AUGUST
WEDNESDAY 3
POPE FRANCIS: CANADA IS “WRITING A NEW PAGE” IN CHURCH’S RELATIONSHIP WITH INDIGENOUS PEOPLES
Pope Francis meets with members of the indigenous community at Muskwa Park in Maskwacis, Alberta, Canada.
Pope Francis said on August 3 that Canada is in the process of “writing a new page” in the relationship between the Catholic Church and indigenous peoples.
Speaking during his general audience in Vatican City, the Pope said that his pastoral visit to Canada in late July was “a different journey” from the other 36 international trips of his pontificate.
“There were many joyful moments, but the sense and tone, on the whole, was one of reflection, repentance, and reconciliation,” he reflected.
The Pope told the crowd that his main motivation for the July 24-29 trip to Edmonton, Québec, and Iqaluit was to be close to the indigenous peoples and “to ask for forgiveness … for the harm done to them by those Christians, including many Catholics, who in the past collaborated in the forced assimilation and enfranchisement policies of the governments of the time.” (CUA)
THURSDAY 4
POPE FRANCIS APPOINTS MALE NURSE AS HIS “PERSONAL HEALTH CARE ASSISTANT”
The Vatican announced on August 4 that Pope Francis has appointed a “personal health care assistant.”
Pope Francis has selected Massimiliano Strappetti, a Vatican nurse whom the Pope has credited with saving his life, to provide additional assistance as the 85-year-old Pope faces mobility problems.
“A nurse, a man with a lot of experience, saved my life,” Pope Francis told Spanish COPE radio after his colon surgery last summer.
Strappetti advised Pope Francis to undergo tests after he had his first flare-up of diverticulitis in February 2021, according to La Repubblica. He, along with the Pope’s other medical staff, recommended that the Pope have an operation to keep the problem from becoming worse. (CUA)
WEDNESDAY 24
SIX MONTHS INTO UKRAINE WAR, POPE FRANCIS ASKS MARY TO BRING PEACE
Pope Francis made a special appeal for peace between Ukraine and Russia at the end of his general audience on August 24.
“Today in a special way, six months from the start of the war, we think of Ukraine and Russia, both countries I have consecrated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary,” he said. “May she, as Mother, turn her gaze on these two beloved countries: see Ukraine, see Russia and bring us peace,” he prayed. “We need peace.” (CUA)
SUNDAY 28
POPE FRANCIS FIRST POPE IN MORE THAN 700 YEARS TO OPEN THE HOLY DOOR IN L’AQUILA
Pope Francis became the first Pope in 728 years to open the Holy Door of a 13th-century basilica in L’Aquila, Italy, on August 28.
During a visit to the Italian city located about 70 miles northeast of Rome, the Pope participated in a centuries-old tradition, the Celestinian Forgiveness, known in Italian as the “Perdonanza Celestiniana.”
The opening of the Holy Door marked a key moment in the annual celebration established by Pope Celestine V in 1294.
“For centuries L’Aquila has kept alive the gift that Pope Celestine V left it. It is the privilege of reminding everyone that with mercy, and only with it, the life of every man and woman can be lived with joy,” Pope Francis said in his homily during Mass at L’Aquila’s Basilica of Santa Maria di Collemaggio. (CUA)
SEPTEMBER
THURSDAY 1
POPE FRANCIS PRAISES KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS’ MOTHER TERESA DOCUMENTARY
Pope Francis has sent the Knights of Columbus a letter thanking the fraternal order for its new documentary about Mother Teresa.
“Thank you for all the efforts made to capture the life of this saint whose life and testimony have borne much fruit,” the Holy Father wrote in the letter, addressed to Supreme Knight Patrick Kelly. Pope Francis added that he hoped the documentary “will do much good to all those who watch it and arouse the desire for holiness.”
The film, Mother Teresa: No Greater Love, had its world premiere this week at the North American College seminary in Rome on August 29 and the Vatican Film Library on August 31. (CUA)
SUNDAY 4
POPE CALLS ON PEOPLE TO MODIFY THEIR LIFESTYLES
Humanity can no longer ignore the cries of the earth that is suffering due to greed and the excessive consumption of its resources, Pope Francis said.
In his message for the World Day of Prayer for Creation, the Pope said the current climate crisis is a call for men and women, especially Christians, to “repent and modify our lifestyles and destructive systems.”
“The present state of decay of our common home merits the same attention as other global challenges such as grave health crises and wars. Living our vocation to be protectors of God’s handiwork is essential to a life of virtue; it is not an optional or a secondary aspect of our Christian experience,” he wrote in his message, released by the Vatican July 21.
The theme of the World Day of Prayer for Creation, celebrated September 1, is “Listen to the voice of creation.”
The Pope said the earth has fallen “prey to our consumerist excesses” and to a “tyrannical anthropocentrism,” an attitude in which people think they are the center of the universe. Such an attitude is at odds “with Christ’s centrality in the work of creation.” (CNS)
MONDAY 5
VATICAN “SHOULD NOT SACRIFICE CARDINAL ZEN FOR CHINA”
German Cardinal Gerhard Müller has expressed dismay over the Vatican’s silence on China’s abuses and an imminent “unfair” trial against Hong Kong’s outspoken Cardinal Joseph Zen during the recent consistory.
Cardinal Müller, 75, a theologian and former prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, made the remarks on the apparent lack of support from the Church hierarchy for the 90-year-old former bishop of Hong Kong in an interview with the Italian-language newspaper Il Messengero.
“Cardinal Zen was absent in Rome because he is under house arrest for raising his voice against Beijing, defending human rights both in Hong Kong and China,” said Cardinal Müller, referring to the August 29-30 consistory that reflected on the Apostolic Constitution that seeks to reform the Roman Curia.
About 200 out of a total of 226 members of the College of Cardinals attended the meeting, dubbed the largest during the pontificate of Pope Francis. (UCANews)
THURSDAY 15
POPE FRANCIS: “THE WEST HAS TAKEN THE WRONG PATHS”
Pope Francis at Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan.
On his return flight from Kazakhstan to Italy on September 15, Pope Francis discussed the moral degradation of the West, particularly concerning the advance of legal euthanasia.
Pope Francis said the region has taken the wrong path and that killing should be left “to the animals.”
“It is true that the West degenerates,” the Pope said during his in-flight press conference in response to a question about the loss of values in the West, and in particular to the push for legal euthanasia in France, Italy, and Belgium.
“It is not, at this moment, at the highest level of exemplariness … The West has taken the wrong paths,” the Pope said.
Pressed on the problem of euthanasia, Pope Francis said: “To kill is not human, period. If you kill — with motivation yes — in the end you will kill more. It’s not human. Let’s leave killing to the animals.” (CNA)
MONDAY 26
POPE FRANCIS NAMES NEW HEAD OF VATICAN DICASTERY FOR CULTURE AND EDUCATION
Pope Francis talks with Portuguese Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça, who has been named prefect of the new Dicastery for Culture and Education (CNS photo/Vatican Media)
Pope Francis has appointed a Portuguese cardinal as the head of the newly formed Vatican Dicastery for Culture and Education.
The Vatican announced on September 26 that the Pope appointed Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça as the prefect of the dicastery. Mendonça most recently served as the head of the Vatican library and archives, where he oversaw the digitization of historic manuscripts and created a new space for housing temporary exhibitions.
The 56-year-old cardinal, originally from the Portuguese island of Madeira, is an expert in the relationship between literature and theology, according to the Vatican. He has published poetry as well as academic theological articles. (CUA)
SCIENCE NEEDS ETHICISTS, MORE OPEN DEBATE, SOME SAY AT VATICAN CONFERENCE
Biological engineering, such as gene therapy for treating human disease, is making such swift advancements that the public’s knowledge and understanding of what is happening and what ethical and legal guidelines are needed are lagging too far behind, said speakers at a Vatican conference.
“This science is rolling; the train is moving. But instead of lamenting over this, we need to take the initiative and hop on that train, intervene and, if needed, divert it onto another track,” said Ralf Stutzki, head of ethics at Molecular Systems Engineering at the National Center of Competence in Research at the University of Basel, Switzerland.
“We will indeed have to lead a consequentialist debate, weigh the prospective good and bad outcomes and make brave decisions,” he said September 26 at the first international conference on “Ethics of Engineering Life.”
The September 26-27 conference was jointly organized by the Pontifical Academy for Life, Molecular Systems Engineering and the Bambino Gesù children’s hospital in Rome. To address the ethical aspects of “engineering” molecules, cells and cellular functions, the academy said, the conference invited scientists and stakeholders involved in developing and applying approaches that “edit and control” biological systems; ethicists; philosophers; communicators; and others. (CNS)
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