Francisco Tag

WYD2016, by Maria Fischer • More than a million young people braved the rain to welcome the Pope at Jordan Park in Blonia, at the first meeting between Pope Francis and the youth at this year’s World Youth Day.  “So far, I haven’t seen a single Schoenstatt flag in the live transmission,” commented an Argentinian collaborator for schoenstatt.org.  This was in part due to the programme of activities: a large group of the Schoenstatt Boys Youth in South America had been scheduled to visit the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, and becauseRead More
COVENANT SOLIDARITY by AICA and editors • In his words, after leading the Angelus on Sunday, the Holy Father reiterated his condemnation of the “deplorable acts of terrorism and violence” that have taken place in the last few days. Francis said he was “once again shaken by the sad news of the deplorable acts of terrorism and violence” in which “many innocent people lost their lives.” He expressed his closeness to the families of the victims and the injured, and invited them to unite themselves in his prayer, because thisRead More
Víctor and Stella Domínguez, co-founders of the Schoenstatt Apostolate of Hope for Divorced People in New Unions in Paraguay • The Apostolic Exhortation is a “long letter of the Pope’s love for families.” It is an extraordinary document: The Holy Father presents the reality of families but in the form of a love poem. We can even say that this document is a hymn to love. And this reality is inspired by the practical application of the Christian doctrine on the family. The family: “an irreplaceable good for society andRead More
FRANCIS IN ROME – HOLY YEAR OF MERCY • The Jubilee Audience on Saturday 14 May took place under a deluge of rain, but this did not stop thousands of pilgrims from crowding St. Peters’ Square to listen to Pope Francis’ catechesis, this time on piety. Pope Francis at St. Peter`s. Photo: Alexey Gotovsky / ACI Prensa Text of Pope Francis’ catechesis, 14.05.2016 Dear Brothers and Sisters, Good morning! It is not a very nice day, but you are brave and you came have come despite the rain. Thank you!Read More

Posted On 12.05.2016In Francis - Message

The Good Shepherd

FRANCIS IN ROME – HOLY YEAR OF MERCY • During the General Audience on 4 May in St. Peter’s Square, Pope Francis once again condemned the throwaway culture and emphasized that God does not act according to this culture’s parameters, but rather as the Good Shepherd – who does not resign himself to losing even one of his sheep – he goes out in search for each one of his children, especially the greatest sinners and the most abandoned. He goes out to meet the lost sheep…”God’s action is thatRead More
FRANCIS IN ROME – HOLY YEAR OF MERCY • It’s not about knowing what chocolate is, what ingredients it contains or where it comes from. Only by putting the chocolate into your mouth and tasting its sweetness, can you encounter chocolate, an encounter that makes you want to share and give others chocolate…It’s not only about knowing mandarins, eating and tasting them. One needs to plant the mandarin tree. The concrete step to action, to the real. This lesson from the Workshop on Kentenich Communication in Tuparenda fits in withRead More
PARAGUAY/INTERNATIONAL,  from Maria Fischer • “Will we get a hundred?” “Let us trust in the solidarity of our people.” “But no answers have arrived … either from the Team or elsewhere …” “Calm down! God probably has a different timescale to ours.” “At any rate he has more patience than I have, we are already in the Jubilee Year and nothing ….” “And if no answer comes, we have to accept it, we always work that way…” Stop! We are not in 2013 and the beginning of a crazy ideaRead More

Posted On 28.02.2016In Francis - Message

Mercy and power

FRANCIS IN ROME – HOLY YEAR OF MERCY • A topic that is both daring and current: mercy and power. “May all forms of power be service, justice and mercy, like Jesus,” said the Pope. May all forms of power in the state in the world of work, in the Church, in movements, in communication be service, justice and mercy. A challenge. What Francis suggests, questions the reality of many countries, parts of the Church, places of work, so many areas. Today, on the Lenten journey in the Holy YearRead More
Francis week by week (2) • This week’s “as if spoken to us” message is taken from the homily during the morning Mass at Santa Marta on 21 January 2016 (full sermon here). This week, we read and listen to the message given to the participants at the Mass by the “parish priest of Rome” (as Osservatore Romano has chosen to call these Masses filled with practical and simple messages), as if it were spoken to us as a federal and international movement of men and women, lay and consecratedRead More
FRANCIS IN ROME – HOLY YEAR OF MERCY • On 13 January, Pope Francis presided over the General Audience in Paul VI Hall, beginning a catechetical series on God’s mercy in the Bible and he reflected on the passage from Exodus: “the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.” For the Schoenstatt Family, this is an opportunity to reflect on the “coincidence” of the 50th anniversary of Fr. Kentenich’s 13 December 1965, “letter of mercy” and his covenant with God the Father, theRead More