francis has tried to show this closeness by shunning some of the visual trappings of papal power and placing himself among the people.

He showed this again on Wednesday when he addressed fraternal delegates with respect, in particular by referring to Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew as “my brother Andrew” — an allusion to the patriarchs of Constantinople as successors of the Apostle Andrew.

But Pope Francis also used the occasion to underline how important it is to maintain good relations with non-Catholics, and placed emphasis on the importance of “friendship and respect between men and women of different religious traditions.”

Such an approach was clearly a hallmark of his time as archbishop of Buenos Aires. After addressing the delegations on Wednesday, the Argentine Jewish and Muslim representatives embraced Pope Francis like a dear old friend. His relations also remain cordial with President Cristina Kirchner: Despite the fact that the two recently locking horns over same-sex “marriage” and other issues, they met privately and lunched together last week.

Vatican sources say many delegations attending Pope Francis’s inaugural Mass were “very happy” after meeting him immediately following the ceremony. So much so, that even Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe told reporters on his return from Rome that he wants Pope Francis to visit Africa because he is “a man of God who will be praying for all of us, praying for the sinful world to repent.” Mugabe, long accused of systematic human rights abuses, even urged reporters to go to church, lead a morally guided life, and avoid heavy drinking, according to an AP report.

As a Pope who is able and wants to be among the people, Pope Francis is expected to continue a tradition of making foreign trips begun by Paul VI. He’s already received a number of invitations, including of course one to Argentina. It’s thought, however, that he won’t be visiting the country before or after World Youth Day in Rio in July, but toward the end of the year, in order to avoid elections taking place at that time.

In terms of intervening in disputes, such as that over the Falkland Islands between Argentina and Britain, officials believe he will take the usual papal position and remain neutral. The British government is known not to be happy with comments Francis made as cardinal (like most Argentines, he said the islands were “usurped” by Britain), but it remains respectful of the Pope.

The Holy Father may adopt a mediatory role if the dispute again deteriorates into a military conflict, but in such a case, he will probably assign a neutral Vatican diplomat to mediate, as Blessed John Paul II successfully did when Argentina and Chile clashed over disputed islands in the Beagle Channel in the 1980s.

Pope Francis is likely to continue Benedict’s efforts and try to forge diplomatic ties with states such as Saudi Arabia and China. His familiar style and natural diplomatic skills may bring him more success in this area.

But Vatican sources say this won’t be a priority for him; rather his focus will be on the internal workings of the Church. That naturally includes the Roman Curia, which many see as needing reform, particularly in the realm of improving internal communications between the Vatican Secretariat of State, missions to the Holy See and other dicasteries.

But stories of power struggles, worldly ambition and turf wars in the Vatican are being overplayed, say some officials, and they don’t recognize the reports of widespread scandal. One senior official in the Secretariat of State told ZENIT he learned about the whole Vatileaks affair in the newspapers, and the controversy didn’t impinge on his daily life at all.

“They’re the sort of problems that go on anywhere, but it’s not been my experience,” he said, although he did imply efficiency could be improved with regards communication — possibly pointing to why he hadn’t heard of incidents of malpractice.

“We relate to our superiors, and not horizontally, so we don’t know very much of what’s going on in other sections,” he explained. “We have no direct access to what goes on in other dicasteries or other parts of the Secretariat of State. Indeed, there have been times I’ve read in newspapers what was happening down the corridor.”

The Curial diplomat also said he and his colleagues were hard working, and that in their free time, they spend time in a parish and carry out pastoral work. “There’s collaboration among us, and I don’t see corruption around, though of course all of us have to convert every day,” he said. “It’s not a job for us, it’s a vocation, and we’re happy to serve the Church here and try to do our best.”

A better picture of Pope Francis’s priorities in terms of Holy See diplomacy will emerge on Friday, when he addresses diplomats accredited to the Holy See. Also highly significant will be who he chooses as Secretary of State, Secretary for Relations with States (the Holy See’s “foreign minister) and other key appointments.

How Pope Francis ultimately approaches foreign relations will also depend on who he chooses to be his closest aides. So far, he has reappointed them only on a temporary basis, and a raft of new appointments is expected in the coming weeks.

from ZENIT.org

Gospel Jn 8:51-59

Jesus said to the Jews:
“Amen, amen, I say to you,
whoever keeps my word will never see death.”
So the Jews said to him,
“Now we are sure that you are possessed.
Abraham died, as did the prophets, yet you say,
‘Whoever keeps my word will never taste death.’
Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died?
Or the prophets, who died?
Who do you make yourself out to be?”
Jesus answered, “If I glorify myself, my glory is worth nothing;
but it is my Father who glorifies me,
of whom you say, ‘He is our God.’
You do not know him, but I know him.
And if I should say that I do not know him,
I would be like you a liar.
But I do know him and I keep his word.
Abraham your father rejoiced to see my day;
he saw it and was glad.”
So the Jews said to him,
“You are not yet fifty years old and you have seen Abraham?”
Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you,
before Abraham came to be, I AM.”
So they picked up stones to throw at him;
but Jesus hid and went out of the temple area.