#9 Vincent Guo Xijin Bishop in China “I am ready to face the persecution” Until 2018, Bishop Guo was the ordinary of the Diocese of Mindong, located in the southern province of Fujian. However, with the signing of the “provisional agreement” between the Vatican and China in September of 2018, which resulted in Pope Francis lifting [...]
During his homily at Mass on Friday, Pope Francis reflected on how the Devil is the cause of all forms of persecution: from cultural colonization to war, hunger, and slavery. Today, said Pope Francis, we are not only witnessing the persecution of Christians, but of every man and woman, "through cultural colonization, war, hunger, and slavery". [...]
Pope Francis meets in the Vatican with participants in a conference on ways of combatting religious violence Pope Francis met on Friday with participants at a conference on how to combat violence committed in the name of religion. In his address, the Pope stressed that every human life is sacred, whatever the individual’s ethnicity, [...]
Pope Francis on Thursday morning celebrated Mass in St Peter’s Square to mark the feast of Saints Peter and Paul. In his homily the Pope focused on three words, confession, persecution and prayer, which he said are essential for the life of an apostle today. Please see below the full text of Pope Francis’ homily at [...]
Pope Francis on Sunday urged Christians not to be afraid to proclaim the Gospel message, to expect failure and even persecutions, but to always live in the knowledge that the Lord is on their side. Speaking to the faithful gathered in St. Peter’s Square for the Angelus prayer, the Pope reflected on the liturgical reading of the [...]
There is a “twofold witness” in Christian life: that of the Spirit who “opens the heart”, showing us Jesus, and that of the person who “with the power of the Spirit” proclaims “that the Lord lives”, even at the cost of “paying the price” of persecution. Once again the Holy Spirit and his action in the [...]
At Casa Santa Marta, considers the Council of Jerusalem described in Acts There is always resistance to the surprises of the Spirit, but it’s the Spirit who continues to lead the Church forward. That was Pope Francis’ message at Mass today at the Santa Marta chapel as he reflected on the reading about division and resistance [...]
There are two types of persecution against Christians, the Pope said on Tuesday morning, 12 April, during Mass at Santa Marta. There is the explicit kind — to which he related the martyrs killed at Easter in Pakistan — and the sort of persecution that is “polite, disguised as culture, modernity and progress”, and ends up [...]
We mustn’t put our Christian identity card “up for auction”, nor align ourselves with the worldly spirit that can lead to apostasy and persecution. Pope Francis identified these hazards during Mass at Santa Marta on Monday morning, 16 November. The Pontiff dedicated his entire reflection to the First Reading, taken from the First Book of the [...]
At this very moment, many many Christians “are being martyred for the name of Jesus” and gladly suffer abuse, even to death. “For the love of Jesus” there are always people “who endure humiliation every day”, perhaps “for the good of their family”. Pope Francis affirmed this as the right way of “imitating Jesus”, leading to [...]
