Where to meet Jesus

Pope Francis, in his Regina Coeli address, last Sunday, spoke about meeting Jesus:

“Where do we seek the Risen One? In some special event, in some spectacular or amazing religious manifestation, solely at the emotional or sensational level? Or rather in the community, in the Church, accepting the challenge of staying there, even though it is not perfect? Despite all of its limitations and failures, which are our limitations and failings, our Mother Church is the Body of Christ. And it is there, in the Body of Christ, that, now and forever, the greatest signs of his love can be found impressed. Let us ask ourselves, however, if in the name of this love, in the name of Jesus’s wounds, whether we are willing to open our arms to those who are wounded by life, excluding no one from God’s mercy, but welcoming everyone – each person like a brother, like a sister, like God welcomes everyone.”

Humans at the centre

Archbishop Gabriele Caccia appealed to the UN Commission for Population and Development to promote a model of development that has the “human person at its centre”.

“Many development policies continue to reflect a view of the human person either as an obstacle to development or as a means of production to be exploited according to principles of profit and efficiency maximisation. …Respect for life from the moment of conception to natural death and the promotion of the integral human development of every man, woman, and child must always be at the core of development policies.”

‘A splatter film’

The International Association of Exorcists has criticised the film The Pope’s Exorcist, just released in the US, saying: “A viewing of the film’s trailer confirms, as if that were needed, not only its nature as a splatter film – a genuine subgenre of horror films – but also its unreliability on such a sensitive and relevant subject. As in other films, everything is exaggerated.”

(Compiled by Fr Joe Borg)