Church – Francis – Movements Category

POPE FRANCIS IN AFRICA, by Sarah-Leah Pimentel • Pope Francis arrived in Uganda late on Friday, 27 November. According to Ugandan newspaper, The Observer, the Pontiff received a “rousing welcome from Ugandans who thronged Entebbe International Airport to receive him.” According to the report, he also received a 21-gun salute and a dance group “provided entertainment in performing several cultural dances including the Kiganda dance, Runyege, Kinywarwanda and playing all sorts of local music instruments from makondele, madinda among others.” Pope commends Uganda for receiving refugees Shortly after his arrival,Read More
POPE FRANCIS IN AFRICA, by Sarah-Leah Pimentel, schoenstatt.org • Pope Francis again abandoned his prepared speech – as he sometimes does – when the events around him stir something deep within him and cause him to speak from his heart. This was the case during the Holy Father’s meeting with the Kenyan youth on 27 November at Kasarani Stadium in Nairobi. After hearing the questions of two young people who asked him why war, fanaticism and destruction seem to happen among young people, Pope Francis answered them in his nativeRead More
Pope Francis’ second day in Kenya was taken up with a visit to the Kangemi slum in Nairobi and a meeting with the youth. Even though the newspapers were still full of news about the Pontiff’s visit, his visit to the slum did not receive as much reporting as the Pope’s meeting with President Uhuru Kenyatta. In some cases the media missed the point completely. The website of popular Radio Capital FM had a video report on how the Pope’s visit became an opportunity for businesses in Kangemi to makeRead More
FRANCIS IN AFRICA, by Sarah-Leah Pimentel • The Kenyan headlines on 26 November were abuzz with news about the Pope. Every detail of his trip to Kenya has been reported in the mainstream media. The headline in The East African read: “Kenyans brave morning rain for Pope’s Mass.” The front page of Standard Digital carried a large picture of Pope Francis greeting the priests who attended the Papal Mass. The website also has a number that readers can SMS to receive “alerts on Pope Francis’ visit.” Other headlines included: “PopeRead More
POPE FRANCIS IN AFRICA, by Sarah-Leah Pimentel • Pope Francis landed in Nairobi, Kenya, on 25 November on the first leg of his trip to Africa, a pastoral visit that will also include Uganda and the Central African Republic. Shortly after arriving in Nairobi, Pope Francis met with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and other political leaders. Kenyatta: “I ask for your prayers” The Kenyan president, who is himself a Catholic, began by asking the pontiff to pray for him in his aim to fight corruption within his own government. KenyanRead More
FRANCIS IN ROME • The right to rest, pension, assistance to mothers, among other labour rights, “based on the nature of the human person and on his transcendent dignity” were the key themes of Pope Francis’ address on Saturday, 7 September, in St. Peter’s Square, to 23,000 members of the Italian National Institute for Social Security (INPS) — on the same day when some 130 participants of the CIEES (Iberian-American Congress for Schoenstatt Executives and Businesspeople) met in Monterrey, Mexico to discuss the topic of living a covenant culture inRead More
FRANCIS IN ROME • In this catechesis at the general audience that Pope Francis held on the first Wednesday of November in St. Peter’s Square, attended by several thousand Catholics and pilgrims from numerous countries, the Holy Father referred to the family as a “training ground for mutual giving and forging,” without which there cannot be lasting love. Francis first of all recalled that the recent Assembly of the Synod of Bishops “reflected in depth on the vocation and the mission of the family in the life of the ChurchRead More
by Sarah-Leah Pimentel • As we bring to a close this series on Pope Francis’ message to the Schoenstatt Family, we reflect on his encouragement to carry forward Schoenstatt’s mission for the Church, the last of the five areas of apostolic activity that the International Schoenstatt Movement takes forward into a new century. Eucharistic unity – “That they maybe one as we are one” Pope Francis begins by speaking for the need for renewal within the Church, but I have chosen to start where he ends – with the sacraments.Read More
By Juan Zaforas, Sarah-Leah Pimentel and Maria Fischer • A year has gone by, making it a good time remember what Pope Francis told us during the meeting with the Schoenstatt Movement on the centenary of its founding. It became one of the main projects that the Schoesntatt.org team began to work on immediately after the audience: to copy, edit, correct, translate, publish the audience text on Schoenstatt.org, as a well-designed pamphlet and as a book and e-book – the latter in collaboration with Nueva Patris, Santiago – to spreadRead More
FRANCIS AT THE SYNOD • Vatican, 25 October 2015, one year after the Audience to celebrate the jubilee of the Covenant of Love. A year of calling the entire Schoenstatt Family to accompany families, body to body, to give witness to life and to commit to the culture of encounter that is a covenant culture and creates solidarity. At the solemn closing Mass for the Synod, Pope Francis was surrounded by the 270 synod fathers. The mass at the end of a mini council. Bergoglio gave thanks for the “pathRead More